Issue 024

April 2007

By Grant Waterman.

A while ago it dawned on me that whenever there is ‘situation’ in the club where I work as a doorman it doesn’t seem to stimulate my adrenalin like it used to. I still respond just as quick, but I’m not hyped up like before. So I got to thinking, at weekends when I’m working as a doorman it is part of my job to deal with any violent situations that may occur. If I’m not on the doors I’ll be off somewhere refereeing in a cage, involved in this violent sport of ours called MMA. When I get the time I’ll be training somewhere, practising how to inflict pain on someone or knock them out. When I get the rare opportunity to sit down and relax I’ll try and catch up on the MMA scene around the world, either watching some fights or looking at the internet. Then whenever I go anywhere and meet new people, they all want to talk about fighting and MMA. My whole world has been taken over by violence. Everywhere I go, everything I do, it’s all connected to something violent. 

Sometime ago after a show I’d refereed at, I was talking to one of the most prolific fighters in the UK, Paul Jenkins. He’s had more fights than just about anyone else in this country, and he also works as a ‘Crowd Control Technician’ (doorman). He’s also full of wisdom. So I said to Paul that everywhere I go and every thing I do is surrounded by violence, and surely this must be or has already affected me. His answer was “of course it has”. I thought to myself, well I suppose it has to really. 

Now I am by no means a violent person and in fact Paul Jenkins is pretty laid back too, and I’ve spoken with various people about this subject including Herb Dean (who is also very easy going) and it seems to me that being in these environments might have affected us in some way but certainly hasn’t increased our aggressive tendencies. In fact, one thing all of this has helped me to do is identify the insecure individuals who go around trying to appear aggressive and who are ready to try and punch your face in if you look at them wrong. Nine times out of ten this is all a front to cover up just how mentally weak these people are. 

You hear parents saying things like “oh no, I wouldn’t want my child involved in something like that”, and I’d agree to some stage that they need to be at an age where they understand the consequences of techniques before they get taught them, but is it really a bad thing to teach a youngster how to fight? I suppose it would be much better for them to sit upstairs playing their games console or watching TV learning about drugs, smoking and how to be depressed. 

So does this all have a positive or negative affect on someone involved in MMA all the time? Should we all be seeking to have some kind of counselling and get this off our chests? I don’t think so. Maybe what would be better would be for all those people out there who have problems with rage and anger to get involved in MMA as a form of therapy. Maybe we could arrange for MMA classes to be prescribed by your doctor. This could be the new cure for thousands of people. No, wait, this is ridiculous. I mean who would want to get involved in something that is going to increase your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance, lower your body fat, calm you down, teach you something new and give you achievable goals, get youngsters off the streets, possibly make you a superstar and entertain hundreds of thousands of people? Yeah, that’d be stupid.