• WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm checking his bonafides on Wikipedia for the first time. He's been a monster kickboxer. He's got that 6'3@205 meaning he'd be unbelievably annoying to fight against with an orangutan reach. Before I would call him and myself as mixed black as some kind of archetype, I'd sooner archetype him as someone incredibly difficult to get within striking range of. He's the archetype of a goddamn southpaw kicking the fuck out of my leg the nanosecond I have a neuronal synapse fire off causing me to think about jabbing (I switched to practicing southpaw to be more annoying). I've sparred with pro fighters and they're amazing. I could imagine knowing him in 2006-2007 when he was doing MMA. I knew a guy who tried to kick my head off because he was training for a fight. Fighters would always be sparring a little harder and I recognized their livelihood depended on them sticking to a training schedule.

    His opponents do skew whiter than I would have predicted. I'd hardly call the African blood coursing through his veins the archetype that propelled him to a 76-9 pro record. My record blows and is mostly grappling and entirely amateur. It's a little discouraging to have someone talk about his fight acumen and race in the same breath. I've never heard of an archetype discourse in my life, so maybe I'm the archetypical African-blooded fool.

    • Deadend [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      His record may be fake. It’s very hard to find evidence of most of those wins.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I don't know about fake. But it could easily be staked with amateurs who just got into the ring to have their shit kicked in.

        No shortage of bloated egos willing to play punching bag to a professional.

        • Deadend [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I remember at some point that many matches can’t be confirmed and the organization he was with for most was considered shady, plus he can’t decide if it’s 39 and 9 or 79 and 9.

          Basically, the safe assumption is that everything he claims is a lie.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            He's been in enough high profile fights that he's considered professional grade.

    • redladadriver [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Kickboxing is a notoriously shallow pool in combat sports, especially in the US. These are probably mostly smoker type fights. My old Coach was an alphabet kickboxing champion. He was better than me for sure, but not as good as you would think.