Who here has fought?

[1ONEfighting]

Who on this forum has fought Vale Tudo, and If you have, tell about your first fight.

 

My first Vale Tudo was in 1998, at Lone Wolf 3 in Littleton, Colorado. (Lone Wolf later became the Bas Rutten Invitational.)

 

Looking back on it, I must have been crazy. I knew jack squat about NHB, I was just a big kid with TKD, no punching ability to speak of, and grappling was all picked up from UFC and instructional vids.

 

It was an eight-man tourney, and in the first round I drew Dan Chase of Killeen, TX. We traded some kicks back and forth, and I scored a hip throw, landing in side control. I squeezed into mount, and started throwing to the body, when he covered his ribs I hit him in the head. He tapped, but I can't say he took any real damage. Probably just the futility of being in mount.

 

I got a bye to the finals, where I had to face UFC veteran Pat Smith. We came out and touched gloves, and it was on. We traded some hard shots and clinched up, where I attempted a standing Kimura, and Smith got a bodylock. I recall his corner yelling "SUPLEX!" and I left the ground. I kept my chin tucked and did my best to breakfall, and when he released, I did a reverse somersault and scrambled into his guard.

 

I tried to strike from there, but it wasn't happening. When I felt his guard open, I fell back for the heel hook. He prevented me from trapping his leg with mine, and rolled up into mount. He stood above me to strike down, and I swept my legs up to apply the ankle lock. He struck down twice, landing one glancing blow, and the ref stopped the fight. I left with a rugburn on my forehead and wounded pride.

 

I regret nothing.

[Stold]

Wow...If you ask me you did really good if TKD was all the real training you had(Unless you really took those instructional vids and worked hard.)

 

Maybe you're one of those people with the natural ability to fight. Just good at hurting people.

[1ONEfighting]

My best advantage was being a garage Uke for a roommate who studied Judo and HapKiDo. We studied videos and practiced like maniacs. Didn't hurt that I'm naturally big. (6'2" 265).

[SevenStar]

Ive done full contact and grappling, but no mma matches to date, other than a challenge match I had with someone in college.

[PhilM1]

im 16 and fighting is the only thing i have ever really excelled in. hopefully after some years in bjj i will be able to try doing a vale tudo / mma fight. im a little hesitant. but hopefully it will happen.

[tsdstud]

Man, that's something I could never do. Course, I'm a really small guy (5'8" 150) I don't know whether to think you guys are crazy or give you the utmost respect.... Either way I'd never mess w/a contact fighter.

[SevenStar]

you can do it. train hard. train right.

[Synaesthesia]

I can train hard, train right, but training consistently is the most difficult part. I have never been hit, but I've always thought of long-term staying power as the best sign of mental toughness. (Could be simply because I lack it.)

[PhilM1]

the only thing i can say if you got hit for the first time really well its devistating. its something u need to be conditioned for. after that its like nothing.

[Severe Matburn]

I wanna be an MMA fighter too. I'm already part of an MMA gym and I can both strike and grapple but I haven't had any MMA bouts. I'm also 5'8", 150lbs but i've tapped out much bigger, stronger guys on a fairly regular basis. Fer other small people who wanna fight I would juss advise that you get a really tight guard game.