Whenever you’re having a bad day, or it’s autumn, or you’re having a good day, or you got hurt and you have to stay in, or you have some free time, you should re-watch the first 40 minutes of Full Metal Jacket. It’ll give you a cinematic idea of the level of toughness required to become a US Marine. If you ignore the whole thing about Private Pyle emotionally rupturing, you can just imagine how well these dudes would do when given the task of conquering any obstacle placed in front of them. It’s why the United States Marine Corps is looking into challenging ‘leathernecks’ into Government-sanctioned MMA tournaments that would pin Marine vs. Marine train them well beyond basic JiuJitsu.
“We are not going to have a backdoor, alley cat, bullsh– fight club.”
“Right now, they are still in the research stage of this whole process. We want to make sure it’s organized, safe and professional. This contributes to the quality of life of some Marines. It’s good for their mind, body and spirit. I would much rather have a Marine getting off work at 1630, 1700 and donning his stuff and going to the combatives field house instead of going, ‘Do you want to go over to Joe’s Tavern and knock back a few?’”
The logistics including who will run the program, who will finance it, and the rules are still being worked out, but according to research, fighters generally sustain about the same amount of minor injuries training for MMA as they do during basic MCMAP or combatives training, so there are very few downsides to green-lighting the program. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that fighters can earn a living competing in MMA long after their days of military service have ended. If it means we could potentially get more fighters like Brian Stann in the UFC, we’re totally behind it. [Source]
