I know we were on this whole debate about race in MMA leading up to UFC 114 and it created some decent back and forths. Well, because we are not scared to talk about it and because this site features at least a couple of minority writers, we are going to talk about it some more. MMA Trainer Ron Frazier brought up an interesting point in an interview with Fighthype. He basically was asked about his thoughts on Rampage and Rashad headlining UFC 114 and how that would affect the sport of MMA in regards to more minority fighters crossing over. Check it:
A couple of years ago, I did an article, and I think ESPN did it during Black History month, talking about black fighters in MMA. Rashad and Rampage was kind of the watershed moment to have them headline the main event. We will see what the numbers are. We'll see how many fighters will come after them and hopefully they will. MMA is still going to be a college man's sport; a guy that went to college and wrestled and kind of found himself fall into mixed martial arts. Bottom line is MMA is not a poverty sport like boxing is. That's why you're going to see, unfortunately, a lot of Latin fighters, black fighters and poor white fighters in boxing because they have no other options. In boxing, you don't have to have a whole lot of money. To do MMA, you have to have 3 to 4 different disciplines. You have to have boxing, which is the cheapest of it. You gotta learn wrestling, which is not an inexpensive thing, and neither is Jiu Jitsu. We'll see. I think you're going to see...when it is a black fighter, it's not going to be the Mike Tyson type of fighter who came up from the hood and came up the hard way. You have Rampage and a couple of other ones, but for the most part, a lot of the guys you see, whether black or white, in mixed martial arts have gone through college. But if you look at Rashad, Jon Jones, Josh Koscheck, Anthony Johnson and Frank Trigg...although I don't know if we should count him as black because he's some of everything (laughing).
He makes a valid point in that where I grew up, there aren't any legitimate MMA gyms in the area. I wonder what the scene is like in the urban areas of America in regards to MMA gym availability and the cost of training. As Frazier noted, most minorities go through college(mostly wrestlers), and then enter the sport off of that foundation. We haven't really reached the point where kids are training in MMA at a very young age(i.e. 8-10 years old), but once we get to that point will these type of factors affect the rate at which minorities enter the sport? Discuss.
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