I started practicing martial arts exactly ten years ago, in May of 2003. Back then, I was a frustrated young man with longings I couldn't quite understand. Maybe it's cliché, but after reading the iconic FIGHT CLUB, by Chuck Palahniuk, I felt an irrepressible urge to confront my own powerlessness. Back then, an unknown company named ZUFFA LLC had just bought the Ultimate Fighting Championship with a precise goal in mind. They wanted to revolutionize sports entertainment and create the superbowl of mixed martial arts and hell, they did.
Ten years later, the UFC is on cable television several times a month, it has come to my city six times, has won over millions of fans across the world and changed several thousand of lives, a bit like it changed mine. That should make me happy, but it doesn't. The more mainstream recognition mixed martial arts are getting, the more miserable I seem to be. I have become a bitter, cynical jerk at the gym and it haunted me for the longest time. Today, I'm ready to talk about it. Ten years after confronting my powerlessness, I'm ready to confront my cynicism.



