Good Fight IQ vs. Bad Fight IQ, Empathy For Fighters, Inspiration
Super Squad Letter #26
Good Fight IQ vs. Bad Fight IQ
Seems like every decision in a fight is automatically labeled a bad decision if it doesn’t work out.
Keep in mind, it’s a fight. There’s not a lot of time to think when there’s a guy trying to punch you in the face.
It’s hectic. It’s chaotic. Sometimes things don’t work out, it is what it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad decision.
When I fought Andre Fili, I was confident I was up 2 rounds to none. So I made the conscious decision to fight a little safer in the third round to avoid any unnecessary damage.
Because the man was still dangerous. He’s got a good head kick and if I’m not careful, I could get caught.
Yes, I know MMA judging isn’t really consistent. So if the judges scored it the other way, I would’ve felt like an ass 🤣
BUT since they scored it right, I felt like I made the right decision. I didn’t take any extra damage and I got the W.
In my fight with Arnold Allen, it was the complete opposite. Going into the 3rd round, I was moving on autopilot. My brain was just focused on winning the round when I should have tried to get him out of there.
But I never made a conscious decision to go for the finish, I was just trying to control him.
Looking back, I wish I had the wherewithal to go for the finish. At that moment, it wasn’t clicking that winning this round does nothing for me anyway.
But, people will judge decision making in this sport based on whether you win or not.
So I guess I can’t lose if I just win 🤷♂️
Unprofessional Breakdown - Be Back Next Week!
I apologize. But there’s no new Unprofessional Breakdown this week either.
I have a lot on my plate at the gym right now. I had a teammate leave town for his fight so I’m managing everything. I know y’all have been missing out on making millions 😔
Next week, we’ll be back with our regular programming. We’ll go extra big with our bets and algorithm to make up for these two past 2 weeks.
Empathy For Fighters
I wish there was more empathy shown towards fighters from the fans. Sometimes it seems like the fans are on your side one day and against you the next. Especially after a loss.
With fighters, it’s like an unspoken camaraderie. We kinda know that each of us has gone through a lot of struggle to get to where we are now. We all know bad losses hurt.
But this is something that’s learned through competition, doing hard things, and facing your fears constantly.
Not a lot of people have experienced high levels of competition. So I get it. This is something that's hard to understand unless you've been through it.
Finding Inspiration
I don’t believe inspiration has to come from someone that’s doing exactly what you’re doing.
Believe it or not, I find a lot of inspiration from normal everyday people.
For example, I love seeing people go to the gym, lose 50 lbs, and transform themselves.
If I see a single mother or father grinding, putting their nose to the ground, so they can take care of their kids - very inspiring.
Everyone is going through their own little battle internally. So even though it might not seem like a big deal to them, it’s very inspirational to me.
Every single thing in life has a certain grind to it.
To be honest, this is one of those things that I have a hard time getting the teens and newer fighters at the gym to understand.
A lot of them are looking for shortcuts and cheat codes. An easy way to accomplish their dream.
And if their dreams as a martial artist doesn’t work out, they wanna go into something else. But what I want them to understand is that the grind is the same no matter what they want to pursue.
They can be an artist, business owner, real estate agent, etc. There’s no avoiding putting in the hours.
Of course, there can be luck involved. That can accelerate your progress. But you can’t depend on that.
You can create your own luck by grinding.
Sodiq’s Pop Culture Corner
Finally caught up with the latest chapter of One Punch Man. It’s hard to find manga that can make me laugh, but One Punch Man is definitely one of them.
In the latest chapter, Atomic Samurai confronted King. If you don’t know, King is supposed to be the #1 hero. But he’s not really a hero, he has no powers. He just has an intimidating presence and look, but he’s actually a coward.
And when things start getting heated, his heartbeat is really loud and fast. They call this the King’s Engine and think he’s powering up 🤣
So when Atomic Samurai told him to come out and fight, King started making excuses. And to be honest, he took a page out of my playbook for Unprofessional Breakdown. He started saying a bunch of large words that don’t mean anything 🤣🤣
And just when King was about to leave, Atomic Samurai told him to slice an apple so he can judge his character.
King couldn’t even unsheathe the sword and just walked away. Now you might think he just got exposed…
But Atomic Samurai thought King used some high level swordsmanship to cut through the atoms of the apple. So it looked like nothing happened 🤣
The legend of King continues. That was one of the funniest chapters I’ve read in a while.
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That ends it for this week’s Super Squad Letter!
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Peace,
Super Sodiq Yusuff
Regarding fight IQ. Valid points made. It’s always affirmed with the outcome. super Sodiq’s points made me think about Andre Souknamtat vs Suga Sean. Andre almost had him on leg kicks. Instead of a final leg kick he goes for a takedown. Lots of analysts were like Oh no, bad fight IQ, he would have won. For me it must be so hard to have presence of mind to make that decision.
The lack of Empathy for fighters from MMA fans has been around forever. It is the worst! What you all have to put your bodies through is tremendous. Before when fighters would say F the fans I was like huh?! WTF! Why? Then I would see the vitriol they got when they lost from so called fans. I bet if they did any training, sat in an ice bath, eaten a leg kick, try parts weight cut they would have empathy. Years ago I was at a gym and was curious about calf kicks and effectiveness plus potential counters. Coach gives me a light dead leg after I say ok. I had even more respect for the fighters after.