Black Adder
08-06-2010, 03:17
Ron Frazier, pro and amatuer boxing trainer at the Las Vegas Xtreme Couture was recently interviewed by FightHype.com on a wide variety fo subjects
Percy Crawford: Diego Sanchez is a guy that's never looked too healthy at 155 to me, but he's always looked too small at 170. He fought a young and hungry guy at UFC 114. He's in a tough situation, but what weight class would you like to see him fight at?
Ron Frazier: Unfortunately for Diego, I think he's a tweener. I don't think he has the skill set to keep pace with the A-level 55er's. I think you will see the same things happen to him that happened against BJ Penn. Maybe not as dramatic, because BJ has so much power, but those guy's skill set are better than his at 55. It's a big cut for him, but he's not a big 170-pounder. He's fighting guys there that are coming down from 190, so he's at a big strength disadvantage there. He's probably a guy that would be best between 160 and 165, but unfortunately for him, they don't have that weight class.
PC: Ron, you're an African American trainer and that's rare in itself in the sport of mixed martial arts. This past event saw, for the first time, two African American fighters headline a UFC event. Do you think we will see more of this with up-and-coming stars like Anthony Johnson and Jon Jones on the horizon?
RF: We'll see. 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).
Hier der rest. (http://fighthype.com/pages/content7725.html)
Percy Crawford: Diego Sanchez is a guy that's never looked too healthy at 155 to me, but he's always looked too small at 170. He fought a young and hungry guy at UFC 114. He's in a tough situation, but what weight class would you like to see him fight at?
Ron Frazier: Unfortunately for Diego, I think he's a tweener. I don't think he has the skill set to keep pace with the A-level 55er's. I think you will see the same things happen to him that happened against BJ Penn. Maybe not as dramatic, because BJ has so much power, but those guy's skill set are better than his at 55. It's a big cut for him, but he's not a big 170-pounder. He's fighting guys there that are coming down from 190, so he's at a big strength disadvantage there. He's probably a guy that would be best between 160 and 165, but unfortunately for him, they don't have that weight class.
PC: Ron, you're an African American trainer and that's rare in itself in the sport of mixed martial arts. This past event saw, for the first time, two African American fighters headline a UFC event. Do you think we will see more of this with up-and-coming stars like Anthony Johnson and Jon Jones on the horizon?
RF: We'll see. 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).
Hier der rest. (http://fighthype.com/pages/content7725.html)