What are the steps to achieving a pro MMA career?
Once you've got that dedication, then you've got to take step. The next step is hard training. Of course right now, there is no style that is superior anymore. In the beginning it was Jujitsu, but it was just because nobody knew Jujitsu. So they took a boxer, they took him down, and they submitted him. Everyone would say, "Oh my God, Jujitsu is so good." It is! But you know, right now, everybody knows Jujitsu. Also, if you're, for instance a good boxer, if you've got good hands and you've got good wrestling skills, so the 5th degree black belt Jujitsu cannot take you to the ground. He's going to have a big problem, because if he knows only Jujitsu and he doesn't know how to box, he's going to get knocked out. So right now what you need to do, you need to find a school, a gym where they teach everything at one time. Before, and it was in my time, you had gyms that did, let's say boxing and Jujitsu, or wrestling and Jujitsu, or wrestling and boxing. Right now mixed martial arts are getting a sport on itself. It's getting martial arts on itself. I truly believe that there's no more going to be karate, Thai boxing. It's going to be there, but in that same category, you're going to have mixed martial arts. So now you're going to go to a gym, start training in mixed martial arts, and then it's very important that you start competing, of course. The more you compete and the more you win, you put all those wins on a video tape. That tape, you send in to a big organization. And once they see that tape and they think, "Well, you've got a colorful personality. You're a great fighter." You might spark some interest in them, and maybe they're going to invite you to fight for the big guys. Then once you fight for the big guys, you better hope that you win, because nowadays, you've got a few big organizations, and that means all the eyes are on you. So if you lose a couple in a row, that might be the end of your career. So I always suggest fighting as many fights as you can before you're going to go to a big organization. Like boxing. Before they become a pro, they already fought like 120 boxing matches, amateur. I suggest do that, too. Not 120, because I truly believe that if you fight too much, that takes the fire away. It was with me. I was fighting too much, and then it's very hard to every time to get yourself fired up for a fight. So I suggest try to fight in the beginning like 6, 7 times a year. And then once you start competing, real competing in a big organization, I would reduce it to like 3 most of the time, maybe 4 at the most.
