Martial Type Jet Pro Taekwondo Event

Not too long ago, I had a chance to check out a Tokyo fight event called Martial Type Jet. The event itself was put on by a Japanese pro taekwondo league (that was mainly composed of ITF taekwondo players), and consisted of pitting taekwondo players against people from other styles. This is one of the most interesting things about the Tokyo fight scene. In addition to all of the major events we know and love, such as K-1, Pride, the UFC, and various other national and international martial arts events, there are a ton of smaller, up and coming ones constantly popping up as well.

 As for the fighting itself, it was pretty interesting. In addition to Japanese ITF taekwondo fighters, they also flew in a team of fighters from South Korea as well. While skill levels may have varied, pretty much all of the fighters were serious about what they do, and were pretty tough.

 

 Originally, I found out about the event because I was invited to fight in it myself. The event's promoter was a friend of Tomy, and when he mentioned to Tomy that he needed fighters Tomy suggested me. After being contacted by the promoter, I researched the event, with my buddy Keith, and found that that it was fought with a PKA kickboxing style rule system. (i.e no elbows or knees). Having studied both boxing and kickboxing, I thought it was a rule system I could be comfortable in, and given that the last fight of my career was a loss, part of me had a strong burning desire to do it.

 The promoter told me that he was coming to Tokyo on a business trip, and was interested in seeing what I could do, so he came to watch one of my taekwondo classes (where I usually train along with the students) after the class, he invited me to fight in the event, but in the end, I decided against it. 1) because I consider my fighting career to be over. Although Tomy will probably be a fighter until the day he dies, I've moved on to other things, and even if I ended on a loss, at this point, I have nothing else to prove. Furthermore, preparing for a fight takes months of hard training and preparation and I wouldnt want to sacrifice the tempo that my acting career has right now to get back into it. 2) As a large, strong-looking African American foreigner, there is no way I could do a fight here without it turning into a racially-charged "us vs. them / David & Goliath" type thing. Even if the fight promoter himself is a nice guy with good intentions, I've been there, and done that...and it sucked. Zero desire to do it again.

 It was pretty fun to watch though, and the fighters were all fairly good. The only complaint I had was that a few of the spectators (who had obviously never fought or even gotten up in front of a crowd before) were being disrespectful to both the ring girls and the fighters. One guy in particular yelled out "Move you jack-asses!" to the fighters in Japanese, to which Tomy (who came to the event with me) yelled back. Unfortunately I didn't know exactly what was said until after the event was over, when Mari told me. If I had, I would have publically asked that guy to step into the ring with me right there.

 The fact of the matter is, win or lose, fighters deserve all the respect in the world. Even if they are used to it, conditioned for it, and they never show it, each and every one of those hits hurts. And is likely to hurt for a day or two after. Their faces get bloodied and cut to shit, and mistakes can not just cost them the match, but if they get seriously hurt, their careers, their mobility, or in rare cases even their lives. And they do it all simply for the sake of other people's entertainment. In 20 years of fighting, I've never met a single person who likes (or is even okay with) getting punched in the face, accidentally kicked in the balls, or hit in the kidneys. But even so, you pick yourself up, you swallow the pain and push it out of your mind, and you keep going, because that's the only way to go home a winner...or at least in one piece with a little bit of dignity. Any fighter who watches any other fighter knows how hard it is, how fast you have to think, and when you are doing it in front of crowds, how painful losing can be. And at least for myself, when I see someone not showing them the respect they deserve for that, I just wanna rip their heads off.

 Although its to a lesser degree, the same goes for ring girls. Getting up in front of predominently male testosterone-charged crowd in nothing but a bikini, and super-high heels like that can't be an easy thing. At least none of the ring girls I've ever known have been "sluts" or otherwise "bad girls". Usually, they are just dancers or models or otherwise attractive women who want to make a few bucks on the side. For one girl in particular, it was pretty obvious it was her first time, and her nervousness showed. I really felt for her.

 Anyway, it was a solid event though, so if nothing else, I would love to check it out next year. If I do, and I hear that same kinda stuff coming from idiots in the crowd, win or lose, I would love to show one of them how much courage it takes to get into that ring...and how painful getting hit can be. In this particular case, the sentence I always heard from my Taekwondo coach in the states when I had to fight someone arrogant comes to mind: "Chuck, this guy needs to be taught a lesson."