Several former soccer players are attempting to follow in his footsteps, this autumn. Included in the cast of Spike televisions reality show, The Ultimate Fighter, Marcus Jones, Matt Mitrione, Brendan Schaub and Wes Shivers will compete to get a possibility to fight in the UFC – Matt Mitrione hopes his athleticism might help compensate for his lack of combined martial arts adventure. Mitrione, a reserve defensive lineman for the Giants, abandoned the N.F.L. Because of injuries. Shivers played Schaub never made it and one year at offensive tackle for the Falcons. But he left the N.F.L.He’d planned to take 2 years off to heal and after that return.

But one night, approximately 2 years ago, while going out with friends from school and talking about the U.F.C., Jones and his friends cleared from the living area furniture and started to spar. I was a big guy who’d never thrown a punch, he said. After five minutes, Jones was exhausted. A friend of his place him in a choke hold and Jones. After that, he started training. Now I feel great, Jones said. My first five or four months, I lost 70 lbs. Jones, who weighed since he started training in jiu jitsu His cardio, only up to 325 lbs, has slimmed down to roughly 250 pounds, he said, hasn’t been improved.

In Mixed martial arts man, there’s no way out. After he found success A Shotokan karate practitioner, training stopped in martial arts in high school. Fighting is socially acceptable now, he explained. Five years ago it wasnt. After injuries forced him to leave soccer in 2005, he began a supplement company. However he never lost this desire to compete. In the N.F.L., there are no other amateur leagues,. He explained. If you get cut, you cannot chase it down for 5 or 6 years. Mitrione and his former N.F.L cohorts are not the first former pro soccer players to enter the cage.

Alonzo Spellman, a former defensive end who fought with a bipolar disorder, won his initial and only Mixed martial arts fight in the year 2006. And Bobby Jones and Michael Westbrook have also earned combined martial arts victories. But success in football does not always translate into success in Mixed martial arts Just asks Johnnie Morton, perhaps the best soccer player to dabble in fighting. Following this fight, Morton was suspended to get refusing to take a drug test. Whilst the former N.F.L. Players might not have made it in football, they’re All explosive athletes, based on Rashad Evans, one of this coaches on this show, particularly compared with the average highs of mixed martial arts.