The Heart of a Champion
Not intended to sell motivation.
Panic. Frustration. Agony. Grit. Heart.
This picture sends goosebumps down my body whenever I come across it. You see, getting knocked out in mixed martial arts or any combat sport is not as bad as someone making you tap or go to sleep. Tapping out means you have actually accepted defeat, while passing out means you cannot just take it any more. That’s why getting choked out brings out the most real form of emotion onto a fighter’s face. It breaks you.
All those months of training and a wrecked weight cut flashing right in front of you in the last moments right before the loss. It is not just the training but the whole concept of your ambition getting choked out as well. That is the reason why such moments captured in a fight intrigue me so much.
But you know what intrigues me even more? The prospect of not giving up.
Alex Volkanovski up in that picture did turn purple from getting suffocated the lungs out of him in that triangle choke, but he did not tap. He did not pass out. He did not give up.
In fact he went on to win the fight after escaping twice from two different submission attempts in that very round. Brian Ortega was supposed to be the new UFC featherweight champion that night, but his only fault was that he was up against Volkanovski. A champion’s heart is different, they say. Volkanovski just proved that right. I usually start watching from the couch but by the time that second round got over, I was on my feet, hands cupped on the top of my head, unable to process what was really going on. I had never seen anyone not tap to a triangle choke that was this tight. Ortega caught him in a choke that was deeper than the Mariana Trench, but Volks did not tap!
The rush of adrenaline is different even when you just watch it on a flat screen. People might not get it, but for anyone who’s always looking for inspiration and fighting their own personal battles, such instances send a gush of new blood down their neurons and the spark created is beyond words. Perhaps the blood and gore might be too much to handle, but it has the most real form of a primeval sport we would ever come across.
The cliché motivational phrase ‘Never Give Up’ might be too used up on paper, but it is quite a show when it gets captured in reality!
