Best Featherweight Fighters in the Philippines?

Ok, although the title mentions featherweights, a lot of what I'm about to write about applies to other weight divisions. I mention featherweight because Pequeno is returning to the ring and I was thinking of how he will do (he's been away from competition for a while).

A couple of weeks ago I learned that Pequeno was returning to the fight scene. For those of you who don't know him, his real name is Alexandre Nogueira. He's one of my favorite fighters, and definitely one of the best featherweights out there. I loved watching his matches because he always seemed to finish his opponents with the guillotine--and I love the move. Even before the Brabo choke became popular, or even known by most of today's grapplers, Pequeno was pulling it off left and right back in the day. He also used the Anaconda a lot and started the buzz with the "10 Finger Guillotine." Pequeno recently signed with American Top Team and is set to fight some time in June at the WEC.

I thought of other top caliber fighters in world at the featherweight division, and started to think about featherweights in the Philippines. I asked myself, what can be done to make our featherweight fighters just as good. In fact, what can be done to make all our fighters much better? When I think of the top MMA fighters competing in the Philippine circuit right now, I feel, and believe many of you would agree, that our active fighters have a long road ahead of them. This is my opinion, but I may be wrong. If you disagree, please let me know which active Pinoy fighters do you think could fight in the WEC or UFC, for instance.

So I've been trying to analyze why our boxers are world class, and how boxing can be used as a model by MMA fighters, promoters, and instructors to help MMA fighters get better. There are a lot of potential "solutions" we can propose, but off the top of my head, I though of three:

1. Have more competitions

Boxing competitions happen very often in the Philippines. It gives our boxers more opportunities to test their skills in a competition setting. I'm a firm believer that people who compete learn so much about what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and what they can do to get better. MMA fighters would gain much more experience if they could compete more often.

2. More guidance from higher level trainers

Almost every boxing camp in the Philippines have professional or Olympic caliber boxers running the training sessions. Trainers, and their own skill level, make a world of difference. I notice in the Philippines, many MMA trainers sometimes "make things up" as they go. I think if MMA trainers do not have a lot of hands on experience competing, they should compete. Ideally, they should continue to compete and always search for the "bigger challenge."

3. Sacrifice and focus

It's just the way it is. The best fighters make sacrifices and train and compete professionally. They focus all their time and profession to fighting. It's their career. Pinoy boxers do this. World class fighters from around the world do this. Unfortunately, many of our MMA fighters, for one reason or the other, do not train full time, or simply do not train enough. To be a world class fighter, not only do you have to train like one, you have to accept that there are certain things you can't do and will miss out on, and you have to concentrate on improving.

I have no doubt that our MMA fighters will improve in the future. If we want our athletes to reach the next level faster, maybe we should model our fellow boxers and the sport of boxing in the Philippines.

To end this entry, let's quickly look at the growth of our Muay Thai fighters. There has been a tremendous improvement in our fighters' skills over the last decade. If you asked me how our kickboxers would do against international fighters 10, 12, 15 years ago, I would've probably told you to bet on the foreign fighter. Now, I'm proud to say that I think our top Muay Thai fighters have reached world class status, or, at least very close to that caliber. Let's see. Lots of competitions? Check. Experienced trainers who compete a lot? Check. Sacrifice and focus? Check.

Tags: boxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, mma, philippines