Not parlaying it though, mind you. Degen nonsense FTW.
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If only this was out before his fight!...
JONATHAN BROOKINS IS LEAVING FOR INDIA
By Josh Rosenblatt
Up until about the third minute of his fight last weekend in Las Vegas, UFC featherweight and Ultimate Fighter winner Jonathan Brookins was actually beating up Dustin Poirier. This seemed to surprise pretty much everyone, including Jonathan Brookins. Not because he didn’t believe he was capable of beating Poirier but because he didn’t want to be fighting at all. Walking into the Octagon that night, his mind was 1000 miles away -- or rather 8000 miles away – floating through the ether.
Next month, Brookins will be traveling to India on a spiritual quest, and he doesn’t know when, or even if, he’ll be back. After winning the Ultimate Fighter in 2010, Brookins has been on something of a downward slide – going 1-4 in the UFC, losing his house in Orlando after most of his money had run out. Since then he’s bounced around from couch to couch and gym to gym, searching for something. Now that his fight with Poirier is in the past, Brookins feels free to go searching outside the world of mixed martial arts. This made us curious, so we called him recently at his home in Orlando, where he’s getting ready for his next, more spiritual, journey.
Fightland: So you mentioned having to sell your house. Is it hard to make a career in MMA, even when you’ve made it to the UFC?
Jonathan Brookins: It’s not hard to make a career in the UFC. If you really want it, you can make it happen. I think I just talked myself of really wanting it. I don’t know if I talked myself out of it or if I really don’t want it anymore. That made it tough to keep going and to fight last weekend. I didn’t really have much fight left in me. I kind of hit a dead end.
I definitely had my mind on other things I wanted to do and pursue. I just stopped believing in the fight business and stopped believing in what it was I was even doing. I just didn’t quite understand. There wasn’t much that I wanted about that (Poirier) fight.
Were you in the Octagon thinking about India?
I think I was. I think I was ready to go to India and learn something else. Pursuing this sport with the mindset that I have is counterproductive. It didn’t make sense. Mindset is everything. If this is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life it can’t just be a circular argument. It can’t just be about nothing. This quest to be a fighter has gotten to be frivolous, to be the wrong pursuit. I know it can be pursued the right way, but I know I'm not anywhere close to it. I’m not really down to live this temporary, right-now way of life.
What are you looking for?
I’m looking for a mindset to exist better. I think that I can find a happiness about myself, a way of living, where my constitution is more sound. I think that martial arts has been a positive, but it hasn’t been as much as it could be. I want to find martial arts for real. Yoga just seems to me like one of the oldest forms of martial arts. It seems like the very beginning. When the Shaolin monks wanted to learn to fight, there was a yoga teacher who taught the monks how to exercise and how to defend themselves – how to properly prepare themselves, prepare their bodies, prepare their minds. So starting with yoga just seems so natural to me.
I want to say something with my fighting. I want to find the truth. We have the potential for greater consciousness. I want to abstain from this world and tap into the human soul and see what it’s like to live.
You said you learned some lessons during the run-up to the Poirier fight.
There were real heavy lessons. Sometimes you lose a fight and you have to go searching for the lessons. Maybe you go on a long run and you’re running the fight through your mind a million times – why did this happen? -- and then after a lot of soul searching the answer hits you. But this one was just loud and clear. Before the fight I came in a little bit overweight. Mostly because I was bounding around a lot – living in Oregon then New York then Montreal. But everything was real sporadic. So I was cutting weight, and I went to a bikram yoga class, something I do all the time. This was Wednesday, and the weigh-in was Friday. I started to get real dizzy after running that morning and sitting in a salt bath and then the yoga class. I got dizzy like I was going to pass out. By the end of the class, I was cramping up. My feet were cramping. By the end of the class I think I hit severe dehydration. My legs cramped up really bad. I couldn’t move. I was exhausted, like I was going to die. My neck, back, and chest all cramped up. I felt tired and weak. I started throwing up all night and was real sick.
I thought about quitting the fight. I was dehydrated, but I still had six or seven pounds to lose. Everything was all off. So I was asking myself, “What do you really want out of this experience?” And all I could think about was going to India. You already know you ****** your body up; there’s no way you’re going to recover fully in just a couple of days. Why would I go ahead with the fight instead of asking to reschedule? Then I thought about going to India in January. That was loud and clear.
At the weigh-ins, I could see myself on the Jumbotron. I was like, “Shit man, you look kind of pathetic. You don’t look like you’re ready to fight; you look skinny.” The kid (Poirier) walks up to me after the weigh-ins and gets in my face and says, “I want it more than you.” All tough guy: “I want it more than you, bro.” I was like, “What the penetrate? How does this kid know he wanted it more than me?” It was an interesting thing to say but it was really true. It was the weirdest true shit-talking I’d ever heard in my life. Usually people just talk shit and you’ve got a rebuttal. That was the first time it really made me think.
Ideally, will India help you get back to fighting or are you open to the idea of not fighting again, if that’s where your mind goes?
Yeah, I’m open to that, that’s for sure. All the things I didn’t learn in fighting to better myself I feel like I can explore in this avenue. If it means extra effort or extra solitude, I’m going to pursue this harder than I even pursued fighting. I feel like it could make me a much better fighter, but if it leads me to not fight again, I think I would be okay with that.
Are you optimistic about the future?
I am. It’s all mindset now. I know that nothing’s going to go wrong because I have the gift of this mindset this kid (Poirier) gave me to win. All he had to do was tell me he wanted it more. That’s easy enough; I can want a lot of things. And I know the formula to make it happen. And this is just a step to helping me live that lifestyle. If I want to come back and be the greatest fighter in the world, I have the lifestyle that will allow me to get things I want. That’s want I want to gain over there in India.
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Nice toe-hold win for Redmond (+200 dog)Comment -
Yeah i remember coming across this shortly after the Poirier fight. Guy's apparently having som life crisis and going to frind himself in India of all places. Can't say i care really since i was on Dustin in that fight but definitely hope he doesn't hang it up. Actually enjoying watching the guy in the cage.If only this was out before his fight!...
JONATHAN BROOKINS IS LEAVING FOR INDIA
By Josh Rosenblatt
Up until about the third minute of his fight last weekend in Las Vegas, UFC featherweight and Ultimate Fighter winner Jonathan Brookins was actually beating up Dustin Poirier. This seemed to surprise pretty much everyone, including Jonathan Brookins. Not because he didn’t believe he was capable of beating Poirier but because he didn’t want to be fighting at all. Walking into the Octagon that night, his mind was 1000 miles away -- or rather 8000 miles away – floating through the ether.
Next month, Brookins will be traveling to India on a spiritual quest, and he doesn’t know when, or even if, he’ll be back. After winning the Ultimate Fighter in 2010, Brookins has been on something of a downward slide – going 1-4 in the UFC, losing his house in Orlando after most of his money had run out. Since then he’s bounced around from couch to couch and gym to gym, searching for something. Now that his fight with Poirier is in the past, Brookins feels free to go searching outside the world of mixed martial arts. This made us curious, so we called him recently at his home in Orlando, where he’s getting ready for his next, more spiritual, journey.
Fightland: So you mentioned having to sell your house. Is it hard to make a career in MMA, even when you’ve made it to the UFC?
Jonathan Brookins: It’s not hard to make a career in the UFC. If you really want it, you can make it happen. I think I just talked myself of really wanting it. I don’t know if I talked myself out of it or if I really don’t want it anymore. That made it tough to keep going and to fight last weekend. I didn’t really have much fight left in me. I kind of hit a dead end.
I definitely had my mind on other things I wanted to do and pursue. I just stopped believing in the fight business and stopped believing in what it was I was even doing. I just didn’t quite understand. There wasn’t much that I wanted about that (Poirier) fight.
Were you in the Octagon thinking about India?
I think I was. I think I was ready to go to India and learn something else. Pursuing this sport with the mindset that I have is counterproductive. It didn’t make sense. Mindset is everything. If this is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life it can’t just be a circular argument. It can’t just be about nothing. This quest to be a fighter has gotten to be frivolous, to be the wrong pursuit. I know it can be pursued the right way, but I know I'm not anywhere close to it. I’m not really down to live this temporary, right-now way of life.
What are you looking for?
I’m looking for a mindset to exist better. I think that I can find a happiness about myself, a way of living, where my constitution is more sound. I think that martial arts has been a positive, but it hasn’t been as much as it could be. I want to find martial arts for real. Yoga just seems to me like one of the oldest forms of martial arts. It seems like the very beginning. When the Shaolin monks wanted to learn to fight, there was a yoga teacher who taught the monks how to exercise and how to defend themselves – how to properly prepare themselves, prepare their bodies, prepare their minds. So starting with yoga just seems so natural to me.
I want to say something with my fighting. I want to find the truth. We have the potential for greater consciousness. I want to abstain from this world and tap into the human soul and see what it’s like to live.
You said you learned some lessons during the run-up to the Poirier fight.
There were real heavy lessons. Sometimes you lose a fight and you have to go searching for the lessons. Maybe you go on a long run and you’re running the fight through your mind a million times – why did this happen? -- and then after a lot of soul searching the answer hits you. But this one was just loud and clear. Before the fight I came in a little bit overweight. Mostly because I was bounding around a lot – living in Oregon then New York then Montreal. But everything was real sporadic. So I was cutting weight, and I went to a bikram yoga class, something I do all the time. This was Wednesday, and the weigh-in was Friday. I started to get real dizzy after running that morning and sitting in a salt bath and then the yoga class. I got dizzy like I was going to pass out. By the end of the class, I was cramping up. My feet were cramping. By the end of the class I think I hit severe dehydration. My legs cramped up really bad. I couldn’t move. I was exhausted, like I was going to die. My neck, back, and chest all cramped up. I felt tired and weak. I started throwing up all night and was real sick.
I thought about quitting the fight. I was dehydrated, but I still had six or seven pounds to lose. Everything was all off. So I was asking myself, “What do you really want out of this experience?” And all I could think about was going to India. You already know you ****** your body up; there’s no way you’re going to recover fully in just a couple of days. Why would I go ahead with the fight instead of asking to reschedule? Then I thought about going to India in January. That was loud and clear.
At the weigh-ins, I could see myself on the Jumbotron. I was like, “Shit man, you look kind of pathetic. You don’t look like you’re ready to fight; you look skinny.” The kid (Poirier) walks up to me after the weigh-ins and gets in my face and says, “I want it more than you.” All tough guy: “I want it more than you, bro.” I was like, “What the penetrate? How does this kid know he wanted it more than me?” It was an interesting thing to say but it was really true. It was the weirdest true shit-talking I’d ever heard in my life. Usually people just talk shit and you’ve got a rebuttal. That was the first time it really made me think.
Ideally, will India help you get back to fighting or are you open to the idea of not fighting again, if that’s where your mind goes?
Yeah, I’m open to that, that’s for sure. All the things I didn’t learn in fighting to better myself I feel like I can explore in this avenue. If it means extra effort or extra solitude, I’m going to pursue this harder than I even pursued fighting. I feel like it could make me a much better fighter, but if it leads me to not fight again, I think I would be okay with that.
Are you optimistic about the future?
I am. It’s all mindset now. I know that nothing’s going to go wrong because I have the gift of this mindset this kid (Poirier) gave me to win. All he had to do was tell me he wanted it more. That’s easy enough; I can want a lot of things. And I know the formula to make it happen. And this is just a step to helping me live that lifestyle. If I want to come back and be the greatest fighter in the world, I have the lifestyle that will allow me to get things I want. That’s want I want to gain over there in India.
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lol this is a horrible fight (standard for a Jack Mason fight)Comment -
this Bertorangal dude is a clownComment -
I tailed el vaughany too. ¡Andale!
Kinda bored like sacrelicious
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lol Daly's striking is comicalComment -
Well done vagooneyComment -
Ahh should of stuck with fading DalyComment -
hahah some douche Tapout wearing fanboy trying to get Taylor's attention and doing the Thiago Silva throat slash thing to him!!!Comment -
"JT Money" lol looks like he's tiredComment -
haha can imagine JT and Alvey getting into a few scraps tonight in Dublin!Comment -
Wonder if JT will ever get the call back to the ufc. Guy is as dumb as a rock but He's better than a lot of middleweights in the middleweights in the ufc at the momentComment -
wowza Connor McGregor is a savage!Comment -
UFC will come callin soonComment -
Hey 1 and 2 with change, broke even,
Fun card.Comment -
If you become too bulky, you actually lose punching power. WSM competitors probably don't punch harder than most middleweights. If you don't know how to handle a punch (chin tucked, eyes open and body turned to roll with punches), a welterweight would have no trouble Koing a WSM. There is the worry of the WSM competitors grabbing them and throwing them down, but I'd have a hard time imaginging them able to have the speed and timing to grab a professional fighter.If you want to hype yourself up for sports betting, just listen to this on repeat while imagining Gabe piledrivering Frank Mir over and over.
I've been doing this since before I even knew who Gabe was.
Absolutely agree about Machida. He's a stylistic nightmare for a large, slow man who's looking to overpower him. One of the people I had in mind who would handle most WSM competitors.
As for your examples, while I appreciate the idea behind them, most of them are invalid. Your first two examples, respectively, are in a gym, no one is trying to hurt anyone else; we all know that anyone can be choked out, and in regards to a football player who, whilst larger, is not even a bodybuilder, by any stretch of the imagination.
A lot of the best MMA wrestlers at heavyweight and some at LHW could probably take down and control a WSM competitor, I agree with that.
Do you remember the video of Roger absolutely curb stomping the consciousness out of a former Texas Longhorns football player who reportedly weighed above 230+ lbs? Now this football player is someone who trained his whole life to tackle people, and he got absolutely demolished. What makes you think a WSM can get a hold of any descently sized MMA fighters? If weight advantage was such a huge deal between untrained and trained fighters, how come Roger knocked him out so easily? If you don't know how to handle a punch, it doesn't matter how big you are. Now I understand the the WSM are bigger than the football player, but being too big weakens your punch and slows you down too much. They won't be able to grab the fighters and they'd get knocked out in less than 10 seconds.
This actually reminds me of a former bodybuilder who trains at my gym, who told me how much his punching power improved after cutting away the unneccessary bulk.
The vast majority of UFC rooster would completely starch WSM competitors.Comment -
Michael Bisping: "I can go 5×5 standing on my head. I don’t think Vitor Belfort can do the same thing, and after round one, he’s gonna be a walking punching bag and it’s gonna be an easy night for ‘The Count,’” said Bisping in a conversation with MMAInterviews. “He has the body of the lion but the legs of a chicken and the heart of a chicken, which I’ll show."Comment -
I really do lol when phagets on here get mad when someone calls bj penn a manlet. at sherdog they have to ban any and all detrimental comments towards fighters because the kids who post there cant handle it, lol.
Imagine going to a forum and no being able to say Arensal sucks or such and such player sucks. oh lawd. cant make this shit up.
With that said, mike bisping is by far my favOUrite fighter (srs). if i were to spazz out anytime somebody talked shit about him on the internetz where would I be?Comment -
michael @bisping
Belchers buddy paying me the 20 he bet me Alan would win, lol. Looks like he might not call me out for a while...
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honestly broady that shit is disgusting.michael @bisping
Belchers buddy paying me the 20 he bet me Alan would win, lol. Looks like he might not call me out for a while...
fat people shouldnt be allowed to wear jeans like that.
fockin riot and blakeComment -
No one gives a shit you’d call BJ Penn a manlet. What’s embarassing is that you even use the word, especially given that you literally are a phaget 153 bodybuilder.
Walk around at 153 lb and claim you’d beat Frankie Edgar in a fight, and write a wall of text about BJ Penn being a manlet when he walks around fatter than you.
I read a dialogue between you and Vaughany where you were asking what happened to Adam Bowden, before you later admitted to being him. Now according to Vaughany you’re boxscout as well: http://forum.sbrforum.com/boxing-mma...l#post17324510
So that’s 2 ghost accounts, how many others? A couple of days after being called a troll you start calling Gabe one. Now after admitting to being the ghost account Adam Bowden, you start mysteriously claiming the forum is full of ghost accounts. I'd lose track of trying to figure out how many cocksuckers you are. Maybe Vaughany can keep updating us every time you start a new account.
I heard that before he became a mod you were attacking Bigday. I don’t know if this is true, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Calling Shari beautiful and incomparable, and refering to her ‘divine orifice’ doesn’t really fit you as a Junie Browning wannabe. You wouldn’t say shit to a mod now, and risk losing your audience.Comment -
ha to be fair DFC still abuses Bigday regardless of him being a mod! Something along the lines of molesting wild animals the other day!Comment -
No he doesn't. Overall DFC flatters Bigday (or any mod), refers to his mod status like its a sign of credibility, one might even say DFC pinches mods' peckers.Last edited by varkolek; 01-02-13, 07:28 AM.Comment -
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I'm no longer a mod...
I think SBR likes me better as an "undercover" mod... Don't tell anyone... Maybe Defacto will start to abuse me again...
I enjoy trolling actually. Win or lose, I'll keep posting cards. More fun to bury trolls like Daimo with a 3-1 card or a 5Unit Max Wager thread that hits easily.
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