What Separates "MMA Fighters" from Other Athletes

what's unique about MMA fighters besides that they have this huge variety of of uh tactical skills that they have to learn and perfect. We we're also trying to venture into some really cool areas of science and research that's got applicability um that you can take from high performance athletes and apply you know to yourself to you know Joe Blow walking down the street you know out there in that way it's a lot like special operations. >> Absolutely. You don't know when the call is going to happen, >> right? They have to be ready at all times. There isn't this like let's get ready for the season, >> right? >> I got introduced to MMA just a few years ago. Uh I think the first time I came out here was one of the first times I'd heard of MMA cuz I was kind of in my laboratory and you know, nose down. Um and it's a really interesting sport because it incorporates so many different types of movement as you said. You know, it's not just stand up boxing, it's just kicking, it's every, you know, ground game, everything. And I'm still learning about it. Um, but as you mentioned going in with that beginner's mind, the white ben uh white belt mentality. Um, what what has been the most surprising thing for you in terms of being exposed to M MMA in particular as opposed to other sports? Like what's what's unique about MMA fighters besides that they have this huge variety of of uh tactical skills that they have to learn and perfect? >> Uh, yeah, that's a great question. I would say two things. I'm going to answer two questions. One actually reiterates what you've already said. Like the degrees of freedom in mixed martial arts are exponential like no other sport. You know, you we've got 11 different weight classes. We have men's classes. We have women's classes. We have um you know, kickboxers, wrestlers, jiu-jitsu fighters, judokas, you know, like karate fighters. You know, the stylistic backgrounds are infinite. Um we have we're a weight classification sport. There's a whole issue relating to making weight and then rebounding to to fight about 24 to 30 hours. Like just the variability in this sport, the the the considerations that you have to make are unprecedented compared to any other sport that I've worked with. Um and a lot of them go against and they are the antithesis of what you would expect for high performance. You know, in terms of we we don't always have a very clearly defined competition schedule. you know, once these guys fight, they they don't necessarily know when their next fight's going to be. >> What's the closest spacing of a of a fight? >> I mean, listen, I think the the record is around um it's it's just over a month, I believe. Goodness. >> Um so, you know, that that's a quick turnaround, but most of these guys are fighting, you know, three or four times a year. Three times a year is is pretty normal. Um the the the bigger fights maybe two times a year, but invariably the guys don't know when that next date is going to be. So, we're in this gray area of okay, what what what do we do? Like, are we are we taking some time off? Are we just going to do some general prep work? Are we going to try and keep this the, you know, the knife sharpened in case I get >> I didn't realize this. In that way, it's a lot like special operations. >> Absolutely. You don't know when the call is going to happen, >> right? They have to be ready at all times. There isn't this like let's get ready for the season, >> right? Yeah. Like when when I was with the British Olympic Association, you know, I knew it was the the British Open, the Spanish Open, the French Open, the European Championships, the Israeli Open, the American Open, the Canadian Open, the Olympic Games. You know, I could >> circuit in your brain, >> right? You just you just plan like you know where all the targets are going to be. Here it's a moving target because you might be just hanging out doing some general prep work and then you might get a short notice fight. They give you a quick call and it's in 6 weeks or 5 weeks and okay, I've got to ramp everything up really quickly. So that's a real challenge in terms of just managing all these this these different components of mixed martial arts um alone. The the other to come back to your question, the other thing which is truly fascinating about these individuals is their just their mental resilience. And again, we we've touched on it in the talk, but you know, the ability to do what they do on a daily basis to um look at all the different skill sets that they have to try and engage in and and and bring into their training. To do that and and and embrace the grind, embrace the process of just learning. Um the physical side of our sport is unprecedented. Um but the mental side you we have a funny saying we always say it's 90% medical uh 90% mental apart from the 60% that's physical. So you know it's just it's just more and more and more. And these these guys ability to um to just do that on a daily basis is is is very impressive. Like their resilience their their internal drive and their resilience is is is really impressive to see. >> Yeah. All the fires I've met here have been really terrific. It's interesting um every time I meet a fighter how often I um I shouldn't be surprising where they're often very soft spoken right extremely polite you know and fighting is such a uh you know it comes from a very primitive portion of the brain right is uh but a large portion of the brain nonetheless >> but I think that's another skill is that switch you know and again that's the recoverability piece right like you cannot be type A or you cannot be like supercharged 24 hours a day because you're going to just fry your system right and I think That's something else where we're really trying to manage this whole process. Be it through nutritional interventions, be it through education around sleep, be it through um training pro program management, um be it through psychological interventions, you know, you could look at fighters and say like these guys are go like they're red alert and they they'll run through a brick wall. But actually, again, their ability to turn it on and off means that they can do what they do. You know, they can bring it down and and be very normal, very very polite, very, you know, uh accommodating maybe even better than most people because you know one of the reasons I'm obsessed with with human performance and high performance and people like fighters and you know elite military or uh or even bodybuilders for that matter is that they they experiment. >> Yeah. >> They find the outer limits of what's possible. But one of the things that they have discovered as you're describing is this ability to toggle between high alert states and calm states. Most typical people can't do this. they see something that upsets them on the internet or something on the news or some external event pressures down on them and they're stressed for many many days and weeks and sometimes it goes pathological. Right? And and this I don't say this as a criticism. It's just that most most human beings within our species, most members of our species never learn to to either flip the switch or to just voluntarily toggle between states. I think athletes learn how to do that extremely well. And um it sounds like MMA fighters do that even better than perhaps many other athletes. >> I mean, yeah, there there's the odd one or two that would struggle with, but I think in terms of that chronic exposure, we we see um that coming from challenges around, you know, cyclical weight cutting and metabolic disruption and metabolic injury, not necessarily from the psychological drive. Um you know, they they do they do understand that this is a job for them. Um, and the time on the mats, you know, most of them can can turn it off a little bit and and downgrade things when they're off the mats. It's it's uh it's impressive to see because again, like as as a layman just looking in at the fight game, you think, you know, it's going to be crazy chaotic 100 miles an hour every hour of every day. But, um, that's not that's clearly not the case. They they they they manage their energy and their efforts pretty well. Um what we're trying to do is is influence you know global community around optimizing human performance. So you know any moment in time we're engaging in different technologies with different vendors different partners you know exploring opportunities to you know learn more share data understand what's the best mechanisms for you know interpreting your body interpreting how your body's responding to training interpreting you know your nutrition or whatever it may be. we we get we're in a really privileged position to do that. Um but we've also you know hence you being here today you know we we're also trying to venture into some really cool areas of science and research that's got applicability um that you can take from high performance athletes and apply you know to yourself to you know Joe Blow walking down the street you know out there um that that is really interesting and that's everything from um you know whether it's CBD and psychedelics through to different technologies for you know thermal monitoring and Bluetooth heart rate monitoring or whatever it may be through to data management etc. and and and anything in between. We've we've got some great partners on the nutrition side, on the psychology side, on the data side and um I think you know we always try to just push the envelope a little bit more. I think we we keep our core mission with our athletes. But I think a lot of what we do, hence your podcast and you know like an amazing platform, you do such a great job of it that you know we can all learn and take from you know the elite and interpret how it might help us and and just in the general population. So I think that's you know that's our our northstar is to provide our athletes the best integrated service of care. Um, but we also want to influence, you know, just the global community and put, you know, UFC at the forefront of

Mixed Martial Arts is unlike any other sport. Fighters don’t have fixed seasons. They don’t know exactly when the next call will come. A fight might be months away or six weeks away. In this conversation, we explore what makes MMA fighters unique, the massive degrees of freedom in skill sets, the challenge of weight cutting and rebounding, the unpredictability of scheduling, and the mental resilience required to stay ready at all times. Like special operations soldiers, fighters must live in a constant state of preparedness, without burning out. What stands out most is not just their physical ability, but their ability to switch on and off. Calm, polite, composed and then capable of controlled aggression when needed. This episode explores the psychology, physiology, and mindset behind elite MMA performance and what everyday men can learn from it. Join #1 men’s community for strength, fitness & longevity. Ask questions, share knowledge, and get support to stay strong for life https://www.skool.com/theory-of-man-5968 Subscribe for more practical, science-backed tips to improve your health and well-being: https://www.youtube.com/@UCgT9oGaVMnQovXUCLPMJu_A Podcast Host: Andrew Huberman YouTube: @HubermanLab Fair Use Disclaimer 1. Under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as commentary, criticism, education, research, news reporting, and analysis. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright law that might otherwise be infringing. 2. This channel does not claim ownership of all content used. Any third-party material has been repurposed and transformed in accordance with fair use, with the intent of educating, informing, and adding context or insight beyond the original source. 3. The content is not intended to infringe on the rights of any copyright holder. Only limited portions of original works are used, and the material is presented in a way that does not substitute for or harm the market of the original content. 4. All content is used for commentary, educational, and informational purposes under fair use principles. #MMA #mentalresilience #highperformance #mensmindset