Top MMA Events of the Decade?

[SPX]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Anyway, enough about me. SPX... wtf. No follow up?

Soon to come. It's a novel. Still typing it up.

[Luke]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Betting is easy when there's no pressure to win. I cant imagine what the pressure would be if I did it for a living .

I thought you worked for youself BTW.

I do, but I think I have told you before that I also work for that website, where I make a side income. I decided to give the website a rest (because I was getting sick of doing it) and see what it would be like to try to generate money off gambling. I think I can do it, but the problem is that I am going to need a fucking huge stack to even think about retiring from my day job. I mean...huge. So I think the best I can hope for is for my gambling to just generate interest and replace my regular retirement. I don't think I could ever do it with no job...


Anyway, enough about me. SPX... wtf. No follow up?

I'm not sure I could do it for a living either . I think the stress alone might drive me over the edge .

[MMA_scientist]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

I'm not sure I could do it for a living either . I think the stress alone might drive me over the edge .

I am still keeping the dream alive. I could do it if I were in a different place in my life. But as it stands, I (actually my wife) have become accustomed to a certain standard of living... In order to keep my self in the style that I become accustomed to, I would need about a million bucks, minimum.

Since I only have about $4500 for this... I might need to reset my hopes.

[SPX]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

The true story behind me quitting my job:

There were a lot of reasons and it was actually kind of a domino effect.

Last Monday night I went with a friend to a 10:00 o' clock showing of Scrooged at a local theater. It's called Brewvies. The name says a lot. She and I were already getting pretty close to drunk when we went in and by the time we came out we had rolled through about 5 pitchers.

She lived close, so after the movie I passed out at her place and woke up a few hours later, feeling like shit. And I felt like shit the rest of the day. And then about 9:00 I tried to go to sleep, but there was one problem: I couldn't get to sleep. I laid there for hours. At about 2:00 I got up and started pacing the floor. I knew I had a problem.

I've had some attendance issues in the past and have been written up twice. Third time is termination. I knew that if I missed another day then it could possibly mean getting fired. But it was either call in or feel like total shit for the whole day when clearly I wasn't going to have any business being there. But wait, we have to backtrack once again. . .

I would possibly have been willing to risk it if not for one thing: The previous Friday I had called in with the infamous "my grandmother died" excuse. It was the first time ever and the truth is that she had done no such thing. Or I guess she had, but 10 years or so earlier. But it enabled me to get out of work for a day without having to get marked down for an "occurance," which could have lead to termination.

My boss made a fatal mistake, though: He said, "Okay, well let me know over the weekend if you need Monday off, too." So I figured I'd milk this thing for all it was worth and told him on Sunday that I would need Monday off, as my family was getting together to read the will and figure out what we were gonna do for the holidays. However, despite the fact that he offered it to me, he now wanted to argue. And he told me that between 10:00 and 1:00 is our peak and that he would need me at work. He also said that he would make sure to have me out by 1:00. Well it turned out that we were extremely busy that day and when 1:00 came along he refused to let me go. This pissed me off big time. Eventually at 2:30 another supervisor cut me loose.

Yes, I realized I lied about my grandmother dying. But he didn't know that and the fact that a representative of the company would pull some shit like that really pissed me off.

So we have Bullshit From Company Man-->Drunken Evening-->Sleepless Night After Which A Day of Work is Unacceptable

There were other problems, too. I was just tired of the job. 9ish hours a day sitting at a desk, taking phone calls, staring at a computer screen, and dealing with people's technical problems? Fuck that! It's not healthy. It also was getting in the way of other aspects of my life, like being able to take certain classes and being free to do interviews for articles for the magazine.

So I was up at 2:00 AM and paced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth for an hour and half while I tried to figure this thing out. Can I survive somehow just off my writing? Obviously not just writing for a single magazine. But can I pick up gigs with other magazines? Find other writing assignments online? Get super-serious about betting and turn that into a legit part of my monthly income?

Bottom line: Around 4:00 AM I threw caution to the wind and told Unisys to fuck off. And now I'm trying to make it work. I'm a little worried about it. I have no idea exactly how I'm going to make this transition. But I'm going to try and hopefully after a rough few months on the front end I will have things smoothed out and will be in a better position than I ever was when I was doing the 9 to 5 thing.

[MMA_scientist]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Bottom line, no one ever regretting quitting a piece of shit job like that to pursue his passions.

Your job sucked. It wasn't what you wanted to do with your life, and you weren't making very much money. Any job where you have to make shit up so you can miss work is for the birds. I, for one, support it.

If it doesn't work out, at least you will have made a run. You'll gain experience and insight into what you have to do to make it. Maybe you have to suck it up and find a job in a few months, maybe not.

Bonus, you should pull way more tail as a professional writer and gambler than a tech support guy.

[zY|]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Hey good luck, buddy.

In that case, Top MMA events of the decade.

Unified rules of mixed martial arts (and make sure you get that shit right. No, they weren't written by Dana White like he would have you think)
UFC bought by Zuffa
Fall of PRIDE
TUF (Bonnar/Griffin)
UFC 66 (million ppv buys)
Chuck Liddell's rise to stardom
Fedor/Cro Cop (probably the biggest MMA fight ever)
Shogun's 2005 tournament run
BJ Penn choking out Matt Hughes
Matt Serra beating GSP

How many do you need?

[SPX]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Bottom line, no one ever regretting quitting a piece of shit job like that to pursue his passions.

Your job sucked. It wasn't what you wanted to do with your life, and you weren't making very much money. Any job where you have to make shit up so you can miss work is for the birds. I, for one, support it.

I appreciate that. Sincerely.

You're right that it wasn't much money. It was definitely keeping me afloat. But it lead to a sort of minimum standard of living. I mean, I've been in a 220 sq. ft. studio apartment for almost 4 years now. I realize that I am just over a year away from being 30 years old and, I mean, that's kind of some stupid shit. So I'm hoping that with some serious effort writing and betting on MMA--along with possibly some other ventures--will catapult me into a much better financial position within the next year or so.

If it doesn't work out, at least you will have made a run. You'll gain experience and insight into what you have to do to make it. Maybe you have to suck it up and find a job in a few months, maybe not.

I agree. There's definitely a sort of romantic, idealistic notion here. Hopefully I'll come out on top in the end. But if not--if I do have to get another job--I'm determined to get a job that, if it doesn't lead to greater riches, then it will at least lead to greater personal fulfillment.

Bonus, you should pull way more tail as a professional writer and gambler than a tech support guy.

I sure as hell hope so.

[SPX]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Hey good luck, buddy.

In that case, Top MMA events of the decade.

Unified rules of mixed martial arts (and make sure you get that shit right. No, they weren't written by Dana White like he would have you think)
UFC bought by Zuffa
Fall of PRIDE
TUF (Bonnar/Griffin)
UFC 66 (million ppv buys)
Chuck Liddell's rise to stardom
Fedor/Cro Cop (probably the biggest MMA fight ever)
Shogun's 2005 tournament run
BJ Penn choking out Matt Hughes
Matt Serra beating GSP

Hey, thanks zY. I was wondering why you hadn't made a contribution yet. I knew you had some in your mind on this.

How many do you need?

Not sure yet. This piece (unfortunately) is a short one. They're giving me 500 words. I think I could turn this into 1500 words easily.

[Luke]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Damn X I didnt realize you were writing that many articles or quit your job.

I quit a 60k a year job when I was 21 because I hated it,I just walked out one day right in the middle of the work day and never went back. Everyone I knew told me I was stupid but it wasnt what I wanted to do and I hated every second of it . I would encourage everyone thats hates what they are doing to chase their dreams . You'll get there X .
Just in the short time you've been on this forum you've went from never writing an article before to doing it all the time so I'm sure you'll get where you want to be . GL on it and if you need anything just let me know

[SPX]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Damn X I didnt realize you were writing that many articles or quit your job.

I quit a 60k a year job when I was 21 because I hated it,I just walked out one day right in the middle of the work day and never went back. Everyone I knew told me I was stupid but it wasnt what I wanted to do and I hated every second of it . I would encourage everyone thats hates what they are doing to chase their dreams . You'll get there X .
Just in the short time you've been on this forum you've went from never writing an article before to doing it all the time so I'm sure you'll get where you want to be . GL on it and if you need anything just let me know

I actually meant to PM you about the job quitting thing, but I've been trying to get a handle on it personally. Then it just sort of came out here in this thread.

As for writing "that many articles," well, I'm not writing nearly as many as I need to be. I've had as many as two separate articles in UMMA in multiple issues and I've had at least one in most issues since the wagering piece. I've also had one article in Black Belt and another one in Black Belt coming out next month.

But really, I need like 5 mags that I'm writing for regularly. And then some other shit probably on top of that.

This is going to be a challenge. But I appreciate your support. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about it in the weeks and months to come.

P.S. I did get one article published in Black Belt in 2007. But other than that, you're right. The wagering article was basically the beginning.

[Dr_Ngo]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

I've been in your situation and pulled through it. My biggest advice is to save $ wherever you can. I clipped coupons from the Sunday paper, sold all my unnecessary shit on Craigslist, etc. I even had a side hustle where I found stuff on sale online, and resold them on ebay/craigslist for a profit.

I don't know your situation, but an option could be to move to a cheaper country. Your money goes a lot farther in a place like Thailand, plus a bunch of you guys seem like the type to like ladyboys haha

You have a lot of free time, use it to invest in yourself. Read, learn, grow and become a stronger man from this situation.

[poopoo333]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

This conversation is making me think about how much of a Jew (no antisemitism) I am going to become once I take the plunge and move out to finish college at a university.

[Ludo]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

This conversation is making me think about how much of a Jew (no antisemitism) I am going to become once I take the plunge and move out to finish college at a university.

That doesn't sound like the Jay we all know around here...

[Mr. IWS]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Pulver winning a fight or was that last decade?

This could be post of the decade?

[Mr. IWS]

Re: Top MMA Events of the Decade?

Collapse of Elite XC (kimbo/Seth/$kala)