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Fighting for fun

>>Mixed martial arts kicks, punches
and grapples its way to respectability

MUAY THAI MACHINES: H20 student Alex Bon-Miller (l)
and owner Richard Ho (r)

by ERIK LEIJON
photos by
RACHEL GRANOFSKY

At first glance, Alex Bon-Miller is almost too nice to be a competitive mixed martial arts fighter. A self-described string bean, the Morin Heights native is an enthusiastic 23-year-old high school education student at McGill who has been mercilessly pummeling opponents since last December, including a unanimous decision victory in his Muay Thai boxing main event match on November 3. He is definitive proof of the dirty little secret surrounding the burgeoning world of mixed martial arts—there are a lot of normal people doing it.

“That’s why people are so passionate about [mixed martial arts]. You talk to people in the sport and they want to show so desperately the side of mixed martial arts that isn’t necessarily the [violent] side shown by the media,” says the tattooless, clean-cut, well-spoken and smiling Muay Thai fighter, who entered Richard and Louis Ho’s H2O gym in St-Henri two-and-a-half years ago with virtually no martial arts experience. “We want to show the real side—the kind we experience every day. There’s a lot of strife in the training—it’s hard and it takes discipline—but it’s so rewarding, it balances out so many aspects of my life.”

Mixed traditions

Richard Ho, a two-time Ultimate Generation Combat (UGC) Super Lightweight Champion who founded the H2O gym with his brother Louis four years ago, shatters the stereotype of the experienced fighter and instructor. He’s a family man with three children, and instead of ruling his students with an iron fist, sensei and his little grasshoppers are on a more equal footing.

“Here, the teacher’s not constantly repeating, ‘Respect is 100 per cent important at all times,’” says Bon-Miller’s sparring partner Alex Contreras, who participates in the ground-fighting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions but not mixed-martial arts fights. “There are martial arts schools that are like that, where 30–40 per cent of the class is the teacher using buzzwords.”

It was this relaxed attitude that prompted Bon-Miller to get into the ring for the first time. When he originally got into various forms of Asian martial arts while spending six months travelling in Southeast Asia, Bon-Miller returned home and began researching fighting styles on the Internet. Mixed martial arts, true to its moniker, incorporates a plethora of traditional and non-traditional forms of fighting, making learning the sport an interactive and artistic experience.

“If you look at fights from five, six years ago, there are things that look different, and techniques that were being used then aren’t being used now because they’ve been rendered a little bit obsolete,” says Bon-Miller, who utilizes Muay Thai boxing, along with forms of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling in his repertoire.

“It used to be that Jiu-Jitsu kicked everyone’s ass. Then wrestlers gained the upper hand after learning how to not be submitted. Kick-boxers and quick strikers started to evolve to include more Jiu-Jitsu elements,” says Ho. “The best guys are the ones who work at everything and don’t get stagnant.”

All three also watch fights together in their spare time. “We’re trying to keep our minds open,” says Bon-Miller. “We’re not necessarily going to test it out the next day, but we always see something new in a fight.”

PUMMELING PRACTICE: Bon-Miller and Ho

Beatings with brains

The most famous mixed martial arts fighters from Quebec, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Georges “Rush” St-Pierre and Patrick “The Predator” Côté, are known for being well balanced fighters. Both currently train at the Cultural Martial Arts Academy downtown, founded in 1996 by Philip Gelinas, one of the city’s most experienced and well known fighting experts. He too has seen the rise of international promotions like UFC and local outfits such as TKO and UGC, as well as the vocal opponents of the sport who dismiss MMA as a violent form of bum-fighting.

“People see mixed martial arts fights as being only a step up from a street fight because they think there are no rules,” says Gelinas. “Maybe it originally started out that way, but it’s not true—there are a lot of rules.”

He even recalls reading about a martial artist who looked down on MMA fighters as “human cock fighters.” It’s even common for traditionalists to have a negative opinion of the blending of fighting styles and the lack of adherence to old teachings. Gelinas, 54, who began serious competitive fighting and training in Kali, a form of Filipino martial arts, in 1981, says there are four essential tools a fighter must learn: a good stand-up fighting style (like boxing or kickboxing), clinching or grappling skills, the ability to attack on the ground—such as Jiu-Jitsu—and submission holds.

The lure of fame and fortune, like that experienced and enjoyed by St-Pierre and the UFC’s biggest stars, has also encouraged some to seek out Ho or Gelinas’s training with dreams of celebrity status. Typically, they don’t last long, Ho says, since the strenuous training regimen tends not to appeal to rage-aholics who think picking bar fights constitutes an impressive resume. The truth is, although it may seem chaotic, and fights can sometimes last only a few seconds, fighters go through the same amount of training and preparation as any boxer or pro athlete.

“It doesn’t matter how tough you are, it doesn’t matter how much of a badass you think you are,” says Bon-Miller, “when you start getting punched in the face and you have to punch back, it all comes down to the preparation and mental state.”

Bon-Miller recently turned down a two-year contract from the local TKO promotion, largely because he wanted to finish his degree and begin his teaching career. And the point where most MMA fighters can earn a living in the ring has yet to arrive—alhough the minimum a fighter can make in Quebec is $100 per round in a three-round bout.

ON THE MAT: Scenes from the Cultural Martial Arts Academy