CAPÍTULO I DE LOS DERECHOS
DEL FONDO DE APORTACIONES PARA EL FORTALECIMIENTO DE LOS MUNICIPIOS
‘Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.’
Even if you strive to cover all the bases and become an ultimate fighter, becoming a world champion is not inevitable. Deconstructing the ultimate fighter is an exercise in logic. Champions have the ability to defy logic. They summon up victory when seemingly on the brink of disaster. They have flaws and overcome them. They suffer setbacks and rise above them. They have an outrageous belief in themselves – often a belief that onlookers don’t share.
The mark of greatness is the X- factor that separates the champion from the rest. Champions need the mental and physical qualities listed in Chart Three, but they go beyond that. To become a world champion is to reach the summit. The champion fights only the top fighters, so why is it he that triumphs?
Look at Chart Four, ‘The Mark of Greatness – Analysis of a World Champion’. Only one-third is given over to the physical and mental qualities of the ultimate fighter. To that third, two more elements must be added – belief that you can achieve, and desire that you will. To be a world champion you must transcend the ordinary, for the ordinary do not become world champions. You must rise above all others. Belief and desire are the chief indicators of the mark of greatness.
Sometimes a champion is marked out not because he has all the qualities, but because he has just one or two in abundance married to belief and desire. The great Bill Wallace was a world
champion, but he was not an ultimate fighter. He did not have all the physical qualities because injury to his right leg prevented him. He did not, however, see that as a barrier to success, but a springboard!
When his injury prevented development as an ultimate fighter he simply set about working his left leg until he could throw hard, fast, deceptive kicks in combinations that simply bewildered the opposition.
We are now back to the fact that in order to become a world champion you must grow. Clearly Bill Wallace grew – nothing was going to stop him. Belief and desire made him focus on what he could do rather than what he couldn’t. How many would have simply said ‘My injury prevents me from becoming a champion’? Belief and desire – that’s what made him a world champion and what could make you a champion.
Belief doesn’t mean blind faith in yourself. It means trusting yourself to do the work, to make the journey despite hardship, setbacks, pain, illness and losses.
Many years ago, when I was in the Junior Leaders (a branch of the army that trained 15 to 17-year-olds to become warrant officers prior to joining the army as adults) there was a training department called the External Leadership Wing. This training involved rock climbing, pot holing, abseiling, orienteering, canoeing, trekking and mountain craft. The idea was to stretch you as an individual and find out what your true qualities were under pressure. As you walked into the training wing there was
a sign. It said simply: ‘The aim of this Wing is to find out how you react to fear, fatigue, hunger and cold.’
I remember only too well the sobering effect that bald statement had on me. It was in fact a challenge – a challenge that couldn’t be ducked, a challenge that tested me and forced me to grow.
I don’t intend to recount stories here, but take it from me, there were some severe challenges along the way and I had to dig deep to overcome them. I had to grow in the same way that you have to grow if you are to be a world champion.
Part Five deals with setting you on the right road to becoming a world champion, but now I’d like to examine someone who for me is the best example to illustrate my point.
Of all the champions that have emerged in kick boxing, one man stands out as both an ultimate fighter and a world champion. He is Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez. No one else comes near him. He simply had it all and then some. Technically he was superb, but he was also an aggressive thinker. He was a great karateka before he switched to kick boxing, so he had a solid technical base. But he realised that he would have to change his fighting style for the ring, so he set about achieving the additional skills and techniques required. He fought under any and all rules systems – fought anybody that cared to challenge him – journeyed throughout the USA, went to Europe and Asia, took on the best and won.
He was talented, technical and tough. A shining example of what can be achieved when the belief and desire meet the ultimate fighter. There are so many of his victories that I could point to that show his class and ability, yet the fight that stands out for me was his ‘war’ with Ian Sprung. Sprung was a big, rough, tough, never-say-die fighter who refused to be beaten and ‘The Jet’ had to dig deep to find the means to grind out the victory. There was nothing fancy or spectacular about this fight. It was won by Benny’s belief in himself and his desire to win no matter what.