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I'm not sure what kind of championship that was but for an experienced fighter having a 30 pound "handicap" versus an inexperienced one should amount to no real

I'm not sure what kind of championship that was but for an experienced fighter having a 30 pound "handicap" versus an inexperienced one should amount to no real life disadvantage. Don't underestimate what a 165 lbs person's tibia can do to a 195 lbs person's head on even thigh. There's no "hack" to not getting your lights knocked out with one punch/kick from a good fighter 30 lbs lighter than you. And tricking the weigh in is something that has been done since the second ever weigh-in. The fact that he was able to hold off experienced fighters, even if they were below his weight class, means he was plenty qualified to be there despite his very modest self assessment. [Edited from here] He seems to be an actual fighter under Dave Camarillo but the framing of this story, that he's just an average "stuff my face with peanut butter sandwiches, tricked the weigh-in" kind of guy, is just in order to sell his "life hacks" books. All I can find is that 1999 was the second year for the championship which could mean not very strong competition. But there's no mention of him in any Wushu/Sanda/Sanshou championship. He also used to claim that he is a "Cage fighter in Japan, vanquisher of four world champions (MMA)" (since removed from his page). Being a 4 time world champion would have contradicted his "just a regular guy using life hacks" premise. Without an actual record of him winning that "Chinese Kickboxing National Championships 1999" I guess he's just peddling the same "tricks" from his book. One of them might be "just say you did it".

aspenmayer 6y ago
Thai kickboxing and BJJ isn’t a joke. Neither is physics and bone density increases through training, same with muscle fiber density and reaction time. I can go on. Training matters.
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  I've watched a Thai kickboxing match in Bangkok, and what amazed me, and I didn't expect is that the first few minutes are like dancing, no touching, then it slowly accelerates over say 30 minutes or something to a full out thing. If you can bend the rules in those first 5 minutes, even a sedate developer might stand a chance!
  - aspenmayer 6y ago
    A dance is a pretty good metaphor for full contact sparring with a ref. Any other kind of fight, just don’t. Just get out of there. It’s not worth fighting over for long, if ever. The most OP fighting move is refusing to fight, opting not to strategically, and only fighting when absolutely necessary, like legally or morally necessary. Be like water. Support life and only crash when it’s time to rock and roll.
    - quickthrower2 6y ago
      Yep definitely don’t fight if you can avoid it. This is why I am very forgiving when driving. Keep a distance from idiots, drive as safe as possible, don’t honk people etc. This way the fight is avoided. Not about being a wimp, but most fights aren’t worth it. And there are other ways to fight than literally. I have not been in a proper fight. Closest thing was at high school but nothing much happened. Other than that I’ve been coaxed into fighting in drunken places maybe 3 times but didn’t take the bait. It’s unlucky if you are in a situation where you are forced to fight. All of these times walking away is an option.
  - buran77 6y ago
    That's like saying that after you start an engine it's idling for a while and consuming very little, if you could just get you your destination while it's still idling you could save so much fuel. You opponent will not wait for you to bend the rules a few times before they react unless the first bend knocks them out. Pushing people off the fighting surface might work once, maybe twice. If that's the only weapon in a fighter's arsenal I see a fractured skull in their immediate future. :)
    - quickthrower2 6y ago
      Caveat is I’m talking about the Tim Ferris claim! Yes it’s definitely a once only trick.
      - buran77 6y ago
yesenadam 6y ago
> an actual record of him winning that "Chinese Kickboxing National Championships 1999" There appears to be some footage of it in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoVqXgblyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoVqXgblyw
- buran77 6y ago
  I may have edited too late. He does seem to be an actual fighter and at least for a while under Dave Camarillo, but still very far from being a world champion. Given that he makes a living selling such tricks I think that is a compilation of random training sessions and championship fights intertwined with shots of his face and nothing more. From what I gather from a short internet search he changed his story repeatedly depending on what sold more. He's either an experienced fighter with multiple world championship wins, or an average guy using his own tricks to win. But his name is not associated with any official leaderboard or championship win as far as I can tell. As someone who has consistently excelled at amateur martial arts I can guarantee there's no way a world champion gets beaten by some guy pushing him off the lei tai repeatedly even after the same technique was used in every round and with all other opponents. I could knock out almost any "non-trained" person with a single well placed punch or kick, and if they weren't well placed they would still do some temporarily debilitating damage. Yet whenever I had friendly fights with well trained pros, including ones with good results in international championships but no gold medals, I have no words to describe how inadequate and unprepared I felt. All I'm saying is that the story is not what it seems. Whether he is an actual pro worthy of a gold medal, or some incredible fluke made him fight severely unprepared opponents I don't know. But he certainly didn't win anything because he tricked the weigh-in (that's standard procedure), or because he pushed opponents off the lei tai round after round, opponent after opponent and none of those world class fighters had any recourse. This is how a fight would look like [0]. You win that by going to a lower weight class and "pushing" only if you are perfectly able to take the hits anyway and are already good. Tricks will get you from silver to gold, not from peanut butter. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsTOVCqduY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsTOVCqduY
louwrentius 6y ago
Tim Ferris really became rich and famous by peddling bullshit pills (I call it fraudulent) and then writing an 'empty' book about it.
SuoDuanDao 6y ago
According to him, he didn't just kickbox with a 30 pound weight advantage, he also won entirely by forcing ring-outs. He essentially treated the competitions like a sumo match, something other competitors didn't typically try for or practice defending against all that much.

aspenmayer 6y ago

Thai kickboxing and BJJ isn’t a joke. Neither is physics and bone density increases through training, same with muscle fiber density and reaction time. I can go on. Training matters.

quickthrower2 6y ago
I've watched a Thai kickboxing match in Bangkok, and what amazed me, and I didn't expect is that the first few minutes are like dancing, no touching, then it slowly accelerates over say 30 minutes or something to a full out thing. If you can bend the rules in those first 5 minutes, even a sedate developer might stand a chance!
- aspenmayer 6y ago
  A dance is a pretty good metaphor for full contact sparring with a ref. Any other kind of fight, just don’t. Just get out of there. It’s not worth fighting over for long, if ever. The most OP fighting move is refusing to fight, opting not to strategically, and only fighting when absolutely necessary, like legally or morally necessary. Be like water. Support life and only crash when it’s time to rock and roll.
  - quickthrower2 6y ago
    Yep definitely don’t fight if you can avoid it. This is why I am very forgiving when driving. Keep a distance from idiots, drive as safe as possible, don’t honk people etc. This way the fight is avoided. Not about being a wimp, but most fights aren’t worth it. And there are other ways to fight than literally. I have not been in a proper fight. Closest thing was at high school but nothing much happened. Other than that I’ve been coaxed into fighting in drunken places maybe 3 times but didn’t take the bait. It’s unlucky if you are in a situation where you are forced to fight. All of these times walking away is an option.
- buran77 6y ago
  That's like saying that after you start an engine it's idling for a while and consuming very little, if you could just get you your destination while it's still idling you could save so much fuel. You opponent will not wait for you to bend the rules a few times before they react unless the first bend knocks them out. Pushing people off the fighting surface might work once, maybe twice. If that's the only weapon in a fighter's arsenal I see a fractured skull in their immediate future. :)
  - quickthrower2 6y ago
    Caveat is I’m talking about the Tim Ferris claim! Yes it’s definitely a once only trick.
    - buran77 6y ago

yesenadam 6y ago

> an actual record of him winning that "Chinese Kickboxing National Championships 1999" There appears to be some footage of it in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoVqXgblyw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoVqXgblyw

buran77 6y ago
I may have edited too late. He does seem to be an actual fighter and at least for a while under Dave Camarillo, but still very far from being a world champion. Given that he makes a living selling such tricks I think that is a compilation of random training sessions and championship fights intertwined with shots of his face and nothing more. From what I gather from a short internet search he changed his story repeatedly depending on what sold more. He's either an experienced fighter with multiple world championship wins, or an average guy using his own tricks to win. But his name is not associated with any official leaderboard or championship win as far as I can tell. As someone who has consistently excelled at amateur martial arts I can guarantee there's no way a world champion gets beaten by some guy pushing him off the lei tai repeatedly even after the same technique was used in every round and with all other opponents. I could knock out almost any "non-trained" person with a single well placed punch or kick, and if they weren't well placed they would still do some temporarily debilitating damage. Yet whenever I had friendly fights with well trained pros, including ones with good results in international championships but no gold medals, I have no words to describe how inadequate and unprepared I felt. All I'm saying is that the story is not what it seems. Whether he is an actual pro worthy of a gold medal, or some incredible fluke made him fight severely unprepared opponents I don't know. But he certainly didn't win anything because he tricked the weigh-in (that's standard procedure), or because he pushed opponents off the lei tai round after round, opponent after opponent and none of those world class fighters had any recourse. This is how a fight would look like [0]. You win that by going to a lower weight class and "pushing" only if you are perfectly able to take the hits anyway and are already good. Tricks will get you from silver to gold, not from peanut butter. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsTOVCqduY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsTOVCqduY

louwrentius 6y ago

Tim Ferris really became rich and famous by peddling bullshit pills (I call it fraudulent) and then writing an 'empty' book about it.

SuoDuanDao 6y ago

According to him, he didn't just kickbox with a 30 pound weight advantage, he also won entirely by forcing ring-outs. He essentially treated the competitions like a sumo match, something other competitors didn't typically try for or practice defending against all that much.