Boy, these Toughman competitions are getting banned all over the place. Too many people are getting killed in the ring.
My oldest nephew won one, but he said he'd never do it again.
For those of you unfamiliar with the competition, participants are ineligible for Toughman if they have won five amateur bouts in the past five years. They pay a $50 entry fee, sign a waiver releasing promoters from liability and have their heart rate, blood pressure and breath tests checked by a doctor. They can't have been drinking. Then they beat the crap out of each other. Winners of the two-day competition receive embroidered trophy jackets proclaiming them "Toughman Champion".
From an article in the Fort Myers News Press:
The mental health expert speaks:
This prize doesn't seem like an awful lot to risk getting your brain
bludgeoned, said Ann Duffala, a Fort Myers psychologist and licensed mental
health counselor.
"I don't know why you'd put yourself in that position," she said. "It doesn't
seem like this is too smart."
Duffala said there could be a variety of factors influencing why someone would
want to participate in a Toughman competition.
"They could be impulsive people. They could be angry people or have a somewhat
inflated ego," Duffala said. "It could be just a chance to be in the spotlight."
My nephew speaks:
"Jumpin'" Jesse C., a 27-year-old welder from North Fort Myers, couldn't
explain why he entered the Toughman.
"I just do crazy stuff all the time," he said.
No stranger to getting into the occasional bar fight, C. said he isn't
concerned about winning or losing. "Every fight you're in, you lose some because
you're hurting for days after."
C. doesn't have different strategies for different fighters.
"I just go for the head," he said.
Posted by floridacracker at February 17, 2004 09:36 PM