THE SPORT OF mixed martial arts (MMA) is as real as it gets.
It is on the rise, and one person rising with it is a celebrated martial arts instructor by the name of Phil Nurse. Nurse has coached some of the biggest names in MMA such as Jon Jones and George Saint Pierre. He is an expert in Muay Thai, a martial art originating in Thailand, achieving the title of Ajarn, the highest in Muay Thai, and he is a Barbadian.
This month it was announced that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was to be sold for $4 billion. This is the largest sporting acquisition in history. It is expected to help accelerate the already phenomenal rise of the company and the growth of the young but already very popular sport of mixed martial arts.
The UFC is the reigning heavyweight champion of MMA promotional organisations. Since its first event in 1993 the UFC has grown to do better annual pay-per-view numbers than its counterparts, boxing or professional wrestling.
Nurse has seen his reputation as a trainer grow along with the UFC. 2016 will be a big year for him. His home and training facility are in New York City, where, for the first time ever, an MMA event will be allowed. It was banned there in the 1990s for being too brutal. As the sport evolved and became better regulated and safer, several states lifted restrictions. New York is one of the last and possibly the most important.
The UFC is about to take a bite out of the Big Apple and Barbados is invited to the feast in the person of Ajarn Phil Nurse.
MMA allows techniques from several fighting styles. Muay Thai is one of the most popular martial arts striking styles to be adapted for MMA. Striking refers to blows delivered with the fists, elbow, knees, shins and feet. Ajarn Phil is a sought after striking coach. He is an undefeated European light welterweight champion, double British champion, and British all styles super light welterweight champion.
He was born in England to Barbadian parents. Yet, this New York resident with a British passport can speak with an authentic, even if old-fashioned, Bajan accent. The 53-year-old martial artist speaks as though he grew up in pre-Independence Barbados. The first time he visited the island was when he was ten years old. His parents were concerned about how their English son would receive their homeland. As Nurse remembers it, this was the Barbados of standpipes, outhouses, oil lamps and bucket bathing. His parents did not have to worry. Young Phil loved it.
He nostalgically remembers the first time he met his grandmother. She was walking barefoot across a canefield with sugar cane on her head. Nurse is not a Barbadian by birth, he is a Barbadian by spirit. He returned several times as a youngster and credits his Barbadian upbringing for his success. From his father and mother he received a Barbadian sense of structure and standards. Experiencing old Barbados gave him an appreciation for his heritage.
The first time he went to Thailand to train with the best in his sport, it was a shock for some of the other Europeans who were there with him. The training conditions were Third World. The fighters slept in one room, on the floor and in some cases shared shoes. Quite the test for the average Westerner, but very familiar for the European Muay Thai champion who helped to build his toughness and appreciation for hardship on trips home.
Nurse wants to pass on the lessons of his Barbadian parents to his own children. He brings them here in order for them to connect to their roots. Not only them. He also has a few fighters of Barbadian heritage whom he brings to compete in Muay Thai tournaments in Barbados. There is the New York native, teenaged Cody Mahon, who in addition to winning his fight also won by coming to Barbados for the first time, falling in love with the island and connecting with family he had never met. Ajarn Nurse says before coming here Cody had little interest in Barbados.
It is stories like these that really cause the fighting expert’s face to light up. He sees what he does as more than teaching people how to fight. He willingly accepts the title of role model and father figure to his younger students especially. Despite his fighting accolades, he revels in the role of coach, describing his greatest talent as teaching. He considers himself as one of those rare persons who can teach as well as do at a very high level.
After decades at the top of the European Muay Thai world, Nurse now finds himself a kind of celebrity in the new arena of MMA. His wife says he is like a kid with a new toy. MMA is very different from Muay Thai, and in coaching MMA fighters, Nurse has to be creative and make adaptations.
This is probably a key to his success. As participants in a relatively new sport, MMA athletes and coaches are still in the experimental stages of learning best training practices. Because his Muay Thai style has always been innovative and non-traditional, Nurse is on the cutting edge of what is set to be one of the biggest innovations in sport in the 21st century.
Unlike in well-developed sports like basketball, football and boxing, MMA practitioners are still figuring it out. The Caribbean may not be as far behind in MMA training as it is in other disciplines and one of the leading pioneers is from bout hey. Not only that, he has a yearning to use his skills and influence in the world of Muay Thai and MMA to contribute to Barbados. Coming here this week to train, he takes a financial hit, but he takes it for the love of his country.
Adrian Green is a creative communications specialist. Email: [email protected]
