Congenital amputee to compete in MMA fight

Hephaestus

Kyle Maynard has won dozens of high school wrestling matches, competed in seven jiujitsu tournaments and bench pressed nearly 400 pounds, all despite being born with no elbows or knees, hands or feet. On Saturday, the congenital amputee is venturing into a new athletic arena -- mixed martial arts. He is hoping to silence critics who wonder if can defend himself against the kicks, knees and punches of a full-bodied opponent.

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Video of Kyle Maynard competing @ NAGA competition

seanybiker

jesus he is after achieving alot with his condition.
I cant see him been to good at this though sadly. Not been horrible or anything but his arms wont be able to protect his face as a full bodied person could. I also think , not trying to horrible either but some of his components might feel bad about kicking or hitting someone with this problem. Hopefully he suprises me and does brilliant for himself. Wish him the best of luck in the future.

ginoginelli

That dudes amazing.

Fozzy

I was meaning to post about this. I think that there was some uncertainty earlier in the week if the fight would actually go ahead. It's being held in Alabama, which has no athletic commission

I first saw footage of him wrestling a long time ago. Crazy stuff to watch

Something in his favour is that because he doesn't have the weight of any limbs, the rest of him is a lot thicker and stronger than his opponents'

I'm just trying to think about strategies for fighting him. Going out and just trying to kick him in the head would be risky because he spends a lot of time with his arms on the ground. You could aim for his body, but even then his head will be the most obvious target and hard to avoid

You could instead try to punch his head, but getting down that low will put you off balance, allowing him an opportunity to get you onto the ground

The only submissions that you can pull off on him are chokes, and even then it'll be a 135lber trying a choke on a guy with the neck of a 205lber. It can be pulled off, but would be a bit more difficult obviously, especially when you can't get your hooks in and secure him that well

But I guess the only way that he can win is by decision. Another lay 'n' pray wrestler :pac:

Fromvert

He is constantly seen as a downed opponent so no knees or kicks to the head. Its an amateur fight so elbows are illegal. Fair play to him but I can only see this ending badly.

Valmont

When I read the title, I thought, ok, maybe a leg or arm missing, then I thought this was the most horrible joke ever, but... Fair Play to the guy. Regardless of how it ends, you have to admire the courage it would take to do all he's done.

Sub wrestling definitely suits his disability but I can't see the MMA thing working out.

DM_7

Well done to him, he is highlighting capabilities rather than disabilities.

You can't get him in an arm or leg lock anyway.

The worries for me are is somone leading him down this road to make money out of him and could it led to him being hurt?

Fozzy

DM-ICE wrote: »

The worries for me are is somone leading him down this road to make money out of him and could it led to him being hurt?

I think that he could earn more money as a motivational speaker than as a fighter. I think that it's just something that he really wants to do

He shouldn't get any more hurt than any other fighter. If anything he may get less hurt from something like ground and pound, as I'd say that the ref would be quicker in wanting to stop it

Hephaestus

Congenital Amputee Kyle Maynard Loses Decision in Amateur MMA Debut

cowzerp

ginoginelli wrote: »

That dudes amazing.

Agreed,he truly is.

Valmont wrote: »

Regardless of how it ends, you have to admire the courage it would take to do all he's done.

He's a brave man no doubt.

DM-ICE wrote: »

Well done to him, he is highlighting capabilities rather than disabilities.

Its great that his abilities are been highlighted and he must be commended for that..

Fozzy wrote: »

I think that he could earn more money as a motivational speaker than as a fighter.

True and someone like him would inspire many people, disabled and able bodied people.. he certainly would inspire me..


Now with that all been said, i dont think it should be allowed as he does not have the important tools needed for most aspects of MMA and is at unmecessary risk, i admire his attitude but would not want to fight him and dont understand how anyone can get in with him to fight..

arybvtcw0eolkf

cowzerp wrote: »

Now with that all been said, i dont think it should be allowed as he does not have the important tools needed for most aspects of MMA and is at unmecessary risk, i admire his attitude but would not want to fight him and dont understand how anyone can get in with him to fight..

+1

And sorry if this is offensive to anyone, but this also smacks of a freak show.

There is not a snowballs chance in hell would I fight this lad either.

Wow!

Kudos that man!

I wonder how good he'd become with today's advances in prosthetic technology....



Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon enter the age of comic-book heros.

rovert

Ive kind of followed this guys progress in Amateur Wrestling after the original AP story about him. He is an amazing athlete able bodied or not. Given his success in overcoming his disability it is kind of hard tell him you cant you something but in this case you have to here IMO.

Chris89

ridiculous,

Ive seen some of this guys wrestling matches, hes much bigger than the guys hes fighting, because he hasnt got legs and arms to add to his weight. He seems good enough, and he is sit as hell, crossfitter.

But, an mma match cant be won by pin. hes not going to tap you, hes not going to punch, kick, elbow or knee you. All he has is an illegal headbutt.

I'd fight him today, he hasnt a snowballs chance in hell.

Found a few minutes of video from the fight. It's pretty much what you'd expect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkvwgL0GiWI

dunkamania

Drunkmonkey, one week ban for fighter abuse

There is legitimate concerns over whether its safe for Kyle or simlarly disabled athletes to compete in an MMA match, but it is unnecessary to be abusive towards them.

For what its worth, his opponent took the fight for the below reason. From mmanews

Fry -- whose mother cares for mentally and physically handicapped patients and whose son suffers from sickle cell anemia -- claimed he accepted the fight with Maynard in good faith to help the Georgian show others afflicted with disability that dreams are reachable.

“It was important for me to come down here,” said Fry, who won for the first time in three amateur appearances. “If my son sees this guy get in the ring, it lets him know.”

calex71

If thats what the guy wanted to do so be it i guess who am i to judge.

Opponent did look to be taking it easy i guess too.

I would liken this to an able bodied runner racing him, would never happen reason being its not fair.

Sport, no matter what sport it is, is only a sport if the playing field is as level as possible, in terms of physical size etc .after that its a case of the best man wins.

cowzerp

I watched the fight and it saddened me, in a weird way he's a motivation but doing a sport that you have no chance of winning in is pointless, plus it looks bad on the rest of MMA when people see this and think that there taking advantage of his disabilitys, i have a special needs child and love the fact that people with special needs can do mainstream things but this is a step too far and as i said this was hard to watch for me.

Nothingcompares

MMA league rules would have been "fairer" as Kyle didn't seem to be able to make an effective boxing guard although you'd have to clarify the grounded opponent rule otherwise there would be no striking. Also, league rules would almost force a grappling element so it would suit Kyle more. Also as small a cage as possible.

Obviously no one would want to fight Kyle Maynard in a MMA bout but if he was in my gym i'd have no problem rolling with him the exact same way I do against anyone else. I've seen him choke people out on youtube with a head and arm choke so he does have at least one potential submission.

This was only a little bit harder for me to watch than the Kalib /Quarry fight.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Thanks for posting the clip, but honestly I couldn't watch it with a clear conscience.

For the first few moments I honestly felt like a voyeur, I knew I wasn't watching it knowing that I'd see a great fight or even a half decent at best.

Dunno, I was very uncomfortable viewing the little bit I could bare.

Jason Mc

Look fair play to the guy, he sure has courage.

But I'm not sure how he really could have won. He has no real way of blocking punches or kicks and if the opponent keeps moving how is he going to shoot effectively on them

Campbell M

I cant see how this is anything other than bad for the sport.

I hope they end it here.

RealJohn

While I approve of the idea of showing disabled people that they can acheive lofty goals, I think this fight was a very bad idea for all concerned.

MMA is getting to the point where it is being accepted as a legitimate sport and shaking off the "human cock-fighting" tag but this sort of thing will only give MMA's critics more ammunition.

There's a reason Maynard can't get a licence from any of the athletic commissions: he's not able to defend himself. He can't safely compete in MMA and so, he shouldn't be allowed to.

I'd also like to say that while you can consider him brave, you could also consider him stupid. I don't mean this to be abusive but going into an MMA match knowing you can't defend punches other than by doing your best to avoid them by your very limited body movement is stupid, not brave if you ask me.

I'm sure he will inspire disabled people to strive to acheive what they might have thought was impossible and if that happens, great. If he gets another MMA match though, it will be bad for all involved if you ask me.