The dividing lines between ‘jock’ and ‘geek’ are blurring with every Marvel release, with every popular video game, with every fantasy television series, and with every celebrity who comes out as having ‘geeky’ qualities. While you may view professional MMA fighters, whether they fight in Bellator or the UFC, as jocks, you’ll be surprised to learn that a few of your favorite fighters are actually, well, geeks. And one of the biggest geeks of them all is Ronda Rousey.
You’ll see what I mean.
7. Benson Henderson Loves Comic Books
Benson Henderson is a former UFC Lightweight Champion who has a passion for something that many MMA fans would probably ridicule him for in the past: he loves comic books. But he doesn’t just read and collect them casually, he is an absolute comic book fanatic. He shops at his favourite comic book store so often that he has a box in the shop that the owners just place different comics into that Henderson either requests, or ones they think he will enjoy. He picks his box up every few weeks, typically on a Wednesday.
He first fell in love with comic books in the fourth or fifth grade. This love for comic books developed over a summer vacation when, because his family didn’t have much money, he had nothing to do with his free time. He eventually started going to the library, where he found comic books. He was hooked instantly.
Benson prefers the Marvel Universe as his comic book world of choice, so there’s no doubt that he’s probably ecstatic to see his favorite childhood comic book heroes hit the big screen in recent years.
In an Ultimate Insider segment, Benson admits that he is a massive fan of alter egos. Though he enjoys Superman, he loves Clark Kent, specifically because Superman’s values come entirely from Clark Kent.
When asked which comic book hero he thought he would be, Benson said Shatterstar from the comic book series, X-Force.
6. Joe Lauzon Used To Be A Computer Technician
Before becoming a professional fighter, Joe Lauzon did, well, pretty much the opposite. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and began working as a network administrator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before he decided to quit his job and train in mixed martial arts full-time.
But don’t get it twisted — Joe Lauzon, while he may have a small build, was always a bit of a roughneck. He used to live on a small farm and loved bull riding. He took an interest in professional wrestling at an early age, recreating some famous moves with his friends for fun.
Lauzon trained in martial arts in his junior year of highschool, and later went on to compete as a contestant on Ultimate Fighter 5. Since then, he has won “Knockout of the Night”, “Fight of the Year (2012)”, and is a six time winner of the UFC honour for “Fight of the Night.”
5. George St Pierre Is Really Into Paleontology
Unlike most other professional athletes, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre said that he doesn’t watch sports in his free time. He prefers to spend it reading books, or visiting museums to learn more about dinosaurs and similar areas of study. According to George, his passion is palaeontology, which is why he doesn’t have many fighter friends. He says his friends are nerds, just like him.
It was recently revealed that Georges St-Pierre is having yet another dream of his come true. The History Channel in Canada aired two half-hour specials called “The Boneyard, with Georges St-Pierre” in April, 2016.
The two episodes aired back to back and focused on his travels to Patagonia, Argentina, to “hunt for the largest creatures to ever walk the earth,” South Dakota, to find a “top secret triceratops burial ground” and Alabama, to “come face-to-face with a living dinosaur.”
It’s really not the career path that anyone could have predicted for Georges St-Pierre, and one he probably didn’t see for himself. In 2010, he was quoted as saying “I’m married to my work right now. But you never know. One day I could wake up and just do something different. Life is so unpredictable.”
Yes it is, Georges. Yes it is.
4. Rosi Sexton Has A PhD In Computer Science
Rosi Sexton (which is her real name, believe it or not) is a woman of many talents. Though her professional fighting career was short lived and she didn’t break into the UFC in the way that she had hoped, she had numerous things to fall back on.
For starters, she graduated from both the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester. She has a PhD in theoretical computer science and earned a degree in Osteopathy (an area of study that focuses on how joints, bones, muscles, nerves, and internal organs function as one entity.)
She also has a strong background in mathematics, earning a Masters degree in mathematical logic back in 2000. She is particularly interested in logic, combinatorics, and number theory. One of her math tutors of the years was Sir Tim Gowers, who is an unbelievably talented academic in his field. They literally knighted the dude because he was so smart.
3. Quinton Rampage Jackson Loves Twitch
Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson loves to entertain. Whether it’s in the ring, promoting his next fight, appearing on the The Ultimate Fighter as a coach, or, most recently, streaming on Twitch. It’s hard to believe that the man who broke a door on television out of anger is a gamer, but nonetheless he is, and he loves it.
Some of his favorite games to stream include Star Wars Battlefront, Grand Theft Auto, and of course, the UFC fighting game. He has, more than once, streamed playing himself in the UFC game, fighting opponents that he has and hasn’t fought yet.
Rampage Jackson has also used to his Twitch account to bring up old feuds he has with former members of his fight camp. One instances, is when Rampage went on a rant, after someone asked how he felt about Michael Bisping joining a different fan camp. In addition, Rampage Jackson has drunk dialed MMA journalists at 3 a.m. because his fans asked him to, and calls other UFC fighters that are his friends just to shoot the shit on stream.
Check out his Twitch stream HERE!
2. Forrest Griffin is a NYT Best Selling Author
Forrest Griffin was the first winner of the reality show, Ultimate Fighter, after which he was awarded a contract to fight in the UFC. He would later go on to win the UFC championship, making him just 1 of 4 people to win Ultimate Fighter and then go on to win the UFC championship.
Griffin later went on to write a book published in 2009, titled Got Fight? The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat which gave information on how to defend yourself against a series of attacks. These attacks included hand to hand combat, how to defend yourself against a dog, and even a sword attack.
The book debuted at number eight on the New York Times’ Hardcover Advice Best Seller List. He wrote another book the following year, Be Ready When The Shit Goes Down: A Survival Guide to the Apocalypse which also received positive reviews.
1. Ronda Rousey Moderated A Pokemon Forum
Former UFC Champion Ronda Rousey has admitted on numerous occasions that she likes a lot of things that many would consider, well, geeky. Not only has Rousey said that she is a massive fan of Dragon Ball Z, even saying she had a childhood crush on Vegeta, but she was a massive Pokemon fan. She was such a Pokemon fan, that she was actually a moderator on a Pokemon forum.
Under the screen name “Mew182” Rousey contributed quite regularly to the Pokemon Stadium 2 forum on gametalk.com, something she tweeted about back in January of 2012. And, well, because the Internet is full of people searching for hidden gems — someone found her old profile. It is hilarious while at the same time really uncomfortable to read, now knowing her as someone who gets paid to fight. Here’s a small taste of her bio:
I’m 12 feet tall, purple, a few scales, and every hour or so a chicken falls out of my ear, you get used to it after a while, its like the hiccups. Having all those chickens get to be kindof a pain though…
She also talks about how she is currently the champion of her age bracket, and that if you don’t believe her you can just look it up yourself. Sassy. But here’s my personal favourite:
What would you do if my face fell off and I didn’t notice?
As well as:
If your green, chances are you could be purple.
But finally, this motivational phrase that was her Philosophy of Life at the time:
If you screw up, don’t freak out over it, just think, two years from now, it will have no impact on your life whatsoever. If whatever you did will have an impact on you two years from now, you REALLY screwed up, so you deserve to feel bad.
Her profile says that she was 16, which makes me a bit glad that at 16, I never became the moderator of a Pokemon forum. It also makes you wonder what embarrassing quotes, bios, and profiles you’ve let around the web.
[Sources]