It seems a long time ago when MMA (mixed martial arts) was fought in cages freely and not really supervised, out of sight. A sort of remake of Fight club where everything was done to shock people, in a dark room filled with David and Goliath handing out chestnuts.
The first major MMA event, the UFC, took place in 1993 in Colorado, an idea from kickboxing promoter Art Davie and John Milius, director of the film. Conan the Barbarian. Media exposure has since played its role and the discipline, if it still smells of sweat, no longer really smells of prohibition.
This mixture of boxing, wrestling and ground combat is even becoming more popular and has more and more followers since its authorization in France in 2020, just like grappling, a variation of wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a cocktail of judo and MMA. Popular in the suburbs, cities and today city centers, their practice however remains marginal. So much so that those who dream of themselves as modern-day gladiators still struggle to find qualified coaches and rooms in which to compete.
Judo, a “thankless” sport
At 40 years old, Florian Pourhadi, 70 kg, 3rd dan black belt in judo, black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has tried almost everything in combat sports and other martial arts. His transversal outlook has led him to be able to teach a little bit of everything, almost everywhere, from sports training to the physical preparation of athletes such as the boxers Souleimane Mohammedi and Arsen Goulamirian, or even the dancers of La Horde du ballet. National of Marseille.
This child from Vaucluse, born in Avignon, grew up in Entraigues in a wealthy and loving family. He has a little brother and blue-green eyes. At the age of 6, fascinated by combat sports, he one day asked his father to accompany him to the village karate club. It’s a failure. “I didn’t like it, the coach wasn’t a very nice guy“, he remembers.
So, little Florian asks to go see another small, unpretentious club, located just a stone’s throw away. Judo this time. US Entraigues judo still exists and has since trained renowned judokas, such as Priscilla Leze, who we found at the Paralympic Games this summer, or Marie Orsini.
