Totally Dublin talks to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) pro Chris ‘The Killing’ Fields as he prepares to headline Cage Contender VIII.
Chris ‘The Killing’ Fields is on a winning streak: he’s bested his last four opponents, and holds the Cage Contender Middleweight Title. However, when he defends his belt at the National Basketball Arena on March 12 – the event will be the Mixed Martial Arts company’s second Dublin show, and is on course to sell over 3,000 tickets – he’ll still have butterflies in his stomach. Anyone who claims there are no anxieties going into a fight, he says, “is like a guy getting a tattoo saying it doesn’t hurt. Everyone’s nervous,” he insists. “You’re going into a cage, and both guys just want to hurt each other.”
It’s a rare admission from Fields of the brute simplicity that has made Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. Initially despised as “human cockfighting” (by boxing fan John McCain), MMA has exploded in the last decade: today, bouts staged by the UFC (the sport’s largest company) draw more pay-per-view buys than Wrestlemania and many major boxing fights. The UFC, along with other mainstream promotions, has sought to cast off the barbarous image it once used as a marketing tool.
The process hasn’t been seamless. Fields, who began training in kickboxing before he turned ten, is visibly uncomfortable with the stereotypes people have about the sport. “When I started, whenever I said the words ‘MMA’, no one knew what I was talking about. To this day, if people ask me what I do and I say ‘MMA’, people look at me weird. I have to say the disgusting thing that I hate, and call it ‘cage fighting’.” He’s also keen to dispel any notion that the typical MMA fighter is a dysfunctional psychopath – or Alex Reid. “We’re not from under-privileged areas and all that kind of stuff. All of us have decent family backgrounds,” he says, looking around the Dublin 12 gym where he trains.
Leaving aside his fighting moniker – referencing massacres committed by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime is somewhat tasteless – Fields himself is the ideal of a well-adjusted, marketable sportsman. At 6’4, he looks like any athletic 27-year-old – not someone who beats people up for a living. He has a degree in auctioneering, and worked as an account manager in a bank before becoming a full-time fighter and trainer. Making a living in MMA, he says, is tough going. “Luckily enough, I’ve a good support network, a great girlfriend and family, so people aren’t hassling me to do things I can’t afford. They all appreciate what I’m doing, and what I’m trying to do,” he says. His mother didn’t like it when he went into the sport – she still only watches fights on youtube after he’s won – but his girlfriend, a solicitor, is very supportive. “We’re a strange couple,” he says.
Fields is also convincing when he explains how the hybrid of fighting styles makes MMA a more cerebral sport than people think. “I love other combat sports, like boxing and kick-boxing. But with MMA, you’ve got to be able to do that at a high level. Then you have to be able to switch it up into judo and wrestling really quickly, and then switch it to jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling. There’s a lot to it and, if you’re not an intelligent guy you’ll generally make a mistake that gets you caught,” he says, explaining how preparing a game-plan ahead of a fight involves a careful weighting of his strengths against his opponent’s. “It’s like chess. Obviously, you get more bruises.”
Even though he’s lost three of his nine pro fights, however, Fields says he’s “never taken a beating” – his three losses came through a disqualification, a single strike that caught him off guard, and a silly mistake that allowed an opponent to catch him in a choke hold. “I’ve never come back home beat up and controlled for the entire fight,” says Fields, and he doesn’t intend to on March 12 – after all, he’s expecting 250 friends and family members to show up, with many seeing him in action for the first time. Even if he takes his first beating, however, Fields insists that he’ll continue to pursue a career in MMA, and talks excitedly about facing top stars around the world. “The way I see it, you’re going to lose in your sport. You know? I’d hate to think I’d walk away from the sport just because it didn’t go my way one night.”
Words: Derek Owens
