"I started a non-profit MMA Youth Foundation. What it is, it provides scholarships and more for kids who don't have the money to train. When I was young, I had a lot of aggression, as I'm sure a lot of young men do, and I needed somewhere to direct it and martial arts gave me that. It gave me somewhere to direct it. It saved me. Sports were always there for me. Athletics is the thing that kept me on a straightened arrow and it kept me motivated and it kept my grades up because I knew I had to keep it together to do the things that I wanted to do. I just want to do something similar to that, being in the position that I am in and having the friends that I have. And that's what we're doing. King Mo helps me out a lot and I've got tons of other guys involved in it. We have tons of different schools involved. Travis Lutter's school is involved, up here in Fort Worth, Guy Mezger's Lion's Den, and I've talked to Greg Jackson about doing stuff with his gym and he's all about helping people out. Octagon MMA here in Dallas is doing some stuff, so we're just looking to grow it man. We've received some real positive feedback and we're just looking to move forward," stated Sayif Saud, founder of the MMA Youth Foundation, as he talked about their mission and their upcoming plans for 2011. Check it out!
PC: How is everything going Sayif?
SS: Everything is going real well. How about yourself?
PC: I can't complain man. Thanks for asking. Can you give our readers a little background as to where you come from and what it is that you're doing?
SS: I started training martial arts when I was 3 years old. I started off in Shorin Karate and Judo. I won a couple of state titles in Judo and some national titles in Karate, and then I kind of drifted off and did some other sports and accomplished some other things. Then I came back to my roots and was approached to train in MMA by some people. I was actually in law school at the time, but I've always been an athlete and that's what really fulfills me, so I said, "Alright." I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2006 and trained with Greg Jackson for 3 years; Greg Jackson, Mike Van Arsdale was my wrestling coach, Mike Winkeljohn was my striking coach, and Chris Luttrell. I worked with some of the best coaches in the world and trained with some of the best fighters. I was actively fighting, I was undefeated at 3-0, and then I had some injuries. I tore my bicep twice, my knee, and on and on and on. You've heard it before. I ended up where I couldn't fight for awhile, so I moved to Dallas and ended up coaching at Octagon MMA and it just kind of fell in place; I've been rocking and rolling ever since. I got about 25 fighters in all different organizations; Strikeforce, some UFC guys, but mostly local people. I brought in Rashad Evans, I brought in Mike Van Arsdale and Greg Jackson. I brought in all of the people that helped me, like Mo Lawal, one of my dear friends. They all came down and helped my guys out.
With that, and being in the position that I've been blessed to be in, I decided to kind of give back, so I started a non-profit MMA Youth Foundation. What it is, the MMA Youth Foundation provides scholarships and more for kids who don't have the money to train. When I was young, I had a lot of aggression, as I'm sure a lot of young men do, and I needed somewhere to direct it and martial arts gave me that. It gave me somewhere to direct it. It saved me. Sports were always there for me. Athletics is the thing that kept me on a straightened arrow and it kept me motivated and it kept my grades up because I knew I had to keep it together to do the things that I wanted to do. I just want to do something similar to that, being in the position that I am in and having the friends that I have. And that's what we're doing. King Mo helps me out a lot and I've got tons of other guys involved in it. We have tons of different schools involved. Travis Lutter's school is involved, up here in Fort Worth, Guy Mezger's Lion's Den, and I've talked to Greg Jackson about doing stuff with his gym and he's all about helping people out. Octagon MMA here in Dallas is doing some stuff, so we're just looking to grow it man. We've received some real positive feedback and we're just looking to move forward.
PC: With the world trying to eliminate bullying in schools, how important is it for you to conduct a project like this? What you're doing can benefit both parties because the bully can learn discipline and channel his or her aggression as well as teach the person being bullied self defense?
SS: Yeah, that's a great question and a great point that you bring up. We've seen the Columbine deal and all of these things that have happened because of bullying and alienation. These guys have all of this aggression and anger and MMA is a great outlet. When you fight every day and that's what you do, you go to practice every day and you train every day, then you don't want to fight outside of the gym. You don't feel like you need to prove yourself or that you need to show that you are the man. You know that you possess the skill set and the confidence to do what you need to do if you have to, so with that comes a piece of mind and a stability and maturity. That's why I think that's a great point that you bring up. Also, for bullies, it does work both ways because a bully wouldn't feel like they have to prove themselves over and over again if they can find something that they can excel at. Maybe they are good at fighting. Well, this gives them an outlet to excel in a safe environment; in an environment where their accomplishments can be noticed. It's just a great way for young men and women to train and get some discipline with guidance. Having all of these great people involved with MMA Youth Foundation is great for them to be able to sit down and talk to King Mo, the former Strikeforce champion of the world, and see that maybe one day they can accomplish something like that.
PC: That's a good point because most fighters that I speak with have never ever had a fight outside of the cage or ring once they became a fighter. Channeling it into a positive or possible career is what a lot of these kids need for sure.
SS: No, you're right. I confess, I got into a lot of fights as a young man and I had a lot of aggression. Someone would look at me and I would punch them in the face. That aggressiveness changes when you grow into a young man or adult, but still, fighters are fighters for a reason. It comes from somewhere within. Somewhere within, they are fighters. Once you start training as a fighter, I think I'm the man and then I go into Jackson's and get my butt whipped. Then guess what? I'm going to leave humbled, but it will make me want to come back that next day that much better. But everybody gets beat up in fighting. It may not happen in a fight. I've never lost a fight, but that didn't mean I didn't get beat up fighting. In the gym, when I try to roll around with Rashad or one of them guys, they are all over me. So what it does is it humbles you. It humbles you and it teaches you and makes you that much better. When you go into your own fight, you're that much better as a fighter. It's that journey that teaches you how to be a better man; it teaches you how to be a better person and it teaches you the discipline that it takes to achieve goals. I think that whole process, in all sports, you go through that process, but fighting is such an individual sport. There is just so much emotion, it's really something that you can pull a lot from. All of the guys that I know that fight, I always tell people, the toughest guys in the world, if they go to a bar and someone bumps into them, they won't even look at them. They won't even care because they got that confidence.
PC: Any time you're dealing with kids from a troubled background or that have an aggressive nature, it can be tough because you're mixing so many personalities. Is this a check-your-ego-at-the-door policy that you run?
SS: It is. I started this program about 6 months back before we had the website. Me and Mo had gotten together and helped out a young man who was in a bad situation and tried to bring him along. It entailed quite a bit of things financially, psychologically, mentoring him and helping him. Using him as an example, he had this attitude like, "Man I'm this, I can do this and I can do that." I said, "You don't need to prove yourself here. You're just here to learn. This isn't the streets." That's the first thing that I tell these kids, man. This isn't the streets. This is a learning environment; these are your teammates and people who will help you as much as you help them. And there is a bond there. There is a respect there. Some of these kids come from a real rough background and they are so used to trying to fend for themselves to survive, that those are their instincts. They don't even know anything else. It's amazing because this young man now loves his teammates and he texts me all of the time, "Thank you coach. I love practice and my teammates." A lot of these people come from homes that are broken, one parent or no parent, and there are no siblings to support them. They are just looking for that fellowship, man, and I think that is another great thing that MMA Foundation is trying to do.
PC: Being a part of a mentoring program myself, I have the utmost respect for what you are doing. Anything that we can do here at FightHype to get the word out about anything you have planned, let me know. What do you guys have in store for 2011 and where can they find more info on the program?
SS: They can go to the website at www.mmayf.org. We got news, links, sponsors, and everything on there. My man Eric built the website for me and he does really great work and I appreciate that. We've actually reached out to two of the local charter schools here that work with troubled youth, Dallas Can Academy and Kipp School of Knowledge, and what we're going to do is go to the Dallas Can Academy in the next 2 weeks and we're going to pick a student. We've got some criteria and stuff, but we're going to pick a student for a scholarship and that student is going to be able to train at any one of our MMA Youth Foundation Network Schools in the area. So we're giving away a scholarship to start the year off and hopefully that program builds and kids aspire to try to get those scholarships. That can be something that those kids look forward to, you know? I want it to be like, "Hey man, this is something that I want to do." Then we will go to Kipp with some pro athletes on February 19th or 20th. I have to check the date, but we're going to do a seminar. All of these guys are volunteering their time to work with these kids. We're going to take a select group of about 10 to 15 kids that we understand are excelling and really doing well and we're going to spend an hour or two with them working on self defense and working on some martial arts stuff, just as a reward for what they've been doing and what they've been accomplishing in their school work. So those are some of the things we have going on early in 2011. We're going to be busy this year. A lot of these guys are champions and guys that are fighting for belts and guys that are really busy, so it's really great that they take time out of their day and their lives to make sure that they give back to help out the community, man. It's a good thing to be a part of and I'm happy to help out, and if anybody wants to contact us, they can through the website and sponsorship is all included on that page. Any questions they have, they can just shoot over my way. I appreciate your time brother.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]