A spent force?

[ReD_mIst]

I blame Widge. It's as if the apes have left Gibraltar or the ravens left the Tower of London. Get Widge back and the glory days will return

lol, next you will be hoping for the return of Wallace, Rammy, Mike Tomlinson (who can bring my fuckin boots back), etc!

[perfect virus]

what a shame. i'm fortunate now that i can train close to home and manage 6 sessions on a good week. i'll always be grateful to the colosseum and aaron for helping me start off

[ReD_mIst]

I'm glad you have settled in, the Next Gen guys are all great guys..... We've known Tanny for a long time and I remember him coming to the Colosseum years ago!

[Tez]

I doubt it will matter, our guy, an ex-Mister Wigan champion bodybuilder, is unlikely to be fighting under that name, it's a gym name... his other is Goldfish

Goldfish? That's novel! Well our Prodigy needs to focus on keeping to the speed limit and not writing cars off lol! He's had more crashes in the few months in the few months he's had his licence than I have in the past god knows how many years! Yours sounds a lot bigger than David too!

At the moment I'm very tired, fed up and sick to death of martial arts (all of them) people who don't train, turn up or even help out.

[Tez]

John you aren't a dabbler you are a true martial artist, it might be a term somewhat devalued by the arguments between MMA and TMA but it's still a fine thing to be!

[dirty dick]

Even now I train more than them; and even when I was training twice a week and doing fitness stuff nearly every day (instead of just running twice a week) I considered myself a dabbler.....not that fighting was ever on my agenda anyway

I think that you have encapsulated my point John. In my opinion Rushton is in his twilight now, Matt is on the cusp of his potential and has only got there due to his commitment & the commitment of others. Now life has moved on for the old main stay of the colosseum (widge, tommo, ryan & dale, westwell, wallace, aaron.) Their priorities in life have changed and as a result the demise of the colosseum.

Essentially i was a little frustrated with the forming of the northern cartel (even though i had jacked in before it's formulation) i agreed with the club sharing policy but questioned what other clubs were bringing to the table. With Quannum at the time it was decent level boxers (the butlins) and their facilities. But now i ask what are the colosseum bringing to the table? 1 fighter and some decent experience with aaron, that is it. I think each club should fight solo (i have always felt this) I also feel that the ethos of the northern cartel should remain in place, but not the name.

[ReD_mIst]

interesting that you mention the Ethos of the Northern Cartel. As far as I can remember the only people who really adopted that Ethos were Matt and I, who both made regular effort to train at Quannum and Colosseum and are now making the effort to train at other clubs, such as Predators MMA.

Also interesting that you mention my name in the list of people who have moved in in life, cause I'm still there and still training. Fair enough, I'm hardly fight shape, but I am 37 and have no intention of fighting again. I will continue to dedicate my training and support to the guys who put the effort in, such as Matt.

The Colosseum has still got solid experience and knowledge from Danny and it would be great to see some of the old faces return and some commited new blood training, but whilst waiting for that I have to dedicate my efforts in helping Matt evolve in the sport.

[dirty dick]

Well if yourself and Matt were the only two to adopt the ethos (i support what you are saying btw), i ask was it really a "cartel"?

I think aaron you have earned the right to have "moved on", or do you feel you are putting the same amount of energy into mma as you used to do?

I also think that unless Matt trains away from the colosseum for the bulk of his training i dont think he will progress too far (i realise i havent seen a session for a year) But to progress you need 5/6 people of similar ability or ones that are willing to put in as much effort as he does & from what i understand the colosseum doesnt provide that.

This isn't a thread for me to have a pop at the colosseum btw, it is more of reflective and constructive thinking. Also good to see a thread go a few pages down here

[ReD_mIst]

I can't answer the question about the Cartel, I never quite understood why the Colosseum guys didn't embrace it and want to train at a gym with a cage, ring, etc.

As the energy I put into training, that isn't the same, but neither are my objectives. I am stil more commited to the sport than most of the guys who say they want to fight, which is crazy.

As mentioned before Matt and I do train at other places, Matt more so than me. It's just a shame that his 'home' doesn't appear to want/be able give him what he requires. Great shame

[ScrapperMan]

for fucks sake grow up