Tarec Saffiedine spend the better half of the final 25 minutes of Strikeforce’s history reducing former champion Nate Marquardt’s leg into nothing more than a kick stand. Per usual, the fighters embraced and congratulated each other after the tilt, and that was the last fans saw of the due.
Recently in an interview, President of Alchemist MMA Lex McMahon told a story about an interaction between the two fighters that happened off-camera reminding the MMA community sportsmanship is alive and well in mixed martial arts.
McMahon relayed to BJPenn.com:
“Nate had to receive medical attention in the dressing room and he was laying down on the floor keeping his leg elevated because he couldn’t walk. I was outside communicating with the Strikeforce PR team trying to figure out the logistics of getting Nate to the press conference because he honestly couldn’t walk.”
“As I was outside talking to the PR people, Tarec came up to me and said ‘hey Lex, can I talk to Nate?’ I poked my head in and told Nate that Tarec would like to talk to him and Nate told me to bring him in. Tarec now obviously has the belt, he’s got it on his shoulder but he’s such a classy athlete and a person that he didn’t walk into Nate’s dressing room with the belt. He put the belt down just outside of Nate’s door out of his eyesight, he walked in, bowed down, grabbed Nate’s hand and said some very complimentary things and called Nate a great champion. I just thought that personified who Tarec Saffiedine is as a person and what’s best about mixed martial arts. Hats off to Tarec Saffiedine, he’s a great fighter and he earned that belt.”
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Tarec is THE man. I have a cool story too.. i was once fortunate enough to be in one of his muay thai classes, and once.. one of the other pro fighters jumped into our class… which made it more awesome… and while practicing head kicks, this particular pro fighter went a bit hard and break the beginner’s nose. Tarec stopped the class immediately and later i over heard him confronting the pro fighter about why that had to happen. it was like Rambo or Bruce Lee in their primes… and this was REAL. he’s an incredibly humble person… yet very strong. he rolls with all the other belts in jiu jitsu and helps take everything to another level for everyone. it’s an honor that i have had the chance to interact with him.
I once trained at TeamQuest as simply a 30+ guy wanting to train and Tarec was one of the Ultimate Fitness and Muay Thai coaches, and this level of sportsmanship was obvious many years ago. He was always so nice and respectful to every person that walked into the Gym, and once I remember a 15-16 year old student that came to class with a black eye, and Tarec asked him what happened. The teen being proud of his black eye, told Tarec he got into a fight with a kid at school and the other kid got the short-end of the stick in the fight. Tarec, only 23 at the time told the teen “no matter what skill in martial arts he has, the most important skill is his mind”…Tarec continued and said “few situations warrant using force, and he could have easily walked away from the fight”. Tarec went on to teach the class, but he pushed that kid pretty darn hard that night…. I have always found him to be a consummate professional inside and out of the ring. Even when he lost to Yoon Dong-Sik at Dream 12 and Seichi Ikemoto at Dream 10 (both fights he clearly won, but the judges in Japan gave it to the other fighter), when I told him that at the gym, he said “he lost the fight, and it is his job to prove it with a finish or beyond a reasonable doubt if a decision”….he is a great guy and I look forward to further watching his career in the UFC.
TS sportsman of the year award
that is such an awesome story