The legend of Alabama Joe – part 1: Would it be possible to become a better fighter just by knowing the theory of what you ought to do in a fight without ever actually practicing? That's a question I have always found interesting. I got an answer years ago while working as a bouncer during my early years in NYC. Working around the city in was often teamed with interesting characters with many different approaches, theories and styles of combat. Some of them (especially wrestlers, BJJ and Judo players and boxers) were very effective – others not so much. At one time I was briefly paired with a fellow who we called “Alabama Joe” He was man of average build, not in particularly good shape whose main joys were drinking, smoking cigarettes and fighting. We worked a door together for just four nights in the lower east side mid 1990's but I never forgot the experience for a good reason. As we worked, Joe talked incessantly about his prowess in brawling and how he would whip any man who was foolish enough to step up to the plate with him. I was rather skeptical as I've always believed fighting prowess to be mostly determined by ones training regimen and Joe's training regimen appeared to be based around nothing more than Bourbon and Marlboro's. He proudly told me he had never trained a day in his life but that he was a huge fan of the early ufc's which he would watch incessantly. I was intrigued by this as I had begun training with Renzo Gracie And was similarly fascinated. He told me that when he fought he just did what he saw Royce do – run forwards and tackle people, climb up to mount, hit them and wait for them to turn and then strangle them. Later that night we threw some fellows out of the bar after a dispute and outside one of them was unimpressed by the appearance of Alabama Joe and demanded a fight. This fellow was a powerful looking man and I had to do some work to get him outside with a body lock and some light wrestling – I was not at all confident that Joe would be able to handle him. They immediately went to fisticuffs and true to his word, Joe tackled him, got mounted and punched him enough to make him turn and strangled him out!
