Is there a reason, Stephen Lopez, Gold Medal USA tae kwon do champion, won't fight in MMA or boxing?

Question

I wondered about that. I read an article which said he still lived at home. It said his brother has an apartment. Now, given that this guy has a gold medal and hasn't lost a match in 6 years, you'd think he'd be banking. I mean, even his brother only has an apartment.

The dude is 29 and supposed to be a great fighter. If TKD isn't paying the bills as I suspect it isn't, why not do MMA, boxing or kickboxing? Is it because all the really good fighters do that instead of waste their time with TKD? I imagine the purses and endorsements are WAY better in MMA and all those professional fighting leagues.

Answer 1

there are quite a few people the do in tkd and are in mma but not that many because tkd only involves stand up and most people are to arrogant to study grappling/ground fighting. a lot kick boxers integrate tkd into there fighting styles.

Answer 2

That's really his personal decision. He just decides not to participate in MMA. You need to respect that.

Answer 3

There could be.  Perhaps he comes from a close knit family or maybe there is a challenged sibling at home that he assists taking care of or maybe one of his parents is sick.  I can off hand think of a half dozen good reasons why someone might live at home.  As for money you have to also remember that he has an amateur status to maintain and by fighting in another art or type of fighting that would be jeopardized.  He also has a gold medal so obviously TKD and fighting has some importance to him over other things.  You don't compete and win a gold medal at that level without some skill, hard work, and dedication.  I imagine he could redirect that to some other type of martial art or fighting if he wanted to but doesn't.  Once this is all over just watch the martial arts companies like Century, Asian World, Tiger Claw or some of the others line up a big endorsement contract with him.  As for purses, none of them are offering the purses and money that boxing still does so its not all that great.  Getting ten or twenty thousand dollars for a fight that you spend six or eight weeks training for along with all the training prior to that when a fighter is first starting out and not making anything is really not much money when you think about it.

Answer 4

its a real hard question. tdk is a traditional sport and in the olympics like judo there are set rules. the lopez family are the best in tdk in the usa. in all competions there are rules and how they apply to an athlete. rulest limit people that master a competive martial art. but thats what makes him special. he is the best in the world right now in tdk. in mma and boxing no one can truly say that.

plus tdk does not transfer well to mma because of how it matches up to other martial arts. but forrest griffin started in tdk

Answer 5

For one, he is still an Olympian, and competing next month in Beijing.  

I think you might be surprised at his endorsements.  No he isnt making a ton of money, but he can be found on Coke products and Minute Maid, he appeared on Jay Leno with his two brothers and sister.  He appeared on Access Hollywood and the family has an AT&T commercial.  Older brother Gene Lopez is now US coach, younger sister Diane Lopez and younger brother Mark Lopez are also on the US team and will be 1st time Olympians next month.  

The Lopez family runs a TKD school in Texas that the whole family is involved in.  

I don't think Steven is pressing for money and I don't think he has the ambition to try MMA.  I seriously doubt he has had any serious ground fighting or submission training other than the self defense aspect, not the cage aspect.  He would have to dedicate a serious amount of time to get ready (taking away time from Olympic preparation) to fight in a cage.

Also, I doubt Dana White (UFC) or Gary Shaw (Elite XC) or Tom Atencio (Affliction) are offering him huge contracts.  He could certainly get to the big shows faster than no name guys, but he would still have to earn his way up.

I think a more likely scenario would be seeing Lopez in Chuck Norris's World Combat League, but not for a couple of years, and only if he wants it.  

Here is a link to a nice article from 2004 in USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/...

On a side note, you don't see too many American Olympic Judoka's going for MMA either.  Just because you might see MMA as the ultimate combat sport, TKD and Judo athletes might like their sports just the way they are.

James

Answer 6

There is after all more to life than money. Perhaps he wants to compete in the Olympics again. Perhaps he wants to pursue another carrier other than getting his brains bashed and risking brain damage. Perhaps living at home provides him the tome and resources to continue to train for TKD. Perhaps the smart fighters have higher ambitions than MMA etc.etc.etc.

Answer 7

I never read anything about him so I'm just guessing. Perhaps he is staying with something that is close to his heart that he loves to do. Money is important, but not everything you do in life is about money. If he is doing what is making him happy and he is at the top of his game then what is wrong with that. If he were to go into some other type of fighting event and didn't love it like he loves Taekwondo then I don't think he would be as good at it, because he would just be going through the motions. Not every person that is good in their martial art will become fighters. Now you have  a lot of guys coming up that are into MMA classes. Just like you'd go to a boxing gym to learn the sport they do this for MMA. I'm happy for Stephen Lopez that his family supports what he does and gives him the chance to be the best. I'm sure there are MMA guys that live at home, because I don't think that they start out getting big paydays and I know not everyone will make it to that level.

Answer 8

There is really more to life than money.  Most people train in the martial arts for fun and exercise, not money or self defense.  Now for Steven to fight in MMA he would probably need to cross train for a while in BJJ, Judo, and/or wrestling.  Just as ground fighters need to cross train in kick boxing of some kind.  As for TKD, no martial art is perfect, but I sure wouldn't hit on Steven's girl friend if I bumped into him in a bar.