Features

10 Most Educated MMA Fighters

by Matt Goddard · 0 comments

Image Source

Professional MMA fighters compete in one of the world’s most dangerous combat sports. MMA stands for mixed martial arts, although the sport is also known as extreme combat and no-holds-barred fighting.

It’s a sport that has achieved increased popularity in recent years thanks to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) franchise and reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. Competitors come from a variety of disciplines; for example, Rhadi Ferguson competed at the 2004 Olympics in judo, and Sam Hoger started a Brazilian jiu-jitsu club at his university.

But despite the fact that they compete in a dangerous sport where knockouts are common, there are MMA fighters who have done more than just study martial arts. Some famous names have completed undergraduate, postgraduate and even PhD degrees in subjects that may astound you. Read on for 10 surprisingly well-educated MMA fighters.

10. Shane Carwin

Image Source

You might not expect many MMA fighters to have a degree, but the man they call “The Engineer” has two. Shane Carwin (on the left in the image above) earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Technology at Western State College. Not a bad record for a man with an equally impressive sporting résumé.

While he was at college, Carwin was twice the heavyweight NCAA Division II Wrestling National Runner-Up. And in 1999, he became the NCAA II National Wrestling Champion. Playing for Western State, Carwin’s football skills were also noted, and he was picked for the Senior Bowl. But it was in MMA that he made the biggest impression.

Carwin won his first eight fights by first-round stoppages and fought his way up to become Ring of Fire heavyweight champion prior to joining the UFC. Amazingly, while progressing in the UFC, Carwin has continued to work as an engineer.

9. Takeya Mizugaki

Image Source

Takeya Mizugaki is a bantamweight mixed martial artist from Japan. Since he began his MMA career in the US in 2009, he’s had a mixed bag of wins and losses but has received praise for his ability as a fighter – particularly as the first opponent to push former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres to five rounds.

In 2005, Mizugaki began his fighting journey in his native country. MMA started becoming popular while he was still in school, and he wanted to give it a go. He started appearing in Shooto and Cage Force fights before graduating from college. And when Mizugaki completed his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Kanto Gakuin University, he continued with his MMA career.

Added to his current record of 16 wins from 25 fights, Mizugaki has won the Cage Force bantamweight championship once and received World Extreme Cagefighting Fight of the Night honors twice.

8. Jeff Monson

Image Source

Jeff Monson stands out from the crowd. He’s nicknamed “The Snowman” because opponents have said he’s white, compact, and seems to get stronger and larger the more he competes – much like a rolling snowball. Monson has won a number of heavyweight championships since his 1997 MMA debut.

But if he’d not found such success in MMA, his life could have been very different. He has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Psychology and previously worked as a mental health professional in crisis evaluation and child and family counseling. Eventually, however, he devoted himself fully to mixed martial arts.

Despite his considerable career, Monson has also gained notoriety out of the ring. A self-proclaimed anarchist, he pleaded guilty to malicious mischief in 2009, after being arrested for painting the pillars of the Washington State Capitol building with anarchist and anti-war graffiti.

7. Rich Franklin

Image Source

Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin began his MMA career at the age of 25. Nicknamed “Ace” due to his likeness to Jim Carrey (as Ace Ventura), Franklin has alternated between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, achieving notable success in both. Franklin successfully defended his middleweight title twice and has also been given one Knockout of the Night and two Fight of the Night awards. In addition, he is a former International Fighting Championship (IFC) champion.

Still, had Franklin not seen a flyer for a local fight some years ago, things might have been a little different. Before embarking on his MMA career, he attended the University of Cincinnati, achieving a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and then a master’s degree in Education. After graduating, he taught math at Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati. And in 2006, the mayor of Cincinnati made February 21 “Rich Franklin Day” in his honor.

6. Terry Martin

Image Source

Terry Martin started his MMA career in 2002, and since then he has amassed a number of notable wins against big-name fighters like Chael Sonnen, Ivan Salaverry and Jorge Rivera. His great success is, moreover, particularly impressive when considering how different his life could have been.

Hailing from the west side of Chicago, Illinois, Martin found himself embroiled in gang culture from a young age. In 1996, when he was 15 years old, the future MMA fighter was almost killed after he was shot in his back, legs and chest in a drive-by shooting. His survival prompted him to focus on education rather than gang culture.

Martin went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s in Clinical Psychology. What’s more, he is at present studying for a doctorate at the Adler School of Psychology. Having turned his life around, Martin now uses his MMA fame as a way to talk to kids in inner-city areas and urge them to stay in school – just as he did.
 

5. Sam Hoger

Image Source

Known as the “Alaskan Assassin,” Sam Hoger rose to prominence as a contestant in the first series of The Ultimate Fighter, the successful FX Network/UFC-backed reality show that has aired since 2005. His tactics on the show, sometimes described as “Machiavellian,” won him few friends in the ring. But despite his lack of popularity, his performance was good enough for him to sign with the UFC.

Before competing on the show, Hoger graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s in Political Science. And while studying at LSU, he founded the university’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu club. Hoger went on to St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa to study for a master’s in Business Administration. And in 2009, he launched an MMA training center in Houston, Texas.

4. Nick Denis

Image Source

Nicknamed “The Ninja of Love,” Nick Denis is a retired Canadian fighter and an ex-King of the Cage Canada bantamweight champion. He was also a semi-finalist in the Sengoku featherweight tournament and notched up a Knockout of the Night win in his debut UFC fight. Denis’ recent (November 2012) retirement at the age of 29 surprised many, but it had a lot to do with his academic background: he received a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa.

After his first defeat in MMA, a knockout loss to Marlon Sandro in May 2009, Denis started researching the effects of concussion. He said at the time, “As a graduate student at the University of Ottawa, I had access to all peer reviewed scientific journals. No surprise to find that concussions equal bad.”

It was the effects of sub-concussive trauma that concerned him most. Denis found that years of continual head trauma from sparring and fighting could have a devastating cumulative effect on a fighter’s brain. What’s more, he decided to retire when he noticed the warning signs in himself.

3. Rosi Sexton

Image Source

British mixed martial artist Rosi Sexton has enjoyed more than 10 successful years as an MMA fighter, and she currently holds a record of 13 wins from 15 fights. At present, she’s ranked as the third best 125-pound female fighter in the Unified Women’s MMA Rankings.

Yet while she’s dedicated to martial arts, Sexton’s academic record is formidable as well. She attended the prestigious Trinity College in Cambridge, where she completed a degree in Mathematics in 1998. And in 2003 she received a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science from the University of Manchester.

Sexton continued to mix MMA training and learning, and in 2010 she earned a degree in Osteopathy from Oxford Brookes University. Currently, she’s a practicing osteopath in Manchester, England.

2. Rhadi Ferguson

Image Source

Rhadi Ferguson got into MMA late and made his pro debut in 2010 at the age of 35. Even so, he has notched up three wins (including two knockouts) so far. Ferguson’s sporting prowess prior to MMA was never in doubt. He has been US national judo champion four times and competed as a heavyweight at the 2004 Athens Olympics. And Ferguson isn’t the only MMA fighter in his family, either; his cousin is UFC legend and infamous street brawler Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson.

In addition to his achievements in judo, Ferguson has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a sport he took up because he “just wanted to continue to learn.”

And furthermore, prior to his MMA career, Ferguson balanced his judo expertise with a strong academic record. He went to Howard University in Washington, DC on a football scholarship, graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 2002, he earned a master’s degree in Teaching from the same institution. And in 2009, he was awarded a PhD in Education from Capella University.

1. Seth Kleinbeck

Image Source

With a nickname like “Mass Destruction,” you might think there’s not much else to be said about fighter Seth Kleinbeck. Yet in fact, he’s one of the most educated fighters in MMA – a fact backed up by his other nickname: “Doctor.” Hailing from Arkansas, Kleinbeck didn’t pay much attention to education in his youth, opting to join the Marines rather than go to college. But after his medical discharge for flat feet, he began to reconsider higher education.

Kleinbeck worked in construction to pay his way through Delta State University and swapped to pre-med at the suggestion of a teacher who noticed his excellent results. Next, he gained a place at the University of Arkansas’ College of Medicine. And in his final year there, he took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu at his local gym and found that he excelled at the martial art.

So why does the qualified doctor continue his MMA career? Well, it’s clear that Kleinbeck has room for both passions in his life. And while he enjoys growing his medical practice, he has said of MMA, “I enjoy the competition, the preparation. It gives me something to train for.” At least he’ll be able to attend to his own cuts and bruises!

10 Successful Entrepreneurs Who Have Masters Degrees

by David · 0 comments

Making your own way in the world can be a daunting thought. But it is not impossible. Achieving what seems like an impossible goal can make a world of difference to someone’s confidence and the way they take on life. Take a look at this list of people who not only achieved the goal of getting a Master’s degree, but also helped change the world after overcoming this challenge. Here you will see that a variety of people were able to overcome their situations and make a difference for the better in not only their life, but the lives of others around them.

1. Prasad Thammineni
Prasad Thammineni is an entrepreneur from Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating at BITS in Pilani, India with degrees in both Mathematics and Computer Science, he came to America to study at Princeton. He then dropped out and started his own business ventures, one of them being a technology service called jPeople. Thammineni received his MBA in 2007 at the Wharton School of Business. His current company, called OfficeDrop, is his most recent business venture since completing his classes and receiving an MBA. OfficeDrop is a new company that helps small businesses with an affordable document management system. This company was founded in 2007 with its headquarters located in Cambridge along with its founder. Officedrop uses a Cloud technology system so that customers can amplify productivity by sharing, uploading, and saving documents almost instantly. He not only developed programs for the computer that allow users to instantly ‘drop’ the files to the ‘cabinet’, but also apps for devices like the iPhone and Android.
In Thammineni’s spare time he blogs about funding and growing startups. He is a frequent presenter at business conferences as well as business schools such as Harvard and Wharton. He also likes to ride his bike and walk his dog when he is not working at his computer. He currently resides in Boston along with his wife.

2. Seth Goldman
Seth Goldman, originally from Massachusetts, was an entrepreneur from the start. As a young boy, he started with the usual lemonade stands in the summer and paper routes. As he got older, however, he went on to create a non-profit urban service program. In 1987 he graduated Harvard, following that up with an MBA from the Yale School of Management in 1995. Using the tools he gained with his degrees, he co-founded a company called Honest Tea in 1998.
Honest Tea is a company based in Bethesda, Maryland. Goldman and his friend Barry Nalebuff were the founders of this bottled organic tea company. This brand offers sweetened as well as unsweetened versions of their flavors of bottled teas. In 2008 the Coca-Cola Company purchased a 40% stake of the company for $43 million dollars. By 2011 Coca-Cola had purchased the rest of the company. Goldman now serves on boards such as Pennsylvania Certified Organic and Bethesda Green. He works with and contributes to The Mission-Driven Business blog on Inc.com in his free time. Goldman currently resides in Maryland with his wife and three boys.

3. Chuck Slaughter
Chuck Slaughter first started with his company called TravelSmith. This business took off and grew to over 2 million customers. In 2004 Slaughter sold TravelSmith and then turned his attention to building more philanthropic enterprises in both private and social areas. Slaughter traveled to Kenya and while there, he established his idea for Living Goods. Living Goods would be the next endeavor that Slaughter would venture into. Living Goods is a sort of Avon-esque business where networks of female entrepreneurs can earn money by selling life-saving products door-to-door. The products that are sold are affordable for the poor, so that the poor may have access to these things that they would not be able to acquire otherwise. During his work with Living Goods, Slaughter also is a speaker at many venues such as the Global Philanthropy Forum, World Affairs Council, Yale, and Harvard. He has received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, as well as receiving the honor of being a Draper Richards Fellow.
Slaughter earned his B.A. and his Master’s in Public and Private Management from Yale. He is currently settled in California with his wife and three sons.

4. Trish Karter
Trish Karter, the daughter of Peter Karter, who was a pioneer in the modern materials recycling industry, earned her MBA at the Yale School of Management after attending Wheaton College. Karter is a very interesting figure in the baking and entrepreneurial worlds and was the founder and CEO of the Dancing Deer Baking Company. The Dancing Deer Baking Company is a Boston-based producer of high-end, natural baked goods which eventually scaled up to nationwide distribution. In the mid 90’s, Karter became an angel investor for Dancing Deer, eventually taking the helm as its CEO in 1998. A stalwart of social responsibility, she relocated the offices of Dancing Deer to the Roxbury area of Boston, an area then known for its gang violence. While this and other decisions by her were seen as risky, they eventually paid off. By 2004 the company had grown to a business of approximately 6 million in sales. Dancing Deer has come to be known for its natural, preservative-free products, its commitment to employing individuals from deprived backgrounds and giving them equity in the company, and the trademark whimsical designs on their packaging. Karter stepped down from managing the company in 2010 to pursue personal interests. She lives in Milton, Massachusetts with her two children and enjoys artistry in her spare time.

5. Edward Miner “Ned” Lamont, Jr.
Edward Miner “Ned” Lamont, Jr. was born on January 3, 1954 in Washington, D.C. Lamont was born into old money thanks to his great-grandfather Thomas W. Lamont, a partner of the banking firm J. P. Morgan & Co., and grew up in New York. He received his Master’s in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management in 1980 after earning his A.B. from Harvard in 1976. In 1984, Lamont founded Lamont Digital Systems. This company was a builder and operator of telecommunications networks, mainly for college campuses and gated communities. It plans and builds advanced applications and maintenance services as well.In 2006 Lamont began his political career as an anti-war candidate, contrasting his political opponent at the time, Joe Lieberman. Unfortunately for Lamont, he lost that election to Mr. Lieberman. In 2010, Lamont started another political campaign. This time it was a campaign to become Governor of Connecticut. Once more, Lamont was defeated, only this time it was by the Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy.
Lamont and his wife Ann have three children, and they reside in Washington, D.C. Lamont spends his days as a faculty member of Central Connecticut State University.

6. Linda Mason
Linda Mason is someone whom most would say has a heart of gold. After spending the late-seventies in France studying the language and literature at the Sorbonne, as well as classical piano at the Rachmaninoff Conservatory, she returned to America and attained her B.A. from Cornell University and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.
A large part of Mason’s career has gone into creating and evolving the Bright Horizons Family Solutions company. In 1986, she and Roger Brown co-founded this company together, operating it as a public company until the spring of 2008 when it was moved to private. Bright Horizons Family Solutions is a company that provides worksite child care and early education. They operate more than 650 high quality centers around the globe. Mason has had the honor of holding high leadership positions on the boards of several important non-profit organizations, her most important one perhaps being a Chair of her company, Bright Horizons Family Solutions. Mason is married to Roger Brown and they have three children. All of her children are graduates of the early education centers that her company has helped build and support through the years.

7. Anne Margaret Glover
Anne Margaret Glover was born on February 6, 1954. She holds a dual citizenship with America and the UK, and speaks three languages; English, French, and German. She is the CEO and co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, which was founded originally in 1997. This company is a venture capital firm that invests in companies in Europe that specialize in high-technology and sciences. Throughout her career, she has had many great accomplishments. Early on in her career, she held a good number of management positions for many companies. An example of some of her great accomplishments includes receiving a CBE in 2006 at the Queen’s Birthday Honors list for “services to business”. She also holds a seat in the Technology Strategy Board of the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry. In 2008 she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Glover attended the Yale School of Management and attained her Master’s degree. She also attended the Clare College of Cambridge and received a Master’s in metallurgy and materials science.

8. Ellis B. Jones
Ellis B. Jones was born in 1954. He attended the Yale School of Management and attained his MBA in 1979. He attained his B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.Jones has invested more than twenty years in private equity and investment banking. He is also responsible for overseeing not only industry groups at major investment banking companies, but product groups as well. During the years of 1988 to 1994, Jones was the Head of the Hotel and Gaming Group at Salomon Brothers. Before that run, he was a Managing Director of the high end banking company, Los Angles Investment Banking. Jones has held many seats with boards such as Odwalla Inc., Phoenix House, True Advantage, and All Clad Holdings, Inc. He is currently serving on the boards of directors at Harry & David, Encompass Digital Median, and Access Scientific.

9. Eric Higgs
Eric Higgs is the CEO and president of the company known as LumaStream. He brings 20 years of experience with high-technology, a B.S. in Computer Science, and an MBA from Stanford University to the table of his innovative new company.
Higgs jump started his career at KPMG Peat Marwick as a consultant on information technology. He then moved on to become the Chief Operating Officer at Cerego, LLC, a company that produced a fundamentally new technology paradigm for adaptive learning.For almost a decade, Higgs pursued a fine art career. If you pay close attention you can find his work in museums and private collections around the globe.

10. Danae Ringelmann
Danae Ringelmann attended the Haas School of Business at Berkeley and attained her MBA. She also graduated with a B.A. in Humanaties from UNC-Chapel Hill. Before she helped found IndieGoGo, Ringelmann was a securities analyst at Cowen & Co. where she worked with companies such as Pixar and Lionsgate. She also worked with J. P. Morgan’s Investment Bank and focused on cable networks, the NFL, and newspapers.
In 2008, she co-founded the company called IndieGoGo, along with Eric Schell. This company is a crowd-funding platform that allows someone to raise money to kick-start their idea, whether it be a game or a book, or a charity or a business start-up. This amazing company allows a person to not only get their idea off the ground, but also lets the keep their idea without the fear of the company using it for their own personal gain.
IndieGoGo has helped thousands of projects and their founders raise money across the globe in 114 countries.

These stories are inspiring and show just how much you can accomplish if you keep focused on your goals. These wonderful people worked hard and kept innovating themselves. All it takes to change the world for the better is one amazing idea and the strength to push it forward and to make it happen. What will you do to change the world when you have the strength to push hard enough?

Midlife Crisis & Worst College Degrees

by David · 0 comments

Some highlights from this infographic/research project
True or False: Average American Changes Careers 7 Times in a
Lifetime ?

TRUE

I. When Job Satisfaction isn’t what it should be

A. Overall Job Satisfaction in the U.S.

1. 71 percent of workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from
their work.

B. Why people aren’t satified

Top four reasons for job dissatisfaction:
Underpaid = 47% of women, 44% of men
Lack of growth opportunities = 36% of women, 32% of men
No career advancement opportunities = 33% of women, 34% of men
Feeling trapped = 29% of women, 32% of men

C. Top Burnout Careers:
45.8% physicians reported experiencing at least one symptom of serious burnout, such
as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a low sense of personal
accomplishment.

II. What are you gonna do about it?

A. Stick With It:
How long do people stick with their jobs?

1 out of 2 respondents are satisfied in their current jobs. However, nearly 3
out of 4 respondents have no plans to leave their current companies.

The typical American worker’s tenure with his or her current employer was 3.8 years in 1996, 3.5 years in 2000 and 4.1 years in 2008.

B. Change Careers
Reasons for Career Changes:
1. Downsizing or restructuring (54%)
2. Sought new challenges or opportunities (30%)
3. Due to ineffective leadership (25%)
4. Poor relationship with manager (22%)
5. To improve work/life balance (21%)
6. Contributions were not valued (21%)
7. Better compensation and benefits (18%)
8. Better alignment of personal and organizational values (17%)
9. Personal strengths and capabilities weren’t a good fit (16%)
10. Company was financially unstable (13%)
11. Company or job relocated (12%)

3. Embrace your midlife crisis:
14.6 million jobs projected to be created by 2018
If you’re seeking a fresh start 3 million jobs added to the healthcare industry expected between 2010 and 2020. 600,000 computer jobs expected to be created between 2010 and 2020.

If you’re ready to save the world 6.9 million jobs expected in the social sector, including in education, health care, nonprofits, and the government by 2018.

If you’re over 50 a growing portion of Americans 50 and older are still in the workforce, but at
this stage of your career you may be ready to switch into a job with shorter hours, less stress, or more social purpose, even if it means backing off your peak pay.

If you’re a working parent one recent survey found that 53% of U.S. companies offer flextime; nearly half allow for telecommuting, at least on occasion.

Nationally, the number of workers responding that they worked exclusively at home increased by 1.8 percentage points (4.8 percent to 6.6 percent) from 1997 to 2010.
Workers who reported that they worked at least one day per week at home increased from 7.0 percent in 1997 to 9.5 percent in 2010.

Just under half of those who work at home were also self-employed,
while a quarter were from management, business, and finance occupations.

3. Get an upgrade –
How to Make the Most of Your Crappy Major – When Grad School is the
answer.

Did you know that 200,000 students age 50-64 and about 8,200 students age 65 and over were enrolled in graduate study in 2009?

FACT.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/03/04/employee-job-satisfaction-is-low-motivation-to-leave-is-lower/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704206804575468162805877990.html

http://moneyland.time.com/2008/05/28/top_reasons_why_we_change_jobs/#ixzz29O3m4Svj

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/09/03/prl20903.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/11/11/your-emotionally-disconnected-employees/

http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.update1.pdf

National Center for Education Statistics

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-132.pdf

Embed This Image On Your Site (copy code below):