there is a major difference between MMA and self-defense. Not knowing that difference could cost you your life!
Civilians Beware!!!!
The ad on the right is directly from a Facebook advertising campaign. The premise of the ad is that they can make the average citizen some kind of Fighting Machine in a SINGLE WEEKEND!
While that is a RIDICULOUS CLAIM, that's not the worst part of this ad and many others like it. Pay special attention to the parts I have highlighted in yellow.
Special Forces, Operator, Combat Zones, SpecOps ..... and HUNDREDS OF REAL STREET FIGHTS.
First let's deal with the first four. The terms Special Forces and Operator are terms that identify the teacher as a Military Warrior. Let me say here and now, I respect his service to our country and thank him for that service. It is what he is doing now that I find problematic.
Methods designed for a COMBAT ZONE do not prepare a civilian (The target audience of these ads) for self defense in a society of rules and laws. The terms Special Forces, Operator and SpecOps are terms designed to conjure a mental picture of becoming a Rambo type character. Just the kind of false bravado that will get the civilian locked up in a world of laws, police and courts ... you know, the things NOT found in a COMBAT ZONE.
And .... HUNDREDS of REAL STREET FIGHTS??? Can this guy get along with anybody? Seriously! Here we have a SPECIAL FORCES OPERATOR running around getting in HUNDREDS OF STREET FIGHTS? Someone please put this guy in handcuffs, a padded room or at least for the safety of the public, get him enrolled in an ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASS!
One question here ... How is it that a person could have truly been in "Hundreds" of street fights and not have an arrest record a mile long? I will leave the reader to ponder this question. As for me ... the referee in my head has already thrown the BullShit Flag!
As to the second ad referenced here: PROGRAMMING you into a LETHAL WEAPON that REACTS INSTANTLY ... That may be OK in a COMBAT ZONE, but on the streets of the United States and other countries, that kind of "PROGRAMMING" could land you in Jail for Life, or on Death-Row.
The above outlined issues are a real problem with so-called self-defense courses. Most won't work, are sold with a lot of "Action Movie" mental imagery and bravado, and are not only very irresponsible, they are absolutely not suitable for helping people develop skills that will work in a violent encounter along with knowledge of where the line is that separates Self-Defense from becoming a Violent Felony.
Tony Massengill
3/14/26
Below is a REAL AD from FACEBOOK!
