Quite often lately, we MMA fans are seeing more professional MMA fighters going on record saying they would never take a fight against a teammate. We, the fans, understand and respect that choice. Most of us would likely never consider it ourselves.

Yet, the nature of the sport is there are few large promotions, only one title in each weight class, few weight classes and only so many top gyms to train fighters. At some point teammate paths are going to cross and fighters are going to face the prospect of fighting each other.

Now, not taking that fight against teammates makes absolute sense from the perspective of the average person. To the average person fighting seems to be about anger, violence and malice, therefore, when we think pro fighter, we associate what we know and apply that logic.

To a fighter, though, fighting is generally about sport, competition and physicality rather than anger, violence or malice. Those three motivations may have led a fighter to choose fighting, but rarely do they translate into a career. Fighting, to a fighter, becomes a form of expression like the art of any artist.

The training alone is enough to dissuade those who don't truly love the sport and just want to beat people up. The majority of fighters I know have that rare ability to compartmentalize what they do from their daily lives. Most fighters are down to earth. They aren't found bullying people outside a gym and are generally some of the nicest folks people will meet.

Let's face it: not everyone is a fighter. Not everyone can be. Not all fighters are professionals. However, when a fighter turns pro and begins the long road to title fights in the biggest promotions, that fighter is going to be faced with many decisions, including the possibility of facing a teammate.

Why won't fighters take fights against teammates?

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I've been a huge Fedor fan for years. I love watching the man fight. I absolutely believe Fedor is a legend in the sport. Did Saturday's outcome come as a surprise to me? No, not at all and let me tell you why.

Just like anything else in life, certain fighters come along every once in a while and stand head and shoulders above the competition.  These fighters dominate entire divisions. Some dominate more than one division. These fighters set the bar higher and force opponents to evolve.

GSP is one example of a fighter who came along and turned an entire division upside down dethroning the then welterweight king Matt Hughes in dominating fashion. Once GSP took over he has only looked back once against Matt Serra, a loss which he avenged like the fist of an angry god.

Another example would be Anderson Silva and his demolishing of the entire UFC middleweight division as though opponents were blindfolded with one hand tied behind back.

The first example in my mind would arguably be Royce Gracie who set the standard for MMA by tying everyone up in knots finishing much bigger men. Opponents were forced to evolve. Granted the sport was so new its hard to gauge.

Fedor had set the standard for heavyweights for years. Fedor being fast, powerful and well rounded he not only finished the best his respective organizations had to offer, he demolished them.

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