sports background? I am curious as to how long it would take an above average athlete(say someone who played a sport at a small college) to realistically compete in amatuer MMA with no background in boxing, wrestling, muy thai, or ju-jitsu. I realize that it's an insanely tough sport with grueling training. How long would the technical aspect of the sport take if someone could already handle relatively high level conditioning and was in decent shape? I'll define decent shape as (just for a simple guideline, I realize many factors decide a persons fitness level) someone who can max bench 20% more than their own weight and run a personal best 7 minute mile.