WEC & Strikeforce MMA Happenings!
27 Jun 2010
WEC 49 had some interesting bouts (June 20th) as did Strikeforce Fedor vs. Werdum (June 26th). I’ll just highlight a couple of the fights and link to some results for each. But let me just say they were worth watching!
The main WEC fight was a battle between Jamie Varner and Kamal Shalorus that was marred by Shalorus kicking Varners family jewels three times. Kamal lost one point. If you get a chance to watch this fight you’ll see Varner getting the best of Shalorus in most clashes but Shalorus has a good chin. Even without the penalty point taken away from Shalorus I had Varner ahead on points easily. The fight went the distance and much to my surprise two judges were split with the third calling for a draw! Results here.
Here is a video of Fedor vs Werdum (don’t know how long it will be up).
I was not really that surprised by this result as while Fedor is a great fighter – he has pulled out some surprising wins at times. But wow – Werdum really pulled off the win while Fedor was trying to pummel him on the ground! Results here.
The fight I really enjoyed on this ticket was Scott Smith vs Cung Le rematch. Le fought this bout better than I’ve seen him so far by choosing his shots and fighting a bit more defensively. Le easily out classed Smith this time and found a home for his decisive spinning rear kick that Smith had so much trouble with in the last fight. Here is a video of this match up.
This has been a good month for MMA fights. There were some other really interesting match ups but I wanted to highlight the Smith vs Le as my favorite. What was your favorite this month?
Road Rage; Redux!
20 Jun 2010
My wife (Sly) recently had an experience witnessing road rage that has mademe revisit this issue. Sly was driving in a 35 mph zone behind on car when another come up on the side and tried to cut in front of her suddenly! Sly stomped on her brakes and the guy waived to her and swerved back out. The guy then sped up past the car in front and cut him off and stopped suddenly! Sly again stomped on her brakes and came to a stop. Both cars doors ahead flew open and the guys ran towards each other screaming. Sly drove around when she could to escape the madness!
While I don’t know what ended up happening in this case, it did upset me because my wife almost hit a car twice inside of a minute due to aggressive drivers. I previously posted about, “Road Rage!” and “Road Rage! What About Sticks and Stones?” but I think aggressive driving legitimately has a place in the context of self defense because one never knows if it will lead to an attack.
In this post I am going to focus on how to stay safe if you find yourself in the middle of a road rage incident. While I do not want to make lite of this issue – I thought I would demonstrate the mentality (or lack thereof) of the participants in an aggressive driving or road rage situation in this video to set the stage.
Sexual Harassment; Boys will be Boys?
12 Jun 2010
Is it ok for a boy or man to cat call to a hot babe walking down the street? In this day and age it seems weird to be asking this question but many if not most women have heard cat calls or rude comments by men and boys. Young men and women learning about social interactions are a bit awkward about it in their teens and often think behaviour like this is ok. While there is no excuse for poor manners hopefully they soon learn that women feel harassed by the unwanted advances.
In this post I will attempt to talk a bit about sexual harassment on the streets and what I think of behaviour like this. I will also attempt to put this into the proper context from the greater self defense perspective. To get this conversation started – take a look at this video I found at the Strategic Living Blog about Miss Washington D.C.’s experiences.
Fights at Parties; Self Defense or Nonsense?
6 Jun 2010
When I was a kid I was bullied a bit in grade school. My dad had to show me the old one – two (jab – cross) combo and told me that if someone attacks me – I had to fight back. He proceeded to teach me the basics of fighting in the living room.
I soon caught on to this and became a bit aggressive if anyone messed with me to the point of challenging the duke of the school to fisticuffs after school. Well let me must say that losing that fight brought me back down to reality.
Last night in our neighborhood there was a party raging on with seemingly a life of its own? During the daytime there were the usually girls parading about in summer attire – giggling hysterically at seemingly nothing. Along with the girls there were plenty of guys. During the night, as the hour grew later, the party spewed out into the streets. I’ll get to the punch line (pun intended) later but suffice it to say there was a lot of beer muscle and drama into the wee hours in the morning.
In this post I’d like to discuss the notion that anytime someone messes with you – irrespective of the circumstances, one has to respond to a provocation. Specifically at a party and what makes sense. Take a look at this video I found on youtube of young people partying and the obligatory fight before I start the discussion.
WARNING – there is a liberal use of profanity in this video – seem to go hand in hand with partying, youth and beer.