Archive for the 'MMA' Category

I remember one Sunday evening while I was a new bouncer at the bar. Eight guys powered past me before I could card them and ordered some beers. The obviously had already consumed a fair amount of beers. I was a bit nervous as there was the old bartender, a few dancers and everyone was depending on me to keep the peace.  

I calmly walked up to them and asked them to meet me outside. The six big guys followed me outside and I told them they were out for the night since they had not followed the rules. They were having none of that and they attacked me! More on this later but what could I do against six big guys?  I mean I was 155 pounds to their 200 and over?!!!

In this post I will address somewhat of a lost art – the much maligned sidekick! What? Yes once a staple of karate is not considered somewhat of a risk to use in a fight for some reason. Back in my day the sidekick was a great equalizer. I mean most people were inept at kicking and did not really understand how a little guy me could quickly gain the upper hand without a punch!

Here is a quick video showing some of the mechanics of the sidekick.

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MMA has a way or turning the martial arts world on its ear. I remember back when the UFC started and this skinny guy trained in jiu-jitsu took the contest! I thought, wow – what a fluke! Everyone knew that wrestling around on the ground would not win any fights! Now almost 18 years later, UFC 1 changed fighting!

The more traditional martial artists like myself have had a love-hate relationship with MMA. You see it has proven to be a way to test various techniques within the framework of the rules – to see if  they have any merit. You see martial artists take techniques taught to them at face value – meaning if our sensei says it will work – we believe it.

MMA has changed all of that to a point. It is not quite self defense because there are a lot of rules compared to self defense but it is the closest and most exciting fighting constest probably since the Roman arenas! Today’s martial arts students see and hear a lot about various fighting methods. Students know what is fairly realistic in a fight and what skills are just a piece of the puzzle.

In this post I will first speak of my frame of reference  so you can evaluate my thoughts about MMA, Steven Seagal. Then I will focus on the trend I have been seeing in MMA where more traditional arts are coming back into these modern gladiators fighting skill sets.

First for your persual here is a video of Steven Seagal being interview after Machida’s recent win.

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I was watching the title match between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez the other night and was surprised at how well Velasquez did! Not that anyone is unbeatable but Lesnar seemed to be the nearest thing to it because he would smother guys on the ground and pound the side of their head until they tapped.

Lesnar took out Carwin and Mir in the last couple of bouts demonstraiting (I thought) his transition from wrestling to MMA. Watching the Shane Carwin bout, it was apparent that Lesnar had a hard time with a striker but he was always able to wether the storm and own the opponent in the ground game.

I have some interesting old ideas about this  but first take a look at Lesnar’s first UFC match.

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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?

I am excited to announce that on June 26th Showtime is airing “Strikeforce and M1 Global: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum” that will include Chris “Cyborg” Santos vs. Jan Finney. Who has not heard of Fedor as one of the best heavyweights today. Unfortunately he has not fought in the UFC but he will be facing a top heavy weight in Fabricio Werdum.

In this post I’ll introduce the fighters in some video and give an overview of each. I don’t know much about Jan Finney but most of you have heard of Chris “Cyborg” Santos after her decisive win over Gina Carano and her title defense over Marloes Coenen. Here is an overview of Werdum.

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Tonight CBS is airing Strikeforce Nashville (April 17, 2010)! UFC 112 featuring among other great fights was Silva vs Maia (although many will disagree with me) and on April 24 Aldo vs Faber will fight in Sacramento as well as another fighter I like to track, Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will fight  Masako Yoshida at the Spring Brawl in Fargo, North Dakota!

In this post I’ll mostly talk about both Silva vs Griffen and Silva vs Maia as I was the most excited I have been in a long time to see a truly great fighter get in the ring (octagon) and own a couple of other fighters. As I said most people like to see the guys meet in the middle of the ring and duke it out like WCL matches!

Not me! I’ve always said fighting is fighting is fighting. The only thing that matters is if you win or not… making the other guy/gal look like a novice or knocking him or her out is gravy… I’ll save my view for later but first here is a trailer for tonight’s fights.

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I am a MMA fan that likes to watch the fights that are easily available without watching PPV! That means I just have an overview of the sports from some of the various leagues such as UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, M1, and K1 (probably a lot more too). What I am trying to say is while I opine on the fights I watch; if you were to use me as your sole source of information about men’s and women’s MMA – you would probably be missing a lot.

I’ve been following Strikeforce as I am able (I don’t get Showtime anymore) and just found out that Sarah Kaufman beat Takayo Hashi to win the Strikeforce Women’s Welterweight title!

In this post I will give an overview of the Kaufman vs. Hashi fight and give the latest on Michelle Waterson’s latest fight. I will also speak of some of the (many) exciting MMA fights coming soon in the WEC, UFC, and Strikeforce. Here is a promo video done before the Kaufman vs Hashi fight. I’ll post the four links of the actual fight (not sure how long they will be good) if you want to go to youtube and watch it.

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