When I was a kid I remember wondering what was best, wrestling or boxing. At the time I thought boxing was the best but when karate became popular in the 60′s – the argument became boxing or karate! Well fast forward past the 90′s (was a very confused time) and now if you ask any kid… they will no longer say jiu-jitsu but mma! Why to a teenaged kid that would not even watch a boxing match – MMA is king!

So why am I not impressed with the flavor of the day? I am not out to challenge anyone or trying to get an accomplished martial artist in judo, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, or boxing to come over the dark side. But what I do want to do in this post is to examine how effective various martial arts would be in a real fight for an average guy/gal that has a couple of years experience under his/her belt.

I also want to look at some other factors such as the point of each martial art… you know what is it good for anyway? Don’t get mad but if your martial art has lots of rules that don’t easily transition to a real fight – what good is it in a fight (unless you are a world class fighter – then it makes no difference what you learn… it will all work)?

Let’s look at boxing, wrestling, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, judo, aikido and karate (including kung fu with karate as both are similar) in light of how easy is it to learn, what is the goal of the martial art, and does it work in a fight for most people (is it effective in most situations?). Then I’ll look at karate and kung fu in general terms because our stuff is not immune to my criteria (80% of karate and kung fu as it is taught would not work well in a real fight).

Now that I have made a lot of friends and I don’t think I’ve excluded anyone I would like commenters to keep your responsive civil and to the points. I will not post personal attacks but please feel free to civilly disagree and make your points. I will be happy to respond comments.

Boxing is fairly easy to learn the basics but really hard to do it right. One has to get into great physical shape to excel in this sport. The goal of boxing is to win on the street or in the ring with one’s punches. All other strikes are illegal. I do not think boxing would work very well unless you were a good boxer in a fight with someone else that did not want to do anything but punches. Boxing can work in a mass attack if he can avoid the ground so I give boxing two kicks (out of five).

Wrestling is taught in school for most males at some point so there are many good basic wrestlers (as I would categorize myself). Again wrestling like boxing takes a lot of conditioning if one wants to excel at wrestling. The goal of wrestling is mostly sport as it has no defenses against striking unless the wrestler learns additional skills. While the UFC is awash in wrestlers that have transitioned to fighting, the average wrestler can win most fights if he can take the fight to the ground. As most untrained fighters have no defense against ground fighters – wrestling can be effective sometimes. However one cannot easily defend against a mass attack nor avoid a bystander punting a goal at wrestler on the ground so I would give wrestling one kick on my scale.

Muay Thai is a sport that is not easy to learn because of the conditioning. While muay thai does strike with hands, elbows, knees, and feet – the rules do not favor fighting as the groin is not open. I would say that muay thai does come closer to an effective method of fighting because it would work well against a mass attack so long as the fighter does not get taken to the ground. Because of the major conditioning of body parts (deadening the shins for instance) I would only give muay thai three kicks on my scale.

I’m going to lump in jiu-jitsu, judo, and aikido together as one came from the other and share many common moves. While it is true that judo is more dependent on transitional moves (getting the opponent to the ground), jiu-jitsu is more of a ground fighting method and aikido mostly uses ones attack against the attacker, none of these are easy to use and are not really striking martial arts. Practitioners would have to learn striking to effectively survive a real fight with no rules. I am grossly oversimplifying here but my point is still valid. I would say that none of these styles would come out well against a mass attack. So based on the complexity of learning and the lack of striking – I can only give these styles one kick on my scale.

Now let’s look at karate and kung fu as it is taught. No paneca here either. While karate can be a good fighting style – as it is taught it does not have the conditioning of many type of fighting – it is for the common man (read person). Karate learning styles can be easier than most styles as it does not take more than a couple of years to be proficient for most people. Karate can work if a student was taught by a proficient teacher. Karate/kung fu works well against mass attacks if the student is any good. Before I assign karate/kung fu a kick scale consider the types of schools and ways to teaching.

• Some karate/kung fu styles do not allow sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach non-contact sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach semi-contact sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach the equivalent of kick boxing.
• Some karate/kung fu styles are old school – meaning no gloves and flat feet.
• Some karate/kung fu styles are more modern and use pads and move around.
• Some karate/kung fu styles have open groin shots in semi-contact.
• Some karate/kung fu styles give more points for kicks and flying kicks than for punches.
• Some karate/kung fu styles emphasize more conditioning than fighting (karate aerobics).
• Some karate/kung fu styles’ instructors have never been in a real fight.

So let me opine about karate/kung fu styles and weed the 80% of karate that does not work.

If the style does not sparring or uses non-contact sparing I give that style one kick on my scale.

If the style does not have groin shots or gives more points (in training) for kicks or flying kicks than punches – I give that style one kick.

If the style is for yuppies wanting to get into shape (karate aerobics) I give that style no kicks.

If the style teaches kick boxing but no groin shots – I give that three kicks.

If you instructor tells you he thinks it will work if he ever had to get into a fight (meaning he does not know) – Run from that school. Why pay money for something the instructor does not believe in?

If the style allows groin shots in sparring, uses hand/food pads of some kind, moves around, uses semi-contact (can get hard at top levels), the instructor is confident and has fought before, counts the same for a kick or punch… the student has a chance…  that is only about 20% of the schools out there.

Lineage means nothing unless it works. All of the black belts, trophy’s, free karate babysitting services and such are just meaningless unless a student and learn how to fight pretty good in a couple of years.

So if you find a good school as I have outlined – I would give that school four kicks – on a five kick scale? Why not five kicks? That is up to the student. I cannot guess how hard the student wants it.

So I want to clarify I do not dislike other styles and I think very highly of them. And I think most any style can be very effective against most attacks – all I reviewed here is if a person only had a couple of years to invest – what would he or she need to learn to fight back!

I am interested in your opinion – please let me know your thoughts!

The news has been full of knife attacks and even the TSA has been considering letting people fly with small pocket knives. It is even scarier to some so removed from fighting or using hand tools that in my estimation I think most people think that a knife attack is not survivable!

I would like to make the point that as in any other kind of attack (read club, gun, baseball bat, hand to hand or whatever) – they are all serious. You can get hurt if you are not a trained fighter. Heck even if you are a trained fighter – you can get hurt.

In this post I’ll evaluate the obvious (to me) about knife attacks (or really any attack – they are all the same from a self defense point of view). But first review this video for a realistic overview.

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Wow that first video with the cop shooting point blank at the guy with the knife and he missed? Most people would never think it would be possible to miss at that range – but as you saw it happens.

The rest of the videos should show you that your best defense is to lean how to fight. But say you learn how to fight – what are your chances?

First off a knife, gun, bat, rocks or whatever gives the attacker an advantage he thinks. And correctly most people that are not trained fighters have not ever come up against a weapon or multiple attackers – would not know how to fight back.

But say you are a trained fighter – are you going to give up because some guy is going to try and kill you? That would be a forgone conclusion that many that are attacked face every day. But that does not have to be the case.

If you like I did – immerse yourself in learning self-defense or fighting arts for several years – if you take to it you tend to learn how to overcome obstacles including ways to face weapon attacks. Really what do you have to lose?

For me a knife attack puts the attacker at a disadvantage. He does not know I’m a trained fighter as I’m not a braggart (I guess other than when I blog) – all he knows is I am a middle-aged man that does not look too intimidating.

So the guy does not want to rob me but wants to slash me – that means I have to defend myself… no other choice (letting the guy stab me is not a reasonable choice – he might kill me).

The first thing to realize – he is depending on his knife – whereas I have at the very least two hands, two elbows, two knees, two feet, teeth (I could go on). However you were trained to fight – it is time to kick in your defense… no rules (that attacker does not have any) but use whatever is at your disposal to mitigate the attack and use all of your tools against his one knife (weapon attackers tend to use the weapon – ignore the rest of their limbs).

So unbeknownst to the attacker – you have superior firepower if you don’t lose your cool. The big thing is to fight the way you train… if you like to fight inside – do it. If like me you like to fight on the outside – do that.

Remember the attacker is banking on his weapon scaring you so if you don’t lose your cool – you should do ok.

So what weapons have I defended against? Knives, clubs, pool cues, tall bar glasses projectiles, tree branches, and at least three of these times against more than one attacker at a time.

I’m nothing special – just a guy that has trained in my youth and enjoyed learning how to defend myself!

Please do not think that I am saying anything is easy – it is not but it is fun to learn how to do something you like… it does not matter if it is boxing, karate, judo, wrestling, or whatever – just so you enjoy it and train for that odd day with the rules of society breakdown.

So I hope many of you are like I have been – ready for whatever the world throws at you.

Here is my delayed reaction to Diaz vs Condit in UFC 143. Wow! I have been a fan of both men over the years. I like Diaz because of his aggressive, continuous straight punches that keep up the pressure. I like Condit because of his fighting savey. Both men could have won this bout on a good day but Diaz was the favorite with most folks.

Watch some of this interview and I’ll talk about this in a bit more detail.

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As a former point and full contact fighter I know there are several ways to win a fight. First you can go out there and knock out your opponent. That is generally the way you can win for sure but in prize fighting there are many times that the other guy is just too good to knock him out or even get a submission on. In those cases a fighter has to not only have a game plan but fight his fight to get the win.

I’ve seen many a fight where the guys just wrestled around or traded seemingly endless light strikes but there just was no decisive damage! Can I say boring? Sure. Can I say the fans were not too happy? Sure. Can I say a win is a win? Yes! I for one think that a fighter has to work within the rules of the game. If the object of the game is to win – it does not matter how that is accomplished.

Now about Diaz – he is very aggressive and mostly overwhelms whoever he fights. Condit probably made the decision that was not going to be him. Condit was very effective in getting the most strikes and swayed the judges. Diaz was not able to change his fighting strategy to get the win so he lost.

Condit came in the best shape I’ve seen him. Diaz looked good too. Neither fighter tired really but Diaz’s main weapon – the endless peppering of punches just did not happen. Condit did not stay in the same place long enough to become the target. Had Diaz changed his strategy too and become more mobile and less aggressive – the outcome might have changed.

Sometimes a fight is about not getting hit as much more than being aggressive. Do I think Diaz would have won if Condit was not as mobile? Yes! Diaz did well the few times he could throw multiple punches.

So here is the crux of the biscuit – fighting is not about being invincible or aggressive. While that can have a major part – it only makes sense as part of an overarching strategy if it make sense. Fighting is also about out strategizing your opponent in your mind first and if the fight is not going your way – transitioning to another strategy.

I hope to see these two fighters again soon but I also hope they both use their heads and have some alternate game plans or I suspect the result will be the same.

As a parting thought – boy that Roy Nelson has a tough chin!

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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This short video shows a good example of a basic front leg sidekick. Back in the 70′s this was staple of point and full contact sparring because of the speed and power of this kick. One could safely stay out of punching range and deliver a kick somewhat like a jab into your opponent’s side! What’s more the shuffle side kick could be more powerful than your best punch!

I have seen the sidekick break the defender’s arm in tournments even though it did not hit a ”vital’ area (no point was awarded). Ideally if targeting the ribs - you can break the ribs or arms if the kick lands squarley. I have also seen plenty of guys kncked down with the front leg shuffel sidekick!

There are a bunch of ways to throw sidekicks. Offensively and defensively (moving forward, in place or moving back, jumping and/or spinning), with the front or back leg, with our without initial movement and using the side edge of the foot or just the heel.

Just doing a quick count I come up with   24 combinations and their are probably more if one includes snapping or thrusting. The point is there are a lot of ways to skin this cat (throw this kick).

What I tend to do is used initial movement along with critical distance and timing to set up this kick. I was sparring recently and found many of the newer guys that do not use this kick much anymore – do not know how to defend against it well. I was able to keep them honest (out of striking range) because they did not want their arm or ribs bruised anymore! I was taking it easy on them.

How do I use the sidekick? I generally throw my front leg defensively with a hop back (if they are coming in fast) or with initial movement offensively. I don’t do much with spinning kick or back leg. I like to move around a bit and take advantage of any positional mistakes (switching footing within my range) or if I am fighting a blocker, mistakes cuased my a shoulder, hip or body fake. Whatever mistakes I can provoke on my opponent I like to take advantage of them with a good slip-sidekick.

The target depends on if it is for keeps or not. I mean if I am just sparring with someone – I’ll push the kicks up to the ribs (or arms) and keep the power down a bit (so I can spar for a while). But if the guy has good initial movement (can blow by my distance) – I increase the power to the ribs and if I have to – aim down to the hips to knock him back. I understand the hips are not really a legal move but I can generally get away with it and it changes they way my opponent attacks once he understands the price.

Sparring in the school I generally tend to use the side-edge of the foot too because this is the softer of the kicks. If you kick a guy with the side edge of your foot – the force is spread over four or five square inches. On the street or a tournament or for keeps – no such niceness from me. I use the heel! One square inch of directed force increases whatever power I am able to generate with my slip-sidekick. It is often enough to stop an attack from all but a seasoned fighter. The opponent will often start shying away after feeling a couple of these kicks if he has not already retreated.

So there you have it – a basic kick that generates more than enough speed, power and damage to end many fights. Why then is this kick not used much today?

I think it is because fighting has changed a bit since UFC 1 and Jiu-Jitsu. Since UFC 1 and the Gracies showed the world the grappling was a force to be reckoned with fighters have had to consider how to counter the ground game. At first not many fighters knew how to do this and Muay Thai kick boxing started to be dominant in MMA – quick karate style kicks lost of favor. MMA fighters tended to not throw snap, side and rear kicks that Jiu-Jitsu practitioners could easily use against them.

I think there is still a lot of that mentality today even though the ground game is easily countered if the fighters understand grappling. The telegraphed Muay Thai power kicks are easily subverted if one understands distance, timing and initial movement too but again I think many fighters today favor power and grappling and sidekicks has become somewhat of a lost art.

Here is what I think. Side, front snap and rear kicks are all more powerful than hand strikes but take some skill and knowledge of fighting strategy to pull them off. If a fighter is willing to take his or her fight game to the next level – he or she can learn some old fashion fighting skills to use in their bag of tricks. I know for me in late middle age – the power moves are out. I depend on relaxed speed, torque, distance, timing and initial movement to have the same effect as brawlers who favor the power moves. I like to say I can stand toe to toe with anyone to 3 minutes. This is ok for me as most fights on the street with one opponent should not last more than 15 seconds.

The recent rash of UFC snap kicks and Cung Le using spinning rear and side kicks should demonstraite that yes – even the sidekick can still be relevent in today’s martial arts.

To finish my mass attack experience, I have to half flip and twist out of the attack and lost my shirt (literally). I then challenged them to fight like a man, one at a time. I knocked three of them out in a row with a defensive reverse punch and then it was a running battle. I attacked whenever I had one of them in my sights. I used lunge punches, side kicks, wheel kicks an at the end I let the last three of them surround me – I was side kicking them whenever then encroached on my distance. You see they were scared of me by that point but where half heatedly making an attempt to find my weakness.

The cops rolled up and it was kind of funny to see 6 guys saying I attacked them. They wanted to know what I knew. I did not say a thing but later when the cops asked. I told them I was a brown belt in kenpo karate. Those cops signed up at the studio.

So remember the lowly sidekick is a force to be reckoned with  – even if it falls out of style with some that do not know how to use it effectively!

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.

Master Steven Seagal is kind of an anomaly as he has trained in Japan in various martial arts but is mostly known for Aikido. To be truthful here I did not know he was a master of Kendo or that he also has black belts in Karate and Judo. You see I did not hear about Seagal until his movies started coming out in the late 1980′s.

While I like his fighting style in the movies I did not think he really fought like that because there were a lot of strikes. Then in the early 1990′s while developing his bad boy image the challenge happened. After reading about that I just assumed that anyone that talked smack about karate – made a challenge and then would not back it up (he said he could beat anybody in the world and then something to the effect that if he fought – he would have to kill them) – could not back it up.

You see at that point I thought Steven Seagal was a movie stunt man with some Aikido background. Unfortunately I formed an opinion without very much information and recently when some bloggers have been ranting about the Lord of Pasta… I’ve not thought much about it. You see formed my opinion in the early 90′s and I assumed Seagal was just another tough talking stunt man and dismissed it.

I loved Steven Seagal movies because the fighting seemed more realistic. I’ve always hated to see fights last a long time because in real life, if one of the fighters is a trained fighter – fights last seconds. One minute in a one-on-one fight is an eternity. Here is one of the more recent movie parts where he got a chance to show off some of his kendo skills.

So if you will now (like me) accept that Steven Seagal is not merrily pigeonholed in one martial arts discipline but truly knowledgeable in many martial arts – you have to once again accept that another martial artist is helping MMA evolve fighting again!

This has been a pet peeve of mine because since the early days of UFC, karate style fighters tried to mimic the tougher looking Boxing and Muay Thai front stances and lost much of the defensive nature of their arts. Soon most of karate schools started to teach Jiu-Jitsu to stay relevent to today’s students.

Here is my complaint… the skills most sport karate fighters learn early on – how to keep the distance  with kicks and then bridge the gap for the strikes whenever one has an advantage has been lost. The current batch of reality show bred MMA fighters give the fans exactly what they want! Exciting fights where two guys (or even gals now) meet in the middle of the ring and vie for knockout of the night without applying much fighting tactics.

Now before you MMA types flame me here – keep in mind when I say “much fighting tactics,” I’m not speaking of tactics within the box but rather trying new stuff like karate, judo, aikido, or whatever martial arts that have been generally dismissed by MMA today.

I’ve really enjoyed watching Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida fights because both of them have used distance to their advantage. Why when I was watching some Silva fights where the crowd was booing him – I thought he fought a great fight.

A match of any kind exists within the framework of the rules in the event. While I agree it is boring to the fans to see a fighter ahead on points – just going through the motions to get the win -I understand it. Think of it this way – when Silvia beat Maia, he had to win a few rounds decisively before he could afford to fight more defensively and cruz to a victory! I mean why would he risk winning at that point?

I’ve watched Machida win bouts while he fought from outside the normal distance. That is typically a sport karate (not kick boxing) strategy that is more along traditional karate lines of thought. I mean why risk your bacon until you have an advantage? When Machida won his title – karate practitioners the world over were rooting for him.

So I for one do not think there is any “best” martial art or a most effective way to fight MMA. I will grant you there are more generally accepted ways of fighting MMA but as soon as one dismisses a formal style and forgets how to defend against it – it will probably come back and bite you in the butt!

Master Seagal was not well known when I owned my karate school. So now that I know more about him – I do not begrudge him for saying he is the best in the world. Others have made that claim including me (privately) because to be a good fighter – one has to believe he is the best in the world or what are you doing as a fighter? I mean if you do not believe that one a good day – you can take anyone – anywhere – give up. You have no business fighting as you will defeat yourself way before the other guy does.

Now that I understand that Steven Seagal is the real deal and not just a stunt man with some marital arts skills – it is only natural and wonderful to see him bringing his own view of martial arts to MMA! There is a saying in investing that probably holds true for fighting too… find out what everyone else is doing (read investing) and don’t do it. Fighters could stand to take some advice from financial types here.

A good MMA does not have to know jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and boxing to make it. There is certainly not anything wrong with these martial arts but if everyone else is doing it – that is a good reason to branch out and find a different path.

Aikido as most understand is a martial art that take years to become proficient at. A master not only has to understand distance, holds, locks, throws but has to master him/her inner spirit – known as ki. Fighting while mostly defensive in traditional Aikido (to my understanding) become second nature. In my Masters thesis for my 5th dan ranking I stated this about Aikido:

Aikido was born out of a need for a gentle martial art for a former Jiu Jitsu instructor weakened by scarlet fever (Lewis 70). Aikido does not use the violent throws of Judo, the chokes of Jiu Jitsu and the kicks and punches of karate, but uses an opponent’s own force against him. Aikido has similarities to religions because of the mind control needed to be successful at this art. The concept is to help an attacker to achieve his goal, for an example, pulling a punch, then moving slightly to let the punch crash into a wall. The Aikido stylist did not stop the punch or hit the attacker, bu merely helped the punch flow through faster, thereby missing the intended target. Aikido is a martial art that combines unique defensive techniques with a guiding philosophy that molds a practitioner’s character and inner harmony. Aikido has the effect of unifying the mind and body to create “KI” (pronounced kee), a force that focuses the spirit and enables the serious practitioner to accomplish seemingly supernatural feats (Lewis 70+).

So Master Steven Seagal is probably the perfect instructor to give Anderson “the spider” Silva and Lyoto “the dragon” Machida an fresh perspective to help their MMA. I found a video of Seagal teaching. I hope you have enjoyed my view of MMA’s latest hot new trend – getting back to basics!

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.

See how Lesnar kept his advantage on the ground seemingly so easily? One thing to remember before we forget, fighting takes strategy and skill. All things being equal – the fighter with the best plan will win the day. What does that take? It means a fighter has to see the other fighters weaknesses and then exploit them!

Velasquez did not allow Lesnar to smother him by rapidly putting space between them and getting up. He obviously trained for that so he could land some leather on Lesnar. Brock Lesnar while certainly a big, strong, quick guy, had not yet picked up striking skills. That along with his endurance (not sure about this but it seemed like he would not do well in later rounds) gave the advantage in this bout to Velasquez.

Unfortunately a win against Lesnar will not ensure a win against Mir as each fighter matches up differently. Mir could not hang with Lesnar’s ground game as he probably thought his jiu-jitsu was superior to Lesnar’s wrestling. Not sure how Velasquez would match up to Mir but I hope to see it soon! 

Hopefully Lesnar will work on his striking and endurance (against guys that can hang with him) and come out better for future showings. By the way I’d like to say how pleased I was at the sportsmanship Brok Lesnar displayed in this match.

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?