MMA-URLS

The title of this series, "Gods of War", is inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman belief that mortals who accomplished great feats of martial skill would be deified and brought to live among the gods. This series will profile fighters that have transcended their martial art, be it grappling or striking, to become modern day Gods of War. Joining our Pantheon of modern day martial arts legends next to grappling ace Braulio Estima is the father of Kyokushin Karate, Masutatsu Oyama. A man who sought to instill toughness, focus, and power in himself as well as students, Oyama is a legend in the karate community. Karate is the most popular martial art in the world and is commonly associated with Japan, but it did not originate there. Karate actually started out as the art of Te, meaning "hand", on the Ryukyu Islands, modern day Okinawa. Known as the Ryukyu Kingdoms, these islands were a client kingdom to China and were a great center of trade and commerce. These kingdoms did a great deal of business with Chinese traders and cultural exchange began as well. The empty hand striking art of Te began to meld with Chinese martial arts to become what is called Kodate, translated as "Chinese Hand". In the late 1500s tensions arose between Japan and the Ryukyu kingdoms, and in 1609 the Shogun of Japan issued orders to the Satsuma samurai to invade Ryukyu. The Ryukyu's contacts with China were very valuable as the Chinese refused to trade directly with Japan. The Satsuma quickly overpowered the defenders and Japanese went to great lengths to conceal their invasion from the Chinese so they could profit by the trade. So the Ryukyu found themselves in the position of being subject to both the Chinese and the Japanese at the same time. In 1872 Japan officially transformed Ryukyu into a province, then in 1879 Japan annexed the islands turning them into the Okinawa Prefecture and making them officially Japanese land. At this point the Okinawans began to adapt their culture to fit Japanese culture and this included the art of Kodate. The name was changed to Karate, meaning simply "empty hand" and the students adopted the Judo gi and belt system to make the art more Japanese in appearance. Since then the art has grown by leaps and bounds and has diverged into many different styles, the most violent of them would be started by a young man from Korea. more after the jump... Masutatsu Oyama was actually born the Korean name Choi Young-Eui in southern Korea in 1923 during the thirty year Japanese occupation. His family owned a farm and Oyama worked the land as a child. He got his first martial arts experience learning a Chinese form of Kenpo from a farm hand. As war in the Pacific continued to grow, Oyama enrolled in the aviation school in 1938, with the goal of becoming a Japanese Army pilot. While living in Japan he officially changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama. One day he noticed a Karate class and decided to give it a try. He began training under Shotokan Karate founder Gichin Funakoshi and progressed very quickly, earning a 4th Dan black belt before his twenty-first birthday. Masutatsu Oyama as a young man Oyama's aviation career did not pan out and he joined the Imperial Japanese Army. He was sent to the Butokukai, a Japanese Military academy the specialized in, among other things, unarmed combat. There he began training in boxing and judo. Oyama showed a great talent for Judo and progressed quickly, in just four years achieving the rank of 4th Dan black belt. When the war ended in 1945 the Imperial Japanese Military was disbanded destroying any chance Oyama had at a military career. Oyama decided to focus on martial arts training and began training in Goju Karate under Master So Nei Chu, a fellow Korean living in Japan. Chu was the leading expert of the Goju style of the time, being the star pupil of the style's founder, Chojun Miyagi. Goju focused on both hard physical training, designed to condition the body, and soft spiritual training. This combination of hard and soft is also reflected in the techniques taught, which include the hard, linear strikes iconic to Karate but also softer defensive techniques with included joint locks and other grappling. Oyama was a troubled young man at this point in his life, still angry at Japan's defeat and the loss of many friends in the war. He routinely got into brawls with American soldiers stationed as part of the peacetime occupation. His anger at world affairs was further compounded when Korea, now no longer part of Japan, became embroiled in a bloody conflict over political ideologies. Chu saw how much turmoil his student was in and suggested a mountain retreat, where Oyama could remove himself from the troubles of the world and focus on strengthening his technique and spirit. Oyama agreed and departed for Mt. Minobu in central Japan with his karate gi, basic cooking supplies and copy of The Book of Five Rings by famed Samurai swordsman Miyamoto Mushashi with goal of training for three years in isolation. Chu sent a student with Oyama, but after six months of training with Oyama the man secretly fled in the night. Oyama himself began to doubt if he training in isolation was good idea and wrote his mentor. Chu replied by telling him to shave off an eyebrow, reasoning that that embarrassment of being seen with only one eyebrow would remove all temptation to come down off the mountain. Mas Oyama toughing his knuckles by striking a rope bound target attached to a tree trunk After fourteen months Oyama was forced to come off the mountain for lack of supplies. While falling well short of his three-year goal, the training had a pronounced affect on Oyama's technique. Shortly after coming off the mountain he won the Japanese Nation Martial Arts Championship in Karate. He then returned to solitary training, this time on Mt. Kiyosumi for 18 months. The training was intense and combined harsh physical training with periods of studying classic philosophy. When Oyama returned to civilization he was a change man, in clear control of his own life. Oyama then traveled the world demonstrating Karate, and one way he would seek to prove his skill was taking on bulls empty handed. He fought 52 bulls in total, three of which he killed and another other 48 he broke their off their horns with knife-hand blows. Mas Oyama grappling with a bull Oyama also fought countless challenge matches against human opponents. He always won, often with the first punch. Oyama believe that this decisive blow was the heart of karate and he trained to land a single, devastating strike. The fancy movements and complicated techniques were secondary in his mind to simply causing your opponent damage. He famously stated that his goal when he thew a punch was to break a rib and if it was blocked he wanted to break the arm. And when he opened his own dojo in 1953, landing decisive blows was the central idea for his new style of karate. Named Kyokushin, translated as "the search for the ultimate truth", Oyama trained his students very hard. He focused on simple, yet very effective techniques: straight punches, hard low kicks to the legs and roundhouse kicks to the upper body. The centerpiece of the style was full contact sparring with no protective gear known as Kumite. These were rough affairs that often result in injury, but students who wished to temper themselves in that fire flocked to Oyama. In the early days there were no rules in a Kumite but since then rules have been established as a sporting context developed. Gloves are not allowed and thus only punches to the body are allowed, but knees and kicks to the head are legal. True to Oyama's philosophy most Kyokushin matches do not feature only as much movement as necessary, as fighters exchange techniques until one of them is knocked down. It is a positively brutal contest that tests both fighters physical and mental strength. One of the toughest tests in the entire martial art was fighting consecutive kumites, which is required to earn a black belt. Oyama wanted to again test his mental and physical toughness, so he endured 100 rounds of kumite over a period of three days. He accomplished the "100 Man Kumite" three times in his life and has only ever been attempted by a few other brave martial artists. In 1964, Oyama created the International Karate Organization Kyokushin Kaiakan to oversee his martial art. He has sent students across the globe to spread his teachings and began hosting the World Full Contact Karate Open Championships, welcoming any style of Karate to come fight under Full Contact rules. On April 25, 1994 Oyama died of lung cancer despite never having smoked in his life. His impact on the world of karate was deep, as his style has produced accomplished fighters in Karate, Kickboxing and MMA alike. His influence continues to be felt for generations to come as students of his style continue to practice Kumite. Masuatatsu Oyama is most certainly a modern day God of War. There is almost no video of Oyama, what little there is available is here in this short Youtube video. For More on Masutatsu Oyama and Kyokushin Karate: Official Masutatsu Oyama Website Bio U.S. Kyokushin Website Fight Quest - Kyokushin Karate Human Weapon - Karate

Posted in: japanese, training, karate, art, oyama

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A new commercial for Budweiser in Brazil features UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, martial arts legend Steven Seagal, UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, referee Dan Miragliotta, and UFC fighter Lyoto Machida’s father. The commercial features parodies of many classic martial arts movies. Take a look at the humorous clip above.

Posted in: ufc, machida, art, features parodies, arts movies

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Sherdog.com Administrative Editor Jordan Breen will host his weekly live mixed martial arts chat at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, jordan, arts chat

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Sherdog.com Administrative Editor Jordan Breen will host his weekly live mixed martial arts chat at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, jordan, arts chat

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A minister in the Conservative government says changing the Criminal Code to allow mixed martial arts is a reasonable and necessary reform.

Posted in: art, government, support, code, minister

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A minister in the Conservative government says changing the Criminal Code to allow mixed martial arts is a reasonable and necessary reform.

Posted in: art, government, code, minister, reform

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It appears that New Yorkers will have to wait at least another year to see mixed martial arts regulated in The Empire State.

Posted in: art, state, york, bill, state assembly

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The hope for legal mixed martial arts in the state of New York once again is on hold for another year.

Posted in: mma, year, art, state, york

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Another year and once again mixed martial arts fans in New York will have to wait for the sport to arrive at Madison Square Garden... or anywhere else in the state for that matter. Retweet this Share on Facebook • Email • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Digg • Technorati • Instapaper • Tumblr • Google Reader • LinkedIn

Posted in: bull, arts fans, matter retweet, art, york

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Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler is the best 155-pound fighter in mixed martial arts that no one seems to talk about.

Posted in: bellator, chandler, michael, evolution, art

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Vermont lawmakers have made their state the 46th to regulate mixed martial arts.

Posted in: art, state, vermont, lawmaker

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Las Vegas, Nevada – The Ultimate Fighting Championship® applauds the lawmakers of the state of Vermont following the successful vote of a bill to regulate Mixed Martial Arts, which recently passed through the Vermont Legislature. “The Green Mountain State” becomes the 46th in the U.S. to approve the fastest-growing sport in the world.  “Vermont’s legislation of the sport of MMA is further evidence of the continued growth and success of our sport in this country,” said UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. “We are pleased that fans in Vermont will now have the opportunity to watch a live UFC event in their own backyard, and look forward to making that happen.” “We are thrilled with the state of Vermont becoming the 46th state to regulate the sport of Mixed Martial Arts,” said Marc Ratner, UFC Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs. “We look forward to working with their athletic commission in forming the rules and regulations of this great sport.” The UFC has led the way in helping the sport of mixed martial arts gain regulation in the U.S. Only New York and Connecticut remain unregulated, while Alaska and Wyoming lack the necessary regulatory bodies to oversee the sport. 

Posted in: ufc, sport, art, state, vermont

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Former hockey enforcer Derek (The Lion) Parker is has transitioned to mixed martial arts and will compete at MFC 33 on Friday.

Posted in: art, parker, hockey, lion parker, enforcer

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It was an extraordinarily busy week in the world of mixed martial arts and UFC CENTRAL breaks down all the action.

Posted in: ufc, week, art, saga, silvasonnen saga

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on DstryrSG, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Russian All-Round Fighting (RAF) is a hybrid martial art consisting of various Russian and Soviet fighting and martial systems. There are a number of martial arts styles and schools of Russian origin. Traditional Russian fist fighting has existed since the 1st millennium A.D. and for a time was outlawed, however, it has seen a resurgence after the break-up of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era, the government wanted to create both military hand-to-hand combat systems and combat sports. RAF has influences from European martial arts - Fighting, combat, wrestling, martial and sport systems and styles from ancient and medieval times to more recent eras Sambo - Including the combat and sport variations Storm Fighting - MMA style fighting for competition Street fighting - Offensive in addition to merely defensive techniques Folk styles - Influenced by folk games, events and competition, such as fisticuffs and mass fighting RAF combines the best elements of several martial arts for sport and combat. The philosophy behind RAF is to combine the best of the best so the practitioner becomes a complete fighter. The aggressiveness of the system, it's offensive (rather then self-defense) orientation can be considered as the part of the RAF philosophy as well. As you can see here, RAF encompasses many disciplines including native folk wrestling/grappling, knife/stick and empty hand. Read More and Watch the Video...

Posted in: sport, art, combat, russian, raf

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Reigning UFC Welterweight champion Georges "Rush" St. Pierre appeared on CNN, talking about his past experienced with school bullies, and the violent image of Mixed Martial Arts. GSP is expected to make his return later this year, facing the interim champ Carlos Condit for the undisputed UFC Welterweight title. Further Reading: Submit your picks for upcoming MMA

Posted in: pierre, george, art, cnn talks, arts gsp

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UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner will serve as chairman of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation's newly-formed technical committee. IMMAF officials recently announced the formation of the committee, as well as Ratner's involvement. "I'm very honored to work with the IMMAF and help with formulating guidelines and instituting the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts throughout the world," Ratner stated. "As the chairman of the technical committee, our mission will be to have the same rules and medical standards wherever MMA is happening."

Posted in: art, ratner, committee, immaf, world ratner

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UFC Octagon Girl Brittney Palmer is chugging right along in the world of art, brandishing a recent painting of UFC President Dana White on her official website. Props: Terez Owens

Posted in: ufc, palmer, brittney, octagon, art

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There are a number of Vietnamese fighters competing at an elite level of mixed martial arts (MMA) with former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le the most notable, although Nam Phan is also on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster and Bao Quach and Tyson Nam have enjoyed success with some mid-tier organizations. All of these fighters were either born in the United States or, like Le, moved there at a very early age and have represented their adopted countries throughout their career. There has yet to be a homegrown Vietnamese fighter but in Hanoi, one man is working hard to change that. Long Van Nguyen is the owner of Vietfighter, which is home to a number of ex pats as well as locals who all train together in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Muay Thai, boxing and, of course, MMA. Find out after the break why he believes that the sport is just starting to catch on in Vietnam and has a lot of potential to grow. Are there many MMA camps or people training MMA in Vietnam?As of right now there are only a handfull of MMA gyms in Vietnam, however most of them popped up just over the course of last year. Just like everywhere else in Asia new MMA gyms are popping up more and more. The actual number of Vietnamese training MMA is low, however I do see more and more people training MMA and wanting to train MMA everyday. Hopefully as MMA become more popular, more experienced MMA trainers will come to Vietnam to constantly improve the level of MMA training in Vietnam. There are quite a few Vietnames, or second generation Vietnamese fighters doing well in the US such as Cung Le and Nam Phan, do they get any recognition in Vietnam? Cung Le and Nam Phan are only known within the hardcore fight sport and MMA fan community in Vietnam. But it is very hard to be well known as an athlete in Vietnam unless you are a famous soccer player anyway. Within the hardcore MMA fan base in Vietnam, these guys especially Nam Phan do provide some inspirations as they show that Vietnamese can be good MMA fighters and reach the highest level like the UFC. How many people train at your school and what sort of backgrounds do they typically come from? At Vietfighter gym right now we have about 40 who train regularly and more who come occasionally. Our members come from all over the world, including USA, Canada, Australia, Portugal, France, Germany, Holland, Japan and of course there are many Vietnamese. Every training session at Vietfighter gym is a bit like a United Nation conference hahaha. We have people who are local students and local professional people, foreign English teachers, foreign professionals and diplomats as we are in the capital city of Vietnam. How often do you train together? As MMA is very new to Vietnam, most of our members are complete beginners so we really do concentrate on training the fundamentals of MMA such as striking (Muay Thai and boxing) and wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So we spend most of our times training these fundamental bases. So we train striking six days a week and BJJ/grappling three times a week, and of course doing conditioning trainings about three times a week. Once some one is good enough at these fundamentals we move them onto the MMA class. Do you have any fighters ready for MMA competition? At Vietfighter Gym right now we have 2 guys that could fight MMA, they were about to fight in the NAKSU MMA promotion in Thailand last year, but their fights were cancelled because of the floods. We did have Jake Butler who was an American NCAA division 1 wrestler who begun training MMA with us last year and is now contracted with ONE FC and will make his professional MMA debut for ONE FC soon. What other martial arts are popular in Vietnam?Vietnam does have its own native martial arts like Vovinam. They are quite popular . The martial arts that are in the Olympic or are in international competitions like the ASEAN games like Taekwondo, Judo, Karate, Wushu Pencak Silat and western boxing are quite well known as they are promoted and publicized by the government. I see your fighters have entered a few BJJ tournaments, who teaches BJJ at your school and how qualified are the students? The Vietfighter BJJ team right now consist of two experienced blue belts and a few experienced white belts and more beginner white belts. The blue belts take the classes and some times we have purple belts who come to the gym for a few weeks who contribute to the classes. We all train together and help each other improve. As the team leader I always encourage the team to go to as many of the BJJ/grappling tournaments in the region as much as possible so that we can test our skills against the bigger gyms in the region and to just get more competition experiences so that we can improve. There is no BJJ competition in Vietnam so we all must go overseas to compete and this cost a lot of money but we make this sacrifice because we want to test ourselves in competitions and to improve, and of course to win medals! And even though we are always the smallest team at the tournaments we always win quite a few medals at tournaments like the Thailand BJJ open and the Phillipines BJJ open! Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your own background in martial arts? My name is Long Van Nguyen, I am a Vietnamese-new Zealander. As well as being a martial artist and trainer, I have a university medical degree and was working as a medical doctor in some of the biggest hospital in Australia for seven years. I have been training in martial arts since I was 17. I got into Muay Thai while I was studying to become a medical doctor at university, and really loved it.I really like the martial art side of it and the competition fighting side of it. I had a few Muay Thai fights and then discovered BJJ and MMA and just really love how it all make sense and how it really work in real life and how I can still incorporate Muay Thai into it. As I love martial arts and competition and fighting I was really drawn to MMA because of its diversities of techniques and the fact that you could go out and compete and see who really is the best. I have had fights in Muay Thai and Boxing and MMA and lots of BJJ competitions. When I was in New Zealand and Australia I was fortunate enough to have trained at some of the best gyms in those countries with some great coaches like Mark Hampton who is like the maker of fight champions in New Zealand, Phillip Bennett who is one of the best Muay Thai fighter in the world and Larry Papadopoulos who is like the god-father of Australian MMA. I learned a lot about how to train and how to fight from these guys. Two years ago I came back to the land of my birth to open the Vietfighter Gym with the aim of educating Vietnamese about MMA and Muay Thai and BJJ and to grow these martial arts and sports that I love in Vietnam. Do you feel like there is a lot of potential for MMA to grow in Vietnam? Yeah I believe that there is a huge potential for MMA to grow in Vietnam. Right now there are more and more people who are asking about MMA even though there is no exposure to MMA in Vietnamese media and most of the MMA media is in English and most Vietnamese cannot read or speak English. Once there is more exposure to MMA, it will grow very fast. This is part of Vietfighter Gym’s mission statement, to educate Vietnamese about MMA and to grow the sport. Vietnamese also like martial arts and fighting so yeah they will like it once they are more exposed to it. In term of Vietnam producing its own home grown MMA fighters, I believe it is a few years away. However as we can see from examples like Nam Phan that Vietnamese fighters can do well in MMA if they can have access to good trainings. This is one of the purpose of Vietfighter Gym, our primary goal is to bring high quality MMA training to Vietnam and one day produce Vietnamese MMA world champions who are born, raised and trained in Vietnam. For more information about Vietfighter visit: www.vietfighter.com www.twitter.com/jamesgoyder

Posted in: mma, training, art, vietnam, vietnamese

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submitted by Like_Wild_Potato [link] [comment]

Posted in: art, kennedy, tim kennedy, likewildpotato, likewildpotato link

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Every morning while I stand groggily in my kitchen and wait for my Keurig to brew a cup of café bustelo I experience the roughest three minutes of my life. As great as the $200 piece of single mug coffee brewing kitchen machinery is-it just isn’t fast enough. Three minutes is an eternity at 5am and it is about three times longer than it would take most of you guys to accidentally release your baby making butter if Ronda Rousey ever gave you a shot at the panties title. Those three minutes I spend waiting to wrap my fist around the handle of my espresso filled mug and bicep curl that hot liquid filled mug up to my eagerly awaiting mouth...(pause) those three minutes are nothing compared to Art Davie’s XARM challenge. XARM is the roughest three minutes of life for people who are a whole lot more hardcore than you or I. If you don't know what XARM is well its a challenge created by none other than Art Davie-one of the original founders of the UFC. XARM is a cross between arm wrestling and martial arts-performed at a table. According to a press release from Art Davie,  XARM is looking for a few more people to take part in a reality type series to be featured on machinima.com. It will be a boot camp style training show that ends with the participants fighting on June 24, 2012. "I need nine more tough guys. The reality series for Machinima is being taped next month and the fighters we train will fight on June 24, 2012 at Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California." "The 24 fighters are going to be put through an intense “boot camp” for three days in May.  The boot camp and the event will be filmed and shown on Machinima, which has become the hottest entertainment network on the Internet. Fighters who want to go to the boot camp and become a star, should call booker/matchmaker Tedd Williams today. We’re looking for guys from 145lbs. to 265lbs. And we want girls too. Williams can be reached at 760-403-6529 or teddewilliams@aol.com" Don't think that just because you spend countless hours a day working out your forearms fapping to every half naked picture of a girl (or guy?) posted on the UG that you might have what it takes to make it in the sport of XARM. It is definitely going to require a bit more athleticism and explosiveness than that. If you have no idea what it might be like, check out this intro video created last last year for a great inside look at this sports awesome brutality.   

Posted in: guy, minute, art, xarm, boot camp

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Ask Eddie Alvarez how quickly the tables can turn in mixed martial arts.

Posted in: alvarez, aoki, eddie alvarez, eddie, art

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In mixed martial arts, there is no feeling quite like that of the emphatic knockout.

Posted in: knockout, art, feeling, rick hawn, lloyd woodard

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While legislators are still bitching about mixed martial arts (MMA) regulation in New York, the state of Connecticut has been quietly funneling its bill for legalization through the legislative committees over the last two months. Next stop: Senate, House and ultimately, the Governor. Keep those fingers crossed, Maniacs, or continue to suffer through MMA purgatory at the Native American-regulated Mohegan Sun. Props: Sherdog.com

Posted in: mma, art, senate house, mma purgatory, legislator

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Regulated mixed martial arts could be on its way to the state of Connecticut.

Posted in: art, connecticut, connecticut legislature, mma bill, legislature

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Mixed martial arts historians might someday look back at April 13, 2012 as the night Eduardo Dantas’ star was born.

Posted in: danta, eduardo, art, strau, arts historians

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An international standard for amateur mixed martial arts may be on the way, as it was announced Thursday that a non-profit, Sweden-based organization aims to work toward MMA’s inclusion in the Olympic Games.

Posted in: mma, art, olympic, mma federation, swedenbased organization

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The dream of seeing Mixed Martial Arts competition included in the Olympics may be closer than you think thanks to the creation of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation. The newly formed board’s goal is, as stated on their website, “To further the development and recognition of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, enabling international competition through the organization of national MMA federations around the world.” Specifically the process will involve educating the public and creating a system of rules/safety measures consistently applied regardless of region. Having MMA recognized by the Olympics is also a goal of the IMMAF, calling such status the “ultimate achievement and highest formal recognition possible for any sport.” The UFC has already gotten on board with the IMMAF in hopes of seeing international events regulated as stringently as those in the United States, even allowing the organization to maintain a presence at this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 2 event in Sweden. “In order to maintain the successful growth of our sport, it is important to invest in resources that will develop and cultivate it at an amateur level. Having an umbrella organization that will oversee and help build the sport on a global level will not only provide advanced and ever-improving safety standards but will also create a unified global model to help introduce the sport to new markets,” said UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta in an official press release on the matter. “It is our hope that it will also take us one step closer to witnessing the inclusion of the sport of MMA on the Olympic program.” Though it will be years before fans ever see their favorite fighter winning a gold medal for his/her MMA prowess it looks like the first step on that journey has taken place. PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Posted in: ufc, mma, sport, art, olympic

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Thursday, a new non-profit organization, the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, was announced in Sweden and got the backing of the UFC.

Posted in: ufc, art, thursday, federation, arts federation

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Leave it up to the bleeding-heart liberals in the Land of Fruits and Nuts (i.e., California) to try to force their over-intrusive big government “fairness” down our collective gullet. First they took away our right to own our own f*cking pets. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now they’re proposing to not only force MMA promoters to stop handcuffing fighters into exploitative contracts, but also force contributions to a pension fund so that they’ll be taken care of when they’ve lost their ability to amuse us by sustaining brain damage. Pshaw! FightOpinion has the lowdown on Assembly Bill 2100, amended on April 9 by California State Legislator Luis Alejo: AB 2100 authorizes the State Athletic Commission to revoke or refuse to renew the license of any mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter in California that participates in coercive and unfair contracting practices. This bill also extends the scope of the Boxers’ Pension Plan to include professional MMA fighters licensed in California. First, let’s take a look at the anti-coercion section of the bill, which has become known in legal circles as the “F*ck Zuffa Clause”: The commission shall revoke or refuse to renew the license of any mixed martial arts promoter that enters into a contract with a mixed martial arts fighter in the state of California if the contract contains one or more coercive provisions. A contract provision shall be considered coercive to the extent that it does any of the following: (1) Assigns any future merchandising rights to a promoter beyond the term of the promotional contract. (2) Automatically renews the contract or extends the term without good faith, arms-length negotiation. (3) Grants the promoter a right to match the terms of a competing offer or contract. (4) Grants the promoter a right to enter into exclusive negotiations with a mixed martial arts fighter. (5) Restricts a mixed martial arts fighter from sponsoring another firm, product, or individual. (6) Requires a mixed martial arts fighter to relinquish any legal claims for negligence that the fighter has, or may acquire in the future, against the promoter. (7) Restricts a mixed martial arts fighter from contracting with another promoter. (8) Requires a mixed martial arts fighter to forfeit any rights as a condition precedent to the fighter’s participation in a contest. No word yet on whether Zuffa intends to pull a Zuffa and sue California for the theft of its official fighter contract form, which Alejo photocopied onto construction paper before writing “ILLEGAL” in red crayon and pointing at the text with a giant arrow accompanied by some doodles of Jon Fitch. California also wants to extend its Boxers’ Pension Fund to MMA fighters, and in order to get the money, they’re planning on collecting a 5% tax on TV revenues from MMA fights - sound familiar? The rest after the jump read more

Posted in: fighter, contract, art, california, promoter

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Fightville exposes many of the unknown truths within the world of mixed martial arts.

Posted in: showdown, life, review, art, fightville

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The day we've all been waiting for has finally arrived: the sketchbag jerkwads who ran K-1 into the ground have officially fallen on their swords. While I'm still not completely sold on the claim that the new K-1 owners are really new K-1 owners, it still made me smile to read the resignation letter of Sadaharu Tanigawa, who was responsible for the non-payment of over a dozen fighters. Via Sportsnavi, semi-unscrambled by Google Translate: The apology acknowledged the unpaid fight money "financing goes gradually getting worse, I had ballooned rapidly unpaid" in a statement and, to the persons concerned "and I'm truly sorry." K-1 for the future is "K-1 Global Holdings" of Kenichi Fri Korean investors, in charge of Mr. Kazuyoshi Ishii, K-1 founder the world of professional tournament amateur division was recently announced Then things. In addition, it will continue to deal with "K-1 Global Holdings, Inc." for unpaid debt of FEG, to the players. 　Tanigawa himself "I am in a position to produce the K-1 is no longer" and resigned from the K-1 event producer. "I think trying to pass the baton to the next generation." While leaving a lingering "in the K-1 has a fondness stronger than anyone, so I want to revive well, can cooperate is ...... but I will" and declared a parting with. 　However, that started to launch martial arts event new "and I think be able to give back even a little to some of the people who have the inconvenience guns, my future is going to create a content Martial Arts" New Akashi, but I think that even more expected "We are confident initiative has been completed already, to be clear, and this can be a revolutionary new world martial arts. Will it be a revolutionary martial art where the fighters get paid, you weasel's scrotum? You monkey's anus? Will this revolution involve you dancing in an alleyway for 100 yen coins until you can afford to pay back all the money you owe, you offal drinker? くそったれ

Posted in: art, sportsnavi semiunscrambled, players 　 tanigawa, dozen fighters, day weve

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Check out this great mini-documentary from Roots of Fight on Bruce Lee's impact on modern MMA. It includes vintage footage of Lee, plus interviews with Eddie Bravo, Ralek Gracie and Paul Lazenby.

Posted in: art, bravo, bruce, lee, arts check

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on DstryrSG, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] In the wake of the tragic accident that occurred last week, the Gracie Brothers explain precisely how Stephen Arceneaux III was choked to death by his younger cousin with hopes of educating our youth about the serious risks of practicing jiu-jitsu techniques, chokes in particular, without proper training and supervision. On Sunday, April 1, 2012, a Louisiana man was choked to death by his younger cousin. Stephen A. Arceneaux III, a 24-year-old from Destrehan, was pronounced dead at 10:39 p.m. Sunday night, April 1, 2012. The two were at a house party and began wrestling around on an inflated mattress when the 14-year-old, 110 lbs. younger cousin placed Arceneaux in a Rear Naked Choke. After 30-40 seconds, witnesses noticed Arceneaux was turning blue so the choke was released. Arceneaux's girlfriend tried unsuccessfully to revive him before he was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. With the surge in popularity of MMA/BJJ almost every teen or adult can recognize a guillotine or rear naked choke. These moves are not new, they've existed for literally thousands of years and for thousands of years men, women and children have been killed or maimed by random "horseplay." (No not the kind you paid to see in Tijuana.) In Martial arts, in particular the grappling arts, opponents have one job - neutralize the attacker by any means. Breaking, choking and killing are what these arts are about and if your naive enough to think anything different I suggest you quit right now because you pose serious threat to yourself and everyone around you. It's with this knowledge that martial artists/grapplers have an intimate understanding of the possibilities and the end result. This knowledge allows us to work within these confines and reduce bodily harm as much as possible (the loose definition of safety.) As with any sport or physical activity there are inherent risks involved and participants must thoroughly understand what negative outcomes may lie ahead. How do we gain this knowledge? - Through learning and experience. Mixed martial arts and grappling have become an entertainment platform that reaches millions of people world wide. Everyone that is exposed to these arts are somehow influenced by them, whether its in adoration, hate, entertainment or passion. In my opinion there are two ways to learn - by seeing or by experiencing. We are influenced by both. We can "see" something happen by various means, whether that be auditory, tactile or visual. When we experience something first hand it encompasses all of our senses as well as teaching us the mechanics and sensitivity needed to accomplish the particular action. It's a fact that both children and adults watch sports, movies, play video games, and we are all somehow influenced by them. Every year hundreds of adults and children are killed and injured while participating in main stream sports while utilizing all of the safety precautions possible. At the same time hundreds are killed or injured by pure ignorance and lack of knowledge of the "end result." For years kids have wrestled with each-other emulating there favorite Pro Wrestler, movie hero or sports icon. Without the proper knowledge and explanation of realistic consequences, the idea of safely participating disappears. How would we expect anyone to know how dangerous something is unless it was clearly stated to us. We gain knowledge by seeing and experiencing and it is human nature to experiment and replicate actions especially if we want to further understand them. I can almost guarantee that everyday someone dies due to emulating something they saw. It could be racing your car down the highway, backyard wrestling, climbing a tree, or grappling with your friend or family member. By understanding the inherent risks we decide our level of participation within them. Those that lack the knowledge can and will always replicate the actions of others with the increased risk of harm or death. So, how do we solve this this problem? I don't know. As most things in life, knowledge is key. So, if parents, guardians and peers lack the understanding and appreciation of martial arts or sports then it's on the sports themselves to warn those that are ignorant of the end result. Martial arts are not a game; they are a means to an end, whether they are in a sport context or that of self defense. I, for one, love martial arts and I think everyone should experience them as an adult. But, as anything we do in life there are risks we take to accomplish those actions. I can only hope that this incident and public uproar doesn't further fuel the ignorance of those that call Martial arts and MMA inhumane and barbaric. We can only hope to educate those around us with the truth and hope they listen with an open mind and an open heart. The Gracie Breakdown...

Posted in: sport, year, art, knowledge, risk

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If there is one aspect of boxing that fans of mixed martial arts can be forgiven for being envious of it is the long and rich history it holds over its sibling. Theirs is a tradition that can recite the exploits of Hank Armstrong, Joe Louis, Willie Pep, and Sugar Ray Robinson, recall the glories of "The War", "The Fight of the Century", "The Rumble in the Jungle", and "The Long Count", and trace the lineage of the heavyweight title from Wladimir Klitschko today, all the way back to 1729, where James Figg, the recognized father of boxing, was the first man to ever be crowned champion. In comparison the history of mixed martial arts is practically nonexistent, its date of birth not three centuries ago but less than two decades. The most widely accepted and commonly told story for the origins of mixed martial arts is that it was introduced to the world on November 12, 1993, when Gerard Gordeau stepped into the cage against Teila Tull at the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship. As this version of the story goes, thanks to an inspired Rorion Gracie and Art Davies, for the first time - or at least the first time in modernity - two disparate styles of martial arts were pitted against each other in a contest of unarmed combat that allowed for both grappling and striking and where victory could be attained by either rendering your opponent unconscious through blows or by forcing them to surrender from a submission hold. The sport, which was originally referred to as "no holds barred" (since the name mixed martial arts wouldn't be coined until 1995) and for which rules were practically nonexistent eventually became known as MMA and no rules gave way to Unified, a transformation not unlike that seen in boxing when London Prizefighting gave way to the Marquis of Queensbury rules. That this creation myth for MMA would prove to be not completely accurate should come as no surprise, for when one uses the definition given above it becomes obvious that the Ultimate Fighting Championship was not where modern mixed martial arts was born, that it had been in existence for some time before then. The question therefore becomes "if mixed martial arts was not born at UFC 1, when was it"? How far back can one trace its lineage while still being able to give it the name mixed martial arts? Looking to the past we find several examples of what can easily be labeled as mixed martial arts contests: the "rough-and-tumble" fighting of the American frontiers, the early pugilism of James Figg, and, most famously, the pancration of the the ancient Greeks, an Olympic sport that combined boxing and wrestling and which called for competitors to win by pummeling or grappling their opponent into submission. Each of these fit the definition of mixed martial arts given above and yet from none of them did modern mixed martial arts descend. Just as the pugilism of the ancient Babylonians and Greeks did not give us modern boxing, each had divergently evolved on their own. What was introduced at the Ultimate Fighting Championship was not a new sport but merely the renaming of a pre-existing one: vale tudo. Portuguese for "anything goes", vale tudo was and is a combative sport with a tradition that goes back years in Brazil. During its most popular periods fights would be held before teeming stadium crowds and broadcast on national television. It was also, with the exception of the Octagon, indistinguishable from those early UFC fights. [EN1] Vale tudo contests had been taking place for decades in Brazil with its most storied fighter being Rorion's father Helio, often credited as the originator of both vale tudo and mixed fighting. While this is for the most part more of the "Gracie myth", there is a kernel of truth in it, for Helio participated in a fight that may have been the first to ever be publicly billed as a "vale tudo" match. In February of 1935, a 22-year-old Helio faced off against Orlando Americo da Silva, better known as Dudu the Brazilian Luta-Livre champion. Dudu had originally been booked a couple of months earlier against Helio's brother George Gracie in a luta livre grappling contest (Brazilian catch-as-catch-can), but George refused to fight when Dudu and the referee insisted upon allowing forearm blows. Seeing an opportunity to reaffirm the superiority of his own brand of Jiu-Jitsu (George was feuding with his brothers at the time) Carlos issued a challenge on behalf of his younger brother Helio against the "giant" Dudu. The "grudge match" was held inside a boxing ring at the Estadio Brasil, and was set to be for no more than 5 twenty minute rounds with only hair-pulling, eye-gouging, and groin attacks banned. It began with the 66 kg Helio throwing a front kick to the 88 kg Dudu's face, knocking out two of his teeth. Dudu countered by immediately taking Helio down, who fought back ferociously with punches, knees, and elbow. A bloodied Dudu retaliated with head-butts, breaking Helio's nose. Eventually the two returned to their feet, where Helio was able to catch his opponent with a kick to body, breaking two of Dudu's ribs and forcing him to concede the match after 19 minutes of brutal action. Dudu was reported to have urinated blood afterwards. [EN2] While this contest may have been the first legitimate prizefight to be called "vale tudo", it was not the first "anything goes" mixed fight to take place in Brazil. Nor was it even Helio's first such match. [EN3] Helio's first professional prizefight was at an event promoted by his brother Carlos at the Coliseo Internacional in Rio de Janiero, on January 16, 1932. It was an evening of boxing versus jiu-jitsu matches, billed as "Lutas Mistas" (which translates to"Mixed Fight"), in which the competitors wore four-ounce gloves. Headlined by the Japanese jiu-jitsu fighter Geo Omori and the pugilist and wrestler Taveres Crespo, a skinny 19-year-old Helio fought on the preliminaries against the boxer Antonio Portugal whom he took down and submitted by armbar inside of one minute. [EN4]Even this was by no means the first such mixed fight held in Brazil, which was experiencing something of prizefighting craze at this time. Mark Hewitt described this fight scene in his book, "Catch Wrestling: Round Two": "By the late 1920s and early 1930s, there was a lively professional combat sports circuit flourishing in Brazil. Contests were held under various styles including boxing, jiu-jitsu, capoeira, and both luta livre and luta Romana styles of wrestling. Luta Romana was the same as Greco-Roman wrestling, while luta livre was the Brazilian version of catch-as-catch-can with more of an emphasis on winning by submission rather than a pinfall. Occasionally, special mixed matches, pitting one stylist against another were held. This usually involved a jiu-jitsu export facing a boxer, a wrestler, or a capoeirista." Joao Baldi, Tico Soledade, Jayme Martins Ferreira, Roberto Ruhman, Omori , Crespo, Dudu, and Helio's older brothers Carlos, Oswald, and George all rose to prominence competing in these mixed matches, many of which were held under "anything goes" rules. One example of such a contest involved an unnamed Japanese fighter (most likely Geo Omori) and a large Bahaian in San Paulo in 1928. "The fight was important, not because the contestants were famous, but because they used different and interesting styles of wrestling. The Bahian lout fought after the manner of Brazilian capoeira. This is the national style of fighting; it includes blows as well as grips" ..."after putting the Japanese on his back and trying to kick his head... the little oriental by the use of a Jiu Jitsu hold threw the Bahian and after a short struggle he was found sitting on the silent frame of the massive opponent." [EN5] The newspaper accounts could just as easily be describing the contest between Anderson Silva and Daijyu Takase at Pride 26 as they were a fight 75 years earlier. This leads us to ask: is there any reason to differentiate this match from later mixed martial arts contests? The very first mixed fight contest in Brazil can be traced to a match between a Japanese jiu-jitsu fighter named Miyako and capoerista named Cyriac in Rio de Janeiro in 1909. [EN6] While this contest contained all the elements that would later become identified with mixed martial arts (two different styles, the allowance for grappling and striking), the actual beginnings of that combat sport lies a few years later during the time of the First World War in Europe. It was then that a group of Japanese prizefighters were traveling the country issuing challenges to "take on all comers", challenges that were not only accepted by local wrestlers, boxers, and capoeiristas, but also lit the spark that eventually became vale tudo, Mista Luta, anything goes, no holds barred, mixed martial arts, or whatever you wish to call it. Amongst these founding fathers of Brazilian MMA were the Judokas Matsuyo Maeda, Soishiro Satake, and Tokoguro Ito, friends and former members of the Kodokan who had been traveling the professional fight circuit off-and-on together for years. Satake might hold the honor of being the member of their troupe to participate in the first such "anything goes" mixed fight in Brazil, when he faced and defeated the capoeirista Pé de Bol on November 7th, 1915. While this fight was preceded by Cyriac's and Miyako's contest, it should probably be remembered as the match that ushered in vale tudo to Brazil for it was soon followed by similar fights by his fellow Japanese prizefighters. Even more importantly, this practice was continued by their students and the various circus promoters they had worked with and introduced the idea to. So is this the origin for mixed martial arts? In Brazil, most likely, but a contemporary newspaper account of a match between Tokoguro Ito and the wrestler Eddie Robinson suggests that the answer to the birthplace lies elsewhere: "Robinson started out by jabbing Ito three times straight in the face... Before the first bout was two minutes old, blood was flowing from Ito's nose...Ito locked his legs around the white man and began to 'scissor' him. Next he got a strangle hold, using Robinson's neck cloth as a tourniquet, and slowly forced the American into submission by the process of strangulation." [EN7] That match took place to Seattle, Washington in 1909 in the United States. It is in the states that the next part of our investigation goes to find not only the origins of mixed martial arts but also the very date it was born. END NOTES: EN 1: For an example of how closely these pre Ultimate Fighting Championship resembled the fighting of later mixed martial arts contest watch the Desafio event from 1991 in Rio De Janeiro or Rickson Gracie and Casimiro de Nascimento Martins vale tudo matches. EN 2: "Catch Wrestling: Round 2," Mark Hewitt, Paladin Press 2009. EN 3: I describe a few of Helio's other contests from this time in The Martial Chronicles: Tonight in Strikeforce Roger Gracie Continues the Family Tradition by Facing King Mo. EN 4: "MMA to return to Brazilian roots with UFC 134" by Dave Meltzer and research posted by Mark Hewitt. EN 5: There are three sources for this match: The October 4, 1928 Seattle, Washington Japanese-American Courier, the September 24th 1928 Time Magazine, and the September 12, 1928 New York Times (the headline: "Jiu Jitsu Beats Brazilian Capoeira; Diminutive Japanese Conquers Huge Negro in Contest at Sao Paulo") EN 6: These early days are covered in The Martial Chronicles: Jiu-Jitsu Brings Mixed Martial Arts to Brazil. En 7: Reported by Portus Baxter in the September 3, 1909 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Reprinted in "Tokugoro Ito" by Joseph R. Svinth. IMAGES "Rickson Gracie versus Zulu" "Hélio Gracie com 22 anos" via tonyferraz.files.wordpress.com "Helio Gracie, Numa Soperba Demonstracåo De Coragem e Technica, Triumphou Sobre Dudu" via blogimages.thescore.com "Four Kings of Cuba: Ono, Satake, Ito and Maeda"

Posted in: fight, contest, art, dudu, helio

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Three Canadian mixed martial arts promoters have joined forces to create the Aggression Fighting Championship.

Posted in: championship, force, canadian, art, arts promoters

Read the full article at sportsnet.ca

No one really knows what to expect when the curtain closes on the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. In a perfect world, both Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier would catapult into the UFC. But this isn't a perfect world, and Zuffa's particular brand of justice can at times be a little skewed. It's been over ten years since Barnett tested positive for a bonanza of banned substances and was stripped of the UFC heavyweight title, and in that time "The Warmaster" and Dana White haven't exactly had the most loving relationship. Dana criticizes Josh for failing three drug tests, Josh offers to pee in Dana's mouth; hey, these things happen in MMA. But if we've learned anything over the past couple years, it's that money is the great equalizer in the fight game, and if an athlete can sell tickets, it's a whole lot easier for past sins to be forgotten. 5 MUST-READ STORIES Dana White opens door for Josh Barnett's return to UFC. White revealed that Josh Barnett can re-enter the UFC if he defeats Daniel Cormier and wins the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. All-access: fight day with Bjorn Rebney. Mike Chiappetta shadows Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney during last Friday's Bellator 63 event for an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the burgeoning fight promotion. K-1 announces 2012 Grand Prix in New York City. K-1 officials announced a full schedule of seven major events planned for 2012, capped by December's K-1 World GP Final in New York City. Nick Diaz slated for BJJ super-fight. Retired UFC welterweight contender Nick Diaz will compete in a BJJ super-fight against an undetermined opponent at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo on May 12 in Long Beach, CA. Pat Lundvall responds to statements by King Mo. NSAC Commissioner Pat Lundvall finally commented on her infamous confrontation with former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal. MEDIA STEW Apparently Fedor wasn't the first one to try his hand at sumo wrestling. Check out this footage of Alistair Overeem obliterating the Ultimate Sumo Championship 2011, against a lineup that included Minowaman (!) and Wanderlei Silva (!!). (Somebody needs to send us video of Wanderlei's match. Right now.) Georges St. Pierre checked in from knee rehab with the latest installment of his Road to Recovery series. And if you're curious, that thing GSP is running on is a nifty anti-gravity treadmill. (Still confused? Here's how it works.) Missing for too long, has been Mike Goldberg's specialized brand of English, Joe. (HT: Reddit) Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson blew people away with his spectacular UFC debut against Dan Stittgen. Now the UFC has uploaded a behind-the-scenes look at the guy with the ridiculous 69-0 fighting record. (HT: Bloody Elbow) This was just posted on Fedor's Facebook page (which is presumably managed by M-1). Not saying it means anything. Just saying. (HT: Reddit) NOTHING LIKE AN ADCC CHAMPION TO HELP YOUR SUBMISSION GAME Forget about my last post about competing. Instead, I'm heading to Oregon to help the UFC MW Champ get ready for his title fight in Brazil. — Vinny Magalhaes (@VinnyMMA) April 3, 2012 THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW THESE THINGS Fedor. RT @FistMeetFace: @danhendo who hits harder -- Fedor or Shogun? — Dan Henderson (@danhendo) April 3, 2012 Tough call. RT @Rflint_Kumo: @danhendo who hits harder Fedor or Wanderlei. — Dan Henderson (@danhendo) April 4, 2012 FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS Announced yesterday (Tuesday, April 3, 2012): - UFC 145: Matt Wiman (14-6) out, John Alessio (34-14) in against Mark Bocek (10-4) - UFC on FX 4: Sam Stout (17-7-1) vs. Spencer Fisher (24-8), according to Sportsnet - Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final: Virgil Zwicker (10-2) vs. Guto Inocente (5-0) - Dubai Fighting Championship 1: Ricco Rodriguez (48-17) vs. Stav "Crazy Bear" Economou (12-2-1) FANPOST OF THE DAY Today's Fanpost of the Day is a fantastic technical breakdown, courtesy of Bloody Elbow's Kyokushin Guy: The Takeaways Of A Judo Background. Part 3 To get on with this article's topic, I could oversimplify the entire discussion and state that Ne Waza is the same in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but there really is a lot more to the story than that. When you look at Judo and how it was intended to work as a Martial Art, you see that it aspired to be as complete as any grappling art could hope. Using as little opposing force as possible, the practitioner would have to first throw his opponent to the ground, and if said opponent survived the fall or was still conscious, follow up on the ground in order to end the fight. This may very well have been the case in the late 19th century, but as the Art gained more and more followers in Japan, rules had to be put in place for formalized matches. Over the course of time, such rules included limiting the duration of bouts, awarding points for successful techniques, penalizing stalling, and so on. The focus, especially after Judo became an Olympic sport (the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo), seems to be making the matches as visually appealing as possible. This focus on Judo as an Olympic sport first and a Martial Art second is why ground fighting lacks the prominence it had, for example, in the days when Mitsuyo Maeda spread his art in Brazil. For a spectator to be able to enjoy a good "roll", he must first be aware of the complexity of Ne Waza, whereas throws, trips, takedowns are inherently spectacular, even if you have absolutely no idea how they're executed. As a result of this sad but simple truth, the ground game has been featured less and less over time, even on the most elite levels in Judo. Found something perfect for the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @shaunalshatti and we'll include it in tomorrow's post.

Posted in: ufc, fight, josh, art, judo

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القاهرة عقد لتوه انه مهرجان الفنون المعاصرة في وسط القاهرة بدأت يوم الخميس في الأسبوع الماضي، ويبدو وكأنه وقت ممتع حقا. من عروض الرقص، إلى العروض معرض للفنون التشكيلية أو حتى المهرجانات الرسوم المتحركة: كل شخص يمكن أن تجد وقتا طيبا هنا. احتدم الحزب كل عطلة نهاية الأسبوع، وكان حتى فرق موسيقى الجاز والصوتية فرق الروك مستقل يوم الجمعة. الانتقال الى القاهرة لعبت ليلة السبت ثم تستضيف سامبا دي جي، الذي يبدو باردا جدا، وبعد ذلك أداء الرقص في الشوارع من جميع انحاء العالم تجمعوا خارج يؤديها المصري و .... أيضا. أخيرا يوم الاحد جاء المهرجان لجمع التبرعات وثيق مع وأكثر من ذلك جاز. بدا الأمر كما لو كان وقتا ممتعا. وهنا بعض من الرقص في عطلة نهاية الأسبوع! [المصدر]

Posted in: art, festival, rawesome, arts festival, cairo

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Fans of mixed martial arts have three options for March 31, 2012. Events have been announced by Amazon Forest Combat, One FC 3 and WMMA. The Century Fighting Championship, featuring Matt Lee vs. Marcus Davis, that was originally scheduled for March 31 has been cancelled.

Posted in: vs, art, march, contributor, century

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Well, that's just spiffy. In an article on Fighters Only, they are reporting that the Thai government has banned MMA as "too brutal" and "damaging the image" of the nation's martial art. The Thai sports ministry ruled this week that MMA is "too brutal" and it is henceforth prohibited to stage MMA events in the South-East Asian country.Ministers said that mixed martial arts is "causing erosion" to the sport of Muay Thai and "damaging the image" of Thailand’s native martial art. However, there are those in the fledgling Thai MMA industry who think that the government may have been pressured or swayed by the Muay Thai industry. In fairness, the first commenter on FO asks for sources, as he didn't find any, and quite frankly, the only thing I'm finding when I search for it are other blog and MMA news sites reporting on this. If this is real and not an early April Fool's Day joke, then this would be a huge blow to the fledgling DARE and ONE FC organizations. Thailand is a country that loves itself some combat sport and quite frankly, Thai boxing is an integral component in MMA, and to have MMA banned in the home country of one of the chief martial arts would be discouraging to say the least. Assuming this is real, it'd be fairly ironic that a country that allows actual cock-fighting would ban the human version of it. While I'm pointing out the differing morality's, this is a nation where kids of single-digit-age train and compete in Muay Thai, and much of the nation lives in abject poverty. We'll be keeping an eye on this story and will post updates when more information becomes available.

Posted in: mma, nation, art, thai, muay thai

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Women's mixed martial arts is on the rise thanks to the epic battles turned in through the years by the likes of Gina Carano, Cris "Cyborg" Santos, Miesha Tate and dozens of other pioneers of the sport. While no date has been officially announced, the upcoming tilt...

Posted in: art, miesha tate, arts fights, rise thanks, epic battles

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From baseball to football to cycling, performance enhancement has long gone hand-in-hand with professional sports. Any athlete is always looking for ways to improve; it’s just a matter of how they go about it that makes the difference. And as long as there are professional sports, drug testing to try and expose athletes that try to gain an unfair advantage through chemistry will be a hot-button issue. Mixed martial arts, despite its relative newness, is no different.

Posted in: sport, athlete, art, mmaweeklycom, hotbutton issue

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The coverage of mixed martial arts by the Brazilian television network Rede Record has angered members of the fight community, and some are beginning to take action.

Posted in: coach, art, community, uniao, fight community

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In this series we've tracked the growth of two martial arts central in the creation of modern Mixed Martial Arts. Starting with the empty hand art of Jujitsu practiced by the Samurai and the grappling of European Knights in the Middle Ages to their modern renditions of Judo and Catch Wrestling. We followed the arts as they switched hemispheres to transform into modern fighting styles. Judo, molded in the hands of the Gracies, turned to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a gi based grappling style ideal for no holds barred fighting. And catch wrestling was transported to Japan by Karl Gotch, where it became the jacket-less fighting sport of Shooto. These two styles, unaware of each other, would finally collide in a match up in the making since the 1500s. By 1993, Rorion Gracie had been living in the United States fifteen years and in that time he had established a firm foothold for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Southern California. He had gone from teaching one-on-one lessons out of a garage to heading up an academy that was bursting at the seams with students. But this growth had been hard fought, literally. The established martial arts community in California was resistant to the this new comer, and Rorion had revived the Gracie Challenge to prove his art's worth. Even though the art was growing quickly east of the Rocky Mountains few Americans had even heard of Jiu Jitsu, much less had access to a school. The Gracies were also combating the American media's image of the martial artist being a striker training in an Eastern art. Fighting this pre-conception of the American people and proving that grapplers could compete and defeat strikers. Rorion wanted a way to show the whole United States how effective Brazilian Jiu Jitsu really was and thought of the televised Vale Tudo matches in Brazil. More MMA OriginsExploring Fight Sport's Ancient Roots | Getting Medieval | Vale Tudo and the Original MMA Rivalry | Carlson Gracie Changes Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo | Catch Wrestling Travels To Japan | American Experiments | Birth of Japanese MMA | Brazilian Warfare | The Gracie Challenge One of Rorion's students a film maker named John Milius, put the Brazilian in contact with a promoter named Art Davie. Together the three devised a show that would bring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the masses and named it the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Rorion firmly believed that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was the most effective martial art for real fighting, so he wanted the matches to be as close to a street confrontation as possible. He insisted there could be no time limits or rounds, but he was eventually talked down to an unlimited number of five minute rounds. Fights had to be won via knock out, submission or a corner throwing in the towel. Only a barebones set of rules were implemented: no groin shots, no eye gouging and no biting (groin shots would be legalized for the second UFC). The format would be a one night tournament featuring eight fighters, the winner getting a cash prize of fifty thousand dollars. The event would be held on Pay-Per-View TV for just under fifteen dollars. The details took a great deal of time to hammer out. At one point the tournament was called "The War of the Worlds" and the cage would have a moat around it filled with alligators. One detail that took a great deal of time to decide on was who would represent Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It did not seem like there should be much of a debate as Rickson was the clear choice. A veteran of both Vale Tudo and street fights, Rickson combined transcendent technique with impressive physical gifts together to overwhelm opponents. And the field that Rorion had assembled was not a group strip mall black belts. Art Jimmerson was a 26-5 professional boxer who had won an IBC Light Heavyweight Championship and fought for the NABF Light Heavyweight title. Kevin Rosier was a heavyweight kickboxing champion and knockout artist. Zane Frazier was a multiple time international Karate champion and a kickboxing champion at Super Heavyweight. Patrick Smith, an accomplished American kick boxer with black belts in Tae Kwon Do, Kenpo Karate, and Hapkido. And Gerard Gordeau, kick boxer from the Netherlands, was very skilled in Karate, French Savate and the Danish style of Muay Thai. While the Gracie's confidence against strikers was high, there is certainly a concern when faced with so many decorated strikers the experience and physical ability of Rickson would have be reassuring. But the Gracies decided that Rickson's physical appearance would not convey the message of technique defeating size that they wanted. It was decided the smaller and younger Royce Gracie would represent the Gracie family. So it was on November 12, 1993 with a huge Colorado snow storm looming over the arena, the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event took place on Pay-Per-View. The first fight of the night set the tone of what was to come when Gordeau faced off with Hawaiian born Sumo Wrestler Teila Tuli. The Hawaiian enjoyed a 200 lb advantage over the Dutchman and early in their match the sumo wrestler charged forward. Gordeau gave ground and threw a short uppercut that staggered Tuli, who fell against the cage. Gordau paused for the barest of moments and then threw a vicious soccer kick that sent Tuli's teeth flying into the crowd and followed it up with a smacking right hand. The referee leapt in, called time to allow a doctor to look at Tuli and the fight was stopped. (Gerard Gordau lands a head kick on the kneeling Teila Tuli) Even the commentating team made up of Bill Wallace for play-by-play, American female kickboxing great Kathy Long and NFL superstar Jim Brown was in momentary shock by the violence of the first match. This was unlike anything American audiences had seen before. Neither the Boxing vs Judo match of the 1960s nor Ali's fight with the Japanese Pro Wrestler had reached this level of violence, and this was just the opening seconds of the UFC. This was truly Vale Tudo, or No Holds Barred, fighting come to the United States. The next fight paired kick-boxers Kevin Rosier and Zane Frazier against each other in the UFC's first slobber-knocker of a stand up war. Frazier started strong, but after a few minutes both fighters faded and Rosier landed several overhand rights and finished the fight with head stomps. Next up was Royce against the boxer, Art Jimmerson who famously was allowed to wear one boxing glove into the Octagon. While many remember Royce as the clear underdog in this tournament, the commentary team was very educated in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and clearly predict that Jimmerson would be hurt by the limitations of boxing. (Royce Gracie takes the mount against Art Jimmerson) Jimmerson was also aware that Royce wanted to shoot for a takedown and Jimmerson, like so many strikers who took the Gracie challenge, froze in front of the Gracie and didn't throw strikes. Royce took the boxer down, and Jimmerson panicked and tapped out to the mount position. The final quarterfinal match featured Ken Shamrock, who was trained in Shoot-fighting, a direct evolution from the catch wrestling brought to Japan by the great catch wrestler Karl Gotch. Shamrock was easily able to take down the imposing Patrick Smith who, despite his claim that he felt no pain, screamed as he tapped out to Shamrock's heel hook. This set up a semi-final in which Brazilian Jiu Jitsu would come face to face with Shoot fighting for the first time. It is a true clash of MMA's most dominate early forms of fighting. Shamrock was clearly confident, believing that nobody at this event was anywhere near the level of competition that he faced in Japan in Pancrase matches. His shoot fighting style was a grappling style that did not use a gi, emphasized foot locks and was not focused on positional dominance. In short, it was very similar to the Luta Livre fighters that the Gracies had been battling for the better part of forty years. They had been adapting their martial art for years to deal with aggressive, catch wrestling based grapplers. Japanese shoot fighting was in its infancy and had never encounters an art as technical on the ground as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or one that placed such importance on position. So in the match when Royce pulled guard and Shamrock dropped for a foot lock, Royce was expecting the attack and used Shamrock's momentum to carry him to the mount position. This is a classic example of the idea of a fighter putting submission before position, Shamrock surrendered the top position in a hasty effort to lock up a submission. Then as Shamrock attempted to force his way to his feet, Royce flowed from his mount to side turtle and once Royce had his weight firmly on Shamrock, he locked up a gi choke to end the match. (Royce Gracie playing guard against Ken Shamrock at UFC 1) This first meeting between the Gracies and the Japanese influenced branch of Catch Wrestling went to the Gracies through superior preparation. Their losses against Luta Livre fighters had clearly born fruit here as Royce was clearly prepared for Shamrock's style of grappling. While very gracious in defeat, Shamrock was clearly baffled by what had just happened to him. In the other semi-final Gordeau quickly overwhelmed a tired Rosier, first with leg kicks and then with elbows for the stoppage. In the final match Royce was able to clinch with Gordeau, take him down and easily apply a rear naked choked for the win. Royce would hold on to the choke well after the tap, later saying that Gordeau had bitten his ear earlier in the fight and he wanted to teach the Dutchman a lesson. The UFC was a smashing success for Rorion Gracie, it inspired a whole generation of American martial arts to begin training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and turned Royce Gracie into an American martial arts icon. It had the unintended side effect of creating huge American interest in not just Jiu Jitsu but No Holds Barred fighting as well. It seemed for almost every one person that wanted to do Jiu Jitsu there was another who was more interested in No Holds Barred fighting. While UFC 1 sparked interest, in the mid-90s the promotion would remain little more than a very elite tough man competition when compared with what was happening in Japan and Brazil.

Posted in: jitsu, gracie, art, jiu, royce

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While the UFC has dominated mixed martial arts for the better part of the past two decades, there are smaller promotions that provide a vital role in MMA.

Posted in: ufc, fight, mma, art, dog

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UFC Featherweight Mackens Semerzier has been released by the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion after going 1-1 (1 NC) in the Octagon, according to The MMA Blog. "Mack Da Menace" burst onto the scene with a submission win over Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Wagnney Fabiano back in 2009, but has won just one of his last six bouts.

Posted in: ufc, mma, art, semerzier, macken

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Welcome back to my online diary documenting my very amateur experience training in Muay Thai. If you missed the previous entries on Bloody Elbow, read them here. Tradition. It's one of the things that first drew me into Muay Thai. As I watched grainy Muay Thai fights, I was fascinated by the ritual of it all - the headpieces, the armbands, the music, the bowing... You could see this rich culture just dripping from the pores of every Muay Thai fighter, and that idea of heritage, culture, ritual really spoke to me. It's one of the things that made me watch more, and eventually take it up myself. Now, as I train more Muay Thai, I am curious - how much value should we put on the old traditions in Muay Thai (or any martial art for that matter)? And how much value do gyms put on it? I ask because, in the more MMA-centric world of martial arts training here in the US, I don't always see that same level of tradition. From the outside, I still see it in some martial arts (jiu jitsu especially), but in Muay Thai in the US? Not so much. On a professional level, how many MMA fighters trained heavily in Muay Thai come out to the ring wearing a mong kon? How many do a wai khru? It's not many. And I guess I wonder - does this matter? And are using these rituals and traditions even appropriate? After all, in an MMA fight, you're not, strictly speaking, practicing Muay Thai. Yet I like the tradition, and I miss seeing it sometimes. Personally, I value this tradition, and I try to bring just a bit of it to my own training. Before each session, we all say a prayer with our instructor, and I also add just a small sort of psedo-wai khru myself, more to get my mind focused on the training than anything else. But I am alone in that, and, admittedly, sometimes I worry that my doing so is out of line or inappropriate. I try to step over the top rope to enter the ring (though a recent tightening of the ropes had made that much more difficult). And there are other Muay Thai traditions our gym keeps. But as Muay Thai has evolved into the MMA striking art of choice, and it has become more widespread in the US (which is, undeniably, a great thing), are we losing some of those traditions? And even if we are, is that just the inevitable forward march of progress? Every time I sit down to use these traditions to focus myself before class, these questions come into my head. Then I fall into the ritual, the questions roll away, and I am ready. I train Muay Thai under Andre Madiz at Conviction Martial Arts, 4430 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL. www.convictionfitness.com. If you are in the Chicago area, come join us, and be sure to say hello.

Posted in: muay, art, thai, muay thai, tradition

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Martial arts are attempt to organize, systemize and teach the skills of personal combat, with the end goal being to best another person or persons, should they attempt to do you harm. The love of the controlled violence and skill martial arts embody is why many of us became MMA fans. Seeing the skills we work so hard to acquire being tested by elite fighters against other elite fighters, be it grappling or striking, results in a compelling physical chess match that is awe-inspiring. There are endless debates on what is the best and surest path to victory: striking vs grappling, avoidance vs action, weapon based arts vs empty hand arts, to just name a few. One of the biggest internal debates centers around the idea of training purely for self-defense or training to compete in tournaments with defined rules and whether the two are mutually exclusive. Recently, a multiple time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion Ryan Hall posted a video of him using his skills to defend himself in a restaurant. An extremely accomplished grappler, Hall was able to easily defend himself from an extremely aggressive drunken stranger in an unprovoked pizza parlor encounter. Shortly following the posting of the video Hall spoke to the Fightworks Podcast about the experience. If you are a grappler and have never heard of this podcast, click on that link right now. It is a fantastic program that comes out every so often and wraps up all the happenings in the BJJ world, delivers wonderful interviews and great insights with very high level grapplers. In the full interview, Hall speaks to the fact that he felt confident using the mount to control the aggressor, despite the aggressor having a friend with him because he knew if the friend got involved, Hall had an entire table of black belts that would have his back. He also talks about how the mount is great because he was able to secure wrist control on both of the aggressor's arms to prevent him for attempting a groin grab or going into his pockets to reach for a possible weapon. He is then asked about the people who claim that training jiu jitsu for competition makes you less able to defend yourself because you train in techniques that are not useful in a real, self-defense situation. Hall responded: Those people are wrong, to be frank. Anyone who doesn't realize that situation dictates tactics really can't be helped. Although I can see a certain level of a point. The angle that makes sense to me is that combative martial arts which creates excellent combative athletes and fighters, like jiu jitsu, wrestling and boxing, while they don't train you for is self-defense, they train you for single combat. I don't care if this person tried to eye gouge me or if they bite me, it is irrelevant. If I want to hurt this person, they don't have a prayer in the world. The physical tactics don't change. It is really the mental and the understanding of things. Its like - letting this person get too close because if they have a blade, they can cut you well before you'd be able to see it if they are really, really quick. more after the jump... The conversation continued and Hall started to speak to martial art schools that are self-defense only and don't have a competitive aspect. One of the most common claims you'll see on YouTube comments or in discussions is that self-defense oriented schools are not limited by the rules of sport martial arts and that gives them a critical edge because they are used to eye gouges and groin kicks being thrown. Hall spoke to that also: I think you see a lot of martial arts instructors tying to pass themselves off as self-defense experts, which I am certainly not. I'm a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor, practicer, call it whatever you want. And I know a good deal about self-defense because I'm interested in it... but I'm certainly not an expert. But the idea that John Smith is known for his low single, he better watch out for some angry guy on the Jersey Shore because he wouldn't be able to double leg that guy. Get the f*** out of here... It is like Manny Pacquiao, I don't care if there are gloves or not, if he hits you, your head is coming off and there is no amount of me practicing an eye gouge that is going to stop him from doing that because he is so used to just dealing with someone who is incredibly good at touching him in the head really, really fast and really, really hard. It doesn't matter what shape my hand is in, he is incredibly good at stopping that and he is incredibly good at countering... So I would completely disagree. I'd say most of the people that say that practice for self-defense and don't train with tough athletes are really doing themselves a disservice. If I can wrestle with, say, Division I collegiate All-Americans and do fine. If I can wrestle with Marcelo Garcia and do ok, what the hell is some regular guy going to do? The only chance they have is to sucker punch me because anything that engages in an actual engagement of physical combat, I would absolutely hammer this person. That is like saying "Oh yeah, I'm going to go strike out some guys in the Major Leagues because I'm gonna spit on the ball" Get out of here, it is ridiculous! If you take that though process and apply to any other area of life people would laugh at you. Finally, Hall touches on the idea of athletes specializing in a technique in competition. Most elite combat athletes become known for one thing they are better at than other athletes: the Cro Cop left high kick, Paul Daley's left hook, or B.J. Penn's back control. Or speaking more broadly about a martial art, saying that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is terrible for self defense because all guys do is pull guard. Ryan Hall is a great proponent and innovator of the 50/50 guard, which has been decried by traditionalists as a stalling position that is ruining jiu jitsu. Hall is such a fan of the position his academy is called 50/50 Jiu Jitsu and he is a firm believer that is a difference-making position. Detractors of the 50/50 do make the claim that the position is impractical in a self-defense situation. Hall's response is that in a self-defense situation, like the one he found himself in that restaurant, he would never need the 50/50 guard because the the majority of people have no idea how to fight: You'll see people expressing jiu jitsu or wrestling or boxing in kinda a little bit of an esoteric way every now and then because competition incentives that because they are competing against other elite level athletes and that is where they find their edge. But when you take someone out of an elite level situation, and have them go against some regular guy... the idea that there is some super sweet badass dude walking around, everyone knows how easy it is to beat up all the white belts when they come in on the first day of jiu jitsu or how easy it to just beast a guy up who just comes into a boxing gym the first day. Those are the guys walking around in real life. Because you compete and because you train athletically against resisting opponents, who are not only strong and fast, but they know exactly what you're going to do and they know how to stop you and how to get you themselves, it prepares you to deal with something like this very easily. So basically I feel the whole sport vs street argument is retarded unless you want to start talking about awareness and avoidance and things like that. To wrap up, I agree with Ryan Hall: nothing prepares you better to be faced with an attacker than facing fully resisting opponents. Competitions create a stress level that is unmatched by just sparring or hard drilling in your home gym. In a competition, you are facing a person you have never met before and you have no idea what they are capable of athletically or skill-wise. Managing that stress, keeping a clear head and then executing your techniques against someone who is trained to resist you properly is an experience that is priceless for your training. It will make it easier to keep one's head and awareness in a street situation and help a trained fighter maximize his advantage over an inexperienced attacker. I think there are points to preparing for things like an eye gouge, a bite or a groin kick, but schools that focus so much on dirty "street" tactics are in fact limiting themselves just as much as they accuse the live sparring or sport martial arts of being.

Posted in: jitsu, art, jiu, hall, selfdefense

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Posted in: art, psa, dtjh

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According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Gina Carano hasn't closed the door on her acting career despite the dismal box office earnings from her big-screen debut in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire. "Whatever happens happens.

Posted in: yahoo, art, bigscreen debut, arts personalities, soderbergh

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An athlete that is involved in mixed martial arts should be performing kettlebell exercises, which can help him or her increase overall muscle strength. Kettlebell exercises for mixed martial arts can also reduce the risk of injury to an athlete, since it can help him or her...

Posted in: exercise, art, strength, kettlebell, kettlebell exercises

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Lest you believe all our ONE FC news and notes centers on the mixed martial arts (MMA) careers of International fighters, I ask that you direct your attention to Korean cutie Park Si Hyun, who will be flashing the digits in between rounds at upcoming events.

Posted in: art, note, fighters i, notes centers, fc news

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In Japan and Brazil, the earliest forms of Mixed Martial Arts were developing. The charge was being lead by the heirs to medieval grappling traditions. In Brazil the Japanese art of Judo was transformed in the fire of a fighting sport known as Vale Tudo or "No Holds Barred Fighting". While in Japan the influence of European catch wrestling was transforming professional wrestling into an actual fight sport. The United States on the other hand had dabbled in early forms of Mixed Martial Arts, but there was no awareness of these new fighting sports growing elsewhere in the world. That would all be changed by one man, whose arrival would herald the arrival of No Holds Barred fighting in the U.S. and lead to the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Rorion Gracie was the eldest son of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu's patriarch Helio Gracie. Rorion grew up in the art and did take part in challenge matches, but he did not take part in high profile matches like his brothers Rickson or Royler. Rorion did have a gift for teaching and by 17-years-old his private lessons were in high demand. Rorion was young and restless, and his cousin Rolls Gracie told him stories of his visits to New York to see his mother. More MMA OriginsExploring Fight Sport's Ancient Roots | Getting Medieval | Vale Tudo and the Original MMA Rivalry| Carlson Gracie Changes Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo | Catch Wrestling Travels To Japan | American Experiments | Birth of Japanese MMA | Brazilian Warfare In 1969, Rorion decided he wanted to visit California, if for nothing else to have the experience of a plane flight. Rorion traveled to California and stayed at a YMCA hotel during his visit. For safety purposes he stored his airline ticket and extra cash in the hotel safe while he was out, but returned one day to find that a receptionist had cleaned out the safe before disappearing after her shift was over. The hotel gave Rorion some money but they couldn’t reimburse his plane ticket and the airline said to make sure it his claim wasn’t a scam he had to wait six months before he could get new tickets. Rorion called his father and lied to him, telling him he loved America and wanted to stay for at least another six months There was a s judo club at the YMCA and Rorion decided to attended a class. He entered as a white belt and he left that class with a brown belt. Rorion and the Judo instructor became fast friends and the man set Rorion up with a job at a White Castle, flipping burgers. What resulted was a yearlong whirlwind journey which took the young Brazilian from fast food in Southern Californi, to panhandling in Hawaii and finally back home to Rio. While glad to be home, Rorion decided that he had to return to the United States. Based on his experiences, there was nothing like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the U.S. and his goal was bring his family art to that nation. In Rorion's efforts to bring his families art to the United States he would create a explosion of interest in MMA. The young Gracie spent the 1970s saving money and earning a Law Degree, and by 1978 he was ready to return to California. Rorion arrived in California and used old connections from his first stint in the States to get a job cleaning the houses of people in the movie industry. Some of these connections also lead him into the film industry as Rorion had several roles in TV shows. Rorion even was a special advisor for Lethal Weapon when he coordinated the the final fight where Mel Gibson uses several moves from the basic Gracie curriculum, including a triangle choke. Rorion offered a free jiu jitsu lesson to everyone he met. One of his first students was a man named Richard Bresler, who Rorion met when he sold Bresler a water mattress. Rorion attempted to gain traction with the martial arts community, but was rebuffed by every school. (Original Gracie Academy, U.S.A) As a result Rorion laid down mats in a garage and gave his lessons there. This became the official Gracie Academy. News of this new martial art spread by word of mouth and over time Rorion collected a large group of students. However, he still faced a challenge getting accepted by the martial arts community. Despite strong wrestling and judo communities, the martial arts community was dominated by eastern striking arts. The Japanese are of Karate, which had come over with American serviceman that had pick up the art while serving the Pacific, Korean martial arts like Hapikdo and Taekwondo and the Chinese martial arts that became wildly popular due to Bruce Lee movies all dominated the landscape. Some of the arts were taught in their same traditional forms, while others like Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do or the Kempo inspired Kajukenbo were attempting to modify arts to make them more practical in a street fight. Most of these arts discounted grappler or practiced it minimally. The lessons of the Gene LeBell victory over boxer Milo Savage using Judo grappling had not been learned, in fact what we can take away from that match is that the promoter completely mistook Judo for Karate. It was not uncommon for the average American to think the martial arts were entirely punching and kicking and to consider grappling exclusively a sporting endeavor. When Rorion's students came from other martial arts, their instructors would some times tell their students they were wasting their time with jiu jitsu. In response Rorion re-instated an old family tradition started by his uncle Carlos, the Gracie Challenge. Rorion would accept a challenge from anyone willing to fight, he would match any money the challenger would be willing to lay down and the winner kept the cash. Rorion had a few basic requirements: there could be no gloves worn, no time limits and no referees. As time wore on Rorion also had the matches tapped, with the winner keeping the rights to the video. Rorion represented his own school in these matches. (Rorion Gracie spars a Hapkido instructor.flv via subfightercom) These matches gained Rorion many students and soon he had a student body large enough to move the academy out of the garage. It also became obvious that the school was too big for Rorion alone, so he sent world to Brazil that he needed help with his growing new Academy. The Gracie family responded by sending Rorion's borthers Rickson, Royler, and the youngest Royce, and a few students including the Machado brothers. The challenge matches grew in number as the local legend of the Gracies grew and local masters wanted to be the man that defeated the Gracies. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the Gracies practiced at this time was geared towards Vale Tudo or self-defense fights, so rolling was always done with strikes in mind. Takedowns trained using distracting strikes to help open opportunities for takedowns, much like modern MMA fighters today. The Gracies won match after match. It was known to the Gracies that these No Holds Barred fights were extremely popular and these underground fights drew crowds of students from both sides. These local martial artists, while maybe experienced in sport fighting or real street fights, were not prepared to face hardened Vale Tudo veterans like the Gracie brothers. (notice at the 7 minute mark the first fight between Royce Gracie and future MMA veteran Jason DeLucia) (BJJ Vs Kung Fu, Judo, Kenpo Karate & Hapkido. (Original quality) via SkemeKOS) These fights proved extremely effective in proving to the martial arts community that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu deserved respect. One of the first members of the U.S. martial arts establishment to reach out the Gracies was none other than Chuck Norris. He became a student of Carlos Machado and did several demonstrations at martial arts conventions to help spread awareness of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu beyond California. The Gracies continued to answer challenges from all comers and their student numbers continued to grow. By the early 1990s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was firmly established in Southern California but it had taken over a decade to get to this point. Rorion was looking for a way to help increase the speed of growth. He had tried releasing instructional tapes to modest success but he wanted something bigger. Rorion say how effective the challenge matchers were in creating new students and he looked for a way to do this on a grand scale. It set Rorion down a path that would lead to the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Bonus Videos: The Gracie Challenge was the coming of Vale Tudo to America and is directly connect to the foundation of the UFC. To this day the Gracie Challenge remains open and it is still taken up at times. Rorion, now sixty, still teaches at the Gracie Academy but his son Rener is now the head instructor and represents the Gracie family in these matches. Here is Rener in a match against a taekwondo black belt in 2006: (rener gracie vs taekwondo black belt challenge via orizzonte) Jason "Mayhem" Miller also took the Gracie Challenge, though in his case he wanted a grappling only match: (Jason Mayhem Miller takes the Gracie Challenge via pugghead) So if you think you have what it takes head to California and invoke the Gracie Challenge, just don't be surprised when a video of Rener sinking a choke on you turns up on YouTube. More Reading: History of Jiu Jitsu: Coming to America and the Birth of the UFC Rorion Gracie - Generations

Posted in: challenge, gracie, art, student, rorion

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Franklin is dropping to 185 to face Cung Le, a formidable striker, at UFC 148 in July. But, I'm wondering if at age 39, Cung Le still has what it takes. With such a long and decorated martial arts career, the clock is ticking on how many more hard knocks Le can take.

Posted in: face cung, cung, art, arts career, im

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In the space of three years, Evolve MMA has risen up to become the most renowned mixed martial arts academy in Asia and one of the most talked about training centres in the world. Famous mixed martial artists such as Rich Franklin, Renzo Gracie, Matt Hume, Greg Jackson, Roger Gracie, Shinya Aoki, Saenchai Sor Kingstar, Kyra Gracie, and Ryo Chonan have all made the journey to Singapore to train with its world champions. With three locations, Evolve MMA is home to dozens of world champions in every major discipline of mixed martial arts including Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing. Modern day legends of Muay Thai from Thailand such as Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn, Orono Wor Petchpun, Attachai Fairtex, Yoddecha Sityodtong, Kongtoranee Payakaroon, and Lamnammoon Sor Sumalee all teach at Evolve MMA. Its wrestling program is headed by US Olympian Heath Sims, a long time training partner and coach of Dan Henderson and a dozen BJJ Black Belts champions run the BJJ program. WBA boxing world champion Yodsanan Sityodtong runs the boxing program and the professional fight team consists of the likes of DREAM Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki, UFC fighter Rafael dos Anjos, ONE FC star Zorobabel Moreira, Muay Thai world champion Orono Wor Petchpun, ONE FC star Leandro Issa, ONE FC star Eddie Ng, NCAA Division 1 wrestler Jake Butler, and many others. Some of Japan's biggest MMA stars such as Tatsuya Kawajiri and Satoru Kitaoka are also rumored to be close to signing with Evolve MMA. There is even talk of Muay Thai sensation Buakaw Por Pramuk joining his former training partner and close stable mate, Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn, in Singapore.The man behind Evolve MMA is Chatri Sityodtong, a multi-millionaire Thai businessman and former Muay Thai fighter with a passion for MMA. In a rare interview, he spoke to MMA Mania about the past, present, and future of Evolve MMA. What inspired you to form Evolve MMA? Martial arts has been my greatest passion in life since I was a child. Whether it was part-time or full-time, I've been training, fighting, teaching, and coaching for almost 25 years now. At this point in my life, the biggest driver for me is my desire to change lives through martial arts, to make this world a better place in my small way. I have been blessed with good fortune in my business career. So even before I started Evolve MMA, I was already independently wealthy. In fact, in my mid 30s, I had even contemplated living on a deserted island somewhere and sipping Pina Coladas on the beach for the rest of my life. However, after a year of traveling around the world, the desire to do something positive to help the world really set me on fire. It might sound corny, but I named this company, EVOLVE, because I wanted it to be a place that could inspire anyone to evolve into everything he/she was meant to be in life. Martial arts gives people confidence, mental strength, discipline, focus, a desire for continuous self-improvement, and so much more. And all these valuable lessons can help a person in every area of his/her life...career, relationships, education, health, anything. My life is a perfect example of the power of martial arts. At one point, I was dirt poor, lived on one meal per day, and my parents were homeless. Without the power of martial arts, I don't know what would have happened to me. So Evolve is my platform to give back to the world.Can you tell us a little about your business background and your martial arts background? I started Muay Thai at the Sityodtong Camp in Pattaya under Kru Yodtong Senanan when I was a kid growing up in Thailand. I've been training, fighting, teaching, or coaching Muay Thai for almost 25 years. I'm a certified senior instructor under Kru Yodtong Senanan with over 30 fights. My last professional Muay Thai fight was in 2008 in Thailand. I also have a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Renzo Gracie. I still train in both Muay Thai and BJJ 5-6 times a week with our world champions at the Fighters Program at Evolve MMA. In terms of my business background, I have spent the bulk of my career as an entrepreneur and/or investor in technology, finance, media, real estate, and sports. I also spent a good part of my career on Wall Street (I was a Managing Director at a US$15 billion hedge fund before starting my own US$500 million hedge fund). And I'm still involved in a few businesses today, including a US$2 billion real estate company, a US$35 million surveillance company, a US$50 million media company, and some other companies. I received my MBA from Harvard in 1999.Evolve MMA seems to have developed very rapidly, has that surprised you? Yes, it has surprised me. I thought that I was the only person in the world who loved martial arts enough to spend millions of dollars on recruiting world champions, building world-class facilities, etc. I really didn't expect Evolve to have a global reputation after only 3 years. I'm amazed at how fast our brand has grown. At the same time, I feel that Evolve is only at the beginning of its growth. I want to change the world through martial arts. Are you happy with the fighters you have in your team or are you looking to add to it? I'm always looking for fighters for the Evolve Fight Team. While I am very happy with our current roster of fighters, I am always looking for fighters with world champion potential. We are very lucky to have fighters like DREAM Champion Shinya Aoki, UFC fighter Rafael dos Anjos, ONE FC fighter Zorobabel Moreira, ONE FC fighter Leandro Issa, Muay Thai World Champion Orono Wor Petchpun, ONE FC fighter Eddie Ng, MCFC Champion Mitch Chilson, BJJ World Champion Alex Silva, Muay Thai World Champion Yoddecha Sityodtong, WBA Boxing World Champion Yodsanan Sityodtong, NCAA Division 1 Wrestler Jake Butler, US Olympic Wrestler Heath Sims, and so many other talented fighters and coaches on our team. The Evolve Fight Team has world champions and champions in Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Wrestling, and No-Gi Grappling. We also have two Olympians on our team. At present, apart from Shinya Aoki and Rafael Dos Anjos, the fight team mainly consists of fighters who are at the start of their careers, is that a deliberate policy? I don't really look at where a fighter is in his/her career. I look at the person, the fighter, and the future potential. I look to see how much Evolve can help that fighter and how much that fighter can help Evolve. Shinya is a great example of who we are at Evolve MMA. First and foremost, Shinya is an incredible human being. He's remarkably humble and giving. He's a true martial artist in every sense of the word. Shinya has no airs about being the current DREAM World Champion. When he trains at the Fighters Program at Evolve, he's just another fighter. He absorbs everything we teach him and he has an open mind. He listens and listens. It's amazing really. Of course, Shinya is superbly gifted as a martial artist with excellent balance, speed, etc. He has an unbreakable warrior spirit and a huge heart too. I look for many things in a fighter before I invite him/her onto the Evolve Fight Team. I'm very, very careful and selective about who is allowed onto our team. And I am very quick to kick people off the team if they exhibit values that are counter to what Evolve is about. Evolve MMA is the only camp that I know of which gives a salary and accommodation to all the trainers and fighters, how do you make that work? The most important thing for me is the quality of instruction at Evolve MMA. I will never compromise on the quality. Whether you are a beginner or a world-class professional fighter, Evolve MMA stands behind its reputation as the top martial arts school in Asia. You will never see Evolve MMA expanding and growing just for the sake of expansion and growth. For me, quality is everything. Everything we do at Evolve MMA is about providing the highest quality martial arts education available anywhere. As such, I am willing to do anything and pay whatever it costs to recruit the very best teachers and fighters on the planet. Money is not an issue for me and my focus is not on profits. Of course, Evolve MMA is profitable, but it is not my primary motivation. My focus is on the highest quality martial arts instruction...period. Evolve MMA represents the best in life. It is my way of giving back to the world.What does a coach who is a world champion in Muay Thai or BJJ have to offer that a coach whose background was mainly in MMA might not? The lucky thing is that we have it all here at Evolve MMA. We have world champions and champions in every discipline...Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Wrestling, No-Gi Grappling. Right now, the Evolve Instructor Team stands at 51 instructors and all of them have been personally vetted and interviewed by me. For me, I care about credentials only if the person is a great human being and a great teacher too. We have a zero tolerance policy here at Evolve MMA for egos and attitudes. To be frank, I don't really believe in MMA per say. I believe in martial arts...in each discipline...as long as it works in real life. For me, the ultimate mixed martial artist is the martial artist who can fluidly perform each art at a world-class expert level and also have the ability to transition effortlessly between the arts. I believe in martial arts as the foundation of a true mixed martial artist. MMA in and of itself is not really a good foundation. I'm a huge fan of Jon Jones and GSP because they are martial artists and they are constantly striving to evolve and grow in every area. Martial artists have a very different approach to fighting...versus...let's say...a pure fighter. Martial artists try to perfect their craft every day. Fighters only train when there is a fight coming up. It's a very different approach. We train 2x a day, 6 days a week all year round, irrespective of whether we have a fight coming up or not...What effect has ONE Fighting Championship, which is also headquartered in Singapore, had on Evolve MMA? Of course, ONE Fighting Championship has had a great impact on Evolve MMA. It helps to have Asia's biggest MMA organization here in Singapore. Victor Cui, the CEO of ONE FC, is a good friend of mine. He really pours on the marketing effort here and it has ignited a huge spark of interest for MMA in Singapore. It seems like every day a new MMA gym is opening in Singapore. More importantly, MMA is really starting to enter the consciousness of the mainstream here. It's still early days, but it's definitely happening. Do many of your members want to be fighters or do they tend to be more self-defense and fitness-oriented? Like most martial arts schools, I would say that 95% of our members are here for self-defense, fitness, mental strength, confidence, weight loss, and all the other benefits of martial arts. The other 5% are here because they are professional fighters and/or want to become one. At Evolve MMA, we are fortunate in that we have a big diversity of members...men, women, children...beginners, intermediates, experts, professional fighters, world champions...doctors, CEOs, engineers, waiters, nurses, teachers, civil servants...you name it. Our youngest student is 6 years old and our oldest is 65 years old. I believe that the diversity of our membership base, coupled with the depth and breadth of the Evolve Instructor Team, makes for an incredible environment for learning. In my opinion, Evolve MMA is the world's largest living encyclopedia for martial arts. It is incredible how much knowledge and experience is housed within these walls. One of my staff counted the years of championship experience on the team and it came out to something like 850 years of championship experience across various martial arts. That's some serious firepower right there. So whether you are a complete beginner or you are a professional fighter, you will get the best training here...period. What are your plans for the future, are you planning on expanding Evolve MMA at all? Yes, I plan to expand Evolve MMA. However, I won't expand for expansion's sake. As I said before, my goal is to provide the highest quality martial arts instruction available anywhere. I want to change lives through martial arts. I want to make a positive impact in this world. If my goal was purely financial, I would open up 50 academies tomorrow all over Asia. However, I will not do that because I really think it would sacrifice our quality. It is better to grow slowly and carefully...to focus on the highest quality martial arts instruction...to deliver much more than what our members expect...at every step of the way. I plan to be in the martial arts business for the long run. I already have enough money in the bank. I don't need more. At this point in my life, I just want to have fun and I want to know that I am doing good in this world. Something like 7,000 people went to the last ONE FC show and the UFC is rumoured to be taking a close look at Singapore, are you surprised by how quickly the sport has grown since you started Evolve MMA? Yes, I never expected MMA to be so popular here in Asia after starting Evolve MMA only 3 years ago. And the crazy thing is that it is only the beginning of the MMA revolution in Asia. I think the next 10 years are going to be incredible for everyone in the industry...all over Asia. Asian MMA is a rocketship and it is just about to take off. I really do hope that the UFC does a show here in Singapore. When I was invited by the UFC to their recent Japan event a few weeks ago, Lorenzo and Dana told me at a private cocktail party that UFC plans to come back in November. Mark Fischer, the head of UFC Asia, is a superbly capable businessman and I expect to see big things from the UFC in Asia. It will sell out for sure...UFC is the #1 player and has the best brand in the MMA world...and in the process, it will create a firestorm of MMA mania!Buakaw has been in the news recently for being mistreated by his management and a lot of fighters retire with little or no savings, particularly in Thailand. How happy are you to be able to offer so many famous former fighters a lucrative job which allows them to pass on all the knowledge they have acquired in their fighting career? It is one of my greatest joys in life. I know what poverty is because I made it out of poverty. I know how hard a fighter's life is because I have walked that path before. I've never been a world champion, but I know first-hand what the sacrifices are as a professional fighter. I don't have to pay my team as much as I do, but I do it because the main driver for me is to make a positive impact on the world. Without a doubt, Evolve MMA has the highest instructor pay in Asia...maybe in the world possibly...I'll ask one of my staff to look into it on a global basis. I want to help everyone on my team to achieve their dreams of financial security, home ownership, supporting their parents...and everything else. Kru Yodtong Senanan (my teacher and Grandmaster of Sityodtong Camp) always tells everyone that no one in the world pays more than I do for a Muay Thai instructor. Through Evolve MMA, I can change the lives of our students, our fighters, our instructors, our staff. It brings me tremendous contentment and inner peace to know that Evolve has helped thousands of people. And the facts speak for themselves. No instructor or fighter has ever left Evolve voluntarily since we opened our doors. I have had to fire a few instructors or kick out some fighters for various reasons. But no one has ever left voluntarily. My team at Evolve MMA is my second family. I really care deeply about them and I want to help make all of their dreams come true. The actual facilities At Evolve MMA are reportedly state-of-the-art. Did you have any doubts about investing so much money in this business and when did you first realize that your gamble had paid off? I've invested a few million dollars so far into Evolve. I don't mean to sound flippant, but I'm used to investing a lot more money than that in my other businesses. So it was never really a big gamble for me. Besides, I have never really been focused on the money with Evolve. I could have retired and sat on a deserted island a long time ago...well before I started Evolve. But I started Evolve because I love martial arts. It's my greatest passion in life. At this point in my life, I want to give back and to make a positive impact on the world. My pay-off is watching how much Evolve is helping the lives of my students, my fighters, my instructors, my staff...A lot of fighters come to Thailand to train Muay Thai, are you open to visiting fighters coming and training at Evolve MMA? Yes, of course. We have many world champions and fighters who come to train with us already. Last year alone, we had Rich Franklin, Roger Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Kyra Gracie, Matt Hume, Ryo Chonan, Saenchai Sor Kingstar, and many other famous fighters come to train here at Evolve MMA. My teacher, Kru Yodtong Senanan, always told me when I was a kid, "the best attract the best and the best produce the best." And you know what...it took me many years to appreciate the depth of those words...but today I really believe in that saying. www.twitter.com/jamesgoyder

Posted in: world, mma, fighter, champion, art

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The current situation Nick Diaz finds himself in could result in an historic precedent for the use of marijuana in mixed martial arts.

Posted in: ufc, art, use, lefko, madness

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UFC president Dana White recently explained the UFC's place in Japan, as well as going in depth about the state of mixed martial arts in the country.

Posted in: ufc, dana, japan, art, ufcs place

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submitted by LittleHoss [link] [5 comments]

Posted in: jose, arts bout, art, oneal, shaquille oneal

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Four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal and former MLB all-star slugger Jose Canseco want to fight each other in a mixed martial arts bout.

Posted in: jose, art, mlb, canseco, shaq

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Worldwide Mixed Martial Arts is set to land in Texas on March 31 with former UFC heavyweight Sean McCorkle headlining the card against Brian Heden in the main event.

Posted in: land, art, mccorkle, sean, brian heden

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Longtime mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran Kurt Pellegrino has suffered a knee injury and withdrawn from his planned fight against Polish prospect Marcin Held at Bellator 68, scheduled for May 11 at Caesars Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., according to Sherdog.com. Photo courtesy of Ed Mullholland.

Posted in: veteran, art, knee injury, caesars hotel, prospect marcin

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The least populated state in the U.S. will have the ability to host big-time mixed martial arts events in the near future.

Posted in: art, state, host bigtime, mmaonly commission, arts events

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The premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live aired on FX on March 9 and gave fans of mixed martial arts 16 fights. 32 men competed for their chance to make it into the house, but just 16 remain. While some fights ended quickly and didn't allow for proper judging of talent,...

Posted in: fight, fighter, fan, art, premiere episode

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A new mixed martial arts video game based on the Bellator Fighting Championships will be available for download this summer, 345 Games and Spike TV have announced

Posted in: bellator, spike tv, game, art, summer

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New York's outdated legislation still views mixed martial arts as barbaric, but legalizing the sport could significantly benefit the state.

Posted in: sport, art, lefko, apple, legislation

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Spike TV rolled out its two-hour "I Am Bruce Lee" documentary special last night (March 7, 2012) at 9 p.m. ET, featuring an in-depth look at the life and legacy of the martial arts master. Featured guests included UFC President Dana White, former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) contestant Stephan Bonnar, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, former Strikeforce Champions Cung Le and Gina Carano, as well as NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant, among others. Lee is perhaps most famous for his groundbreaking chop-socky flicks, including The Big Boss, Fists of Fury, Way of the Dragon and of course, Enter the Dragon. While mainstream audiences knew him best as the butt-kicking actor, he was also a pioneer in martial arts, developing the groundwork for modern mixed martial arts (MMA) through his "Jeet Kun Do" fighting system. Parts two through seven (via Iron Forges Iron) after the jump. How about it Maniacs, did you enjoy this two-hour feature?

Posted in: art, lee, bruce lee, fury way, jeet kun

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With two titles and an unblemished record in 12 professional fights, Jeremy Spoon has already established himself as a person of interest on the mixed martial arts scene.

Posted in: title, jeremy, art, person, spoon

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Spike TV is rolling out its two-hour "I Am Bruce Lee" documentary special TONIGHT (March 7, 2012) at 9 p.m. ET, featuring an in-depth look at the life and legacy of the martial arts master. Scheduled to appear are UFC President Dana White, former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) contestant Stephan Bonnar, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, former Strikeforce Champions Cung Le and Gina Carano, as well as NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant, among others. Lee is perhaps most famous for his groundbreaking chop-socky flicks, including The Big Boss, Fists of Fury, Way of the Dragon and of course, Enter the Dragon. While mainstream audiences knew him best as the butt-kicking actor, he was also a pioneer in martial arts, developing the groundwork for modern mixed martial arts (MMA) through his "Jeet Kun Do" fighting system. See what all the fuss is about later this evening on the cable television network. In the meantime, you can check out a video preview of tonight's documentary, after the jump. Alright Maniacs, have at it. Keep the discussion going before, during and after tonight's "I Am Bruce Lee" documentary special in the comments section below.

Posted in: art, bruce, lee, documentary, fury way

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Kimbo Slice's boxing career continues, this time against fellow mixed martial arts (MMA) convert Mike Glenn, who faces off against the bearded brawler at "Fight Night Returns" on March 24, 2012, at the O’Reilly Center in Springfield, Missouri. Props: World Boxing News

Posted in: boxing, art, arts mma, mike glenn, orsquoreilly center

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Immediately after the Strikeforce event, the usually quiet Nick Diaz was active on his twitter account, posting a series of tweets in reference to the finish of the main event between Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate: The refs are just as bad as the judges in this sport sad to see that go to far because of the ref — nick diaz (@nickdiaz209) March 4, 2012 Lol no one is acknowledging the ignorance — nick diaz (@nickdiaz209) March 4, 2012 From the first tweet, it seems that Nick is of the opinion that the fight should have been stopped well before Meisha herself chose to tap out. After a few of his followers responded with "what if you were in an armbar and didn't tap and the ref called a fight?" Nick followed up with the second tweet, suggesting that there was a lack of understanding of the rules. Given the (unfair, in this author's opinion) reputation that Nick has gained for being a complainer, some people might dismiss the tweets out of hand. But a quick review of the unified rules found on John McCarthy's website shows that Nick is indeed correct: The fight should have been stopped long before Tate begrudgingly submitted. You`ll have to follow the jump to find out why. Rule number 9 in the unified rule set that all Zuffa events are contested under covers the situation Tate was in: INJURIES SUSTAINED BY FAIR BLOWS AND FOULS: A) Fair Blows: If injury is severe enough to terminate a contest, the injured contestant loses by TKO. (I chose to bold the selected sentence)Tate clearly had suffered a severe injury to her arm before she submitted. The referee in question, Mark Matheny, had a duty to step in on her behalf to protect her from suffering a more serious injury. We've seen this happen before, when Herb Dean stopped a bout for the UFC Heavyweight championship between Frank Mir and Tim Sylvia, after Dean correctly noted that Mir had broken Sylvia's forearm with an armbar. Sylvia complained instantly and it is likely that had Matheny called a stop to the contest between Rousey and Tate, Meisha would also have complained. Such complaints shouldn't be surprising to anyone and they also shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not Matheny (or any referee in that situation) should have called the fight. Adrenaline has phenomenal pain-masking abilities and considering Tate was involved in a championship prize fight there is no doubt that she was fully immersed in the effects of the hormone. (After the fight she stated that her arm was "a little sore", which many took as a sign of her heart and toughness. I'm sure that she was singing a different tune backstage as the adrenaline wore off.) I suspect it is for this exact reason that this rule is in place: to protect fighter's from themselves when they are not able to do so. Like any good critic, Nick doesn't just stop at pointing out the mistake; he provides a solution: fighters should vote for refs Or have them all learn from big jon, get a blue belt train jiujitsu it's not that hard to learn basics — nick diaz (@nickdiaz209) March 4, 2012 It's a fairly reasonable suggestion. After all, a lot of mixed martial arts, and specifically submission grappling, requires first hand experience in order to fully grasp what is taking place. If you don't know what a particular hold looks and feels like, how could you know when an injury has taken place? We've seen countless fighters be rendered unconscious due to choke holds well before the referee realizes that they are out (Sheila Bird vs Kim Couture comes to mind). We've also seen referee's step in well before they should have (Mac Danzig vs Matt Wiman, for example). It takes a bit of dedication for one to become a blue belt in jiu jitsu, for most people at least a solid year of training. While that might seem like a lot of work just to be eligible to become a mixed martial arts official, when you consider the years of training and on the job practice required to become an official in other professional sports leagues, it really seems like small potatoes. When you consider the fact that not only are MMA referee`s responsible for conducting bouts in a fair manner, they are in control of the fighters physical well being, it seems like a no-brainer. A quick review of the current system for certifying MMA officials reveals that there is no standardized training system. In order to certify officials, you must simply gain permission from the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) to do so. John McCarthy`s C.O.M.M.A.N.D. course is recognized by the ABC, as is Herb Dean`s MMARS (Mixed Martial Arts Referee School). I found various other courses that were recognized by the ABC as well, including some that were done entirely online. Each course states that you must have martial arts experience but there is no hard and fast guidelines for how much experience, or in what kind of art. So the certification of officials is left up to the individual running the course. Now, I do not doubt that Dean and McCarthy are able to identify whether or not an official is ready to work MMA matches, but I have no idea if I can extend that faith to the people running the other courses. Either way, the time has come for the ABC to standardize the training of MMA officials into one system. I have no idea how well Herb Dean and John McCarthy get along, but as the two most recognizable officials in mixed martial arts if they were to combine their courses into one, complete with concrete metrics as far as experience and knowledge go, I`m sure they would have no problem getting the ABC to recognize it as the golden (and only) standard for MMA officiating. Until this happens, we`ll probably continue to see spotty work by the in-cage officials and remember, Nick Diaz won`t be around forever to remind us.

Posted in: diaz, nick, official, art, course

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Jordan Breen is currently hosting his weekly mixed martial arts chat.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, prefight, jordan

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Popular UFC veteran Nate (Rock) Quarry officially announced his retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts.

Posted in: ufc, retirement, art, quarry, roundup

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One-armed mixed martial arts (MMA) phenom "Notorious" Nick Newell (6-0) will look to keep his undefeated streak intact when he takes on Chris Coggins (5-1) at XFC 17: "Apocalypse" from the Oman Arena in Jackson, TN, airing live on April 13, 2012, via HDNet.

Posted in: nick, art, phenom, jackson tn, oman arena

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Rowdy Ronda Rousey has mastered the art of self-promotion and has a chance to cash in on it vs. Miesha Tate at Saturday's Strikeforce show.

Posted in: art, ronda rousey, rousey, lefko, selfpromotion

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Jordan Breen is currently hosting his weekly mixed martial arts chat.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, prefight, jordan

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Jordan Breen is currently hosting his weekly mixed martial arts chat.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, prefight, jordan

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New York, NY (March 1st, 2012) - Deep in the heart of Louisiana, far from mixed martial arts' highest stage, a group of young athletes train and compete in the proving grounds of MMA. Filmed over two years, FIGHTVILLE, a groundbreaking documentary, follows the lives of several fighters including breakout UFC star Dustin "The Diamond" Poirier and his mentor UFC veteran "Crazy" Tim Credeur as they compete in the regional circuit. Directed by the accomplished filmmaking duo of Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, FIGHTVILLE examines the art and sport of mixed martial arts. While the film focuses on the Louisiana fight scene, FIGHTVILLE is a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of the American Dream and the relentless dedication required of all who hope to attain it. "This is not just another film about MMA," says Tucker. "This is a film about what it takes to be the best at anything and we hope that FIGHTVILLE will introduce a new audience to the beauty and passion of the sport." FIGHTVILLE will premiere in theatres and on demand on April 20th, just three weeks before Poirier headlines UFC on Fuel when he takes on "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung on May 15th. Trailer after the jump. Fightville Official Trailer from Pepper and Bones on Vimeo.

Posted in: ufc, mma, trailer, art, fightville

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Two of the mixed martial arts world’s premier lightweights, a champion and a challenger, will meet for the crown jewel of the 155-pound division thousands of miles from home.

Posted in: pound, showdown, art, crown jewel, edgar henderson

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While in Tokyo for Saturday's UFC 144, Georges St-Pierre took the opportunity to train with kids in the birthplace of hand-to-hand combat.

Posted in: ufc, gsp, tokyo, art, combat

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This weekend is a dangerous spot for Quinton Jackson. "Rampage" sounds less than motivated to face Ryan Bader and he admits he's sick of facing light heavyweights with a wrestling base. "Sometimes it is hard to get motivated. Like when … Continue reading →

Posted in: rampage, jackson, heavyweight, light heavyweights, art

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Evolve MMA fighters and trainers at the Boys Town Home in Singapore Evolve MMA has been extremely successful because people in Singapore are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege of learning from world champions in a state-of-the-art facility. It was only founded in 2008 but already has an enormous base of loyal customers as well as a fight team which is widely regarded as the best in Asia. However while Singapore is one of the richest countries on earth, not everyone there is wealthy and for children from impoverished backgrounds access to a training center as sophisticated as Evolve MMA would be financially out of reach. This presented a problem for Chatri Sityodtong, the Evolve MMA founder and owner, because he himself comes from a humble background, as do the majority of his fighters and trainers, and he wanted to give opportunities to children who found themselves in a similar situation. When most people think of mixed martial arts (MMA) the image is of two muscular athletes doing battle inside the cage but many, including Chatri, believe that the sport has a power to change lives which goes far beyond actual fighting. That's why at Evolve MMA young professionals will find themselves learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) or hitting a heavy bag alongside children from some of the most disadvantaged backgrounds in Singapore. Ask Chatri what he is most proud of and he won't point at the accomplishments of DREAM Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki or homegrown hero Radeem Rahman, but at a little known local program he started just over two years ago. "Boys Town Home is Singapore's home for orphans, abandoned children, and underprivileged kids and we allow them to train under our world champions at Evolve MMA for free. It is open to any kids there who maintain a certain GPA which is a great way to encourage all of the kids to study hard and to behave well at Boys Town Home because they all want to train with our world champions." Much has been made of the team of trainers at Evolve MMA which includes legends from the worlds of BJJ, boxing, Muay Thai and wrestling to the extent that one might assume the entire organization had been set up in order to fine tune the talents of elite level mixed martial artists. According to Chatri, though creating world champions was not the only thing he had in mind when he first founded the facility in 2008. "At Evolve MMA, our mission is to make this world a better place through the power of martial arts. Martial arts changes lives because it instills confidence, mental strength, discipline, courage, humility, tenacity, work ethic, and so much more. Most of us on the Evolve Fight Team and Evolve Instructor Team have overcome poverty and hardship through the power of martial arts and it is the circle of life in action for us to be able to serve as role models and hope for the future for the kids of Boys Town Home." An extremely successful self-made multimillionaire with an MBA from Harvard, Chatri is well known as an entrepreneur in Singapore. It hasn't always been like this for the Evolve MMA owner though and that's one of the reasons he set up the Boys Home Town project. "It is something very close to my heart because I know what it feels like to eat only one meal a day. At one point in my life, my parents lost everything and became homeless. Our family lived through some very tough times together and I remember my father selling fruits on the streets of Pattaya. I want Evolve MMA to be like another family to the kids of Boys Town Home. The most important thing is to give these children a sense of hope and a path from which to launch themselves out of poverty and hardship." It is also a fact that historically the best fighters have tended to come from low income backgrounds. MMA is something of an exception to this rule because of the proliferation of college educated wrestlers in the US but Chatri (above) says that finding prospective fighters is far from his mind. "Some of the boys now want to become professional fighters in the future but I don't encourage it, for me, it is more important that they inherit the values of martial arts such as a desire for continuous self-improvement, humility, respect, courage, work ethic and discipline. The lessons from martial arts will help them apply themselves in every area of life. I truly believe in martial arts as a platform to unleash human potential in all areas of life." Among the Evolve MMA fighters and trainers to make a recent visit to the Boys Town Home was former Muay Thai World Champion Yoddecha Sityodtong. He has a remarkable life story because he was a homeless orphan who was ensnared into a gang and forced to work in conditions akin to slavery when he was just 7 years old. He was fortunate to be rescued four years later by a Muay Thai fighter called Vichai Sityodtong and Yoddecha would go on to compete regularly at the famous Lumpini Stadium and become one of the most famous Thai fighters of his generation. Surviving such a traumatic upbringing makes Yoddecha more qualified than most to tell the children at the Boys Town Home about the potential which martial arts has to make a positive impact on their lives. "When Chatri approached me about joining him to give a speech at Boys Town Home I was happy because I know what it feels like to be an orphan and to live on the streets with no food, to have no one love me. When I see the kids at Boys Town Home, it reminds me of when I was a child. Chatri and I have known each other for around 25 years from our days at Sityodtong Camp together. So it is unbelievable that we are here now and that we can help these kids together." As mixed martial arts continues to grow at an astounding rate in South East Asia it is refreshing to see that as well as a source of entertainment the sport can also be a force for good in far flung places such as Singapore. Chatri would also like to add the following message, "I would like to thank Richard Wee, one of our student leaders at Evolve MMA, for helping to bring Evolve MMA and Boys Town Home together. Without his invaluable support and leadership, this special program would have never happened."

Posted in: mma, art, boy, home, town

Read the full article at MMA Mania

Middleweight mixed martial arts fighter Nate Marquardt has signed with Strikeforce.

Posted in: strikeforce, middleweight, art, marquardt, strikeforce middleweight

Read the full article at sportsnet.ca

For the first time since December 16th, 2000, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to the birthplace of mixed martial arts for UFC 144. In one of seven main card bouts, Tim Boetsch (14-4) will meet Japan's own Yushin Okami (26-6) for a middleweight showdown.

Posted in: boetsch, tim, art, okami, yushin

Read the full article at Low Kick

The sport of Mixed Martial Arts has been exploding all over the world for the last decade. However, as with other professional sports, the women's division has not gained as much momentum...

Posted in: sport, division, art, ronda rousey, womens division

Read the full article at Low Kick

A short aside from the developing lines of Mixed Martial Arts evolving out of the lines of Japanese Judo and the European Catch Wrestling. The United States of the early 1900s was a young nation coming of age, and it had a love for all things sport. At the time the term of "the big three sports" would have referred to baseball, horse racing and boxing. The sport of boxing was about 50 years from being sperated from other combat arts with the Marquess of Queensberry Rules which were introduced in 1866. These rules removed all wrestling from matches, instituted the three minute round and made gloves mandatory. While not immediately enforced in every boxing match, these rules slowly filtered through the world of pugilism and created the sport of boxing as we know it today. Catch and Amateur Wrestling were also popular in the United States and these arts combined with boxing and fencing made up the vast majority of martial arts in America. That all changed with the ending of the Second World War. A whole generation of American young men traveled to Europe and Asia and had their eyes opened to the greater world of martial arts. Those stationed in the Pacific islands after the war ended had plenty of free time when not on peace keeping duties, and many U.S. troops filled that time by going to local martial arts academies. Karate and Judo were the most popular choices. When these soldiers came home, some of them brought the arts home with them. They opened schools or found schools already established and began training students in the United States. At this point, boxing and amature wrestling were firmly established as the combat sports in the United States, but Judo and Karate became extremely popular alternatives. As they grew, the establishment began to resent the new competition. Arguments would rage about judo vs boxing or karate vs boxing. In 1963, a man named Jim Beck issued an open challenge in Rouge Magazine for any judoka to take on a boxer. In his article titled "The Judo Bums" Beck clearly confuses Karate with Judo, but claims that any boxer could beat any Judo man. The proposed match would have a $1000 cash prize for the winner and that cash prize drew the attention of Gene LeBell, a U.S. Judo champion who also had international success. LeBell contacted Beck and the match was set for December of 1963 in Salt Lake City. When Gene arrived he was surprised to find it was not Beck he would be fighting, but rather former Top 5 Light Heavyweight Boxer Milo Savage. The rules were set that both men would wear gi tops, and Gene was forbidden from using kicks or karate chops and the fight would have an unlimited number of rounds and only stop with a finish. Milo would wear fingerless leather gloves and is accused of both wearing brass knuckles under his gloves and greasing. Gene suspects that Milo learned some Judo for the match as he was able to stop some takedowns, but in the 4th round, Gene threw Milo to the mat, took the boxer's back and applied a choke. Milo passed out and Gene Lebell became the winner of the first sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts fight in the United States. Here is a fantastic video made about Lebell and the match by the FightNerd, the whole thing is amazing but skip to 2:35 if you just want to hear about the match: After the jump, Muhammad Ali's foray into MMA... Despite its historic place now, at the time the Lebell vs Savage match was barely a blip on the U.S. sporting map. Both the martial arts and boxing would go on to continue to grow in popularity as both would welcome their biggest starts to the American stage. For the martial arts, the mid-1960s witnessed the rise of Bruce Lee in the U.S. conciseness. His movies caused an explosion in interest in Asian martial arts. Meanwhile the iconic sporting star of Muhammed Ali would launch boxing to the top of the global sporting world. In 1976, Ali was a year removed from his epic third match with Joe Frazier and had dispatched three challengers rather easily. He was looking for something to make headlines with and when Japanese professional Antonio Inoki reached out to him for an exhibition match, Ali agreed. The agreed upon match was originally a "work", meaning that outcome would be predetermined. Inoki was a student of the transformative catch wrestler Karl Gotch, and was a skilled grappler. Inoki was know for liking "shooting" or having live matches and when Ali saw Inoki grapple live he became concerned that Inoki would go off script. Many think this was Inoki's intention and Ali requested several rules of the match be changed two weeks before the match. The new rules removed all grappling from the match and limited the strikes Inoki could throw, most importantly leg kicks could only be thrown if Inoki had one knee on the mat. The referee would be the only man really qualified to over see a boxer vs grappler match, none other than Gene Lebell. The result of these new rules was Inoki staying outside of Ali's range and diving forward with leg kicks on Ali and then laying on his back while Ali offered to help him up. In short, it was MMA's first real clunker of a fight. It was declared a draw but Ali suffered major damage to his legs and passed on the press conference to be taken directly to the hospital. It is claimed that this fight had a serious fight on Ali's mobility for the rest of his career. While the fight took place in Japan, it did draw interest in the United States. While these early forays into MMA did show an U.S. interest in this idea of match style against style it wouldn't be until the 1990s that experiment would take place. More Reading on Early U.S. MMA Happy Belated Birthday Gene LeBell Gene Lebell Official Stories The Joke That Almost Ended Ali's Career MMA Origins: Exploring Fight Sport's Ancient Roots Getting Medieval Vale Tudo and the Original MMA Rivalry Carlson Gracie Changes Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo Catch Wrestling Travels To Japan

Posted in: boxing, gene, ali, art, judo

Read the full article at Bloody Elbow

You often discover whether you possess fight or flight instincts when the going gets tough. Is it our instinct to escape the situation and run to the nearest safe haven, or do we decide to stand and fight, despite obvious risk, pain and embarrassment? Sometimes we wait our whole life to find out the answer to this kind of question, yet, luckily for me, my moment of realization arrived in my very first mixed martial arts amateur bout in 2006.I was 19 years of age at the time, had wrestled for four years, but had no clue what MMA was and had never before heard of the UFC. In fact, I had no desire to ever fight at this stage. I was just interested in learning a bit more about submission wrestling, having wrestled with the boys’ team since during high school.  As I became more and more interested in the sport of mixed martial arts, though, I started to contemplate the idea of actually competing and using my wrestling skills as a solid foundation in the sport. One day I decided to attend my first mixed martial arts fight and, though it was only an amateur event, it appealed to me and was something I wanted to see more of in the future. Then, as the event ended, the announcer grabbed the mic and revealed to the crowd that he would be hosting an all-female fight card in three weeks and that all fighters were welcome to try out and compete.  So, with only my wrestling background and just three weeks of striking training, I decided to give it a go and compete at that event. I went up against a dangerous Muay-thai kickboxer that night and, knowing how little striking experience I had, naturally realized I would be up against it. She and her husband owned their own Muay-thai gym and, of course, she was very well-drilled on her feet and had been doing it since she was a young girl.  I won the first round thanks entirely to my wrestling skills. I was able to go out there, take her down very quickly and then keep her there for the majority of the round. I used a little bit of ground-and-pound once I had secured the takedowns, but, for the most part, was just looking to control and outmaneuver her. When I went back to the corner, I was told by my trainer that I needed to punch more when we were on the ground and that I should look to score more damage when in advantageous positions.  The idea of doing physical damage to my opponent was something completely new to me at this stage, though, as I was still very much in pure wrestling mode. I went out for the second round and remember throwing a flurry of one-twos, which backed my opponent up to the corner. It was then that she put me into a Thai clinch and started going to work. I had no idea what this thing was that she had me caught in and had no clue how to defend or escape it. So, while I tried desperately to take her down, she was happily kneeing me in the face over and over again. One of the knees then shattered my nose, breaking it immediately.  Nevertheless, I kept trying for that double-leg and eventually got it. By this time, though, I was very dazed and didn't really know what was going on. This allowed her to capitalize and get her hooks in when we did finally hit the ground. I was now curled up in a ball, wary of being hit and choked out. I basically had nowhere to escape. She then postured up and began raining down punches on my ears, just for good measure.  This was a very pivotal moment for me in my career, because after taking severe punishment like that for the first time in my life, I reached an unexpected moment of clarity. I watched the blood pour from my nose and accumulate in a red pool beneath my face, and yet wasn't at all intimidated or scared by what was about to come. It was a strangely serene moment, one that highlighted just why I was there and what I needed to do to get myself out of this situation.  I thought to myself, 'Well, this is the route you chose, Tate – now you've got to get your ass off the floor and deal with it'. I finally realized what I was there to do, and accepted the harsh truth - this wasn't a wrestling match... it was a fight!  Without a second thought, I tried everything in my power to get out of a potential submission and start kicking her ass again. I bucked her off like crazy, she slipped into the guard position and that allowed me to get up on my tip toes and wail away with punches as hard as I possibly could. Blood was going everywhere. It was all over my face and her gloves. I didn't care anymore.  Now fully amped and excited, I walked back to my corner at the end of the round with a spring in my step, eager for the next round to hurry up. I now understood what I was there to do and realized what being a fighter was all about. I wanted more of it. Unfortunately, it was at this very moment that my trainers looked at me with disgust, in a way that suggested my nose and face were beyond repair and that I had no chance whatsoever of going another round. They made an executive decision and pulled me out of the fight, something which obviously bummed me out a little bit, but, in hindsight was the right decision. After all, I wasn't getting paid for the fight and all medical expenses were on my head. Still, I quickly knew after that fight - after the blood had dried and my nose returned to its normal place – that MMA was the sport for me. I was pushed beyond my limits, physically and emotionally, and yet was still craving more at the end of it all. I was all fight, not flight.  My March 3 challenger and opponent, Ronda Rousey, has never faced this type of make or break moment during her 4-0 mixed martial arts career. Yes, she was very accomplished as a judo player, winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics, but she has yet to taste her own blood in a grueling MMA bout. She’s yet to prove she can battle back from any adversity at all. Questions have never been asked of her.  All four of her MMA wins so far have arrived inside the first minute, and she has yet to face anybody that has so much as tested her, let alone come close to disfiguring her face and beating her. She’s been carefully matched, she’s been pampered and she’s been protected. The truth is, going into this world title fight with me, Ronda is still to discover whether she is even a real fighter.  However, on March 3rd, the night we meet for my STRIKEFORCE world bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey will learn just how hard and horrible the sport of mixed martial arts can be. I will take great pleasure in dragging her into deep waters for the first time in her life and then drowning her there... For more updates from Miesha Tate, follow here on Twitter @MieshaTate

Posted in: fight, round, face, art, moment

Read the full article at UFC

Rousimar Palhares has gained something of a cult following in mixed martial arts thanks to his affinity for finishing fights with nasty leg locks.

Posted in: alan belcher, palhare, art, rousimar, arts thanks

Read the full article at Sherdog

Ronda Rousey talks her rapid rise in mixed martial arts, her Strikeforce title fight with Miesha Tate and why she had some words with Cyborg Santos.

Posted in: rise, art, rousey, ronda, miesha tate

Read the full article at Heavy MMA

UFC President Dana White states his case for better refereeing and judging in mixed martial arts in this quick video. Do you agree?

Posted in: ufc, dana, case, art, refereeing

Read the full article at Heavy MMA

submitted by MattyBlayze [link] [10 comments]

Posted in: mma, fighter, mattyblayze, art

Read the full article at Reddit

Since the inception of the sport, the UFC has become the flagship for everything mixed martial arts. In a continued effort to cultivate the promotion as the best in the biz, the UFC has assembled most, if not all, of the greatest fighters under one roof...

Posted in: ufc, ufc history, art, nontitle fights, roof

Read the full article at Low Kick

[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on DstryrSG, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Hey, grapplers.  By now, you may be familiar with our brother, Adisa Banjoko and his innovative and cleverly named techniques featured here many times.  Adisa is a man of many talents and vocations:  he's an author/journalist and activist and the founder of the Hip Hop Chess Federation, a non-profit organization promoting martial arts, chess and music.  He's also a legit purple belt out of Heroes Martial Arts in San Jose, CA.  He contributes to DSTRYR/SG yet again and we're again equally stoked: Authors Note: This is actually an article that a little more than two years old. It was set to run a long time ago, and I lost it. Well guess what I just dug up? Just in time to, 'cause Denny killed it at the Gracie Nationals. If you are unfamiliar with Denny, he is on his way to being the Michael Jordan of the 10th Planet system. He is the first Black Belt under Eddie Bravo and when you see him fight and hear him speak, you'll know why. At the age of 21, Denny "300" Prokopos is living his dream. He is the first Black belt under the controversial BJJ innovator Eddie Bravo. In competition, Denny carries the spirit of his Greek ancestors onto the mat, attacking endlessly until victory. The only thing deeper than his physical game, is his mind. His mind is constantly evolving on how to approach the "gentle art." Now he runs his own school www.10thplanetjiujitsuSF.com as he refines his game. In this interview we will talk about the evolution of his journey in jiu jitsu, his relentless work ethic and much more. Read the Lost Interview

Posted in: time, belt, interview, art, denny

Read the full article at Middle Easy

The success of Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts is well documented, as the Albuquerque, N.M.-based gym boasts as impressive a track record as any camp in the sport today.

Posted in: jackson, track record, art, jackson ’s, jackson ‘

Read the full article at Sherdog

Well, that was an interesting weekend. While the rest of the sports world was whipped into a Super Bowl frenzy, the mixed martial arts community was still decidedly abuzz from UFC 143's polarizing main event. Plenty of fallout arrived amid Diaz vs. Condit, so catch up on everything you might have missed and everything you need to see on today's edition of the Morning Report. 5 MUST-READ STORIES TO START YOUR DAY: Dana White believes Carlos Condit deserved to win. Ariel Helwani and the UFC President discuss whether the judges made the right call, before being interrupted by a shirtless Mike Goldberg. Judges' scorecards from Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz. Take a look at how the three ringside judges -- including fan-favorite Cecil Peoples -- scored the action, round-by-round. UFC 143 morning after: Condit has what it takes to beat St. Pierre. Michael David Smith weighs-in with his thoughts from Saturday night, from Condit vs. GSP, to Kim Winslow's perfect stoppage. Video of the new UFC intro. Catch a replay of the new pay-per-view lead-in video that cost an "obscene amount of money," according to Dana White. Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen agree to UFC title rematch. Lost amongst the judging hysteria was the fact that the one of the UFC's most anticipated rematches has officially been set. THIS WEEKEND'S MEDIA GUMBO: Relieve Saturday's action with this Fox Sports highlight package. Video: Highlights: UFC 143 This man clearly did not agree with Sensei Cecil Peoples. (HT: Bloody Elbow) With that out of the way, afford yourself a look ahead at UFC 144, featuring fighters so strong they knock the pigment off their opponent. Somewhere, Stephen Thompson is smiling. (HT: Bloody Elbow) Carlos Condit's other, more tangible prize for beating Nick Diaz. (via Kevin Iole) Surprised she didn't armbar her. @RondaRouseyRonda Rousey I had a crazy dream last night involving a Japanese invasion,me shooting Rihanna w/ a glock 22(she was a traitor!)&a rest stop in the desert Feb 03 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply I don't think Japan is ready for a second dose of Rampage. @Rampage4realQuinton Jackson It b a lot of horny chicks n this gym n the morning....not complaining just saying Feb 03 via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet Reply Anyone else holding out for "RESPECT THE VADGE!" to become the female version of "Don't be scared homie?" @julesk_fighterJulie Kedzie Hey @ikevallieflagg I am going to f*** you up if we fight, you punk b****... RESPECT THE VADGE! (is my trash talk improving?) @seanshelby Feb 03 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply Miguel Torres gets it. @MiguelTorresMMAMiguel Angel Torres At the end of the day I'm just a man with an awesome haircut who gets paid to crush another mans hopes and dreams. Jan 29 via txt Favorite Retweet Reply FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS Here's what was announced over the weekend (Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 - Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012): UFC on Fox 3: Louis Gaudinot (5-2) vs. John Lineker (19-5) UFC on FX 3: Brandon Vera (12-5, 1 NC) out with injury, Thiago Silva (14-2, 1 NC) expected to receive new opponent UFC on Fuel TV 1: Yoislandy Izquierdo (6-0) out, Tim Means (16-3-1) in against Bernardo Magalhaes (11-1) Bellator 63: War Machine (12-4) out, Chris Lozano (9-2) in against Karl Amoussou (13-4-2) Tachi Palace Fights 12: Casey Olson (13-3) vs. Cody Gibson (5-2) FANPOST OF THE DAY: Today's FPOTD belongs to MMA Mania reader Wooly Shambler: As the "Godfather of MMA," how proud would Bruce Lee be of what MMA is today? Referred to as the godfather of MMA , Bruce Lee envisioned martial arts as truly becoming mixed. He felt that at the pinnacle of martial arts one should "be like water," meaning fluid and able to adapt instantly around an object or obstacle. While alive and teaching these beliefs he was met with strong opposition from many masters and disciples of the old guard. Bruce was challenged and scoffed at for believing that not one single martial art or form was best or sufficient. It seems however that not only through his demonstrations and victories, in both form and film, but also in the evolution of martial arts after his death that Bruce was right. DON'T FORGET to follow @MMAFighting on Twitter and 'like' us on Facebook. Found something informative, entertaining, brutal, or just plain bizarre for the Morning Report? Hit me at @shaunalshatti and we'll include it in tomorrow's post.

Posted in: ufc, vs, condit, feb, art

Read the full article at AOL Fanhouse

A lifelong martial artist, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson has fighting in his blood. The 28-year-old Simpsonville, SC native has been under the tutelage of his father Ray since he was just three years old. The senior Thompson owns, operates and instructs at the family owned Upstate Karate dojo which also houses Pitchblack MMA. Having basically grown up inside of the gym, it was very clear early on that Thompson possessed a very special set of skills and was going to be very athletic. The younger Thompson takes a great deal of pride in teaching the younger generation the intricacies of the martial arts as he is also an instructor. He’s a fine role model for the kids he teaches as he is a throwback, he believes in the true meaning of the martial arts. His principles go far beyond kicking, punching and grappling, he teaches them that martial arts is a lifestyle and helps to build confidence. Thompson also volunteers his time reading to children and teaching them the importance of living a clean, healthy lifestyle. If that isn’t enough he spends time teaching martial arts to the elderly when he visits them in their nursing homes. If anyone wants to question his credentials one needs to look no further than his incredible 57-0 record in kickboxing. He has amassed an astounding thirteen titles throughout his career and has started his MMA voyage with a 5-0 record. While striking is obviously his strong suit, opponents should not sleep on his ground game as he is trained by his brother-in-law Carlos Machado. A cousin of Carlos Gracie Jr., Machado has also trained with Helio, Carlson, Rolls, Rickson and other members of the famed Gracie clan. Getting the call to the UFC has been a lifelong dream of Thompson’s and this Saturday night he has the opportunity to showcase the skills that many of today’s top MMA stars have been lauding about for some time now. The journey has been a long, arduous trip, a serious knee injury kept him out of action for nearly three years. That’s all in the past now and Thompson is ready to show the world that the hard work he and his family have put in honing his skills has all been worth it. “Growing up we never really had time for any other sports,” explained Thompson in an exclusive interview with Five Ounces of Pain. “We basically lived and breathed the martial arts. We were always entering in Karate tournaments, grappling tournaments and that’s continued over the last 25 years. Being trained by family helps keep me grounded and I love it, but I also get a lot of opportunities to travel. I’ve traveled to Tri-Star and trained with Georges St. Pierre; I’ve been to Jackson’s in New Mexico and Los Angeles to train with Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva. I’ve had some great opportunities to train with some of the best fighters in the world.” There is a reason why all of these top mixed martial artists call upon Thompson to come and train with them. Besides the fact that his striking is world class he is humble, respectful and very loyal. You will never hear anyone utter a bad word about this man, in fact GSP and his head coach Firas Zahabi said in an interview that Thompson has the best striking in all of combat sports and is without a doubt a future world champion. That kind of praise could cause some to have an inflated ego, but that’s not the case with Thompson. “Hearing that really feels great,” said an excited and proud Wonderboy. “Whenever the opportunity arises to train with those guys it’s an honor and to get that kind of praise from them is awesome. I met GSP while fighting in a kickboxing match in Montreal; my opponent was training at Tri-Star and was cornered by GSP and Firas. I won the fight and afterwards GSP asked me to come up and train with him. We do some sparring to help prepare him for his fights, but he has really worked with me to improve my ground game. GSP has also introduced me to Rashad Evans who I trained with before his fight with Machida. The experiences I’ve had have been truly amazing.” Thompson prides himself on his striking, but is quick to point out that his ground game is not one that should be overlooked. He has taken bits and pieces from all of the fighters he has trained with and found that he can be dangerous once the floor hits the canvas. Fans will always look for the knockout in his fights, but Thompson has no problem throwing a wrench into his opponents’ gameplan and showing off his grappling skills. “We are constantly working on my ground game,” Thompson stated. “Georges has really helped me improve my grappling skills and I feel like I’m always progressing. I feel as though my ground game is very good. When you have a phenomenal wrestler like St. Pierre training you it’s impossible not to improve.” Making it to the UFC is the goal of every mixed martial artist worth their salt. For some it comes late in their career and for others like Thompson the call comes very early and unexpectedly. Taking a fight on short notice is never easy, but you never know if an opportunity like this will come up again. Thompson understood how important this decision was and didn’t hesitate when the fight was offered. “We jumped on the fight when it was offered,” Thompson said excitedly. “I was actually in Montreal when the UFC called. Fighting inside the Octagon has always been my goal and when my manager Lex McMahon got a hold of me I told him yes immediately. I knew there was no time to hesitate, I thought to myself, hey you got go ahead and do it, short notice or not. The UFC is where I want to be and I plan on making the most of it.” Will the words of St. Pierre and Zahabi ring true come February 4? Will all of the years of hard work and the countless hours training with a who’s who of mixed martial arts superstars equate into success for Thompson? While we have to wait until the fight takes place, Thompson is confident enough in his abilities and plans on showing the world that he belongs in the cage with the best in the world. “Fans are going to see a war when I step inside the Octagon this Saturday,” said a confident Thompson. “I’ve trained really hard for this opportunity and I’m ready to throw down. I plan on scoring a knockout and coming home with the win. One thing is for sure, I will not disappoint, I am going into that cage to put on a show and nothing less than that will be suffice.” To read Thompson’s weekly blogs with us you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. His third and last blog will be up at the end of this week. Thompson would like to thank his management company Alchemist Management, his family and training partners at Upstate Karate and Pitchblack MMA. His father Ray Thompson, Thomas Lee, Machado and Billy Jeffries have all been there for him and he wants to thank them for all they have done.

Posted in: fight, world, art, opportunity, thompson

Read the full article at Five Ounces of Pain

Welcome back to my online diary documenting my very amateur experience training in Muay Thai. If you missed the previous entries on Bloody Elbow, read them here. When I first started training, a friend of mine shared with me a very helpful and fascinating quote (one that was, in turn, shared to him when he first started training under Carlson Gracie): Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. -Bruce Lee Now, I am not a fanatic Bruce Lee disciple, but I've always held onto this quote as a perfect encapsulation of what training is all about. At first, you actually kind of think you know, then you realize you have no idea, then you actually kind of start to get it again. For me, punches have, at least to some degree, made their way through this cycle. Clearly there is plenty of room to improve, and I still have a few specific commands I keep in my head when punching (Get that elbow up on the hook! Rotate the right side on that cross! Stick the jab!), but for the most part, when I punch, I can let go somewhat and trust in my form. A punch is, once again, just a punch. A kick on the other hand... These continue to pose a challenge. For every kick, there is so much going through my head that it becomes difficult to just relax and execute the move. A list of the things I think about when kicking: Get the correct range and land with the shin Pivot those hips Turn so my belly button is perpendicular to my opponent Get up on the toes of my lead leg And rotate on those toes Get the leg back to position Now get the leg back to positions faster Watch my balance Chop with my arm But don't chop so much that I leave myself exposed for the counter It's a lot. And so, with all of this in my head, a kick is not just a kick. It's a complex, and at some times inscrutable set of directions, all of which must be executed in a second, and then done again, and again, and again. And that can, at times, be both frustrating and disheartening. When you work with people who have moved through this and who can make all of these things happen with what looks like no effort, it's easy to get down on your technique. But when I do, I try my best to remember 2 things. First, that "effortlessness" on their part is only because they put in this same effort I am putting in now and came out the other side. Second, in the end, a kick is still just a kick. And it will be for me once again, just as long as I keep at it. Question for any other trainees (in any discipline): how long did it take for your punches to be just a punch, for your kicks to be just a kick? And was it a frustrating journey at times? I train Muay Thai under Andre Madiz at Conviction Martial Arts, 4430 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL. www.convictionfitness.com. If you are in the Chicago area, come join us, and be sure to say hello.

Posted in: punch, muay, training, kick, art

Read the full article at Bloody Elbow

The beauty of mixed martial arts is that the unexpected can happen at any moment. One second, you're dancing around the octagon, dominating your opponent with an arsenal of attacks, and just when you think everything is going your way...

Posted in: way, art, mma moves, shouldnt, youre dancing

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Just found this subreddit just wondering if this is the biggest sub reddit for mix martial arts. submitted by scotty757 [link] [3 comments]

Posted in: sub, art, reddit, sub reddit, subreddit

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on DstryrSG, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Martial Arts were developed to be functionally used in battle and times of war. As time progressed most martial arts slowly evolved into a sport style of entertainment and competition. While sport martial arts are both fun to participate in and a great form of entertainment, one must realize that a significant part of the art and its origins are being lost. Over the years, I have noticed more and more arts gravitate toward sport, including BJJ. On one hand, we can attribute its modern popularity to MMA and grappling competitions such as ADCC (which is awesome.) While on the other hand most schools teach this contemporary version of the art that often times has little or no functional self defense techniques or theories for real-life application on the street. As most of you should know pulling guard on concrete is not a logical nor effective method of self defense. Most students of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu now days don't realize that "Helio's Style" of BJJ otherwise know as Japanese Jiu Jitsu contained a vast arsenal of techniques to counter both hand to hand attacks and attacks involving weapons. Read More and Watch the Video...

Posted in: sport, hand, jitsu, art, jiu

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In the eternal debate of MMA versus boxing, count heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko as a fan of mixed martial arts.

Posted in: mma, art, count, klitschko, wladimir

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In keeping with the Bloody Elbow tradition of belated birthday wishes, a day after Rorion Gracie's 60th Birthday is the ideal time to wish a true martial arts pioneer a happy birthday. Previous installments have included Helio Gracie (sadly on the occasion of his final birthday), Billy Robinson and Gene Lebell. Rorion Gracie is the oldest son of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu co-founder Helio Gracie, and in his 60 years on this planet Rorion has had a huge impact on the martial arts world. Rorion was the man who brought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to North America. His first trip to America was a classic road trip adventure that included having his airline tickets stolen from a YMCA safe, flipping burgers at a White Castle in California, and panhandling in Hawaii before he returned home to Brazil. Rorion was determined to return to the United States to spread Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So in 1978, armed with a black belt and law degree, Rorion moved to Southern California. He gained new students but he was constantly faced with martial arts instructors certain their martial art was superior. Rorion and his brothers were more than willing to accept challengers, and these challenge matches drew a crowd. This gave Rorion an idea, he was making an impact in Southern California but he wanted to reach more of the United States.Rorion went to a friend and student John Milius, a filmmaker, about how he could best reach the largest number of Americans possible. Rorion wanted to use the concept of the challenge match and show the use of ground fighting in a no rules fight. Milius put Rorion in touch with Art Davie, a promoter, and together the three of them came up with the the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Rorion insisted that there could no rules, no gloves, and no time limits, while Milius came up with the idea of an Octagon shaped cage. The UFC was born, and not only was it widely successful in spreading Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but also the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. So from everyone here at Bloody Elbow, we'd like to wish Rorion a Happy Belated Birthday! For more on Rorion's establishing the first American Gracie Academy and the UFC: History of Jiu Jitsu: Coming to America and the Birth of the UFC

Posted in: gracie, art, birthday, jiu, rorion

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submitted by Like_Wild_Potato [link] [2 comments]

Posted in: training, art, chael, likewildpotato, training methods

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Ken Reid tees up UFC 142 and breaks down all the action from a busy week in mixed martial arts.

Posted in: ufc, week, art, ken, tee

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2011 was a milestone year for mixed martial arts. New champions were crowned, huge television deals were made and the notion of being mainstream is becoming more and more of a reality.

Posted in: champion, art, television, television deals, milestone year

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SPORTSNET.CA looks at some of the best Canadian moments in the world of mixed martial arts in 2011.

Posted in: mma, canadian, art, moment, canadian moments

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SPORTSNET.CA looks at some of the best non-UFC moments in the world of mixed martial arts in 2011.

Posted in: art, moment, sportsnetca, nonufc moments, nonufc

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I have been taken back by the amount of vitriol expressed in the comments of Matt Roth’s recent stories examining Brock Lesnar’s career in professional wrestling. While a lack of interest with anything relating to a "staged sport" from a segment of MMA fanbase doesn’t surprise me what does is the outright hostillity expressed by many readers. For them positing any link, no matter how tenuous, beween the UFC and the WWF is to defame the sport they love. What many of them are apparently unaware of is that mixed martial arts is really professional wrestling. No, not the professional wrestlng of Vince MacMahon, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jesse "The Body", and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, but professional wrestling non-the-less, albiet under a different name. As I’ve tried to chronicle over the last year, the sport that would eventually be named mixed martial arts is not a recent invention, having been born of two parents over a century ago. From out of Japan in the East came a number of practioners of (the often interchangeable) jujutsu and Kodokan Judo who travelled extensively throughout the Western World in their quest to spread their art. To assist in this they quickly began demonstrating the "gentle-ways" effectiveness by challenging and facing in a variety of matches the home-grown Western fighting disciplines of boxing and wrestling. The West’s contribution was provided by professional wrestling, which was already staging mixed bouts between the different schools of grappling by the time jujtusu appeared on the European or American landscape. In no time the two disciplines would be facing of against each other in the ring. During the early 1900s, numerous contests between jujutsu and wrestling were held, often under the old prizefighting rules of "no holds barred", "anything goes", or "all-in": rules of wrestling that usually stipulated that no hold or tactic (with a few exception such as biting and gouging although sometimes even that was allowed) be banned from use, including striking. Eventually these evolved into an informal set of codified rules where both wrestling and jujutsu techniques where merged into a new style of wrestling, which was sometimes known as "jiu jitsu wrestling" when a jacket was worn (Will Bingham and Prof. Takahashi were strong proponents of this style). This was better known as "all-in" or "Slam Bang Western Style" wrestling and would become the basis for post Great War wrestling. Unfortunately, it was during the war years that wrestling metamorhosized from a somewhat legitimate sport into a completely staged one. Thus legitimate professional wrestling and the newly born mixed martial arts were eliminated in most of the world in one fell swoop. Fortunately it didn’t die out completely. In South America during the war years traveling Western wrestlers and Japanese judokas (most notably Matsuyo Maeda) hoping to escape the conflagation in Europe brought this "anything goes" wrestling with them as part of their travelling shows to the more hospitable lands of Brazil. These matches found some popularity in Rio de Janiero, São Paolo and the state of Bahia, becoming known as vale tudo (which translates as "anything goes" in Portuguese), eventually being televised on "Heróis do Ringue" from 1959-60. This widespread popularity wouldn’t last, being deemed too brutal for the masses, but would continued to be practiced as a fringe "sport" in Rio and the northern and southern regions of Brazil. Amongst the more well-known combatants to participate in these matches where Geo Omori, Manuel Rufini, Dudu, Wladimar Zbszko, Masahiko Kimura, Walkermar Santana, Euclides Pereira, Rei Zulu, Ivan Gomez, and, most famously, the Gracie family. It was a Gracie, Rorion, who would bring this (at least real and not staged) "anything goes" wrestling back to the United States on November 12, 1993, with the first Ultimate Fighting Championship. America was not the only place seeing a revival in real professiona wrestling that year, for a month earlier in Japan Masakatsu Funaki’s Pancrase held their first event, one where matches would be contested without predetermined outcomes. Puroresu in Japan, while having been as a staged as their Western counterparts was much more obsessed with keeping the illusion of reality alive, going so far as having their top star, Antonio Inoki, "prove" its superiority to other fighting disciplines (perhaps inspired by the "Heróis do Ringue" program which aired in Brazil while he resided there as a youth) or bring in such practiced catch-as-catch-can wrestlers as Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson to ensure that the Japanese wrestlers could deliver a realistic performance. Eventually a group of young wrestlers led by Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, and Ken Shamrock, tired of only practicing and deciding to finally compete for real. They did so under the rules of professional wretling, rules which allowed contestents to use painful submission grappling techniques and strikes (with open hand to the head). These rules had changed very little since being developed in the era of the wrestling versus jujutsu feud at the beginning of the century. The following year the Vale Tudo Japan tournament kicked off and shortly thereafter other real professional wrestling promotions (such as RINGS and PRIDE FC) followed, kicking off the era of sōgō kakutōgi in Japan. During this era very little was done to differentiate between MMA and puroresu. In the United States, the UFC too gave birth to other fighting promotions, but unable to use the name Ultimate Fighting, and apparently unaware of its direct linkage to professional wrestling, they would take to calling the sport "No Rules" and "No Holds Barred" fighting until Rick Blume coined the term mixed martial arts while promoting his Battlecade card. The name would soon be the acknowledged name for not only the "no rules" fighting of that time, but also the modified professional wrestling matches taking place in Japan and later events held under the Unified Rules. In fact, when the UFC and other MMA promotions were trying to move away from the ‘human cockfighting" image the sport had gained and began to enforce new rules they turned to the Japanese promotions for some of their inspiriation. Thus the current UFC, as fought under the Unified Rules, is descended from Japanese promotions of the 90s and the "anything goes" vale tudo of Brazil. In turn, both of these are the direct descendants of pre First World War professional wrestling matches. In fact, the UFC’s lineage and claim to professional wrestling is as strong as what they pass of as a sport in the WWE. And we didn’t even have to touch on the fact that the UFC has built its business completely off the back of pro wrestling and pro wrestling fans. For the complete story check out the Forgotten Golden Age of Mixed Martial Arts parts I, II, III, and IV and my previous Martial Chronicle looking at Hélio Gracie's bouts with wrestlers. And in the coming weeks stay tuned as I look at how Brazil saved mixed martial arts, how the Japanese helped invent it, and, if I have time, how Mr. Roth is killing it. IMAGES Kimura applying his namesake on Hélio via moscow.kyokushinkai.ru Sakuraba walkout via prommanow.com

Posted in: sport, anything, japan, art, rule

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submitted by phauna [link] [3 comments]

Posted in: mma, evolution, art, mma combinations, phauna

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With a win over Nate Diaz at UFC 141 on Friday, Donald Cerrone will have staked his claim to the best year of anyone in mixed martial arts not named Jon Jones.

Posted in: ufc, nate diaz, claim, cerrone, art

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Deck the halls with knockouts and submissions. Here's a look at the ultimate mixed martial arts Christmas list.

Posted in: submission, list, art, christma, submissions heres

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Congratulations are in order for longtime mixed martial arts veteran Matt Lindland, who earned his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) purple belt earlier this month under Fabiano Scherner. Props: Team Quest MMA (via MMA.tv)

Posted in: matt, veteran, art, congratulation, lindland

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Some discovered MMA when they turned on SpikeTV and saw a reality TV show where the cast beat each other up.  Others discovered it when they overheard someone at the gym talking about how Brock Lesnar could kill anyone in the cage.  And still others, like myself, discovered it when it intruded upon the world of traditional martial arts.  Yes, traditional martial arts – the world of dojos, starched gis and Bruce Lee’s “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”.  It’s a world many an MMA fan fled like a combative sport refugee, and yet it’s a world that still exists, kept alive by the inquisitive collective mind that hungers for the answers to such martial questions as “What works in a fight?” and “Hold on, is this kata going to get my ass kicked?”  Well, Black Belt Magazine columnist Mark Jacobs tackles those questions and more in his new book, “The Principles of Unarmed Combat”, which, like the author, straddles the MMA and traditional realms and puts the “martial arts” in mixed martial arts. Clocking in at 352 pages, the Principles of Unarmed Combat would be an apropos textbook if colleges taught fighting for credit.  It literally covers it all – striking, grappling, movement, defense, strategy, psychology – and Jacobs approaches each topic with a thorough analysis and in-depth description of the “how” and the “why”.  How deep does Jacobs go?  Let’s just say that on his acknowledgments page he thanks everyone from “Judo” Gene LeBell to various doctors to a professor in engineering at Cooper Union.  The closest thing I can compare the Principles of Unarmed Combat to would be “Mastering Jujitsu” by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher, which is one of my all-time favorite instructional books, so consider that high praise. Jacobs has been writing a column for Black Belt for four years, and has been a practicing martial artist for over thirty.  We’ve run into each other while covering everything from Bellator to Strikeforce to underground full-contact kung fu tournaments, so I reached out and asked him what inspired him to write this book.  “The Buddha talked to me through a burning makiwara,” he said (note: he was joking).  “Also, being sort of analytical, I’d always been given to breaking down and examining what I was being taught and being a writer had always thought about putting down my findings in a book.  When you do martial arts for a long time, you hear a lot of conflicting information on what works and doesn’t work.  I always felt there should be some objective way of examining this stuff to determine what works, what doesn’t work, why, and what the exceptions are.  Since there was not a lot of objective, scientific stuff out there, I finally decided to write it myself.  It’s basically the book I wished I could have found to explain things to me when I started out in martial arts.” How has working for Black Belt helped?  “It provided me with a lot of contacts and access to different top martial artists and instructors who I was fortunate enough to get to interview in-depth and pick their brains on various technical topics.  As much as anything, that’s why I keep writing for Black Belt.  I get to meet a lot of really interesting martial artists.” “Interesting martial artists” is also a phrase that pretty much describes Jacobs’ next project, although when I asked him to talk about it and used the term “crazy martial arts people”, he corrected me.  “Perhaps ‘crazy martial arts people’ is not the best way to refer to it.  I still need access to the crazy people, after all.  Maybe something like ‘interesting, unique and sometimes strange characters and sub-cultures that populate the martial arts world’.”  Anyway, if your bookshelf contains such tomes as Saulo Ribeiro’s “Jiu-Jitsu University” and Anderson Silva’s “MMA Instruction Manual”, then you’ll want the Principles of Unarmed Combat.  Buy it, read it, love it.

Posted in: book, art, combat, jacob, principle

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submitted by MattyBlayze [link] [comment]

Posted in: mattyblayze, art, mattyblayze link, royce, royce art

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"The expectations are great. The main idea is to show how is the life and the trainings of a fighter, make them focus and don’t get disturbed by the cameras or anything else, stay focused on the training. All athletes there I believe have a certain experience, so they don’t let it get to them. I wanna show the good side of the martial arts, show the positive aspects of practicing martial arts and make it popular to people who has never watched MMA in their lives, and maybe help people

Posted in: show, wanderlei silva, people, art, arts show

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Just an observation. I hate clicking links and seeing terrible writing and thinking, "Someone got PAID for that?" Perhaps they didn't, maybe they were an intern, but the fact remains. MMA writing is still pretty bad in general, whereas football writing is a high art form thanks to Sports Illustrated and the like. Thoughts, please. submitted by blackmer2010 [link] [4 comments]

Posted in: art, mmarelated websites, observation i, redditors comments, mmarelated

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Last time we discussed the first recorded combat sport, Pankration. While this art was important to note, it does not have an established connection to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. The origins of modern MMA can be traced back to two primary sources, martial arts that developed around the same general time on two different sides of the globe during the Middle Ages. In Europe, the Western Roman Empire had crumbled under its own weight. Europe went through a period of chaos as German tribes picked the bones of the Roman Empire clean. Out of this 'dark age' new powers emerged; France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain to name a few. While these looked like nations when we observe maps depicting these times, they were in fact composed of tangled webs of personal and political loyalties that shifted and changed. As a result families often meant more politically than borders; there was a time when the King of England ruled more of France than the King of France through family connections. Likewise half a world away, in the islands of Japan, the land was divided between many different kingdoms, connected by a similar web of complex political, economic and personal relationships. The ruling class were the land owning lords, known as Daimyos. Warfare was a constant in this ever shifting landscape and in both Japan and Europe warrior classes emerged. Daimyos in the East and Feudal Lords in the West gave plots of land and peasants to warriors in exchange for their service. These warriors, free of the need to harvest their own food, were able to devote their time to training for war. These grew into their own warrior cultures with their practices and ideologies. In Japan, they were the Samurai and they followed the Code of Bushido and in Europe it was the Knights who had the loose ideology of Chivalry. Both Knight and Samurai used swords, spears, and other weapons to defeat their enemies, and they shared one more quality: they wore armor. This armor was the best protection technology could provide and would stop not just glancing blows, but direct strikes with all but the heaviest weapons. How to defeat an armored opponent became the question that martial skills sought to solve. Punches and kicks were not very effective against armor, so grappling became one answer. In a clash of swords, one fighter could quick position himself and throw his enemy to the ground. An armored enemy, once on his back, is weighed down by his armor and then strikes could be directed at the gaps in the armor with the added force of gravity to help break through. video after the jump... In Japan, the art was know as Jujitsu, while in Europe it was generally referred to as 'wrestling at the sword'. While not always pretty and fluid, it was highly effective. (A fantastic example of grappling using a sword and wearing armor via tossetoke) Both arts developed their grappling in societies where practically everyone was armed, so the focus was defending against attacks from blades. Dealing with attacks from knives was at the core of both Jujitsu and Wrestling and the vast majority of techniques are the same. Here is a shoulder lock takedown used against a dagger attack in both Jujitsu and European wrestling: European over hand attack dagger defense. Uke Garami against over hand knife attack (via nidanwarrior11) These techniques are not just similar, they are identical in principle and practice. The jujitsu technique is one of the oldest in the martial arts and the European one comes from the combat manual Flos Duellatorum based on German fighting techniques and written before any Europeans ever had contact with the Japanese. Thus completely independently from each other, the Japanese and Europeans came to the same technical solution. And it is not just restricted to this technique, there are many similarities, either identical techniques or ones that work on the same principles. Japan's warfare gave way to a time of peace and during this time the Samurai began to open schools to train their styles of combat, or ryu, including Jujitsu. Despite being at peace, Japan was still divided and Jujitsu schools had little contact with each other and thus the styles grew apart. Japan began to have contact with European explorers and traders, and a closed door policy was imposed, locking out foreign influences. While Japan looked inward, Europe looked to expand outward. Europeans traveled the world on the ships and those same ships that carried explorers and merchants also carried wrestlers. Wrestlers, who in the endless hours to fill ashore, would often challenge local wrestlers to matches and a lot of spectators would bet on the results. As a result Persian style wrestling from the Middle East and Indian wrestling from the sub-continent began to blend with the European Wrestling. Back in Europe, wrestling was still very popular. In fact it became common custom for the Kings of European nations to wrestle each other at festivals. In one rather famous encounter King Henry VIII of England grappled with King Francis I of France. They both practiced wrestling arts that used jackets (similar to gis) and wrestled to the first flying throw (similar to an Ippon), so the match would have looked very much like a Judo match. King Francis won by a Flying Mare throw (similar to a Seoi Nage). But the advent of the gun brought to an end of battles fought primarily with close combat and armor became a thing of the past. In Japan, the Meiji Restorations put an end to the ways of the Samurai and Jujitsu would have faded into the past but for a man named Kano Jigoro. He took the divided and complicated art of Jujitsu and smooth lined it into the modern sport of Judo. Some pockets of Jujitsu survived and are taught to this day in its pure form. In Europe, it was purely a matter of practicality and not government policy that relegated wrestling to sport instead of combat art. Wrestling divided into sport wrestling which included catch wrestling, a grappling art that included submission holds. While Jujitsu and catch wrestling existed for centuries in their home lands it was not until these two arts switched hemispheres that would lead directly to the birth of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Special Thanks to KJ Gould for his help with catch wrestling history. For more on the rise of Jujitsu and Judo in Japan: Jiu-Jitsu History: Birth on the Battlefield Jiu-Jitsu History: The Meiji Era and the Evolution of Judo The Forgotten Golden Age of MMA: The Rise of Judo MMA Origins: Exploring Fight Sport's Ancient Roots

Posted in: japan, art, jujitsu, europe, european

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"There are many things they do on the American show that I particularly don’t think is nice. I believe we gotta sell the sport as it is. Martial arts are about respect, discipline, posture. And that’s what they’ll see happening here, but it’s not going to be messy. Not in my side, at least. But people will have to sign a deal on which they say that if they mess up with me, it’ll get ugly. I wanna show the good side of the martial arts, show the positive aspects of practicing martial arts and make it popular to people who has never watched MMA in their lives, and maybe help people who do many things wrong, like doing crack and other drugs. Sometimes it happens because the guy doesn’t have anything to do, his friend starts doing it and he goes and does it. I guess we gotta bring these guys from the bad side and show them some things that are good, that’s my mission." Put the pipe down and get your ass in the gym. That's the message from mixed martial arts megastar Wanderlei Silva (via Tatame.com), who travels back to his native homeland to coach an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Brazil opposite fellow countryman and longtime rival Vitor Belfort. "The Axe Murderer," who rose to prominence in PRIDE and then again in the UFC, is ready to give back to the sport that made him financially secure by taking on a team of up-and-coming fighters from the mean streets of Brazil. Anyone think Wandy is being melodramatic? Or can he go all "Band of the Hand" and shape career criminals into championship fighters?

Posted in: show, people, brazil, thing, art

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In the world of mixed martial arts, things move at a rapid pace. It can be difficult for a fighter to carve his...

Posted in: pace, art, yahoo sports, edgar scraps, scrap

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With a win over Lyoto Machida on Saturday, Jon Jones would cap one of the most brilliant years in mixed martial arts history.

Posted in: jone, year, lyoto machida, machida, art

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By Dustin De La Torre Eddie Arizmendi sits down to talk about the highs and lows of Mixed Martial Arts, getting started in the sport after his dad showed him a fight. He also fills us in on his upcoming fight this Friday, December 09, 2011 at M-1 Challenge XXX, where he will be taking on [...]

Posted in: fight, eddie, art, arizmendi, fight ”

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The sport of Mixed Martial Arts has exploded in the pervious twenty years and has attracted countless new fans. And as the sport evolves it is very easy to loose sight of even the recent past of the sport much less its far reaching roots. So this series will bring will recount the history of Mixed Martial Arts, from the earliest forerunners to the modern sport of MMA focusing on pivotal fighters, styles, fights, rivalries and events. To start off we are going to travel back to Ancient times to give the modern sport proper context. We start with the Ancient Greeks and the sport of Pankration, also called Pancratium. In the 600s BC, the major empires in the Middle East favored larger armies centered around archery, chariots and quick moving light infantry that worked well on large open battlefields. The Greeks however lived in a mountainous country, were battles were fought in ravines, valleys and mountain passes with heavy infantry at close quarters. With military service being obligatory for citizenship in the Greek polis, the average Greek man was well-versed in close combat. Out of the clash of phalanxes came a combat art based on real combat experiences that combined wrestling and striking. This art, Pankration, was practiced in varying forms from Greek city-state to Greek city-state, and included joint locks, chokes and neck cranks. To fill the time during years of peace, Greeks had sporting contests, mostly based around preparing Greek men for war. Pankration was a natural addition and appeared in the Olympic games. Rules varied from city to city and there is evidence that Spartans were outlawed from most competitions for their unfortunate tendency to kill their opponent and that they were encouraged by their teachers to bite and scratch in matches. Matches, in general, were fought naked and combatants coated themselves with sand to create friction for grips. Fighters then could strike or grapple, depending on their own personal style and matches ended when one contestant was unable to continue or signaled defeat by raising an index finger on one hand (an ancient tapout). Death was a fairly common occurrence in these matches. Some historians have theorized that when Alexander the Great unified the Greek people with the Macedonians and they conquered the Persian Empire and entered India they spread Pankration east influencing the development of martial arts there. While this sounds all well and good, there is no evidence to support this assertion. Alexander's death mark the decline of the Greeks as an international power and the small, warlike city of Rome rose to fill that power vacuum. While the Romans did practice both wrestling and boxing, there is no evidence they adopted Pankration and the art faded. I want there to be no confusion, the art was gone and there is no clear connection between Ancient Pankration and modern MMA, but it is a clear pioneer art in combat. In recent years there has been a resurgence of Pankration as Greek martial artists recreate the techniques based on paintings and statues. This resurgence gives us a better understanding and insight into what may have been the first formally practiced martial art. The Discovery Channel show Human Weapon did a pretty decent feature on this recreation of Pankration. Sources: Ancient Olympics Pancratium

Posted in: sport, art, combat, greek, pankration

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is giving the Philippines another look after trying unsuccessfully to get a mixed martial events on Filipino television And they're bringing a little help from Hawaii. Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn was a part of Zuffa's promotional tour and "The Prodigy" was on hand to discuss the local MMA scene in Manila. From ABS-CBNnews.com: "The beauty of mixed martial arts is - it's gonna grow so big, and so fast around the whole world because every country has its own martial arts. Filipinos have so many different martial arts. Every country has so much martial arts, and this thing is gonna grow fast and everybody's gonna have a shot at becoming a champion." Could fans already be close to having a Filipino champion? Mark Munoz is widely considered one of the top middleweight contenders in the UFC and is thought to be one fight away from challenging for the 185-pound crown. Fellow Filipino and light heavyweight veteran Brandon Vera, while nowhere near the top of the 205-pound mountain, is still a recognizable face and mainstay on UFC programming. And speaking of programming, the major hurdle in bringing MMA to the airwaves is working out a deal with television giant ABS-CBN. From Kevin Chang, UFC-Asia's senior director for media (via Philstar.com): "There's a chance the UFC will hold fights in the Philippines. The UFC is working it out with ABS-CBN and Balls, maybe next year." A lot of stars would have to align, but don't think Munoz isn't dreaming of challenging for the division strap in front of a stadium fulling of screaming Filipinos. Stay tuned.

Posted in: ufc, filipino, art, philstarcom theres, arts filipinos

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Sometime near the end of 2010, Jason Guida decided to give it a rest. A professional mixed martial arts career that began in 2003 had fallen on hard times, and while Guida’s win-loss record had never been especially pretty, 10 defeats in 11 outings have a way of making a man reassess his lot in life

Posted in: jason, rest, art, arts career, guida

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Jordan Breen will host his weekly mixed martial arts chat at 1 p.m. ET.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, jordan, arts chat

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Six months ago, mixed martial arts fans thought they might never again see Kurt Pellegrino fight

Posted in: fight, art, arts fans, pellegrino, bellator finale

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Jordan Breen will host his weekly mixed martial arts chat at 1 p.m. ET.

Posted in: breen, chat, art, jordan, arts chat

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submitted by 2WAR [link] [1 comment]

Posted in: war, art, minotauro, minotauro art

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NCAA Division I wrestling champion Bubba Jenkins has another new opponent for his mixed martial arts debut.

Posted in: division, opponent, debut, jenkin, art

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Though Judo might translate to mean the “gentle way” the sport is anything but filled with tenderness. An ancient form of Japanese combat, the art predominantly features a mixture of throws, takedowns, and submission maneuvers such as choke-holds and joint-manipulation. Tweet

Posted in: art, judo, japanese combat, submission maneuvers, way ”

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There is no question wrestling is one of the original forms of combat and is arguably the most important discipline to hone in Mixed Martial Arts. A focus on pure grappling rather than submissions or strikes, wrestling features takedowns, throws, clinches, and pins when done in an amateur capacity. Tweet

Posted in: art, capacity, discipline, form, features takedowns

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Viewed as the “art of eight-points”, Muay Thai is a brutal martial art featuring clinch-work and striking with knees, elbows, feet, and fists. The sport is generally associated with Southeast Asia and Brazil. Tweet

Posted in: muay, art, thai, muay thai, “ art

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Fighters Only, the world’s leading mixed martial arts magazine, today reminds sports fans around the world that they have just a couple more days...

Posted in: world, day, sport, art, sports fans

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"I don't know, I don't know we'll see. You know he's up there, his dream was to fight in the UFC. He got to the fight in the UFC and fight Wanderlie Silva. You think about it, Cung Le is one of these guys who comes from traditional martial arts. What this guy has accomplished in transitioning from rational martial arts into MMA, it's pretty damn amazing. I have so much respect for that guy as a fighter and as a human being." -- One and done? UFC President Dana White tells MMAFighting.com that he is unsure if the Cung Le, 39, will return for an encore performance with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Le, who was coming off a 17-month layoff heading into his fight with Wanderlei Silva this past weekend (Nov. 19) at UFC 139: "Shogun vs. Henderson, suffered only the second loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career to "The Axe Murderer." White was non committal when asked if Le would return, leading one to believe that did not sign a multi-fight contract with the promotion. Le, who has a budding acting career with 13 films already under his belt, has often taken extended breaks from the sport to focus on his duties in Hollywood. In fact, he vacated his Strikeforce middleweight title not too long ago too pursue other endeavors on the Silver Screen. Perhaps the Sanshou specialist would be more inclined to step back into the Octagon if he would have picked up the win this past weekend. Or, maybe the cool $350,000 he picked up in his losing effort at UFC 139 is enough incentive to return. Who could blame him if he didn't -- acting certainly hurts less and likely pays more.

Posted in: ufc, fight, guy, cung, art

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There are times in every person’s life that are bound to affect them for the rest of their lives, to carry on through the years and become stories that are passed down to children of the next generation. These moments encapsulate the very essence of humanity, the little things in life that many often take for granted or are too busy to stop and reflect upon. It has been said that great art is one of the truest ways to express such moments, to create a living time capsule that can be passed down from generation to generation.Truly powerful art can evoke great emotion from its audience. It can make them laugh, smile or even move them to tears. It is the great art that is relatable and can transcend just being art, but become a way of life and have a serious emotional impact on the audience. For many, Mixed Martial Arts is simply a sport, a vehicle for fast, furious and brutal entertainment of a visceral common denominator. For other fans, though, it has become a true form of art and expression.Gary LaPlante is one of these fans, whose life has become intertwined with that of the fighting careers of men whose fights have not just entertained him, but touched him on a deeper level. “PRIDE Never Die” might be a phrase that some fans will use with derision, a form of ridicule for fans who hold on to the heroes of PRIDE FC’s past glory. Gary instead chooses to embody it, for him it has become a way of life. A strong, inseparable bond has grown inside of him towards his heroes and his unwavering support is public, unabashed, for the world to see.The achievements of fighters like Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua are much more than simple battle scars and a win or loss on an official record to Gary. Instead, their passion and dedication for their art of fighting has become something more, forging this bond for him and creating memories that will live on with him for the rest of his life. They have moved beyond the realm of athletes or entertainers to him, and in to the history books as true titans and heroes in an era where imagination and heroism are all-but dead.This video that we are presenting to you is not just another video that you’d find on the internet while surfing around, instead this is a brief look inside of what true passion and fandom are. It is a look into what Mixed Martial Arts can be and how it can move beyond the traditional boundaries of fandom and become so much more. This is an uncensored and unedited look at just how delicate life can be, chronicling one fan’s earnest reaction to watching one of his heroes competing in one of the sport’s most gripping contests to date. This is Gary. Photo by Bauzen.

Posted in: life, fan, art, hero, glory gary

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Mixed martial arts can be cruel to its legends. One needs look no further than the swan song appearances of former UFC light heavyweight champions Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture for proof

Posted in: heavyweight, liddell, randy, art, swan

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Two days of Russian mixed martial arts action commences on Friday with M-1 Challenge 29 in Ufa City, followed by Saturday night’s heavyweight fight...

Posted in: challenge, art, city, arts action, ufa city

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Ronda Rousey was a bona fide judo star. But the young American walked away from the sport to take up mixed martial arts.

Posted in: art, judo, olympic, rousey, judo star

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Seeking to overturn the long ban on mixed martial arts in the state of New York, the UFC announced Tuesday a lawsuit claiming its illegality is a violation of constitutional rights.

Posted in: ufc, right, art, york, ban

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NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 15, 2011- The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a group of plaintiffs including fighters, fans, trainers and others involved with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) announced today that they have filed a lawsuit against New York State officials challenging the constitutionality of the state law banning live professional MMA events and associated activities (the “Ban”).  The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenges the Ban for violating numerous provisions of the United States Constitution, including the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause.  Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the Ban infringes upon the rights of the fighters who want to publicly exhibit their skills as professionals and express themselves before a live audience, the rights of fans who would like to experience live professional MMA events, and the rights of those who train, publicize or otherwise advance MMA in New York.  Plaintiffs point to the following as evidence of the irrational, unconstitutional nature of the Ban:•    The Ban was originally imposed in 1997, at a time when MMA was unregulated and prohibited in many other states.  Today, MMA is a highly-regulated, broadly popular sport, which experts and supporting safety data verify is as safe as or safer than many sports and activities that are legal in New York, including boxing, football and rodeo.•    MMA is widely available on television in New York, and many New Yorkers lawfully train and spar in MMA.•    Live professional MMA can take place in virtually every state except New York. •    The individual martial arts that comprise MMA, including kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, judo, boxing and wrestling, are legal and performed live regularly in New York - it is only their combination, performed live by professionals, that is banned in New York. “MMA is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S. and one of the most popular in the world,” said Lorenzo Fertitta, Chairman and CEO of Zuffa LLC, owner of the UFC.  “When we acquired the UFC, we went to great lengths to invite regulation and adopt substantial safety measures.  MMA is now as safe as or even safer than many other sports and activities sanctioned in New York like boxing, for example, because it allows fighters to honorably tap out and involves far fewer hits. All the disciplines that go into mixed martial arts are performed live in New York; it is only their combination that is illegal.  Denying fighters the chance to exhibit their training and skills before a live audience and denying thousands of New Yorkers the ability to watch their favorite fighters perform live is not only an injustice to them, but to the local markets that would reap tremendous economic benefits from hosting competitions. We believe the ban should be eliminated, and look forward to fighting live in New York.”“It is unfortunate that we were forced to take the step of filing a lawsuit to overturn this senseless law, but the ban on live professional MMA infringes on the rights of countless New Yorkers,” said Barry Friedman, a constitutional law professor at New York University School of Law and co-counsel with Morrison & Foerster LLP for the Plaintiffs.  “Despite sincere legislative efforts, the ban remains in place based on a flawed assessment of the sport’s supposedly ’violent message.’  This rationale is a patent violation of the First Amendment. In live events, fighters showcase their talents, communicate their convictions, show respect for their opponents and the art and tradition of MMA, and convey the importance of discipline, training and hard work.  They also entertain their fans.  Not only does the law prohibit live events, but as it is written it purports to ban other speech including media broadcasts and coverage of professional MMA.  It is ironic that New York -- in many ways the home of free expression, the global media, and the art world -- would deny someone his or her fundamental freedom of expression. The Ban is contrary to what New York is all about. There is no legal basis for this unconstitutional ban to persist.” “Performing MMA live in front of a crowd is an unrivaled experience and allows me to speak to my fans,” said Plaintiff and UFC competitor Brian Stann. “I was attracted to MMA during my time in the Marine Corps, after I returned from my first deployment to Iraq in 2005 and was looking for a path that allowed me to stay motivated, and inspire others, particularly fellow veterans.  MMA is a brotherhood that demands respect for your fellow fighters and rewards mental discipline and skill.  It has given countless veterans a way to rehabilitate and connect with other military veterans and I am grateful every day for the ability to compete and inspire my fans.” 

Posted in: mma, fighter, art, york, ban

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For some old school fans of mixed martial arts, Saturday night (Nov. 12) was a "sad day" and the "end of an era." But for who? And why? MMA Nation's Nate Wilcox explains right here.

Posted in: day, fan, school, art, school fans

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After mixed martial arts (MMA) went mainstream with UFC on FOX 1, MMA fans are upset. But, selling out is the best thing for the sport according to MMA Nation's Jonathan Snowden. Read all the reasons right here.

Posted in: mma, mainstream, art, arts mma, reasons right

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ROSEMEAD, Calif. – Here's one fantasy matchup you probably didn't see coming: Art Jimmerson vs.

Posted in: kimbo slice, art, jimmerson, fantasy matchup, art jimmerson

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submitted by Philll [link] [1 comment]

Posted in: ufc, helwani, ariel, art, jimmerson

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UFC president Dana White has been waiting for Saturday night for more than a decade. The UFC makes its network prime-time appearance on Fox will be a new peak in the growth of mixed martial arts from a banned sport into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Posted in: ufc, saturday night, sport, art, growth

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UFC president Dana White has been waiting for Saturday night for more than a decade. The UFC makes its network prime-time appearance on Fox will be a new peak in the growth of mixed martial arts from a banned sport into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Posted in: ufc, saturday night, sport, art, growth

Read the full article at sportsnet.ca

Everyone remembers kids taking karate or taekwondo growing up, but with the global growth of MMA, is mixed martial arts simply the biggest discipline of martial arts now?

Posted in: art, everyone, art everyone, discipline, taekwondo

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What kind of sportsmanship exists in Mixed Martial Arts? It's hard to tell with the lines so blurred in feuds that look both fake and real at the same time.

Posted in: kind, art, sportsmanship, signal, feud

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submitted by calimoney44 [link] [comment]

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The UFC 138: Leben vs. Munoz match up between lightweights Terry Etim and Edward Faaloloto has been criticized by fans to demonstrate their disinterest in the UFC 138 card. While I think Etim is always exciting and still has a bright future at age twenty-six, there are some intriguing back stories and historical significance within the traditional martial arts that both fighters specialize in. It's not uncommon to dub Etim as a talented Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player for latching submissions in eleven of his fourteen career victories, yet he is about as much of a BJJ enthusiast as heavyweight catch wrestler Josh Barnett. Rorian Gracie is credited with introducing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to North America. First, he trained Mel Gibson for the hit flick "Lethal Weapon" in 1987, which ended with an armbar attempt transitioning to a triangle choke in a mano a mano showdown with the evil Mr. Joshua, played by Gary Busey. The U.S. got their first real taste of the mystical art when Rorian Gracie helped organize a style versus style tournament called The Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1993. This was not a new concept in Brazil -- Vale Tudo was the name of the original competitions and the two most popular styles to battle for supremacy were Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Luta Livre. Luta Livre means "free fight" in Portugese and was differentiated by its practice without the kimono or gi for a more realistic combat environment. While wrestling and submission holds were the initial foundation, boxing and striking were later integrated to cover all aspects of realistic fighting. Vale Tudo, meaning "anything goes" (no rules, no gloves, no time limits), governed the three BJJ vs. Luta Livre matches to prove which was truly more effective. The three BJJ representatives were Murilo Bustamante, Wallid Ismail and Fabio Gurgel; the three Luta Livre reps were Eugenio Tadeu, Marcelo Mendes and Denilson Maia. BJJ was victorious over Luta Livre in all three matches and was thus considered the superior style, vaulting it to the forefront of the public eye and burying Luta Livre in its wake of growing popularity. Before his Octagon stint, Etim was considered the number two UK lightweight behind a fighter named Abdul Mohamed. A Cage Gladiators champion, Mohamed lost his belt when he was submitted in 2008 by former Pride fighter Luciano Azevedo, a Luta Livre purist under the great Marcio "Cromado" Barbosa. Cromado is the founder and head coach of The Renovacao Fight Team in Brazil, which he created to keep the Luta Livre tradition alive and relevant in modern day MMA. Cromado was a student of Eugenio Tadeu, who trained under the father and son duo of Grand Master Fausto Brunocilla and Carlos Brunocilla, who in turn were students of the legendary Robert Leitao and the original founding father of Luta Livre, Master Euclydes "Tatu" Hatem. Etim journeyed to Brazil to prepare for his UFC debut with Azevedo at RFT and is now a student under Marcelo Brigadeiro; one of Cromado's star students who opened up an RFT affiliate school in the UK. Continued after the break. Edward Faaloloto began with two martial arts that stemmed from the Pacific Rim: Limalama and Kajukenbo. Limalama means "hands of wisdom" and was founded by American-Samoan Tino Tuiolosega, who started with a foundation in Polynesian martial arts called "Lua" which centered around boxing, kicking, wrestling, throws, joint and bone dislocation, nerve-center attacks and "dirty fighting". Tuiolosega went on to complement his Lua background with the five animal styles of Chinese Kung Fu and began to develop his own fighting system. The end result was Limalama, a diverse combat philosophy that integrated boxing, clinch-fighting, grappling and submission holds but relied heavily on a mixed striking style rooted in Kenpo karate. Another unique martial art born from Hawaii, Kajukenbo was created in the late 1940's when a congregation of masters from various traditional martial arts disciplines formed "The Black Belt Society". The group's intention was to train together and learn from one another to determine the most effective conglomeration of martial arts for realistic combat scenarios. What arose from those sessions was a mesh of Karate, Judo, Kenpo and Boxing, all of which combine to make up the name "Kajukenbo". Edward Faaloloto might not be a big name or have much pull with the coarse fanbase, but his personal history has earned him one firm supporter in myself. Before his WEC debut, Faaloloto had a rough upbringing and had already been shot and stabbed on the streets of Hawaii. He was the victim of a gang-related attack and was shot in the hand. The bullet ricocheted off his bone and he survived, but his good friend accompanying him that night was not so fortunate. He was killed in the melee and died next to Faaloloto. He was later stabbed by the friend of a homeless man who asked for change and then tried to rob him. Faaloloto cites his experience with martial arts and time in the Navy for directing his tumultuous life down a more positive path. Today's focus rests on the present state of evolutionary combat, yet every once in a while it's nice to take a step back and give credit to the original martial arts that made MMA what it is today. Soon, with all the new students training MMA as their whole system of fighting, there will be no more practitioners of traditional martial arts left in mainstream sporting competitions.   Reference and Reading Information Robert Leitao's Ten Principles of Grappling History of BJJ vs. Luta Livre (Mousel's Forum) One Student's Decision of BJJ vs. Luta Livre (Bullshido Forum) Kajukenbo History (with video interviews) Alternate Source on Kajukenbo History MMAHawaii.com's Interview with Edward Faaloloto

Posted in: art, style, faaloloto, livre, luta

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Viacom's investment in Bellator could have long-term implications for the mixed martial arts industry.

Posted in: bellator, sport, deal, art, bellator deal

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UFC president Dana White admits to feeling some prime-time pressure as the mixed martial arts juggernauts readies for its Fox network debut.

Posted in: ufc, fox, art, primetime, primetime pressure

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UFC 137 delivered an exciting night of fights last night from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Several of the event's biggest stars were available immediately following the Post-Fight Press Conference to discuss their bouts, as well as the next steps in their mixed martial arts career.

Posted in: ufc, night, event, postfight, art

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If you haven’t seen the sixth episode of TUF 14 yet beware of spoilers below. Click here to watch the full episode for free from the official Ultimate Fighter website. The sixth episode of TUF now in the bag, we are slowly getting closer to the December 3rd finale going down in Las Vegas. Michael Bisping last night showed once again why he is one of the most hated men in Mixed Martial Arts, Diego Brandao instills fear into the feathers in the house, and John Dodson showcases

Posted in: tuf, episode, fighter website, art, haven ’t

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on MMA-Japan, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Victor Cui, owner and CEO of OneFC had some groundbreaking news today.  What we will see go down in 2012 is a massive transition to a grand alliance of Asian mixed martial arts brands, teams, promotions, fighters, and the like.  This creation of the OneFC Network will mark a first in not only in Asia, but throughout the entire mixed martial arts world. The Network sets the tone for Asian mixed martial arts.  It will give all of the fighters a plethora of opportunity, to compete at the desired level their skill allows.  It will give fight teams throughout Asia exposure that otherwise would make it very difficult.  Fighters, who depend highly on sponsorships, will have an opportunity like never seen before.  With all of the above benefits, fighters will become mainstays throughout Asia and mixed martial arts will spread like wildfire. Here is an example of how this could benefit a fight team, as well as fighters:  XYZ Fight Camp is part of the OneFC Network.  They have a roster of 20 fighters ranging from all different skillets and skill levels.  Some are ready to compete at the top level, which will be OneFC, while others still need to develop.  In doing so, the fighters that are in need of development will not have to rough it out on the smaller circuit due to the agreement in place.  The fighters will have exposure to the organization to which they can compete and will have every opportunity to make it to the next level.  The same fight team, XYZ, will also be able to lock in sponsors for each of their fighters much easier. Read More...

Posted in: fighter, network, art, onefc, onefc network

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This is the new Mixed Martial Arts Section! Tweet

Posted in: art, tweet, section, arts section

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Fighters Only, the world’s leading mixed martial arts magazine, today announced that the most outspoken man in mixed martial arts will take center stage as host of the 2011 Fighters Only World MMA Awards ceremony in November. Never one to be left for words, or opinion, UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen takes over from last year’s lead presenter Randy Couture to join beautiful co-host Molly Querim on the stage for the 2011 ceremony at the Pearl Theatre at the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas on Wednesday, November 30th. Known for his quick-wit and penchant for the controversial, Sonnen is destined to be the most outrageous presenter in the history of the awards, which brings together the very best of mixed martial arts for an evening of celebration. In further exciting news, this year’s event will be broadcast in primetime slots across the East and West coast’s of North America by the FOX Sports Network and then later re-aired by FUEL TV and FSN. The evening, sponsored once more by leading nutrition suppliers BodyBuilding.comand this year in association with Gaspari Nutrition, will be available in millions of homes across the US, providing fans with the opportunity to watch their favorite MMA stars throw down their fight gloves and throw on their tuxedos in anticipation of winning one of the coveted silver statues. Rob Hewitt, CEO of Fighters Only, said today: "I say it every year that we want to make the awards show bigger and better and every year we have done just that. However, none of it would be possible with out the support of the MMA industry, the fans, our sponsors and TV and venue partners who all believe as much as we do in this project. To celebrate the sport we love and the people within it in the way that we do is a crowning moment of the year for Fighters Only and we can’t wait to reveal this year’s winners." Tickets for the World MMA Awards 2011 are priced at $59, $79 and $99, plus additional fees, and go on sale on Friday, October 21st at noon. Tickets can be purchased at the Pearl Box Office, by calling 702-944-3200 or at any Ticketmaster location. Doors for the event on November 30thopen at 6 pm, with show time at 7.30pm. Fan voting ultimately decides the winners of each award category, with the voting period scheduled to end on Friday, November 25th. To vote visit www.worldmmaawards.com or download the Fighters Only Lowdown app for free from iTunes.

Posted in: fighter, year, november, award, art

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Coffee's for closers only. But mixed martial arts? That's for everyone. Even New Yorkers! That's according to David Mamet, one of the few writers that doesn't leave me feeling embarrassed when I unholster my Webster in an effort to keep up. Having said that, don't expect any half-assed attempt to litter this post with big words, for the same reason I wouldn't spar with Floyd Mayweather or bring a knife to a gun fight. Anyway, the legendary screenwriter and the man behind 2008's Redbelt is taking aim at New York State's "wearisome folly" against the sport of MMA. Specifically, the state-wide ban on live events that sends millions of dollars in revenue to New Jersey and Philadelphia. From his NY Post blog: Coffee's for closers only. But mixed martial arts? That's for everyone. Even New Yorkers! That's according to David Mamet, one of the few writers that doesn't leave me feeling embarrassed when I unholster my Webster in an effort to keep up. Having said that, don't expect any half-assed attempt to litter this post with big words, for the same reason I wouldn't spar with Floyd Mayweather or bring a knife to a gun fight. Anyway, the legendary screenwriter and the man behind 2008's Redbelt is taking aim at New York State's "wearisome folly" against the sport of MMA. Specifically, the state-wide ban on live events that sends millions of dollars in revenue to New Jersey and Philadelphia. From his NY Post blog: "American sentiment has, in the last century, and with some exceptions, endorsed prize fighting as legitimate sport. It is less dangerous to the individual not only than grand prix racing, but than professional football -- but the specter of men drawing and shedding blood, understandably, has its detractors ... It is, statistically, less harmful than boxing, as boxing’s major and frequent injuries are trauma to the brain, resulting from that same haymaker sung in story and song as the decider in the barroom brawl ... Opponents of Mixed Martial Arts in New York state have enacted a statute to ban the exhibition its proponents hold is protected under the First Amendment as "artistic expression." Now, as a longtime student and fan of mixed martial arts, I hope these opponents fail ... In our transformation into a country of maiden aunts, we have forgotten that phrase concurrent to The Greatest Generation, "Mind your own business." The purpose of law, our Constitution teaches, is to allow people to interact free from government intervention. To criminalize or otherwise sanction now this, now that, at the whim of a vocal minority is, retail, wearisome folly. Wholesale, it is the road to serfdom." UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta stormed Madison Square Garden (MSG) earlier this year with New York assemblyman Dean Murray and MSG Sports president Scott O'Neil to present an independent economic impact study indicating the "Empire State" would generate about $16 million from the UFC alone based on just two pay-per-view (PPV) events per year, split between "The World's Most Famous Arena" and Buffalo's HSBC Arena. And that doesn't include the jobs and additional income from regional or independent promotions also throwing their hat into the New York fight scene. Put simply, money talks … and the UFC has the numbers to back it up. Unfortunately, no one is listening, which has prompted proponents like Mamet to take center stage to help drive the cage-roots movement. Maybe State Assemblyman Bob Reilly, one of the sport's biggest detractors, is afraid of losing his set of steak knives. For more on New York's MMA ban click here.

Posted in: sport, art, state, york, ban

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Fighters Only, the world’s leading mixed martial arts magazine, today announced that the most outspoken man in mixed martial arts will take...

Posted in: fighter, chael sonnen, art, chael,  most

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On Sat., Nov. 12, Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. will host the second ever mixed martial arts (MMA) event for Victory Promotions MMA. The main event will feature a bout between former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight fighter Rich Clementi. "No Love" will be squaring off against regional mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran "Bam Bam" Ronnie Rogers. Clementi will be looking to rebounding from a tough loss versus Shinya Aoki at Dream: "Fight for Japan!" on May 29 in Saitama, Japan. The fight resulted in Clementi being on the receiving end of a vicious neck crank that ended up in highlight reels for subsequent weeks after the fight. The card will also showcase a welterweight match up between former Bellator Fighting Championships fighter Matt Sung Lee and Tiawan Howard. In his career, Lee has faced quite a "murderer's row," competing against such names as Ben Saunders, Jorge Masvidal and Eddie Alvarez. Unfortunately for Lee, all of those fights ended in losses. On Sat., Nov. 12, Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. will host the second ever mixed martial arts (MMA) event for Victory Promotions MMA. The main event will feature a bout between former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight fighter Rich Clementi. "No Love" will be squaring off against regional mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran "Bam Bam" Ronnie Rogers. Clementi will be looking to rebounding from a tough loss versus Shinya Aoki at Dream: "Fight for Japan!" on May 29 in Saitama, Japan. The fight resulted in Clementi being on the receiving end of a vicious neck crank that ended up in highlight reels for subsequent weeks after the fight. The card will also showcase a welterweight match up between former Bellator Fighting Championships fighter Matt Sung Lee and Tiawan Howard. In his career, Lee has faced quite a "murderer's row," competing against such names as Ben Saunders, Jorge Masvidal and Eddie Alvarez. Unfortunately for Lee, all of those fights ended in losses. Victory Promotions is run by former Massachusetts deputy boxing commissioner Vinny Fraumini, who believes that New England is the perfect location to build an MMA faithful following. "Mixed martial arts has a strong history and loyal fanbase in New England, and we have set out to provide a premier outlet to showcase some of the world's greatest pro and amateur fighters."  The main card for "Clementi vs. Rogers" will also spotlight two dueling up and coming prospects in Ricardo Georges and Carlos Neto, as well as a women's mixed martial arts (MMA) bout between Kaline Medeiros and Katy Merrill. To help promote the event, "Butterbean" Eric Esch will be on hand to sign autographs and meet the fans. General admission tickets are still available, starting at $35. Tickets can be purchased through the Tsongas Center official website. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. ET, with the fights set to begin around 7:00 p.m. ET.   For more information about this card and Victory Promotions MMA, check out victorypromotionsmma.com.

Posted in: fight, mma, art, clementi, lee

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Former NFL player Matt Mitrione has gone 5-0 in mixed martial arts, with all five of those fights taking place in the UFC heavyweight division.In the course...

Posted in: ufc, mitrione, matt, art, mitrione im

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submitted by DeadFlux [link] [comment]

Posted in: espn, blog, art, silva-sonnen ii, arts blog

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HOUSTON – For the first time in the history of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, soccer kicks were...

Posted in: ufc, houston, florian, art, houston –

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Heavy has teamed up with THQ to announce the new cover art unveiling of UFC Undisputed 3 for both PS3 and Xbox. In honor of this momentous release, we want to hook you up with a free copy of the...

Posted in: ufc, hook, art, copy, thq

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submitted by Sariel007 [link] [comment]

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The inaugural event for Montreal’s newest mixed martial arts promotion Instinct MMA is a go and will likely feature some slugfests.

Posted in: mma, brydon, art, montreal, montreal ’s

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Demian Maia is perhaps the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu exponent currently competing in the mixed martial arts world. His grappling achievements include wins...

Posted in: art, arts world, maia, demian maia, exponent

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Can just anyone take up mixed martial arts? Pat Barry sees himself as proof you can.

Posted in: ufc, yahoo, barry, art, everyman

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Heavyweight Pat Barry sees himself as proof that anyone can give mixed martial arts a go.

Posted in: ufc, yahoo, anyone, barry, art

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By Sammy Perez It is the age old question when it comes to boxing that a/o late has come into play more and more in the short history of mixed martial arts as well. The question, how many is too many? What are they referring to, knockouts? The answer, well that is up for debate. [...]

Posted in: question, age, knockout, art, sammy perez

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