Wrestling – From the Guard

MMA’s future as a sport

Mar 192012

As a martial arts instructor, I have found the growing popularity of the UFC and MMA on a whole to be really helpful in marketing and heck, just talking about my martial arts. People know what Kick boxing is, or what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu means. When I say Judo, I don’t receive nearly the amount of blank stares I used to get.

I read an article in Black belt magazine where Bill “Superfoot” Wallace said that MMA was a fad that would burn out soon. Of all the old martial arts greats, I tend to agree with Superfoot the most. However on this issue, it sounds like traditional martial artist denial. During the 1980s when the ninja craze hit, everyone was jumping on the ninja band wagon. Ninja turtle rip off logos were seen in dojos, everyone was teaching swords, nunchaku, and sai, even if their martial art didn’t include them. But MMA is different. It didn’t try to simply market itself to kids and nerds. It tried to get the respectability of boxing, with the mystic of martial arts. It wasn’t enough to get Tiger Claw and Century to sponsor things it worked to get sponsors outside of the martial arts world. It even recruited fighters from outside the martial arts world! It created an environment that made adults want to watch and kids dream of participating. More after the jump

Tim Sylvia venturing into Japanese Pro Wrestling

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Dec 262011

Who says you need to be in shape to fight?

If Brock Lesnar can cross over from ~~fake fighting~~ Pro Wrestling to ~~real fighting~~ MMA, it comes to no surprise that Tim Sylvia can cross over into Pro Wrestling from MMA. Tim Sylvia is a former UFC Champion who is best known for pushing his opponent against the cage and leaning on them. This is exactly as boring as it sounds. Well he was supposed to fight in the upcoming Dream MMA card, but his opponent was late getting out of jail and couldn’t get his visa in order, so the fight was scrapped. So instead he will be faking a fight on the same card. Hopefully it will be more entertaining then his ~~real~~ MMA fights.

Sumo Time

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Dec 142011

Tell me that isn't kind of cool...in a fat kind of way.

Am I weird for wishing that more Sumo would come and fight MMA?

Don’t answer that.

I look at Sumo Wrestlers and I see martial artists with alot in common to today’s Combat Sport fighters. They live in their training camps, they focus solely on training and…heh…shaping their bodies to compete, and they are plagued by accusations of corruption and steroid usage. You may remember my article on them earlier this year

People like to point out that they haven’t done very well in MMA up until this point, but I want to point out that there have only been three Sumo to try so far. That really doesn’t give you a good picture of how the fighting style would do. I mean heck, pro wrestlers manage to do well, yes Brock, I am thinking of you, so why not Sumo? More after the break

Is BJJ effective in a “Street Fight”

Self Defense, Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 112011

I felt a little guilty. I found my last post to be interesting, but as far as posts go, I felt like I was being the dude who sticks his head into a discussion just to tell you that the liver is the largest internal organ. Its totally true, and as far as organs go, its a pretty cool organ, but no one cares. Its like math jokes: If you get them, you don’t have friends. So to get rid of my personal sense of guilt (and to display my impressive knowledge of human anatomy), I offer you this clip.

Bas brings up a good point in dealing with a very real problem in “street fights”. You don’t want to go to the ground, but unless your kung fu is soo good that you can be 100% sure of not going there, you really should know how to win from the bottem. With Chael Sonnon picking on Jiu Jitsu this week, I thought it would be nice to have something positive to say.

Before he called himself the Champ

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Nov 022011

Found this little gem, Self Proclaimed “True” Middle weight UFC Champion Chael Sonnen against former UFC Champion Forrest Griffin back in 2003, before either one had fought in the UFC.

So Sonnen doesn’t consider being choked out by Silva a loss, I wonder if he counts this one. Chael Sonnen is a great fighter, but apparently he has a weakness for being choked out. Of his 11 losses, 5 of those were due to chokes while in his opponent’s guard. Three more were armbars. Its kind of the classic wrestler vs Jiu Jitsu. They take the BJJ fighter down, and the BJJ guy reminds them that we are still dangerous on our backs. I think if I could have any UFC fighter to be my coach, I think I would pick Forrest Griffin. In fact, I wish Chael Sonnen and Forrest Griffin were having controversy instead of Anderson Silva. I think it would be much funnier. Chael Sonnen’s humorously full of himself ness verses Forrest Griffin’s humorusly self deprecation would be great. Even better, I want to watch the UFC sitting on a couch between Sonnen and Griffin, and we sit there and make fun of the fights! And I wouldn’t invite you because you aren’t cool enough.

Brandon, thanks for the link… I’d invite you.

Respect for our roots

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Oct 242011

We give major props to the Gracies for bringing us both BJJ and UFC. However, mixing the martial arts, and martial artist trying to make better competitions didn’t start in the US with the Gracies. I’d like to introduce two men who should be fairly well known to you, Joe Lewis and Bill “Superfoot” Wallace.

Joe Lewis is a karate fighter. He fought at 195lbs and had a pro kickboxing record of 18-3. Of those wins, 16 of those were by knockout. Mind you, this was during the 70’s, long before this sort of stuff became mainstream. He had a karate base in Shorin Ryu, he trained with Bruce Lee in Jeet kune do, and under Sugar Ray Robinson (legendary boxer). He was voted the greatest karate fighter of all time.

Bill Wallace is best known as a karate fighter. He fought at 165 and had a pro kickboxing record of 22-0 with 13 of his wins by knockout. Although known for his kicking, he started out as a judo fighter and a wrestler. Due to an awful knee injury to his right leg, he had to take time off of judo training, and was introduced to karate. He also trained quite a bit of boxing. He was voted the second greatest karate fighter of all time (tying with Chuck Norris!). He also was a commentator for the first UFC! (Take that Joe Rogan)

So here we have full contact fighters from the early 70s who mix their martial arts, and even have a grappling back ground! Well both of these men became champions in their own weight divisions, but even after they retired, people wondered who was better. So they called them out of retirement and made them fight. Videos after the break.

Too much Coffee

Fight Videos No Responses »

Oct 082011

Wow. Should have let mom take Johny to the tournament, Dad’s having trouble with his roid rage again. I understand tempers run high in things, but you don’t chuck other people’s kids around. How did this father see this ending, “Well sir, after you threw a 10 year old across the mat, we reconsidered and decided to let your son win.” Parents, don’t fight with children, please, you always come out looking bad.