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- MMA Ninja's Top 10 Tim The Lame-iac Sylvia pictures
Tim "The Lame'iac" Sylvia is fighting a former PrideFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira tomorrow night at UFC 81 for UFC's interim Heavyweight Championship belt. Can't say I'm too excited for the fight, you know, being that Nogueira isn't fighting Randy Couture and because Randy's was substituted by incredibly boring "fighting not to lose" Tim Sylvia. I'm mildly interested in seeing Nogueira because of all his past glory, durability and experience in taking out a few giants like Semmy Schilt, Bob Sapp and Zuluzinho. For his debut in UFC he already had to fight a crappy fighter, now he has to do it again.
I can't stand Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia. He, his public and private persona, even his nickname, are just so incredibly repulsive and lame. Ever since he started fighting in UFC I have always looked forward to seeing his opponents fight, but never wanted to see him. Even though he did get the UFC belt from Ricco Rodriquez, Ricco lost it without ever defending it to the Lame-iac by trying to hurry the fight up and getting caught. Had Ricco taken Lame-iac down, I believe he'd put him away and we'd never see him fight as much as we had to in the coming years after that unfortunate incident.
The Lame-iac then lost his second title defense to Frank Mir and blowing up Frank Mir hype to incredible levels, who's biggest accomplishment TO DATE is beating the Lame-iac. I share a very similar sentiment toward Frank Mir with Fightlinker. Lame-iac then goes to beat a staple idiot in MMA Wes Sims, who Mir had to fight twice, and lost to then aggressive Andrei Arlovski. After that loss he regroups and collects 2 KO wins over some nobody and a disabled Lion's Den fighter Tra Telligman. After that he couldn't hold all the excitement of fighting on free TV and later admitted that he crapped his pants while getting a boring decision over Assuerio Silva, someone he should have destroyed with ease. He then goes on to get the biggest win of his career by getting knocked down, recovering and catching an over committed Andrei Arlovski to get the heavy weight championship belt.
The Lame-iac immediately starts to demonstrate, and numerous reports confirm, disturbing behavior of wearing the championship belt everywhere and anywhere, like scooter riding, hunting and apparently even during sex. He developed such and unhealthy attachment to it that he held on for dear life to try not to lose it in his next two fights that were widely considered some of the most boring and uneventful fights ever. Luckily for us Randy Couture's itch for fighting again was getting unbearable to him and he fought and dominated the Lame-iac to take the precious belt away and bring some life to the UFC heavyweight championship fights once again.
I recently came across CagePotato's few Top 10 lists, which are a common recommended blogging thing to do, and decided to come up with my own about Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia. Since, it's my very first one,so please, let me know how I did with it.
10. The Lame Beginnings
9. Lame Break
8. Eating a beatiful right hands - The Lame-iacs favorite
7. Crapping your pants on free live TV = LAME
6. Vihicle of choice for the Lame-iac.
5. Playing with guns in your kitchen while wearing your UFC belt = LAME
4. Desperate to fit in your own fight camp = LAME
Lame-iac: “There’s nothing more that I want than to be accepted by you and the rest of the guys.”
Hughes: “You don’t become accepted by buying yourself a ticket to Vegas, following us around while we’re there when no one really invited you, and then crying – again – when Jens calls you out on it.”
Lame-iac: “Is there anything I can do to be friends with you?”
Hughes: “Well, right now I have enough friends and I don’t need any more friends,” I said. “Is that it? Are we done here?”
(more from Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History
)
3. Talking a tonn of smack and then getting schooled by a 44 year old = LAME
2. Looking like a complete moron = LAME
1. Wearing your UFC belt everywhere 24/7 = LAME
Yes, this is who we have to watch for possibly around 40 minutes plus in two days.......
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:32:00 -0500 - MMA Ninja is not done yetDear readers, what ever little of you I may have gathered over last month, I did not stop blogging. I may have stopped posting for a little bit, but I definately not stop blogging. I'm going to keep this blog going for a long time.
What's my excuse for not posting for almost a week? Well...I don't have some "legit" medical reason like FightLinker (I left my "get well soon" already, just in case) did recently for not blogging for merely two days (two weeks in fightlinker time I guess).
My excuses are pretty regular, you know, busy week at work where I had to be a "team player" and work off hours that could have been avoided by some proper planning, but if you've ever worked in a corporate environment you would know that proper planning isn't rewarded as much as last minute heroics on nights and weekends before a deadline. Then because of all this work stuff you have to spend extra time with the family which leaves me with very little time for quality blogging. At least I try for own personal standard of quality, that is.
The good thing about MMA right now is that even if I missed a week, or didn't cover the last big event in it's entirety, there is another one coming up next weekend, UFC 81 in this case. So there is lots to write about and I plan to jump right back into it.
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:08:00 -0500 - UFC Ultimate Fight Night 12 Results - Mike Swick, Patrick Cote, Thiago Tavares, Kurt Pellegrino win their televised fights
This UFC Ultimate Fight Night overall didn't stack up to the last few UFC events as far as exciting fighting goes,not even last few Ultimate Fight Night events. The main event really put a damper on otherwise an OK show with several decent fights and fighters really trying to put a show for the fans.
I already covered Nick Diaz's exciting win over Alving Robinson and have to add that while size difference certainly gave Diaz an advantage, he showed he has skills to put away a decent fighter and will prove to be a threat to higher level 155'ers after he gets past Manvel Gamburyan. I picked this fight wrong.
Thiago Tavares vs Michihiro Omigawa. While myself and just about everybody in MMA media picked Tavares to easily win, Japanese judoka Omigawa, who comes from Yoshida's camp, gave Tavares a really hard time by stopping numerous takedown attempts, getting up from being taken down and escaping the backmount in the first round. In the second Tavares, and hopefully his corner as well, picked up on the fact the he has, in fact, a somewhat effective stand up game and started utilizing it. Omigawa, like many judokas transitioning to MMA, was durable, could take a lot of punishment, was in great shape but lacked the tools to go onto offensive except a seldom punch/elbow from the top. Omigawa did turn it up and decided to take the fight to the ground himself, but it was too late. Unfortunately, for Omigawa, the decision wasn't based on how good you can escape out of bad positions. Tavares controlled the pace of most of the fight and was awarded a deserved unanimous decision.
Tavares, to everyone's surprise, encounted a very resilient judo ground fighter that frustrated him by getting out of everything Tavares threw at him. But Tavares stuck with it and controlled the fight. He has stamina, excellent ground game and improving striking to jump back into the mix with the likes of Guida, Griffin, Pellegrino and Stevenson.
Omigawa was impressive in his ability to nullify one of the best ground games out there, but needs more tools and aggressiveness to try to do damage to his opponents. I'd like to see him back for another go if he improves his attacks.
Alberto Crane Vs. Kurt Pellegrino. I picked Pellegrino to win this fight because of his awesome showing against Joe Stevenson and because of Alberto Crane's poor showing against Roger Huerta. Crane almost ruined my winning pick by landing a nice shin kick right on Pellegrino's chin and dropping him first thing in the fight. Pellegrino showed a great recovery ability and was able to escape several submission attempts from Crane who was attacking non stop hoping to catch the staggered Pellegrino. After Pellegrino disengaged from the ground, it became very clear that his stand up was superior to Crane's. He began to stalk Crane and landing shots on his face. In the end Pellegrino landed a hard shot on Crane from standing position while Crane was on the bottom. The shot landed on his eye, he closed his eyes and covered up with his hands. Herb Dean jumped in to stop the fight. Crane complained a bit about an early stoppage, but it would not have changed the outcome, in my opinion, as Pellegrino was getting more aggresive and landing more and more shots with Crane not offering much in return.
Kurt Pellegrino is a tough fighter who showed tonight he could take a hard shot to the chin and recover quickly. May be he could face Tavares next?
Alberto Crane, unfortunately, while having world class jiu-jitsu ground game, still has a sub par standup and poor takedown abilities and not much hope for improvement. If he wants to continue fight, it should probably be in smaller shows like WEC and at a lower weight - 145lb.
Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries. I picked Cote to win this fight and Cote really delivered. He didn't back down from the threat of possibly being caught with a KO punch from McFedries and pressed forward throwing kicks and combinations. McFedries looked too confident in his power and was too relaxed, which led him to let Cote get a rhythm going. McFedries cought Cote twice, but Cote, apparently, can take a hard punch. After the second time Cote got hit, he answered with a right hand/uppercut and a left hook to really hurt McFedries. To my surprise, especially because he is coming from Miletich camp, McFedries just put up his hands and dropped to the floor waiting for the referee to step in. He didn't event try to go for a takedown to try to recover there. Something didn't look right about that, especially him smiling right after the stop. Hope it's not a sign of lack of heart.
Cote is now on a 3 win streak and has been able to put his great tools, training with St. Pierre and a will to win together into a good combination. Can't wait to see him fight again, on the Montreal UFC card? I'm sure he would like that. Also, just like his very successful training partner Georges St. Pierre, Cote was extremely respectful toward his opponent and was good on the mic.
But if Alessio Sakara (why is he still in UFC?!) keeps getting fights on ZERO merit and crappy ability, Drew McFedries should definately get another few fights because he has awesome power and comes from a good camp. Hopefully he can put his personal problems past him and come back better.
Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman. I picked Mike Swick to win this fight. He won the fight...while fighting probably one of the more disappointing "main events" of the numerous Ultimate Fight Nights. I didn't write it here, but on some forums I predicted that both of these guys will not do good under pressure of being in the main event and unfortunately I was right. Swick's claim that one of the reason he was moving down to 170 was to bring an exciting striking style to 170 division fell flat on it's face.
Both Swick and Burkman were afraid of each other and engaged very little standing up, barring Burkman's 360 spinning round house kick attempt (big up on that, it looked cool, ala Shogun's attempt on Rampage) and Swick's occasional high kicks. Most of the fight was spend in viciously boring cycle of Burkman charging Swick to the fence, trying for a take down and Swick defending it every single time, rinse and repeat.
I can kind of understand Burkman's endless mindless unsuccessful attempts at the same damn takedown after same damn takedown, he's part of Team Punishment, right? They would rot and fester any fighter's creativity there and suppliment that with crappy cornermen advice. Burkman, you need to get out of there asap, go to Xtreme Couture Gym, you'll be inspired and get your warrior spirit and fight smarts back.
Swick gave excuses about being worried to much about same damn takedown he already defended 10+ times and not pushing with the striking because of that. He was just not ready for being a main event and a possiblity of losing, so he was too scared to make something happen with his striking. Too bad. UFC keeps pushing these The Ultimate Fighter TV Show fighters right into the deep waters. Both of the guys are good fighters and should really rethink this fight, talk to Tony Robbins and get back into it like Chuck Liddell did.
So, on the televised fights only, based on my picks from right before the event, I went 3-1. Not bad. I'll report later on how I did with the untelevised fights and what I thought about them as soon as I watch them.
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:31:00 -0500 - UFC Ultimate Fight Night 12 - Nate Diaz vs Alvin Robinson - Diaz by triangle chokeI picked Alvin Robinson to outwork Nate Diaz in this match up. When making my guess for this fight I did not take into account Robinson's and Diaz's big size difference.
Diaz immediately clinched an picked Alvin up with out bending down and took the fight to the ground. There he was working to land some punches and elbows inside Robinson's guard. Robinson covered up pretty well until Diaz gave him a chance to try for a guillotine choke while trying to stand up. When they stood up Diaz slammed Alvin down into his halfguard. Alvin held onto the guillotine for a bit and let go. Diaz then passed Alvin's guard to sidemount where he tried to transition into mount where Alvin reversed him. Diaz switched to a umoplata which Robinson turned out of and ended up on bottom again. He reversed it into Diaz's guard. This is where Diaz's long legs started giving Alvin problems. Diaz quickly locked in a tight triangle on a much shorter Robinson for a quick tap.
This was another decent test for Diaz which he passed with flying colors. I think if he fights Manny Gamburyan again, who he's more than willing to fight again to settle the dispute of who really won their first fight. I'll be picking Diaz in that fight, the size advantage will be too much and Diaz knows how to use it well.
Alvin Robinson is a decent hard working guy at 155, he should avoid fighting much taller guys in the division if he can help it.
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:11:00 -0500 - MMA Ninja's UFC Ultimate Fight Night Mike Swick vs Josh Burkman Patrick Cote vs Drew McFedries
Here I am again, posting picks minutes before the event.
Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman: picking Mike Swick because even if they both slug it out in the first, he's has some stamina to go on, unlike Burkman.
Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries: I know McFedries punches like a mule, but I think Cote will pull this through by working on the fence and taking this into round 2 or 3.
Alvin Robinson Vs. Nate Diaz: I'll go for the underdog here and think Robinson will outwork Diaz.
Michihiro Omigawa Vs. Thiago Tavares: Thiago Tavares has a very smooth ground game and some nice flying knees to go with that. This one will be over quick I'm thinking.
Alberto Crane Vs. Kurt Pellegrino: Alberto Crane may be an amazing BJJ guy, but getting punched while he's working his ground game hasn't gone well for him recently. Pellegrino is good enough on the ground to fend Crane off while repeatedly punching him. Whoever gases first will lose this one. I'm thinking Crane will gas first, so Pellegrino is my pick.
Dennis Siver Vs. Gray Maynard: Gray Maynard should have picked up a tonn of good stuff at Xtreme Couture's to beat just about anybody, including Siver tonight.
Jeremy Stephens Vs. Cole Miller: Jeremy Stephens faced tougher competition and his experience should help him through this fight with Miller. Though Miller's been training with American Top Team, another kickass camp in US. Stephens beat Saraiva fromt he same camp though... Ya, I'm sure it'll be Stephens.
Joe Veres Vs. Corey Hill: A foot difference in height should handily help Corey Hill pick up a win over Veres
Justin Buchholz Vs. Matt Wiman: Wiman's lack of stricking will cost him in this one, picking Buchholz
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:31:00 -0500 - Fedor Emelianenko and Randy couture Affliction photoshoot video clip
I already posted the pictures from Fedor Emilianenko and Randy Couture's photoshoot for Affliction in my previous post.
Following that up check out a short clip on that same photoshoot.
Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:30:00 -0500 - Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture meet and do a photoshoot for Affliction
Fedor Emelianenko visited United States this week to meet with Affliction and Randy Couture, check the news bits on that at M-1 Global news site and MMAJunkie.
Fightlinker.com also had nice find on Fedor possibly travelling with out babysitters.
Well the meeting between Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture did take place. Hopefully they talked about actually fighting each other and how to go about fighting each other. I personally, as many of you I'm sure, would love to have this fight actually happen sooner than later.
Anyways, I came across several pics from the photoshoot for Affliction. Last one is just precious.
Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:05:00 -0500 - Recent Fedor Emelianenko interview translated - Fedor thought Choi was a worthy opponent
(reposting this because somehow this post didn't make it to my rss feed)
I was checking in on Fedor Emelianenko yesterday and saw a recent interview he did for his official website fedor.bel.ru. Unfortunately for non-russian speaking Fedor fans, the interview was only available in Russian and it had some, new to me, neat information I have not heard about Fedor yet. So what's MMA Ninja to do? Here is my professional translation, enjoy it readers.<<Support of those close to me adds to my strength and confidence, but at the same time adds even greater responsibility for the outcome of a fight...>>
Correspondent: Fedor, first of all, we want to wish you a Happy New Year and Christmas and congratulate you with, of course, the most important for you event - changes in your family and the birth of your daughter Vasilisa. Who let you know about this wonderful event and what where initial emotions to the news of your baby coming into the world?
FEDOR: Yes, it's true, there were changes in my family. Me and Oksana are no longer together: already two years go Oksana and our daughter Masha moved to St. Petersburg....but we keep in touch, I still see Masha and Oksana too. Now I have a new family. I've known Marina for quite a while, and, as many already know, on December 29th our daughter was born. Marina is the one who gave me the news. Vasilisa was born when we were in Japan. Marina called and gave me the wonderful news. Baby's height - 46 centimeters, weight - 2 kg 600 g. And what were my emotions - of course joy and happiness.
Correspondent: Is Marina also from Starii Oskol? (mmaninja's note: Fedor's hometown)
FEDOR: No, she is from Tula, but very soon I'll be moving mom and daughter to Starii Oskol, I'm just finishing up remodeling my apartment and getting ready for their move.
Correspondent: How are mom and daughter feeling?
FEDOR: The baby was checked out of the hospital, she is with grandma right now, and Marina is still at the hospital, she's having some complications with her health. But everything will get better in time and, I hope, we will all be together very soon.
Correspondent: Is grandma happy that she has another granddaughter now?
FEDOR: Both grandmas are very happy.
Correspondent: Do they trust you with taking care of Vasilisa?
FEDOR: Of course (laughing).
Correspondent: Trivial and common question, who does the baby look like?
FEDOR: She looks like me. Like Marina said "she is a total you!" And I think she looks like me too, my little copy of me.
Correspondent: Were you disappointed that you had a daughter and not a son?
FEDOR: No, not at all. I'm very happy. As far as a boy is concerned - everything is still ahead of us...
Correspondent: One of your fans said something concerting to that "Marina gave daughter for New Year's present and he in return gave her another victory!" With that said we have a few questions. It was your first time fighting for "Yarenokka", what was your impression of the event's organization and matchmaking? How was it different from Pride?
FEDOR: Regarding my present to Marina - while she, of course, is glad to see me win - that wasn't my main present for my daughter's birth. For us, definitely, the baby herself was an amazing present! Regarding "Yarenokka", I can say that it was organized by former top-managers of Pride together with M-1 Global. Japanese organize this types of event at the highest level. The event wasn't boring, all the fighters gave it their all: fights were interesting, colorful and memorable. They got the fans riled up so much that they were loud non stop.
Correspondent: Your opponent had better physical attributes than you, does the difference in weight and height (Hong Man Choi's 218 cm and 165 kg versus Fedor Emelianenko's 183 cm and 106 kg) significantly affect way you fight?
FEDOR: I felt the difference in size when I tried to take Choi down but it turned out that he tripped me to take me down instead. Then I realized that my weight is not enough and strength is not enough either, so I had to take the fight by mastery. I attempted an armbar. It's important to never forget that in our sport if you slowdown for a moment or thrash around that you never know how things will end. That's why you have to finish a submission from the first try... though in the fight with Choi I managed to finish the submission in my second attempt.
Correspondent: What do you think of the fighting form of the Korean fighter? From what I know he's had some success in K-1.
FEDOR: Yes, Hong Man Choi is on of the leading fighters in K-1. He has a fairly positive fight record there: beating Semmy Schilt, Bob Sapp and Gary Goodridge...because of that I can say he is a very worthy opponent...
Correspondent: Many famous people came to root for you, Jean Claude VanDamme, world champion boxer Natalia Rogozina, world famous woman-sumatori (anybody know what that is?) Olesya Kovalenko. Does their support help you?
FEDOR: I'm very glad that the guys came to support me...Jean Claude, Natasha, Olesya, several guys from Starii Oskol, few people from Moscow and St. Petersburg...Thank you everyone, it really does help, adds strength and confidence, but at the same time adds even greater responsibility for the outcome of a fight...
Correspondent: When will your next fight take place with M-1 Global and do you know your opponent?
FEDOR: A fight is planned for either April or March, in America, supposedly in Chicago, opponent is unknown...
Correspondent: How many fight are you supposed to participate in this year according to your M-1 Global contract?
FEDOR: According to the contract - 3-4 fights per year, and because the contract is for 2 years, I will have 6-8 fights.
Correspondent: Besides preparing for fights, what are your plans in the near future?
FEDOR: I'm slowly building a house, at the beginning of February I'll participate in Russian Combat Sambo Championship, then mid-February there a President's Sambo Cup... I'll be getting ready for my fight in America and, of course, most pleasant thing I'll be doing is parenting my daughter!
Correspondent: Thank you for the interview. Please, accept our most sincere congratulations and we wish you kindness, peace and prosperity to your family. We hope your baby will be very healthy and that she brings you more joy every day. And of course new a professional achievements in the sport!
-- end of interview.
I thought it was pretty interesting, changes in his family, being a new dad again and his assesment of Choi. While everyone written Hong Man Choi off as a complete scrub, Fedor didn't thinks so, especially after he felt his strength and size.
What did you think?
Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:12:00 -0500 - MMA Ninja's UFC 80 quick fight picks
So much to write, so little time...
Had almost no time to write any kind of preview for UFC 80, so here are my quick picks before that 10 pm replay that I'll be watching:
BJ Penn Vs. Joe Stevenson - picking BJ Penn Here, from watching the UFC 80 count down, Stevenson's stand up is still severely lacking. BJ Penn will light him up standing and offer good takedown defense.
Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Fabricio Werdum - Werdum should have never gotten another chance before Arlovski, but it's UFC - losers get more chances than winners. I mean wtf is James Irvin still doing in UFC, or Sakara ? Eh? Picking Gonzaga by distruction.
Jess Liaudin Vs. Marcus Davis - haven't seen my Liaudin, but would like Davis to win. With a heart like Davis and his recovery skills from near defeat should get him through this one. Picking Davis
Wilson Gouveia Vs. Jason Lambert - Lambert can be dangerous, but Gouveia will dominate on the ground. Picking Gouveia
Jorge Rivera Vs. Kendall Grove - Picking Rivera, Grove just doesn't punch that hard. Rivera is due for a win after several disappointments. Picking Rivera
Antoni Hardonk Vs. Colin Robinson - haven't seen Robinson, so I'll make a guess and pick Hardonk.
Paul Kelly Vs. Paul Taylor - don't know, Paul Taylor?
James Lee Vs. Alessio Sakara - Hope Lee wins so Sakara can stop taking up spots of motivated hungry and evolving fighters. I mean how does he keep getting invited back?
Per Eklund Vs. Sam Stout- Picking Stout, just cause he's been training at a good camp with Stevenson and hopefully picked up some more ground skills
We'll see how I do with this one. Made this picks on a whim, who knows may be that a better way to pick fights anyway.
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:39:00 -0500 - JudoMMA.com - database of top level Judo players in MMA their MMA records and many interviews
I came across JudoMMA.com a while ago and thought it was a neat idea that would help some Judo fans in their endless arguments with Brazilian JiuJitsu and Wrestling fans about who's martial art is better for MMA.
While I think that no matter what background martial art a fighter comes from, his success in MMA is largely dependent on how he adapts his strengths and expertise, how he strengthens his weaknesses and evolves to a more rounded MMA fighter. So I don't believe in fighter's background being a large factor for long term MMA success, at least not for everybody. I believe the ability to adapt and evolve is the key. Be that Judo, BJJ or Wrestling, or TMA's in George St. Pierre's case, the top athletes coming from those sports have a little more aptitude for being more adaptive and hard working on improve the aspect of MMA game they're lacking at.
Back to JudoMMA.com. They compiled some interesting statistics here:
MMA Record of top National and International Judo players: 167-77-4 (67%)
There are more interesting statics on the the site, but the above seems interesting to me because general perception in MMA that Judo isn't good at all for MMA. But this combined record isn't that bad and is actually pretty good.
One fighter to point out with strong Judo background is Fedor Emelianenko. I know many will say "Fedor is a sambo guy, not Judo", but if you even remotely know anything about Judo/Sambo coexistence in Russia you would know that those athletes cross train a lot and Judo is more prestigious as the level of international competition is much higher. Fedor would be more known for his Judo if it wasn't for the fact that Fedor himself said he had problems with corruption in Russian Judo associations/administration and couldn't get to the top top ranks because of that.
Plus, luckily for us fans, Sambo has it's "Combat" version of it's competitions, Judo doesn't, and Fedor was interested in the combat aspect of it. Combat Judo isn't a bad idea, though. In fact, if you ever saw the "jacketed" MMA tournaments, Lumax Cup - Tournament of J, from Japan circa 1995 with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and latest UFC addition from Japan Akihiro Gono, you'd probably enjoy it quite a bit.
If you're planning to argue about Judo's place and impact in MMA, JudoMMA.com could be a nice resource for you
Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:48:00 -0500 - Yarenokka 2007 - Shinya Aoki vs Bu-Kyung Jung - newcomer judoka Jung impresses
Another notable fight that took place at Yarenokka 2007 show was Shinya Aoki vs Bu-Kyung Jung.
Shinya Aoki is an impressive and experienced lightweight submission specialist, with both Judo and BJJ backgrounds, from Japan who is known for his aggressive ground game, especially his strong rubber guard
. Aoki is generally regarded as a top lightweight fighter and some of his highlights include pulling of a standing judo armlock and being one of the very few people pulling off a gogo-plata via rubber guard
Bu-Kyung Jung, a very experienced Judo fighter from Korea with a lot of international success - 2004 Judo World Cup Gold Medalist, was making his MMA debut against Aoki. Jung joined Yoon Dong Sik's MMA camp to train for Aoki. Yoon is another tough Korean Judo fighter who was also thrown to right to the top level wolves in Pride FC facing Sakuraba for his debut and following that up with decision losses to current UFC LightHeavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson", Makoto Takimoto and Murillo Bustamante. No doubt Yoon gained a tonn of experience from his first 4 losses and has applied that experience to since mount a 3 fight win streak. With what little time Jung had to prepare, I'm sure Yoon prepared him as much as he could for the MMA game.
Now, I know international level Judo fighter are elite athletes and have a wealth of competition experience, but even with those attributes and experience many athletes, especially if matched up with top level competition, often do not do well in their MMA debuts. Being in front of thousands of people, the increased pressure to perform for a large audience, the adrenaline of being as close to a "real fight" as you can get, a chance to get knocked out or even simply getting hit in the face - all add up and hinder newcomer's performance. So that's what I pretty much expected to happen in this fight.
I was really surprised to see Jung, a judoka, pull a butterfly guard, quickly work to a tight armbar on a submission specialist himself. In fact almost I questioned his judo background at first, but who knows, may be in Korea newaza, judo's name for ground game, is more developed than other places. Aoki was just as surprised as the audience was that he was the one having to get out of a tight armbar from the guard in the opening minute of the fight. But being the submission expert Aoki calmly worked his way out of the armbar by lifting Jung up, slowly slipping out his arm out to safety and immediately transitioning to a series of leglock attempts. Jung fought them off for a while until Aoki transitioned into Jung's guard only to get caught in another armbar which he eventually escaped. From there on Aoki took over the fight with more takedowns, ground and pound and some more leglock attempts. At the end of the fight Aoki had Jung mounted and punching him from the top where Jung just covered till the end of the fight. Checkout JudoMMA.com's more detailed account of the fight
This is one of those times when the loser of the fight walks away with a loss, but wins the respect of the fans and promoters. It even over shadows the winner of the fight. Jung was smaller and inexperienced and gave a top fighter a good fight and had him in trouble several times. While a win over Aoki would have been nice for Jung, his MMA debut was very impressive and will leave many fans wanting to see him gain more MMA experience and give some more exciting submission displays. I hope Jung sticks to MMA and one of the Japanese promotions will pick him up for more fights. Also being that at 145lb he would be closer to his natural weight, may be WEC will add him to their roster of the exciting 145lb weight class.
At the same time I have to give credit to Aoki, who calmly got out of tough spots and beat a great Judo fighter, extented his win streak to 9 fights and showed why he is one of the top fighters at that weight. Aoki hasn't fought since the final Pride FC event, where does he go now? I hope UFC signs him and throws him into the 155lb weight class mix. He would be fun to watch against many UFC's 155'ers.
Watch out for Bu-Kyung Jung in the near future as he is joins the ranks of elite Judo fighters that are successfully transitioning into MMA
Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:47:00 -0500 - K-1 Dynamite 2007 Kazushi Sakuraba vs Masakatsu Funaki and kimura defense tip
In my attempt to catch to current events, I made a commitment to myself to finish reviewing Yarenokka and K-1 Premium Dynamite. I started off with reviewing Yarenokka (here and here) and will probably finish some time soon, but after viewing both event I'm going to switch gears here and review some fights from K-1 Dynamite. Frankly, K-1 Dynamite was a bit better event in terms of the fact that there were many more finishes than there were at Yarenokka.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Masakatsu Funaki (Masa Funaki from here on) is dream fight for many long time MMA fans that were familiar with the Japanese MMA scene that emerged during mid-1990's and grew to being the biggest MMA scene in the world until mid-2000's. Both fighters helped start-up and popularize their respective organizations.
Masa Funaki started up the Pancrase organization in 1993, which is famous for it's special rules during it's early years, giving a start and producing numerous MMA stars and MMA personalities (Bas Rutten, Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Guy Metzger, Semmy Schilt, Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Nathan Marquardt and many more). Think about this short little list, at one point or another these guys were either champions or top contenders in whatever MMA organization they've fought at the time. Masa Funaki personally built up Pancrase, a MMA organization that held over 190 events, and a big share of Japanese MMA scene in 1990's with literally his blood sweat and tears. He promoted the event, he coached and trained many of the fighters in the organization and fought in just about every show from 1993 to 2000 recording a total of 50 fights and 38 wins over various level of competition but including fighting most of the fighters I just mentioned earlier. In 2000, Funaki faced the infamous "400-0 undocumented" record fighter Rickson Gracie only to lose by RNC once the fight went to the ground. Anyways, history of Pancrase and Funaki and their impact on MMA could take numerous posts, my point here is that in mid-1990's Masa Funaki was one of the better Japanese fighters and legend in Japan. You can check out Masa Funaki in action in his early days in the very few available Pancrase tapes PANCRASE Alive Tour Vol.1
, PANCRASE Truth Tour Vol.1
and PANCRASE Alive Tour Vol.2
.
Kazushi Sakuraba, while getting his rise to stardom in UFC Japan, is primarily known for his background as a Japanese pro-wrestler, beating up on all kinds of Gracies and some famous BJJ fighters in an entertaining fashion and by doing so helping to propel Pride FC into a premier world class MMA organization till it's unfortunate demise. He is also famous for valiantly fighting off and receiving 3 spectacular beatings from a now very famous Wanderlei Silva. After those spectacular beatings Sakuraba won a few fights and also received a few more not spectacular but scary beating courtecy of his mis-managers and referees (his fights with Arona and Smirnovas). Spectacular beatings aside, Sakuraba was and is a MMA legend that during his hay day provided fans all over the world with some history making fights and influenced many other fighters with numerous, new at the time, approaches/strategies in dealing with Brazilian JiuJitsu based fighters. You can see some of his legacy making in Pride FC: Pride Fighting Legacy
and Pride FC: Pride Fighting Legacy, Vol. 2
.
Onto Kazushi Sakuraba vs Masa Funaki fight. I really like both fighters and watched all of Sakuraba's fights and majority of Funaki's. Obviously Sakuraba had the advantage of having more recent experience and was a big favorite in my mind, but I was rooting for Funaki, him being the earlier pioneer of MMA in Japan and an underdog, and was kind of worried about this being his first fight in 7 years. Funaki surprised me, while he was looking kind of stationary once the bell rang his reflexes to Sakuraba's striking were pretty fast. After a slow start of feeling each other other out by a few kicks and jabs, Funaki landed a good body kick while Sakuraba was near the ropes and followed up with a few over committed punches toward a covering up Sakuraba. This gave Sakuraba a chance to take Funaki down into Funaki's guard. When Sakuraba postured up Funaki opened guard and tried to go for a kneebar to please his fans. Sakuraba stuffed his attempt and took his back while Funaki turtled up and was still looking for a kneebar for a short while till he rolled back into the open guard. Sakuraba lightly threw a few punches and stood out of the guard and got caught by Funaki's upkick. Sakuraba was in the position to kick the downed Funaki, after all that's one of things that made him famous, but he chose not to and just engaged Funaki on the ground again and quickly getting the side mount and shortly after finishing Funaki with the most basic Kimura.
I don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but Sakuraba really tried to avoid punching or kicking Funaki on the ground out of respect. You could tell by the way Sakuraba was right after the finish and by the fact that he doesn't take it easy on anyone else. Sakuraba had a lot of respect for Funaki and what's he's done and did not want to embarras him by beating him up and took him out with a submission, which is a much more honorable way to go out.
Did the fight live up to the dream match expectations? Kind of and no. Kind of because it actually happened and it was a decent fight considering both Sakuraba and Funaki are almost 30 and had very gruelling careers and are past their prime time. This may be would have been a little bit better fight 5 years ago. Funaki would have had a 5 year break to heal and train anew and Sakuraba would have just recovered from his second loss to Silva. With that said, I'm glad it happend and the fans of both got to actually see it no matter the outcome.
No onto another point, Funaki didn't really offer much in terms of defense to Sakuraba's Kimura. He is not alone though, there's been many fights recently where it seems like once kimura is locked, fighters don't get out of it.
The only defense to Kimura fighters are offering to their opponents, this happens time and again, is to lock their hands and push toward the direction from where the kimura is being applied from, which only plays into getting a better grip for the fighter applying the kimura. Usually two things happen, fighter applying he kimura breaks the lock and finishes the move or lets the defending fighter turn to their stomach and take their back.
There is a defense to the kimura that I've known for years, which I've learned from some dude that visited a Renzo Gracie school and I can't take credit for it. So the attacking fighter is in sidemount on my right side and already has a kimura grip on my left hand while I have both of my hands locked. I will push toward the fighter applying the kimura, but only for a split second and immediately turn in the opposite direction (the direction the kimura was being applied), unlock my hands and yank my left hand toward my left side straight out of the kimura grip. Works like a charm majority of the time. Give it a try next time in practice and let me know how it goes. Kimura's will rarely pose a threat to you now. If the description isn't clear enough, let me know and I'll try posting some pics of the escape, or even quick video.
Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:04:00 -0500 - Celebrity Apprentice Episode 2 - Tito Ortiz acts as a secretary - whines and rides coat tails of others and owns a billion gazillion dollar company
In this week's The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 2, "mega-mma-supastar" Tito Ortiz again comes out on top and stays on the winning team Hydra. Tito again did almost absolutely nothing the whole episode, except for really trying to look like an idiot. I have a feeling that with each episode there will be more and more of that.
This weeks episode teams are tasked with making a sappy TV commercial for sad doggies. Gene Simmons and Steven Baldwin took the lead on the task. Tito also showed some initiative by pretending to be a man-secretary and writing down some note, while other team members actually did some half productive brainstorming. Well, Tito didn't take any notes, look at this pretty picture of his doodles after the meeting. Yes, you're seeing that right, that is all the talented Tito Ortiz doodled down.
After the team decided on what to do for the commercial and filmed it the two leaders for this project made a decision to get rid of whiners and productivity detractors, like Tito Ortiz, for the final editing session. Reluctantly they left and left the leadership to finish the job.
But whiners and productivity detractors, like Tito Ortiz, couldn't let it go be cause they didn't want to go to bed and stormed in like some tough looking punks into the editing room and proceeded to whine about not having any input in the final 40 minutes of editing time left.
That's exactly what the leaders were trying to avoid and like real men sent the whiner out to complain and moap to each other. That's where Tito Ortiz really shined, after all that exactly he was best at through out latter part of his MMA career as a crappy fighter. While comlaining and moaping, he acted real tough behind the backs of those who told him to beat it, just like in MMA, he was all mouth and no results.
Anyways, while moaping in his femenine whiny voice, he proceded to tell his team mates that he wasn't going to take it and that he "owns a multi billon dollar business" and "that he is not going to leave his LIFE in the hands of others" and not do anything about it. HUH?! He was REAL mad that he didn't get a chance to contribute absolutely nothing to the project. I mean, come on, they should have at least given him a chance to contribute nothing and whine some more!
After the team did win the task of making a doggy commercial, Tito acted way too happy about it and realized that he acted like a complaining little girl and immediately jumped on everyones coat tails and proceded to ride them and trying to high five anybody any chance he got. It got real annoying to everyone quick. Check out Lennox Lewis snubbing Tito's yet another high five offer.
In all seriousness, for every time some one like Randy Couture will amaze casual MMA fans and newcomers to MMA with how elloquent and smart MMA champions can be, there will be a Tito Ortiz on some reality TV show self-proclaiming to be a champion and act and talk like an idiot. Looking at Tito, is someone really going to buy the punchline that Joe Rogan always throws out there about a lot of MMA being a "chess match"?
Till next week...Until then I'll be doing some more serious MMA posting.
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:02:00 -0500 - Welcome Fightlinker readers - mma blogging at MMANinja.com will resume shortly after these messages
I haven't blogged for a week, but when I did blog with some consistency, it appears that I actually did gain a few readers. I thank you, readers, for visiting and may be even reading some of my posts. Most importantly for me though is that I somehow turned up on fightlinker's radar (Ya know they gobble up millions of MMA blog posts a day, no matter, it's my beginner blogger tiny milestone, only important to me).
(For the readers that didn't come from Fightlinker, if you haven't come across Fighlinker yet, you should go there now. Fightlinker is one of those sites people either love or hate but keep visiting to see what's on there)
I've seen Fighlinker grow since around it's inception in May 2007 and it's amazing (again to me, after all this is mostly for my own amusement) how far they've gotten and the kick ass momentum they have in their posting schedule. While I don't always agree with them, I RARELY disagree though, they rarely keep their often real honest opinions on various MMA topics to themselves, much like Matt Hughes doesn't
I have to confess that I used fightlinker as my only MMA news source for a few months last year. Yep...fightlinker also inspired me to start this little blog. Thanks fightlinker!
While, I can't compete with their crazy posting tempo, I mean it took them 6-7 months to get there, nor do I want to, I'll keep posting my reviews of upcoming MMA events and big happenings.
So, please, subscribe to my RSS feed to get updates delivered to you or visit me before events for my quick picks and after for my, sometimes in depth, reviews and notes.
Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:38:00 -0500 - Yarenokka 2007 Hayato Sakurai returns vs Hasegawa in a total shocker!Hayato Sakurai is one of the most exciting lightweight fighters from who has been fighting for over 11 years since 1996. While his best fighting years were in Shooto during late 90's and early 2000's, he came back strong in 2005 during Pride Bushido 9 - The Lightweight Tournament
(one of the best MMA shows to date btw) and defeated former UFC Lightweight champion Jens Pulver and former Shooto Lightweight champion Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen on the same night!!! It was truly an amazing night where Sakurai was at the top of his game twice to advance to the tournament final to face also amazing Takanori Gomi. While Sakurai lost to Gomi in the final, he went on a 3 KO/TKO win streak against some tough opposition including latest Ultimate Fighter 6 winner Mac Danzig.
Sakurai has sharp aggresive striking game, great, often high amplitude, takedowns and also aggressive ground and pound, and a great ability to smoothly transition between all the aspects of his MMA game. So I was really looking forward to his return to MMA after almost a year long layoff. He was facing a very average journeyman Hasegawa. It should have been an easy fight where he could put a great show for the fans.
I initially overlooked him looking kind of soft as the first 30 seconds he was landing some snappy body kicks and some punches. For about a minute after Sakurai looked great, but then I could not believe my eyes. I thought I was watching the guy who beat two tough champions on the same night and just put together 3 vicious TKO victories. What I was seeing though was barely a shadow of Sakurai's even worst moments in some of his losses. He looked lethargic, his punches had zero power standing up or on the ground. I mean he was landing punches standing up and doing no damage, taking Hasegawa down and just laying on top and not doing any real damage.
During the break after round 1 Hasegawa, I'm sure of it, couldn't believe that he was hanging in there with Sakurai and was still in the fight. His corner literally slapped, see the screenshot, some more confidence into him and in Round 2 he came out swinging at Sakurai with his chin up. Ya, with his chin up against Sakurai with the sloppiest striking out there. But he wasn't worried one bit because even when Sakurai hit him, there was zero power behind the punches. When Sakurai would take Hasegawa down, Hasewaga would just start playing the famous rubber guard
I was completely shocked and disappointed by Sakurai's worst performance ever. So I apologize not even really reviewing the fight itself, it was just too painful to watch what was happening. I only hope that Sakurai had some serious injury coming into the fight as an excuse for the poor performance and not finishing his way lesser opponent. I just can't imagine that his poor preparation for the fight was to blame.
I hope Sakurai comes back, where ever he ends up fighting, and at least somewhat resembles an exciting and agressive fighter he was just a meer 10 months ago.
Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:28:00 -0500
