UFC 91: Randy vs Brock

It’s two weeks away now, and I still can’t make my mind up about this fight. Ignoring the fact that Brock was given a title shot based on a loss to Frank Mir and a win over Heath Herring, it’s a pretty good matchup. Everyone seems to have an opinion, but there are as many people in both camps. So let’s analyse the advantages of each fighter. I realize I might be off on these because I’ve really only seen Lesnar fight twice.

Randy has:
*The experience advantage (Relevant, but perhaps not as important as some think. Randy hasn’t faced a wrestler of Brock’s caliber before in MMA – Randleman is a LHW)
*More technical boxing (It’s impossible to know how much of a factor this will be until we see how the wrestling matches up)
*Better cardio (Big factor)
*Better jiu jitsu (Probably not going to be a factor – Randy doesn’t go for a lot of submissions, and a guy as explosive as Brock would be hard to submit even for someone who’s got a lot of submission wins)

Brock’s advantages are:
*Strength (I think this will be less of a factor than people seem to assume. Randy has made big guys look weak many times before, so even if Brock outmuscles him I doubt he’ll be able to manhandle him)
*Speed (this is another big one)
*Reactions (one has to assume at ages 31 vs 45)
*Reach

I believe in Randy couture. If it were a 1-round fight, I think it would be a different story, but Couture has the advantage of cardio. If Brock Lesnar comes out aggressive like he has in the past, but can’t put Randy away within one or two rounds, he’s got to supply 275 pounds of muscle with oxygen for another fifteen minutes. Randy is an expert at tiring people out. The longer the fight goes, the more dominant he usually looks. However, given the huge size and speed advantage, it is also possible that Brock might put Randy on his back and finish him there, or hits him with a giant bomb before Randy gets the clinch. I’m not putting any money on this one.

In other news, I think they’re grooming Demian Maia for a title shot. Not that I mind, I love seeing that guy fight. He’s fighting fan favourite Nate Quarry on the televised undercard. This one seems like an easy fight for Maia. Nate fights on toughness, and he’s got it in spades, but neither strength or heart are really that big of a factor if you end up in the guard of a guy with a resume that reads like this:

“My main titles in BJJ are three-time World Cup champion, two-time World Champion, Pan American champion 2006, ADCC champion 2007, ADCC 2nd place in 2005, Brazilian champion, 7x state champion, 4x Brazilian team champion.”

At that point, it’s all about technique and timing.

The third interesting fight on this card is Kenny Florian vs Joe Stevenson. Both are fairly highly ranked and have some momentum, but they both got demolished by Sherk and BJ Penn, respectively. In my opinion, Joe Stevenson has defeated higher quality opponents (Yves Edwards, Kurt Pellegrino). Still, it’s a bad style matchup for him. Kenny has better technical striking, better jiu jitsu and better footwork. I see Florian winning this match in much the same fashion he beat Roger Huerta.

The next evolution of Mixed Martial Arts

Tennis! Think about it: tennis players have quick footwork, fantastic hand-eye coordination and lots of shoulder strength and hand speed. GSP with two years of tennis lessons would become unstoppable.

But seriously, for my money, judo is the next step. Even without the gi, a skilled judoka can throw opponents from a lot of grips where wrestlers cannot. In fact, I think it’s already here, only the majority of fighters haven’t realized it yet. The world’s top fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, is a judo man. People just call him a Sambo fighter because that’s the discipline he gives in interviews. He started out as a judo player, and he is a Russian National Judo Championships winner. Practically all of the throws used in sambo come from judo.

I know, I know, wrestling is better for MMA than judo. I think that’s a proven fact by now, but I think it’s mostly because judo players train with the gi, and because more skilled young wrestlers have tried mixed martial arts than skilled young judo players. Apart from Karo Parisyan and Fedor, almost all of the top judo players who have given MMA a shot were pretty far from their athletic prime. Yoshida and Ogawa won their gold and silver medals in 1992. Remember, ten human years are at least twenty athlete years, especially towards the end of the career.

Now, lots of people are saying wrestling is simply better than judo, and anything not covered by freestyle wrestling is covered by greco. This is just not true. I would submit that judo players are better at tossing people and ending up on top from a number of grips: Standing kimura grip, double overhooks and seatbelt position.

How many times do we see UFC fights turn into a stalemate when they end up in a 50/50 clinch against the cage? Every UFC, right? Judo is the remedy for that – see Karo Parisyan vs Dave Strasser or Alvin Robinson vs Jorge Gurgel for proof.

The key to being a good takedown artist is versatility. We are seeing a new wave of takedown defense, and most of the takedown artists have not yet adapted to it. For example, look at Koscheck vs Alves. Nobody can argue Josh Koscheck’s wrestling credentials, yet he was unable to take Thiago Alves down, because Thiago knew from long before the fight what Koscheck was going to do. The wrestling double-leg takedown may be the highest percentage move there is, if you prepare two weeks for any one single move, you are probably not gonna fall for that move.

Compare that to GSP, who threw Matt Hughes with a judo throw in their 3rd fight. He’s got the best double-leg in the game, but the real strength of his takedown game is his versatility.

UFC 90 Review

Man. It’s a real shame how it ended, but if you didn’t enjoy watching Anderson Silva vs Patrick Cote, then you simply don’t know enough about fighting. The way he moves, shows off for the audience and picks his shots, he’s just playing around. He’s so relaxed, so aware, so fluid that you just can’t rattle him. He’s got supreme confidence in his chin, his power and his technique, and he’s got a serious reach advantage on pretty much everyone else in that division.
Nobody can touch him at 84kgs, and he knows it.

I’m predicting a first round KO in the rematch. Here’s why:

“I was in the best shape of my life, I was ready to go and I think that I proved to everybody that this guy’s not unbeatable. I think I fucked him up really bad. My game plan was good and I think he was scared to exchange with me. I received all his best punches and all his best knees and I was still there.”

-Patrick Cote to MMAnia.com

Other people’s delusions crack me up.

Tyson Griffin vs Sean Sherk lived up to my high expectations. Both of those guys are tough as hell. I learned a technical subtlety from Sherk; when he took the back of Tyson Griffin after having sprawled on him, he twisted Tyson’s neck and arm in one direction, then immediately loosened his grip and spun the other way. Very slick. One thing I kept thinking to myself as I watched the fight is that Sherk would benefit a lot from working on his kicks. His boxing is crisp and fast, but he never seems to rock anyone with his hands despite this. Imagine if that guy had kicks like Goran Reljic or Bas Rutten. There are two reasons people avoid kicks in MMA: They’re scared of getting taken down and they’re scared of wasting a lot of energy.

Sherk’s not scared of ending up on his back. Unless it’s GSP stuffing him into the cage, he could probably just push most of the people in his division straight off him and get back to his feet. Cardio isn’t an issue for Sean Sherk. He’s got the speed, so higher kicks could offer the range and KO power his hands lack.

I was a little disappointed in Clementi’s performance, he seemed to come into the match with a poor gameplan. Oh well, I made the money back on Anderson.

Junior Dos Santos was a welcome surprise, at least from an entertainment standpoint. Werdum is solid at what he does, but what he does generally isn’t all that exciting or creative. Maybe I’m still bitter about what he did to Gonzaga.

Alves/Koscheck was another great fight to watch. Thiago is starting to look really scary, but I still bet GSP would take him down and dominate from top position. GSP may be the only guy in that division who is just as big as Alves, and he’s got the best takedowns in MMA right now.

UFC 90

Here are my picks for UFC 90 in Chicago on the 25th. I have high hopes for this one, Anderson Silva never fails to entertain. Plus there are some fantastic LW matchups on this card.

Anderson Silva over Patrick Cote by T/KO. Easy money.
Rich Clementi over Gray Maynard by submission.
Sean Sherk over Tyson Griffin by decision. This one is gonna be fireworks, guaranteed.
Thales Leites over Drew McFedries by sub. I don’t know what Thales’ wrestling game is like, but I’m counting on him to take it down.
Josh Koscheck over Thiago Alves by decision. This one was hard to pick, but I think Koscheck is going to take him down and wear him out with GnP from guard. He’s usually got a smart game plan, and he has to know cardio is Alves’ weakness. If he stands with Thiago, I think he’ll get fucked up.

I’m really rooting for Hermes Franca over Marcus Aurelio. BJJ Credentials and historical cardio ability points to Maximus winning a decision, however. Hope I’m wrong.

I’ll be putting some money on Anderson, and probably on Clementi as well. Also considering putting some on Couture over Lesnar. I keep going back and forth on this one. Too risky? Probably.

UFC 89 and technique of the week

UFC 89 was good entertainment, but not inspirational viewing. I usually treat UFC events as a learning opportunity, but this time I didn’t see a lot of moves I hadn’t seen used better in the past. There were two notable exceptions: Jim Miller’s arm trap on David Baron, and Brandon Vera’s knee stomp on Keith Jardine. I think if Vera had recognized the limping as actual damage as opposed to Jardine’s typical trickery, he could have won the match by focusing on kicking that leg.

Bisping vs Leben was the best fight of the night in my opinion, but both of them have a long way to go before they pose a serious threat to the 185 pound title. Honestly, after seeing what he did to Dan Henderson, I doubt anyone can really touch Anderson Silva at that weight (or at 93kg, for that matter). He’s just in a whole different zone, technique-wise and mentally. He is right up there with Fedor.

The technique of the week is a variation on the sidechoke/arm triangle, performed from the backmount:
http://lockflow.com/article_view.php?id=4258

I’m going to be working hard on this technique, because I’m having problems finishing my mata leao against experienced fighters. My problem is wrist and finger strength, and that takes time to build up. In the meantime, I need a technique that works as a replacement.

UFC 89 picks

UFC 89 will be going down in Birmingham, England on October 18th.

Fightcard, my picks in bold:

Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben
Sam Stout vs. Terry Etim
Shane Carwin vs. Neil Wain
Chris Lytle vs. Paul Taylor
Keith Jardine vs. Brandon Vera
Jess Liaudin vs. David Bielkheden
Luiz Cane vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
Per Eklund vs. Samy Schiavo
Jim Miller vs. David Baron
Dan Hardy vs. Akihiro Gono

I don’t like to pick winners if I haven’t seen previous fights with each of the fighters fight before. If I put any money on this card, most of it will be on Shane Carwin. Maybe Bisping too, not sure.

I’m not too excited about this event, the only fighter that I see on it with obvious world class potential is Sokoudjou, and he’s got a long way to go with his groundgame judging by the Machida fight. That’s not saying the others don’t have it by the way, they just haven’t shown it yet as far as I have seen.

Restless

I was down at the club yesterday and watched everyone else get ready for their fights. The atmosphere was incredible. Sitting on the sidelines, I felt like I wanted to rip my own head off for not being able to join in.

My energy returned today, after plenty of sleep, vitamins and healthy food. The newfound inspiration probably had something to do with it, too. I’ve felt sort of useless these last few weeks, but when I came down to the gym yesterday that all cleared up. I belong on the mat.

I went for a light run after work today, and I’ve been watching some fight videos and techniques to alleviate the longing. Can’t wait to get my ass kicked tomorrow.

The technique of the week is the classy but sexy arm triangle. It was the first submission I started hitting with any regularity. Here it is in action, implemented by BJJ world champion Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro:

Distilling human potential

Joe’s comment made me think about what the attraction of the martial arts lifestyle is. My conclusion is that I like it because it makes me a better person. How?

Joe Rogan once said: “Martial arts is the single best way to distil human potential“

If you don’t understand that saying, the point is that it’s hard. Like any sports, martial arts are difficult to do well, and the more free the ruleset is the more difficult that sport is. Succeeding at anything that is difficult to do leaves you a better person.

Individual sports, as a rule, are more difficult than team sports, because they offer more personal exposure to failure. A member of a team can always blame some of his failures on the team, while a martial artist has only himself to rely on. He cannot blame anyone else when something goes poorly.

Mixed martial arts is the most difficult individual sport that can be safely practiced. If you make the rule set any freer than MMA, you get injuries too nasty or too frequent to warrant the benefit of the added difficulty.

So what is difficult about MMA?
Imagine yourself in a padded cage, inside striking distance of your opponent. He is moving like he’s about to throw his fist at you. The problem is, you can’t predict exactly where he’s going to punch. Now you need quick reflexes in order to block or dodge that strike. If you intend to block it and then throw a counter with some precision, you need both good hand-eye coordination and timing, because his head and his hands are going to be moving unpredictably, and very quickly.

But if you’re tense, you will not be able to move fast enough to do that. Therefore your muscles have to be relaxed even though you are in a situation of high danger. For that to happen, you must be mentally calm. Focus is also imperative, because if you start listening to the crowd you might not see the next punch he throws fast enough to react.

Your counter didn’t knock him out, so now you need to throw something that he isn’t expecting if you’re gonna win this. Time to pick something unusual out of your arsenal, and if you are going to have room for a big arsenal you better have a good memory. On top of this, you have to be imaginative in what you pick each time, otherwise you will become predictable and easy to counter and defeat.

In order to learn and remember all those moves, you better have been dedicating a lot of time to training them into your muscle memory and getting them right, improving your form. All of the form in your techniques become better when you are flexible and explosive, so you have to have been committed to training your body in painful ways. If you hadn’t learned to handle pain, you would never have been able to push through all that training. You would have quit after just a few weeks or months and gone back to watching TV.

The fight is going badly. You aren’t landing anything, so you have to be honest to yourself and admit that your opponent’s technique is as good as yours or better. On top of that he happens to be genetically gifted with crazy strength. The only way to defeat such an opponent is to trick him or outlast him. You try tricking him but he’s too calm and focused, it doesn’t work. Better hope you’ve got the cardio to stay confident.

He’s gonna throw the best he’s got at you, you’re gonna stay perceptive, persevere and block his techniques until he gets tired. Then it will be your turn to be the hammer. Buckle down, here we go.
Taking that decision requires some serious honesty and maturity on top of an iron-clad confidence.

So you want to be a top-level mixed martial artist? Then you have to be mentally calm, focused, imaginative, committed, confident, honest, perceptive and mature, as well as physically quick, strong, flexible and in good cardiovascular shape. On top of that, you must have acquired a good sense of balance, good hand-eye coordination, reactions and timing.

I don’t know about you, but that looks like a laundry list of desirable qualities to me. Oh, and remember:

A tribute to Evan Tanner

Fuck.

That’s all I could think when I first read it. Evan Tanner, 37, former UFC middleweight champion and one of my favourite fighters, is dead. He died in the desert after his motorcycle ran out of gas.

I admired Evan Tanner, and I looked up to him. His submission of Robbie Lawler was one of the first fights I ever saw, and it was one of the ones that motivated me to start training. So who was Evan Tanner? He was a man of deep thought and bold action. He was very human and brutally honest about it.

He entered his first MMA competition on a whim, and defeated three heavyweights in one night. He taught himself jiu-jitsu by watching old Gracie video tapes. He was known for his fierce ground-and-pound style and his gentle nature.

Evan Tanner was a seeker and an adventurer. He struggled with alcohol addiction, but he eventually overcame it. He was a man who could appreciate the beauty of nature, who could see the absurd aspects of society. He would post long, elaborate blogs filled with pictures of his latest motorcycle-borne adventures all over the United States.

He was an inspiration to me, mainly because he proved that it is possible to be an introspective thinker and still have success as a fighter.

He will be missed.

“Today, I ran to the store to pick up a few things, and with the lonesome, quiet desert thoughts on my mind, I couldn’t help but be struck with their brutally stark contrast to my current surroundings, the amazing congestion in which we exist day to day. The landscape as far as I could see, crowded, choked, with me and the rest of the species, an almost writhing mass of organisms, fighting over space and resources,….on the highways, in the parking lots, on the sidewalks, and in the ailse of the stores. And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.”

-Evan Tanner (1971-2008)

Read Evan’s blog here: http://www.spike.com/profile/Evan_Tanner

Violence

I’ll begin with violence, because it was violence that started my snowball effect of positive momentum.

I was always a procrastinator, and lazier than anyone you ever met. Having failed in school, sports and in my social life, I found myself one night on a brief vacation in a place where I couldn’t stay, staring at my computer screen. In my usual habit, I was awake but tired at 2 am, and not planning to hit the sack anytime soon. Bored with downloading movies, I was surfing piratebay for any effortless entertainment in an attempt to drown out the voice of my conscience. My eyes fell on a torrent named UFC 50 The War of 04.

“UFC”, I thought. “I remember that. As a kid I saw some grainy clips of a fat guy in a beard knocking a huge samoan unconscious. Let’s expand our horizons a bit, this might be a wild ride.”

It changed my life.  Though I was put off by the brutality of it, I was much more fascinated with the skill and technique on display.  I saw the physically unimposing fighters force younger, stronger-looking opponents into humiliating submission with grappling moves I had never seen before.

“I need to learn that.”

It was raw, it was real and it was a little scary. I was hooked, watching event after event, going up until the latest and then backwards in time. The thing that kept me watching was the fact that event after event, fight after fight, I kept seeing the more skilled guy win. The more well performed it was, the less muscle each move seemed to require. I had always thought fighting was about size and strength, things that took years of effort to build. I found the fighters that seemed the most skilled, and tried to learn from them by watching their careers. By the time I went back home, I had already resolved to become a fighter, even though I was not ready to admit it to myself then.

I wanted to be like the fighters; in prime physical condition, dangerous and alert. I wanted their strange mix of humility and confidence. That desire made me get my malnourished skeleton out of the computer chair and on track to being athletic. It made me start jogging for the first time in my life. It made me run through the snow and through the rain in the middle of the night, building my body back up step by step, pushup by pushup. It taught me discipline.

Fast forward two years. Now I am in living in the big city, and I’ve been training since I first got here. I am one of the better guys at my martial arts school. Besides discipline, violence has taught me to prioritize, to be humble, and to be alert. My diet has changed from sporadic TV dinners into a steady stream of almost entirely healthy things. I have gained 10 kilos of muscle. My self-confidence has skyrocketed, and I have more good friends than ever before.

I will probably go more indepth about this later, but that will do for an introduction to my perspective on violence. Next up: Drugs!