Return of the Blog! Highlight Reels and Future Deals

Sorry for the long break! I haven't felt like writing, and that's the honest truth. I've had plenty to write about though, and this new edition of BenClarkMMA will be featured in the highlight format.

Lets see, since November 30th...

Strikeforce: Hendo vs Babalu II, 4 December 2010

Get real. No one likes Strikeforce, especially when they release promotionals without a complete card. Herschel Walker probs fought the Ghost of Christmas future that night. Who knows?

Please, Scott Coker, CEO and failure-king of Strikeforce. Take notes from ANYBODY ELSE promoting Mixed Martial Arts, please. You SUCK! I hate your events, your champions are GARBAGE (besides maybe Nick Diaz) and you WISH. Yes, you just wish. Why would you put on this supposedly "great" fight night on the same night as your bigger, meaner, brother the UFC's TUF finale? You are so dumb. How did you figure you'd get ratings? Why am I addressing you when you obviously don't read my blog? Shut up....


TUF 12 Finale, 4 December 2010

Jonathan Brookins defeated Michael Johnson for the Ultimate Fighter Season 12 6 figure contract and glass trophy

                                                 Sweet! He always wanted a glass square.

It was obviously a decision, as both fighters are strong wrestlers, and respect eachothers stand up, plus trained under GSP all season and knew the ins and outs of each others games. Good on them, they bored the crap out of me. Just kidding, but  not really.

The best fight on that card was Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia, in the UFC's first ever live-aired Featherweight bout.

                    Phan, shown here showing Garcia the monster in his trunks, note the facial expression of horror, because Phan is that much Man.

I'm a damn Nam Phan fan, and unfortunately he got robbed. However, Dana White in his infinite wisdom and awesomeness declared an immediate rematch, and hopefully Nam Phan can get his win back. However, it was an awesome fight, one that everyone enjoyed watching more than the main event.

Anyway.

UFC 124: St-Pierre vs Koscheck II, 11 December 2010

"I'm gonna hit you, riiiiight here"

The above quote is from none other than Josh "Probably Won't Fight Again" Koscheck, uttered while pointing at the Champs chin on national T.V. talking smack. However, as you can see by the picture above, Joshua got a rude reminder as to why you shouldn't say anything outrageous to GSP in regards to fighting him. Because he WILL ground you. LITERALLY. Like your dad. GROUND YOU. Josh couldn't fly home to California, because of a fracture to his orbital bone, rendering his flight home impossible, because a change in air pressure would kill him/hurt real bad.

      This bearded Gentleman demonstrates what would happen to Kos at 30,000 feet.

For 5 straight rounds, GSP laid a beat down on Koscheck unlike any seen before. He broke his face with jabs! From the first round forward, GSP would glide in, pop a couple shots to silly boy Josh's face, and then back out while Kos would throw a couple haymaker style punches that didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of hitting him, because he couldn't see out his right eye. LOL?

Félicitations au champion, Georges St-Pierre pour une autre défense victorieuse de son titre!!!

Also at UFC 124,

Sean McCorkle may look like he's winning here, but he didn't. That 6'11" guy on the bottom of this picture reversed, and put on a clinic of ground and pound, winning by TKO in the first round. I can't find a picture of this, however, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Or look up the stats.

Moving right along....

WEC 53: Henderson Vs Pettis, 16 December 2010 

Here.

That's all you need to see.

UFC 125: Resolution,  1 January 2011

In what I expected to be the badassest card ever, this did not disappoint. It was chock full of hard hitting fights, and balls-to-the-wall MMA action that I am so addicted to.

Clay Guida Vs. Takanori Gomi. I had Gomi picked out for this fight. I thought Guida was going to get knocked out. In the first round, Guida decided to say "Forget getting knocked out, I think I'll guillotine this PRIDE legend into submission. Seeya!"

Dong Hyun Kim vs Nate Diaz was also amazing. I had Stun Gun winning, and he did, but by decision. I thought it would be a bit more one sided, however, Nate Diaz put up a fantastic fight, and even for a minute it looked like he knocked Kim out with knees to the face. But he didn't apparently, because Kim was technically a downed opponent with his hand on the ground. Wuss. Anyway, 2 rounds to 1, Kim. The third round is where Nate Diaz almost came back and knocked the Korean back to the mean streets of Seoul.

                                             I mean, look at this Thug straight outta Stockton.


Oh yeah. Brandon Vera got his ass beat. It was Thiago Silvas come back fight and this is what happened..

After the nap, we had Brian Stann Vs. Chris Leben.

This fight was awesome. Chris Leben always swings for the fences and Brian Stann is a rough tough can't get enough US Marine, OOORAH!

Anyway. Despite allegiance to the Beloved Corps, I picked Leben to win this fight, simply because he's a monster. I was wrong. Initially, Chris Lebens iron chin helped him recover from 3, count 'em THREE monster strikes to the face where Stann would have KO'd any other living man. It wasn't happening. Chris Leben just kept getting back up, because Screw Brain Cells.

Damn.

And the Maaaaaain EVENT, of THE EEEEVENING!

This fight rocked my socks off. The first round, it was a miniature version of Velasquez vs Lesnar, where the challenger Maynard was beating the epic snot out of the champ, Frankie Edgar. But Frankie Edgar is made of bouncy ball, and every time he got knocked down, he literally back flipped back up and redefined "roll with the punches"

                                          No. This isn't from the Jersey Shore, it's Toughness Incarnate.

Anyway. After the first round, which everyone scored 10-8 for Maynard, I think the Champ won the rest of the fight, giving him the edge to win a decision, a close one, but still a win. However, the Judges declared it a draw. Edgar retained his title, but didn't win. I was kinda bummed that I didn't see a finish in that first round. It was sick and twisted how bad Maynard put the hurt on Edgar. Mmm mm mm. Shaking my head.

Still. Best fight I've seen in a long while.

Welp, folks, there you have it. The highlights of the last almost 2-months in MMA. Sure, there have been other events in other promotions, but none that I've watched and/or care about. Why? Because Bellator is whack, and DREAM hasn't held a fight since forever.

Upcoming events are UFC: Fight for the Troops 2, which features the main event of Melvin Guillard vs Evan Dunham. Guillard is winning a 3 fight win streak, and Dunham is coming off his first loss ever to Sean Sherk at UFC 119. I think Dunhams going to win this one, probably by submission. Considering 7 of 8 losses that belong to Guillard are via submission, it isn't too tough to see that happening, because Dunham has 6/11 wins by submission.

And it looks like he knows what he's doing while he's standing up too. Hmm....

Also, the SAME EXACT NIGHT AS A UFC EVENT...STRIKEFORCE: NO ONE CARES 43

 Why is that one guy highlighted, and a single glove on Nick Diaz, but the rest is black and white. I HATE STRIKEFORCE! I'll throw them a bone; I would watch Nick Diaz fight Evangelista Santos, other than that, Dexter is the only reason to watch Showtime at all.

                                                "Strikeforce: Dex Vs Strikeforce " promo poster


And soon after that is UFC 126: Silva Vs. Belfort. Silva, defending his title for the 543rd time, and Belfort coming out of seemingly nowhere, fighting once in the UFC after a huge hiatus, and he fought at a 195 pound
catchweight against Rich Franklin at UFC 103. Why on earth this man has a shot at the title confuses me, but it doesn't matter. Silvas going to kick him in the teeth, his lights will go out, and finally the rightful contender, Yushin Okami, can get his shot. I'm not too sure what the main event of UFC 122 was all about then, Marquardt and Okami fought for #1 contendership, and then bang, all of a sudden, this old geezer (Belfort fought at UFC 3 or something ridiculous. He's been around man) is figthting the pound for pound best. Whatever!

Anyway, dear readers, That concludes the highlights and heads-ups for this entry. I will try to write more. I promise.

                                           $5 to the person who guesses which person I am on this poster.

First Look at the Main Event of UFC 124! (TUF, and Travis Rael)

Lets do this.

GSP will defend his title against dark horse Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec Canada.

                                            The Crowd is already going wild. Seriously.

Let's take a look at the advantages of this fight.

Striking:

Both of these fighters have outstanding striking. Though primarily ground based, it's a known fact that when two wrestlers compete, you'll end up seeing a fist fight.  GSP is a black belt in Kyokushin Karate, which, is no joke.  Koscheck trains at AKA, home of newly crowned heavy weight champ, Cain Velasquez. In fact, two of his last four victories have come by way of TKO. However, he also has been caught by a jiu jitsu fighter, Paulo Thiago. Unimpressive, sir. Paulo Thiago was more surprised than anyone I think when he uppercutted Kos into next week.

                                                 Fork over that lunch money, Joshua.

St. Pierre however, hasn't had his clock cleaned since Matt Serra messed him up. He also avoided the heavy hands of always-mean Dan Hardy.

                  Nope. GSP never felt the wrath of a mohawked Brit quite like The Irish Hand Grenade

Who knows? Maybe GSP will be caught. The last time I gave the striking advantage to the challenger, that's what he relied on. I won't jinx my hero. (No homo, GSP is my hero. In fact, after Jose and Curtis teach me to beat people up more and more, and whomever I train with in the future; hopefully one day I can fight him.) Anyway, with GSP being a black belt, training with Muay Thai people and Phil Nurse as his kick boxing coach, I have to give him the nod. Kos is good, GSP is great.

Advantage: GSP

Wrestling and Ground Game:

Both of these fighters are outstanding wrestlers. In their first fight, GSP was taken down numerous times by Kos' Division I abilities. GSP has shown his mettle in this department against Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, and Dan Hardy. It isn't really clear who has the advantage here.

The champion has never wrestled officially, not in high school, not in college. Our challenger however has,  and he did it well. But that was then, this is now. I can't say for sure who is better at passing, working, and takedowns. It's a really tough call, so tough in fact, I have to say that their wrestling is about the same.

However, this isn't a wrestling match, this is MMA. Duh. On the ground, GSP thrives. Strikes on the ground and he has shown extreme skill in submissions, in his last title defense, he basically would have ended anyone with that armbar, or the kimura. Dan Hardy is just tough as woodpecker lips. Koscheck has rear naked choked a few people. However, it's an unreliable statistic. If Koscheck takes it to the ground, chances are GSP's BJJ black belt and his champ status will negate any sort of submission Kos will throw his way. With the clear advantage in ground fighting, I have to give this department to the champion.

Advantage: GSP


Size and Cardio

Again, another really close subject. GSP and Kos have each been featured in workout magazines, been put on youtube, and have dedicated their life to athleticism. They each walk around not very heavy, and don't have much of a cut to 170 lbs. GSP has a slight reach advantage, at 76 inches to Kos 73. Reach doesn't mean much, Matt Serra is a midget and managed to KO the champion way back in the day though. It's pretty obvious what has to happen here...

Advantage: TIE

My outlook is GSP has the advantage in fighting, but athletically and size wise Koscheck is a good match. I also have to say it; the hometown crowd is GSP's.  I don't know why Dana White would do this to Koscheck, as GSP's back will be against the wall fighting in front of his Canadian homies. They should have fought in Mandalay Bay or MGM Grand Garden, but hey, I'm not a UFC promoter, I'm just a fan and hopeful. In any case, GSP will have the crowd rallying behind him, and even though Koscheck is determined, maybe even convinced, GSP is once again nervous and will one way or the other come out on top.

My call...

GSP by TKO in the 3rd, or Unanimous Decision, but more than likely, TKO in the 3rd.

Here is a picture of what I'll be doing during the fight so no one will think I'm a curse, because...you know, Brock Lesnar and all.

Next order of business...

The Ultimate Fighter!

Nam Phan vs. Michael Johnson

It's gonna come down to who woke up on the right side of the bed. Phan is a body-shot king, with impressive cardio and the will to win. Michael Johnson is a gifted athlete (..you know what? I think that's pretty messed up, the only dark black person in the house this season, and he's been called "the athletic one" by the show and by fans. Seriously, America. Get it together, this isn't 1963) and his stand up is good to go. However, I'm a damn Nam Phan Fan and I'm gonna say Nam walks away with this one. Sorry Mike!

Jonathan Brookins vs Kyle Watson

I'm not quite sure that Kyle Watsons match ups have been against the tougher fighters in the house, as his only real challenge might have been that British guy everyone forgot about already (you know...the Wild Card fighter that Michael Johnson beat earlier in the season). These guys have been choking people out all day, and they're team mates. Jonathan has the clear experience advantage (dude fought in the WEC against Jose Aldo. JOSE ALDO, the Brazilian GSP pretty much). I'm gonna have to say Brookins slides into home this week and makes it to the finals against Nam Phan.


Last but not least, in totally unofficial, non-professional, nobody knows this guy fashion, my training partner and when I make it, team mate, Travis Rael was successful in his amateur debut. Congrats on the third round TKO man! My first steps in MMA were much less successful, as I was on the receiving end, but then again...I didn't have our coaches in Japan. Enough about me, check this out.

Rage in the Cage 146

If the album is private, well, my bad. Travis's facebook is his own, and if I get some feedback on this article, maybe I can message him to make it a public work so you can see him beating the snot out of Riley Booth, with wrestling and ground and pound.

Well friends, Americans, countrymen...I'll probably be blogging again soon, but for now, I have to get back to work...or else! Laters!

UFC 123 review, some new gear, and novice sport nutrition

Welcome back!

This past weekend was UFC 123. The card was awesome. Notably, only a couple of the fights went to decision, and they were all out battles. Aaron Simpson and Mark Munoz got robbed, because I would surely pick their fight over Joe Lauzon vs. George Sotiropolous, but hey, Dana White does what Dana White wants, because he's the maestro over a symphony of flying fists and shins, bruises, bumps, chokes and hype.  Some people in the journalism world see the UFC as an evil empire, but you know what? Tough. The UFC has been putting on the most spectacular fights with the best talent, on the most TV's and they started out with nothing. The Fertita brothers and Dana White deserve every penny they get, because they wrote the book on MMA promotion.

                                                  "Do you wanna be a F***'n Fighter?!"

No fight on UFC 123 was boring. I watched them all and even cheered a couple times. Especially when BJ Penn knocked Matt Hughes clean out in 21 seconds.

                    Bobby Hill and E.T. got drunk and 9 months later, a prodigious fighter was born.




I won't lie. I was on the hate-wagon  about BJ before this performance. He was really lackluster and disappointing in his two decision losses to Frankie Edgar. I'm still not convinced about ol' Frankie. BJ didn't really do BJ when they fought. We'll see though. ANYWAY, Baby Jay was looking mean as hell walking to that cage, and his new black shorts seemed to denote an aura of malice, a dark fiber in the material of his gumption. A real bad guy.

                                          "Come to Hilo and see me train. I swear, I'm training."


I don't know what gumption means. It sounded cool though.  The second Darth Vader reference in one blog? I know. I am trying.   Plus, what's more, is Matt Hughes is a Bible Thumper, so BJ's savage pacific islanderism is the perfect heathen reverse of Matt Hughes' good 'ol boy vibe.

                                                                              YES


Hmm...Moving on.


Rampage Jackson looked good. I gave him round one closely, and round two for sure. He lost round three, but it was an easy call, and my coach Jose and I agreed via text message on pretty much every fight. It was ridiculous. At least %500 accuracy at predicting.

                                "Joe, it seems that Jose Perez and Ben "Tigger" Clark would be way better at this than us."
                                          "But then I'd REALLY have no job Mike. Don't give the UFC any ideas...I really need it"



For all the fight outcomes, check out Wikipedia, or Sherdog. I'm not breaking much down right now. I have a meeting in 15 minutes.

In other news, I recently purchased some new gear. Another Dethroned Royalty shirt. All positive comments on it, ranging from "It reminds me of Sons of Anarchy" to "COOL SHIRT!"

Check it out!

And some new gloves from Built to Fight. They're pretty awesome, red and black in true Me fashion. Cue applause. Also some red shorts from Venum. I get all decked out looking mean and then I go tear it up at the dojo. No problems, and by the look of me you'd guess that I'm at least a level 9 badass.

In more relevant matters, I've been dabbling in this nutrition business for a few weeks now. Make that a couple months. I'm not Jenny Craig, or anything, but, I think it's pretty worth while to take a look at and think about if you're an athlete, or you don't want to be pudgy anymore.

I started out doing MMA way back in late 2009 in Japan, when me and a buddy of mine, Nick "The Roach" Murrow decided we were the new force to be reckoned with in Okinawa. Going to the Camp Kinser aerobics room, hitting the heavy bag and wrestling eachother every day put us up on a high horse. Especially when we dubbed ourselves "Team Overdose" and The Roach was victorious in his first fight. Soon, we were the kings of our own destinies, right?

Wrong dude. After more farting around the gym and watching numerous UFC videos, we figured we were hard. We even signed up to fight at Tenkaichi 48. I lost via TKO in just over a minute (Despite my poor performance, I must say that the promoter didn't have a fighter for me the day of, and as the event was taking place, some kid stepped in who was about 5 inches taller and had a good 20 pounds on me at the time.) and Roach got choked out by an officer who worked in our office building. Awkward!

That's when I realized I was pretty fat and out of shape. Why was it that I couldn't get out from under a full mount? People did it all the time in the UFC! I stood there next to that high way, smoking a cigarette, full of mixed emotions. I had just fought in front of a crowd, got paid, had a blast, but my whole head was throbbing, my left eye felt like it was coming out of it's socket and I wasn't looking forward to the nonsensical talking that was sure to follow me everywhere I went. I was pretty down trodden, and that's when I decided to make a change.

Fast forward a few months to October, and now i'm in Arizona, I started my training at Blackout, and it became clear that I was still green on this scene. This is where I start talking about nutrition.

I changed up my eating habits, cutting out all things with high fructose corn syrup (Ketchup included) and white, processed bread. I cut out fast foods, I started eating vegetables. A lot of them. Fruits, eggs, white meat, all that. No gatorade, just water, and beloved Xenergy. In addition I've amped up my gym time, but instead of wrestling my red-headed co-captain of a very novice and inexperienced Mixed Martial Arts team, I started running and doing lots of calisthenics and lots of pullups. For any reader trying to become He-Man (you know, like me) take note: there's no specific thing I'd ever tell you to do at the gym. Your goals are your own, and you have to figure out what you want to do to get there. Get into the habit of motivating yourself, as this crazy, wide world of individuals reflects, the only person who really cares about you at the finish line is you. The one healthy, useful tidbit that I can give, is that you have to, HAVE TO, do work.

That's right. If my diet could be dubbed the "No Ketchup" diet, my workout routine would be called the "Do Work" routine. Basically, if you're sore and upset and not comfortable, and you can measurably see your progress, you're on the right track.

Anyway, I'm done preaching about what I've been up to, however, if you wanna see the results, feel free to peep my facebook album about weight progress, creatively titled "Weight Progress". Every week looks pretty good, besides this past week where I dropped the ball a little bit, and didn't Do Work on monday, so I ended up being 3 pounds heavier, blah blah blah. Little bump in the road, but I'm still in 5th gear. Don't worry, blog-followers, I'll be down to 170 as a walk around weight soon enough, and I'll make the cut to 155 when I get in the cage.

That's pretty much all I've got for now. Happy Thanksgiving, and have a big bite of Turkey and your choice of alcoholic beverage for my brothers and sisters overseas, fighting and grinding out deployments in Helmand province and other parts of Afghanistan, they're missing home pretty bad, I know because I was there last Thanksgiving, it's no fun!

Until next time

at long last

Loyal followers, I apologize for the delay in writing, but...here we go.

Where to start? UFC 122 sure.

Basically this card sucked bad. Decision fest! I am disappointed in Nate Marquardt for real, but, over all, while my methods didn't come through, I picked most of the winners correctly (At least on Fantasy UFC on UFC.com)

I won't bore you with the play by play of the patty cake brigade at work. It literally put me to sleep. I mean, I was on the couch watching, and my body drifted off into a slumber, maybe it was the Cold-As-The-Rockies Coors light, maybe it was my girlfriend being in town and I was really comfortable.

But then again, it was probably just the very boring fights.

Here we see Yushin Okami engaged in combat with Nate The Great



Meanwhile, in the bantam weight division...

That there is one bad mofo. Urijah Faber. Former featherweight champion who got tired of living in Jose Aldo's shadow, so he was like "I'm gonna move to 135 and fight the meanest Japanese dude the WEC can put in front of me."

       It isn't power rangers, but it was close enough...

Urijah Faber spent 4:50 of a single round in the main event of WEC 52 (the penultimate WEC) beating the snot out of no pushover. Takeya Mizugaki is pretty B.A. so, you have to figure, choking him out was a feat.

Faber did it. No sweat.

Annnnd, I've missed two episodes of the Ultimate Fighter. This past wednesday evening, Spike TV forgot to adjust their settings for Daylight Savings ending, so when we fell back an hour, they did not, so instead of 2200, TUF is now on at 2300, and my circadian rythem isn't up to speed with those hours. After two workouts, and no xenergy in my system, that day I was feeling particularly sleepy...

  And, like a abbreviated version of Rip Van Winkle I slept for 2 hours (not twenty years) and woke up to see Michael Johnson winning by decision. I heard later through the grape vine that Kyle Watson beat old boy...Wilkinson, and the Semi's are set up with Watson Vs. Brookins, and Nam Phan vs Michael Johnson.

Funny how TUF lines Nam up with people I want to see him fight in the finals. I really wanted to see Cody guillotine his way up to the finale, visa vis Nam Phan, however, Nam Phan stamped that dudes card an episode or two back...

Oh yeah, I missed that too because I was picking up the lovely Ms. Olivia Barracchini in Tucson.

OH WELL! Looks like it's gonna be Brookins and Nam Phan in the final, they can't screw that up, only Nam Phan can, and I'm not giving Watson a chance against Brookins.

Despite being a damn Nam Phan fan, I'm going to call Brookins winning the Finale on 4 December.

That should just about cover everything recently going on in the world of MMA.

Oh. If you read this, please vote via commenting what my cage nickname should be once my coaches decide I'm ready to throw down with the best Southern Arizona has to offer. It's a toss up between

(drumroll please)

Tigger Jose came up with Tigger, making fun of my tendency (read: habit of doing) to bounce my hands up and down while moving around. I think it's sorta like an early Chris Leben. Rich thinks it's kinda like a dude who's about to get knocked out.

Chris Leben.

OR

Machine originally, "Marine Machine" but since I didn't like the fact that my cage name would be rhyming, I shortened it, despite Barry my jiu jitsu coach being able to choke me out for disagreeing. He's also a cop...and they tend to carry guns. Guns dude...guns.

Please, i'm serious. Vote!

Take a brief moment to stretch, grab a xenergy, crack your knuckles before reading the rest of this post...


.....

Alright. The end.


P.S. Yes, earlier, I was really trying hard to find a way to slip in the use of Visa Vis correctly in a sentence. I win at everything, I know. Thank you.

UFC 122 main card predictions

Hey fight fans, this coming saturday is UFC 122, Marquardt Vs. Okami

The main event is gonna be spectacular, with two of the most talented middle weights on the planet going at it for a shot at the winner of Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort. Marquardt is a more rounded fighter, and Okami is a straight up warrior. Both fighters have the potential to end this fight standing or on the ground, and it's gonna be a blow out. This matchup has controversial decision all over it. They'll both be working for a finish, and when two unstoppable forces collide, well, who knows what happens?

I'm calling Marquardt by split decision.

Also is Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara.

Talk about a stand up war! Both of these guys' have the majority of their wins coming by knockout. Straight up gun slingers, I'm telling you. I can't wait to watch this one either.

OH MAN!!!

    Rivera by KO in the second!

Andre Winner vs Dennis Siver

Another crazy match up. Both these guys are big competition in the light weight division, Winner the Season 9 Runner up of the Ultimate Fighter, and Siver is an experienced veteran of 9 UFC bouts (5-4). Winner has a size advantage, but the taller they are, the harder they fall, or, in this case, tap out.

Siver by some sort of choke in the 3rd. Guillotine. 

Amir Sadollah vs Peter Sobatta

Good thing their names rhyme, amirite?! Anyway. Sobatta has an edge in experience, but Sadollah has something Sobatta doesn't, and that's Wins in the UFC. Sobatta may finish his fights that he wins, but so far he's dropped 2 in the UFC straight. I think Sadollah will come away with this one.

Sadollah by TKO in the second...why not?

Krzystof Soszynski vs Goran Reljic

Another big match up, the first on the main card (This event is stacked to be epic). I had a vision while making my UFC.com/fantasy predictions of Krzystof Soszynski and his funny name catching Reljic in a rear naked choke. Dunno why, but that's what I'm going with. 

Soszynski by RNC in the second, against the cage and whatnot.

Check back for my post fight reviews, and in between now and then, the Ultimate Fighter weekly recap!  

A shout out to my coaches

It can be seen sometimes in my awesome blog about my awesome coaches. From left to right,

Curtis - I've linked you to his sherdog.com profile a few times, is all about dealing out pain and agony in the form of intense workouts, and instruction in the "mixed" part of Mixed Martial Arts.

Barry - When not away on business doing K-9 police work in the field, Barry is our BJJ coach and has helped my ground game come a long way.

Jose - Coach Jose is awesome. Like Curtis, gives mostly instruction on over-all MMA. Also does strength and conditioning. Of note; may be the only Steeler fan I've ever met in Sierra Vista. Word.

Rich - Coach Rich is the Muay Thai master. Back when Moby Dick was a minnow, I am told he competed hardcore in the ring. Much like the other 3 coaches, he's fairly badass at teaching people how to fight.

check out the Dojo website here if you're in the Sierra Vista area or coming here any time soon. Always want more people to come in and train with us!


Well. I'm done sucking up for the day. Check back for more MMA-related shenanigans soon!

Blackout MMA open house demonstrations!

Hey everyone. This afternoon my MMA dojo opened it's doors to the unknowing public for a demonstration in pure unadulterated awesomeness.

                       

                                            These are some baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad dudes.


You know I had my android on hand for some photos, and you can view them all here.

Pretty eventful in the way of being in Sierra Vista. Estevez Jones the WFF heavy weight champion showed up, people ate hot dogs, but me...well. I stuck to Xenergy.

Because Xenergy is an 11/10 kind of drink. Say something!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the pics, most of all the ones where Travis used his wrestling prowess to keep me on my back no homo, but my guard is pretty sicknasty, and it made for some good grappling. One of the main things I look forward to is fighting in front of an audience. The spotlight is pretty awesome, and despite my loss in Okinawa I had a blast fighting in front of a couple hundred people and getting paid to do so.

Well, girlscouts. That's pretty much all i've got right now. Check back soon for more updates in my quest to become....A professional cage fighter.

(Note: For those who didn't know, that was a spin off of the opening title to The Ultimate Fighter just now.)