Posts from — June 2009

Tom Casale over at Five Ounces Of Pain has hit the nail on the head with his column Someone Did Lose the Sanchez-Guida Fight. It’s about how the media coverage after the Diego Sanchez-Clay Guida bout at Saturday’s Ultimate Fighter Finale focused on what a great fighter Guida is to hang in their for three rounds and take a beating. Casale is basically pissed that so many are spinning the story as if their wasn’t a winner and a loser. Yep, Guida showed heart and a head of stone, give him that. But Sanchez won, Guida lost, end of story.

Here’s the best bit from the story:

“Am I the only one who is tiring a little of his ‘The kid trying hard in gym class’ act? The way he was bouncing up and down after the fight kind of bothered me. Don’t try and hide the fact that you are tired. Sanchez kicked your butt all over that cage. The second the cameras were off I guarantee Guida stopped jumping up and down like the Energizer Bunny reputation he’s built up for himself and dropped to the floor, so spare us all the drama… Despite what you may read at other sites, there was a winner on Saturday night. His name is Diego Sanchez and he deserves more respect for winning than the guy who fought hard and lost. It’s a shame that more people don’t see it that way because after his performance last night Sanchez deserves all the headlines, not Guida.”

Brock Lesnar is “built like a black man.” Why am I not surprised that he said this shit? In an interview in Maxim Magazine, the UFC leviathan – who looks like an Aryan Übermensch – was asked about steroid use, which he flatly denied (this might be a good time to point out how honest and forthcoming drug users in pro sports are).

Here’s how Maxim writer Nate Penn describes Lesnar: “For years steroid rumors have dogged Lesnar, and certainly there’s something brazen about a physique like his at this particular moment in sports history. His 56-inch chest looks like it was made to be draped with shackles; it’s the torso of a man who, in another time, might have led a galley slaves’ rebellion. His slit-eyed, crew-cut head is like a boulder you might find lying around Easter Island. He seems simultaneously mythological, like a golem, and cartoonish, like the Thing.”

And here’s Lesnar’s rage about ‘roids: “I’ve never in my life tested positive for steroids. What do you want me to say? I bet you I’ve taken over 60 steroid tests. In college I had 15 random drug tests in two years. I’ve taken drug tests for the NFL, the WWE, the UFC. I must be pretty good at masking steroids. God gave me this body: Are you jealous of it or what? Give me a break. I got the genetics of—not to get into racism or anything—but I’m built like a black man. It’s all genetics. I wouldn’t say we’re all created equal. That’s just to make the other guys feel good who don’t have what you’ve got.”

Again, this might be a good time to point out that fooling a drug test isn’t really that hard. Regardless, whether he juices or not, Lesnar is a genetic freak – the Maxim Magazine profile says he packed on 50 pounds in one summer during his NCAA days.

I also like this exchange between Penn and Lesnar:

Approaching him, I’m hit by the cloying scent of the oil smeared all over his torso. We’re talking about Frank Mir when I interrupt to joke, “You smell delicious, by the way.” I do know what I was thinking: There’s something comical about an enormous man who’s basically wearing perfume. But as soon as I utter those words, I realize I’ve fucked up massively. Galactically. You do not make sexually ambiguous quips to a man who grapples intimately with other men for a living.

Lesnar’s eyes narrow. His lips tighten. “What?” he asks. His tone is equal parts malevolence and disgust.

“What is that smell?” I stammer, trying to sound offhand about it.

He’s watching me closely. “Oil,” he sneers.

I brace myself for the most tooth-jarring, eardrum-popping bitch-slap ever administered, but it never comes. When he beats you up, as he did Chris Tuchscherer, or backs you down, as he’s just done me, you cease to exist for Brock Lesnar. He turns toward a photographer. “You want me to look at the camera?” he asks. “Or should I look through it?”

How about a Hangover sequel starring Thales Leities (left), Demian Maia, Vitor Ribeiro and Fabricio Werdum?

So you’re one of the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu tacticians in the world and easily the best in the UFC. You’re in China checking out the Great Wall and run into a few Gracies – Renzo, Rickson, Royler and Royce, to be specific. So what do you do? If you’re Demian Maia, you toss the bed aside in your hotel room, stow your ego with your luggage and take a few lessons.

Royce (l), Maia, Rickson and Royler

Maia, who faces Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 in August, was in Beijing for Art War 12 last month with buddies Thales Leites, Vitor Ribeiro and Fabricio Werdum. When not checking out the local scenery, Maia was in his room with Renzo and Royler, where Renzo tweaked a dozen of Maia’s favourite moves as well as showed him a couple new ones, according to Sherdog.

Renzo (l), Maia and a couple of extra arms

I’m thinking Maia and his pals should team up with a travel company to offer jiu-jitsu vacation packages. Learn an armbar under the Eiffel Tower, gogoplata in Porta Plata, a Mata de Leo during a submissons safari, you get the idea…

Feels like I should smoke a bowl before I write about Eddie Bravo. The rocker/stoner/jiu-jitsu innovator will hit Peterborough, ON, for a jiu-jitsu seminar on July 18.

If you don’t know Bravo, his claim to fame is beating Royler Gracie at the ADCC submission wrestling world championships in 2003 and then devoting himself to smoking lots of pot and creating his no-gi style of BJJ, techniques like the rubber guard and the twister and a lot of other crazy names like crackhead control, gangsta lean and the jiu-claw.

A lot of traditional BJJ guys have a problem with Bravo’s 10th Planet style. They say it lacks a strong foundation in the fundamentals, it’s hard on your knees (not sure where that one comes from; it’s not like Bravo’s giving a blowjob seminar), it’s got stupid names, it plain doesn’t work, etc.

I’ve taken a few classes with 10th Planet teacher and ADCC competitor Elliott Bayev at Open Mat here in Toronto and I can tell you first-hand it works. Yeah, it requires flexibility and creativity to pull a lot of the techniques off, but even a basic understanding of some of 10th Planet’s fundamentals – a simple rubber guard, for example – can be enough to stymy and frustrate a jiu-jitsu player who’s never been confronted by them before.

If you’re one of those BJJ guys who’s dismissive of Bravo’s style, I suggest you check it out for yourself, maybe smoke up beforehand to loosen you up, free your mind to the possibilities.

Here’s the UFC 99 undercard bout between Denis Stojnic and Dutch beanpole Stefan Struve that left the Octagon mat looking like a CSI crime scene. It’s slow loading but worth it.

Spotted K-1 standout (and Toronto BJJ Muay Thai coach) Andre “Dida” Amado and his brother, Mauricio Veio (TBJJ’s fulltime striking instructor), among Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez’s entourage during tonight’s Ultimate Fighter Finale. Also there were jiu-jitsu legends Saulo and Xande Ribeiro. Sanchez just got his brown belt under Saulo (after giving up his Greg Jackson-awarded black belt to start over as a white belt under the Ribeiros).

But it was his striking that stood out in the fight with Clay Guida, especially that opening round that saw Sanchez go ape-shit on Guida, whom  Joe Rogan called a wild chimpanzee. Within seconds the two went at each other with a barrage of punches, kicks and knees. Sanchez landed the heavier blows driving Guida back and pounding him with what looked like 30 or 40 unanswered strikes. Somehow, Guida survived the onslaught and gave back as good as he got for the full three rounds.

Sanchez won a split decision but it was Guida who had the fans chanting his name during the fight and Guida who was still bouncing like Tigger during the entire post-fight interview. Guida can take a hell of a lot of punishment and he’s got  gas tank that could fuel a jumbo jet. He keeps fighting like that Guida will always have a job in the UFC no matter how often he loses.

Sometime between the second and third time Kevin Burns kicked Chris Lytle in the jewels during their Ultimate Fighter Finale bout tonight it struck me how good Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are as colour commentators. Maybe it’s because it was a pretty boring card so far (at least until Burns started playing punter) and that left a lot of airspace to fill with mindless banter.

The two undoubtedly know their MMA (and have even better researchers to help them bone up and to supply endless useful facts like the ratio of left jabs to overhand rights Lytle throws on average in the second round of a fight aftr being booted in the ‘nads). But they’ve got a great repartee, witty (and-not-so-witty) colourful rejoinders and all. Something about their discussions of fighting, Twittering and slo-mo instant replays of getting smacked in the nuts, it was pretty fun to listen to. I might even tune in to Rogan’s standup special after the fights.

A rare moment when Lytle (l) isn't getting hit in the balls.

Last night’s Strikeforce Challengers title fight between the Greg Jackson-trained Joey Villasenor and Chute Boxe’s Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos was a split-decision snooze. As was most of the card. The highlight of the night, though, was the rock ’em-sock ’em slugfest between submission specialists Jorge Gurgel (13-5) and Conor Heun (8-3) in a 160-pound catchweight matchup.

As often happens when two grapplers square off, the fight stayed on the feet for three full rounds that went in BJJ black belt Gurgel’s favour. While not quite on the level of the Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin cagewar classic from TUF season one, there were feet and fists flying all over the cage with neither fighter holding a clear advantage for more than the length of a flurry.

Gurgel used powerful low kicks to set up his punch combinations to overcome Heun’s four-inch reach advantage, connecting with Heun’s chin on several occasions. “I never seen in my life a guy with a chin like that besides myself,” Gurgel said after earning the unanimous decision. There was no lack of respect between these two fighters afterward, either, as Heun said, “I may go home a couple of bucks shorter and with some scrapes but that was the most fun I’ve ever had. I live for those last 15 minutes.”

No major fireworks at the weigh-ins. Hopefully they’re saving it up for tonight’s fights. If you’re into near-naked MMA man-flesh – and I’m not judging – check out the rest of the Ultimate Fighter finale weigh-in pics at Combat Lifestyle or the video below.

Hector Lombard beat Jared Hess via TKO in the third round to win the first-ever Bellator middleweight title at Bellator XII on Friday. You’d never know from this photo that the fight was stopped because the other guy was cut.