Video Deluge Tuesday: BJJ Nomad, Underdogs, Psychological Warfare, and the Checkmat Method

So, this happened last weekend at the Berkut Challenge:
"He made a huge impression last weekend in Chechnya at the Berkut challenge where he beat three black belts, submitting the ultra heavyweight Mauricio Cristo from Cicero Costha and deafeating multiple world and Pan champion Claudio Calasans."

There is a clear size advantage, as Calasans is not a heavyweight by any means, but he is a top flight black belt, impressive wrestler and Judoka, on top of his Jiu-Jitsu accolades.

^^ Jump to about 7:15 to watch Gui Mendes baseball choke and knee through pass his usual A+ game.




 

Conor McGregor's 2nd or 3rd salvo in the mounting psychological war ahead of his bout with Jose Aldo. There's a famous anecdote about Muhammad Ali going to Sonny Liston's house at 3am with the press and calling out Sonny Liston on his own front lawn. I've read things post fact that talk about Sonny Liston thought Ali was crazy and it wore on him, it got to him. There's a lot of ways fights and battles and matches are won. I see Conor's deliberate madness in the build-up. He's prediction stoppages with varying success. Every guy he's faced has admitted after the fact he thought he was just talk, but in fact he is skilled. What Conor is doing, is making Jose fit into a pre-fight build-up he hasn't faced. Everyone (like Anderson Silva for a time) was afraid. You could see it when they touched gloves. You could see it when they locked the door shut. You could see it when their first takedown was stuffed. Hell, you saw it when Nick Diaz was baiting Anderson Silva. Psychological warfare is potent stuff, especially in fact, against a champ who has been fighting guy's mentally beaten before the fight even begins. What impressed me most about Mendes' rematch with Jose was not only his striking, but he fought unafraid of the champ, especially difficult after a 1 round drubbing the first time around.


From King of the World/Wikipedia:
"Clay began taunting and provoking Liston almost immediately after the two agreed to fight. He purchased a bus and had it emblazoned with the words "Liston Must Go In Eight." On the day of the contract signing, he drove it to Liston's home in Denver, waking the champion (with the press in tow) at 3:00 a.m. shouting, "Come on out of there. I'm gonna whip you now." Liston had just moved into a white neighborhood and was furious at the attention this caused. Clay took to driving his entourage in the bus to the site in Surfside, Florida where Liston (nicknamed the "Big Bear") was training, and repeatedly called Liston the "big, ugly bear".