Thursday, April 28, 2016

North Carolina Weekend JiuJitsu Events: Darce Seminar & Cageside Carnival

Saturday-Sunday JiuJitsu double header: NoGi Darce seminar by a guy for whom I have a lot of respect on and off the mats, followed by a big day Sunday to see some great JiuJitsu matches and support the local NC JiuJitsu community. Be there. I'm not cleared to train yet nor drill but I'll be watching the seminar Saturday and though it hurts my heart my injury forced me off the card of invitational matches Sunday, I'll be in attendance as well. 

Jiu-Jitsu in MMA: Rafael Lovato Jr. Wins Legacy FC Title

Roger Gracie Returns to MMA

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Apologies/Injury Update

Haven't posted the latest podcast. 
I'm having to see a chiropractor for a possible herniated disc and haven't done much other than struggle through work and rest as much as possible.
The pain is significant pretty much all waking hours and sleep is infrequent. The chiropractor has done wonders considering it was borderline unbearable at first.
I'm hopeful I'm one of the roughly 90% that respond to non-surgical treatment. Went from rolling hard, preparing for US Grappling Greensboro and the Cageside Carnival to I can barely use my left arm. 
I mostly try to do my job downtown with one arm and listen to The Last Podcast on the Left while I rest on the couch. I'll be back but the pain level is pretty intense. When I have more answers I'll post much like I did on my year long road back from ACL reconstruction. 

Sunday, April 17, 2016

EBI 6 Update: Gordon Ryan Replaces Eddie Cummings

Quick thoughts on UFC on Fox 19

Teixeira is a bad man. A tough customer for anyone even Jon Jones.
Had a feeling Evans would get tagged and he did and it only took one good follow up punch. 
Namajunas and Torres got after it.
Well done, ladies. 
Khabib vs Ferguson I still want to see or give him his title shot. He deserved it before the injury, deserves it still now. This re-earning title shots after a layoff/what have you done lately MMA attitude is dumb AF. 


Cub Swanson still entertaining AF. 
DARIUSh......W.T.F. 
Dude went all fours to stand up with Chiesa on his back. The face/jaw squeeze RNC is real. I am a HUGE Dariush fan but was a total underestimation/hubris on Dariush's part to do lackadaisically think he could get up that way with caution to the wind.


A previous favorite of mine Alessio Sakara picked up a win over in Bellator. 

Saturday, April 16, 2016

3 Recent Matches/Submissions

Upcoming competitions:
1) US Grappling Greensboro 23rd of this month
2) Cageside Carnival Invitational/Deathmatch/Whatever May 1st.

Recently:
1st Adult Advanced NoGi Absolute
2nd Adult Purple Belt combined - 162

Advanced NoGi



 Advanced NoGi


Purple Belt Gi

Friday, April 15, 2016

Alliance, Atos, & Exodus: Leaving the Team and the Historical Commonplace (Heresy!)

Read Alliance's history and keep this in mind any time someone gives you shit for leaving a team.
Granted, gym hopping every 6 months will earn you no long term friends in jiujitsu.
I left a gym after nearly 9 years of being a member. I represented them in 5 MMA bouts, Judo tournaments, and countless Jiu-Jitsu tournaments.
When the time came to leave, it was time to leave. Period. Anyone who wants to call you a traitor after 9 years of being somewhere is making some laughable assumptions at best or being disingenuous at worst. I must have missed the class on "how to be a traitor" when I was bleeding in a cage representing the gym 5 times,  or helping guys get ready for fights and paying dues to one gym for between 1/4 -1/3 of the years I've been on this earth.

That personal anecdote aside, let's look at the historical basis for all these Jiu-Jitsu stalwarts and loyalty do or die and see if it stands up to the truth test?

The term "creonte" refers to guys the gym was paying for them to train, compete, literally giving them a place to sleep et cetera, guys on "scholarship as it were."


This is America. As a paying customer, the market determines many things. 
As much as I ascribe to some of the old school mentality I was first taught in Judo with the bowing and the rest, a foolish adherence to misapplied ideals is every bit as destructive as maliciously applied selfishness. Study the history rather than blindly buy into blanket generalizations regarding someone who doesn't tow the line or rarionalize the status quo :

Time Machine Friday: Mayweather Wants to Promote MMA

Dunning-Kruger Effect: they run a lot in boxing to train so it's tougher than MMA. There's no minority fighters in MMA, white guys couldn't hack boxing so we made up MMA.

Let the dude put on some events and pump some $ into the sport. I'm glad some fighters and corollary staff will pick up some of his $$ and pay their bills with it.
That being said, don't forget he's another "human cockfighting" believer about our sport.

I could name just in UFC that guys like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, Demetrious Johnson, Benson Henderson were all champs.
Calling MMA fans beer drinkers is like pointing out the Corono sponsoring ESPN Deportes Boxing events.
At any rate, the irony is so thick here, it's hard to breathe. I have to go teach takedowns and gripfighting tonight.

Blast From the Past: Garry Tonon vs AJ Agazarm Black Belt NoGi Pan Finals

I have something I hate to admit. Now that I'm rolling more NoGi, I'm having a hard time sitting through black belt Gi matches from the 2016 Pans (because I signed up for flograppling after rationalizing it as I've watched probably hundreds of hours if not more of jiu-jitsu/judo for free since I began grappling).
Watching even Leandro vs Romulo at the Pan Finals....I had to skip ahead at some points.
Man. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.
That being said, here's Garry Tonon of a slick low single leg counter/escape/step out immediately to a truck position or something close to it for the back take and finishing the match quickly thereafter.


Thursday, April 14, 2016

So I tried Bulletproof Coffee

Maybe it's because I take in about 32
Oz of coffee per day. Usually a grande in the morning and one in the afternoon. Maybe it's because I sometimes buy pourover coffee that my bar of being impressed by coffee is set higher. 
If I'm working all night downtown or up early on an hour or two of sleep to drive 3-5 hours to a tournament and ref/compete et cetera, I'll drink more than that and buy whatever coffee I can find on the road or brew my own strong brew. 

My honest opinion of the vaunted bulletproof coffee is that it's coffee you'll prefer if you don't like the taste of coffee and don't like to sip your coffee over a long period of time as the taste is smoother and the caffeine more packed into a smaller amount of liquid. 

The slight butter/coconut oil taste is pleasant and I am a huge fan of grass fed butter. But is it super amazing? I'm unconvinced. I have always semi dislikes the coconut oil after taste in anything but I'll take the bitter almost burned taste of coffee and smell over bulletproof coffee any day of the week. Likely, the acidity of bulletproof for your body's PH is much lower, but I take in enough juice, fruit, vegetables et cetera (and no longer consume any alcohol) that it doesn't matter. 
I mean, cold pressed juice is delicious, and yes I prefer it, but I'm unsold on the marketing for that and for this type of coffee. Beyond that, try it for yourself. I still like/prefer to brew my own coffee and add some kosher salt to it, a trick my department advisor from the district taught me back when I taught high school. 

Confirmed Black Belts for World Pro Next Weekend

I have flograppling so I'll get to watch. Been so busy with work and jiujitsu I've only watched a bit of the last Copa Podio since signing up for flograppling. Haven't had a day to binge watch any Gi events and my sparse spare time has been limited watching NoGi and researching the next big area of focus for my submission game (it's a secret). Hopefully I'll have some footage of it after the next US Grappling on the 23rd of this month in Greensboro. Until then, it's hush hush. 

Guam Doing Big Things

I've slowly noticed the trickle of Guamanian fighters in mostly Asian region promotions and now a few in the UFC and Bellator. I'll say this. Those dudes comes to fight. That being said, the jiujitsu scene must be growing at the effort and behest of some motivated people with another event like one I recall awhile back: 

Podcast Episode 11 Preview

We'll delve into the upcoming EBI 6 brackets, Maxhida's free pass from the MMA "media" on his banned substance issue, and expert failure as 1) the ever potential by product of success and 2) a reality in any domain where we unduly trust those in authority. 

Machida Breezes Through Court of Public Opinion

MMA Media giving Machida the kid gloves treatment on this one.

Basically, it's the Braulio excuse.
The "I didn't know" line. "Didn't know what was in my water bottle. Didn't know it was banned." Whatever. At
This point, after the Anderson Silva and some other heroes of mine testing positive, it is truly "whatever."

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Sapateiro Invitational - Full Event (and some expedited leg lock history)

For the uninitiated in/on Jiu-Jitsu history, "sapateiro" is a reference to those with an affinity for foot/leg locks. Supposedly, those guys from the suburbs were able to win some high profile matches over the city boys in an early jiu-jitsu rivalry by using the disdainful foot locks and the term "sapateiro" is the word for "cobbler" in Portuguese, ie: a low class/laboring profession. Leg locks have also thus/likewise been a more commonly used part of luta livre, the Brazilian version of submission grappling with a broader support base in the less wealthy of Brazil. Class difference remains a deeply inundated part of Brazilian culture (like much of the world if you open your eyes) and the divide I saw between the haves and have nots during the time I visited was very apparent whether in the city or by the ocean. I remember the bizarre realization after being repeatedly told that it's simply not safe to be out at night even in a small group in some of the even larger cities. Those that can afford it, in Recife for example, live in tall buildings/apartment complexes surrounded by barb wire and/or electrified wire. Each and every time you come and go in your car, there's a guy who sits downstairs and lets you in and out. 24 hours a day.


That being said, taps are taps, and in fighting, grappling, whatever, pressure, choke, submission hold, whatever-the-*&^%-it-is counts at the end of the day, however cheap you'd like to label it.

That being said, enjoy: all of the rounds are linked here for your viewing pleasure: Click HERE.