Khabib & Co. Talkin’ Crazy Talk Numbers

Khabib is great. Unfortunately, being untouchable doesn’t necessarily sell merch. Just ask Mighty Mouse. He’s hilariously wooden when given the right counter point (ala polar opposite Conor) but who turns in to see the same interview where he praises God/country? Beating the guy who generates triple digit PPV sales doesn’t entitle you to that lion’s share money. This is prize fighting: not I am best so I make most fighting. 

Polaris 8 Announces Ishii vs Strauss (50/60 it’s a snoozefest)

Minutes that atrocious Jake Shields match, Strauss has had some scraps at the last Quintet. We’ll see if he can stave off the top game of Ishii who himself hasn’t exactly been a thrill a minute whilst getting paid for grappling matches 

Ultra Heavyweight Tayane Says Women Scared to Compete for Money....(eyeroll)

Or worried you’ll injure them.
It’s weird how it’s an ULTRA HEAVYWEIGHT saying this, right?  Even in the male divisions, how often do you see anyone from even lightweight doing the absolute? Infrequent at best. Some guys got some social media buzz for saying they would at NoGi Pans but come gameday virtually all quietly withdrawn.

Inside the Octagon Analyzes Black Beast vs Crying Man Cormier

What a time to be alive. Khabib did the soaring eagle has landed attack on Dillon Danis. Derick Lewis is gonna challenge for a belt. Jon Jones gets to fight for a belt he's been stripped of 3 times. There are no rules. Life is a stream of limitless power and unpredictability.

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest: Roughouse Vagner faces Dance Master Canuto, Drysdale (2 time PED fail) talks Roids in JiuJitsu....et al

A lot of tongue in cheek in this one. Loving it.
Drysdale got popped for a Tes ration 3x what the NSAC allows and would in total fail 2 USADA tests before ending a short-lived UFC career. Vagner (the guy who Sparta kicked AJ off the stage is also Mr. Man of God blah blah blah, family man, blah blah, waxing poetic about his professionalism et cetera. Anyway, so much good pot calling the kettle black in this episode, dive in and enjoy, it's delicious.

The presidential candidate with a "problematic" view of a number of groups, got an honorary black belt. Given comments by Helio on women in JiuJitsu and their role in society, and the family's relationship to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil for decades, this shouldn't come as much surprise.

Click HERE for some source material for those wanting to cast aspersions my way for simply reading articles and assessments of historical events.

Polaris 8 Officially Announces Nicky Ryan vs Ashley Williams

They robbed Imanari in that decision to give it to the hometown boy, Williams. Williams never really got anywhere with John Battle in a superfight at the Finishers Sub Only Pro or Frank Rosenthal whom he won in golden score/overtime at the last Kasai Installment.....so there's not much sense in expecting he'll pull a rabbit out of the hat here. 

UFC Announces Gunnar Nelson Faces Cowboy Oliveira For Return

Polaris 8 Announces Marcin Held vs Ross Nichols for Dec. 9th event

Marcin is coming off of some amazing matches at the Quintet and Kasai (minus the finger lock BS Vagner Rocha pulled in a quick game of "Mercy"). Interesting to see how Held's submissions from almost everywhere style plays out in this one.  

Bruno Frazatto vs Sergio Hernandez in December

Glad to see guys making $$ to represent the sport

Confirmed Steroid User Werdum to face a guy who just looks like he’s on Steroids (Hulk Barbosa)

We’re in the era of when guys get popped for roids in MMA they twiddle their thumbs in the almost completely untested pro grappling circuit. MMA (the UFC) actually does something about it. The IBJJF pretends to by testing 10 athletes on one day per year. Only an idiot can’t pass that drug test. Well, several idiots thus far can’t. Then you have Miyao who is publicly violating his suspension in IBJJF events. Lot of these black belts not in any hurry to have grappling in the Olympics because out of competition testing would deflate the podium in more ways than one. #teamjesusandhardwork

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest: Craig Jones, Dillon Danis, Magalhaes to Quintet, Gunnar Nelson Talks Steroids

AND

Polaris 8 Announces Craig Jones vs Keenan Cornelius

Kasai 4 Announces Barch vs Lutes

Vagner Rocha replaces Najmi to face Canuto @ Kasai 4

Masakazu Imanari late addition to Friday’s OneFC card

Black Belt CBD Recap and Reflections: Vieira & Gilbert Burns Deny Team Scumbag Prize Money

Please no one make me watch a Frank Mir superfight ever again. Kneeling on both knees, hands on Griffin's hips, not really remotely trying to pass. An errant leg lace/ankle lock grip he sat back on. Forrest did his part to try and create something, anything, but it was to no avail. After this and the Ishii match please give the money to several other up and coming guys who will actually come to put forth some transitions or sub attempts at the very least.

Watching Mahamad Aly (reigning world champ at Super Heavy) barely able to score a point on Tarsis is either a ringing endorsement of Old Man/former world champ JiuJitsu) or just proof of the lack of technical skill in his division. After a near back take and a near takedown scramble by Tarsis, Mahamad seemed befuddled as to what to do next. It was pleasant to see Team #questionablehistoryofsexualassaultinvolvement denied any of the winning prize money, but I also find it hard to believe the owner of Black Belt CBD had any idea of the backstory. After a nice talking point about paying women athletes equally, the inclusion of two Team Lloyd Irvin guys and the (still laying low and avoiding camera time in the era of #metoo Master Lloyd Irvin) felt curious to say the least. The internet remembers folks, and criticism never sleeps.

DJ Jackson got outwrestled by Burns and predictably had literally no response when not on top, semi passing half-guard, or dry humping an opponent while he locks his hands and tries to cut through pass after scoring a double leg. Mafra also had trouble against the wrestling acumen of Gilbert who honestly doesn't really shoot or chain together much offensive wrestling, but rather boring(ly) aggressively collar ties and tricks guys into taking bad shots won primarily with counter wrestling which I guess is still winning if not appetizing to watch as a spectator and having sat through in person/live in NYC that atrocious match he had with Agazarm. Gilbert did the same thing against AJ Agazarm at the last Kasai after Burns showed up hilariously and wildly unprofessionally both well above the agreed to catchweight, and then over the contracted weight limit by 10 lbs. The women's matches went about how I expected with some young stalwarts getting into trouble against the more name Brazilian opponents/veterans, though, it would've been nice to see an American female competitor out of the 4 women in the bracket as the event was in the USA.

The NoGi matches were largely wrestling + submission kinda affairs due to the styles of the competitors and the rule of penalizing guard pulls in the first minute which then leaves only 4 minutes of actual mat time. I don't know if the ACB format is good for procuring submissions or just forcing some wrestling by semi competent wrestlers with grappling skills? I'd rather watch actual mat time than aggressive collar ties, random foot sweep-kicks, and the occasional sprawl, but f*ck it, what do I know? 

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest: Paulo Miyao Flouting USADA Ban Redux, Vagner Calls out Eddie Cummings

Paulo violated the ban by doing the UWW event. Has since violated that violated ban by doing another IBJJF event. IBJJF wants to make money, be also be the pinnacle of the sport? But also barely enforce any rules nor steroid test in a sport full of 40 year olds looking like the incredible hulk and countless others cheating. Black belts can't even pass the steroid test that is ONE DAY PER YEAR.

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest - Werdum on Roid Suspension, Kayla talks Participation Medals, Mighty Mouse now Black Belt....

First off, thank God someone's talking about participation medals. You see posts on Igram where people mention they won Pans or claim to be a world champion...and conveniently leave out it wasn't adult. If you're winning a senior's/master's/whatever division mention it. You mention the weight class and the age bracket. Don't lie by omission. Continuing on: this whole participation medal where you showed up and lost 2 matches and placed or whatever is silly. People out here posting on Igram with the medal and conveniently leaving out they didn't win a single match, or had a bye, then lost, then got third? Bruh, please. GTFO. People pay to do Open events, lose, and make some long post about blah blah heart, dedication, preparation....blah blah...you paid money and showed up. It's an open division. Literally anyone can show up. At black belt now, there's enough events around in random ass places and cities to get points to show up. I dunno, it just frankly feels watered now with 14 age brackets or however many and people under 18 and above 50 calling themselves world champions. IBJJF making everyone register their belt next year.....expanding the age brackets.....still not paying for the actual real world adult champions.....we'll see how it all unfolds with the rise in other paid professional events that have at worst no more terribly inconsistent reffing and at best aren't decided by boring ass advantage battles in stalling positions. 

Looks like Tanquinho gets some company as Werdum will do some competing in JiuJitsu while he's on Steroid suspension. Hope to see JiuJitsu in the Olympics so all these super hero comic book level exploits of guys at 40 years old and looking like the hulk can finally be popped and show that a lot of these super human feats are just that....super....human. You've got lower belts in the Worlds at feather and light facing Ultra heavyweights in the absolute after winning their weight class and winning, or guys doing 3-4 IBJJF events in Vegas the week of Master's Worlds doing both Adult and Master's, making weight, competing, and doing it for several days in a row. C'mon man. GTFO.

#teamjesusandhardwork

Eddie Alvarez Signs with OneFC

UFC not the only big show in town. It’s been interesting to see top flight talent seep away. This isn’t some downturn fighter, or faded former champ. Alvarez has won belts in the two top organizations and still has good fights left in him, ala when Mousasi left amidst his win streak.
Hats off to OneFC.

Black Belt CBD Invitational - Oct. 20th: Brackets Finalized

Renzo vs Wallid - Verbal Agreement

$&@? Yeah. Rad.

Benson Henderson, Spare us the Soapbox if you’re a cage/glove grabber (and arguably went for an eye poke)

Dude was 4 knuckles deep in the cage to hold Saad down, then acted flabbergasted when the ref stood them up as a penalty, and here he is overtly grabbing the glove after pretty suspicious flicking his fingers at Awad’s eyes. 

Finally something we can agree on: Khabib Thinjs Bus Attack Maybe Planned

Took awhile. Send location. Duh.

F2Win 90 in Philly this week: JT Torres, Baret Yoshida, Calvanese

Always excited to see Baret Yoshida in action, Gi or NoGi. Card also features ADCC gold medalist: JT Torres, and  Kasai Qualifier winner Calvanese. 

First Look @ Golden Boy’s Liddell vs Ortiz 3 PPV Card

They’re selling...are you buying? 

FloGrappling Sucks

UFC Fight Pass is half the price and has far less technical difficulties. 

No search function obviously accessible on Apple TV, rarely even works on my Apple TV. On my laptop, I have to close browser windows repeatedly and reopen if I try to skip ahead in matches or events. 

Cheick Kongo Finally Not Boring & Fedor Tosses Chael

Man, what a weekend for Bellator. Bader crushes Mitrione, Kharitonov falling tree KO’d Roy Nelson, Kongo was actually not boring in a winning effort, and Fedor cartwheel countered a  Chael takedown in a fight where Chael didn’t look terrible. "Everything that man did hurt," was Chanel’s assessment of the legend. Bellator got what I wanted, and in that Fedor will now face better who could win it all and become a two division champion. Benson Henderson was literally FOUR knuckles deep fist pounding the cage then pretending like he had no idea what the rep was talking about when they were separated as a result. C’mon Benson, not a good look, especially for a man with angel wings tattooed on his back and a whole bunch of God and Jesus this and that comments in his post fight speeches. Overall, I gotta say man, Bellator once again brought me several nights of fights where per fight the excitement and entertainment ratio was exceedingly high. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the linear nature of this heavyweight Grand Prix bracket makes for a much more compelling series of fights then the completely who knows what the f*ck is going to happen order of how things go down in the UFC .

Bader Drowns Mitrione, Kharitonov Batters Big Country

Bader IMHO SCORED 3 x 10-8 rounds repeatedly taking down Mitrione within seconds of the start of the round, controlling the far wrist, and punishing him. $&@? The crowd for booing, it was a devastating performance and one that should really put heavyweights on notice.
Kharitonov came out to a Rocky music selection and Big Countey came out to Bruce Springsteen. Nelson would almost be taken out of the fight by a clearly illegal knee while he had both hands on the mat: action would resume and with barely a second left in the round Kharitonov would punish Nelson with knees and get a falling tree-slump style finish. Kharitonov who has looked flat in recent outings came in with a very tight, crips jab to the chest/neck and really tied his knees/clinch work in to punish Big Country who has long shown a resiliency in taking punches.

Vagner Rocha Beats Augusto Mendes to become 2 division F2W Champ

BJJ Digest - Gordon Ryan Calls out Orlando Sanchez, EBI Men's now Combat style, Women's EBI 18 Strawweight

Bravo is moving to combat jiujitsu for the men because his guys occasionally win that. His guys hadn't won an EBI sub only in years. Not surprised it's moving to a format that better suits his guys.

Orlando Sanchez is the most boring ADCC competitor/champion of all time. If anyone can hopefully do something with him, it's Gordon Ryan.

Jon Jones gets title shot in return fight - le sigh

Depressingly unsurprising, bye depressing nonetheless. Snitch Jones gets to potentially win a belt he’s been stripped of or won then had it a Ken away due to USADA three times previously. I guess needing an end of year fight > legitimacy in the sport, but I digress. 

Kasai 4 Announces Matheus Lutes vs Dante Leon

BJJ Digest - UFC 229 Aftermath, Wardzinski Headed to ADCC, Dos Anjos Beefin' With Dillon, All the things....

What a *&^%ing time to be a fan of combat sports. God. I spent most of Sunday smiling thinking of the fact that not only did we not have to wait 6 months to a year for the fight, the post-fight melee was rad. All this lame ass talk about sports and respect, this is prize fighting. Hooligan-ism will happen from time to time. We'll all ring our hands and pretend this isn't what we wanted, but it's men risking life and limb and brain damage and permanent injury for money while we all shelled out money to see it.
Yes. Give me more. Own it. Lean in. Double down.

UFC 229: The Memeing of Khabib vs Conor & Derrick Lewis' Balls Was Hot

Well. That happened. If nothing else, we got to hear Derrick Lewis somehow top his already impressive post-fight speech levels of awesomeness, and gave us "my balls was hot."
That early shot on Conor, I felt like he defended, then opted to stay on top a bit, instead of completing the scramble, and despite not taking punishment in round 1, allowed Khabib to begin to get comfortable and key his mind and body to the type of fight he wanted/expected. I knew in round 4 when I saw Conor leaning against the cage and Khabib lock his hands that the end might be near. Conor had kept Khabib's hands separated in the earlier rounds, and controlled Khabib's head positioning as a defense to how Khabib triangle the legs. The 2 year MMA layoff did Conor no favors, but TBH, not as a Conor fan, but as an assessment of skills and gameplanning, Conor fared far better on the ground than expected. Save the flurry of punches from a standing Khabib (most of which I think were deflected/blocked), Conor fared far better against Khabib having the fight where he wanted than virtually any of Khabib's other opponents. At any rate, Volkov let a faded, hurt, battered Derrick Lewis off the hook and paid for it. Waterson beat Herrig (Thank God). I hate watching Herrig's fights because I've never figured out what exactly she does even when she gets to where she's supposed to be good: namely the guard and in the clinch against the fence. She put her forehead on Waterson's tummy and landed ineffectual punches, got tossed for stepping around to do an outside trip and loading herself up, and was basically just ineffective from almost everywhere.
OSP has fought almost anyone in LHW it seems like and Reyes utilized amazing movement to avoid prolonged takedown/wrestling battles, and really showed off some crisp striking and movement in his bout. He definitely coasted in the 3rd round, playing matador to an increasingly desperate OSP, but got the biggest win of his career and now can really look for a top tier opponent at LHW.

Bellator Doubleheader & Heavyweight Bonanza this Weekend: Fedor, Kharitoniv, Miteione, Bader, Kongo, Roy Nelson...

Friday we get Mitrione vs Bader and Saturday we get the Last Emperor vs Chael Sonnen. In other HW action we get to Nelson, Kharitonov, Kongo, and continued movement toward the climax of this rad HW tournament bracket in Bellator.

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest - Quintet 3 Results, Rugby Subs, et al

Quintet 3 - Most Entertaining Sub Grappling Event of all time (Miesha Tate Cringe Worthy Commentary nonstop)

It was apparent a few minutes in that Miesha Tate had no idea who Nicky Ryan was. Her comments from "an up and coming prospect" to "I think facing someone as experienced at Tokoro will good for him" fell into that feeling like she has an assistant who did some internet research at Starbucks and gave her some buzzfeed worthy level assessments of various competitors to plug in during air time. She told us Frank Mir would "bend legs all sorts of ways." I typically mute the commentary for grappling events because they literally grab some random MMA fighter with minimal grappling acumen or sport grappling knowledge (remember the Onnit Invitational when they guys goes "y'know, I'd like to see them standing up, the fight is different when there's strikes involved" - while he's drinking from a red solo cup and becoming noticeably intoxicated), but this was atrocious. I literally muted the commentary at by the time Nicky Ryan's match with Tokoro had started.

Tokoro found himself in hot water as he elected to turn away/turtle during one of Nicky's first guard pass attempts. From the back take, he almost immediately got one arm trapped by Nickly and succumbed to an RNC that most people who visit Renzo's in NYC experience their first training session in live training.

Predictably: Urijah Faber can barely launch a submission attempt against Sakuraba who is probably my dad's age. Jaoude or whatever his name is the world class wrestler also predictably draws in his match with Nakamura.

Gordon Ryan triangles Josh Barnett after sweeping him from butterfly guard like a small child.
Ryan RNC's Marcos Souza.
Satoshi is in FULL defense mode and smartly runs down time and survives, but is the last of his squad so his team loses even though he gets some moral victory by simply surviving, I guess.

PJ Barch armbars Vitor Shaolin in what is his most legit win of his career thus far....leading to Team Polaris vs Team 10th Planet playing out like this:

Barch armbars Shaolin. Gregor kneebars PJ Barch. Geo kimuras Gregor. Held kneebars Geo. Boogeyman armbars Marcin. Craig Jones ankle locks Boogeyman. Craig Jones RNCs Sachnoff. 

What a time to be a grappling fan. Reread that description above ^^^^. Mind. Blown.

The face cover nightmare face crush ala Vagner Rocha to set up the RNC was in full effect all night long.

Team Alpha Male vs Team Polaris
Predictably, Akbari and Strauss draw.
Predictably, Khera smothers and lays on top of Held for a boring draw. He semi goes for a kimura at the end of the match to pretend like he was treating this like it was sub only, but y'know, those of us who train know what we're watching.

Jones takes the high level wrestler guy's back and he literally does nothing to defend the RNC and taps almost immediately.

Then we get a Gordon Ryan vs Craig Jones rematch. Ryan survives a dangerous guillotine attempt from Jones to get the RNC then faces Vitor Shaolin Ribeiro whom he armbarred after some RNC strangle attempts. Gordon Ryan faces Gregor who’s the last on his team so he has to win by submission and then finish Urijah to pull it off for Team Polaris.
Ryan hits an arm drag to eventually pass then settle for top position with Gregor on his side underneath then flattened. Gordon steps over to mount where the end has begun for most of his opponents during the evening.
They reset for stalling with Ryan working for the strangle. Inexplicably.
Gregor and Gordon go to a draw and this knocks out Gregor as the last of Team Polaris competitors giving the title to Team Alpha Male takes it as this knocked out the last of Team Polaris’ competitors. 

Combat Sambo - All the Win

Watching this, it's obvious why Fedor excelled in MMA. Comabt Sambo is literally the perfect training and competition format for the pace, timing, mixed skill set, but also minimizing some of the more injurious elements of the sport for later turning professional and lengthening your career health wise.

BJJ Scout: BJJ Digest 70 - Danis vs Lee (He said, She said Edition), Robson Gracie Gets New Opponent et al

Finally Watched the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Middleweights Event

Work schedule's been nuts, haven't even watched the Full event/Rise Invitational (nor could I go because of work), so I'm catching up on events I've missed. That, and, TBH I'm not super sold on combat JiuJitsu, but the spread of names was interesting. A solid mix of notable sport grapplers, MMA fighters, tough black belts, et cetera.

Some odd thoughts on the matches. Josh Neer found time to land some nice forearm blows against Greene. Chambers hit a textbook Deep Half Guard inversion to the guy flees to you get the heel hook (I think it was a heel hook, was hard to tell by the angle). Was also refreshing that because it was Combat JiuJitsu they didn't have to stop for his bloody nose. Chambers would finish Fogolin with a triangle+Kimura combo in the first OT round.

Dan Martinez looked slick throughout threatening triangles in his first match against the guy from Eduardo Telles' gym, then faced the grizzly Josh Neer. Martinez utilized sit up guard, to a outside half-guard/deep half sweep combo to come on top, smash pass, 3/4 mount, pass to mount, back take that kept him out of the way of Neer's heavy palm strikes for the majority of the match. Martinez ran up ride time in the OT rounds with back control and survived an armbar position round with Neer to take the win via fastest escape. Martinez would then have another match go the distance with Matt Secor who beat him via fastest escape time. Secor shut down a lot of Martinez's dangerous guard work throughout regulation to make his way through the semifinal match. Martinez was my dark horse pick to win the whole thing TBH.

Jon Blank was on a tear. I've seen him locally/live at the Kasai, Finishers Sub Only, and some other events in superfights et cetera. Quick, versatile submission wins as I've seen him win even prior to this event with all kinds of submission from various positions. Jesse Taylor (who I got to roll with at Baret Yoshida's gym a year ago in San Diego - after he won TUF but before he got popped for PEDs) won his first match by RNC, then got caught in a triangle in the quarterfinal by Matt Secor. 

Jon Blank would finish Checco (who appeared to beat his opponent to injury or just a hellacious amount of palm strikes in his first round match). Checco had survived a leg entanglement in his first match, and a lot of Granby/turtle roll through entry attempts to the legs by his first opponent, but Blank wasted no time picking up a single leg, sitting back to single leg ashi garami, bringing the foot across to inside heel hook land and getting the tap. Checco never tried to hide the heel or flee or turn out, but instead opted to solely fight the hands (rookie mistake).

Blank vs Chambers for the other semifinal would see Chambers utilizing knee shield guard, and a lot of Blank on his knees tactically looking to pass. Was surprised by this approach as I would've figured a guy that transitions as much as he does at times would've looked to get past the long legs and hunt for the finish that way. Blank eventually rolled over/for a guillotine/kimura type pass, then utilized the kimura grip to transition to the back. He VERY quickly trapped an arm, used the Vagner Rocha/smother/nightmare/pinch the nose muffler choke, to which Chambers gave up the neck, and Blank was through to the final to face Secor.

Final - Secor vs Blank
Blank utilizing a whizzer in a stand-up/takedown battle, chopping Secor down, then rotating to lock up the head & arm at about 7-8 mins in, then transitioning to a high elbow guillotine for the finish, winning him the belt/title/bragging rights/bunch of money. 

Quintet 3 Team Orders & Brackets Announced

This is basically Avengers Infinity War of Submission Grappling. I'm hard pressed to think of an event of any format with this varied a legion of competitors.
Yo. Can't. Wait.

Kasai 4 Adds Tanquinho & Ashley Williams to FW Grand Prix

Honestly far more excited for this FW bracket than I was the last ADCC Featherweight bracket.  FTW. 

UFC 229 Bad Blood Full Episode: Khabib vs McGregor

Oct. 20th Inaugural Event to feat. Ana Vieira, Bia Mesquita, Luiza Monteiro

Putting their money where their mouth is, giving the women athletes billing as well. Bravo. 

BJJ Digest # 68 - Gordon Ryan at Quintet, Ben Askren Poking Nate Diaz, et al

Clues it was a boring match *ahem*

Change my mind. 

These are the photos posted: 

Sugar Show O’Malley Cancelled after Pilot Episode by USADA/Werdum’s not a snitch

Sitting over here eating popcorn/watching while all this USADA unfolds. Weird how many unintentional use cases are popping up these days. You’d expect the trend to downturn, but could also be a case of guys are holding onto supplements in the event they do come up. That being said, are the risks of even a 6 month ban or a year ban worth using supplements? 
My long term expectations of USADA are that it’ll be like the IBJJF. Guys will roid out while coming up and building a HL reel on their way to the UFC then cut back. Similar to all these IBJJF brown belts clearly juiced to the gills even as they come up on their way to black belt. Dudes are 17 years old and have grown man jaws and vascularity of Mr. Olympia. Bruh, please. Sure, you fought 7 matches at weight & did the absolute and beat ultra heavyweights and you’re 150 lbs? 

Oct. 20th - Invitational: Rodolfo, Kit Dale, Aly, Nunes & Mir/Griffin Superfight

A lot going on these days. Gonna see a lot of this going forward as MMA guys phase out and pick up some cash to parlay some name value for grappling promotions.