Wednesday, September 4, 2013

UFC 164 Phantom Slow Mo Camera Footage


Because I'm human and too much is never enough, I think the only thing the UFC needs now is a Pride-style camera on a referee. Oh, and better intro music (except Dana compared retiring the intro music to retiring Bruce Buffer's "It's Tiiiiiimmmmmeeee"). Le sigh.

But that being said, the Phantom Cam is pretty damn sweet.
There's even some nice jumping kick groin shots in there if that's your thing.
This is a judgment free zone.

 


In the event you're from the dark days of MMA when you can to wait for play by plays of Pride on Sherdog, here's some sweet Pride Cam footage. Basically, it's like watching Saving Private Ryan in MMA from the first person where the blood and carnage gets on your face.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Black Belt Guard Passing: Lucas Lepri vs Vitor Oliveira @ IBJJF Atlanta Open





Oliveira first faces Lupri's DLR guard which quickly changes direction and becomes deep half, a quick restart later, Oliveira is forced to jump out/disengage quickly to avoid Lepri's spiderweb of various guards.

At this point Oliveira has underhook the leg, with a knee through position, and also briefly tried a leg lace/leg weave but Lepri's guard is so active, you can tell that Oliveira has not really begun a strong guard pass minues a brief knee through and instant of having the underhook.

At 2:17 he's working a stack/pressure position threatening an over/under style pass or to circle to his left and stack pass, but Lepri adroitly frames/boxes him out the moment Oliveira dove for double under grips.

Lepri fights up to sit-up guard after losing and underhook he briefly had.
Oliveira pressures back into a position you commonly see Augusto Tanquinho Mendes adopt/knee straight in the middle, basically on the groin with the shin.

Lepri lifts with his left shin as Oliveira cuts across with a knee through but likely not enough pressure, allowing Lepri to get to a single leg/stand up.

They struggle a bit on the feet and by 4:44 Lepri has again pulled guard and immediately gone to DLR guard.
Lepri does a quicker version of the sit-up guard to single leg he did previously and again they're on their feet.
By 6:58 Lepri has done an almost identical sit-up guard transition but then spins to x-guard and sweeps after a restart.
Lepri immediately begins applying a ton of pressure to the right leg, rather than address the DLR hook on his own right leg. Lepri is head down, tight and deep in this position.
Lepri again pulls guard after Oliveira makes space and gets to his feet during a knee through position.
At 12:08 Oliveira goes fancy pants and tries some step over, fancy footwork stuff, and ultimately gets some advantages by getting heavy on the legs and running them. I believe he also got points for a takedown as Lepri was pulling guard (not sure though, the refs hand went up).


UFC Fight Night 28 Predictions: Ryan Baders Walks Executioner's Row


Who is Ryan Bader's manager?
The guy never passes up a fight. He's fought Rampage, Jon Jones, Machida, and now next likely belt challenger, Teixiera.
No one will ever say of Ryan Bader the guy ducked fights.

I'm honestly excited about this card just to see Jacare do work. I'm curious to see if he can get Okami down and finish him. Jacare has been a great plus in his UFC division and it's awesome to see high level Jiu-Jitsu back in the MMA world's premier organization, just ask Chris Camozzi.

In other fights, we'll see Benavidez knock off another contender for a belt he'll never win (as he treads the same waters with Old Gregg, Koscheck, and Carlos Condit).
After that it's a few names I barely recognize and then a bunch of names I don't know that I've ever seen fight before.
Natal will win. So will Francisco Trinaldo.

Those other guys? If you showed me them on a list, I couldn't even immediately know it was a list of UFC fighters.

Deep card here on UFC on FOX Sports 1, am I right?

Initially I was kinda pissed I'd be at Judo then Jiu-Jitsu b/c of the early start time, but alas, now I realize I'll get home just in time to see the 3 fights I care about.

"UFC Fight Night 28: Teixeira vs. Bader
Date: September 4, 2013
MAIN CARD (FOX Sports 1, 7 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 5 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 4:30 p.m. ET)

Monday, September 2, 2013

Labor Your Day with some Grappling Links!


Aesopian has a podcast which touches on the blue belt blues.


  
One of the original MMA Documentaries and the first once I recall that truly put a human face on the sport. It sadly also would be a precursor to the sad realities of the addiction and depression that would slowly begin to claim fighters:

 


In case you're too young in MMA to remember, the heyday of Fedor's prominence in global MMA cannot be overstated. It was truly an awesome time, and I'm grateful I had the joy of experiencing it.
 



Koga nearly winning the All Japan Open Weight Championship. Mindblowing.
 

The Paradoxical Relationship of MMA, the Olympics, TV Viewership, & Modern Judo



Judo, to avoid the kill list upon which wrestling currently finds itself, was kindly suggested by the IOC to become more viewer friendly and to differentiate itself from other grappling sports.

The removal of unorthodox gripping (by way of penalties or risk of hansokumake (immediate disqualification) from an overzealous or mistaken referee), the banning of the bear hug/clasping the hands around the waist, and the earlier near complete banning of the leg grab have done much to temper the efficacy of Judo as a grappling art modeled after self-defense.

Interestingly enough, viewers have begun to vaguely understand or think they know some of the nuances of groundfighting, and thus the two legitimate rule changes which come to mind are allowing more time on the mat if progress is being made, and a player cannot simply get out of bounds to escape the pin or submission.

What we now have in Judo is a grappling sport devoid of having to defend leg attacks but that alternately stresses quick mat work  where you can win by strangle, elbow lock, or pin rather thansay BJJ with its progression of hierarchically valued positions,  top or bottom position have much more equal merit with the devaluation of the takedown, and there is a wider variety of submissions.
 

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Judo World Championships 2013 Brazil: -90kg Division




Judo World Championships: -90kg Division

 

UFC 164: Spoilers, t3h Armbar heard round the world, & UFC highlights go back to the stone age



I guess the UFC wants us to feel the nostalgia my great grandfather suffered whilst listening to Gene Tunney vs Jack Dempsey on the radio by putting together video highlights you can stream on your phone but then not show the finish in said highlight.


First up, the ending no one saw coming:
Uppercuts Cometh: Chad Mendes joins the ranks of "I'm better than everyone in my division but the champ and I've already lost to him decisively" Vera continues his slide into the depth of obscurity and irrelevancy: IN a fight I definitely thought the oddsmakers had wrong, Poirier pulled off the upset I predicted he would: