Posted by Kendall Shields on 31st January 2008
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by Kendall Shields
A busy weekend for the MMA fan, to be sure. Aside from the much anticipated UFC 81 — which Jonathon Snowden will preview for you tomorrow on this site — there are a number of smaller shows of potential interest this weekend as well.
Let us adopt the most liberal of all possible definitions of “this weekend,” and begin with last night’s Pancrase Shining show held in Tokyo’s Karakuen Hall. Sherdog has the complete results, but really the two results of note here are Shoji’s upset of Artur Oumakhanov, and Katsuya Inoue’s decision win over Satoru Kitaoka in the main event.
Shoji — who can be seen here wrecking Yuji Miyazaki with a flying knee in a match that took less time, bell to bell, then Shoji’s largely regrettable post-fight dance; and here stomping the daylights out of poor Taku Aramaki, before unleashing an even worse dance, if you can believe it — stopped his Russian opponent early in the second round to become Pancrase’s first lightweight King. Tony Loiseleur reports that Oumakhanov kept atop Shoji for the duration of the first round after catching hold of a low kick and turning it into a takedown, and attempted the same technique to open the second, only to see Shoji escape and connect with a “picturesque” (as opposed to the beautiful or the sublime, I guess) right high kick that sent Oumakhanov to the mat. Loiseleur tells us of Shoji’s “emotional, teary-eyed” address to the crowd, but says nothing on the question foremost in our minds: did he dance?
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Posted in Bodog, HCF, Kendall Shields, Pancrase | No Comments »
Posted by Iain Liddle on 29th January 2008
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Posted by Marc Staehling on 29th January 2008
Posted in Elite XC, IFL, Marc Staehling, Rankings, UFC, WEC | Comments Off
Posted by Jonathan Snowden on 29th January 2008
Total MMA Volume 2, Issue 9 (Right Click to Download)
Inside: Frank Shamrock intends to be Cain to Ken’s Abel. Mario Sperry set to take IFL by storm, a look at Matt Hughes’s new autobiography, a trip back in time with Enson Inoue, the latest from Japan, and TOM Gentleman’s crazy fighter rankings.
Posted in Issues, Total MMA | No Comments »
Posted by Iain Liddle on 28th January 2008
Discuss ‘Contender Asia’ and more in the Total MMA forums
By Iain Liddle
As you might expect with being the co-editor of this website, it sometimes fall on my shoulders to read what the other writers have to say for themselves. Being a fan of fighting in pretty much all incarnations I was intrigued to Tommy Hackett’s tribute to the infamous “Owt Good On Mam†television reviews which were a particular highlight of early newsletters (go buy Stuart’s book if you haven’t already got a copy).
In his column, Tommy took an illness-enforced look at the sheer volume of shows on the box that have something to do with people punching or kicking each other in the name of fightsport. What surprised me most was not the sudden realisation that there is apparently more fighting on TV than I am able to keep up with but rather I found myself disagreeing with one of our esteemed columnists. Rather than fire him on the spot, I read on just to be sure.
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Posted in Contender Asia, Iain Liddle, Muay Thai | 1 Comment »
Posted by Bill Thompson on 27th January 2008
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by: Bill Thompson
Mixed martial arts is a sport that is growing at an exponential rate. With that growth comes a whole new set of problems, growing pains if you will. Possibly the biggest problem currently confronting MMA is the idea of unification. This idea is ignored by most, glossed over by others, and not given a thought by the rest of the MMA community. However, it is becoming readily apparent that unification in MMA is something that needs to happen. Unification in and of itself is perplexing and what makes it so perplexing to most is that they don’t completely understand what unification means for the sport. Unification in MMA deals with a few different fronts.
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Posted in Bill Thompson, WAMMA | No Comments »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 27th January 2008
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Are you watching TV and hoping to see a nice roundhouse kick on display? I guess you’re in luck, because long gone are the days when watching Jean Claude Van Damme take on Tong Po in Kickboxer was the only game in town. The best Muay Thai site on the web recently asked, what’s up with all the fighting on TV these days? I love this stuff, but still I’m glad I’m not the only one wondering what it says about our culture that there are about half a dozen of these “true life” fight-oriented shows. In fact, we’ve seen a few new ones debut since Mai wrote that article. It’s not so much that a monster was created in Ultimate Fighter & Contender, both of which seem to be on their last legs. It’s more that we spilled water on a gremlin and ended up with another five of ‘em: all of which have their own personalities.
Anyway, I got sick as a dog recently and had time to watch a bunch of these. A cough syrup replaced my usual beverage of choice, so… please forgive what follows.
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Posted by Jonathan Snowden on 26th January 2008
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Frank Shamrock joins my boys the Fight Professor Stephen Quadros and former Total MMA columnist Mauro Ranallo on commentary.
Showtime Bouts
Kala Kolohe Hose vs. Frederic Belleton
Frederic Belleton wants to weeeeen. I want him to win too. He is a savate player, so he can take solace in the fact that Gerard Gordeau represented his art with honor. Except for the eye gouging. Hose is a Hawaiian brawler. Hard to believe, I know. He has a checkerboard on his chest. Seriously. A huge checkerboard. (Apparently a Hawaiian cultural thing. h/t Hackett)
Hose lands a series of body shots early but is gassed in the first half of the first round. The gas tank of a young Tank Abbott. Ends it with a brutal KO. Belleton was overmatched here. The KO made Frank giggle. “The knockout was so nice we showed it twice.” Ranallo is such a goof. Quadros tries to get Hose to call out Robbie Lawler. He doesn’t want any part of that.
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Posted in Elite XC, ShoXC | No Comments »
Posted by Jonathan Snowden on 25th January 2008
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The training discussed in this article is a look at general Army training. I did not talk specifically with Tim Kennedy about his Special Forces training and we did not discuss his tour in Iraq. Opinions expressed are my own and not SSG Kennedy’s or the Army’s.
By Jonathan Snowden
For some fighters going to the resort town of Big Bear, California, for a few weeks before a fight helps toughen them up and get them focused. Army Staff Sgt. Tim Kennedy is not that brand of tough. Before the Army Combatives tournament in 2005, Kennedy wasn’t “roughing” it in cabin with his boys, he was completing one of the Army’s most difficult courses. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. One soldier I know who has been through Ranger and Airborne school and been in combat says it is the hardest thing he’s done in the Army. You start in the woods of Fort Bragg, on your own, with some of the Army’s top Special Forces soldiers trying to track you down. That’s the easy part.
When you are captured, and you will be, you are taken prisoner. Then they will break you however they can. Remember all of the atrocities at the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq? Forced nudity, stress positions, endless physical training, even water boarding? The Army does this to its own soldiers at SERE school to prepare them for the worse case scenario. So, one week before his fights in 2005, the Army tried to break Tim Kennedy. Despite this, he won the tournament. Tim Kennedy is that kind of tough.
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Posted in IFL, Interviews, Jonathan Snowden, Tim Kennedy | 1 Comment »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 24th January 2008
Posted in Hidehiko Yoshida, Japan, Kendall Shields, Roger Gracie, jiu-jitsu, judo | Comments Off
