Posted by George Do on 17th February 2011
Pictured: Machida’s Unique Karate in Action
Fans of most sports have no trouble referring to their favored athletic pursuit as a game. MMA fans however, would probably take offense at the idea that combat is a game at all. Combat sport events, have never been referred to in everyday parlance in the way that other sports have – It’s never ‘Are you going to watch the game?’ It’s always ‘Are you going to watch the fights?’
However, in the technical sense of the word, MMA is very much a game. In game theory, a game describes any strategic interaction where the choice of the various players can affect one another. A famous example of game in this sense is the Prisoner’s Dilemma, where two prisoners face the following outcomes depending on whether they confess or not.
The Traditional Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
This type of game is pretty theoretical and is purposely made simple in order to be easy to understand. Some more complex ‘games’ include things like Chess, Poker, and of course, Sports. Now, that’s enough of the technical stuff. My point is that in MMA, the success rate of one fighter not only depends on that fighter does. It also very much depends on what the opponent brings to the table.
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Posted in George Do, George Sotiropoulos, Lyoto Machida, MMA, Training | 4 Comments »
Posted by David Bateman on 10th July 2010
When Dana White describes an event as “the best night of his career”, you know it must be a good one.
UFC 116 will not be forgotten by any MMA fan in a hurry. That tends to happen when two FOTN bonuses are awarded in the same night (to Akiyama v Chris Leben and Krzysztof Soszynski v Stephan Bonnar respectively). Then, there is the not-so-small issue of Brock Lesnar.
It’s the closest thing MMA has to a fairytale. The UFC Heavyweight World Champion becomes unbelievably unwell, near death — then makes a triumphant return against possibly the most dangerous striker in MMA history. Love or loathe him, no one can deny Brock Lesnar the title of number one heavyweight in MMA, and not just because Fedor lost…
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Posted in Akiyama, Brock Lesnar, Chris Leben, David Bateman, George Sotiropoulos, Rankings, Shane Carwin, UFC | 3 Comments »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 22nd February 2010
What a night UFC 110 was.
A prospect in Cain Valasquez turned into a contender with a vicious one round knockout over a legend in Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira. Bader continues to impress against an awkward and dangerous Keith Jardine. A more cautious Wanderlei Silva picked his spots to earn a decision over a younger (and much better than I anticipated) Michael Bisping. Even the mismatch to begin the show was made memorable, as Mirko Cro Cop hailed his overmatched opponent as showing the world what a Croatian heart is — reminding us that his Australian opponent was, like him, of Croatian heritage. All of these were punctuated by a wild Australian crowd, which contributed some of its own — at one point, hilariously chanting “Bisping’s a wanker!”
But to me, the UFC 110 highlight reel really belonged to one man: George Sotiropoulos, whose potent mix of jiu-jitsu and boxing carried the day in the fight of the night against Joe Stevenson.
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Posted in George Sotiropoulos, Tommy Hackett, UFC | 1 Comment »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 5th May 2008
Please click here for Part One
Inoue and Sotiropoulos both begin and end their seminar with classic jiu-jitsu escapes. Among the simple and fundamental movements that every black belt masters, escapes are especially valuable to the beginners in attendance who often find themselves in bad positions.
Inoue remembers when he learned how important it is to win the battle for positional dominance, and how it led to one of the most controversial moments of his fighting career.
The first bout between Enson Inoue and Joe Estes took place twelve years ago in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall, but Inoue laughs, “I remember it like it was last month.”
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Posted in Enson Inoue, George Sotiropoulos, Interviews, Shooto, Tommy Hackett, jiu-jitsu | 1 Comment »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 2nd May 2008
The PRIDE & Shooto legend and the budding UFC & TUF6 star talk to Total-MMA about their different martial arts paths and fighting spirit they share
“We always say, we’re cut from the same cloth,” Enson Inoue says with a smile. The pioneering MMA legend is about to begin conducting a jiu-jitsu seminar with current UFC star George Sotiropoulos at Fisticuffs Gym in Vancouver, WA. The two are friends from the days when Sotiropoulos was cutting his teeth in Guam, fighting MMA at a show promoted by an old friend of Inoue.
“When I first met George, I looked at him,” Enson begins. “He was to fight this guy Sergio, this famous jiu-jitsu guy. And look at George, he doesn’t look like this mean dude. He looks like a nice guy, you know. I mean, he’s not a nice guy.”
“Hey! Come on now!” Sotiropoulos yells in a sarcastic protest.
Enson continues, mimicking George’s Australian accent: “‘Hey! I know you, Rites of Passages! Yeah!’ He wants to shake my hand… and I think, oh my God, this guy’s gonna get his ass kicked.”
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Posted in Enson Inoue, George Sotiropoulos, Interviews, MMA, Shooto, Tommy Hackett, UFC, jiu-jitsu | 3 Comments »
