As most of you who come here once in a while may know, we have some Judo enthusiasts in the ranks, from our favorite dude to send to Strikeforce events to stalk Dave Meltzer, Andrew Wallace to our gentile Canadian scholar Kendall Shields. Both have been valuable contributors to this site and the project as a whole and will continue to for as long as they feel like talking about people grappling and hitting each other. Well, both have decided to start up a blog about their Judo exploits, news in the world of Judo, links to Judo matches and so on. If you remember from our Olympic coverage over the summer, Judo love can be incredibly infectious and I found myself, a guy who has to work at 6am staying up until about 2 in the morning watching Judo on the internet, waking up to catch the finals, going to work and throughout the day in cubical land streaming all of the judo that I missed while I was sleeping. So go ahead and bookmark their blog, add it to your news feeder and so on. Judo!
TUF: Season 8, Episode 2
Eight more lightweights! Eight more light heavyweights! Eight more fights! Words of motivation and inspiration from a Nobel laureate! As quoted by some dude from Bristol! Is there anything this week’s Ultimate Fighter didn’t have? The answer, of course, is a resounding no. Click HERE to find out more.
Video Rewind: Evan Tanner Edition
Tommy Hackett referred to the B-Show Assault blog in his last post here, and from now a brief look back at a show in the history of MMA will be a regular component of Total-MMA. Today’s edition looks back at the career of Evan Tanner through many of his most memorable UFC fights, starting back all the way back at UFC 18. Read the rest of this entry »
TUF: Season 8, Episode 1
TUF is back. And that means Kendall Shield’s top notch reviews are back too. Check it out.
Kimbo Versus Shamrock: Sport or Spectacle?
Sport or Spectacle? Total MMA’s Jonathan Snowden and Kendall Shields argue it out.
Fightin Words: MMA in the Olympics?
Check it out and vote!
Olympic Judo Day Seven: Men’s +100kg, Women’s +78kg
Last night I reread the foreword to Kyuzo Mifune’s classic The Canon of Judo (1954). It includes this:
“Judo is now looked upon with a sense of hope and expectation, not only in Japan but throughout the world. The reason for this expectation and support can be found in the fact that judo embodies in its clear and rational movements the basic conditions for the most natural and unfettered human activity. The techniques and even the essence of judo are made possible solely by its fulfillment of these basic conditions.”
And this:
“Independence has been restored to Japan, and yet world peace still eludes us. True peace is the desire of all mankind, and this means working toward a world free from all forms of evil. Judo contains many aspects of this truth; it knows no borders, and is loved by spiritual people regardless of their nationality.”
A little over the top? Sure. But only a little.
Best Pound-for-Pound?
Who is the best P4P fighter in MMA? It’s worth arguing about.
Olympic Judo Day Six: Women’s 78 kg, Men’s 100 kg
Perhaps you’ll recall from our Judo Primer last week that one of the stories headed into these Olympic games was the almost complete lack of faith the Japanese press had expressed in captain Keiji Suzuki ever since he crashed out in the second round of the world championships in Rio. Unfortunately for the 29-year-old former Olympic and world champion, he’s done it again. And probably for the last time. Suzuki was upended by a morote gari for ippon in his first match, and faired no better in the repechage.
Olympic Judo Day Five: Women’s 70 kg, Men’s 90kg
In a recent special report on the business of sport, The Economist wrote:
“The Olympics will allow broadcasters to show off their ability to present lots of sport simultaneously. They used to be limited to one event at a time. Now they can put several on at once, using digital channels and websites, as well as making highlights available online for days afterwards. Fans of judo should thus be as easy to satisfy as those of the 100-metre sprint.”
And that really speaks to me.
While the early mornings are starting to get me, a little — I haven’t been up this early for five consecutive days since I gave up my paper route, which was not yesterday — I remain thoroughly impressed with the availability and quality of the streaming judo. The CBC is showing only the finals of the women’s -70 kg and the men’s -90 kg, so we join the competition very much in progress.