Following the final bell of last night’s UFC light heavyweight championship title bout, Forrest Griffin could be heard thanking the cornermen who helped him reach this moment:
“Thank you guys so f—ing much… Seriously, I don’t say it enough.”
Griffen had yet to be declared victorious in the bout, but had already proven more than capable to go blow for blow with the world’s very best. His transition from the brawler of three years ago to today’s tactical world class Mixed Martial Artist is complete, with more than a little help from his friends. It was a Forrest Griffin I never expected to see.
The only response from his cornermen came (appropriately enough) from UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, who quietly replied, “it was an honor.”
For the rest of us, it was a moment to remember — one of many in last night’s classic UFC title fight and my “fight of the year” so far.
Highlight videos from the 2008 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships are dropping like flies, so catch this one before Carlos Gracie Jr. does. It details the best performances from Team Brasa, including Andre Galvao, who took home the gold at the under 194.5 lb division.
BJJ highlights can be a little odd — it’s a groundfighter’s game, so there’s lots of little jostles for position to set up a sweep or triangle have to replace high impact strikes and takedowns which aren’t going to mean much of anything to someone without a lot of training. They’re a ton of fun but I’m always reminded how, for better or worse, we’ll probably never see our brand of jiu-jitsu join Kano’s in the Olympics.
On that subject, it’s nice to see some good throws tossed into the mix of BJJ competition, something that seems to be on the rise. Between 00:38 and 00:59 there’s three particularly nasty ones, which is actually more than the entire 2004 Pan-American championships DVD I own.
Also, watch for Galvao’s match with Roger Gracie at the end — you can also turn the volume back up at that point.
Festivities at the Hackett household regarding BJ Penn’s latest dominant win were interrupted recently, as some surprising news came in from Lumpinee Stadium, the 50+ year old Bangkok fight venue sometimes called “the Mecca of Muay Thai.” It looks like fighting in the clinch at Lumpinee will take on a look that’s new, and in this fan’s opinion, improved:
I don’t watch many movies. I like to think it’s not because it’s ten bucks that I don’t want to spend, plus a three dollar cup of coffee that isn’t even good. Nah. It’s not because I don’t respect the medium, either. In fact, I’d like to think it’s more because I do respect the medium. I go to a theater with the same full and undivided attention I offer to a jiu-jitsu class where I’ll be choked and armlocked. I don’t mean I actually go in thinking of choking out the pretentious idiots who laugh extra loud and respond audibly to in-jokes, in a vain attempt to impress me and everyone else unfortunate enough to share a theater with them. (But, maybe next time…)
I mean, I give my full focus, and in return I step into a different world, experience some ups and downs, and maybe someone sheds a little light on a piece of life I hadn’t experienced.
I’ve been disappointed more often than not. But you give honor to the art, and maybe you’ll find a little honor for yourself. That’s what I felt tonight when I watched RedBelt, and seeing it was definitely worth the ten bucks.
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.”
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 Sotiropolous 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.”
I’m not a betting man. (If you are, Iain has a fine column with you in mind.)
So on the night of a UFC, I like to consult the “experts” just for fun and not for profit. Tonight’s UFC, emenating from the childhood home of Matt Serra’s hero Arturo “Thunder” Gatti, and that guy in the picture above, is no exception. Here’s what I found on the net when I should have been preparing for a wedding today:
Rickson Gracie in Choke: it’s the much loved (and much hated) 1999 documentary which spotlighted the Gracie family champion’s preparation and participation in the 1995 Japan Vale Tudo. What brought this DVD back into my player? Was it all the recent excitement about his 19 year old son Kron Gracie and his gold medal winning performance at the 2008 Pan American games? Was it Rickson’ recent appearance in the (excellent) jiu-jitsu episode of Fight Quest? I don’t know, but like YAMMA it happened… and sadly, I ended up enjoying it a little less than I thought I would…
The more I hear from BJJ black belts the more I hear about basics, basics, basics. That’s less than I expected about gogoplatas and flying armbars, and more than I thought about defensive posture and guard passes.
Here’s BJ Penn’s take on the matter as he begins his BJJ 101 instructional series, hosted on his site. Maybe we all can’t be BJJ mundial champions, but I think we can all use some pointers from one:
Maybe they’re not all thunder gods, but it’s safe to say that the Scandanavians have something of a fighting heritage. Blame the Vikings who conquered most of Europe, or blame Wagner for writing the immortal Ring Cycle, I don’t know, blame Stan Lee for the Thor comics. But it’s hard to think of that peninsula without images of reindeer hide capes, helmets with mastadon horns pointing from either side, slaying giants, killing wabbits, and so on. Sure, they’ve got great pancakes too, but mostly, it’s warrior country.
So it may surprise you to learn that the good people of Norway and Sweden have often found their modern combatants in MMA, boxing, and kickboxing with no battles to fight. Yep, all three sports have been struggled to survive legally on the professional level. That’s why last year, following the sale of PRIDE, Norway’s Joachim Hansen took a series of amatuer boxing bouts to stay in shape, and not make a dime, as his career was left in limbo. In a video interview Hansen revealed that his trainer and manager left the sport behind entirely, and “had to go back to his normal job… because he has to make a living.”
So it’s tough going for a Viking in 2008, but there’s signs of hope too. This year, Sweden’s MMA community has rallied together to re-attain legal status. The Zone FC promotion ran a show in Solna, Sweden last month which featured an appearance by Enson Inoue. Earlier this month, the fine folks at Asgard MMA ran a story on Jörgen “The Last Viking” Kruth, the Swedish Muay Thai standout now making the switch to MMA. Read the rest of this entry »
