Archive for the 'Tommy Hackett' Category

Sam Sheridan’s first book, A Fighter’s Heart, has become a favorite of MMA enthusiasts since its 2007 release. It chronicled Sheridan’s travels around the world, training and talking with many of the fight games’ biggest names, on a quest for insight on what drives them to win — and to find his own “fighter’s heart.” Along the way were stops with Brazilian Top Team in its heyday, a stint with Fairtex in Thailand, where he fought a Muay Thai bout, and a time in Iowa, including an MMA bout, under the tutelage of Pat Militech.

Last month, Sheridan released his follow-up, A Fighter’s Mind, where he turns his focus on the mental game of the world’s fighters and trainers. He describes it as “a gift back to the fighters who gave me so much in the first book. A book for fighters, and we are all fighting something.”

Sheridan spent a few moments with Total-MMA to talk about the book last week.

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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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It’s fight night! Looking back at our last round of predictions, where I spent more time complaining about advancing age than any actual analysis of UFC 109, it’s hard to miss how uninterested I was. What can I say? Trying to drum up interest for Couture vs. Coleman was like bleeding water from a stone. But ZUFFA’s making me forget it tonight (unless, of course, it’s my old age making me forget things again) — by assembling as strong an MMA card we’ll get in 2010 without the luster of a title fight. It also marks the first ever UFC to grace the shores of Australia, so expect a wild crowd screaming along every kangaroo hop of the way.

This, friends, is more like it.

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It’s always a pleasure to hear from the greatest of all time.

Yesterday, two guys on the Underground Forum offered a translation of an interview with Fedor Emilianenko conducted recently by a Ukranian website. One of he two is Igor Karaev, a Moscow-based MMA promoter who has been a great asset at the Underground for some time now. I don’t highlight them or really any other folks’ work too often here, but an exception is in order. There is just a “humble pride” about Fedor which we simply don’t see enough, in any sport, and MMA fans owe it to themselves to give it a look. Total-MMA readers who can read Russian can enjoy it here, otherwise, click on the link at MixedMartialArts.com for the translation from Kareav and his pal who goes by the nick, TMR.

Among the highlights:

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One of the effects of MMA’s boom in popularity has been, predictably, a rise in MMA-themed merchandising. For a while it seemed everybody and their brother was beginning a line of MMA-themed apparel. Generally these companies featured T-shirts with awful “tap or snap” slogans, pitbulls, skulls, and the like. They were generally, to be perfectly honest, crap. Some have survived, some haven’t. A few, like Triumph United and Six Deuce, actually put out some nice designs — and it’s good to see them do well.

But there was an old guard, too, from the days MMA wasn’t all the rage: and some are still alive and kicking. Bad Boy, whose fight shorts were worn by seemingly every other fighter in the late 90’s, has made a return to the spotlight with such fighters as “Shogun” Rua — and the old “squinting eyes” logo, which I was always found somewhat irritating? It now seems, oddly enough, kind of classy. Of course, the TapOut story is well-known. Far from the days of hilariously cheap commercials like this one which showed up at the end of Hook n Shoot DVDs (and please accept my apologies if the implied nudity there offends anyone — it’s really not my style), they now have a big budget, their own reality TV show, and have become one of the biggest employers in their Southern California hometown.

But there’s one company from the “old days” which, more than any of the others, had two things going for them which would seem to be a combination for success. First, and most importantly, they have always put out great and unique designs. Second, their shirts were worn by Dana White in season one of The Ultimate Fighter, the show that really sparked MMA’s recent surge in popularity. If there were one company I’d have picked to break through, this would have been it.

Yet, despite some continued local success in their native Guam and a few parts beyond, they seem to have disappeared from the US mainland and had no part of MMA’s move to the mainstream.

I’m talking about Fokai International. Anyone else miss them a bit?

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Last week, I asked myself who exactly is excited about tomorrow’s UFC 109 card. I got my answer yesterday, as one of our new writers, Jacob Lawton, sent along his predictions for it. According to Jacob, it’s PPV-worthy “just for the value of seeing two UFC legends going head to head.” Me, I’m not so sure. To be fair, I wouldn’t pay for Dan Severn vs. Royce Gracie 2 in 2010, either.

But, I might catch it at a bar. How’s that for a ringing endorsement? Ugh… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a shame that Billy Robinson is a name that most MMA fans don’t even know.

In fact, Pro wrestling fans are more likely to have heard of the British-born grappler, probably best known for his great success in Japanese pro wrestling circuits of the 1970’s and his role in creating “shoot-style” and “shoot” organizations in the 1990’s. Those very acomplishments are probably enough to get many of us in MMA and jiu-jitsu to close our minds to this man. It’s our loss. He now resides in Arkansas — toiling in relative obscurity for the last several years as he instructing pupils in Catch-as-Catch-Can wrestling, a wrestling style hundreds of years old, with takedowns and submissions to boot.

Credited with helping train MMA legends Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett, Robinson is one of the world’s last living links to a long and rich wrestling history. While he became famous in typical scripted pro wrestling matches (some a bit more realistic than others), his Catch-As-Catch-Can wrestling is a legitimate style which developed long before Maeda crossed the Pacific Ocean to teach Carlos Gracie in Brazil, or Jigoro Kano founded the Kodokan Dojo in Tokyo. CACC has a heritage which several of our best fighters in the MMA world are looking to rediscover today.

In fact, earlier this month, Josh Barnett dedicated his win at a grappling tournament (somewhat ironically, a no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament) to Robinson. But it was a couple of videos that surfaced recently that got really caught my attention and offer that the movement to incorporate CACC into MMA may be finally getting a little momentum.

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We all know the horrible tragedy that struck Haiti on Tuesday has claimed thousands of lives and left many more in a state of emergency.

It’s good to also know that at least one member of the MMA community is “coming out swinging” in support of the survivors.

MMAWarehouse.com is one online retailer among many which has popped up in recent years. (In fact, I’ve never purchased from them, but have only heard good reviews of their service.) But they have released a statement which really sets them apart, as they team with Mercy Corp to send aid to Haiti:

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince Tuesday afternoon, collapsing buildings, including at least one hospital. The quake affected roughly one in three Haitians: about 3 million people. Anywhere between 30,000 and 100,000 are feared dead and even more are injured in the largest quake to strike the impoverished Caribbean nation in 200 years. Power is out, telecommunications are spotty and food and water are reportedly growing scarce.

MMAWarehouse.com is pledging a dollar for dollar match up to the first $5,000 donated here and additionally will donate a portion of our sales now through Thursday, January 21st.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to suddenly lose your home and all your possessions, or worse yet, your friends and family members. I know that everyone’s economic situation these days is far from perfect, but I encourage you to count your blessings in life and give what you can to your fellow brothers and sisters across the globe who are truly in dire need.

You can click here to read the Better Business Bureau’s review of Mercy Corp. There are other great organizations out there, too. Catholic Relief Services and Americares are both noted for having more than 92% of their donations go directly to those in need and keeping minimal administrative costs. WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, who represented Haiti in the 2004 Olympic games, gave an emotional interview to ESPN this week, where he mentioned that he would be offering information about how to help on his website soon, as well.

What more needs to be said? Dig deep, and please give what you can.

Pictured: Manny Pacquiao carries the flag of the Philippines at the 2008 Olympic Games.

It’s tough to look at the above picture: Manny Pacquiao leading a group of athletes, who unlike himself, were willing to submit to Olympic-style drug testing.

Last week, talks finally appeared to break down for good for Manny Pacquiao’s proposed bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., with the “sticking point” of Olympic-style blood testing finally leaving the two parties unable to reach an agreement. It’s a bad blow for the sport, which seemed to finally accumulating momentum for the first time in ages, to lose the climactic bout which we had been leading up towards.

It’s particularly a blow to a guy like me.

I’m really gutted — because as much as I’m not fan of Floyd Jr, his classless interviews and unprofessional antics — I have to sadly place blame at the feet of Manny Pacquiao for this “bloody mess.” Read the rest of this entry »

Please forgive the recent lack of activity here. Total-MMA is going through a bit of a transition right now, so you can expect a new and improved look in the new year. Thanks for being patient.

Today, MMA legend Enson Inoue’s long battle with immigration will finally come to an end. Recently he left the following message on his blog:

I just got called by the Immigration office and it seems that they have finally made a decision. In fact I’ll get the results on Christmas day Dec.25th. If the Immigration hands me a favorable decision that would be a great Christmas present. Whatever the decision is I’ll consider it a present from God. I’m either going to be able to continue my life here in Japan or I may need to start my new life abroad. Whatever the decision is, I’ll will be okay. But I’m very nervous. While everyone is celebrating Christmas I’ll be in a battle with the Immigration. One of the biggest decisions in my life will be handed to me on the day Jesus was born. Everyone please help me with the power of prayer.

So, I’d ask everyone to keep the man they call “Yamato Damashii,” who may ironically be forced to leave the Land of the Rising Sun, in your prayers — or, just keep a good thought.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed or enjoyed our content in the last year. Merry Christmas, and all the best to you and yours.