We had our tournament this past Sunday and had a great turnout and even better matches. With schools coming from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, we were able to register about 100 competitors and a very large, loud and enthusiastic crowd. Thanks to everyone that participated and we look forward to seeing you all again on the mats in May!
Here’s one of my favorite photos with Baret Yoshida, one of my original coaches, in the middle. While most people may know him as one of the world’s best submission specialists, I know him as the guy that helped me survive in Hawaii and taught me a lot about not just martial arts, but about constantly pushing the envelope in our own development. Baret is now the head instructor of the UNDISPUTED grappling program and training hard for this year’s ADCC championships. That’s our friend Milan next to us, one of Baret’s blue belts. This photo was taken right after we both had a match at the 2008 American National tournament.
Here’s a recent picture of me at my home away from home, the jiu-jitsu room upstairs at Downtown Undisputed.
Here’s a picture of me and my good friend Brett Albee who is also one of the muay-thai instructors at the Downtown location. Glad to have guys like him on our side!
Here’s the poster for the event we will be hosting at Downtown Undisputed on Feb. 22nd. We are hoping to bring out some good talent for this grappling tournament and will feature a few special matches, including one with Baret Yoshida. Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this event possible, including: Howard Combat Kimonos, OTM, Aggression Fight Wear, Inflikted Nutrition and Henchmen.
I heard that ‘War Machine’, formerly Jon Koppenhaver, who trained with us in San Diego but is now in Las Vegas got into some trouble over comments he posted concerning the U.S. government. I have not read the comments, but apparently somebody high up did not like it as he was set to compete in the ‘Bellator” event but has now been removed. I hate to see any fighter lose out on opportunities to compete but if you know War Machine, you know he is definitely not afraid to speak his mind, whether it is to the bosses at the UFC, or in this case, about the President of the United States.
War Machine actually went to a prestigious military college, the ‘Citadel’, and he told me some funny stories about his time there. I’m not sure what his current beliefs and feelings about our country is, but he did study biology at Citadel and is definitely an intelligent person so he must have thought out what he was saying. Hopefully this will pass and people will pay more attention to the intense fighting he brings to the cage instead of what he says in a blog.
The possibilty of fighting in Japan is looming as the event ‘HEAT’ in Japan, scheduled for March 28th, is a potential match for me. I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one, the last couple of scheduled fights have fallen through for me and am defintiely anxious to get back into action. Will update the situation as soon as I find out.
No doubt most of you have seen or heard about BJ’s recent match with the animal known as GSP, George St. Pierre. While BJ is catching a lot of flak from the keyboard warriors, I give him a lot of credit for putting himself on the line against who I think is the best 170 lbs. fighter ever.
While the controversy keeps brewing about the ‘Vaseline’, I’m not sure if a 3rd fight is in the best interest of either fighter, but if it happens, I’ll definitely be tuning in. I’ve always liked and admired BJ’s attitude toward fighting (smaller guy with good technique can win) and if anybody is capable of proving it against a guy like GSP, it’s BJ.
Hopefully people will keep in mind that BJ is still the best 155 lbs. fighter in the world and if he chose to fight exclusively at that weight class, he, like GSP, could go down as the very best in their respective categories.
Good fights last night with some interesting match-ups that turned into absolute wars. Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer, even though that didn’t end up the way I had hoped, it was a terrific fight that saw both men giving and taking quite a bit. Mac’s hands and slipping looked really sharp and whoever he is working with on his stand-up is doing a good job as that is the most amount of punch/kick combos I’ve seen him do in some time. Neer proved he was a force by coming back in the 2nd round and looking sharp with the triangle attack. I’m sure Mac will bounce back from this one and keep on improving.
Joe Lauzon looked really slick on the ground and that armbar from mount was tight and technical. Jeremy Stevens came by and trained with us in San Diego some time ago and he is a load and it’ll be interesting to see how he does with Efrain down the line, if he is still able to do that match. Anthony Johnson is living up to his nickname of ‘Rumble’, cool guy that just keeps looking better and better. We trained together before and everytime out, he just keeps getting better. So many good fights, will be interested to see who got the fight of the night award.
I’m sure those of you that follow MMA/BJJ have already heard that one of the original Gracie brothers, Helio, passed away last week. While I’ve had my ups and downs with the Gracies, there is no doubt that they are directly responsible for changing the way we approach practical training and combat.
I only saw Helio at a couple of tournaments back when I was a Blue Belt but he definitely lit up the room and the man lived an extraordinary life. When I first started out BJJ with one of his sons, Relson Gracie, the stories they told about some of the things Helio did were always amazing and interesting.
His passing is a loss for BJJ and martial arts in general and we can hope to follow the BJJ path as long and as well as he did.