Summer Olympics Beijing 2008

MMA is taking off..partly because of the personalities and the marketing of the sport and also because the heavyweight division is weak.

The middleweights all the way down to the bantam and featherweights are still quite popular (mainly because of Latino fighters and Latino fans) but generally...when boxing is popular is when there is a great (or perhaps several) American heavyweight...preferrably as champion that people can get behind. Aren't one of the Klitchscko's still reigning as champ?

Besides that, most people don't view the heavyweight boxing champion as supreme anymore...most believe that a top MMA fighter is among the best in the world and that boxers can't compare.




Of course many MMA fighters are flawed because they have never mastered one martial art...instead preferring to go to some MMA school. A talented stand up fighter (maybe a black belt in Tae Kwon Do) with good to great ground skills (blue, purple or even as high as brown belt in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu) and a smidge of boxing training...can (or at least should) smash a guy that has trained primarily at MMA academies.

 

I talk about MMA with one of my coworkers, who studies Muay Thai with his son (who also studies and lives by jiu-jitsu) all the time. We talk about how traditional martial artists bring boxing coaches, onto their training teams and the sort. We also like to talk about the various disciplines involved in the sport, in general.

A TKD center around me has integrated jiu-jitsu into their curriculum (optional, of course), to go along with developing street confrontation skills and traditional judo throws.

I like watching those fights, because a fighter has to learn more about combat, instead of solely focusing on one art. Guys who generally live by one art (ie joyce gracie), end up being obsolete as the current crop of fighters bring the best from multiple arts, and come at you from all different angles (look how matt hughes totally dominated gracie during their last fight).

I also find it completely pathetic, that Anderson Silva pretty much kills everyone he fights, with no contest, in the UFC. He buried Rich Franklin, TWICE.

 

Ah...so true.

You've got to have balance....you need one specialty that you've mastered and working knowledge in one or two other arts. You're right about Gracie...having great ability in Jiu-Jitsu will give you an advantage 9 times out of 10 if you are fighting an Average Joe on the street but if you can't adequately fight upright...you end up having to be passive, hoping your opponent will provide an opening for a takedown.

I heard they are trying to hype up Brock Lesnar (former WWE Champ)...I know he was an All-American wrestler in college....what do you think he'll do?

 

this is the shit that gets me...

Brock Lessnar went something like 100 wins and 5 losses in collegiate wrestling, and took some D-1 championships, so they figured he would just come in and dominate everybody. So, for his first UFC fight, they match him up with Frank Mir, who is a VETERAN in Mixed Martial Arts. Sure, he gets his ass kicked by the other UFC guys, but he shown Brock that being a legendary wrestler doesn't mean squat, when you're going up against guys who've practiced multiple arts for years on end.

Case in point, Mir goes for an ankle grab on Lessnar and gets the tap out.

I seen Lessnar's second fight, and he seemed a bit more dominant and didn't do anything stupid like in his first fight (he turned his back on Mir and got submitted :roll: ).

The man is still a beast, even though he looks a bit smaller than his WWE-roid days. He fought Heath Herring and had a definitive weight advantage and beat the poor guy up.

Randy Couture and Matt Hughes were some more big-time college wrestlers who've held belts, so Lessnar has a chance. He just needs to stay with a boxing coach and work on his jiu-jitsu. Like they say in the UFC, many guys learn jiu-jitsu for defense against the art, as opposed to actually using it to submit people, which is why Brock needs that.

A very good example of jiu-jitsu defense was one of Rich Franklin's latest fights, where his opponent had his arm locked real tight. Franklin did some really nice shit on the ground and rolled his ass right out of it, and whooped dude's ass.

classic




I love that shit...

 

funny you would mention this...

many people take a striking art like boxing, or Taekwon-Do, to help them take out multiple opponents (if you hit somebody with a straight right or a side kick, shit they goin down lol - then you keep on movin to the next sucka).

the thing that bothers people with jiu-jitsu, is the idea that it's created for one-on-one confrontations. Another guy I worked with thought about going into it, but he was like "while i'm on the ground with one guy, another is kicking me in the head."

lol.....

I thought about it and it makes sense tho. Not that I recommend fighting more than one guy at a time or anything.

 

I found the best thing since sliced pizza, on NBC's website...

they have a "rewind" function on their site, which allows users to view past olympic events, uncut, as if you were sitting in the stands. I was watching Taekwon-Do and plan on watching Wrestling and Judo. The feature is very good for people that work also, since you may have missed the big track meets or whatever.

check it out.