Hello Japan!

25Jul09

I dunno why you would try be to be an ass against Shinya Aoki, a guy so good on the ground that he debuted a variation of one of the most difficult submissions in MMA on the fly.

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Tags: MMA, Rear Naked Choke, Shinya Aoki

Ken Block Let Loose

16Jul09

Whip Appeal

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Tags: James May, Ken Block, Motocross, Rallycross, Speed, Top Gear

UFC 100 Thoughts: History Made

13Jul09

UFC 100 came and went, and it’s interesting that UFC has gotten this far.  It was only recently that Chuck and Randy were dominating the light heavyweight division, and now both Hall of Famers are near the end of their career.  The show was well done, and I don’t know if this is new but it seemed new to me, but they implemented an above the cage camera angle which is a unique view of the action.  Here’s the breakdown of the event:

Middleweights (185lbs.) Alan Belcher (13-4) vs.  Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama (12-1-0-2NC)

Akiyama has probably the most subtle badass entrance music.  Con Te Partiro, or “Time to Say Goodbye” is Andrea Bocelli’s signature song about departing.  A quick browse of Wikipedia shows that the translation is “With You I Will Leave” but regardless of the real meaning, the known title is Time to Say Goodbye, which is a different sort of threat.  He had a cool entrance, which is actually tame compared to PRIDE entrances, but different than everyone else’s entrance where he prayed at the beginning of the entrance, Samurai style.  As for the fight, despite a size disadvantage, Akiyama performed admirably, until he gassed.  Thankfully Alan Belcher also gassed, and they began a strange show of congratulating one another for even being able to begin a combo.  Akiyama is a judo specialist also regarded as fairly heavy handed, and he showed good footwork and solid punches, though he seemed to have a hard time getting his trips and sweeps going.  I think it’s more the notoriety of judoka’s and their throws over any actual size problems, and Akiyama didn’t really try any throws until he started burning out.  Belcher himself didn’t seem to know what to do with Akiyama.  He had a size advantage that he didn’t try to use standing up, and didn’t try any takedowns.  He hit some capable leg kicks, but then stopped midway just when it started welting up Akiyama’s thigh.  It was probably because he wound up a leg kick and telegraphed it so much that Akiyama was able to start catching them and than punching Belcher in the face.  Alan Belcher did hit a pretty cool rebound superman punch, where he jumped and bounced off the cage with one foot to fire off a superman punch.  I liked Akiyama in this fight, and I’ll probably like him in most fights, but I worry about his size disadvantage with him in the middleweight division.  Japanese fighters aren’t really known to cut weight, and because of that they’re known to usually be undersized in their fights with fighters from other nations.  I’m not sure if it’s a code of honor thing to not try to outweight your opponents by 15lbs, and it’s a test of skill to fight a larger opponent, but more often than not they’ll get beat.   Thankfully, Akiyama did not get beat, and went on to win a split decision.

Middleweights (185lbs.)  Michael “The Count” Bisping (18-1) vs. “Dangerous” Dan “Hollywood” “Hendo” Henderson (24-7)

This fight was indicative how where Michael Bisping is at his career.  He showed an ability to follow through with a gameplan in his win over Chris Leben, but previously showed weaknesses to wrestling with a loss to Rashad and a split decision victory over Matt Hamill.  Never in his career has he fought anyone the caliber of Dan Henderson, and Henderson showed what elite level guys do to middle level guys: they demolish them.  Hendo scared Bisping on the feet, and controlled him in the clinch.  Bisping really had no option but to outbox Hendo, which he tried to do, especially considering how glaringly obvious Hollywood Hendo’s attack was.  He would wade towards Bisping, and than blast a big right.  Bisping had a good gameplan of trying to outbox Hendo, which was working until Hendo landed the big right for the first time.  After that, Bisping seemed to freak and backpedaled away from Hendo, circling and trying to avoid the haymaker.  The only problem is that Bisping kept circling left, right into Henderson’s powerful shot.  At the end of the first round Bisping’s corner was berating Bisping for circling left.  The second round was more of the same, except this time their was some clinching, Hendo’s domain, and getting controlled their freaked out Bisping even more, causing him to once again circle left, right into an explosive haymaker that KTFO of The Count.  To seal the deal Hendo landed a massive, and unnecessary, falling forearm shot.  After this fight I want Hendo to fight Anderson Silva, or maybe the winner of the Nate Marquardt/Demian Maia fight.

Welterweights (170lbs.) Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves (22-4) vs. UFC Welterweight Champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre (18-2)

I was most excited for this fight, and I’m glad that GSP has 2 definitive losses on his record because it shows he’s not perfect, especially the Serra loss.  I cringe everytime GSP is in the standup even though he has a great chin and has great strikes.  Alves is a powerful, and big welterweight, looking like he verges on 200 pounds.  There’s a lot of power that follows that size, and he showed it by welting up GSP’s leg in the first round with just only 2 or 3 leg kicks.  Still, GSP was able to do what he does, and take down Thiago Alves at will.  GSP is just so talented, and if I didn’t contain myself I’d probably rave about him for paragraphs and paragraphs, but one point I want to point out regarding his athleticism is that most fighters, when shooting for takedowns, kill themselves trying to get it.  GSP, after getting a few takedowns stuffed, started instantly moving to the clinch and getting a clinched knee to pull away and reset.  It’s one of those minute things that make him so dangerous and exciting to watch.  Thiago Alves showed a lot of heart, continuing to fight despite getting his faced broken open and having disadvantages in every aspect of the game.  Even his vaunted striking, which is sickly powerful, was effectively neutralized by GSP’s reach.  Whenever Thiago would get close enough to strike, GSP would step away with a jab or kick or worse for Alves, step into it for a takedown.  That he was able to stand up after nearly every take down until the very end is a testament to his heart.  Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg gush over how GSP is the best wrestler in MMA, and I can’t argue the fact, but while I think GSP has the absolute best takedowns, wrestling is more than takedowns.  GSP also showed a lot of heart, as he pulled his groin in the 3rd round, and continued to fight to the unanimous decision.  During the break towards the fifth round he told his corner he think he pulled his groin, and Greg Jackson hilariously said something to the effect of “I don’t give a fuck! Hit him with your groin!”.  Afterwards, he looked clearly wounded, limping and nursing his wound during the post fight interview.  In the post fight Rogan brought up moving up in weight to middleweight, and a possible superfight against Anderson Silva.  GSP said if he were to do that than he would want need to take his time since he walks around at 190, and wants to be a little bigger if he were to fight at 185.  GSP has cleared his division, and there are a number of fights at 185 I would be interested in, including the superfight with Anderson Silva.  GSP vs. Hendo, GSP vs. Wanderlei Silva, GSP vs. Rich Franklin if Rich were to ever go down ever again.  Damn, that’s fucking exciting.

Heavyweights (265lbs.) UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir (12-3) vs. UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar (3-1)

This fight was to find the undisputed heavyweight champion, which to most everyone but Brock Lesnar was disputed.  Brock did what most expected him to do and use his size to blanket Mir, his wrestling to hold him down, and his strength to bludgeon Mir to victory.  Mir may have been in the best shape of his life, but he just couldn’t compensate for the size and strength and Lesnar.  Lesnar did show some ability, and single hand choking Mir aside, was able to keep neutralize Mir’s ground game by staying in his half guard and wrapping his arm around his neck and than blasting him in the face with the other hand.  Mir was giving his corner a thumbs up in this position and saying his was ok, but he didn’t look ok and he wasn’t doing ok.  The second round wasn’t as bad as the first, because Mir was doing pretty remarkably in the standup, and Lesnar looked awful.  The fight ended and quickly when Mir seemed to daze Lesnar a bit, forcing him to rush for a takedown that Mir tried to fight off with a flying knee, shades of Urijah Faber.  After that, Lesnar bullied Mir into a corner and beat him until he was unresponsive.  Lesnar cemented himself as champion, but Lesnar’s post fight antics cemented him as a lummox.  Flipping off the crowd, talking trash to Mir as he was trying to regain his senses, talking about drinking Coors Lite cause Bud Lite doesn’t pay him anything, and just being an overall douche.  The less I talk about Brock the better.

Welterweights (170lbs.) Paulo Thiago (11-0) vs. Jon Fitch (22-3-0-1NC)

This was a strangely positioned fight.  I don’t know why this wasn’t before the Hendo/Bisping fight, but here it comes after the main event and most people left the arena disgusted by Lesnar’s antics by now.  Which is a shame because this was classic Jon Fitch.  Toughing it out through adversity, grappling for position and than grinding out a victory.  Whereas other wrestlers would have tried to control position and keep it to victory (e.g. Clay Guida), Fitch risked trying to get the back, and trying for a finish.  Not to take anything away from Paulo Thiago, who showed patience and threatening jiu-jitsu skill, waiting for Fitch to move and then attempting or threatening submission after submission, but Jon Fitch handily won this fight by unanimous decision, despite an early and tight guillotine in the first few minutes of the fight.

Some prelim news also came about.  Mark “The Hammer” Coleman, the father of Ground and Pound, defeated Stephan Bonnar.  I haven’t seen the fight, but I assume he got grounded and pounded.  Stephan used to be known as a threat on the ground, but if he couldn’t stop Coleman, I don’t know where he can possibly go from here.  Dana White assured Stephan after his loss to Jon Jones that Stephan would always have a spot in the UFC, but this fight can be nothing but bad news for Bonnar’s UFC career.  As for Jon Jones, he’s won another fight, slowly becoming a contender in a stacked Light Heavyweight division.  I’m glad there’s prospects in this division though, because If Lyoto Machida keeps doing what he’s doing, there’s going to be contenders that can pose interesting fights for one another but not the champ.  Dong Hyun Kim also won, which was deserved after what I feel was a poor decision loss to Karo in his last fight.  Can’t wait for UFC 1o1.

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Tags: Georges St. Pierre, MMA, UFC, Yoshihiro Akiyama

Lee Murray: Most Dangerous Man in MMA

21Jun09

Damn.

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Danny MacAskill blowin’ minds with a bicycle.

26Apr09

This dude is sick.

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Tags: Bicycle, Danny MacAskill, Parkour, Tricks

UFC 94 Thoughts or Grease Lightning?

06Feb09

UFC 94 was the most exciting PPV in UFC history on hype alone.  “The Prodigy” BJ Penn and Georges “Rush” St. Pierre.   Two Top 5 Pound for Pound fighters, both dominant champions in their divisions, vying for the Welterweight Championship.   For an MMA fan, those two names on the same card would be enough to buy the PPV, but for them to fight?  No more needs to be said.  For the casual fan, UFC went all out with a 3 week, hour and a half primetime show previewing the fight.
The buildup for this fight, exemplified in the primetime show, started really at UFC 58 when BJ made his return.  His return fight was against GSP, a prodigy in his own right.  I remember three things in that fight.  One, that I thought GSP was going to be finished in the second round after the beating he took in the first.  Second, BJ Penn was winded badly in the middle of the second.   Third, GSP is a beast and might be my favorite fighter.  Even though I understood that rounds were scored instead of the whole fight, or how people look, judges are fickle and I thought BJ would have gotten the decision because GSP looked beat the hell up.  BJ lost by split decision.  Both would go on to dominate their opponents, with a few stumbles here and there.  BJ to Matt Hughes, GSP to Matt Serra.  And now they come to UFC 94.

Lightweight Fight: Clay “The Carpenter” Guida (24-6) vs Nate Diaz (10-2)

I thought that Nate was stupid for getting close enough for Clay to latch on to him.  Clay Guida has outstanding conditioning.  Superhuman, actually.  And he uses that conditioning to wrestle guys to the ground.  He’s just constant pressure.  But that’s it.  He actually put up no offense.  No submission attempts, no notable strikes.   If it weren’t for the fact that he’s always moving he’d be a boring fighter.  I thought Diaz could weather that pressure and keep it standing while he could, and then when he got pressured down just work submission after submission until one stuck.  But he couldn’t keep pace with Guida, and Guida won by decision.

Welterweight Fight: Dong Hyun “Stun Gun” Kim (11-0-1) vs. Karo “The Heat” Parisyan (26-5)
I personally thought Kim got screwed out of a victory.  I don’t see Karo having the tools to beat any top welterweight, and Kim looked dynamic and crisp in the first round.  The second round was Karo’s barely because he was finally putting up an offense, and the last round could go either way but I felt Kim was doing more while Karo was just trying to keep his mouthpiece in and survive the round.  Karo won by decision.

Light Heavyweight Fight: Jon “Bones” Jones (7-0) vs. “The American Psycho” Stephan Bonnar (14-4)
Jon Jones is the Next Big Thing.  His strikes were different, flashy and effective.  Spinning back elbows, back kicks, spinning back kicks.  He tried for this great kick combo in the first round that immediately made me think “This dude’s awesome”.  He went for a spinning back kick, and then with his leg still up he went for a sidekick.  It was just different, and was certainly throwing off Bonnar’s rhythm.  He also tried a drop toe hold, video game/WWE style.  Stephan Bonnar is one of my favorite guys, and I was rooting for him to win in that now classic war he had with Forrest.  But Bonnar took a beating here.  I thought he would have more of an advantage standing, but Bones kept him off balance with his unorthodox moves.   Like everyone else I thought that Bonnar was done after getting hit with this massive spinning elbow, but Bonnar recovered well.  It was obvious in this fight that Bones’ clinch is a danger zone.  He hit some sweet suplexes, a hightleet reel worthy German suplex and an explosive overhead suplex.  Both guys looked gassed at the end, and Bones was still able to hit the overhead suplex.  Bones won by decision.   Imagine that Randy Couture started fighting at 33, 34, and Henderson started when he was about 27.  Jones is only 21 and he’s already beaten a notable light heavyweight.  Damn.  That’s scary.

Light Heavyweight Fight: Thiago Silva (13-0) vs. Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida (13-0)
I used to think Lyoto Machida was the most boring fighter you should never bet against.  Tonight, he knocked out an undefeated Thiago Silva at the last second of the first round.  But that wasn’t before he was tossing Thiago around, tripping him like they were in the fifth grade, and knocking Thiago on his ass twice.  Lyoto Machida adds a new depth to MMA, something that I can more readily respect after this win.  The trinity of MMA is Muay-Thai/Wrestling/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Lyoto has shown that Karate deserves a spot there as well, with a style that minimizes damage and punishes opponents for being aggresive.  He’s still a mystery to beat.  Before I thought that an overly aggressive fighter could corner him and take him down, vying for submission until one caught.  Tito tried waiting it out with him, and Lyoto just kicked him.  Thiago chased him and all he got for his trouble was a KO loss.  Now, I think that most importantly it takes a zen-like patience, Greco-Roman wrestling and top level jiu-jitsu to beat Lyoto.  I don’t think you can pound Lyoto down, he’ll just become more elusive.  Whatever the case, I can’t wait for Lyoto to start fighting the top names of the Light Heavyweight division.

UFC Welterweight Title Fight (Main Event): BJ Penn (13-4-1) vs. Georges St. Pierre (17-2)
This was a drubbing.  GSP dominated BJ Penn, at all aspects.  His striking was better in the first round, and his grappling was certainly better in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  BJ Penn looked like a scrub and was forced to quit at the behest of the ringside doctor, the referee and his corner.  It’s funny because BJ’s whole trash talk revolved around how GSP was a quitter, and he quit on the corner.  From this performance, I don’t know if BJ Penn is the toughest bastard in the UFC, or just the most stubborn.  It was an asskicking though, and cemented GSP as second best in the world.

Controversy
The controversy in the main event was GSP’s corner allegedly greased GSP before the second round.  I understand that between two equal fighters, any little factor is important.  But all being equal, GSP was bigger and stronger.  I’m not defending GSP, though I’m on his side in this.  Though if something does come up, GSP should be stripped of his title.  BJ Penn is too proud to admit defeat, and if he insists now on a third match in their fight, it’ll stall both divisions.  Two divisions with clear contenders.  Certainly Kenny Florian deserves a shot.  He’s deserved for a while now, and has been taking fights just to stay active.   But for BJ’s own sense of glory he’ll hold up two divisions.  BJ wasn’t able to use his vaunted jiu-jitsu in the first fight, and he already looked a little winded at the beginning of the second round in the second fight.  If he wants a rematch with GSP he needs to earn it.  Right now he’s 0-3 in the welterweight division after returning.  Just because he’s BJ Penn doesn’t mean he can ask for fights in whatever division he feels like.  I do want to see a third fight, just to settle the score, but only if BJ drops the lightweight belt and fights at welterweight full time.

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Tags: BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, UFC

Improv Anywhere’s No Pants 2K9

22Jan09

I get their newsletters every few weeks to participate in an event.  I should do one of these silly things.

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