Self Defense for Women part 1

A lot of women these days are looking into self defense. If you are, good for you. It's never a bad thing to know a little something when it comes to your safety, my 6 year old can already pull off an armbar submission. (The armbar ends a good portion of MMA fights) You may ask yourself, and it is an important question, what style/art should I learn?

Don't be fooled ladies, this question should be asked by everyone, including men AND the greatest tough men in the world. All martial arts are NOT created equal. The main thing you have to ask yourself is what YOU can accopmlish.

I will start by dividing the martial arts into two groups, 1) Striking and 2) Grappling.

Striking - These would be styles like Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Tai Chi. They involve a good portion of kicks and punches and rely on some amount of power and speed to excecute. Most will focus on the "tender" spots when speaking of defense. If you are getting attacked all rules are off, put your finger nails in the eyes, knee and kicks the privates, whatever it takes!

Grappling- These would be styles like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Sambo and Judo. They involve manipulating joints to cause submission or breaks. These styles focus more on real life scenarios, most muggers don't walk up and say "hey lady, put up your dukes!" They are going to tackle you and try and get you to the ground. In real life most of the fights end up on the ground.

If you are looking for confidence and overall fitness any of these styles will do the trick. I am a big fan of martial arts for fitness because it's a class environment where people will help and push you when you need it. Often times you get the royal treatment from a regular gym and then when you've signed the 2 year deal they never speak to you again.

More to come.

Fights tonight on SPIKE TV

That's right, it's finally here. If you didn't read before SPIKE TV and UFC are bringing 2 new shows to SPIKE, the premier is tonight after wrestling.
Since the Gracie's brought created the UFC and brought it to Pay Per View in 1994 martial arts has gone through more change than even. Proving and disproving theories that have been around since ancient times. Now we can truly know what happens in a fight and what techniques truly work. Royce Gracie showed the world that a 185 man can defeat the biggest of men. In the UFC's begining there where no weight classes and Royce was constantly giving up 30-70 pounds in each fight, boxers don't do that, kick-boxers don't do that and wrestlers don't do that! That 1st UFC changed the martial arts world and sent people out to learn new things.
Tonight the next evolution truly begins. Mixed Martial Arts on TV is a new item thanks to the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" featuring up-coming fighters trying to break into the UFC. The show was a monster success and grew in ratings every week.
Tonights premier of "Unleashed" will feature 1 of the greatest fights in my opinion (and many others). Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, the fight was so good that Dana White, UFC President, didn't just award the winner with a contract. Both Griffin and Bonnar earned the respect of fans and fighters. In the most recent UFC Forrest Griffin recieved more applause than any of the other fighters upon entering the ring, if you watch the fight tonight you'll be a fan as well.

Superbrawl

Kala Kolohi Hose over Corey Daniels by KO in round 2

Reese Andy over Trevor Garrett by rear naked choke in round 1

Nick Ring over Kimo Wolfel by rear naked choke in round 1

Karl James Noons over Bryson Kamaka by KO in round 1

Ed Newalu over Mark Oshiro by decision

Ryan Diaz over Kolo Koka by armbar in the 2nd round

Jason "mayhem" Miller over Mark Moreno by armbar in the 1st

"Ruthless" Robbie Lawler over Falaniko Vitale by KO in the 2nd

Unfortunately Superbrawls are not broadcast so I was unable to watch these fights but it looked like a good night. I love to watch Mayhem fight so that would have been a good one to catch.

PRIDE Results

I'm a little upset with Direct TV. At the start of the program they were having technical difficulties and it ended up making me miss a couple of fights. The programming bounced around the fight card and I actually saw 2 fights twice. Since PRIDE is out of Japan it does not play live. Upon calling Direct TV I learned that my choices were to watch what they showed or have them cancel and refund. I was hoping that they would get to all the fights but they did not. I'm certainly not finished with them.

Fights I missed -

Josh Thompson over Daisuke Sugie in 2 min 30 sec of round 1 with a knee bar.

Marcus Aurelio over Jyutaro Nakao by decision.

Tatsuya Kawajiri over Luis Firminho by decision.

The fights I saw-
James Thompson over Henry "Sentoryu" Miller
Thompson might be the largest individual I've ever seen. He came into the ring looking bigger and meaner than ever. Sentoryo, who is also not a little person, never seemed to get going in the fight. I don't know that I'd get going looking across the ring at that monster either! They came out swinging and each got a take down and then lost it. Thompson had an armbar practically handed to him and missed it, his reaction was slow and he stumbled getting his other leg over. He was then able to KO Sentoryu when they got back to the feet. A basic 1,2 combination, Sentoryu was out on the 1 and Thompson's 2 was already on the way and just made sure the job was done.

Joachim Hansen over Masakazu Imanari
Imanari was giving up about 15 pounds in this one. He's only 145 fighting in the 160 weight class. He is a squirrly guy though, he tried a lot of take downs putting a lot of respect in Hansen's striking ability. A little over 3 minutes into the fight Imanari shot in low and to the left, with incredible reflex Hansen through a left knee that caught Imanari square and sent him to the mat for good. When that knee landed it was heard everywhere, Hansen's didn't even jump on his opponent like you often see in MMA. The second that knee landed Hansen turned around and walked to his corner.

Dennis Kang over Andrei Semenov
PRIDE's website actually shows this decision going for Semenov so I don't know if somehow Kang got disqualified, I've never seen that happen so I'd imagine that is a misprint. This was a good solid fight. Two men known for grappling standing up for almost the full 10 minutes of the 1st round. The second round did see some good grappling and both fighters had opportunities to showcase thier skills, in the end Kang was just to much. I thought he did dominate both the stand up battle and the groundwork.

Kazuki Okubo over Ryuichi Murata
Murata came out in a Gi which you don't see a whole lot of in the MMA world. He had 3 very nice technical throws that I'm sure scored him some points in the eyes of the judges. These two Judo players went toe to toe without a blow :) for quite some time. Sometimes when you get to Judo guys in there they forget they get to stike in MMA! Okubo was able to use Murata's Gi against him and land an armbar. Had Murata not been wearing a Gi the sweat would have more than likely helped him escape this particular armbar.

Ikuhisa Minowa over Kimo
I don't know what it is about Kimo, I think he's getting just a little to old. He's lost something. Minowa was able to defeat Kimo with an achilles lock at 3 minutes into the 1st round. Kimo is 41 now, that's pretty old for a fighter. Randy Cotoure has done a lot for proving that 40 year olds can still fight but he is in phenominal condition, the others don't train like he does.

Phil Baroni over Ryo Chonan
As much as I don't like Baroni he does seem to be doing very well after a couple of losses in the UFC. One sign of a great fighter as opposed to a good fighter is how they handle tough losses. Baroni has overcome his losses and is doing it in impressive fashion. The other side of that coin is that the UFC fighters have found out one thing when fighting Baroni, it's apparently a big secret so come really really close to the screen......HE HITS LIKE A FUCKING TRUCK, DON'T STAND IN FRONT OF HIM. In his 2 victories in PRIDE his opponents have tried to trade punches with Baroni. In a word, stupid! It's like they've never seen him fight, in his losses a plan was mapped out, Baroni doesn't do well on the ground and seems to gas out toward the end of the fight. Hopefully his next opponent will read this and not stand in front of him or he will be knocked out like the rest of them. Make Baroni beat you from his back, if he can then a new game plan will have to be formed but until then.....do not let this man hit you! He can definately back up that talk he talks.

Takanori Gomi over Jean Silva
This was an exciting fight, Gomi pretty much dominated the whole fight but Silva through some big spinning kicks that brought some action. Gomi's doing very well right now, I'd like to see him fight Eves Edwards again or maybe Joachim again. Joachim defeated Gomi a while back. Gomi controlled the action with takedowns, ground controll and strikes from the guard. He landed an armbar with 10 seconds left in the round but Silva did a good job of squirming around until he could be saved by the bell. He unfortunalely was not saved by the judges, they all saw it for Gomi like I did.

MMA coming to SPIKE TV

With the succes of the UFC and SPIKE TV's The Ultimate Fighter they have signed a contract to bring MMA to cable television. This past spring a live MMA fight was broadcast for the 1st time in the United States when the finale of the Ultimate Fighter brought to us Diego Sanchez in his victory over Kenny Florian and Forrest Griffin in his victory over Stephan Bonner. Diego and Forrest were named the ultimate fighter and given a contract to fight in the UFC, Forrest went on to win his first fight and Diego will fight in the upcoming PPV in August. Rich Franklin also fought on the card against a legend in the sport, Ken Shamrock. Franklin was able to defeat Shamrock and go on to fight for, an win, the UFC championship in the 185 pound division over Evan Tanner.

SPIKE TV will have 2 new programs in addition to the 2nd season of the ultimate fighter, they will air during the month of August and hopefully become a staple of SPIKE and cable television.

Unleashed - Premier airs July 25th at 10:05 Nashville time (after wrestling).
This 1st installment of unleashed will feature the 2 championship fights from this past spring and 2 other fights from the finale card that were not aired.
Diego Sanches vs Kenny Florian
Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar
Ales Karalexis vs Josh Rafferty
Mike Swick vs Alex Schoenauer
If you've never seen an Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight I would stongly urge you to not miss this. The Forrest fight is one of the best and features 2 competetors who just will not quit.
The 2nd installment will air August 1st and feature 5 fights. The other fights from the finale card...
Chris Leben vs Jason Thacker
Chris Sanford vs Josh Koscheck
Lodune Sincaid vs Nate Quarry
and 2 fights from Ivan Salaverry, his fights with Joe Riggs and Tony Fryklund.
Unleashed will air every Monday and it looks to feature great fights from the UFC's history.

Ultimate Fight Night - Premier airs August 6th, 8pm Nashville time.
This program will be live MMA fights brought to us by the UFC . This first installment will feature the following fights.
Ivan Salaverry vs Nathan Marquardt
Stephan Bonnar vs Sam Hoger
Kenny Florian vs Alex Karalexis
Mike Swick vs Keith Rockel
Josh Koscheck vs Pete Spratt
Nate Quarry vs Pete Sell
Chris Leben vs Patrick Cote
Drew Fickett vs Josh Neer
This looks to be a pretty good fight card with a lot of up and comers who are not making all the money and trying to break their way in to the big show.

This will all be mixed in with the 2nd season of The Ultimate Fighter also to air on SPIKE TV during the month of August.

PRIDE - Bushido Vol 8

Tonights the night for fights. PRIDE Fighting brings us the newest installment of Bushido on PPV tonight. 11 fights in all, and they wonder why I like PRIDE so much. International fights bring so much more to the overall show. I believe UFC has some of the best fighters but the show and cards that PRIDE puts together are amazing.

My Picks

Josh "the punk" Thompson over Daisuke Sugie

Kazuki Ookubo over Ryuichi Murata

Tatsuya Kawajiri over Luis Firmino (Brazil)

Marcus Aurelio over Jyutaro Nakao

Andreei Semenov (Russia) over Denis Kang (Korea)

Daniel Acacio (Brazil) over Kazuo Misaki

Henry Miller over James Thompson (England)

Masakazu Imanari over Joachim Hansen (Norway)

Ikuhisa "the punk" Minowa over Kimo (haven't been impressed with Kimo lately!!)

Ryo Chonan over Phil Baroni (hopefully someone will shut the NY badasses mouth for once)

Takanori Gomi over Jean Silva (Brazil)
Love Gomi, looking for another big early knock out in tonights headliner. Silva should try to get him down and keep him down but for being in a lighter weight class he is a monster.

If the country is not after the name it's either the USA or Japan, pretty easy to figure out.

Haven't been doing much

That pretty much sums it up. I've been hanging out with McKenna, you can check out those pics at www.mckennaanncurtis.blogspot.com. We've been doing this and that, playing in the pool, going to movies and taking care of the new puppy. I buckled and got a 2nd husky, for 1 becasue I love them and for 2 becasue my pup gets lonely throughout the day. Now he has a girlfriend! Well I guess she'll need to grow into that role, she's only 9 weeks old. I do have a review ready from the latest installment of PRIDE but I keep forgeting to post it. Jiu-Jitsu classes are still going great, I'm getting better as I learn new things but still have many many things to learn. I still love getting beat up though. Good thing is more people have joined the class and there is usually someone there my size so I'm not just working with smaller people, I learn more when I can't rely on that aspect.