My thoughts on Kimbo vs James Thompson and EliteXC on CBS

A-fucking-bysmal.

The whole event looked like one big clusterfuck. The shady shenanigans from the officials had me speechless (bizarre stoppages, overzealous doctors).  The rampant protectionism by Gary Shaw of his two money-making favourites, Gina Carano and Kimbo, makes me sick.  The sub-par production values, the 20-man entourages, the cringeworthy level of skill on display (save for one or two fights)…

And worst of all, all of this going out to the American public on T-fucking-V.

A black day for MMA.

Me, interviewed

It’s not often I get asked to be interviewed. The guys over at EFN Sports (also known the The European Fight Network) kindly asked me to do a voxpop style interview, to which I gladly agreed.  Check it out here!

FO on TV

Not the greatest of TV spots, but my good mate and FO contributor Peter Irving gets some good airtime in this mini-doc that featured on a regional BBC news magazine show.

Pity the reporter put so much of his own opinion into an otherwise rather complimentary piece. I suppose when the facts and popular opinion all weigh in favour of the sport, someone has to play the opposing side.

Also check out this vid of Pete in training; pads, grappling and floorbag work.  Tough stuff.

Stay classy, MMA

You stay classy, MMA

I don’t like TV much. The shining beacon of untruth that rules over people’s lives is one of the few forms of entertainment I don’t enjoy. That’s not to say I don’t like some TV shows, because I do. If I owned a TV channel, it would play Family Guy, My Name is Earl, Blackadder, South Park and random documentaries about snow leopards and stuff 24 hours a day.

83% of all statistics…

…are made up on the spot. Everyone knows that.

I’m not a huge fan of statistics, preferring things such as experience, first hand reports and more human sources from which to draw my information. The scientist in me never progressed past the age of 13, and his knowledge extends to what he has learnt from William Gibson and Jon Courtenay Grimwood novels, National Geographic and Google. I don’t do numbers very well.

Still, I couldn’t help but take note when FightMetric started offering a Compubox-type system of analysing fights and reporting their data in the form of quite complicated (to me, baffling) charts and a strange points system based on ‘effectiveness’.

Drinking the Kool Aid

Bravo doing what Bravo does

Rubber guard. Lockdown. Mission control. Alcatraz. The Zombie. Dead Pussy Order. All names concocted by cult leader Edgar ‘Eddie Bravo’ Cano.

If you’re into MMA or BJJ, the chances are you’ve encountered Eddie’s 10th Planet Jiu- Jitsu system. If you’re on the mat you might have had someone slap a twister or a funky gogoplata on you. If you’re a fan, you’ll have heard Joe Rogan (Eddie’s best friend) talk nonstop on-air about the effectiveness of this style of jiu-jitsu.

Personally, in all honesty, I dislike much of Eddie’s ’system’. My first bugbear is that it is NOT a system. It is a set of rules and strategy within a system. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is the system, not Eddie’s 10th Planet JJ (The fundamental rules and precepts of Eddie’s style comes from BJJ, of which Eddie studied for 10 years or more).

Who does Kimbo beat up now?

“God-fucking-damnit”

No prizes for guessing what’s on Gary Shaw’s mind after Ken got KO’d. The rumours were that Kenny was going to square off with Kimbo in the next few months, not that anyone would admit it before the fight. When Buzz planted one square on Shamrock’s shoulder and the ageing wrestler went down, you could feel the question being silently asked. Who the hell does Kimbo beat up now?

Horwich is a hippy

Cage Potato, one of my favourite MMA blogs, recently (ha, almost two weeks ago) posted an exclusive interview with Matt Horwich of Team Quest.

I first met Horwich about two years ago. I realised within about 3 seconds of meeting him that the guy is a grade-A space cadet. Sure, he’s cool, but his fascination with Jesus unnerves me a bit (I don’t get fighters and the whole ‘God’ thing) and he seemed like a pretty mellow guy, even if he did carry a bible around with him everywhere.