Man, you’ve got to be kidding me, but the group who can’t even run ONE event correctly during the Arnolds is now going to handle three events? If you’re even thinking f competing or attending this event, please read this (rather long post):

Now normally I avoid speaking ill of anyone in this sport -in public at least anyway- as it’s a relatively small industry and I know my comments can directly influence someone’s business. If I don’t like you (and that’s actually pretty rare) I’m more inclined to simply not acknowledge your existence, there plenty of good people and good events I can support instead.

Still the Arnolds’ weekend in Ohio simply takes the cake. I honestly believe that the only reason why the promoters are allowed to operate their event in the manner they do is that they are basically the only major show in the midwest. Year after year I hear competitors tell me horror stories of not only the horrible organization of the event, but the general feeling of how poorly they are treated by the organizers of the event.

I have some very personal reasons for disliking this event so much. OntheMat was actually hired by the promoters for the first event to produce the video and we were happy to take the job as it had such enormous potential to be a great event and had tremendous hype surrounding it. The morning we are set to leave we get a phone call from an irate Ed Clay, who had planned on being a sponsor for the event, and had rented a truck to bring merchandise for a booth. After the deal with Ed was made, the promoters struck a better a deal with a rival manufacturer, and informed Ed when he was almost with city limits (after driving for hundreds of miles from Tennessee) that he was now not allowed to set up a booth there! Ed was so infuriated that he offered us double whatever we were going to get paid to simply skip the show! We’re professionals and however much as we sympathized with Ed’s plight, we decided we couldn’t simply pull out at the last second like that. We talked to another prominent jiujitsu journalist and good friend, and he had decided to pull out of the show as well. We wound up going, but when we got there we insisted on getting paid up front because we were not happy with what they did. (This is something we have never in our years in business demanded before or since).

They was the promoters made it sound, we would be having breakfast with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself as we would produce a documentary on jiujtisu, and they even asked us to be there first thing in the morning to have a meeting discussing filming strategies. We got to the venue at 8:00 AM (which may not seem that early until you realize we are on California time) and proceeded to sit around for several hours, in fact sometime after the tournament was supposed to start, until the promoter finally showed up and we had to pin him down for our “important” meeting. The meeting lasted about two seconds, when he told us his brilliant idea of posting one camera on one side of the venue and one camera on the other. I know none of you readers are world infamous BJJ film-makers and journalists, but I’m willing to bet you ALL could have figured that out.

Aside from monumental delays in getting the tournament started (and don’t believe them when they tell you it was a problem with the venue, after all we sat around there for HOURS literally on the mat) we spent the day filming the tournament and I must say we captured some great footage that day. At that time i would actually both perform my OTM duties and compete (I no longer have time or energy to do both), and my division blue belt middleweight finally got up around 9:00 PM or so (it was scheduled to go on about noon). As luck would have it, I was fighting one of the promoters students in the first round.

Now, I was fighting up a weight class in this case (I was well below lightweight at the time) mainly because I didn’t want to get matched up against Scotty) and was dog tired from being at the venue and working since 8:00 AM. Still, within the first two minutes of the match I was up like 8-0. I even scored a few takedowns, which was weird because my takedowns SUCKED. (Not as much anymore thanks to the great instructionals by Darrel Gholar, Javi Vazquez and Dave Camarillo). At some point in the match my opponent tries a toe hold on me, which was explained in great detail how it was illegal in the rules meetings. I’m Gumby damnit, and it didn’t bother me, so I slapped on a clock choke that had my opponent sputtering. At this point the promoter comes up to Scotty (who was filming the match) and told him he had to turn off the camera right away and go to the other side of the convention center so the following WOULD NOT BE CAPTURED ON VIDEO. As my opponent is in serious trouble, the match is restarted from the feet because they say I was trying to flee the mat! Then to top things off (and unbeknownst to me at the time) four points was taken away from score and given to my opponent. I went from winning 8-0 to a 4-4 tie! At this point in the match I was honestly exhausted, and when my opponent pulled guard I simply tried to stall out the remaining minute, something I’ve never, ever done before because Ralph would kick my butt if he saw me do that. Match over, and who’s hand do you think got raised? If you guess not mine, go fetch yourself a cookie.

I’ve never been more pissed over a tournament match in my entire life. Still, we got paid, we were professionals and I bit my tongue FOR YEARS over the incident. In the meantime the video we made of the event came out very good. One of the best OTM has done to date as a matter of fact. Too bad no one will ever see it, as the promoter had beef with one of the superfight participants and decided to never release the video as it would make his opponent look good.

Now like I said before, I generally avoid speaking ill of any tournament in public, but in private I swapped horror stories with many people who went to the tournament later who had experiences similar to or even worse than mine. After several years of running the tournament, the organizers had not only failed to fix any of the problems, they compounded. So how on earth did we get involved with another Arnold show? Could things possibly get any worse? You betcha! Stay tuned for part 2….

This is actually a post I made in response to a question posted on the JiuJitsuGear forum

A lot of times when these question get asked people merely list their favorite competitors, or training partners, or people who they are at least familar with and these things denigerate into popularity contests. It’s a good question to ask however as it is an excellent way of tracking the progress of Americans in Jiu Jitsu.

Okay, a few things to differentiate my list. I only considered black belts and I excluded people from the list that didn’t compete in a gi since at least 2004. There are a lot of names being thrown around that have a ton of potential, but I really only went with “active competitors” and their performance in competition. Putting these criteria, it actually became very difficult to come up with a list of the Best Americans in a gi, but this provides a good starting point I think and gives the other competitors something to strive for if they want to be considered “the Best”.

Super Feather- Aaron Lapointe (1)
Feather- Open (2)
Light- Jack McVicker (3)
Middle- Cameron Earle (4)
Medium Heavy- Todd Margolis (5)
Heavy- Rafael Lovato Jr. (6)
Super Heavy- Open (7)

Notes:

1: Aaron LaPointe is no doubt an amazing competitor, but he is also has the distinction of being the only American of note in this class.

2: Americans have shown a lot of promise in the featherweight category at brown belt, winning gold in three straight Pam Americans with tough opposition here. (2003 Aaron Briley, 2004 Shane Rice [Canadian], 2005 Jeff Glover). No American has yet to step up to a dominant force in the black belt division however since BJ Penn, who is unlikely to return to this division.

3: Toss up between Jack McVicker (who I haven’t seen much of to be honest) and Alberto Crane. McVicker gets the nod right now as he has been far more active, and I’m not sure if Alberto has put on the gi for competition since 2003, thus rendering his eligibility a question. This field is stacked with talent to look out for.

4: The deepest talent pool of American competitors by far. Still, listing Earle here as top isn’t difficult as he has never lost to American at his weight class in the gi EVER, and has a a current win over 2004 Mundial champion at the weight class.

5. Margolis is a strong contender at Middleweight, but this seems to be an easier weight class for him to make and be effective at. There will be a lot of contenders here in the near future as Americans are strong at brown belt here.

6. The question is whether or not Robert Drysdale is truly considered an American for purposes of this list. He is 1/2 American, 1/2 Brazilian and spent the majority of his time training in Brazil.

7. This a division where there is a ton of potential for Americans to shine, but as of late ALL the worthy candidates have been inactive. The problem was illustrated at Rickson’s Budo Challenge, when unable to find an American at this category with the lure of a $4000 top prize, Lovato Jr stepped up and won this division weight in at a 210 pounds (in full street clothes).

This bout is scheduled to be on the first officially sanctioned fight card in California at the San Jose Arena (which is about five minutes from my house), so I have reason to be excited about this. (Every other MMA show I’ve been to is a minimum of two and a half hours away.)

I’m honestly a bit skeptical about the main event. Basically I’ll believe it will happen when both Cesar and Frank are in the cage and the referee says “go!” Frank Shamrock has fought a twice this decade and not since 2003. Cesar Gracie hasn’t fought since…well, not counting the beatdown he delivered at a casino in Lake Tahoe to someone dumb enough to try to make a dash with his chips, I don’t think he’s fought ever.

The bad blood between the two of them is genuine, and this fight has been in the works for nearly two years. Fact of the matter is that inside sources reveal that it’s pretty much Shamrock’s fault that the fight hasn’t happened sooner and that the ball has been in his court more often than not, and Cesar has gone to great lengths to try to make this match happen.

That being said, Cesar still has to be considered a huge underdog in this bout, with his zero fight experience and the fact that Shamrock has a legit claim as to at one time being the top fighter pound for pound in the world. Also, Cesar is relatively old for a debuting MMA fighter. That is not to say that I don’t think Cesar doesn’t have a shot, but it will depend entirely on how well Cesar is prepared for this match (and given his eagerness to fight, there’s no reason to believe he won’t be well prepared). Cesar of course is head coach of one of the more successful MMA fight teams around, and in his students (such as Dave Terrell, Jake Sheilds, Nick Diaz and Gil Castillo to name a few) he has a wealth of worrthy sparring partners; coupled with his excellent base in jiujitsu and connections with Fairtex Muay Thai and he has the potential to be as well prepared as anyone making and MMA debut. Frank Shamrock has been on something of a transition with his team for the last year, having formally left AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) to form his own gym which he left after several months, and is now opening a new gym this month.

Still Frank Shamrock has the experience edge, and he has never come to a fight in less than top physical condition. In terms of pure athleticism he is among the very top fighters I have seen in this sport or in the gym for that matter. As he has demonstrated time and time again, he has the ability to finish a fight in seconds, but he also gets more and more dangerous as the fight wears on.

Frank has had problems in the past with opponents who were more “pure jiujitsu stylists” as opposed to mixed martial arts fighters, and although he is truly a jack of all trades, his grappling style is unorthodox in the view of a BJJ stylist. Frank will often sacrafice positioning (the Holy Grail of BJJ work) to look for a submission and rely on his athleticism to scramble back to a better position. Assuming he can avoid the KO, Cesar will do well to exploit this tendency, however he has to be careful because Frank will likely be prepared to do this strongly the duration of the match.

Also on the card will be the MMA debut of Cung Le. The possibility of Cung Le entering MMA has been intriguing fans for a long time now, and this bout may actually upstage the main event as Cung Le has a huge local following. San Shou is basically kickboxing with wrestling takedowns, and lately his has been working to develop his ground game with Garth Taylor, who is now teaching at Cung Le’s gym. Garth promises that Cung Le is getting more and more proficient on the ground and should be well prepared for his MMA debut. Cung Le actually began his martial arts training at Cesar Gracie’s school before his career in San Shou blossomed, and was a high school wrestling standout, so his debut should be an exciting one.

The official press release is very short on contact information. Another Bay Area Martial Arts legend in the making would like to fight on the card as well: Cameron Earle has one MMA fight (eight years ago) and would be a huge draw in the area as well. Anyone connected with the card please drop me a line.

What kind of Lightsaber Combat Style describes your jiujitsu?

First, check out this article on Wikipedia or else this post is COMPLETELY lost
Lightsaber Combat

I would say I’m closest to Form III: Soresu. I tend to be defensive and gain better and better position and only go for the submission when the opportunity presents itself or my opponent makes a mistake. Not a perfect description of my game, just the closest I can find based on the choices presented.

Who in the game today do I think would correspond to a particular style?

Form I: Shii-Cho We’re obviously talking white belts here.

Form II: Makashi Nino Schembri jumps to mind, one of the most awesome sport BJJ competitors EVER, but not much luck in MMA.

Form III: Soresu Old School Gracie Jiu Jitsu here. Roger Gracie’s defense is the best in the sport.

Form IV: Ataru An extremely acrobatic style? Bill Cooper comes to mind here. BTW, congrats on the brown belt Bill!

Form V: Shien / Djem So: Brute force offensive style. Jacare. Margarida. Cameron Earle.

Form VI: Niman: The diplomat style. In BJJ circles, I’ve heard this called “business class”.

Form VII: Juyo / Vaapad: The rarest and most dangerous of forms, requiring perfection of the mind. Rickson Gracie anyone?

Form VIII: Sokan: Acrobativs combined with precise movements. I think this describes Dave Camarillo to a T, but he seems to think he is Form IV: Ataru (Dave is a bigger geek than I am these days, which is funny considering how much he hated Episode 1 when it premiered).

Form IX: Shien Eduardo Telles. Josh Russell.

Form X: Jar’Kai Marcelo Garcia

Hmmm, maybe I’ve taken this analogy too far…..

So I TIVO’d the Pilot for ABC’s Emily’s Reasons Why Not because the commericals showed a punchline in which Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was called gay. The show showed about five minutes in a dojo of guys sparring and the characters commenting on how gay it was. That was it. The cast standing around and saying gay over and over again.

It’s not really worth getting upset about. To the casual onlooker, BJJ definitely can look gay, but the script here looked like it was written by a disgrunted TMA (Traditional Martail Arts) instructor. The rest show was about that funny also, I can take a joke as well as the next guy, but man, this show just sucked. Kind of like Sex in the City sucked, but without any chance of seeing breasts.

Here’s a link to see pictures of Heather Graham naked. (Warning Nudity Ahead, duh….)

Heather Graham naked

Something happened at ADCC 2005 that wasn’t captured on the DVD set, but after Xande lost his final match against Marcelo Garcia, he was walking off the mat looking very dejected. As he was shuffling off along the mat back to the stand, eyes cast downward someone shouted some encouragement from the stands. In a surreal moment (one of many that weekend), Xande slowly turned around to acknowledge him and even more slowly recieved a standing ovation for his efforts. Xande took third in his weight class and fourth in the absolute, which would be a stunning performance for anyone, but somehow fell short of Xande’s own expectations as he was certainly a favorite candidate to take the whole thing. He was a little more upbeat at the after parties, but he had something of a faraway look to him throughout the night.

A few short weeks later Xande was back in Southern California at the Black Belt Pro Am and looked like a completely different person. ADCC had definitely lit a fire in Xande, as if he had something major to prove, and look out anyone who was in his way. You could see it in his eyes, this was a man on a mission. He won the tournament easily (he was a heavy favorite) and then a few weeks later he took the Absolute title at the Copa do Mundo, where he was the underdog in matches against the likes of Margarida and Jacare. That performance alone would be enough to make him a contender for BJJ fighter of the year, but seeing the dramatic change that he made, the way he was able to rebound from a tough loss, well that is the stuff that champions are made of.

Xande gave us his thanks for the award:

I just learned about your guys’ award. I am very happy and honored for this award. I hope 2006 I keep that up. I appreciate this recognition and I am very delightful been choose for you guys.

Happy new year for you and all your crew.
Hope see you soon.
Take Care
Xande

Our first OTM award goes to Roger Gracie for Submission Grappler of the year.

Roger GRacie Submission Grappler of the Year

A number of years ago Scotty was probably the among the first Americans to visit Brazil for the purpose of vacationing and training. When he returned, the stories he regaled us with stories of an exotic land, but he gave a caution to the differences in training between the USA and Brazil, in that the Brazilians weren’t too keen if you rolled too hard with them, and preferred a lighter, more technical pace when training. (Disclaimer: Scotty of course was somewhat infamous as hard roller *coughspazzercough* on what was surely one of the toughest training mats around at Ralph Gracie’s early academy).

When I made my first trip (actually, to date my only trip to Brazil), I certainly kept in mind all of the pointers that Scotty had for me. In addition, I was traveling with Ralph Gracie, which I didn’t realize until I got there would entail both late night private training along with some 6:00 AM wake up calls to go running. So much for my first real vacation in years!

When we actually got to the academy my initial thoughts were on Scotty’s words of “lighter, more technical” training but rolling into an academy as an American with a Gracie meant my situation was a little different. When it came time for sparring, Ralph would confer with some of the other black belts (in Portuguese naturally, which I do not speak despite being ethnically Portuguese myself) and then I would be ordered to train with another blue belt.

“Okay,” I thought to myself, “lighter, more technical training” and then from the word “go!” I found myself sparring with a Brazilian who was earnestly trying to kill me while rolling ten times more enthusiastically than the spazziest guy back home. All the while I’d see a crowd of black belts and other students surrounding me yelling in more Portuguese as I wondered exactly what the hell Scotty was talking about.

We actually visited a few different academies in both Sao Paulo and Rio and each time the same scenario would play out. When sparring time came along I’d be singled out for special attention and when I rolled I would have an audience of a good portion of the academy. However, I somehow managed to “win” each of these matches, and coupled with the fact I was representing myself well sparring with some of the higher belts and I have to say my confidence was at an all time high.

One day I strolled into the main Gracie Barra academy by myself and when Carlinhos (Carlos Gracie Jr.) saw me he pointed me in the direction of a tall skinny kid of a blue belt (actually, not unlike my own physique) sitting against the wall sort of staring off into space and suggested I train with him. No problem I figure as he introduces Carlinhos non-chanlantly introduces me to Roger (pronouncing it with an American Accent “R” by the way).

Now if you didn’t guess from my introduction at the very start of this entry, Roger turns out to be Roger Gracie and he proceeds to deliver the worst ass whupping that I not only took while in Brazil, but one of the worst ass whuppings I’ve ever taken on the mat. Aside from tapping me every which way and then some, I also got first hand experience with the dreaded knee on chest, which is something words cannot quite do justice too.

It was only afterwards as I was checking my various bodyparts to see if they were still there, did anyone bother to mention to me that he was indeed a Gracie and was much further on that we we would come to recognize him as one of the top competitors in the sport today. It wasn’t like he delivered the asskicking with any sort of malice either, he was a very polite kid and almost humble to a fault. It’s a definiti pleasure to see how he has filled out into an outstanding jiu jitsu fighter, but just as refreshing to report that he’s still extremely polite and still almost humble to a fault.

Some may claim that Roger is suited to be next in the line of great Gracie fighters, but he’s more than that, because in a lot of ways he represnts ALL of us who love jiujitsu.

So a group of us got together to watch the Pride NYE PPV broadcast last night. Pretty much everything Pride does these days blows me away, and this card was not an exception as DSE really pulled out all the stops on this one.

That said, I was a bit disappointed that in the American PPV broadcast they decided to show the bouts out of order (which is understandable I guess) and remove some matches all together (which is a real shame).

Hidehiko Yoshida defeats Naoya Ogawa by armbar, RD 1.
Vanderlei Silva defeats Ricardo Arona by split decision.
Mark Hunt defeats Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic by split decision.
Kazushi Sakuraba defeats Ikuhisa Minowa by keylock, RD 1.
Takanori Gomi defeats Hayato Sakurai by KO, RD 1.
Dan Henderson defeats Murilo Bustamante by split decision.
Fedor Emelianenko defeats ‘Zuluzinho’ by TKO, RD 1.
Alexander Emelianenko defeats Pawel Nastula by rear naked choke, RD 1.
Sanae Kikuta defeats Makoto Takimoto by unanimous decision.
James Thompson defeats ‘Giant’ Silva by TKO, RD 1.
Kazuhiro Nakamura defeats Yuki Kondo by unanimous decision.
Charles Bennett defeats Ken Kaneko by armlock, RD 1.

Three split decisions in three very close matches. While everyone in our party agreed that Mark Hunt defeated Cro Cop, some were a little more baffled by the victories by Henderson and Silva. Upon some reflection upon Pride criteria, remember that the judges reward the will and ability to finish a fight much more heavily than other criteria. Although Bustamante dominated the match until the final two minutes, Henderson was the one who came closer to actually finishing the fight. In my opinion Bustamante simply gave that fight away and the final seconds of the match will haunt him for a long time as he should have easily gained a unanimous decision, but props to Henderson for being so damn tough. Arona vs Silva was trickier to score in my opinion, as neither did a whole lot in that match to try to finish the other one off. But Silva was the long term champion, and Arona’s performance was obviously not enought to warrant a title change. It would have made for a better storyline however if Arona had taken the title setting up the inevitable showdown with Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua for the title, who will never take a title shot as long as Vanderlai wears the belt.

Best fight of the night honors (that I actually saw) has to go to Gomi vs Sakurai. Every blow had the party wincing in pain. Huge props to Pride for giving lightweight fighters (the most exciting fighters of all in my opinion) a chance to shine, where as the world’s other major promotion foolishly phased this category out.