IFL this weekend

Just watched the weigh in videos on Sherdog.com for the IFL. I’m really excited about the concept, and hope the show goes really well. I also have a number of good friends fighting. A couple of quick thoughts, how the heck did Jamal get down to 206 pounds? Especially considering grappling circuit rival Brandon Vera is slugging it out in the heavyweight division. My oh my, with his skills and personality I think he will be the breakout star of the entire event. Secondly, Cole Escovedo needs to shave the goatee. Sorry buddy, you still look 12 years old with a Jr. Spy Kit beard on your face. J/K, kick some ass this weekend, when the bell rings, there is NO ONE I’ve seen in this sport that comes out as focused as Cole does. Good luck to all!

So Rick Macauley and I went out to lunch yesterday. We hopped in the car with the intention of going to the pier, but wound up about a block from the store at the Rocky Cola cafe. Who walks in two booths away from us other than Justin “Chim Chim” Garcia and Royce Gracie? What are the odds as Justin and Rick are friend and rivals both based out of the east coast.

Justin was in town to help Royce prepare for his match against Matt Hughes. I don’t think Royce could have asked for a better training partner for this match up. Justin is powerful, umm, compact, with excellent takedowns and jiujitsu. He just won his fight at Sport-fighting 3 this weekend via KO from inside his opponent’s guard in the first round.

Ironically out of all of the major Gracies, Royce is the one I know the least well, but in spite of that (or perhaps because of it) he is one of my biggest heros in the sport. After all, if it was not for his performances in the first few Ultimate Fighting Championships, we’d all probably be doing Tae Kwon Do and OntheMat would probably not event exist. Watching the UFC Unleashed the other night reminded me that even though the fighters that time were a lot greener and less well rounded than they are right now, Royce was/is still badass. He’s obviously not resting on his laurels either; Matt Hughes is a hell of an opponent to take on in any circumstance. Since the fight has been announced I’ve heard of Royce sightings up and down the state as he has been training very hard for this match.

I actually am going to state right now that I believe Royce is going to win this match, even though he will likely be a big underdog by the oddsmakers. Aside from the fact he is training extremely hard, I think stylistically he is a bad match up for Hughes. Matt Hughes’ jiujitsu ability is definitely underrated, but he is definitely vulnerable to the submission on the bottom, and to this day no one works a guard in MMA as well as Royce does. Also, Royce has a significant height and reach advantage on Hughes, so a stand up battle (neither man’s forte) is not likely to be in his favor. So Matt takes Royce down and then what? Anything could happen in a fight, but Royce definitely has a lot of things working in his favor.

I’ve heard some interesting comments on what this sport will mean for the perception of MMA and BJJ. I’m fairly certain that the brass at the UFC would like to use this match to enact a changing of the guard and show the evolution of the sport. As popular as the UFC has become over the last few years, there is still NO ONE more synonymous with the sport and the UFC in the public’s perception than Royce Gracie.

Once again I got to play the actual task of matchmaker for the Best of the West tournament. When I asked good friend and tournament director Ryan Gregg what he wanted, he told me “whatever you want bro”. Dream come true, I guess, but I also wasn’t given a budget and miscommunicated badly on the leads we had so this made the task a bit difficult. (Ryan also co-owns the OTM Fightshop in Hermosa Beach and like everyone else has been pulled in a million different directions as of late.

I have to start this off by apologizing to Asa Fuller, who came ready to compete in a superfight division and wound up not fighting at all. He was originally slated to particpate in a masters heavyweight pro division, and wound up being the only competitor who showed. There were a few no shows in this group, but ultimately I take responsibility for what happened and I feel awful about it happening to Asa, who I’m a big fan of on the mat and an even bigger fan off the mat. I did what I could to make it right to him yesterday, but I’m looking forward to helping him show people what he is capable of.

There are a few things to consider (well, I consider) as a matchmaker. Firstly, you have to put guys who deserve to be in there based on their competition record. If you win a few advanced or high level belt divisions at some of the larger tournaments, you deserve a place to move up to and you deserve to be rewarded for your efforts. There are guys who compete in a frequent basis and put it on the line time and time again and they need to be showcased.

One name I had confirmed was Ryron Gracie. This is obviously a matchmakers dream come true, because obviously he’s a big name, but also because he DOES fit the first priority of being a frequent competitor. While he is a big proponent of longer time limits and the IGJJIF tournament formats (more on that in the future), he also has participated in plenty of other tournaments under standard rules, including winning the advanced division at the last World Grappling Games. Furthermore, he a very nice, humble guy off the mat as well; an excellent spokesman for both the sport and his family. He doesn’t really care who he competes against either, he’s all about the big challenges in life so I was determined to put together the toughest field possible to fight him.

Unfortunately, a lot of my choices for his opponents in a tournament format didn’t pan out for one reason or another and it was pretty frustrating to have a marquee like Ryron and no one to put him against. There were definitely some people who asked for a shot, but like I said I’m big about having people earn their shot (Asa would have been a good pic, but up until the day of I thought I had my Master’s tournament set). I had contacted Rick Macauley, black belt under the Migliarese brothers in Philly about participating at Alberto Crane’s tournament (200 pound black belt division), which he couldn’t make, when it dawned on me he’s be a good participant in the tournament I was building around Ryron. Rick has a unorthodox, go for broke style of jiujitsu that always makes for exciting matches and he’s game for anything. More importantly, he’s a good guy and deserves as much as anyone the chance to showcase his talents.

Which brings me to another thing I look for in matchmaking: Character and sportsmanship. The guys I like to showcase I consider good examples on and off the mat. Ryron and Rick both exemplify sportsmanship, so I was glad to have their participation. I was recently at a tournament trying to scout out some talent to add to this mix, but found myself sort of disgusted by the conduct of some of the participants, so I didn’t bother to ask. At this point I was left with only two solid contenders for this division (actually more, but I had Asa slated for the masters bracket which I was equally excited about) and Ryron indicated he’d like a longer match so I asked Rick if he was game (of course he was) and the four man morphed into a 20 minute superfight.

Match up wise when you have two guys who are going to try to submit each other, it’s going to make for an exciting match up. Style was, there is a definite contrast between the slow, method, basic, but extremely effective style of Ryron Gracie versus the go for broke style, unorthodox and off balancing style of Rick Macauley. It was going to be interesting to see who was going to be able to dictate the pace of the match and how they would deal with each other’s game. I didn’t think it would go the full 20 minutes, but I was genuinely not sure of who would get the tap (and I’m usually pretty good at predicting grappling matches).

The match lived up to my expectations. At least I think it did, I actually didn’t watch the match in person. At the time the superfight was called I was at the booth trying (ultimately unsuccessfully) to get our register working. The match was called and I looked up and literally our entire staff had left to watch the match, leaving me by my lonesome at the table! With a cash drawer half opened and piles of merchandise, I couldn’t get up to watch as badly as I wanted to, so I was forced to watch the replay on a friend’s camera immediately afterwards (with Ryron and Rener commentating no less). Overall Ryron was happy about winning the match, but definitely gave props to Rick for his performance. Like I was 100% sure, Rick and Ryron conducted themselves like sportsmen before and after the match.

Cripes, I haven’t even gotten to talking about the lightweights, but I’ll save that for another post.

Just when you thought I had abandoned this project altogether. Actually, I HAD abandoned this project for awhile for a few reasons. Firstly my workload has increased quite a bit lately. I’ve been trying to get new material on the main page of www.OntheMat.com on a daily basis, and that has been very demanding. I’m fortunate to receive a lot of materials and support from talented writers, especially Denis Martins and Riccardo Ammendolia who have sent in some great articles, and there’s no shortage of good material to be reported on. Getting something new up everyday, and entincing all of you to visit the site every single day, is definitely demanding however. So a lot of my online focus has gone there. We also relaunched our forum so the original plan was to divert some dialog over there as well. In theory at least, it’s not quite as lively as I’d like it to be at the moment, but hopefully it will get there soon. It’s a more interactive experience for Scotty and myself.

Offline also has been extremely busy as of late. I had basically locked myself in my office to get 101 Submissions Chapter 3 done. I’m proud of how it came out from a number of standpoints (and I’m my own worst critic), but it was supposed to be out in Christmas of 2005! That pushed back the rest of my video projects considerably. Also there was the opening of our first retail store in Hermosa Beach (1010 Aviation 310-376-3586) and although I’m remote to this party it has contributed to the overall stress level greatly.

Also, and definitely not least there have been a few family crisis over the past few months that have definitely turned my attention away from the sport in general. This blog was intended to be as much of a personal, insider reflection on the sport as much as anything, but I’ve found it very difficult to concentrate on anything with some of the things going on lately as they’ve seen trivial in comparison. I don’t really feel at liberty at this time to post what those things were, but I will say things have settled down and are more or less under control.

This last week a lot of people have approached me and told me they really liked the website, and were enjoying my blog as well. Means a lot, and definitely gave me the motivation to start writing again. So much for the brief explanation of where I’ve been. Rather than preach on what I plan on doing, I’m simply going to do it. Thanks for all the kind words and support, and hope you continue to find this entertaining.