Got to chatting with Javi at the IGJJF, where he made a return to Gi competition after a long layoff.  Javi managed to win three matches against Ricky Lundell, Frederico Sabbatini and a war against Jeff Glover.  Not bad for anticipated one match and out.

The bigger news is that Javi is set to resume his MMA career.  After retiring after a series of injuries to the knee, Javi feels he is back and is ready to enter the cage once again.  He has three tenable matches lined up in various organization, including the WEC and the UFC, but no opponents as of yet.

I honestly believe a healthy Javi is among the greatest 155 pounders in the country, and the biggest tragedy for me is that he was unable to compete in ADCC 2005 because of an injury.  (Notice all three of the men he beat in the trials were in the show).

The biggest news in Javi’s life is scheduled for TODAY however, as fiance Rose Gracie is set to give birth to the couple’s daughter.  Congratulations to the both of you!  I wish you nothing but the best.

So we left my home a little after 3:00 PM on Thursday.  The drive to Lemore takes a little less than three hours, but since we stopped to eat along the way we wound up a little late and missed the first two matches.  You can read the main write up fro the WEC on the main page.  All in all it was a funs show, as always; the WEC has always had a great mix of local talent and establised or up and coming MMA fighters, and the fights almost always prove to be exciting. 

Interesting note in that competing directly head to head against a televised Ultimate Fight Night, most of the major MMA newsites were covering this show as I sat directly behind Josh Gross of Sherdog and Loretta Hunt of FCFighter.  Two of the top journalists in the sport for sure, and nice people to boot.  Jeff Sherwood himself was there shooting pictures.  WEC = accomadating to journalists; UFC = Media ban, so not too hard to see why everyone chose to cover the shows they did.

 Speaking of accomadating (I’m sure I’m spelling the word wrong), Melissa from the WEC actually gave me one of the spare hotel rooms the WEC reserved, so I actually made it to my first WEC after party.  Previously I had always either had to run, or flat out got lost on the way, but this time I had no excuse.  The after party was held upstairs at the Palace casino, and the WEC had even hired a band for the event.  Unfortunately, the band played mainly Green Day and Metallica cover tunes, LOUDLY and the after party was over before it really even began.  Most of the fighters and crew wound up at Jaspers, which is where the after parties are usually held, and then continued on at the hotel until very, very late at night fueled by testosterone and Jagermiester. 

On Friday morning Canada and I continued along to Los Angeles and made our first stop at the OTM Fight shop in Hermosa Beach, where I could use internet access to post my WEC report.  Canada did take some pictures from the event, however he left his cable at home, so the photo gallery will have to wait.  I had originally planned on attending Pangea that night and writing a report, but I understand there were issues getting tickets and press passes (I had come down assuming they were taken care of through the crew here), but sensing some drama between the OTM crew down here and the promoters, I decided to shine on trying to get in. 

Instead, I made my way to the Gracie Academy in Torrance to pick up Chris Moriaty and Chase from Atlanta, who flew in for the IGJJF.  Chatted with the folks there, and took Canada to see the Gracie Mueseum upstairs.  If you EVER get the chance to check it out, do so; it was my second time and there were a few things added in addition to the cool exhibits and memorbilia.  Everyone who visits is literally freaked out by the amount of matspace at the academy, however they are moving to an even LARGER academy soon.  The turn out should be fairly large for the tournament, when I talked with Rener they had somewhere between 400-500 people signed up already making this the largest tournament yet, however he looked to have things well in control.

A group of us including Canada, myself, Chris, Chase, and Ryron wound up going to the Cheesecake factory for dinner.  Conversations varied, but the subject of the Gracie Diet did come up, which Ryron definitely follows to a degree.  He explained it was about the combination of foods in your system, particularly the amount of acids in your stomach. For the record, I believe he had an eggroll type appertizer, along with chicken and angel hair pasta, and he turned down an opportunity to have a fruit smoothie as it conflicted with the Gracie diet.

Today is a big day, with the IGJJF white and purple belts, along with TFA tonight, which has been very cool about things like press passes and the like. 

Okay, today I start a four day road trip that will be among the most action packed yet, as I will be attending three MMA shows and one major jiu jitsu event in the span of four days.

I’ll be totally honest by saying sometimes these long drives wear a bit thin, especially when you have to do the long drive up the I5 solo.  This time however David “Canada” McCleod is along for the ride while his wife and son are visiting family, so because he’s excited for the trip I’m that much more excited.

Tonight is the WEC in Lemoore, CA.

Tomorrow night is the Pangea fights in Hollywood.

Saturday and Sunday is the Gracie World Championships (IGJJF)

Saturday night is TFA.

Naturally, I’ll have reports and blow by blows from all of the events on the main page.  I’ll try to keep a road journal and some amusing backstage stories here.

CNN Video Story

If you can’t view the video, a 26 year old man was sentenced to 30 days for choking to death his friend while playing “Tapout”.  The sentence was the maximum allowed because both men were voluntarily playing the game (yes, there was drinking involved).  The light sentence lead to some angry words in the courtroom, but the defendant tearfully apologized.

I’m not sure what to make of this story as of yet.  It does illustrate that the chokes we perform in jiujitsu are not to be taken lightly however, and if not conducted under the proper circumstances, may have tragic results.  Trained professionals under supervision is the key people!

I can understand the family being upset at the death, but if both men were voluntarily playing along, I don’ think there was much the court could do.  I wonder if there are going to be more ramification stemming from this incident however.

Rich Franklin’s Website

I happened to be looking for something else, but saw this item posted on Rich’s website today. This is good for a number of reasons. MMA and the sport is growing, but in order to truly find mainstream acceptance (and as a reward for success) projects where MMA can give back to the community at large are important.

From Amal Easton’s website

Last night Professor Easton awarded a very well-deserved BLACK BELT to Eliot Marshal! Eliot won bronze at Worlds in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last week, adding to a long list of amazing accomplishments, including being the only American to win the Pan-Americans in the blue through brown belt levels. He has been an incredible asset to the school, with his energy and passion for the art. We are proud to now call him PROFESSOR MARSHAL!!!

As stated above, Amal has medaled in pretty much every competition he has entered. He’s a huge asset to the American Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community for both his abilities on the mat and his spirit off of it. The competition scene has definitely gotten a lot more interesting with Eliot’s promotion. Congrats Eliot!

Blatantly lifted from a thread over at MMA.tv check the link for descriptions.
Koutetsu Boku def. Alexandre Franca Nogueira via Unanimous Decision

Semmy Schilt def. Kim Min Soo via Submission(Triangle Choke) in the 1st Round

Ivan Menjivar def. Hideo Tokoro via Majority Decision

Rani Yahira def. Kazuya Yazuhiro via Submission(Arm Triangle) in the 1st Round.

Caol Uno def. Kultar Gill via Submission(RNC) in the 2nd Round

Yoshihiro Akiyama def. Kin Tai via TKO(Ref Stoppage) in the 1st Round

Melvin Manhoef def. Crosley Gracie via TKO in the 1st Round

Don Frye def. Yoshihisa Yamamoto via Submission(RNC) in the 1st Round

Shungo Oyama def. Rodrigo Gracie via Unanimous Decision

Kazushi Sakuraba def. Kestutis Smirnovas via Submission in Round 1

Now for some of my thoughts.  This marks Alexandre Franca “Pequeno” Nogueira 2nd loss in a row.  At one point he was the most dominating 145 pound fighter in the world, but he was stripped of the Shooto title after not defending it against number one contender Gil Melendez for sometime (I think Gil would have beaten him, and now I’m even more convinced of this).

Rani is looking like the most dominating fighter of his weight class on the submission circuit right now (speaking of Gil he absolutely dominated him at the Tournament of Pros).  This moves his record to 9-1, his only loss being to Fredson Paxaio, who was OTM’s 2004 JiuJitsu Player of the year.  Right now, I have a hard time picturing anyone in either sport beating him.
(Speaking of our good friend Fredson, he’s currently 7-2 in MMA having won a majority decision over Masakazu Imanari at Deep Impact the night before).

Crosley’s performance was described as disappointing, which I’m bummed about, but he took the fight on about 24 hours notice, as he was only in Japan to corner cousin Rodrigo.  Crosley was also out of the game for sometime when he broke his hand at Pride Bushido well over a year ago.  It looks like it’s going to be a long flight home for the Gracie boys, but they will be back.

Title of a thread over at Fight Opinion with a quote from OTM reporter Denis Martins.  Denis is of course the OTM Brazil correspondent and one of the most prolifc writers on the MMA scene.  We’re really lucky to have him on board with us.

On the same article it talks about Josh Barnett’s obsession with Fist of the North Star.  The first time I met him (actually hung out with him) we talked about Anime for hours.  We’re both old school Otaku I guess.  I used to be pretty heavily into the scene, well before my jiujitsu days I guess, even attended a few convention (although I never dressed up in Cosplay).  It was Fist of the North Star that got me into the genre, at the time one of the most violent cartoons ever.  Basicially anyone who got punched would have their heads blown off, in graphic detail on the series.  It shouldn’t be too hard to find a copy, so definitely check it out if you can (the anime, not the American Live action movie which is novel only for having an appearance by pro wrestler Leon “Van Vader” White.

Our good friend and former WEC lightweight champion (and sometime OTM reporter) Gabe Ruediger is fighting in UFC 63 against TUF 2 contestant Melvin Guillard.  Gabe has an overall record of 10-2 and is actually taking a leave of absence from his day job to concentrate on training for this fight for the first time in his career.  He definitely has a gameplan going into this match, but I won’t spoil it here.  You may know Gabe from Internet infamy on various forums, yes he has a big mouth, but he’s got skills and heart to back it up.  I’ve got way to many Gabe stories that are not fit for print here   Needless to say we wish him good luck.