What can I say?  You either *LOVE the guy, or you HATE the guy, but even those of us who LOVE him can tell you that some days you want to KILL him.

Gabe and I have been friends for years and I’ll tell you that there is another side to him than the one he chose to portray on the Ultimate Fighter Reality show.

Why he did it?

Will it work for him?

Who knows?

Of course, I have nearly a decade’s worth of memories and stories to fall back upon when describing Gabe.  Most of you have three hour long TV shows to go by in making an assessment, so it’s completely fair that we have different perceptions of him.

I happen to LOVE Gabe, both as a person and a fighter, the show hasn’t changed that.  It’s because I LOVE him that I watch SpikeTV and have a hearty laugh at what I see.

Gabe really is a good guy and has been an intensely loyal friend over the years.  Not above some good natured ribbing in any case,and like I said, I have stories and stories and stories about him.

*And I mean LOVE in the most manly and hetero way possible, of course.

Please help!

One of our good friends, Ryan Parker (referee at both WGG and GQ) is in a situation where his in a custody battle with the mother of his son, and he is afraid she is trying to slip over state lines in order to avoid summons.  He has tried contacting the authorities in the matter, but has been told he basically needs to hire a lawyer and a private investigator to handle the matter at this point.  Needless to say, he is both frustrated and desperate at this point, but hopefully this will work out in the end.

Ryan doesn’t have much in the way of money right now, but is an assistant instructor at the Gracie Academy and is willing to work off in private lessons or whatever it takes in fees or whatnot in helping him locate and recover his son!  If you are in the Southern California area and can help and/or give advice, it would be much appreciated.

You can call Ryan at any time at 310-634-7926 or email Gumby@onthemat.com if there is anything you can do.  Please!  Serious inquiries only as time may be of the essence here!  Ryan needs to talk to a family law attorney or a private investigator at this point, even if it’s just to get advice right now.

Thank you very much!

As I stated in an earlier post, I rarely compete any more.  But when I do compete, I take it very seriously.  I prepped by rolling grabbing the top guys at our academy each time I went in (with special thanks to Julio, Mike Prudencio, “Machine”, and of course Batata), working on my cardio and core strength, and about two weeks out strictly monitoring my diet.  I came in prepared and focused.

I have to admit however, that leading up to the match I did have bouts with nerves at various times.  I’m not sure if it was the return after a long lay off, or the debut at black belt, or both, but I definitely had mixed feelings about stepping on the mat again.  Honestly, I could probably be one of the most respected black belts and personalities in the sport around and never have to test myself again but that’s not what I want.  I’m proud of the accomplishment of getting the black belt (especially from a guy like Ralph Gracie), but now is the time to “test it out” so to speak.  I have respect for all competitors, naturally, and my ability to step up to a high level of competition would be good for my reputation and business, -truth be told even with the prestige of running OTM I’ve been approached much differently since getting my black belt, but all of that was secondary -I didn’t do this for anyone other than myself.  I needed to know where I was at.

I got Cristiano Renato from Gracie Barra in the first round.  I was a solid head taller than he was and although I don’t think he spoke English we greeted each other warmly before the match started.  The referee gave us our instructors, and then it was go.  “Oh crap!” I thought to myself, I’m really in it!”  Cristiano shot in for a takedown early on and rather than fight it I tried to take his back as we went down.  Cristiano landed on top (vague recollection of where) and immediately began to work on tying up my arm.  He spun around and went for the armlock, I defended pretty well I think (I practice this escape all the time) and rolled on top and got out.  After a brief scramble Cristiano closed his guard.

At this point I settled down a bit, I looked at Cristiano and thought to myself “Is that the best you can do?”  Some of my friends from the sideline said the look on my face changed at this point as I was determined to make him pay for getting any kind of offense on me.  I worked a stand up pass but Cristiano quickly went to his feet.  We tied up briefly in that classic black belt stance where we’re tied up and bent over but not really doing anything.  I was really uncomfortable being there (especially considering I already gave up takedown points) so I tried pulling guard pretty quickly.  Cristiano reacted well, and I only managed to get half guard.  Cristiano held tight and the referee began warning him for stalling, but to tell the truth I felt very comfortable down there (Batata puts me in the exact same position all the time with a LOT more pressure) and was waiting for my opportunity to make my move.

At this point with the adrenaline and all my memory is a little hazy, so please forgive any inaccuracies in the timeline.  At some point the referee called warned Cristiano for stalling and even gave a two point penalty.  I tried for some half guard sweeps but Cristiano wasn’t going anywhere, so I settled for working for a full guard.  Again, I was very comfortable here the entire time, and felt my opportunity to work some sweeps or attacks.  My opponent had a classic head down hands in armpits stance much of the match attempting to hold me down, but I felt stronger and when I couldn’t secure for a sweep, I began looking for submissions.  I think I nearly pulled off two triangle chokes, and an omaplata but Cristianio escaped each time.  With about two minutes to after one of my submission attempts he very nearly got passed my guard and I was almost ready to accept it at that point.  There were a lot of people cheering and yelling, but the one voice I could hear was Mikyo Riggs above all others giving me advice (plus I was thinking of Batata’s advice on the match) and right before the referee was going to award points I moved my hips and put him back in my guard.  With time short I think Cristiano would have been content to hold on for the win at this point (it was 2-2 not sure how the advantages were awarded at this point), but I managed to pull my leg in front of his face and tried to secure a gogoplata.  It was pretty close, but once again Cristiano escaped and got back to his feet and time expired.

So I lost my black belt debut (although quite a few spectators thought I should have won), but I’ll take a loss like that any day.  Hats off to Cristiano, I’ve never complained about a match I left at the referee’s discretion.

More importantly, I gained a lot of confidence in my own abilities, and feel that I rightfully belong among the black belts now.  My skill felt good, my technique was strong and I honestly could have gone another twenty minutes in that match at least and still felt strong.  I’m definitely going to try to compete more in the future.