Introduction to MMA
What is MMA?
Well it is all in the name! MMA = Mixed Martial Arts. Almost all the practitioners are skilled in multiple arts. One popular combo is Muay Thai for the stand up, Wrestling for takedowns and takedown defense and brazilian jiu jitsu for ground fighting and submissions!
But there are other combo's too, like boxing for stand up, Judo instead of Wrestling and Sambo. There is even a guy (Machida) that has a combo of traditional Shotokan Karate, Muay Thai, Sumo and BJJ.
In this day of age a fighter must be a master of multiple disciplines. A guy who is only good at striking will be taken down and neutralized. A ground specialist is going to be KTFOd.
Stand-up, ground fighting, wrestling, what the hell are you talking about?
Well the stand-up part of the fight is easy to understand. Both guys are standing and they try to strike (kicking, punching, kneeing elbowing) each other, or close the distance.
If fighters get real close to each other they start to hug. This hug is called a clinch, because that sounds more manlier 
. There are various option here. You can knee or elbow from the clinch, you can try to take your opponent down or you could prevent to be taken down if you prefer to stand.
There is also a different way to take down an opponent, by shooting. Shooting is basically diving towards his leg to topple the guy. If the opponent does not see it coming, he will be on his back.
The last one is ground fighting. This is slower and more methodical. Trying to get a position to submit your opponents with various techniques, like armbars, chokes, leglocks, etc. This techniques are designed to choke someone out or break his limb. To prevent that a fighter submits before this happens. This can be by tapping or verbally submitting.
There is also another option on the ground, and that option is striking. Also known as ground and pound. In other words, you lay on top of them and punch them in the face.Ã���Ã��Ã�Â
So how do you win?
The cool thing about MMA is that are various ways to win. You can win by KO or TKO. You can win by submission or by decision. You can KO people on the ground, standing (or in the air if you are Fedor). You can submit people by chokes, leg locks, neck cranks or even by punches (they tap if they had enough). So many options, so many ways to win or lose.
Submissions tell me more
There are various techniques I will explain the most common ones.
The armbar
With this move you hyperextend the elbow if he does not tap, it will break very easily. There are various variations. The picture shows the basic ones. But you can also do the armbar from the bottom. There is even a flying variation, which is used to submit a standing guy. It is a high risk move though.
Shoulder locks
These move can rip your shoulder of, it can be applied on the top, bottom or even standing.
Triangle Chokes
This move is awesome, you use your legs to cut of circulation to the head. Causing your opponent to faint! It is usually preformed at the bottom, but there is a flying version of it. Yep you heard it right, there is a bloody flying version of it. Oh the humanity. Genki Sudo was a master of the flying triangle.
Chokes
There are many different chokes, but they can have two effect. It can cut off the blood circulation to the head, causing you to faint. It usually takes 5-10 seconds before someone faints, so once the choke is set in, it can go very quickly.
Another way is to close the wind pipe. This way take a whole lot longer, but it is also a lot more painful.
So with all the moves, do all fighters fight the same?
Hell, no! There are different type of fighters, there are guys who are good strikers. So they use their wrestling skills to keep the fight standing and use their ground skills mostly defensively. There are ground guys who want to take it to the ground and there are all-rounders who can do both.
Even among strikers there are many different types. You have guys who go balls out insane, you have guys who are very illusive, etc. You have kung-fu guys, Muay Thai, Karate, etc. The same is true for all the other disciplines.
So who is my favorite fighter?
Fedor no questions asked.
So they all fight in this UFC thing I have heard about, right?
Wrong, there are many different MMA organizations around the world. In America you have Strikeforce, UFC and Affliction. In Japan you have Sengoku, Dream and Pancrase. I mentioned only 6, but there are a lot more.
So can you tell me more about some of the biggest MMA organisations?
Yes
So?
So what?
Tell me more about these big organizations!
Okay, if you insist
The UFC is currently by far the biggest MMA organization. It all started in November 12 1993 as a no hands barred contest. There were only 2 rules, no biting and eye gouging. There were no round and no weight classes. The fight would last until a guy was KOd or until he submitted.
In the early days each fighter had his own style, so it was styles vs styles. A boxer vs a wrestler, a kickboxer vs a Sumo guy, etc. This slowly changed until the fighters were more well rounded like they are today.
The UFC is also the place were the Octagon is invented. Basically is a octagon shaped cage. This is were the term cage fighting is from
Today there are far more rules and the sport is the fastest growing sport in the States. The sport is becoming more and more accepted.
Started in 1997 to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie. This proved such a success, they started their own promotion. In the heydays of Pride it was even bigger than the UFC. It was shown on Fuji TV in Japan and was also very popular worldwide.
But after Fuji TV dropped their support because of alleged links with the Yakuza, Pride was in trouble. They were then brought by Zuffa the parent company of the UFC, and now they do not exist. So sad.
Later more organizations
Okay as promised the NYE event. In Japan it is tradition to put fights on New Year's Eve. They are infamous for organizing freak shows and mismatches. In other words they can get really bloody. Normally the different organizations each have their own NYE event, but this time Dream, Sengoku and K1 organized a super event.
SO I PRESENT TO YOU THE K1 DYNAMITE 2009 EVENT
Masato vs. Souwer
Masato is probably the most famous martial artist in Japan. He has actually won the highly prestigious K1 max tournament (kick boxing rules). This is his last fight before retirement and he has chosen his opponent to be Andy Souwer. The Dutch Destroyer is also 2 times K1 max champion and he actually has a 2-0 record against Masato. So can Masato avenge his losses before retiring or will Souwer win again?
See the fight here
Aoki vs Hirota
Aoki is the Lightweight champion of Dream, Hirota is the Lightweight champion of Sengoku. Who win this fight and become the undisputed Lightweight champion? Bugsy Aoki has awesome BJJ. His submission are sick.
See the fight here
Minowa vs Sokoudjou
The finals of the Super Hulk tournament. Super Hulk tournament was basically putting huge guys against little guy. A real life David and Goliath. Minowaman is such a David. He slain giants like Hong Man Choi and Bob Sapp. Will he be able to reach Splash Heaven by defeating Sokoudjou? Will the underdog win? All hail the red speedos!
See the fight here
Some other matches
Melvin Manhoef vs Kazuo Misaki
See fight here
Sakurai vs. Gono
See fight here
Time for some huge mismatches
Mousasi vs. Goodridge
See fight here
Ubereem vs Fujita
See fight here
WTF?!
Are you talking about Aoki's behaviour or the arm break?
Let's just go with the whole match
Gif of the arm breakage. Not for the faint hearted
Ugh disgusting, should have tapped.
Picture of Aoki acting like a dick
Okay it's UFC 108 time
Rashad Evans vs Thiago Silva
The winner will fight Rampage Jackson. As some of you might know Evans and Jackson were coaches of the last Ultimate Fighter. The normal idea is that the coaches fight each other when the reality show is over, but Rampage had other plans. Hollywood plans, playing as BA Baracus in the A-Team. A shame really because the two coaches were in each others hair all the time, it would have been great to see them fight. Other nice piece of information both fighter where KTFO by the current LHW champion Lyoto Machida.
See fight here, pay attention to the idiotic action in round 3. Jesus what a idiot.
Dos Santos vs. Yvel
Dos Santos is one of the up and coming fighters in the UFC. Dana White said that he is close to a title shot. Yvel we know from Affliction, where he fought Josh Barnett. Both are know to be strikers, so expect bombs to fly.
See fight here
Hazelett vs. Daley
Classic striker vs. BJJ guy.
See fight here
Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
Don't know these guys, but this fight was awarded fight of the night
See fight here
^Awesome story Yoda. More people should read that
Yoda you are going to "love" this
Brock Lesnar's Fight for His Life
UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar said his road to wellness included multiple misdiagnoses, substandard medical care and a frantic car ride across the Canadian border.
Lesnar, who has battled through a painful intestinal infection called diverticulosis for the last few months, related his story during a Wednesday conference call.
“I didn’t know what was going on at first,” Lesnar said. “I was very sick. I’ve been suffering almost a year with something I didn’t know what it was. I had some stomach pains here and there and some flu-like symptoms throughout the year. Actually, during the training camp for Shane Carwin is when everything just kind of snowballed. That’s when I realized I was missing full weeks of my training camp because I just couldn’t perform. That’s when I decided four weeks out to give these guys (the UFC) hopefully enough notice.”
Lesnar said the last thing he wanted to do was give a “bad performance” or “risk losing my title,” so he withdrew from a Nov. 21 contest against Carwin at UFC 106. The promotion tentatively rescheduled the bout for UFC 108 on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas, while the 32-year-old fighter kept returning to the doctor to pinpoint what was wrong with him.
Lesnar said physicians gave a couple of potential diagnoses, including mononucleosis and the H1N1 virus. Lesnar acknowledged that he refused to get a CT scan, which might have allowed doctors to diagnose him properly at the time.
“In my mind, I either had the flu or mono, and so I had to pull the pin and decided to take a little vacation and get away from the chaos and head up to Canada and do some hunting,” Lesnar said.
In Canada, Lesnar said he woke up one night in “shock” and in a cold sweat.
“I mean it was big time,” he said. “(I) didn’t know where I was and realized I had to seek medical help. … I’m out in the boondocks. It was about two and a half, three hours from what I thought would be a good medical facility.”
Lesnar said he soon became concerned with the care he was receiving.
“Probably the lowest moment was getting care from Canada,” he said. “I hate to bash them, but … not to get on the political side of things, but our healthcare system is a little radical, but listen, we’ve got the best doctors in the world here. Our system does need some restructuring, but I don’t believe a total reform is the answer.
“They couldn’t do nothing for me,” Lesnar continued. “It was like I was in a third-world country. I just looked at my wife and she saved my life and I had to get out of here. I’m just stating the facts here, and that’s the facts. I love Canada. I own property in Canada, but if I had to choose between getting care in Canada or the United States, I’d definitely want to be in the United States.”
Lesnar wouldn’t reveal the name of the Canadian medical center where he received his initial care, but he said that machinery at the facility wasn’t working when the staff needed it.
“I wasn’t at the right facility, and it makes sense for me to say that,” Lesnar explained. “I knew that I had to get out of there. My wife saved my life. She got me out of there and drove a hundred miles an hour to get me to Bismarck, North Dakota, to Medcenter One, got me with Dr. Berger and his staff at Medcenter One, and that doctor there saved my career and my life.”
During the 100-mile-an-hour car ride with his wife at the wheel, Lesnar said he was in “excruciating” pain.
“That’s when I made the phone call to Dana, cursing him out and telling him to send the jet for me,” Lesnar laughed.
UFC President Dana White said his low-point came when he saw his heavyweight champion in the North Dakota hospital.
“He didn’t eat. They were feeding him intravenously. He didn’t know what was going on,” White said. “They had him on morphine for the pain and he was panicking and freaking out, (and) ripping heads off, mine included.”
The Bismarck medical staff properly diagnosed Lesnar’s condition, he said.
“It extended to me to diverticulosis. … I had a perforation. One of my diverticula ruptured,” he said. “I had a hole in my stomach, needless to say, a minor hole, but any tear in your stomach liner releases free air and I was killing myself. My abscesses were so large that my body was infected. My body couldn’t gain all the nutrients I needed. I couldn’t eat enough food to get enough energy.”
Lesnar’s doctors wanted to perform major surgery once the area’s swelling had gone down.
“What they wanted to do was go in and remove the bad section of my colon,” Lesnar said. “If that perforation hadn’t have healed itself, that’s what I was facing.”
Lesnar said that route would have entailed wearing a colostomy bag for six to eight weeks, then additional surgery to reattach his intestines together. If Lesnar had gone through with the surgery, he said he “would have probably retired.”
During his 11-day stay at Medcenter One, Lesnar said the staff performed a “small medical procedure,” where a six-inch needle was placed in the fighter’s stomach to drain three pockets of fluid. Lesnar said 14 CC’s of fluid were removed in all. Lesnar was also prescribed multiple antibiotics to fight the infection.
“The next morning, I was able to eat, and that’s when I decided that I’d had enough of the hospital and then I proceeded to go home,” he said.
Lesnar visited the Mayo Clinic the next week for a second opinion, though the Mayo physicians concurred with the North Dakota staff: Lesnar would need major surgery within three months to correct the situation. Lesnar was asked to return in six weeks for a colonoscopy examination to assess the damage once his swelling had receded.
Lesnar returned to his Alexandria, Minn., home and did something wholly unconventional: He went back into the gym.
“I lost 40 pounds, so I wanted to get my weight back, start eating healthier,” he said. “What got me here was a total protein diet, not enough fiber. I totally changed my diet, got on some natural healing medicine and was just doing a lot of praying.”
The change in diet wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.
“I’m a carnivore, you know? I’m not a big fan of PETA. I’m a member of the NRA and whatever I kill, I eat,” Lesnar said. “For years, I was surviving on meat and potatoes, and when the greens came by, I just kept passing them.”
Lesnar, a self-described “private person,” did not comment publicly on his ordeal during this time. Reporters turned to the UFC, and when they ran out of answers, the media went to his camp.
“When my own camp comes out and says things when they’re not authorized to say anything, it pissed me off,” Lesnar said. “Automatically, I want to get rid of those people because they’re the people I trust and for them to go out and speak on my behalf, I was not happy. I am a private guy. I didn’t want to talk to anybody because there was nothing to talk about.”
When Lesnar returned to the Mayo Clinic on Jan. 5, he and the doctors were astonished by what they found.
“They found absolutely nothing,” Lesnar said. ‘The doctors came in and their whole panel at the Mayo Clinic just said, ‘You just got a winning lottery ticket. We don’t need to do surgery on you.’”
Lesnar had another CT scan Monday to verify the findings, which remain intact for the time being. He said he’ll return to the gym on Thursday morning. At his lightest, Lesnar said he weighed 248 pounds. Today, he said he’s back up to 273 pounds.
“I consider myself a healthy human being. I’m 32 years old and for something like this to happen to me, I definitely had to re-evaluate,” Lesnar said. “When you think you’re doing all of the right things and all of a sudden something like this happens, obviously you’re not. I had to make some changes.”
White said Lesnar will fight the winner of the March 27 interim championship bout between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin. The title reunification bout that follows will likely be held in Las Vegas, said White.
Lesnar said he’ll be prepared for whichever challenger emerges.
“I’m getting ready for anybody and everybody,” said Lesnar. “I know the heavyweight division is definitely back on its toes again because Brock Lesnar is definitely back.”