THE LAST EMPEROR

From his humble beginnings in the coldRussian frontier to the flashing lights ofTokyo and the Saitama Super Arena,Fedor has come a long way. Now it istime for Strikeforce to let America knowwho the greatest fighter in the worldreally is.By Jim McTavish

74 KING MO

Muhammed Lawal has taken his world caliberwrestling credentials and his own style of flash andpizzazz to bridge the gap between hopefullyprospect to MMA superstar.By Deshalen Barber

80 STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING

Think your spin class and five pound dumbbells aregoing to cut it? Nick and Rick take you through anMMA workout that is sure to get you pumped.By Nick Rians and Rick Rozandaal

84 JON ANIK

MMA’s mouthpiece at ESPN sits down with TapouTMagazine to tell us how he got into MMA, what tookESPN so long to cover it and his ultimate dream fight.By Matthew Kaplowitz

87 GREG NELSON

The two-time cancer survivor knows a thing or twoabout battling adversity. Now he is tasked withturning the raw power and muscle in Brock Lesnarinto an MMA legend.By Ricky Bonnet

102 BRETT ROGERS

The other half of the Fedor Emelianenko vs BrettRogers Strikeforce main event is not be forgotten.Quick note, he respects Fedor but Kimbo on theother hand . . .By Ricky Bonnet

107 SHANE CARWIN

We interviewed Carwin when he was a wetbehind the ears rookie, now he is a facingUFC champion Brock Lesnar for theheavyweight belt. They grow up so fast.By Ricky Bonnet Cover photo by Esther Lin / Strikeforce

TABLE OF CONTENTSFeatures ISSUE 33

96

10 TapouT

14 From the ChairmanRobert Pittman

16 From the PublisherBobby Pittman

18 From the EditorRJ Clifford

22 Notes from BasBas Rutten

24 Shooter’s TouchErik Paulson

26 No Holds BarredEddie Goldman

28 Gracie BarraMarcio Feitosa& Flavio Almeida

30 The Last WordAdam Villareal

32 The Fight NerdMatthew Kaplowitz

72 MMAterialAll the Gear You Need

94 Grappling SchoolsAlliance

119 View Through the CageKarl Maple

SMP, Inc. as a publisher is an advertising platform and does not endorse or make representation, warranty or guarantee concerning the safety or effectiveness of either the products and services advertised in this magazineor the martial arts ads or other techniques discussed or illustrated in this magazine. The publisher expressly disclaims any and all liability relating to the manufacture, sale or use of such products and services and theapplication of the techniques discussed or illustrated in this magazine. The purchase or use of some of the products, services or techniques advertised or discussed in this magazine may be illegal in some areas of theUnited States or other countries. Therefore, you should check federal, state and local laws prior to your purchase or use of these products, services or techniques. The publisher makes no representation or warranty con-cerning the legality of the purchase or use of these products, services or techniques in the United States or elsewhere. Because of the nature of some of the products, services or techniques advertised or discussed in thismagazine, you should consult a physician before using these products or services or applying these techniques.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Columns ISSUE 33

34

48

44

51

114

12 TapouT

FROM THECHAIRMAN

Welcome to Issue #33 and it’s one of

our best productions yet. We had a great

run with some new sales this issue, and

yes, we’ve had some old friends drop

out. I believe in our product, our team

and this sport we love so much. I don’t

think we are secure in any parts of the

business and continually look for new

ways to improve and grow.

Speaking of growing, we just launched our grand opening of MMA Worldwide

Video Production Department (see pages 36-37). This will be so important to

up and coming fighters and models who need to present their abilities without

costing them an arm and a leg.

There was some talk on Inside MMA about Bas Rutten, the teacher, and his

worth. I must say Bas is one of the best teachers, coaches and fighters we have

ever had in this business. We at MMA Worldwide would like to throw out a

THANK YOU and congrats for all you have accomplished and will continue to

accomplish. Bas is someone we look up to, admire and highly recommend. Bas,

you are one of the best and we wish you continued success! When teaching

someone who just doesn’t have what it takes to be a great fighter, my grand-

mother used to say, “You can’t polish a horse turd.” Enough said.

We are in the process of completing a book for Triumph Books (a division of

Random House) that will be about the making of our weekly TV Show. This

glossy picture book will feature all the behind-the-scenes craziness you didn’t

get to see with some of the best photos in MMA. The book will hit newsstands

in early December. This would make a great Xmas gift for anyone.

I would like to personally thank MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas

for the sponsorship of our model contest on Episode #10 of our TV show. MMA

Worldwide’s TV Show airs on Friday on HDNet. You are missing so much

MMA action if you don’t have this channel so DEMAND IT! Inside MMA airs

each Friday night along with tons and tons of fights and MMA content.

Personality can open doors but only character can keep them open. The truth

is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real

nobility is in being superior to your former self.

Robert “The Closer” Pittman

Published bimonthly by SMP, Inc.Tel (714) 226-0585 • Fax (714) 226-0583

ISSN 1937-108X

TAPOUT®, The TAPOUT Logo®,TAPOUT MAGAZINE™, et.al. is a trademark

of Tapout, LLC (www.TapouT.com) and isused under license. All Rights Reserved.

Published under license toIntegrity Publishing, LLC Inc. from

Tapout LLC. The content and opinions inTAPOUT® Magazine are not endorsed by

Tapout, LLC.

Official magazine of TAPOUT®

Tapout Magazine™ is a trademark ofTapout, LLC (www.TapouT.com)

Robert F. Pittman

Sheree Brown-Pittman

Bobby Pittman

Nicole Pittman

Dan Harkey

RJ Clifford

Jeffrey Kimberlin

Mark AllenCraig VaughanDaniel Walton

John Nguyen

Jacob Wells

Erik Paulson

Fred George

Andrew Bonsall

Adam Villarreal

Bas RuttenMarcio FeitosaZach Even-EshDane HesseKirik JennessEddie Goldman

Chris Staab

Lisa Williams

CHAIRMAN

CO-CHAIRMAN

PUBLISHER

CONTROLLER / C.F.O.

GENERAL MANAGER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SALES MANAGER

SALES

CUSTOMER RELATIONS

EDITOR

TRAINING EDITOR

FITNESS EDITOR

MEDICAL EDITOR

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

FEATURED WRITERS

DIRECTOR OF MULTIMEDIA

OPERATIONS

DESIGN & LAYOUT

PRINT WHAT WE SELL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICYAt SMP Inc., we believe in minimizing paper waste by printingwhat we sell. We do not flood the magazine into massmarkets, which typically sell fewer than 40 of every 100 copiesthey receive, and discard the unsold magazines. Our stancecosts us sales, but saves extremely large amounts of paper. Weencourage all publishers to put the environment first.

PLEASE RECYCLE THIS MAGAZINE

14 TapouT

16 TapouT

For years now, there is one thing we

can all count on to create the head-

lines in the MMA world: the new

season of Spike TV’s The Ultimate

Fighter. The show has proved to be

unstoppable in pumping out its share

of superstars, some gaining the kind

of popularity needed to help carry

PPV cards. Just look back at the inau-

gural season of TUF and you will find

a handful of names that are still

fighting for the UFC such as Josh

Koscheck, Stephan Bonnar, Kenny

Florian and Chris Leben.

When Season 10 opened with record-

breaking numbers, we all knew that

we have a new group of stars in the

making. If the season can continue to

pull in over four million viewers like

it did with Episode 1, it won’t be hard

to guess who we’ll see in the big

fights for years to come. I just have to

ask though, is there someone on this

season that is going to prove himself

as an “Ultimate Fighter” rather than

just a ratings machine?

If you have followed the show since

Season 1, you may have noticed that I

left the two biggest names out of my

short list above, Forrest Griffin and

Diego Sanchez, the winners of the

show. Regardless of the fact that they

won their respective tournaments, the

other guys came right along with them

to the big stage.

The marketing marvel that TUF has

become has led me to ask some ques-

tions about MMA, especially when

compared to other sports. The sport

MMA is most commonly compared to,

especially in the past month, has been

boxing. With UFC 103 going head-to-

head with the Mayweather vs.

Marquez fight, there was plenty of

hype flying around about which PPV

would come out on top. Although the

numbers haven’t been released, it is

certainly expected that boxing won

that battle by a landslide. Why?

I think the answer lies in the title of

this very column: MYSTIQUE. When

you have someone like Mayweather

carrying a 40-0 record to the ring, you

have to wonder if his defeat will ever

come. With so many victories,

Mayweather’s mystique only grew

larger, making us more eager to see

who can beat this guy. That mystique

proves to mean one thing in the PPV

game: SALES!

Relate this back to The Ultimate

Fighter and sometimes I wonder what

the heck the guys at Zuffa are

thinking. Just look at the performance

of Episode Two’s fighters, Wes

Shivers and James McSweeney. Both

fighters were gassed before the bell

sounded for the end of the first round.

Is that what they want four million

people watching to build the mystique

of MMA fighters? Is that what they

think is going to bring more fans in?

The guys on TUF 10 will be intro-

duced to the world and then a select

few will be turned loose with a chance

to gun down the heavyweight champ.

The performances we see on TUF may

do harm to a fighter’s reputation for

years to come and it may be hard for

Wes Shivers to ever shake that image

from people’s minds, but it’s awesome

to think that we get to watch these

journeys from the beginning… for

better or worse.

So you know what? Rock on Zuffa!

While I’ll continue to selfishly pray

for a Fedor-level lineup on a future

season of TUF, I’ll force myself to

remember that the show was invented

as a way for fighters to win their way

into the UFC. If they get to the big

show on popularity instead of skill,

then it sucks to be them, as they will

definitely be in for a tough lesson. So

maybe Kimbo’s mystique as the street

fighting legend got him on the show.

Now it’s up to him to go the route of a

Josh Koscheck and fight through the

competition for a shot at the belt.

A few boxing events can still enjoy

the PPV numbers for now. MMA can

enjoy knowing that regardless of the

fact that Rich Franklin had huge PPV

potential, he’ll risk it all and fight

Vitor Belfort because that’s a fight the

fans wanted. Screw mystique! MMA

is real.

by Bobby Pittman

NO LIMITS

Mystique: Needed or Not?

Bobby Pittman can be reached at bobby@mmaworldwide.com

18 TapouT

As just one of a million or so loyal and dedicat-ed fight fans from this past Saturday onSeptember 19th, I was faced with a conundrum.At Las Vegas' MGM Grand, former pound-for-pound stalwart Floyd Mayweather, Jr. came outof “retirement” to face top three pound-for-pound Mexican fighter Juan Manuel Marquez.

Two states away from the deserts of Nevada,UFC 103 was about to take place in Dallas, TXpitting former middleweight champion RichFranklin against the returning and resurgingVitor “The Phenom” Belfort. It was two fights,two pay-per-views and one evening. I, ofcourse, used my cunning and cheated. I went toa bar that played both. I should have been apolitician.

It was what I experienced while viewing thefights that peaked my interest. While half thetelevisions showed boxing and the other halfshowed MMA, there was the issue of whichfight got the audio. At the start of the pay-per-view the DJ got on the microphone and askedthe crowd by a vote of which crowd could cheerthe loudest as to which fight got the audio. UFC103 won hands down.

While it would appear the majority of the bar-going-crowd was there to watch fights involv-ing four-ounce gloves, the crowd cheeredequally for action in both fights. WhenMayweather dropped Marquez in the secondround, the ENTIRE bar erupted. When PaulDaley removed Martin Kampmann from hissenses, everyone in the bar jumped out of theirchairs.

Following the success of MMA and the UFCspecifically, over the last few years, an easytarget for sports journalists has been the“rivalry” between MMA and boxing. Nearlyevery mainstream article on MMA comes witha comparison on the decline of boxing in theWest as if fans are turning from following the“sweet science” exclusively to following MMAand only MMA. The coinciding clash of pay-per-view shows put a microscope on the subjectpresenting a one-night-hype fest for both sides

to make conclusions based on the result of athree hour time block. The banter betweenMayweather and UFC president Dana Whiteonly added fuel to the fire. (Not that it takesmuch to get either man going.)

It would be a lot of fun, and a lot easier to hit mydeadlines, to join the rest of the media’s sparringmatch between America’s two favorite combatsports but that is the only place it exists: themedia. MMA hasn’t killed boxing anymorethan baseball or football has. MMA has pulledan entire market of fans into the sports worldthat were either completely out of it or scatteredamongst the sporting landscape.

The notion that one and only one combat sportcan exist in a time of mass media exposure isabsurd. Some people will like boxing, some willlike MMA, and some will like both or neither.Boxing events attract celebrities, old schoolfight fans and usually a large following ofwhatever heritage the boxers stem from. Nomatter what was happening on UFC screens,every Mexican in the place had their combat-loving eyes glued on Marquez.

MMA attracts a younger demographic broughtin by the “hip” nature of MMAas the new thing.The UFC and other promotions have brought intraditional martial artists and others who wouldnot normally be into sporting events. It is notuncommon to hear the phrase, “I’m not a sportsfan, but I’m an MMA fan.” Unlike boxingwhere the women are usually brought in as armcandy in the expensive seats, women havebecome fans of MMA and you will often seethem at events without a boyfriend draggingthem along. Whether or not they are there to seethe fights or are simply waiting for a wardrobemalfunction by Georges St. Pierre is anyone’sguess.

While the crossover between MMA and boxingis obvious, with this writer as Exhibit A, it isclear both can flourish in the sports world.Mayweather vs. Marquez sold around onemillion pay-per-views and was a great successbased on the attention received by Mayweather.

You can also point to the large Mexican fan baseof Marquez and a great 24/7 series on HBO.UFC 103 sold around 400,000 buys and, whileachieving much less financially than theirboxing counterpart, held its own just fine.Taking into consideration Belfort vs. Franklinwas never a blockbuster fight anyway, 400,000buys was quite respectable.

Altogether, almost a million and a half fight fanson September 19th forked over their hard-earned cash not including those who attendedmovie theatres that were showing Mayweathervs Marquez. (Agreat idea for MMAby the way)Some watched MMA, some watched boxingand some watched both. The point is neitherevent crushed the other leading me to believethe crossover is not as big as some would like tobelieve.

Is boxing losing fans to MMA? No, boxing islosing fans because rivaling promoters arelooking for the short term payoff. The bestfighters avoid each other and the championshipscene is so muddled no one knows who the“best” even are. Not a lot of overlap. Is MMAgaining fans from boxing? No, MMAhas estab-lished itself as an exciting sport with highly-skilled athletes where the best in each weightclass consistently fight the best in an organizedfashion. (The fighter on the cover of thismagazine being an obvious exception.)

This is the first time boxing and MMA havegone head to head with major pay-per-views,but it certainly is not the last time. OnNovember 14th, current pound-for-poundchampion Manny Pacquiao will battle the 34-1Miguel Cotto on the same night veteran RandyCouture takes on Brandon Vera at UFC 105.What will I do on November 14th when theUFC and boxing cross paths again? Well, I’mfighting that night too, so I’ll have to use mostof...no, wait...ALL my cunning this time!Unless I fight in a bar.

by RJ Clifford

Cage Chatter

MMA vs. Boxing: A SyntheticIndifferent Fabricated Rivalry

Contact RJ at rj@tapoutmagazine.com. Look for RJ every Tuesday and Friday 2PT/5ET on the Sirius Fight Club onSiriusXM channel 127.

20 TapouT

To Contact Tapout Magazine: Email us at rj@tapoutmagazine.com or check us out on Myspace. Be sure toinclude your name and hometown.

I liked the section of the Georges St.Pierre’s story where he talked about thetoughest fights he’s ever been in. BJ,Fitch and Thiago made sense but I waspretty surprised to Thomas Denny inthere. I know GSP was sick during thatfight and it was early in his career but Inever would have expected it.

—Gary Keith, Lubbock, TX

GSP and Anderson Silva really have nochoice but to fight each other. Theyhave both cleaned out their divisionsleaving nothing but rematches andmatchups the fans aren’t really interest-ed in. GSP said he would do it if giventime to bulk up for it and Silva isalways looking for big matches. Thiswould be the biggest one of the year.Make it happen Dana White!

—Jordan F., Tucson, AZ

CLAY GUIDA

Clay Guida has to be one of the mostunderrated fighters in the lightweightdivision. His fights are always exciting,full of action and close matches. Hisbattle with Diego Sanchez is myfavorite fight of the year so far. He’s a

cool guy too. I met him at a bar inVegas!

—Paul Nguyen, Barstow, CA

I don’t understand why Clay gets somuch love from fans. He’s only 5-4 inthe division and almost never finisheshis opponent. He doesn’t haveknockout power or a dangerous sub-mission game. What’s the appeal here?

—Anthony Martin, Boise, ID

THE DETROIT DIESEL

I have tried every one of Fred George’sworkouts since I first subscribed a yearand a half ago and I gotta say this wasthe toughest one yet. The way thisworkout mixed and matched kept itfrom getting repetitive and boring.

—Brian Garcia, San Diego, CA

BEST GYMS IN THE COUNTRY

In regards to the profile you did on the11 best MMA gyms in the country, Iwould have rather you ranked them 1through 11. You could have come upwith a formula where you take the

number of champions, UFC fighters,fighters with the best record, number ofhigh level fighters, etc. and brokendown who really has the best fighters inthe country. Maybe next time?

—Victor Rosales, Baton Rouge, LA

I was shocked to see Caesar Gracie’sgym in the top 11 until I read thisarticle and looked up all the fighters.They do not have as many big namefighters but the ones they do have areall high level. Jake Shields, GilbertMelendez, the Diaz brothers, they areall top level talent. Nice job keepingyour readers up on the best gyms.

—Mark Campbell, Walnut Creek, CA

TECHNIQUES

Finally a change of pace. The MMATakedowns section with Mark Munozhas the techniques your magazineneeds more of. Every issue I see thesame jiu-jitsu moves over and overrather than other aspects of MMA thatare just as important like takedowns,striking, clinch work, all the others.

—Christopher King, Portland, ME

MAILBAG

GEORGES ST. PIERRE

Really who is left for Georges St. Pierre to fight? He avengeshis only two losses to Matt Serra and Matt Hughes, twice. Hehas beaten all the top contenders at his weight in the UFC likeJosh Koscheck, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves. The UFC needsto bring in Jake Shields to fight St. Pierre since no one in theUFC is left.

—Jeff Needsbea

London, Ontario, Canada

22 TapouT

A lot of people know that I taughtmyself the ground game. After losingfor the fourth time in Pancrase withthree by submission, I was sick of itand realized I had to do somethingabout it.

The reason I didn’t train before wasthat I simply didn’t have a sparringpartner; I had a bag which I beat uptwo times a day, every day, whichwasn’t a very smart thing to do. At thetime, I thought the harder you train, thebetter you get.

Nobody told me that I had to rest inorder to let my body get stronger sothat resulted in me passing out andwaking up a little later. I was over-trained. It took me two months torecoup; I would teach three times aweek for an hour and spend the rest oftime in bed. Let that be a lesson to you“boys and girls!”

Because nobody taught me anything,other than a guillotine choke, I wasn’t“polluted” by other arts like groundfighting with a gi, which is somethingtotally different. A lot of the basics forground fighting originated without agi, but you have to tweak everything alittle bit. You have to make it tightersince you have no gi for traction. Forinstance, a straight arm bar is difficultto escape when wearing a gi due to thetraction, but you can escape sans gi ifyour opponent knows what he’s doing.

I found that when I use hand controlwith every arm bar, it’s very hard foryour opponent to escape. I grab the

“mouse” of the hand so that myopponent cannot twist his armanymore. I don’t see this a lot. Why?Everybody takes the straight arm bardirectly from ground fighting with a giwhere you can get away with it.

It’s like when somebody sports a bunchof black belts, people just follow alongwith nobody checking out if he’s rightor wrong…they just believe him! Ihave no clue why they do that, perhapsout of respect? It’s really stupid. Ifsomebody taught me something while Iwas rolling, I would always ask ques-tions about that certain technique. Iwas always the “nightmare” student inmy karate and tae kwon do classes.Why? Because I asked WHY you hadto do something a certain way. And youknow what? MANY of them had noanswer! They just did it because this isthe way they had been taught.

I always tried to make it better. Hey, ifyou don’t shoot, you always miss. Youwould be amazed with just trying, howmuch more you find out about thatcertain technique. I would make differ-ent set-ups, find the escapes anddiscover how I can prevent myselffrom getting caught in that submissionin the first place. Then I would findcounters to those escapes. I mean, justthink about what you are doing anddon’t be afraid to ask questions andfigure things out for yourself!

Example: everybody says you have torotate your hand at the end of thepunch, but that’s BS! Why? Is it togenerate more power? I can show you

exactly why it makes no difference atall. But somebody who was famousprobably said that, and because he saidthat, everybody does it.

Somebody told me that Ali said that!Ha ha! I was watching an Ali docu-mentary last week in my plane on theway to Amarillo. I have no clue whateverybody talks about since 80% of hispunches are like I do them, which isn’twith a twist. If the twist comes naturalat the end of your punch, that’s OK, butdon’t focus on it because then youbring your elbow up before you punch.This means you are telegraphing, andwhen you do that, you can be coun-tered WAY easier!

Next time I’ll talk about the basicssince I got “side-tracked” here becausethis is important to know!

Oh, before I forget, after I startedtraining solely on ground fighting, Ifound ONE training partner and Istarted to train two, three times a day. Iwon my next eight fights by submis-sion, one by decision, but that wasbecause of my submission skills. Ialways say, “If I can do it, everybodycan do it!”

Now go and make your submission andstand-up skills better!

Godspeed and party on!

by Bas Rutten

Notes from Bas

The Basics (A Preface)

For more on “El Guapo”, log on to www.basrutten.tv.

24 TapouT

When you look at competitive fighting,age is a factor, along with how your bodywill hold up. What are your future objec-tives and fight offers? I personally thinkthat the over 40 factor has a major impacton any decision you make. I think thatmost fight fans want to watch the youngguys fight, not the older fighters comingback. What is your longevity? How muchlonger can you still fight? How can youstill draw a crowd and still be promoted?

When I retired from fighting in 2001, Iwas wondering what my future still had instore for me. I fought from 1993 to 2001in Shooto for Japan as a loyal light heavy-weight contender and champion. I alsofought in America for three other organi-zations (Extreme FightingChampionships, World CombatChampionship and Superbrawl) before Iretired.

My body was broken and I neededsurgery. The Shooto organization waspushing me to compete solely in theAmerican-sanctioned shows and to even-tually retire because I was considered anold fighter at the age of 34. They consid-ered that old back then. The time seemedright, for one, due to the lack of moneythese organizations were offering aShooto champion to fight. Second, mybodily injuries started to impede mytraining more than ever. And lastly, therewas a lack of training partners andcoaches to help me through everything.

Retirement was a huge decision, full ofheartbreak, disappointment that it wasover, and, a slight relief from the pressurethat I felt to perform. Moving on andtaking yourself out of the fight game is a

soul-searching adventure. You think,what’s next and what are you going to do?Being 34 years young and still in shapewith a mindset for training for your nextfight, where was I to go?

At the time of my retirement I wasteaching at the Inosanto Academy and stilltaking classes. I was still learning andtraining. I also assisted Guro DanInosanto every weekend. Guro Dan satme down and consoled me. He told methat the choice to do seminars and trainothers what I have learned would be agood life for me. He said that I could leavea legacy to others who aspired to fight,train, and learn at a high level in mixedmartial arts. He said you have fought andseen the ups and downs of the fightingworld. You have become a worldchampion in Japan where MMA flour-ished after vale tudo in Brazil. This was allhappening before and during the firstUFC. He said that I was a pioneer andnow it was time to pass the torch toothers…it was time to become the trainerand coach. Guro Inosanto is my mentorand his words hit home. I felt free andtook his advice.

One day I was bartending in ManhattanBeach in 1999 and Bill Superfoot Wallacecame in and ate at my restaurant, and ofcourse I noticed him. When he was done,I introduced myself and he was impressedthat I knew he was the commentator at thefirst UFC along with football star, JimBrown and kickboxing great, KathyLong. Bill was a great pioneer of pointkarate with Chuck Norris and a great fullcontact kickboxing champion. He satdown with me and said that he thought thecompetition would change when they

brought in some top collegiate wrestlers tocompete. So what happened? Dan Severnand Mark Coleman came in and upset theworld. Bill being a former wrestler, boxerand judo guy has great insight into thegame as it would develop.

I asked him about fighting and retiringand he said that fighting should be for thepassion and fun of it. It wasn’t aboutmoney; it should be about the love of it.He looked at me as I told him that Ithought I was done fighting and said thatthere wasn’t much money in fighting. Theonly thing that was left was the acknowl-edgement and satisfaction of doing some-thing you love. He said when you aredone fighting, the money would come.

That’s exactly where I was…done withfighting and ready to make some realmoney. He told me that he made waymore money doing appearances, seminarsand teaching classes. He also mademoney from doing articles and writingbooks. He mentioned that he was busier,post fighting, than he was when he wascompeting! He said I shouldn’t be scaredto look forward to my retirement becausemore doors would open to lead me tobigger and more prosperous adventures.He was right! His words came true, alongwith Guro Inosanto’s advice.

In Part 2, I discuss how I applied thatadvice and how I felt the urge to ultimate-ly come out of retirement. And age isn’talways the factor if you take into accountQuinton “Rampage” Jackson’s recentdecision to leave the UFC for a novel film

role in The A-Team.

by Erik Paulson

Shooter’s Touch

Retirement: When, Why andWhat Comes After? (PART 1)

The CSW TRAINING CENTER is located at 4080 North Palm Street #801 Fullerton, CA 92835.To contact Erik call 818-919-4785 or log onto www.erikpaulson.com

26 TapouT

Not everybody likes Paulie Malignaggi.The 28-year-old junior welterweightboxer from Brooklyn speaks with anunfiltered accent of that borough, andrapidly, loudly and frequently at that. Hehas an explosive personality, yet in thering is mainly a pure boxer with only fiveknockouts among his 26 wins, and nonein the last six years. He has had the mis-fortune of suffering repeated injuries tohis right hand in a sport where havingtwo good hands is only the start.Nonetheless, prior to his latest fight, hehad pieced together a respectable recordof 26-2, had been an IBF 140-poundchampion, had defeated notable fightersLovemore N'dou and Herman Ngoudjo,and had only lost to champions MiguelCotto and Ricky Hatton.

When Malignaggi, however, agreed tofight a younger and smaller Juan Diaz onAugust 22, he was far from being thefavorite. He had not looked sharp in hisNovember 2008 fight with Hatton, andonly had a tune-up in April 2009 sincethen.

More importantly, the fight with Diaz, aformer lightweight champion, was set forthe Toyota Center in Houston, Texas,Diaz’s hometown. Diaz is also a likeablecollege graduate with local fan support.The fight was broadcast on HBO andwas promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’sGolden Boy Promotions; both compa-nies have close ties. Malignaggi ispromoted by DiBella Entertainment.

Boxing is a sport where the rules changedepending upon who you are, soMalignaggi was forced to accept asmallish 18-foot ring to accommodatethe slower Diaz, known more as a

pressure fighter. Even though this wasofficially a 12-round junior welterweightbout, Malignaggi had to make 138 1/2pounds.

Malignaggi agreed to all this, but insistedthat there be neutral judges, and not allfrom Texas. While he held up his part ofthis unequal arrangement, the Texascommission did not, appointing GaleVan Hoy of Texas, David Sutherland ofOklahoma and Raul Caiz Sr. ofCalifornia, a Mexican-American likeDiaz. Not exactly anyone from BrightonBeach. Plus, Van Hoy and Caiz had beenjudges in the February 2009 fight in thesame location between featherweightchampion Chris John of Indonesia andRocky Juarez, also of Houston. All threejudges scored that a draw in a fight inwhich almost every other observer hadJohn clearly winning.

Before this fight, Malignaggi gavenumerous interviews, including on HBO,warning that everything was organizedagainst him, and that a robbery wasimminent. Still, many expected Diaz towin legitimately, so some took this asmore bluster from the brash Brooklynite.

The fight, however, went basicallyaccording to Malignaggi’s game plan. Heoutworked, out-punched and out-hustledDiaz, who had trouble getting inside.When Diaz did catch Malignaggi, he didlittle damage. Both men suffered cutsduring the fight, but Malignaggi deci-sively pulled away in the second half,apparently sweeping rounds 8 through11. Although Diaz mounted a late attackin the 12th, it was not enough. Mostobservers had Malignaggi winning sevenor eight rounds.

Then the scores were read: Caiz had it115-113, Sutherland 116-112, and VanHoy an incredible 118-110, all forDiaz. Next, the Internet lit up withaccusations of highway robbery,bought-off and/or incompetent judges,and a general disbelief that such aninjustice could be perpetrated so bla-tantly and after it was explicitlywarned against by Malignaggi.

But this story is far from over. Afterthe fight, Malignaggi was interviewedin the ring, and improvised an impas-sioned rant with the refrain “Boxing isfull of shit!” He explained, “I used tolove this sport. I cannot stand doingthis. The only reason I do this isbecause it gives me a good payday.Boxing is full of shit!”

Some are saying that all this will beforgotten in a week, or at least after thenext big fight. Perhaps. Certainly theforces fighting for boxing reform areweak. But there was something aboutthe outrage which this decisionelicited that indicates another sizablechunk of boxing lovers has had it withthis sport. It is more than another blackeye, as the wounds to this patient arefar too many for it to continue tosurvive much longer in its present con-dition.

by Eddie Goldman

No Holds Barred

He Wuz Robbed!

Eddie Goldman, who was born in Brooklyn, is the host and producer of No Holds Barred (eddiegoldman.com).

28 TapouT

Archimedes was one of those Greekgeniuses who lived thousands of yearsago. Famous for many reasons, thismathematician was the first to study,understand and describe the principle ofleverage. We know it sounds crazy tomix this with a discussion about thefoundations of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, butbear with us for a little while.Archimedes’ insights and the discussionto follow can lead to some very interest-ing conclusions.

Before we start, let us remind the readerthat we have been dedicating the last fewcolumns to what we have defined as theFive Fundamental Principles of theGentle Art: Adaptation, Efficiency,Effectiveness, Leverage and MutualSupport. It is our vision that these princi-ples build the foundation of BJJ and laydown the development path of eachstudent. Moreover, our analysis tran-scends the dojo towards our daily lives,and advocates that success on and off themats is a consequence of how well eachone of these principles is being followedby the participants.

This column will discuss the fourth prin-ciple: Leverage. There would be nobetter way to approach it than to go to theorigins of the concept of lever and that iswhy we are rescuing Archimedes whoonce said, "Give me a lever long enoughand a fulcrum on which to place it, and Ishall move the world."

This concept applied to combat and selfdefense is Brazilian jiu-jitsu.Grandmaster Helio Gracie always spokeout loud that "the jiu-jitsu invented by hisfamily allows the weaker to defeat thestronger" and that would be impossiblewithout basing the technical develop-ment of the art on leverages, so thestrength of the weaker could then bemultiplied and result in more than thestrength of the stronger.

But what is a lever then? DidArchimedes say something worth ourattention so we can continue to improveas BJJ practitioners? Well according tohim, a lever is an object that is used withan appropriate fulcrum to multiply theforce applied to another object. Theconcept is simple: to lift 200 pounds witha force of 100 pounds, all you need to dois make sure that the distance from thefulcrum to the spot where force isapplied is twice as long as the distancebetween the 200-pound weight and thefulcrum. Complicated huh?

In BJJ terms, to sweep an opponent of300 pounds using only 150 pounds ofstrength, you have to make sure thedistance between your opponent and thepart of your body that is acting like afulcrum is half the distance between thefulcrum and the part of your body that isgenerating the 150 pounds of strength.Makes sense. Not yet?

No problem, let's put it this way. Nexttime you set up your butterfly guard, tryto move your hip really close to yourpartner. When you do that, your hips (thefulcrum) is closer to the weight to belifted (your opponent), and further awayfrom the sweeping strength, your abs andyour upper body. That makes youropponent half lighter than he really is.That is Brazilian jiu-jitsu! That is lessstrength overcoming more strength! Thatis Marcelo Garcia overcoming RiccoRodriguez!

Jiu-jitsu is the door handle of combat.The techniques are nothing else butlevers. When we train, we are constantlypursuing leverage to sweep ouropponent, to take him down or to extendhis arm. When we encounter a barrierand feel like what we are doing doesn’twork, we know for sure that nothing isintrinsically wrong with us; we just didnot find the right lever yet.

Spending so many hours searching andresearching for the perfect leverages forall kinds of combat situations is anendless empowering journey. Regardlessof how difficult the situation we mayencounter, we know it is a game of leversand studying the situation will allow abetter understanding of the problem andtherefore the development of a solution.

Luckily we don't have to understand anyof that to become BJJ black belts. Ourbrain, our body, and its reflexes take careof that for us. Even though we don'trationally understand the physics behindour BJJ moves, our mind and body do aphenomenal job reading the laws ofnature and using that to our advantage.

Leverage is very empowering. It’s whatmakes it possible for the weaker toovercome the stronger. It’s the heart ofthe technical development of the gentleart. It’s what fuels the audacity of the BJJfighter. It’s what explains the magicbehind BJJ. We try as much as possibleto further develop our levers for all we doin our lives. No matter what the problemis, we know the pressure can be relievedand overcome by repositioning our-selves. Once again, BJJ has taught us avaluable lesson that can make a tremen-dous difference in our daily lives.

Gracie Barra Competition Network

The Five Fundamental Principlesof the Gentle Art: Leverage

For more on Marcio Feitosa, visit www.graciebarraamerica.com. For Flavio Almeida, visit www.graciebarrasanclemente.com.

by Marcio Feitosa and Flavio Almeida

30 TapouT

I remember being a kid and having posters inmy room. It was a nice conglomeration ofsports, music and randomness cut out frommagazines that my brother and I collectedover time. When I look back on some of theimages I had plastered on the wall, I have tolaugh internally with a little embarrassmentregarding some of my décor of choice.

When it came to athletes though, for meMichael Jordan was the order of the day,every day. To us and I’m sure most of youwould agree, Michael Jordan was a God andthe epitome of what could only be describedas the blueprint for an NBA athlete. I’m notgoing to list all of his highlights and acco-lades nor will I mention his success withNike. What I will present though is adecision he made which I could never under-stand: his move to baseball.

Now I know it was a dream for Jordan topursue baseball since he was a kid; thatcoupled with him dominating the NBA obvi-ously must have fueled his fire to make thedecision to try and conquer something else. Ican commend that. But if there’s one thingI’ve learned since being a writer and radiopersonality is that when you put yourself outthere, you put yourself out there for criti-cism. Hell, me writing these words willprobably do just that. My point is, ladies andgentleman, did Michael Jordan tarnish hislegacy by leaving something he was great atto try something new, especially in the courtof public opinion?

How does this relate to MMA you ask?

Well it’s obvious that based on the populari-ty and success of mixed martial arts,everyone is trying it out and making a go atit. To me it’s a solid reminder of where ourbeautiful sport has and will evolve to. I justwonder if the talent pool will begin to dilutewith people coming in “later” in their careersbecause we all know MMA is nothing to geta late start on if you want to compete with thebest.

As of this writing, The Ultimate Fighter 10

has made its debut and we all know that thereare four former NFL athletes on the roster.Now I know just as much as you guysregarding their respective NFL and MMAcareers; this piece is meant in no way to dis-parage them. I just wonder if they’re startingtoo late to make the splash everyone wants tomake in the UFC. Now these guys are obvi-ously not the first to come from one sportarena to another. We all know that currentUFC Heavyweight Champ Brock Lesnarcame from not only his collegiate wrestlingbackground, but also his pro wrestling back-ground, and he’s faired just fine. Onestandout out was Marcus Jones. I was sur-prised to see how athletic he was but alsohow difficult he found the cardio work. Doesthis lend itself toward the thought of startingsomething new too late for the level he wantsto compete on?

Also, we all know that Herschel Walker justsigned with Strikeforce and will be setting upcamp with American Kickboxing Academyin San Jose. To me this screams publicity (ofcourse it does, I’m writing about it aren’t I?)but for the wrong reasons. We know that likeKimbo, Herschel will bring in viewers, and Iget that much; but who thinks he can reallybe a contender against much younger andpossibly more well-versed fighters? Perhapshe should start small and not go for the goldso soon. We’re not even going to talk about

the former Power Rangers star wanting tobreak into MMA!

I even look at a guy like Chuck Liddell and

even though his stint on Dancing with the

Stars is a novelty gig, and despite beingnothing more than a popularity contest, youcan’t expect him to compete against guyslike Donnie Osmond who have a lifetimearound musical performance. Now justimagine if the roles were reversed here andyou can see what I’m talking about. We’restill rooting for you, Chuck!

So the question is, why go anywhere elsewhen you can stick with what you are good

at and what you are recognized for? I know,

I know, we all came from something, butseriously when it comes to MMA, whendoes one think “perhaps I started too late?”(By late I mean to compete on levels such asthe UFC, etc. I encourage everyone to try oursport out or at least a variation of it no matterhow old they are!) But I will say this: Iapplaud anyone with the balls to go out oftheir comfort zones and not only try some-thing new, but do it on such a grand scalewhere you’re open to mass scrutiny.

In a recent interview, Kimbo Slice acknowl-edged how hard it was/is transitioning toMMA for him due to everything that encom-

passes the sport. “Mixed martial arts is alittle bit harder because you have to learn awhole lot of shit: grappling, takedowns,takedown defense, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai andboxing. Boxing is a passion of minebecause it’s a little bit easier, but mixedmartial arts is harder,” Slice said.

Nonetheless I am sure that everyone on thiscast and every cast to follow (and Herscheltoo) will be exciting and worthy of their spot.But surely one of two things will happen:either they’ll prove us right or prove uswrong. Which side do you stand on?

Failure Examples:Jose Canseco and MMAMichael Jordan and BaseballShaq and his acting/music careerDion Sanders’ music careerJohnnie Morton and MMAMariah Carey’s acting careerRappers becoming actorsActors becoming rappersOscar De La Hoya’s music careerHell, even Ron Jeremy tried to rap!

by Adam J. Villarreal

!"#$%&'!$()*+

MMA Crossovers: Good, Bad or Indifferent?

Email Adam J. Villarreal at adam@tapoutmagazine.com and check him out at www.MMACity.com.

32 TapouT

A goal of just about every fighter is towin a championship belt, whether it isin the minor leagues or the big boys.It means prestige, a great addition tothe resume and a guarantee to fightagain to defend that belt. But howmeaningful are titles and whathappens when they begin to lose theirluster?

Unlike the world of pro wrestling, if atitle changes hands without a com-petitor really defending it more thanonce, it is not a huge sin. Some fansmight disagree with me, but in a sportas unpredictable as MMA and stillbeing relatively new, a lot of workneeds to be done.

Having too many belts is one thingthat can dilute a title’s value.Professional boxing suffers notablyfrom this with four major organiza-tions and titles being unified and sep-arated frequently. In MMA, this is notsuch a huge problem yet. The UFChas staked their claim as the top titlein the world despite WAMMA’s bestattempts at making their own worldtitle. At this time, no other existingbelt holds the prestige of a UFC title,but that does not mean it is perfect.

As the sport grows more mainstream,there is a strong possibility that wemight see more weight classes addedto quell athletic commissions, andmore weight classes mean confusingsub-classes. Just what is a super light-weight exactly and how do theybecome so super? More titles onpaper mean more opportunities to sell

pay-per-view fights, but more titlesalso means more work to keep upwith the sport.

One thing the UFC has done to makethe title mean less is not necessarilyfollow a ranking system. The obviouscase in point would be BrockLesnar’s jump from being 2-1 inMMA to being given a title shot. Youcannot take away that he did win andthat his credentials are great, but howmany 2-1 fighters do you know whoare given title shots? Ultimately the biggest problem iswhat happens when a fighter does notdefend his belt.

Alistair Overeem won the StrikeforceHeavyweight Championship inNovember 2007 and has yet to defendit. In the almost two years since then,he’s had three MMA fights in Dreamand one back home in the Netherlandswhere he submitted Gary Goodridgelast November. He’s also had twofights in K-1, knocking out Badr Harion last year’s New Year’s Eve showbefore losing a decision to RemyBonjasky in March. What has beenstopping him from defending his titlewith Strikeforce during that timeframe? You could say it was his handinjury, but then again, in Septemberhe fought in K-1 Korea against PeterAerts despite not defending hisStrikeforce title a month earlier dueto this alleged hand injury. His handhas not been broken for two years.

Speaking of Strikeforce, lest weforget the middleweight crown that

currently collects dust in the home ofCung Le. Le took the strap fromFrank Shamrock in March 2008 andhas yet to defend it. Unlike Overeem,he has not been competing in othercompanies, but has instead been busyfilming movies. Priorities? Le hadbeen discussing his desire to make itin Hollywood, so why fight for a titlethat you know you cannot defend?

As much as these men are responsiblefor defending their belts, it is also theresponsibility of the promotion, inthis case Strikeforce, to demand theirchampions defend their belts or bestripped of them. Shooto has an 18-month rule in their organizationstating that if a champion does notdefend his belt at least once over thattime period, he will be stripped of thebelt. The organization has in factstood by this rule and implemented itbefore. So why has Scott Coker stoodbehind these fighters and let themwalk all over him?

Billie Jean King once said, “Achampion is afraid of losing.Everyone else is afraid of winning.”So what does that make a championwho is too busy doing other thingsthan defending his honor and histitle?

by Matthew Kaplowitz

THE FIGHT NERD

How Important is aChampionship Belt?

Matthew Kaplowitz is the editor of thefightnerd.com. You can reach him at Matt@thefightnerd.com.

As if my life weren’t dangerous enoughdealing with all you crazy MMAfighters and fanatics, I get called to do abodyguard detail in Israel, of all places,for a full month. I looked back at the

economic climate in California; Icounted the number of my students whoare suffering in this meltdown andpreparing to cancel their contracts.

After careful deliberation, (approxi-mately five minutes) I jumped on theopportunity. I took “Big” Chad Bannon,

former K-1 Fighter, and Isa Jonay,Learjet pilot and CSW fighter, as mywing men. I picked Chad for his sizeand Isa for fighting abilities, as well asbeing a pilot in the unfortunate event

that we needed to plan ahasty exit from theMiddle East.

Well, I have to tell youexcept for two hairyincidents, like beingdetained for ten hoursby the Israeli military,we were treated likeroyalty since MMA isbecoming very popularin the Middle East.

We were greeted byIsrael’s top MMA practitioner by thename of Haim Gazelli. Haim is a blackbelt under Renzo Gracie and foughtRicco Rodriguez and “Jacare” in theAbu Dhabi Championships. I was very

impressed to find outhow these guys trained.It turns out that Haimhad purchased nearlyevery MMA video everproduced and studiesthem religiously. Hewas very gracious andalso brought in the topIDF (Israeli DefenseForce) instructor in thearea to teach us theirversion of gun andknife disarms from dif-ferent angles. They also

proceeded to show me how their tech-niques trump those of the infamousKrav Maga.

You see, Krav has you trapping theweapon with two hands then you releaseone hand in order to strike the opponent.The negative to this line of reasoning isthat the assailant has two hands on theweapon and he can simply retract itfrom the person trapping it with a singlehand. This old man was “FAST andMEAN.” His techniques were legiti-mate as I tried both sides of the barrel“literally.”

After boring them with one of my threehour seminars, we were invited to trainthe Israeli Tank Battallion in the GolanHeights. This is where Israel meetsSyria and Lebanon as well as beingadjacent to the Sea of Galilee. Theseguys were great! They took us up on thetanks and presented our crew with ourown personal “dog tags” and a copy ofthe Torah! These gifts are only given tothe soldiers after enduring four monthsin the desert on a tank excursion. It istheir version of “boot camp.” We werehonored to say the least at their hospi-tality.

So we leave the base and drive to theriver Jordan to be baptized in the samelocation where this guy named Jesuswas dipped. I guess he is kind of a “BigDeal” over there. Since Chad is a littlemore El Diablo than Holy Roller, he hadto stay submerged for an extra couple ofminutes. HA HA! Now if that wasn’tenough life experience for one day, ourbuddies Elan and Danny took us to meetthe mayor of Nazareth “Elite.”

34 TapouT

by Fred George “The Detroit Diesel”

The Detroit Diesel

Fred George can be reached at detroitdiesel34@aol.com

MMA Worldwide “Literally”Project Israel

35TapouT

That is the Hebrew side ofNazareth versus the Arabic side.Believe it or not even the Mayortried to arm wrestle Chad. In fact,the whole country tried to armwrestle Big Chad, from the littleold man at the Jordan River to thestreet vendors in the marketplace.Their Jewish pride was commend-able but sadly came up short. Thenthe top Kabala Phabbi read ourfutures; he was dead nuts about mypast which was quite scary. I leftpost haste. If that wasn't enough,Elan took us to see the Church ofAnnunciation or the Basillicus,which has Mary and Joseph’sdwelling left in tact under theChurch for tourists to view. It wasquite humbling to say the least.

Remember, we spent a month withthese people so our tour guide andmy bodyguard client took us to seeeverything. Our next trip was tothe Dead Sea where Chad and Ifloated completely out of the

water. Being 2000 feet below sealevel and with 38 times the salinityof the Atlantic Ocean, this placewas definitely one of the truewonders of the world.

Now for the two grand finales...thefirst being Jerusalem and experi-encing the “Western Wall” or“Wailing Wall.” This is the holiestplace on earth for the Jewish com-

munity and it ties the Jews,Muslims and Christian places ofworship together. In fact, the tombof Jesus is not more than 100 yardsor so from there. Even being amixed martial artist, one feels veryinferior to the plethora of gun-toting soldiers walking by youconstantly throughout the day.

Last but not least, I have to tell youabout how the Israelis party. Wow!We attended a $300,000 weddingfor my buddy Avi. He hired girls todress up as living plants with watershooting from their finger tips.Then there was the Tower of Meat,followed by a smoke-filledceremony complete with confetti.

Not to be outdone, the bartenderswere stationed behind an all ice-formed bar. These guys were soserious that they hired the top maleand female singers in Israel toperform after dinner. This was theSuper Bowl of weddings!

I want to say thank you to ourhosts Avi, Gabby, Ami, Benny andmy boy Amos. These guys knowhow to party and make a body-guard detail a ton of fun. Shalom!

If any of you readers have a crazyMMA story from overseas, Iwould love to read it. Make sure itcomes complete with pictures.

After completing our 10 week television series on HDNet,MMA Worldwide and Tapout Magazine has formed a newcompany where we will produce videos in house. ChrisStaab of Double Vision Productions has been hired longterm to head up our video production team. He brings his Emmyaward winning talents along with 10 years of video productionexperience. Chris was head of our TV show production. We feelvery confident in his abilities and artistic passion.

Chris has written, directed and produced numerous videos in the mixedmartial arts industry since 2004. He is responsible for the Emmy awardwinning series “Dan Henderson’s Quest for the Belt”, “Chris Leben:Evolution of an Icon”, “The Mayhem Miller Show”, “The Icon SportPreview Show” in Hawaii and many other projects within the industry.Fighters have flown Chris to places such as London, Australia, and evenIndonesia to capture rare, behind-the-scenes footage of their training, familylives and their determination to be the best athletes in the sport.

Here are some of the services that MMA Worldwide now offers:

FOR THE GYM OWNER

• Gym Promotional Material: Through commercial production, promotional videos or recruitment videos MMA Worldwide canhelp get members through the door of your gym and show the public exactly what you have to offer. We can also include featurestories in our magazines, websites, and TV show as well. The best part is, you the gym owner owns the finished product, and arefree to use your commercial on any television outlets, websites, or other methods of distribution you may choose.

FOR THE FIGHTER

• Fighter Promotional Reels: We will produce a video reel so you, the fighter, can show potential sponsors, event promoters andfans your abilities and character. This can include a meet and greet by one of our TV show hosts, any archived footage you mayhave, training footage, and many other means of character development to help thrust you into the industry’s forefront. We canalso do feature stories in MMA Worldwide and Tapout Magazine, on our website, and possibly provide network television exposure.

• Instructional/ Training Videos: We believe we have the best methods to produce and direct any and all instructional and trainingvideos. We can offer a flat rate where you own the master and produce your own copies, or pay us a small fee for production andwe will share the revenue on the final product.

FOR THE MODEL WORLD

• Model Promotional Reels: We will produce a resume reel so you, the model, can show potential sponsors, event promoters orfans your abilities and character. Just like the fighter reels, this can include a meet and greet by one of our TV show hosts, anymodeling footage you may have, or any character development that can help boost your image. What can also be included is apossible Ms. MMA or Ms. Tapout feature in one of our national publications. This can be a vital asset for any aspiring model, maleor female, who needs worldwide exposure.

EVENT PROMOTERS

• Commercials: MMA Worldwide can develop eye catching commercial campaigns to help drive people to your events. Whetherit is for television, or for radio, we offer the experience needed to help your event be the best it can be.

• Promotional Reels: Promotional Reels are the perfect tool to get sponsors on board for your event. Together, we can showpotential sponsors just how exciting, and compelling this sport can be… and why everyone is standing in line trying to break intothe industry.

• Video News Releases: With over a decade of broadcast news experience, we know how to get the media attention your eventdeserves, and can channel it to the right sources.

FOR ANY COMPANY

• Company Videos: These videos can be played on your website or on any television station you choose. These include commer-cials, promotional videos and documentaries. We have manyexamples of our work available upon request.

DOCUMENTARIES

• Documentaries, both web and feature length: Thereis no better way to connect with your target audience thanwith an in depth documentary or documentary series.Using creative story telling methods and production tech-niques you can highlight all aspects of your company, gym,or any fighters that help make this sport so dynamic.

Utilizing over a decade of award winning experi-ence and competitive rate packages to suit anybudget, MMA Worldwide is your one stop sourcefor all of your production needs. MMAWorldwide… a direct channel to your worldwideaudience.

Please call Chris Staab, Director of Media at 323-605-1542for our introductory rate!

38 TapouT

BANTAMWEIGHT 135

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Hebeat Torres but can

the young champ handlethe pressure with everybantamweight gunning

for him?

Nowwhat? The former

champ looks for hisnext challenge in the

WEC.

Backon the winning

track after a hardfought split decision

win over JeffCurran.

FEATHERWEIGHT 145

MIKE T. BROWN ! USA ! WEC

Urijah Faber ! USA ! WEC

Hatsu Hioki ! Japan ! Sengoku

Leonard Garcia ! USA ! WEC

“Lion” Takeshi Inoue ! Japan ! Shooto

Wagnney Fabiano ! Brazil ! WEC

Jose Aldo ! Brazil ! WEC

Rafael Assuncao ! Brazil ! WEC

Takafumi Otsuka ! Japan ! DEEP

Masanori Kanehara ! Japan ! Sengoku

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Nursinga broken hand

until hereturns.

Facesthe original

featherweightmaster Alexandre

Nogueira

Gets his shot atBrown’s belt on Nov.

18 at WEC 44.

BRIAN BOWLES ! USA ! WEC

Miguel Torres ! USA ! WEC

Masakatsu Ueda ! Japan ! Shooto

Takeya Mizugaki ! Japan ! WEC

Dominick Cruz ! USA ! WEC

Joseph Benavidez ! USA ! WEC

Will Ribeiro ! Brazil ! WEC

Akitoshi Tamura ! Japan ! WEC

Manny Tapia ! USA ! WEC

Damacio Page ! USA ! WEC

39TapouT

TITLESUFC

STRIKEFORCE

BELLATOR

SHOOTO

DREAM

WEC

DEEP

SENGOKU

AS OF September 26, 2009

LIGHTWEIGHT 160

BJ PENN ! USA ! UFC

Joachim Hansen ! Norway ! DREAM

Shinya Aoki ! Japan ! DREAM

Eddie Alvarez ! USA ! DREAM / Bellator

Tatsuya Kawajiri ! Japan ! DREAM

Kenny Florian ! USA ! UFC

Gesias “JZ” Calvancante ! Brazil ! DREAM

Gray Maynard ! USA ! UFC

Frankie Edgar ! USA ! UFC

Sean Sherk ! USA ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

WELTERWEIGHT 170

GEORGES ST. PIERRE ! Canada ! UFC

Jon Fitch ! USA ! UFC

Thiago Alves ! Brazil ! UFC

Jake Shields ! USA ! Strikeforce

Josh Koscheck ! USA ! UFC

Paul Daley ! England ! UFC

Martin Kampmann ! Denmark ! UFC

Matt Hughes ! USA ! UFC

Carlos Condit ! USA ! UFC

Mike Swick ! USA ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Defendshis title against

the surging DiegoSanchez at UFC 107

in Memphis.

Callsout the legendaryMatt Hughes afterquickly dispatching

Frank Trigg.

HopingDaley did not

leapfrog him in the titlepicture with a win over

his would beopponent.

Englishstandout Daley

blasts into the UFC witha great win over Martin

Kampmann.

Continuesup the con-

tender’s ladder withwin over Roger

Huerta.

Will face KurtPellegrino on

Dec. 5.

MIDDLEWEIGHT 185

ANDERSON SILVA ! Brazil ! UFC

Dan Henderson ! USA ! UFC

Jorge Santiago ! Brazil ! Sengoku

Nate Marquardt ! USA ! UFC

Vitor Belfort ! Brazil ! UFC

Yushin Okami ! Japan ! UFC

Demian Maia ! Brazil ! UFC

Robbie Lawler ! USA ! Strikeforce

Yoshihiro Akiyama ! Japan ! UFC

Chael Sonnen ! USA ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT 205

LYOTO MACHIDA ! Brazil ! UFC

Rashad Evans ! USA ! UFC

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson ! USA ! UFC

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua ! Brazil ! UFC

Anderson Silva ! Brazil ! UFC

Forrest Griffin ! USA ! UFC

Gegard Mousasi ! Armenia ! Strikeforce / DREAM

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira ! Brazil ! UFC

Thiago Silva ! Brazil ! UFC

Luis Arthur Cane ! Brazil ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Backin negotiations

with the UFC havingjust finished his

contract.

Claimsretirement after

rumblings with DanaWhite and a potential

movie career.

Withthe loss to Rich

Franklin, Mousasisneaks into the

top ten.

Makesquick work of

the inconsistentKeith Jardine at

UFC 102.

Make it threehuge KO’s in a rowfor “The Phenom.”

Hashis chance to

make a big splashwhen he faces #6

Okami atUFC 104.

40 TapouT

41TapouT

TITLESUFC

STRIKEFORCE

BELLATOR

SHOOTO

DREAM

WEC

DEEP

SENGOKU

AS OF September 26, 2009

HEAVYWEIGHT 205 AND ABOVE

FEDOR EMELIANENKO ! Russia ! Strikeforce

Josh Barnett ! USA ! Free Agent

Brock Lesnar ! USA ! UFC

Frank Mir ! USA ! UFC

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira ! Brazil ! UFC

Brett Rogers ! USA ! Strikeforce

Andrei Arlovski ! Belarus ! Free Agent

Randy Couture ! USA ! UFC

Alistair Overeem ! Netherlands ! Strikeforce

Shane Carwin ! USA ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

POUND FOR POUND

ANDERSON SILVA ! Brazil ! UFC

Georges St. Pierre ! Canada ! UFC

Fedor Emelianenko ! Russia ! Strikeforce

Lyoto Machida ! Brazil ! UFC

Mike Thomas Brown ! USA ! WEC

Jon Fitch ! USA ! UFC

BJ Penn ! USA ! UFC

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson ! USA ! UFC

Rashad Evans ! USA ! UFC

Thiago Alves ! Brazil ! UFC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

AfterAffliction disasterall signs point to a

return toJapan.

Willbe back in the

cage early 2010after recovering

from injury.

Maybe left without the

high profile bout hehoped for if Rampage

really retires.

Makeshis network

television debuton

Nov. 7.

Canhe be the

first totoppleFedor?

Willgo back down to

light heavyweight toface Brandon

Vera.

An MCL injuryis congruent

with the injurysustained

while“clipping”

in a footballgame.

by Andrew Bonsall andRJ Clifford

The MCL is one of four ligaments that are critical to the stability of the kneejoint. A ligament is made of tough fibrous material and functions to controlexcessive motion by limiting joint mobility, which prevents the knee frombuckling. The four major stabilizing ligaments of the knee are the anteriorand posterior cruciate ligaments (ACL and PCL, respectively), and themedial and lateral collateral ligaments (MCL and LCL, respectively). Thinkof these ligaments as strong, flexible pieces of rubber that tightly hold yourknee in place but allow for movement.

The medial collateral ligament spans the distance from the end of the femur(thigh bone) to the top of the tibia (shin bone) and is on the inside of theknee joint. The medial collateral ligament resists widening of the inside ofthe joint, or prevents "opening-up" of the knee. Because the medial collat-eral ligament resists widening of the inside of the knee joint, the MCL isusually injured when the outside of the knee joint is struck for instance witha hard leg kick or, in Cote’s case, awkwardly landing on the inside of one’sfoot. This action causes the outside of the knee to buckle, and the inside towiden. When the medial collateral ligament is stretched too far, it is sus-ceptible to tearing and injury.

WHAT HAPPENED?

44 TapouT

On October 25, 2008 at UFC 90, Patrick “ThePredator” Cote faced the honorable yet dauntingtask of facing UFC middleweight champion andpound for pound king Anderson Silva. At the time,no fighter in the UFC and no fighter since 2004had made it past the second round without facingdefeat. Cote was determined to be the first. Heaccomplished his goal, entering the third roundholding up three fingers signaling his achieve-ment. The MMA gods were watching howeverafter a brief exchange just thirty-nine seconds intoround 3. Cote landed awkwardly on his rightknee re-aggravating an old injury and stoppingthe fight awarding Silva the TKO victory. Theinjury was a complete tear of his MCL (medial col-lateral ligament) and was so severe, Cote has yetto compete nearly a year later.

HOW BAD IS IT?The most common symptom following a medial collateral ligamentinjury is pain directly over the ligament, although the strength of thepain may vary greatly from person to person regardless of theseverity of the injury. Swelling over the torn ligament may appear,and bruising and generalized joint swelling are common 1 to 2 daysafter the injury. The knee may feel unstable like it wants to “giveout.” Symptoms of a medial collateral ligament injury tend to corre-late with the extent of the injury. MCL injuries are graded on a scaleof I to III.

Grade I This is an incomplete tear of the MCL. The tendon is stillintact and the symptoms are usually minimal. There is likely painwith pressure on the MCL but the fighter can usually expect to miss1-2 weeks of training.

Grade II Grade II injuries are also considered incomplete tears ofthe MCL. Fighters may complain of instability when attempting tocut or pivot. The pain and swelling is more significant and usually aperiod of 3-4 weeks of rest is necessary.

Grade III A grade III injury is a complete tear of the MCL. Thereis a significant amount pain and swelling with difficulty bending theknee. Instability, or giving out, is a common finding with grade IIIMCL tears. A knee brace or a knee immobilizer is usually needed for

comfort, and healing may take 6 weeks or longer.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?Treatment of a medial collateral ligament injury rarely requiressurgical intervention although it is often necessary with highlevel athletes in contact sports. Almost always, some simpletreatment steps, along with rehabilitation, will result in ahealthy ligament that allows one to return to a previous levelof activity. The time before an athlete is able to return to theirsport corresponds to the grade of the injury.

Grade I Grade I sprains of the MCL usually resolve within afew weeks. Treatment consists of resting from activity, icingthe injury and anti-inflammatory medications.

Grade II When a grade II MCL sprain occurs, use of a hingedknee brace is common in early treatment. Athletes with a gradeII injury can return to activity once they are not having painover the MCL.

Grade III When a grade III injury occurs, fighters usuallywear a knee immobilizer and protect weight-bearing (crutches)for the first week to 10 days following injury. The brace shouldbe removed several times a day to work on bending the knee.After that time, a hinged knee brace can be used to increaserange of motion in the knee. More weight can be applied to theknee as pain allows. Once the knee can flex at least to 100degrees, riding a stationary bicycle is a good form of rehabili-tation.

Some surgeons describe a so-called grade IV injury to themedial collateral ligament. This is also called a medial columninjury, and involves injury to more ligaments than just theMCL. Whether or not to repair the MCL, even in thesesettings, is controversial. Some doctors prefer to allow allMCL injuries to heal without surgery, and some prefer torepair these most significant injuries to the MCL. No signifi-cant difference has been demonstrated in these patients.

Andrew Bonsall has a BA in Kinesiology from Long Beach State University and a Masters in Educational technology. He is alsoa credentialed medical illustrator.

Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL)

MedialCollateralLigament

MedialMeniscus

LateralMeniscus

Tibia

LateralCollateralLigament

Femur Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL)

45TapouT

48 TapouT

Kettlebells are a deadlytraining tool when usedproperly. For combat athletes,Kettlebells will develop strengthendurance, power endurance,high octane conditioning andsome serious mental toughness,ALL of which are needed if youwant to be a successful combatathlete.

Kettlebells should not be youronly training tool, you shouldalso be using bodyweight /gymnastics movements, freeweights, strongman equipment,etc. But, the Kettlebell can beyour ‘All In One Gym” – youcan do anything with them:squat, lunge, push, pull, throwand rotate, all of which areneeded to strengthen andimprove your combat skills.

Try this Killer Kettlebell workoutbelow once or twice a week inaddition to your combat skilltraining and watch your per-formance quickly skyrocket.Let’s Get Busy!

by Zach Even-Esh

Underground Training

Killer Kettlebell Trainingfor Gladiators!

Pull the kettlebell as high as possible and then punch your hand through at the top.Lower the kettlebell by sitting back and keeping the bell close to your face and thenthrough your legs. At all times keep your lower back flat. Pull aggressively oncethe kettlebell stretches through your legs.

1. ONE-ARM KETTLEBELL SNATCH

Zach Even – Esh is a Performance Coach for Combat Athletes. For more info visit www.ZachEven-Esh.com andwww.UndergroundKettlebells.com

3. OUTSIDE KETTLEBELL SWINGS

4. LOADED CONDITIONING

Grab a pair of Kettlebells and mark off a distance of 100 – 200’. Start with the overhead carry, once you reach the end point,transition into the rack walk, and once you reach the end point, finish with the farmer walk. For the ultimate test, add 5 reps ofthe Military Press after the overhead carry, then 5 squats after the rack walk and 5 cleans after the farmer walk. This coupling ofcarrying and exercises is the toughest version of Loaded Conditioning.

NOW, FOR YOURKILLER KETTLEBELL

WORKOUT:1) 1 Arm Kettlebell Snatches

4 x 10 reps each Hand2) Kettlebell Man Maker

5 x 1 minute (rest exactly 1 minute aftereach set)

3) Loaded Conditioningx 100’ ea. Carry: 2 sets

Take a close stance, keep pressure on your heels and swing both Kettlebells behindyou while sitting your hips back, once fully stretched, forcefully snap your hipsforward to bring the Kettlebells to parallel with the ground.

49TapouT

This exercise is PURE brutality. Grab a pair of Kettlebells. Deadlift them down to the ground, sprawl your legs back,perform a push up, then a renegade row, jump your feet forwards so you are once again in the deadlift position.Explosively clean the Kettlebells up, deep squat and finish with a press. That is 1 rep! Inspired by my friend MikeMahler, these are brutal and awesome for combat athletes!

2. RENEGADE MAN MAKER

51TapouT

Arm Under Guard

Vinicius “Pezao” Magalhaes is a highly decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt despite his young age of twenty-five. After earninghis black belt from Gracie Humaita in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Magalhaes won multiple BJJ tournaments including the no-gi worlds

and a win in the PSL (Professional Submission League). He is known throughout the MMA world for his appearance on The Ultimate

Fighter: Team Nogueira vs Team Mir where he made it to the finals before losing to Ryan Bader. Magalhaes now teaches jiu-jitsu atthe TapouT Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

ARM

UN

DER

GU

ARD

TO

ARM

BA

R

LE

SSO

N 5

07

!

with Vinny Magalhaes

Arm Under Guard to Arm Bar

1 2

Vinny has Augustine in his full guard. Vinny grabs Augustine’s right wrist withhis left hand . . .

. . . and switches it over to his right handwhile simultaneously opening his guardand elevating his left leg.

3

4 5

Maintaining his grip on Augustine’s wrist,Vinny again transfers control from hisright hand to his left hand.

Now Vinny has Augustine’s right arm andleg locked up.

6

7

From here, Vinny rotates his hips clockwise using his right leg todrive Augustine’s left arm into his hips and grabs Augustine’s leftwrist with his free hand.

8

Vinny then brings his right leg over the head of Augustine, liftsup his hips and finishes the arm bar.

With his leg up, Vinny turns his hipsclockwise pushing Augustine over andlifting his hips. With the space, Vinny canhook Augustine’s right leg with his leftarm.

52 TapouT

ARM

UN

DER

GU

ARD

TO

SW

EEP

L

ESSO

N 5

08

!

Arm Under Guard

Arm Under Guard to Sweep

1

Vinny has Augustine’s right arm and leg locked up like in the firsttechnique.

2

Opening his guard, Vinny grabs Augustine’s left wrist, lifts hisleft leg up into his armpit, drops his right leg down byAugustine’s left thigh and rotates his hips out.

5

Switching to S mount, Vinny drives his left calf underAugustine’s right arm and settles his weight forward.

6

Vinny can now step his right leg over Augustine’s head and finishwith an arm bar.

3

Vinny scissors his legs while pulling on Augustine’s left arm,sweeping him to his back.

4

Now mounted, Vinny maintains his holds on Augustine’s wrists.

53TapouT

with Vinny Magalhaes

ARM

UN

DER

GU

ARD

TO

TRIA

NG

LE

LES

SO

N 5

09

!

Arm Under Guard to Triangle

6

He uses his left hand to drive Augustine’s right arm to Vinny’sright side and across his neck.

7

To finish, Vinny pulls down on Augustine’s head and lifts his hipsfor the choke.

4

. . . and over Augustine’s neck. Notice Vinny is pulling downwith his right leg bringing Augustine’s head down.

5

Vinny figure fours his legs and elevates his hips up.

1 2

Vinny has Augustine’s right arm and legtrapped like in the first technique.

Vinny looks for wrist control onAugustine’s left wrist.

Once he has it, Vinny brings his right legout . . .

3

54 TapouT

ARM

UN

DER

GU

ARD

TO

OM

OPLA

TA

LE

SSO

N 5

10

Arm Under Guard

!

Arm Under Guard to Omoplata

1

Vinny has Augustine’s right arm and leg locked up like in the firsttechnique.

2

Using wrist control, Vinny fakes an attempt at the triangle bydriving his foot into Augustine’s left bicep.

5

Vinny finishes the shoulder lock by bringing his left arm aroundthe back of Augustine, bending his knees and driving his hipsforward.

6

Here is a look at another angle.

3

This causes Augustine’s shoulders to rotate.

4

Now Vinny can extend his left leg and drive Augustine into anOmoplata.

55TapouT

ARM

UN

DER

GU

ARD

TO

SIN

GLE

LEG

FIN

ISH

L

ESSO

N 5

11

with Vinny Magalhaes

!

Arm Under Guard to Single Leg Finish

1 2

Vinny has Augustine’s right arm and legtrapped like in the first technique.

Augustine breaks Vinny’s grip by standingup. Vinny is unable to get Augustine backdown with his other wrist.

Releasing his grip with his right hand,Vinny lifts his hips and posts his righthand behind his head.

3

4 5

Vinny starts rotating his hips away fromAugustine.

Vinny kicks his legs all the way backdoing a backwards somersault rightinto a . . .

. . . single leg with his left arm still underAugustine’s leg and right arm following.

6

7 8

Vinny elevates Augustine’s leg up highand steps his hips in closer to Augustine’ships.

Bringing his left arm around the waistof Augustine, Vinny sweeps him up inthe air.

Vinny drops him down to his back rightinto side mount.

9

56 TapouT

Boxing CountersU

PPER

CU

T CO

UN

TER

LESSO

N 5

12

!

Uppercut Counter

Jorge (left) and Dorian are two right handed fighters squaredoff.

DG Boxing, located in Long Beach, California, is home to countless championship boxers, both amateur and professional, as well asa cardio boxing gym. MMA fighters such as Tito Ortiz and Tank Abbott have trained at DG Boxing throughout their careers.

Dorian Anthony is a four time Los Angeles Golden Gloves Champion, 2008 USA Boxing National Champion, 2007 National PALChampion and the 2007 BCR World Champion earning himself a #1 ranking by USA Boxing. With his sights set on the 2012 SummerOlympics in London, look for Dorian to make a splash in years to come.

Having trained since he was 9 years old, Jorge Rodriguez brings over 20 years of experience to the DG Boxing gym. A Golden Gloveswinner as well as a Diamond Belt Tournament Champion as an amateur, George also boasts an 11-1 professional record. Having beenwith DG Boxing for four years now, he is one of the head trainers at the gym.

For more on DG Boxing log on to www.dgboxinggyms.com

1

Jorge throws a right uppercut so Dorian blocks by rotating hisbody counter clockwise placing his hand, palm down, underhis chin blocking the punch.

2

With his body already rotated and Jorge’s right hand awayfrom his face, Dorian rotates his shoulders and throws a lefthook to Jorge’s chin.

3

Dorian follows up with a straight right.

4

57TapouT

LEFT

HO

OK

CO

UN

TER

LESSO

N 5

13

with DG Boxing

!

Left Hook Counter

Jorge and Dorian are squared off.

1

Dorian throws a left hook to Jorge’s headso Jorge ducks the punch and lands a lefthook to Dorian’s body.

2

Jorge brings his hips up for a right hook tothe head . . .

3

. . . followed by a left hook to the head . . .

4

. . . and finishing with a right straight to the head. Notice Jorgewas turning his hips with every punch.

5

58 TapouT

Boxing CountersRIG

HT

STR

AIG

HT

CO

UN

TER

LESSO

N 5

14

!

with DG Boxing

Right Straight Counter

Jorge and Dorian are both squared off.

1

As Dorian throws a right straight, Jorge bends his knees anddrops his hips countering with a right straight to the body.

2

Jorge brings his body up to throw a left hook to the head . . .

3

. . . followed by a right straight of his own.

4

RECORD30-1 Practically undefeated, Fedor’s only blemish came

at the hands Tsuyoski Kohsaka ar Rings in 2000when an errant strike cut Fedor

LAST FIVE OPPONENTSWin Andrei Arlovski,Win Tim Sylvia,Win Hong Man Choi,Win

Matt Lindland,Win Mark Hunt

GREATEST VICTORY His two wins over former Pride and UFC heavyweight championAntonio Rodrigo Nogueira stand out since he won his Pride belt

from the Brazilian

STRIKINGAn unorthodox striker, Fedor’s incredibly fast hands are also

extremely dangerous with wide, hard punches that have rockedmany heavyweights

WRESTLINGAs a sambo and judo specialist there is little Fedor has not seenin the takedown department as well as having been able to stuff

the takedowns of some of the sports best wrestlers

SUBMISSIONSAs well rounded as Fedor is, the submission game is his specialty

finishing five of his last six opponents by submission hold

EXPERIENCEA veteran of thirty-one fights Fedor has fought, and won, all over

the world including Russia, Japan and the US

Strikeforce, M-1 Global and Rockstar Energy Drink Presents

FEDOR EMELIANENKO

60 TapouT

Fedor vs.SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 - 8:00PM/CT

(Prelims begin at 6:00PM)LIVE ON CBS AT 9:00PM (ET/PT)

(tape delayed on the west coast)SEARS CENTRE ARENA - CHICAGO, IL

Tickets on sale now at the Sears Centre ticket office inHoffman Estates, IL

online at Ticketmaster.comor by phone at 800-745-3000.

For more details, hit Strikeforce.comFor the latest Strikeforce news and updates,

sign up to become a"Strikeforce Insider" e-newsletter subscriber at

Strikeforce.com!

61TapouT

RECORD

10-0 Not only an undefeated heavyweight but with ten wins allby finish and almost all of them in the first round

LAST FIVE OPPONENTS

Win Andrei Arlovski,Win Ron Humphrey,Win Jon Murphy,WinJames Thompson,Win Ralph Kelly

GREATEST VICTORY

No question here! The destruction of Andrei Arlovski in a meretwenty-two seconds stands as one of the best KO’s in 2009

STRIKING

Clearly a power puncher, Rogers’ massive size and fists havesteamrolled all ten of his opponents

WRESTLING

Also a tough opponent to takedown, at 6’5” and 265 pounds hisis a challenge for anyone looking for a wrestling match

SUBMISSIONS

The jury is still out on Rogers’ submission skills as he has runroughshod over all his opponents on his feet. Could potentiallybe the X factor in this fight

EXPERIENCE

Rogers: Has one third the fights of Fedor but he is familiar withfighting on CBS and the Strikeforce cage

BRETT ROGERS

Rogers

63TapouT

LEFT

HO

OK

CO

UN

TER T

O K

NEE

LESSO

N 5

15

with Kit Cope

!

Left Hook Counter to Knee

Kit and his opponent are squared off.

1

His opponent throws a wide left hook toKit’s head so Kit blocks by putting hisright hand behind his neck and blockingwith his elbow.

Kit Cope is an accomplished Muay Thai fighter and an MMA veteran but is probably better known for his television acco-

lades. Cope has appeared on Fear Factor, MTV’s Real Life and as one of three hosts on SpikeTV’s Wild World of Sports.Having traveled to Thailand to train and compete, Cope is well versed in Muay Thai with dangerous punches, knees, kicksand elbows.

2

Safe from the punch, Kit grips hisopponent’s shoulders and takes a stepforward with his right foot.

3

Muay Thai

A closer look on his grip shows Kit’s right hand on hisopponent’s left bicep and his left hand on the back of his neckpushing his head down.

4

From here Kit leans back, shoots his hips forward and lands aknee to the sternum.

5

64 TapouT

ARM

DRA

G

LESSO

N 5

16

!

Arm Drags

Rich Korfhage started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1993. Training under the legendary Renzo Gracie in Manhattan and laterwith Matt and Nick Serra on Long Island NY, Rich received his black belt under the Serras, only the third person to do so at thetime. Rich has successfully competed in both jiu-jitsu and submission grappling tournaments, and was one of the main instruc-tors at the Serra academy until November of 2008 when he opened his own academy (Korfhage Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy) inLindenhurst, Long Island.

Aside from tournament experience, Rich had the opportunity to apply his training on the job as a police officer working someof the toughest sections of the city. In 2006 Rich retired as a Lieutenant from the New York City Police Department and is nowa full time instructor passing on his 16 years of knowledge and experience in jiu-jitsu to his students.

Korfhage Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is located at 280 north Wellwood Ave. Lindenhurst, NY 11757, Telephone # 631-592-4446, or onthe web at www.korfhagebjj.com.

Photos by Natalie Hedley of FP Imaging

Arm Drag

2 3

Rich starts with his opponent in closedguard.

Rich shrimps his left hip out to makedistance and to make an angle, keeping hisright foot in his opponent’s hip to keep thedistance he created.

Rich now drops his left foot between hisopponent’s legs.

Rich now drags hisopponent past himand toward theground using hisright hand stillmaintaining a tightgrip on his

opponent’s right arm and pushing off with the left hand placedon the ground in the last step.

Rich’s right leg thatwas left in butterflyguard now becomesa hook, while Richsteps over hisopponent’s backand secures anotherhook with his left leg completing the transition to the back. Richthen secures the rear naked choke.

1

5 6

Rich sits up and drops his right foot in tocomplete his transition to butterfly guard.

Rich maintains wrist control and passeshis opponent’s right wrist across hisbody at the same time securing a grip onthe back of his opponent’s right arm, bydoing this Rich has made an opening tohis opponent’s back.

Rich now steps out with his left footplacing his left hand on the ground forbase and to help propel himself to hisopponent’s back.

4

87

ARM

DRA

G

LES

SO

N 5

17

65TapouT

!

with Rich Korfhage

Arm Drag Defense

Using the grip described in step 2, Rich arm drags hisopponent to the mat, taking his opponent’s back.

4

Rich secures his position on his opponents back and appliesthe rear naked choke.

5

1 2 3

As described in the first technique Rich’sopponent executes an arm drag and isattempting to take his back.

Rich immediately secures a grip on theback of his opponent’s right arm, support-ing himself with his left.

As his opponent scoots to take his back,Rich sits through with his left leg.

66 TapouT

ARM

DRA

G T

O S

WEE

P

LESSO

N 5

18

!

Arm Drags

Arm Drag to Sweep

As in the first move, Rich transitions to butterfly guard tobegin the arm drag sequence. His opponent steps up and overRich to prevent him from taking his back.

1

Maintaining his grip on his opponent’s right arm, Rich takeshis left arm and secures a grip over his opponent’s right legjust above the knee.

2

Rich keeps his right foot secured as a hook. Using all his gripsRich shifts his weight backwards toward the ground.

3

Still utilizing all his grips, Rich sweeps his opponent’s lowerbody upward and over him.

4

As his opponent hits the ground, Rich utilizes the right handgrip maintained on his opponent’s arm to pull himself up.

5

Rich then moves to side mount securing a good strong crossside position.

6

67TapouT

ARM

DRA

G T

O S

WIT

CH

L

ESSO

N 5

19

!

with Rich Korfhage

Arm Drag to Switch

4 5

1 2 3

Again Rich tries to transition to hisopponent’s back using an arm drag.

His opponent attempts to stop him bygrabbing with his right arm around Rich’storso, trying to pin him down to theground.

Rich pins his opponent’s arm in place witha left hand grip . . .

. . . and brings his right elbow into his opponent’s arm pit. Rich secures his right hand under his opponents leg therebytrapping his opponent’s right arm in place.

6 7

Rich now drags his opponent forward and to the mat using thegrip secured with his right arm, which also puts extreme pressureon his opponent’s right shoulder.

Rich now completes the technique by again stepping his leftleg over his opponent taking his back finishing with the rearnaked choke.

Attacking the Up/Down Position

68 TapouT

ARM

BA

RFR

OM

UP/D

OW

NLE

SSO

N5

20

!

When Brock Lesnar's camp was looking for a world class BJJ coach they didn't have to go far to find one of the best. Rodrigo Medeiros,or Comprido as he is affectionately called, is considered to be one of the greatest BJJ athletes ever, at the ripe old age of 31. His achieve-ments include being a 7x world champion and one of only four people to ever be crowned world absolute champion twice ('99 and'00). At the age of 16 he began training near his home in Rio de Janeiro and in only five years he was the best in the world. Compridoattributes much of his success to his team, Brasa, whose athletes include Demian Maia and Felipe Costa.

In 2007 Comprido came to Palatine, IL (just outside Chicago) and helped open up Flo MMA. In addition to teaching BJJ at Flo, heperforms at seminars around the country, flies to multiple gyms to train UFC fighters, and he also finds time to go to Brazil and teachat a BJJ school for blind children. For more information on Comprido please e-mail info@mataleon.tv.

Arm Bar from Up/Down

1 2 3

Comprido is in the up/down positionstanding up while his opponent is lyingdown on his back. Notice Comprido hascontrol of his opponent’s pant legs.

To clear his opponent’s defense,Comprido pushes his opponent’s legs tothe floor.

Here is a look from the side. Notice hisopponent has defended by grabbingComprido’s collar.

4 5

6Comprido releases his grips on hisopponent’s legs and instead grips hisopponent’s right wrist with his right handand his elbow with his left.

Instantly, Comprido elevates hisopponent’s right arm and steps his rightfoot to the outside of his opponent’s hip.

From the back angle, Comprido begins tostep his left leg around the back of hisopponent.

7 8 9

Stepping all the way over, Comprido landsin a standing arm bar.

Comprido than drops to his back, squeezeshis knees together, controls the wrist,elevates his hips and finishes the arm bar.

From another angle.

69TapouT

UP/D

OW

N P

OSIT

ION

TO

TRIA

NG

LE C

HO

KE

LE

SSO

N 5

21

with Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros

!

Up/Down Position to Triangle Choke

1 2 3

Comprido is in the up/dpwn position withhis opponent.

To clear his opponent’s defense,Comprido grabs the pants and pushes hisopponent’s legs down to the mat.

Releasing his initial grips, Comprido grabshis opponent’s wrists.

4 5 6

Once the grips are established, Compridoimmediately elevates his opponent’s rightarm, pushes down his left arm and stepsover his left should with his right leg.

Pulling on the back of his opponent’shead, Comprido begins sliding his rightleg up onto the shoulder of his opponent .. .

. . . and drives him straight down to themat.

7 8 9

Comprido posts his right hand on the matso he can shift his weight and bring his leftleg around his right foot into a figure four.

Here is a closer look at the hold. Once his legs are in a full figure four,Comprido pulls his opponent’s head upand extends his hips forward finishing thechoke.

70 TapouT

Attacking the Up/Down PositionU

P/D

OW

N T

O B

ACK

CO

NTR

OL

LE

SSO

N 5

22

with Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros

!

Up/Down to Back Control

4 5 6

To defend, Comprido steps his right legout so he is almost parallel with hisopponent. He also pushes down on hisopponent’s head with his left hand.

Comprido yanks his left foot out using theleverage from pushing down on his head.

Immediately following the kick outComprido then brings his left leg back-wards and over the top of his opponent’shead.

7 8 9

Comprido ends up behind his opponentand locks up his opponent’s collar.

Here is a closer look at the hold. Now Comprido can put his hooks in andfinish the choke.

1 2 3

Comprido is in the up/down position con-trolling his opponent’s pant legs.

His opponent defends by sitting up andgrabbing Comprido’s left leg.

A look from another angle.

72 TapouT

MMAterial

CARDIOFACTOR

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Use offer code CARDIOSUP

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HEADBLADE

Finally a razor designed specifically for shaving your head.While blades designed for the face can beawkward and result in cuts and abrasions,Headblade is specifically designed for the

scalp to give you a clean, even shaveon your head.

Accept no imitations.

Available at Walgreens,RiteAid and other fine retailers

www.headblade.com

73TapouT

MMAterial

POWER BLOCK

Since 1993, PowerBlockshave proven to be the mostperfectly balanced, heaviest,most compact and easiest touse quick change dumbbell.PowerBlock is the onlydumbbell system that canexpand to meet your strengthneeds. Dumbbells are the mostversatile and effective exercisetool ever developed forstrength training. Now youcan have rapid access to awhole rack of dumbbells athome in the space of just 1pair, and at a fraction of theprice of conventional dumb-bells. Available in a 50 lb,90 lbs or 130 lbs set.

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ROYLER GRACIE

The Royler GracieJiu Jitsu CompetitionTested Techniques isone of the best twovolume DVD sets onBrazilian jiu-jitsutoday. The four timeWorld BJJChampion andthree time WorldADCC Championdemonstrates hisfavorite competitiontested techniques inhis first ever instruc-tional DVD. Checkout volume one forthrows and sweepsand volume two forguard and half guard passes. Available at Budo Videos.

www.budovideos.com

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MATT LINDLAND: DIRTY BOXING

As one of the mostcredentialed andaccomplished Greco-Roman wrestlers inMMA, Matt Lindlandpioneered the dirtyboxing style sopopular in MMAtoday.

Meshing his wrestlingbackground withstriking techniques,Lindland shows a vastarray of striking tech-niques from closerange, wearing

down your opponent and going for the knockout!

www.victorybelt.com

Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal is one of the few gems to haveescaped the grasp of both Strikeforce and the UFC, but this maysoon change as this gifted prospect is now making his wayhome. The esteemed fighter has been accustomed to winninglong before his pro debut a little less than a year ago; he is a fan

favorite namely in Japan where his MMA career has prospered. The youngfighter already holds many national and Olympic wrestling accomplishments,and like many great amateur wrestlers who’ve made the transition to MMA, hewas just simply ready for a change of scenery.

It was not until he stepped in for an injured Roger Gracie last December, makinghis pro MMA debut, that he finally gained clarity for where his destiny lies.Against tough vet Travis Wiuff, it was clear Lawal was at a definitive size andexperience disadvantage. Despite being on the short end of the stick, Lawallanded a well-placed superman punch to stagger the giant, followed by a doubleleg takedown and good old ground and pound to cap off a first round TKOvictory. His next two matches ended in similar, ground and pound fashion viaTKO over Fabio Silva and Yukiya Naito.

His next outing proved to be more of a difficult task with Lawal stumbling in theunfamiliar realm of the judge’s decision. After going through three gruelingrounds for the first time, Lawal received a tally in the win column by unanimousdecision over a gutsy Ryo Kawamura. Yet it was not until his most recent firstround destruction of Pride and UFC veteran Mark Kerr at M-1 Breakthrough thatthe world finally became properly introduced to the tyrannical force that is

Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal. TapouT recently sat down to talk to the Kingabout his life in and out of the sport.

TAPOUT: I would like to congratulate you on your recent

victory this past August. Were you surprised that you finished

Kerr the way you did?

KING MO: No, I just went out there and did my thing because I didn’t reallyknow what to expect.

TO: In Japan you’re already a huge draw and sensation; why do

you think the Japanese fans are so drawn to you?

KM: I think they like the fact that I go out there and fight hard, plus I have per-sonality and I’m outgoing. That goes a long way. In America, sometimes whenyou’re outgoing and have a personality, they mistake that for cockiness.

TO: So you don’t think the favoritism has anything to do with

your pre-fight antics or the countless beautiful women

escorting you?

KM: In Japan! Nah, I think that goes more as part of my show, you know. It’s apart of my personality; they didn’t put me up to that…it was me. Man, I’ve beendoing that since I was wrestling.

TO: Many American fans are not fully aware of you yet. What

do you think you have to do to crossover?

KM: I have to keep on winning and fight in American organizations. To me, Idon’t care about being mainstream or known, because regardless of winning orlosing, you still have haters and doubters. So it’s all about going out there andsatisfying you because you cannot go out there and satisfy everyone else. To bemainstream, I don’t know if that will ever happen, but who knows.

TO: What led you to MMA?

74 TapouT

76 TapouT

KM: Man, I always wanted to fight ever since I saw valetudo in Huntington Beach. I see it as something that Icould do because I never saw myself doing anythingordinary. When I saw MMA, I was like “that’s my thingright there and I’m going to do this when I’m donewrestling.”

TO: In what ways has your wrestling back-

ground benefited you in MMA?

KM: I can control where the fight goes; I’m used tofighting in front of big crowds and the pressure doesn’tget to me, or so I've been told. It also gave me world-classtraining with world-class athletes.

TO: What has been your most difficult chal-

lenge while competing?

KM: I don’t know…probably the fans and trying toplease them. You can’t worry about the fans thoughbecause you can’t please everyone. If it comes to striking,I’m on that. If it comes to transitions from punches totakedowns, I’m on that too. For me, it’s all fun. It’s like ifyou enjoy running, something like a marathon can behard but still fun. Look at people who compete in the mile[1,600 meter race], they run and work hard because theylove the sport; and even when they’re done, they are stillrunning extra laps because it’s not seen as work when youlove it.

TO: Where do you train and who makes up

your camp?

KM: I do my training in a lot of circles. I train with BennyPerez, Mayhem Miller and Fabricio Werdum. DanielComier comes down with me, along with Rashon Bunchand Benji Radach. The list goes on, including Arch Helmand Walter Wallet of ATT (American Top Team). Youknow I got to give a shout-out to Bodyshop because I dida lot of my training there last year working with AntonioMcKee and the rest of them boys.

TO: Speaking of Antonio Mckee. Rampage has

also trained under him and the two of you

have been on YouTube going back in forth

about previous fights, much like he and

Rashad. If you fought Quinton, what do you

think the outcome would be?

KM: I’d beat him. Just because someone did somethingin the past, it really doesn’t mean anything. Styles makefights! I think I’m quicker and I know I'm stronger. I amdeceptively strong, but people don’t really know howstrong I am. People have seen Rampage slam otherwrestlers and fighters around, but I'm probably thestrongest and fastest fighter he would face. I know Iwould out-wrestle him, I can control where the fight goesand I can control him. He has a hard time with guys whocan move, guys who are aggressive and can move likeForrest Griffin; Rashad [Evans] would beat him. He’s agreat fighter, but he’s like the George Foreman of the 205division. You know what I'm saying, George Foreman!

“I know that I’m

going to go out

there and have

fun, do my thing

and I will speak my

mind no matter

what anybody has

to say”.

77TapouT

TO: What do you think about him

announcing he’s stepping away

from the fight game?

KM: He’s been fighting for over 10 yearsand I respect him; he’s done a lot for thegame and I really respect him a lot. If hewants to do movies, then hey, I know I willbe watching The A-Team. He has a family,and when it comes down to it, it’s what's bestfor him and I respect him for doing it.

TO: With the recent emergence of

MMA in the black community, do

you think kids will aspire to be pro

MMA fighters instead of going

into other sports?

KM: I think it’s a mistake for kids to aspireto be just mixed martial artists; I think kidsshould aspire to be bigger things. If you wantto do MMA, take up a base first like boxingor wrestling so that you have a background.I don’t think kids can handle the strain andmentality of doing MMA while coming up. Ithink you should play sports coming up andbecome well-trained athletes. Once they arein junior high, they should take up Brazilianjiu-jitsu, boxing or wrestling. If you start tooyoung, then it’s a mistake.

TO: What do you feel you have to

offer MMA that no other fighter

can bring to the table?

KM: That’s a good question. I don’t knowwhat I can bring, but I know that I’m goingto go out there and have fun, do my thing andI will speak my mind no matter whatanybody has to say. I’m just going to keep itreal; I’m going to keep it real with myselfand keep it real with my fans. But back tothat last question. I think MMA in the blackcommunities will pick up because more kidsare training and learning the basics for grap-pling and jiu-jitsu. I still don’t think youshould start too young because that can burnyou out.

TO: With you being considered one

of the top free agents at 205, is

there anyone you’re looking

forward to facing next or a

specific organization you would

like to fight for?

KM: No. I will fight for anyone that willpretty much keep me busy. As far as fighters,when I win a title then I will call out names.Outside of that, I don’t think that I deservethe right to call anyone out. I have only beenfighting for a year. People make it seem like

I have been fighting for four years or some-thing like that. My first fight was justDecember 30th and I trained four months forthat fight. I'm still a rookie in the game, sono, I don’t think I have the right to call outanyone because a lot of people have beenhere before me. When I get to the pointwhere I’m a champion, then I will call themout.

For the Rampage thing, I didn’t call him out.Rampage disrespected me and I stood up formyself; that’s a different story. A lot of MMAfans won’t understand the differencebetween standing up for yourself and callingsomeone out. I won’t call anybody out rightnow; it’s not my time to do that.

TO: Is there something that most

fans don’t know about you?

KM: I don’t know (laughing). If they want toknow though, they can hit up my Facebookor MySpace pages. Really, just holla at me!People can assume and interview me all theywant, but until you meet me and really get toknow me, you won’t know anything.

TO: What is success to you?

KM: Success. I think it is when you can sitdown and look back on your life and think,“Damn, I’ve done everything I wanted todo.” Then you know you're truly happy.Success equals happiness.

TO: What’s your take on relation-

ships with people?

KM: It’s give and take, you know. You got tobe real and be cool with it. If you’re beingfake, then you’re just taking and not givinganything in return.

TO: How about life in general?

KM: Do what makes you happy. As long asyou’re not harming anyone else by robbingand killing, just do what you want. If youwant to marry a donkey, then do it!

TO: Is there anyone you’d like to

thank?

KM: I would like to give a shout-out to Dr.Parks (my manager), Team Thirsty, “Sugar”Rashad Evans, and you for interviewing me.I’d also like to thank CageFighter, GDP,Sean Butch “The Great”, all my fans out inJapan, and everyone that holds and keeps itdown in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

80 TapouT

Everyday you see MMA athletesrunning long distances anddoing slow - long reps while inthe gym. These are commonmistakes performed by manyathletes. The sport of MMA isnot an aerobic workout, so whytrain that way?

Stick to anaerobic exercises.Muscles trained using anaerobicexercise develop differently ascompared to aerobic exercises,leading to greater performancein short duration, high intensityactivities, which last from mereseconds up to a maximum anaer-obic metabolic contribution atabout 2 minutes.

Put these exercises into yourroutine to develop more explo-sive strength and power.Remember to stick with highintensity interval training. Trainthe way you want to perform inthe cage!!

We recommend that you do yourstrength training 2-3 days aweek, maximum. Remember allthe other training that you aredoing throughout the week. Youdo not want to overtrain. That isanother common mistake amongfighters.

by Nick Rians and Rick Rozandaal

Strength and Conditioning

for Mixed Martial Artists

Stand directly under a pull up bar, jump up and perform one pull up. As you releasefrom the bar go immediately into the push up position. This is one rep. Do 4 setsof 10-15 reps.

1. PULL UP TO A BURPEE:

81TapouT

To learn more about South Coast Fight Club, visit www.southcoastfightclub.com.

Keep your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.Holding the ball in front of you with your arms stretchedout. Wind up and throw the ball against the wall. Turnyour hips and back foot, generating power from your core.Aim chest level on the wall. Catch medicine ball andrepeat the exercise for 4 sets of 10-15 reps per side.

2. MEDICINE BALL SIDE THROWS

Stand on one foot facing an 18 or 24 inch high platform.Explosively jump onto the box. Step off and repeat for 4sets of 10-15 reps per side.

3. SINGLE LEG BOX JUMPS

Hold a kettle bell with both hands, place your feet slightlywider than your shoulders. Imagine your arms as ropesand your hands as hooks, holding the kettle bell betweenyour legs explosively pop your hips driving the kettle bellto eye level. Do 4 sets of 15-30 reps.

4. KETTLE BELL SWINGS

5. SINGLE ARM - DUMBBELL PRESS

Lie on a flat bench holding medium to heavy dumbbells.Bring the weights down to your chest. Explosively press onedumbbell up at a time. Alternating arms back and forth. Do 4sets of 15-20 reps per side.

84 TapouT

As MMA moves into the mainstream, itwas only a matter of time before majorsports networks began covering it. ESPNhas jumped onto the bandwagon with their

Internet show, MMA Live, hosted by sportsbroadcaster Jon Anik. I had a chance to putAnik on the other side of the microphoneand find out more about his background insports and his thoughts on MMA as awhole.

TAPOUT: Tell us a little about yourhistory in broadcasting?

JON ANIK: I started doing Afternoon

Drive in Boston on the radio, which wasthe greatest thrill; it’s what I always

wanted to do. Then we started The

Mouthpiece Boxing Show that we did forfour and a half years, which is still going

on without me. So that was what got megoing in the combat sports. Eventually wetook our boxing show to EliteXC’s debutin 2007 and we really got hooked onMMA afterward. I began working forESPN’s digital media when the concept of

MMA Live began. I was in the right placeat the right time and it’s a dream cometrue!

TO: What was it about that Elite XCshow that hooked you into MMA?

JA: I should preface that by saying itwasn’t the EliteXC dragon’s breathing firein the arena. It was really a performance byJoey Villasenor vs. David Louiseau andJavier Vasquez and Charles “Crazy Horse”Bennett knocking out KJ Noons. It was myfirst live show and it was a whole new

world! I’ve covered a lot on the boxingbeat and the main events were great, but itwas the undercard that sold me. You couldgo to one show and get eight great fights!

TO: Have you trained in any boxing orMMA?

JA: I took boxing lessons, but I don’t knowif I would call it training. I also plan ontaking Kenny Florian up on his offer to goto his training center, but no, I have notrolled. It’s something I want to do, but timeright now makes it a little tough. Iprobably shouldn’t be making excuseswhen I am talking about fighters andMMA, so hopefully soon.

TO: Tell us about the genesis of ESPN’s

MMA Live show?

Jon Anik: The Man Behind the TeleprompterInterview and Illustration by Matthew Kaplowitz

85TapouT

JA: At its core, it’s really a news and infor-mation show by our coordinatingproducer, Kieran Portley. It was his babyand he knew there would be a market forit. He knew the sport lived on the Internetand he knew that would be a good startingpoint. I think the way they approached itwith ESPN was to bring news and infor-mation before live fights. When you havean uneducated mass, you have to grow onthem a little bit and they need to under-stand it. They can’t just see blood on thecanvas and wonder what the deal is. I thinkthe process is moving along and ESPN hasits eyes wide open to MMA and hopefullyMMA Live is a nice starting point whenwe look back five years from now.

TO: It has taken ESPN some time tostart covering MMA. What was the delay?

JA: I think a lot of it is just people are une-ducated and there is a certain violence tothis sport. If you ask me the most danger-ous sports in the world, I might sayfootball is number one, then boxing, andhockey might be number three with MMAdown there. It can be brutal with some ofthe blood and some of the knockouts, andfor some people, it’s an acquired taste. Itcan be very addicting too. My girlfriendloves this stuff and she’s not a fan at all;she couldn’t tell you who Tito Ortiz is. Ijust think it’s about educating the peoplewho are uneducated. When this generationof fans turns over, this fanbase is going tobe so rabid that ESPN will have no choice.

TO: What will be the next step for main-stream MMA?

JA: I think it’s MMA on network TVregardless of which promotion it is andgetting it exposure in people’s homes. Theone thing with Bellator FightingChampionship is the premise of live MMAin homes for 12 straight weeks to see a fulltournament. A lot of fighters competedthree straight times and that gets peopleinterested. So more live MMA into asmany homes as possible is next.

TO: You and your co-host KennyFlorian have a very good chemistry on-set.Did that happen naturally?

JA: Sometimes in life you just hit it offwith people. Me and Kenny are both fromBoston and we clicked pretty early. I

consider him more a friend than a col-league. Being able to sit with him andwatch UFC 102 for ESPN was great. I’veknown him for almost two years, but hadnever watched a show with him. I’musually stuck on-set and he’s down by theOctagon, so being able to watch it withhim and take his insight was great. He’sfull of so much insight and is a greatambassador of the sport and the UFC. Ifeel very privileged to have the seat I donext to him.

TO: Who else has co-hosted the showwith you?

JA: Rashad Evans has had a good presencelately. We’ve had Rich Franklin, FrankMir, Pat Miletich and Miguel Torres.We’ve reached out to other non-UFCfighters too; Gina Carano has been inthere. Ultimately it’s Kenflo’s seat if hewants it.

TO: Are there any new features you

guys might be doing on MMA Live thisseason?

JA: We’re going to continue to work inMMA for Dummies and The TrainingTable, whether it’s in a kitchen or gym.One of the biggest requests we get is to tryto feature some of the gyms, likeSityadong in Boston or Team Quest. Mydream is to do the show twice a week sincethere’s certainly enough information.

TO: How involved are you in theprocess of the show?

JA: I get a run down that we go over in aproduction meeting with the producers andI write the show. I have a great team and alot of direction. I spend about two and ahalf days to it, but I would love to spendfive days a week on it since it definitelydeserves that. I am very involved in theprocess; I am not just a teleprompterreader, that’s for sure.

TO: Why do you think the East Coast isstill not getting the big cards?

JA: I think a lot of it is circumstantial. Youtry to schedule guys who are East Coastfighters like Kenny Florian, KurtPellegrino or Ricardo Almeida, so some-times the focus isn’t the totality of the cardas it is featuring local guys. Going into

101, there were three or four fights I waslooking forward to, and coming into 102,because of the match-ups, there areprobably seven fights I really want to see.I think it’s just circumstantial and there isno East Coast/West Coast conspiracy to it.

TO: What is your ultimate dream fightthat you want to see some day?

JA: Gosh! That is hard! I am just so closeto Kenny and I do want to see KenFlo vs.Diego Sanchez. GSP vs. Anderson Silvaseems like it’s not going to happen. Brockvs. Fedor or Brock vs. Anderson Silvaalmost has a better chance of happeningthan Anderson vs. GSP. Right now, I willsay Brock vs. Fedor. I do think Brockwould beat Fedor and that’s why the fightintrigues me, since no one has beaten thatguy.

TO: How marketable is a guy likeFedor in America?

JA: I think he’s a nice piece for Showtimeand Strikeforce, but I don’t know aboutbuilding up an organization around him.He doesn’t seem to really have the desireto help them market him or improve hislanguage or even utter a sentence inEnglish. We don’t really know what driveshim and he seems to like that we don’tknow. Anderson Silva is another guy whoI would like to see more. You see howcharismatic he can be and his English isbetter than he lets on. I think Fedor is not aguy you can build an entire organizationon, but he is a nice piece and hopefully hegets the memo that he needs to get outthere more than he is.

TO: Outside of MMA, what does JonAnik do in his spare time?

JA: I spend time with my significant other,I watch some sports. I try to run so my facedoesn’t look fat on TV. I lift weights butnot a lot of them. I am very much a regularguy and I like sports, but MMA has reallytaken the baseball fan out of me which issomething I never thought I would say.When you compare the pace of MMA tobaseball, after watching UFC 102, I have ahard time sitting down to watch baseball.

Matthew Kaplowitz is the editor of

TheFightNerd.com. He can be reached at

Matt@thefightnerd.com.

87TapouT

When two elite fighters step into the cage,there is a lot more to lose than some gaudybelt or a “W” in the column. The culmina-tion of the long, unforgiving road from thetraining room to fight day can soon be lostonce the bell sounds. As spectators, it iseasy to forget that behind every greatfighter lays a group of men whose job is toensure their fighter enters prepared andhopefully comes out the victor.

As Greg Nelson says via text message afterour interview, “I am just a small man sur-rounded by lots of big men.” This simplestatement (yet poignant) is so similar to theman who speaks it. For in Nelson’s humbleand kind way of expressing himself, he isprecise in disguising the very large task hehas inherited, being a mentor and coach forthe new, undisputed UFC HeavyweightChampion Brock Lesnar.

Many would get lost in the shadow of thisbehemoth and overlook the incredible con-tribution that Nelson and his team have notonly made to the current UFC heavyweightstandard but to the sport as a whole.TapouT Magazine chatted with Nelsonabout his rich MMA background, his phi-losophy on training and Lesnar.

TAPOUT MAGAZINE: Tell me aboutyour background and how you gotinvolved in martial arts?

GREG NELSON: I stumbled onto someBruce Lee books and guru Dan Inosantoright when I was to graduate high school in1983, and started training under an Inasantopupil named Rick Fay. I fell in love withThai boxing and eventually connected withErik Paulson who also trained with RickFay. I stayed friends with Erik throughoutthe years and he exploded with grappling; Ibecame a student under him as well andhave been flying ever since. ProfessorPedro Sauer was another influence and Imet him in 1996 when I was doing myresearch for instructors in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Over time we developed our own

By Ricky Bonnet

88 TapouT

system utilizing all of the instructorsbefore us to have great students andfighters.

TO: So you were basically developingmixed martial arts before the actualhybrid art form of MMA came about.

GN: Yeah, definitely. It was something wedid without even knowing that it wasgoing to become what it is today. We did itsimply because it was something we lovedto do and we knew that combining thestriking arts with the wresting arts with thesubmission arts was just something thatwas natural. After Gracie at the UFC, all ofa sudden grassroots shows started spring-ing up like Hook n’ Shoot, ExtremeChallenge and all these smaller shows. Wejust naturally said, "Hey, let's do this stuff,"and so some of our fighters just kept ondoing it and now today we have some ofthe greatest fighters in the world.

TO: When you saw the first UFC, didyou see the potential in MMA as a sporteven though it was unrefined at thatmoment?”

GN: Oh yes, for sure. We immediately sawthe potential and said, "Oh my gosh, I can'tbelieve this is happening for real!" Wewere so pumped but we also thought,“What’s going to happen when peoplestart to learn about Gracie jiu-jitsu andwhat about when the wrestlers start tolearn how to counter the submissions ofjiu-jitsu." So we were looking at it fromthat context right away, saying if we aregoing to eventually do this stuff, we wantto be as good as we can in all areas offighting. We eventually saw that this isgoing to boil down to hybrid fighteragainst hybrid fighter, as it is today.

TO: It’s amazing how you guys saw thelight while Bob Meyrowitz and ArtDavie were developing it the old-fash-ioned way through trial and error withthe UFC.

GN: Yeah and we did this because weloved to do it, not knowing that it wasgoing to some day be part of the verybusiness of how we run our schools.

TO: What is the back story on how youmet Brock Lesnar and what was it liketo be approached to be his coach? Did

you already know of his NCAA wrestingpedigree or his WWE career?

GN: Well, Marty Morgan, Lesnar’swrestling coach, was searching out differ-ent places to train. They looked intoMiletich Fighting Systems in Iowa andwent down there, but they really wanted aplace in Minnesota so they found ouracademy. Brock went to Marty Morganand asked, "Did this guy really wrestle atthe University of Minnesota or what's thedeal?" Marty said, "Yes, he wrestled at theUniversity of Minnesota," and so I thinkthat was something that had Brock gravi-tating towards us. At first he was like, "Iwould like to do some submission stuff.Would you be interested in working withme on submissions?" I said, "Yeah, great, Iwould like to." That was the birth of it andthen he realized that our academy was aplace he could learn all aspects of MMA.We just started training, first throughprivates, and then he actually did jiu-jitsuclasses and started working with me onstriking and the whole mix. Then we had afight deal and that’s what led to him takingon the Korean guy.

TO: That was M-1, right?

GN: Yes, it was M-1, so we trained him forbasic, raw striking and how to strike totake down, and then how to controlsomeone on the ground. That fight wasvery fast and very quick. So right there, Isaw this mega-athlete who is a fierce com-petitor and a guy who listens really well.This was a dream as far as a trainer wasconcerned, so after that, Brock really fellin love with it and still loves it. We juststarted picking people who we thoughtwould be best to facilitate his skills and hismeans of training. We started puttingtogether different training camps and nowwe have boiled it down to myself andMarty Morgan as head trainers. Marty washis wrestling coach through the Universityof Minnesota, so he really values hisopinion and his voice is the one that hereally hears from his corner. We alsobrought in Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiroswho is one of the best competitive jiu-jitsuguys in the world; he is over 200 poundsso that is going to be important. We alsobrought in Erik Paulson, the encyclopediaof MMA, so that is the base of instructorsaround Brock Lesnar.

89TapouT

TO: With all your experience andknowledge, before you saw him fight,did you think the Brock Lesnar experi-ment would be anything other than aspectacle or did you envision that oneday this guy could be a champion?

GN: After seeing him spar a little bit andstart to do stuff, I immediately saw that hewas more than just a great wrestler. Thisguy is a phenomenal athlete with a fiercedrive to be great at whatever he does.Right there, I knew if he was serious and ifhe really wanted to train, this guy could goall the way to the top without a doubt. Isaw that right away. With the heavy-weights that are out there right now, I don'tthink there are too many people who candeal with his size, speed and wrestlingability. Combine that with his striking andhis evolving submission game and I knewhe would be the next champion that I have,for sure, without a doubt.

TO: Was there anything that Brockcould teach you in terms of techniquesfor training?

GN: Well, not just Brock, but bringing inMarty Morgan as part of the wholeprogram has been really instrumental inhow I look at training fighters as well. Heis a really well-established wrestling coachwho is an undefeated NCAA nationalchampion himself and a two-time nationalGreco champion. I have really looked athow I train fighters in a different lightbecause of the camp we brought togetherfor Brock Lesnar.

TO: What was the biggest obstacle youhad to overcome with him? Aside fromhis tremendous strength, athleticismand will to win, was there an obstacle hehad to overcome to transition to MMA?

GN: I think the biggest obstacle that wereally faced and then had to take care ofwas his raw aggression. Just getting inthere and going in like a bull was not goingto cut it; you have to be smart, as well asaggressive, inside there and that first fightwith Frank Mir really took care of thatproblem. He was doing really well, but Ithink that aggressiveness took over ouroverall strategy and that is what causedhim to get caught in that knee bar. Afterthat fight, he really tempered his ability tojust go full-out aggressive and now he is a

more serene fighter and understands thestrategy inside the Octagon.

TO: Brock’s antics after his win overMir at UFC 100 are now an infamouspart of UFC history. What was youroriginal reaction as it was transpiringand did you talk to Brock after that?Since martial arts is as much mental asphysical, do you view yourself as acoach for both?

The biggest thing for me is that I am a veryquiet guy, so right away, I was, "Oh no, wehave lost him...he has reverted back intothe WWE...he is just going off the hornright now!" Initially, I felt it was againstwhat I believed, but you know . . . he is hisown person. He is doing it because hewants to do it. In the locker room, herealized that he went a little bit overboardthere, but at the same time, this is enter-tainment because, obviously, the UFC seesit as okay. If it was going to sell tickets andget people to watch more UFC, we reallywant to do it, but at the same time, wewant this to be different than what theWWE is. Afterwards, I think Brock lookedback at it and said, "You know, it's done. Isaid it. What do we do from here?" I saidwe just have to fight like we did withRandy Couture; Randy didn't say anythingbecause he is a very professional guy andyou notice that after that fight, Brockdidn't say anything either. He was veryrespectful.

TO: Do you think that Brock is held toa different standard than other athletesin the UFC?

GN: Yes, without a doubt he's held to a dif-ferent standard. People are immediatelygoing to attribute WWE to any kind ofaggressive activity he takes on the mic.Even if he was to tone it down a little bitand just be confident on the mic, they aregoing to say, "Oops, there is the WWE;there is Brock Lesnar." When anyone elsedoes it, people don’t say anything about itjust thinking they were overly excited. Soyes, he is held to a different standard forsure and I think he always will be. It’ssomething he brings to the game, but alsolook at what he brings to viewership to theUFC. Here’s a guy who was 1-0 and wasput on the major stage for one reason: theUFC knew he could draw a lot of viewersand that is what he did.

90 TapouT

TO: Before the Heath Herring fight,Lesnar stated on the SiriusXM FightClub that when he originally spokewith Dana White, he said he onlywanted to fight the top guys. Did heexpress that to you?

GN: Oh yeah, definitely. He didn't haveany desire to go into the small shows andget his feet wet and work his way up. Hesaid, "Listen, if I am going to do this, I amgoing to do it head first and I am going togo right in there full speed ahead. Let'sjust get it done because if I am going to begood at this, we are going to see rightaway. I don't have to work my way up -either I am or I'm not." That was prettymuch the attitude.

TO: Brock's next opponent, ShaneCarwin, is pretty much the closestthing to a mirror image of him. Theyboth have that wresting pedigree.Brock was Division 1 in Minnesota,Shane Carwin was Division 2, but interms of size and strength, they areboth very similar. How is Brockpreparing for this fight?

GN: Well, I think fighting someone whois very similar in size and has very similarpower, you always have to be leery of thatone big punch. That’s pretty much whatShane has done for his entire career so far.He has landed that one big shot and thathas pretty much ended a lot of fights rightthere, so working with that, you alwayshave to be careful of what you are doinginside that ring. You just can't go forwardand be aggressive without having a superstrong defense and knowing you can takea big shot going in there. In training forthis fight, I don't think we are going tohave to worry about some crazy submis-sion happening on the ground. What wehave to focus on is what is going tohappen on the feet and we are going tobring in boxers, bigger boxers and veryaggressive boxers. Early in the camp, weare going to have Brock face someonewho has very heavy hands. As far as thewrestling goes, we have a lot of reallygood wrestlers that we are training with.Cole Conrad, one of the training partners,is a two-time undefeated NCAA nationalchamp and a four-time All Americanwho’s bigger than Brock as far as his size.We have to focus on a lot of strong boxingskills, striking defense and getting that

takedown to again dominate on theground, or land that big shot that poten-tially could drop Shane as well.

TO: Another huge story was the wholeFedor Emelianenko saga with the UFCand Dana wanting to set up a fightbetween Brock and Fedor. This is afight that fans want to see and peoplehave heard everyone’s opinion butBrock’s. How does he feel about thisfight?

GN: As far as right now, I don’t thinkBrock could care less whether he foughtFedor; he just wants to fight who Dana isgoing to put in front of him. He wants tofight the best in the UFC right now,someone who is going to challenge histitle. If Fedor came into the scene, withouta doubt Brock would fight him. If ithappens, it happens and if it doesn’t, itdoesn’t. It is not going to change whoBrock is and how he trains for fights andhow he perceives himself in the sport.

TO: How would you see that fightgoing?

GN: I definitely think Brock would posea lot of problems. His size, strength andathleticism is something that I don’t thinkFedor has ever faced yet. The secondthing lies in his development in the sportwhich is growing with every fight. He isnew to the fight world and every time weare in that gym, we are learning morethings. We’re bringing in more elementsto the game, adding more tools to hisarsenal and he loves it. He really, reallyloves training and that is something, rightnow, that is one of the biggest drivingforces – he really likes it!

TO: Do you go to him or does heactually come to your MinnesotaMartial Arts Academy?

GN: Originally he came to the MinnesotaMartial Arts Academy where he trainedfor his first two fights because he livedabout 45 minutes away. He would drivethere, but because his daughter lived up inAlexandria (1 hour and 45 minutesaway), he said, “Greg I have to move outthere because I want to see my daughtermore; I want to have more custody overmy daughter.” Now I drive over threehours both ways up there, three days a

91TapouT

week, for two hours of training perday. Brock has a house that he rentsout and everybody lives there that isin his training camp; he takes care ofthem and makes sure everything isgood. Marty Morgan will drive upthere and stay five days a week, buthe has a family that lives right byme, so he stays overnight. It’s a busyeight weeks for us when it comes totraining Brock.

TO: Let’s talk about Brock as aperson, not a fighter. How do yousee him personally?

GN: Brock is an extremely nice guy.He is funny and has a good sense ofhumor. He plays with his daughterand has a very loving wife. It’s afunny thing to see Brock in the ringand then see him outside the ring.When we are up there, it is kind oflike, before we train, everybody’skind of laughing and joking, havinga good time. After we train, the samething happens. He does little practi-cal jokes, but at the same time, he’sa very private guy. He doesn’t haveInternet, he doesn’t have an emailand he just got a cell phone. Beforethat, he just shared one with his wifeand he lived that business. When hewas in the WWE, it was probablyten times what it is with the UFC.Three days a week he was on theroad doing stuff, big things, and sohe just wants to get far away fromthat. He lived it; he doesn’t want tolive that part of life anymore so hekeeps to himself with his family andfriends. He doesn’t need to do all therest of the stuff – he just did it and heis through with it.

TO: Tell me about your school forthe casual MMA practitioner, thenon-Brock Lesnar’s of the world.

GN: That’s pretty much the majorityof my school where 90% of mystudents are just people coming in toget in shape. They want to do differ-ent martial arts. Some of them wantto do a Thai boxing program. Theywant to work the striking aspect ofthings. We have the Gracie Jiu-jitsuprogram headed ultimately byProfessor Pedro Sauer – a very tech-nical BJJ program – and people cancome in to just train or they canwork up to competing. We have atotal defense program which is morefor the guy who really wants todelve into the total martial arts – theJun Fan martial arts that Bruce Leedeveloped. We also have submissionwrestling and combat submissionwrestling programs. When peoplecome in, that is a way they can gettheir feet wet with MMA and that isa base for our MMA program aswell. The majority of the peoplecoming in – guys and girls – just likedoing martial arts, so we have a bigprogram for that and it is veryseparate from our fighter program.We have a good variety of classesthat anyone can take.

Minnesota Martial Arts Academy is

based in Brooklyn Center,

Minnesota and can be reached at

www.mmaacombatzone.com or by

phone at 763.560.5696.

94 TapouT

As Commissioner of the North AmericanGrappling Association (NAGA), for overa decade I have traveled to hundreds ofevents in dozens of states, affording methe best seat in the house on competitorsfrom virtually every grappling academyin America and abroad. The effort alsoaffords the opportunity to not just offici-ate, but to actually train at America’sBest Grappling Academies.

Some gyms feel like home. Some gymscan be intimidating. Some gyms leaveme jealous. The smallest handful ofgyms leave me in awe, and none more sothan the Alliance World ChampionshipTraining Center in Atlanta, Georgia,under the leadership of Romero JacaréCavalcante.

BJJ and MMA have enjoyed extraordi-nary growth lately, thanks in part to the

debut of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005.By contrast, Jacaré began training over40 years earlier in 1963. By 1968 he wastraining at the Gracie School inCopacabana in the same class as RicksonGracie, the Machado brothers, CarlosGracie Jr, Mauricio Gomes and manyother legends.

From 1972 to 1985 Jacaré competed withgreat distinction, earned a Bachelor’sdegree in Physical Education and workedas an assistant instructor at the Gracieschool before finally opening his firstschool in Ipanema, Brazil. He soonbecame one of the most respectedinstructors in Brazil going on to foundand coach the famous powerhouseAlliance Team, reigning and defending

World Team Champions in both 2008and 2009, and perennial NAGASoutheast and Georgia State Champions.

While many academies have focusedsolely on winning sporting events, Jacaréhas forged equally extraordinaryachievements in the realest of real worldself-defense. In association with MattLarson, he was chosen by the ArmyRangers in Fort Benning, GA as theirmain instructor. The tip of the spear forAmerican military operations is nowhighly trained in BJJ. From personalexperience, watching buzz cut, heavilymuscled, seemingly emotionless Rangerstearing through NAGA division afterNAGA division is awesome to behold.

The Alliance World ChampionshipTraining Center also offers world class

By Kirik Jenness

AMERICA’S BEST GRAPPLING ACADEMIES:Team Alliance, Atlanta, GA

95TapouT

Muay Thai instruction under four-timeworld champion Manu Ntoh, who hasheld titles not just in Muay Thai, but indraka, san shou, kickboxing and proboxing. This trainer has an equallyimpressive roster of students who havedemonstrated knockout power world-wide through the science of eight limbs.

Jacaré dedicates his teaching and all hissuccess to his master and friend, RollsGracie. Rolls was a seminal figure in thedevelopment of BJJ who died tragicallyyoung in a hang gliding accident in 1982just months after awarding Jacaré hisblack belt.

In Jacaré’s words, “Rolls was an innova-tor and in his classes he taught every-thing like throws, takedowns, strikes, nogi, wrestling and variations from posi-tions that I never saw before. His classeswere very fun and exciting. The incen-tive he gave us all to compete is some-thing I instill in my students today. Hewas by far the best fighter of his time;

intense, cold, fast, technical, unbeliev-able and never refused a challenge. Withall of that, he was still a true gentlemanwho traveled the world and spoke threelanguages.

“I owe everything to him.

“Wherever he is, I know in my heart thathe keeps an eye on us. I just want to saythank you, thank you very much Rollsfor being my instructor, mentor andfriend. From the bottom of my heart, Godbless you.”

Whatever your interest, BJJ, grappling,self-defense, mixed martial arts, Muay

Thai, boxing or san shou, Alliance cantake you to the top. They say a black beltis just a white belt who never gave up. Achampion is a white belt who never gaveup at the Alliance World ChampionshipTraining Center.

In closing, sports in general too oftenproduce an unfortunate parade of cham-pions who demonstrate extraordinaryphysical skill, but stunted developmentas human beings. BJJ and MMA are noexceptions. By contrast, Jacaré seekstirelessly to impart and develop patience,respect and confidence. He makes hissystem easy to learn, his classes are funand exciting, and everyone is treated likefamily.

Jacaré has made a difference, leaving alegacy to this world of great championsand better human beings.

For more information on one of

America’s Best Grappling Academies,

please visit alliancebjj.com.

“Rolls was aninnovator and in

his classes hetaught everything

like throws,takedowns,

strikes, no gi,wrestling and

variations frompositions that I

never sawbefore.”

96 TapouT

97TapouT

OnMarch 16, 2003, Antonio RodrigoNogueira stared across the Pride FightingChampionships ring into the calm eyes ofFedor Emelianenko. Nogueira was Pride’s

poster boy who had notched eight straight wins while theRussian was a newcomer to the organization.Emelianenko certainly had the pedigree to matchNogueira, but many critics were quick to point out thatRINGS rules were hardly MMA with quick stoppages,questionable stand-ups and standing eight counts. But onthat night, the world saw one of the most incredibledisplays of ground and pound by which Nogueira had noanswer. Girls were crying ringside as Emelianenko dis-mantled the Brazilian en route to a unanimous decisionvictory. It was a coming out party like no other…but itwouldn’t be his last.

Emelianenko isn’t all that muscular, he doesn’t have anygimmicks or phallic tattoos of swords on his chest—he isa cold, calculated machine when the bell sounds. He’sbeen rocked, dropped on his head and had Mirko Cro Coptee off with head kicks that would have been good nightfor anyone else. But in each of these cases, the Russianmerely shook it off and found a way to defeat his oppo-nents, one by one.

And yet, after racking up an incredible record of 30-1 (histoken loss came from an accidental cut), Emelianenkoisn’t a household name in America nor does he have muchfor the American public to rally behind. All that couldchange on Saturday, November 7th when Emelianenkoheadlines Strikeforce’s first foray into primetime televi-sion. His opponent is a former Sam’s Club worker whocan seemingly be called the “real life version” of Mr. T’s

character from Rocky III. Brett Rogers has heavy hands,knows how to work the mic and does have something incommon with the guy sitting at home: a dream. It’s adream like no other for a non-ranked fighter to have ashot at the arguably the number one heavyweight in theworld.

But there’s something about Emelianenko that couldcapture the public’s attention and no doubt people will bewatching to see if “The Last Emperor” once againsilences his critics, this time in a cage no doubt. BornSeptember 28, 1976, in the city of Rubezhnoe, Lugansk inwhat was then the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine),Emelianenko was raised in Russia after the family movedthere in 1978. He was the second child in the family andhas one older sister and two younger brothers.(Aleksander is an accomplished MMA fighter while Ivanis training in sambo to possibly enter MMA down theline.) Far removed from the mammoth crowds that havegrown to love him in Japan, Fedor had a very humble,straight-forward life. After finishing high school in 1991,he graduated with honors from a professional trade schooljust three years later and served as a military firefighterwith the Russian Army from 1995 to 1997.

Fresh out of the Army, Fedor took up the national sport ofsambo along with judo. He joined the Russian nationalteam and would go on to earn a bronze medal in the 1998Russian Judo Championship. Adding striking to his game,he would start competing in combat sambo and MMA in2000 under the Russian Top Team. The RINGS organiza-tion in Japan had many sister organizations in other coun-tries and many Russian fighters joined their ranks.

By Jim McTavish

Photos by Esther Lin / Strikeforce

98 TapouT

Problem was, both Volk Han and Andrey Kopylov (two ofthe first members of Russian Top Team) were more or lessjobbers to pump up the Japanese fighters, and when RINGSwent legit (in the late 1990s, the organization was a mix ofreal and stiff-worked fights), no one really knew just howgood the Russian fighters were. For two years, Emelianenkotore through several b-players in RINGS with the exceptionof Ricardo Arona and Renato Sobral. His only loss came dueto a cut caused by the edge of a glove from TsuyoshiKohsaka just 17 seconds into the contest.

With the collapse of RINGS, Fedor Emelianenko andRINGS King of Kings champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueirajoined several other fighters to make Pride FightingChampionships the number one MMA organization in theworld. Here Emelianenko would be tested against some ofthe toughest heavyweights in the business at the time:Semmy Schilt, Heath Herring, Mirko CroCop, MarkColeman (twice) and Kevin Randleman.

But it would be his three meetings with Nogueira, who hadbecome something of the new Rickson Gracie for Japanesefans, which would define the Russian. After their first fight,a second match quickly ended due to an accidental cut,leaving the rubber match for the organization’s famed NewYears Eve show in 2004. Since their first encounter,Nogueira won another five straight fights including anincredible finish against CroCop. But despite the crowd

being on his side and enough homework on how to defeatEmelianenko, the Brazilian went through more of the samepunishment he endured in their first match and lost again byunanimous decision.

Emelianenko would go on to avenge his loss to Kohsaka andeven headline a Pride card in the U.S. which was a financialdisaster for the company both in paid attendance and pay-per-view buys. Despite whipping Mark Coleman in front ofhis two little, crying girls and almost showing some emotionwith a little smile when Coleman introduced them to showdaddy was OK, American MMA fans were basicallyAmerican UFC fans and had little interest for the Pridechampion. Zuffa had driven a stake through the heart of anypromotion willing to play the pay-per-view game, and aftermaking what Dana White has called the worst deal in historyto purchase Pride, Emelianenko became the elusive fighterwho would not join the UFC on their terms.

After a couple of token matches against Matt Lindland andHong Man Choi (both were arm-barred), Emelianenkojoined Affliction, which will probably be the last majororganization that had a flicker of a chance to challenge theUFC. And the reason Affliction even came about was due toan ad campaign that featured Randy Couture and Fedor as ifthe two were going to fight. UFC’s “ban” of Affliction gavebirth to a brief competitor. In the first Affliction event, Fedorheadlined against Tim Sylvia in the classic Russian vs.

99TapouT

American theme. But in this case, the Russian simply didn’tgive the former UFC champ a chance to strike a pose. Afterknocking him down, he choked him out in 36 seconds.Andrei Arlovski gave Emelianenko all he could handle, or sohe thought, before succumbing to a knockout punch whenArlovski got cocky. On both occasions, UFC President DanaWhite was quick to chastise Emelianenko, even puttingdown both of his own former champions.

Since 2007, White, Emelianenko and M-1 (the company thatoversees his affairs) have had an on again, off again rela-tionship to try and bring the Russian stateside and in theOctagon for good. From the UFC’s side, they would lock upFedor for a lifetime, own his image into perpetuity and pushhim out into their stacked heavyweight class. From Fedor’sside, he still wants the ability to fight in Japan, continuecompeting in sambo events in native Russia and have M-1 aspart of “him” wherever he goes. The two sides could nevermeet and White called them “crazy Russians.” And yet,when Josh Barnett made the worst mistake of his career andput the death nail in Affliction, it appeared there was hopefor the UFC and Fedor Emelianenko to become one. In July2009, White said, “This whole Fedor thing has been goingon and on and on. I keep saying this and that about him andhe keeps waiting. Eventually, Fedor's going to be here. Iwant Fedor. I want him to come to the UFC and everythingelse.”

Of course a Fedor vs. Brock fight would make huge head-lines, but in the midst of all this, upstart Strikeforce hadgained access to the assets of Pro Elite and was pushingforward with its own plan. White had nothing but goodthings to say about Strikeforce, that is, until Strikeforceended up signing Fedor. Upon hearing the news, White said,“Fedor is a $%^& joke! He turns down a huge deal and theopportunity to face the best in the world to fight nobodiesfor no money!” White then announced war with Strikeforce,which he dubbed “Strikefarce,” and started his counter-pro-gramming against one of the organization’s Showtimeevents. As for Fedor himself, he said, “I am disappointedthat a fight with Brock Lesnar did not happen. I am not dis-appointed with not signing with the UFC. I think thatStrikeforce is a great and professional organization whichwill grow bigger and bigger together with M-1.”

No matter how much White cries on blogs and throws f-bombs, Fedor Emelianenko is with Strikeforce and couldface Alistair Overeem in the future if he makes it past theundefeated Rogers. Emelianenko has been universally con-sidered the best heavyweight fighter in the world for the lastsix years by news outlets, including ESPN, Sherdog, Full

Contact Fighter, MMA Weekly and MMA Worldwide. He islooked at highly in Russia and was honored to be one of 80Russian sporting champions, cultural icons and nationalheroes to carry the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg in 2008.

100 TapouT

With the fight just weeks away, Strikeforce needs to solvethe enigma of Fedor as least in terms of his persona as thesolemn, quiet and unassuming mixed martial artist onlycomes to life when the fight starts. When asked about hisopponent, Emelianenko said, “I think he is a good fighter; heis young and upcoming and has a great record.” And whenone looks at Emelianenko’s record, half of his wins havecome by submission, eight have come by KO or TKO andthe remaining seven have been unanimous decisions.Stylistically, he’s not the greatest puncher, but has heavyhands. His pain tolerance and ability to “snap out of it” whentaking blows can be described as inhuman. His ground andpound is devastating and his ground work and finesse withsubmissions is as good as any Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt.But it’s his grimace through it all that defines him. In everycircumstance, his blank, emotionless look never offers upanything to his opponents. Whether he’s working a submis-sion or trading blows, the look on his face could be the sameas him watching TV or reading a newspaper.

Rogers, on the other hand, is very animated in the cagewhich could serve as his detriment if he bum-rushesEmelianenko like he did against Arlovski, or if he allows theRussian to get the clinch only to sambo his way to aneventual submission victory. The big question with this fightalso lies in the fact that this is Emelianenko’s first time in acage and also the Russian is prone to bleed which could giveRogers a better chance if only Rogers had been a ground

fighter. It’s doubtful he’ll gain any top side position onEmelianenko unless he drops him with a punch. When askedwhere Rogers stands amid Emelianenko’s other opponents,he said, “I don’t rank my opponents since they all have theirown strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t say he has thebest set of skills I faced, but he is certainly getting bettereach fight.”

The 6’0”, 230-pound Fedor Emelianenko will be 33 yearsold by the time he steps into the cage with Rogers andStrikeforce may need to spend some money to capture dif-ferent sides of the man if they really want to put him over

with The Ultimate Fighter crowd. But there is no denyingthe awesome power and might that this man possesses, andlike Mike Tyson in his formidable years, people love to seewin streaks and devastating win streaks at that. They alsowant to see who will finally topple “The Last Emperor” ifthat day ever comes. Solving the riddle that is Fedor may notcome easily as there are no headlines of any mischief, noinjuries to speak of and no demons haunting the man to takehis head out of the game. For Fedor is not just the calmbefore the storm, he’s the calm during the storm as well andthat’s enough to scare the hell out of anyone.

Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Rogers will be held at

the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago, Illinois on November 7th

and will air live on CBS. For more information and the

complete fight card, log onto www.strikeforce.com.

“...there is nodenying the

awesome powerand might that

this manpossesses...”

101TapouT

102 TapouT

TOsay the last year and a half has beena rollercoaster ride for Brett Rogerswould be an understatement. Hewent from fighting on the first

nationally-televised MMA card (EliteXC’sPrimetime) to watching the promotioncrumble under a firestorm of controversywhen poster boy Kimbo Slice suffered a 14-second loss to last minute replacement SethPetruzelli. After a few months of limbo,“The Grim’s” services were acquired by theSan Jose-based promotion Strikeforce. Hisfirst two fights in Strikeforce led to a TKOwin over Ron Humphrey and an impressive22-second destruction of former UFCheavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski. NowRogers is set for his toughest match to date:a showdown with Russian powerhouseFedor Emelianenko.

It’s safe to say that Rogers’ standard ofliving has changed drastically. For amajority of his career, he had split his timebetween training to be a mixed martial artistand working in the tire department at a localSam’s Club. But now all seems good in Mr.Rogers’ neighborhood. Brett “The Grim”

Rogers sat down with TapouT Magazine todiscuss quitting his day job, preparing totake on “The Last Emperor” and of coursegiving his regards to Kimbo Slice.

TAPOUT MAGAZINE: How was it beingan EliteXC heavyweight who was the realdeal and having to play second fiddle toKimbo?

BRETT ROGERS: You know, at the time itwas OK because I knew all it would takewas for us to be in the cage together for afew seconds to set it straight. But Kimboknew that as well. Look, it’s not like Kimbodidn’t know what Kimbo was. It was just ahype machine to sell tickets, but in the end,fans want fighters. If all they wanted was ashow, they would watch WWE.

TO: Looking back at EliteXC, why do youthink the promotion failed?

BR: That’s really not my field. I don’t wantto look back at ancient history and snipe at people. EliteXCwas fun. I had good fights with them.

TO: How did you balance being a fighter in a majororganization and working a 9 to 5 job at Sam's Club?

BR: Add to that the wife and three kids. The biggest thing ofworking at Sam’s Club, just honestly, it wasn’t that much

fun. Training full-time is hard work. Don’t get it twisted; thisis still a 9 to 5 job everyday. But now it is something I love.

TO: When you KO'd Andrei Arlovski, were you planningto go out there and knock him out or did you have anextensive game plan that got squashed when an opportu-nity presented itself?

And His Opponent is...

103TapouT

BR: We always have plans within plans. My coaches seeeverything and get you ready for every spot. But with Andrei,Plan A just worked.

TO: When Affliction: Trilogy offered you the chance tofight Fedor, was it the challenge that wasn't worth themoney or the money that wasn't worth the challenge?

BR: Neither. We accepted the fight. Why itdidn’t happen wasn’t on us. We were cool withthe offer, everything. But whatever happened,happened and we moved on. I remain tightwith everyone who was involved in that deal.No hard feelings. It just didn’t happen.

TO: What is the most underestimatedaspect of your game?

BR: The parts people haven’t seen. It’s funny,I train with great coaches. We have a lot of sur-prises for people. Although I also think peoplestill underestimate my hands. If you thinkyou’re going to get by them any way – you’rewrong. At some point, whoever fights me isgoing to have to deal with fists coming at theirface.

TO: What is Fedor's weakness that youwould like to exploit?

BR: He is just a man like any other. I can banghim, bend him, break him. I will take whatopenings he gives me and if he doesn’t giveme an opening, I will make one. If there is onething I have to point out is that he may beafraid to stand with me. Trying to just turn thisinto a wrestling game will get expensive. Hewill have to fight me.

TO: If you could say anything to GaryShaw, Skala Shaw or any of the EliteXCbrass that underestimated your potential,what would you say?

BR: I don’t think those guys underestimatedme; I think they underestimated their ownability to sell me as promoters. They tried torely on the fame “what’s his face” had built forhimself on YouTube. Promoters should notrely on guys who come in with fame orinfamy. They should build their own stars,trust in their own skills as promoters to selltheir stars, and don’t play favorites and try toprotect anyone. We are fighters. If you try toprotect someone, people will see that and loserespect for both the promotion and the fighter.

TO: If you could say anything to Kimboright now, what would you say?

BR: Kimbo who?

On November 7th, the 28-year-old undefeated Brett Rogers

(10-0) will face off against Fedor Emelianenko in the main

event of Strikeforce’s first primetime show on CBS. For more

information, log on to the official Strikeforce website:

www.strikeforce.com.

By Ricky Bonnet

Brett Rogers

107TapouT

In MMA, a lot can change in a short amount of time. Afew years ago the UFC’s heavyweight division talent poolwas being criticized for its lack of depth. Their poster boyfor not only the division but the entire promotion, Randy“The Natural” Couture, was sitting out due to a contractdispute. Their much-publicized gamble on former WWEsuperstar Brock Lesnar had yet to produce a return. It wasduring this time that we did a feature article on an up-and-

coming heavyweight called Shane Carwin: The Next Big

Thing?.

Carwin entered the UFC on an eight fight winning streakwhere none of his opponents made it out of the first round.He continued this trend inside the Octagon with impres-

sive wins over formidable opponents such as ChristianWellisch, Neil Wain, and most recently, Gabriel Gonzagavia devastating KO. What’s more impressive is that he hasyet to compete in Round 2. I think it’s safe to say that thequestion of whether or not Shane Carwin is “The Next BigThing” has been answered.

Recently the UFC announced that Carwin’s fight withundefeated AKA (American Kickboxing Academy)standout Cain Velasquez was scratched in favor of a highprofile title shot against current UFC heavyweight champ,

Brock Lesnar. TapouT Magazine recently sat down withCarwin to talk about the past, present and the futureprospect of UFC heavyweight gold.

Shane Carwin

By Ricky Bonnet

108 TapouT

TAPOUT MAGAZINE: How do you keep your motiva-tion and discipline after being so dominant in and out of

the Octagon?

SHANE CARWIN: I prepare for every fight as if it is going tobe a five-round war. My trainers sometimes have to cut me offas I want to train and then train some more. When I am in afight, I want to get in and get out so I do not hesitate to engagemy opponents. My trainer really works on preparing us forwhatever might happen so I am usually just very calm andrelaxed when I get in the ring.

TO: You come from a football and college wrestlingpedigree, something many fighters share. What do these

two sports instill in its participants that transitions so well intoMMA?

SC: Explosive and aware. Wrestling is the better of the twosince the man-to-man combat aspect is only prevalent inwrestling. Both sports require a team’s support to win andsucceed; both sports require you to be physically and mentallytough.

TO: In the original TapouT article, you said you reliedsolely on your athleticism and wrestling in your fights.

You described a switch going off when the cage door closed. Is

that still the same mindset you possess going into a fight or hasexperience and maturity in the Octagon changed your approach?

SC: I have had to evolve from that position. I find myself tellingthe new guys "get a gi, take the BJJ class and learn kickboxing.Don’t kid yourself; you need the basics." I think back when I did

!

!

!

I find myself tellingthe new guys: get a

gi, take the BJJ classand learn kickbox-

ing. Don’t kidyourself; you need

the basics.

“

“

not have the great team of guys and trainers I have today likeNate Marquardt, Brendan Schaub, Eliot Marshall and KeithJardine. There are lots of hungry, motivated fighters that focuson completing our respective games. Our coaches are some ofthe best. Once I became a part of this team or family environ-ment, my game improved immensely. I actually made it as faras a purple belt under Nate and now I am starting over underAmal Easton as a white belt. They both teach different formsof BJJ and I am absorbing it all and enjoying learning theART of MMA.

TO: Brock Lesnar is someone who not only comes froma similar collegiate wrestling background, but also is

very similar in size. What do you feel separates you in termsof skill and mindset?

SC: Not much. Brock is a topcompetitor who has awinner’s attitude. He is fast,powerful and big. I thinkwhat I bring to the tablematches his strengths, but Ido not expect to have theadvantage. The edge willcome down to training, luckand timing.

TO: After Brock’s rantat UFC 100, you were

very vocal about your disgustin the way he behaved, notjust to his opponent, but tothe fans. Does this figure intoyour motivation to take hisbelt?

SC: I was pretty taken backby the disrespect he showed.You’re a champion and youneed to act like it. The crowdand sponsors are all there foryou (boos or not). That said, Irespect his skills and respecthis position as the champion.

TO: A lot of analystsand hardcore fans think

you pose the most serious threat to date against Lesnar. Whatdo you have that his other opponents don’t?

SC: I think size-wise, they are right. Brock is too powerfuland big for a fighter who weighs 265. This will be one ofthose fights where two athletic specimens step into the cage toshow the world that heavyweights are as exciting as the long,great history that heavyweights have in combat sports. I knowBrock won’t be anything less than ready for a complete warand I am excited for the chance.

TO: You are still a full-time engineer and a full-timefighter. How long do you plan on doing both? Does

your skills as an engineer help you at all as a fighter?

SC: The reason I work is I want my son to see that everyoneneeds to contribute to society. I don’t want him seeing MMAor sports as the path to greatness. Greatness can come frombeing a great employee and doing a great job for youremployer. The other issue is being a full-time fighter comeswith a lot of down time. Some fighters go to school, some actand others play Xbox. I happen to enjoy working on mechan-ical models and things along those lines.

This year I have made more money through sponsorships andendorsements than I will make over the next five years. Dana

and the UFC offered me aconsiderable amount ofmoney to quit my job, butagain, it is not about themoney.

I want to be clear that youcannot fight at the level Ifight without training full-time. I just do somethingdifferent with my downtime.

TO: Who do you useas inspiration and who

do you admire most?

SC: My Mother and my son.

TO: If you could fightany person in history,

alive or dead, who would itbe?

SC: I would love to fightFedor. He is one of the bestfighters ever to participateand I got into MMA to testmyself against the very best.

TO: Who would you like to thank?

SC: I want to thank Warrior Wear, Max Muscle SportsNutrition, MTX Audio, Magnetic Marketing Associates,Xyience and fitfoods4u.com.

Check out the official Shane Carwin website at www.shane-

carwin.com.

Ricky Bonnet is the producer of the Sirius Fight Club on

SiriusXM on channel 127 Tuesdays and Fridays at 5-7pm

EST. He can be reached at rbonnet@sirius.com.

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Sophie Turner

Supreme Protein Girl

Height

5’9”

Measurements

36D-24-36

Hometown

Adelaide, Australia

Favorite Food

I love all foods! Particularly Greekand Thai… but there’s really nofood I’m afraid to try.

Favorite Activities

I love to travel, and my job is an amazingavenue to vent that passion. I love camping,

hiking, kayaking - being outdoors in general. BeingAussie, I’m addicted to the beach… I can never go toolong without having a hit of sand and surf.

Turn Ons

Intelligence, quick wit, high ambition, chivalry,charisma and a killer sense of humor.

Turn Offs

Bad breath, insecurity, bad attitudes, men whodon’t take control of the moment.

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Photo by Mike Brochu

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Flanked by a duo of scarcely-clothed,statuesque blondes and adorned in asleeveless, sequined robe which drapesalong the metallic ramp, “New York BadAss” Phil Baroni incites both cheer andscorn in equal measures.

As he saunters toward the cage with allthe affected posturing of aShakespearean villain, Baroni shifts hishulking frame to the rhythm of anobnoxiously-pounding baseline. Denseblack sunglasses cover his eyes from thecombination of strobe and pyrotechnicsthat mark his arrival.

He holds for a moment. The shades andspangled gown are slowly removed,revealing a t-shirt which is promptly tornfrom his body. He postures once moreand is ready to fight.

It is a performance that has littlechanged in nearly a decade of competi-tion where he has amassed the decidedlymediocre record of 13-11. But still, it isan excellent entrance.

Phil Baroni began his MMA career onAugust 5, 2000. Driven by the potentblend of an immaculately-sculptedframe, he honed a successful amateurbodybuilding career, along with aspecific strain of self-confidence whichseems inherent to all New Yorkers. TheLong Island native won his openingthree fights comfortably, proving anexciting, combustible character bothinside and outside of the cage.

A consummate exhibitionist, he’sendowed with a preening nature andbrash wit, distinguishing himself fromhis peers. He was a modified throwback,incorporating the pit fighting persona ofpioneers like Tank Abbott and the legiti-

mate technical acumen required of thetime. (He is former two-time AllAmerican collegiate wrestler who holdsan amateur record of 17-0.)

As such, Baroni polarized fans of thesport. Whilst some appreciated hiscavalier aggression and embellishedarrogance, others viewed his distastefulinterviews and garish entrances asgimmicks akin to the theatrics of prowrestling. Either way, Baroni was a per-

sonality, and before the era of The

Ultimate Fighter, he was a valuablecommodity in MMA.

Baroni’s time in the UFC could be seenas a microcosm for the failings and suc-cesses he would suffer and enjoythroughout his career. A debut victoryagainst a limited Curtis Stout waspromptly followed by an uncomfortablyclose decision loss to Olympic Silvermedallist Matt Lindland.

Ever the embodiment of inconsistency,Baroni proved victorious in his next twofights, including a career-defining dem-olition of former UFC middleweightchampion Dave Menne, in just 18seconds. Immediately following thestoppage, Baroni ascended the cage,declaring himself “The Best Eva,”before boundlessly informing all thoseringside that he wanted Lindland andwas indeed, “The man.” It was a claimthat was consequently tested and dis-pelled by a 2nd-round decision loss toLindland.

Baroni would go on to lose his threeremaining fights in the organisation;twice at the hands of the late, formerchampion Evan Tanner and once to PeteSell. He was dropped amid calls toretire.

Given his showmanship inclinations, itis perhaps unsurprising that Baroniwould enjoy the most productive periodof his career within the bright lights andunashamed spectacle of the East.Achieving a credible, if not spectacular,record of 4-2 in Pride FightingChampionships, the performances ratherthan the results mark his time in Japan asthe pinnacle of his powers.

In Japan, Baroni faced fighters sharingin the ethos of entertainment and conse-quently each bout was a testament to hisrelentless aggression and heart. (The twofights against Ikuhisa Minowa highlightthis more than any others.) It was aperiod he would consequently struggleto recreate when leaving Pride.

Baroni enjoyed minimal success outsideof Japan. A highly-publicized loss toFrank Shamrock and subsequent battlesagainst allegations of steroid abuse, helost to Kala Hose, Joey Villasenor andJoe Riggs which seemed to signal theend to Baroni’s tenure as an elite levelfighter.

A reprieve has arrived for the veteranbrawler, however, with the somewhatsurprising announcement that he willreturn to the UFC. Dana White has madeno secret of his admiration for fighters ofBaroni's ilk and discernable charactersremain a commodity in the fight game.

It marks a final opportunity for Baroni torealize some of his immense potentialand perhaps provide an exit to his careerworthy of such an extravagant entrance.

by Karl Maple

View through the Cage

Karl is a staff writer for FiveKnuckles.com

Phil Baroni: The Showman

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