Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko

Just had to share this. Spotted this on my twitter feed from mma-japan.com and it is just too amazing. Well done video and really showcases Fedor's career in an epic manner. What is most striking about Fedor is not his obviously elite level fighting skills but his mindset. It is an amazing fighter's mindset.

"Years ago we hardly had anything to eat. Now I earn more money and I see every opponent as a man that tries to put me back to that poorer period. That man has to be eliminated." - Fedor Emelianenko

words of a driven man

Greg Jackson Clinic

Came across this video recently. One of the big names in MMA coaching. Loved hearing the insight that he has into the omoplata but even more interesting is his insight into ground and pound. Something that looks so simple as punching downwards can actually have that level of sophistication and technique to it. Cool video.

You know you're addicted to BJJ...

When you go to sleep and the whole night you dream of nothing but landing flying armbars.
True story. The night before my exam and I'm studying myself into unconsciousness but when I wake up in the morning all I can recall is that I had a dream about doing flying armbars.

So when I got home from my exams I naturally went online to look at flying armbars and lo and behold I find a video of Shinya Aoki. This video is special though, it has SUBS. I've seen many Shinya Aoki tutorial videos but this is the first one that I've seen that is subbed. I really wish more people would go and sub the Japanese BJJ tutorial videos, I really really want to know what they are teaching.

Anyway, here is the video. Enjoy the high-flying action. BOOM!

Aoki flying armbar by snatchGTT

Shinya Aoki vs Eddie Alvarez rematch at Bellator 66

Ahhhh. Sadly I did not get to see the result I wanted. Eddie defeated Shinya in the first round. Even so, I'm still going to ardently support Shinya. I have many reasons to support him.

Firstly, he is Japanese and I really believe we need more Asians fighting in big mma events especially UFC.

Secondly, he is one of the most exciting fighters I have seen. People may say that ground game is boring and that striking is more exciting. To them I say, he is the master of FLYING SUBMISSIONS with emphasis on the flying. Furthermore I love the way he is never afraid to pop-on a rare submission such as the MOUNTED gogoplata. So impressive was that submission that people have been calling it the Aoki-plata.

Thirdly, he is training and teaching at Evolve MMA and since I've been taking lessons there I feel an attachment to every fighter who trains out of Evolve.

You can watch the video of the fight here.

Since I couldn't watch the fight due to my exams at the time, I could only go online and read about it after coming out of the exam hall. Most of the news simply stated the result that Aoki got hit by a punch in the first round and lost by TKO to punches on the ground. However, I also saw some posts on forums about the fight. A lot of people are dissing Aoki now because he lost to Eddie in this rematch. Many are saying that Aoki is over-rated and that he'll never survive in the UFC. My reply is this, one fight does not make a fighter. Essentially MMA is one complicated chess / rock-scissors-paper game. "If I throw this move and you throw the counter you could win but otherwise I win" kind of situation is pretty common from what I've seen. So basing your judgement of Shinya on just this one fight is so ridiculous. There are many big UFC names that have shock upset losses but I don't see the same kind of hate on them. Looking at Shinya's entire career, anybody who can say he is a lousy fighter is simply delusional. Even in the light of his latest loss, I still believe Shinya is one of the best lightweight fighters and will definitely prove this in time to come.

WAR AOKI!

Shinya Aoki the Baka survivor!

So shinya is going to be fighting at bellator today. In a show of support and admiration I decided to buy his walkout shirt from Evolve. Check it out! Bad-ass!

Good stuff must share: Gracie Breakdowns

Thanks to the advent of the age of Information Technology (IT!!!) we can learn almost everything from the Internet. Specifically, thanks to Youtube we can get access to endless amounts of training videos for MMA and BJJ and Muay Thai. The problem with the IT age is that we are flooded with TOO MUCH. Too many videos and too many YouTube channels too many Blogs and we don't know which are the quality ones. So much time is wasted looking through and finding quality videos in the sea of average and mediocre ones.

So today I would like to recommend a YouTube channel that I really enjoy watching very much.

GracieBreakdowns!

This Channel is one of the channels of the GracieAcademy. This channel is run by the two brothers of the Gracie family, Rener and Ryron Gracie. In this channel, the two BJJ masters look at the most exciting BJJ in UFC events and break them down for everyone to understand. The most interesting thing about this channel is that you get to see how BJJ applies in a real MMA fight and how things might have turned out differently in the actual fight. These two brothers give a very enlightening and technical insight into so many different techniques that really highlight important philosophies of BJJ. Super super recommended. Go check it out. The video that I linked above focuses on the body triangle. Loved the way they explained how to escape from it. Enjoy.

My favourite MMA fighters...

So I'm taking a break from training this week for two reasons.

One: I have this old wrist injury that keeps acting up from time to time and restricts my wrist strength and flexibility. I've felt that it really hinders me from getting good grips and good chokes while doing BJJ. So today I went with my parents to visit some Chinese doctor who helped to treat it by "unjamming my nerves" in my left wrist. As unscientific as it sounds, my wrist really feels much better after the treatment. On top of the treatment, he also told me to cut down on protein and exercise for the time being. So... no working out for a while.

Two: My exams are fast approaching. So basically I'm going to avoid training in case I get some injury that prevents me from writing. Can't wait for exams to be over so I can train harder than ever. Excited!

So since I'm taking a break from training I decided to make this blog post about my favourite MMA fighters.

Personally, I love submissions. I really really love the way submissions are set up, how they work, how awesome they are when you can dominate your opponent with one. So it's no surprise that two of my favourite fighters are Shinya Aoki and Masakazu Imanari. Love the way they can just go hard for the submissions and destroy their opponents with it. Imanari recently just fought at the recent ONE FC in Singapore and his match was spectacularly entertaining. Very very short fight but super impressive.

LEGLOCKS!

I really wonder if that spectacular kick that missed and made him fall was a calculated move or just pure fast reaction. If it was a bait, I am super impressed in his confidence and trickery. If it was reaction time, I am just as impressed at how fast he can flip around and catch the leg that was trying to kick him. What speed and what technique. Imanari and Shinya are both very polarizing fighters. People either love them or utterly hate them. I am obviously a big fan of them but those who love to see spectacular striking are always criticizing them for being one-dimensional. Personally, I think it's' fine to be one-dimensional if you are so good in that dimension that bringing them into your world leads you to victory. Do what you're good at, makes great sense to me. Although I think Shinya has become much less one-dimensional lately after he joined Evolve and upped his striking game with Muay Thai. Just look at his latest fight...

Look at that striking! Who says he can't strike? I'm definitely not going to say that anytime soon. If his striking as really improved as much as it seems to have, Shinya is going to be one damn scary fighter. Scary to go to ground with him and scary to strike with him... how are you going to fight that? 

And these two fighters are also friends and former teammates from team Roken. Here's a picture of the two fighters together at ONE FC with Shinya in Imanari's corner and Imanari giving him a jumping high-five after defeating Kevin Belingon.

UP HIGH!

To finish this post up, here are some highlight videos of these two submission masters. Shinya the Tobikan Judan and Imanari the Ashikan Judan.