Happenings...

Just a short update here to keep things up to... date. Yeah.

So lately I've started attending more classes at Evolve. By more I refer to the variety and not the quantity. Sadly I've gone for fewer (in quantity) lessons lately because of personal commitments. Ironically I could attend lessons more frequently during the school term then I can during this long holidays. Energy and time constraints.

Anyway enough prattle, on to the lessons. Recently I attended both a wrestling lesson as well as a fightshape lesson. I must say that wrestling is pretty interesting, similar to BJJ in a sense that you have to be aware of body balance and hip placement and all that stuff. But apart from that it's really all just takedowns as far as that lesson went. Going for mainly BJJ lessons has somehow conditioned my brain to want to do BJJ moves even during wrestling. For instance, whilst in the body lock position I kept wanting to go for an osotto-gari instead. Anyway, I managed to hold my own for most of the lesson. I kept getting praised by Eddie and also my training partners but I suspect that it's more of them being nice to a newcomer than me being actually talented.

Fightshape. Fightshape was crazy. Hahaha... I must say it really pushed me quite close to my physical limit but I feel really good about it after. I must try to make more time for fightshape lessons. Kettle bell exercises plus interesting rope exercises and TRX exercises. Madness.

One FC destiny of warriors!

The stream is going well and smooth. Exciting! Here are the undercard events.

First fight
Quek Kim hock vs Peter Davis

Round 1

They trade strikes. Peter lands a good spinning kick that staggers Quek. Quek tries to cover up but is pressed against the cage and is barraged by a flurry of knees and punches and the referee quickly steps in to stop the match. A quick and decisive win for Peter Davis.

Result: Peter Davis wins by technical knockout in the first round.

Second fight
Escobar vs Praxedes

Round 1

They run around and trade blows for a while. Praxedes scores a take down but his head is being held by Escobar. Escobar scores elbows from under. Praxedes let's him up and kicks him as he gets up but Escobar counters with a take down and lands in half guard and dominates him. Escobar strikes him to side control but Praxedes manages to squirm out and stand up. Escobar shoots for a takedown and gets it easily. Escobar passes to half guard and quickly passes to mount and pounds on Praxedes. The bell rings as Escobar is raining punches on Praxedes and the first round is over.

Round 2

Escobar quickly shoots for takedown and is stuck against the cage. He foot stomps in Praxedes and accidentally catches him in the groin with a knee. Praxedes is given time to recover. Praxedes recovers and the fight is resumed. Escobar lands a good counter punch and after some striking shoots for a takedown and Praxedes tries to defend with a guillotine. Escobar grinds him with knees and foot stomps. After being in the clinch the referee splits them and Praxedes scores a good overhand punch and knocks Escobar down and mounts him but is quickly sweep. Escobar them takes him down and mounts him and punches him furiously and the round ends

Round 3

Praxedes is quickly taken down and Escobar is striking from half guard. Escobar works a bit and scores an arm triangle and after a few moments Praxedes taps out.

Result: Escobar wins by submission in round 3

Third fight
Mitch Chilson vs AJ Pyro

Round 1

AJ scores a takedown early but Mitch gets up and then scores a takedown of his own. They wrestle on the ground a bit and then stand up again and rushes Mitch against the cage. Mitch scores some strong knees and stuffs a takedown attempt and gets the back and locks in a rear naked choke to get the tapout.

Result: Mitch Chilson wins by rear naked choke in first round.

Fourth fight
Brian Choi vs Arnaud Lepont
(Lepont comes out in some psycho killer getup, hilarious)

Round 1
The fight starts with an all out war with punches. It continues for a long time before Brian takes him down and gets out of a kimura attempt into half guard. Brian works in guard for a long time with small strikes before the ref stands them up but with little time left they stroke for a while before Brian scores a takedown at the last second of the round.

Round 2
They come out and touch gloves and laugh and hug before fighting. They trade again before Brian takes him down and almost takes the back but Lepont gets up and they get pressed up against the cage. They break and strike some more before choi takes him down once more. The striking in this fight is insane and fierce. Choi strikes from inside the guard and Arnaud makes some attempts at a triangle and an armlock but the round ends with Choi on top.

Round 3
Brian scores a heavy right hand right at the start and drops Lepont. He goes in and controls Lepont on the ground. They grapple on the ground and after a struggle Lepont manages to lock in a rear naked choke and gets the tapout major upset from the flow of the fight.

Result: Arnaud Lepont wins in round 3 by rear naked choke.

Fifth fight
Bae young kwon vs Eric Kelly

They start the match throwing hard hands and kicks. Kwon scores a great osotto gari but is immediately reversed and Eric Kelly gets on too but kwon quickly gets out of it and gets Eric's back but Eric escapes. Kwon takes him down again but Eric squirms out once more. They clinch and kwon does another beautiful throw. They grapple and kwon goes for the back again but Eric gets up into kwon's guard. Kwon goes for a triangle but Eric pops out and stands up. Eric lands some nice hits. Kwon jumps in and tries to lock in a guillotine but Eric pops out yet again. The round ends with both Trading strikes with Eric getting the upper hand.

Round 2

They start again with trading hard hard kicks and punches. Kwon scores a takedown again but Eric is too squirmy. Kwon almost gets the back but Kelly gets up and kicks kwon. Kwon scores a takedown and gets the back and works for a choke. Kwon gets a yellow card for elbows to the back of the head. The fight restarts and Eric again continues with really hard kicks. Kwon slips on a kick attempt and Kelly goes in to finish with a RNC but the round ends before he can finish.

Round 3
The round is similar to the previous two. A lot of hard striking before the takedown followed by insane grappling. The fight ends with kwon on top and striking Eric. Judges decide for Eric Kelly.

Result: Eric Kelly wins by unanimous decision.

Ok I'm going to take a break from reporting now because the fights are really exciting and I can't watch while typing.

Woo. I'm back. Glad I took a break from reporting round by round because I really couldn't keep up with the action and the typing at the same time and boy am I glad I choose to pay attention because the fights were EXCITING!

Gregor Gracie vs Adam Kayoom

This fight saw Gregor dominating in the first round. The takedowns were good and the control from the top was great. The second round saw Gregor starting off with more of the same but halfway through it became really obvious that Gregor was exhausted. The end of the second round and the whole of the third round was just Adam Kayoom punching at an exhausted Gracie. If this were scored round by round, it could possibly be Gregor's win but since it is scored as a whole fight I agree with the judges' decision to award the win to Adam Kayoom.

Leandro Issa vs Masakazu Imanari

This was a fight that I was super excited to watch. Having been taught by Leandro Issa at Evolve gym of course I would root for him. At the same time, I'm also a big fan of Imanari and his leg locks so this fight was full of conflicting feelings. I was impressed with Leandro Issa and his smart game plan. He would kick at the legs and strike cleanly and quickly. When he took Imanari down, he played it safe on the ground by striking inside the guard and all the while making sure to take away the angles so Imanari could not escape his hips. At the same time, I was also hoping Imanari would pull some ridiculous leglock miracle move. Oh well, I'm happy with the outcome either way. Decision win for Leandro Issa well deserved. Smart planning by Issa and the team at Evolve.

Zorobabel Moreira vs Roger Huerta

One of the more highly anticipated fights in this fight card, Roger Huerta is a really exciting opponent for Zoro to have. As I've definitely blogged before, Zoro is one of the instructors whose class I attend the most often and therefore I definitely hoped he would win. I even bought his walkout shirt today. Anyways, Zoro's reach advantage was amazing. They weren't kidding when they said "incredible reach". There was even one point in the fight where Zoro was holding Huerta away using an outstretched arm. Also, the soccer kick that ended the fight was EPIC! 

Ok... I'm done for tonight. I'm off to sleep now that I've been satisfied with a heapful of wonderful MMA. Oh wait, one more thing. I can't believe Lepont called out Shinya. I really hope they'll match them up and Shinya will pull out some bad-ass submissions on him. The fight between Lepont and Choi wasn't even that one-sided, in fact in my opinion Choi was very close to winning it and just slipped up at the last moment. So I don't really see how Lepont is justified in calling out anyone but I'll be happy to see Shinya submit his ass all over. Woo!

T-shirts from Gracie Academy Store

Bought two t-shirts for myself and two t-shirts for Randy from the Gracie Academy Store. Here are the two that I bought.

First is the submission series t-shirt.

I bought the submission series t-shirt for the gi-choke series. Now these t-shirts are really cool in that they show the technique at the front and at the back they give pointers on that particular technique. Also, you get access to a video tutorial on the featured submission on the Gracie website and I particularly wanted this video because the tutorial was on how to choke people using normal attire and not just gi.

Front view

Back view

Review

Cost: $32 USD (not including shipping) - I give it 7/10 only because shipping costs are really high otherwise pretty affordable

Material: 100% Cotton - I give it 8/10 because it feels slightly too warm and we're in Singapore and it's a heat wave now so I really don't want something warm.

Design: I give the design 6/10. I really like the illustration at the front but I don't like the font and the layout of the text at the back.

Others: 10/10. I really like the video tutorial that is given as a bonus for buying this t-shirt. 

Overall: Overall I give it a 7/10 as a t-shirt but a 9/10 when you factor in the video it comes with.

View the shirt in store here : Submission Series 2/10 Choke

 T-shirt: Vintage Gracie vs Kimura Tee

Front View

Back view

Review

Cost: $35 USD (not including shipping) - again I give 7/10 because it's quite affordable but not when you factor in shipping so you should try to ship multiple items together perhaps bulk order with friends.

Material: 70% Bamboo 30% Cotton - I give this 9/10 because I love how light the material is and how cooling it feels. At the same time gives the shirt a very cool look about it.

Design: 8/10 - I quite like this design. It has a coolness factor about it but not so much to make me go crazy about it therefore the 8 score.

Others: No other extras for this t-shirt but it has coolness factor in that it's a historic fight.

Overall: 8/10, I like this t-shirt because of the history behind it and also the material and design are great.

View this t-shirt in the store here: Vintage Gracie vs Kimura

Muay Thai class...

Recently went for a muay thai class at Evolve on Tuesday at the 4:15pm time slot. Was quite interesting to attend an afternoon lesson because the class size is HUGE compared to the early morning time slots. To accomodate the huge class there were three muay thai instructors. Learnt an interesting combo of leg block followed by knee. The muay thai instructors are really funny jokers especially kru yo. Haha... but I think I still prefer to have a smaller class size so I'll probably try to go in the morning.

Have not been going so regularly for training lately due to knee injury + cough + life is busy. Excuses I know but those are the reasons nonetheless. I have not totally revamped the website as I had previously planned but I have managed to make a logo. :)

I initially tried to make the whole thing from scratch but in the end I decided it was easier to just go with a pre-made vector template and just modify it from there. The coat of arms vector is courtesy of www.vectorlady.com

The words on the coat of arms are Spiritus and Zelus meaning "spirit" and "zeal". Ok, it's latin and may seem pretentious and all but I like latin so there. I seem to attend schools that have latin mottos so I always liked the sound of latin words.

Break Week

Have not been to any MMA training this week. No, I'm not losing interest in MMA it's just that my knee has been acting up for some reason so I want to give it a chance to recover before getting back to training. No point overtraining and then injuring myself seriously and then end up missing months of training instead of just one week. So basically, for some reason my knee has developed a strange problem where it pops whenever I bend it and then straighten it again. After searching the internet, there are some things that it possibly might be. It could be ligament tear, but I don't really have much pain in the knee just some slight discomfort like something is tight. It is possibly some inflammation of the tissue, this is totally likely so that is why I am giving it a rest. Another thing that I read is that my muscles in my left leg might be imbalanced thus causing the knee cap to not track properly in the joint. So basically I've been using the joint care cream with glucosamine in it hopefully it helps. Also, all the running I did for training for the Sundown Marathon did not really help with the knee situation.

So since I am not training, I decided to spruce up the website a little bit. I've added in a "Submissions Achievement" tab at the top because I thought it would be fun to track what submissions I've managed to pull off and what submissions I've experienced and tapped out to. Made the same list for Randy too. Life should totally be more like a video game with achievements and all.

Also, I'll be trying to spruce up the layout tomorrow. I'm not so good with blogger layouts so we'll see how that goes. Goodnight people.

Promotion!

Hell yeah! Promoted to two stripes! Haha doesn't sound that impressive but I love the feeling of making progress. One more stripe to go and I'll be going for the no-gi class and the mma class. And also now I'm just 3 promotions away from a blue belt! Woot.

Recently there have many promotions all around. Papa rich got another stripe on his blue belt. Some other people got promoted to blue belt and I got to see the certificate that they got. I'm a junkie for achievements. I want that certificate!

In other news, I'm severely cut up. Ive taken an elbow, a knee, and a punch to the mouth. I have so many ulcers and cuts in my mouth it's so hard to eat food. Blah. But I understand it's all just accidents that happen in training it's just that now it happened all within the same few days so there's no part of my lips that's free from cuts. I can't even say avoid one part of my mouth cos every part has at least one gigantic ulcer.

The pictures attached are my new white stripe as well as the blood stains from getting elbowed in the mouth. Hahaha...

Evolve family

So I'm done with training and heading back home on the north east line. Learnt transitions from half guard to mount or side control. Also learnt the Ezekiel choke from half guard. All around interesting stuff but nothing too fancy.

This morning I briefly considered skipping training to play diablo 3 but decided to come in the end and I'm so glad that I did because today was Zoro's birthday. At the end of the lesson, the whole class as well as a whole lot of his students decided to take a picture with him to congratulate him on his recent muay Thai win. After the photos were done, surprise cake came out. The look on Zoro's face was incredible. Zoro is always smiling anyways but he was somehow smiling even more and Papa Rich gave him a gag present, a mini tripod and camera case, before giving him his real present a digital camera. It was so funny to see Zoro sitting there holding his camera case thinking how come it's so light and wondering what's going on how come my present is a camera case and still smiling being polite. Haha. But it was really great to see and I think Zoro really liked his present.

This is just one incident that shows how friendly and inclusive Evolve is. Sometimes gyms are always saying you join us we are a big family and I'm always thinking "yeah right" but with Evolve I feel like I can believe it. The instructors as well as the other students here are just good to train with. Inclusive, friendly, have not met any partner so far that is the gym hero kind that wants to dominate others to show how tough he is. All in all, I feel that all this has just reaffirmed my choice in deciding to train at Evolve.