STRIKEFORCE: Fedor vs. Rogers

This event is FREE on CBC. For where I am, North of Newmarket, that's channel 17 on Saturday night.

The Main Event: Fedor vs Brett Rogers

Fedor is the new Madonna. He’s referred to by only one name and that makes him a mysterious and scary dude. But Fedor is definitely not like Virgin and has been around the block beating the best fighters in the world.
Fights like this are annoying and Fedor’s usually the guy involved in these kind of matchups. Fedor is the number one ranked heavyweight and he’s fighting a guy that is ranked, tops, 8th and sometimes not at all. I’m going with Fedor on this one but Bret Rogers has the power and could easily knock Fedor out... then what? Bret Rogers is the number one fighter in the world? Ridiculous. Rogers isn’t a better fighter but he hits hard and anything can happen in a fight. Rogers is a one trick pony and does that one trick well, he hits freakin hard. If you look at this guys record, which is 10 and 0, 9 of those are by KO. Although he does have one submission (via strikes).

Although the UFC complains a lot about Fedor not fighting the top guys, their top heavyweight, Brock Lesner (Ranked number 2 in the world) is still set to fight Shane Carwin (Ranked number 10).

Fedor should win this based on his speed advantage and skill. Rogers is a lot slower, slugs a lot of his punches which makes for big openings when he strikes. Fedor’s always been suspect for cutting/bleeding easily but Rogers style doesn’t show anything that would make this a concern (ie. A Tito Ortiz style ground and pound with elbows). Fedor should try to stay on the outside and try to take it to the ground. I remember seeing Rogers on the ground once in EliteXC and being a little shocked at how out of his element he looked so I think this match will be decided on the ground if it goes longer than 30 seconds.

Fedor has a certain magic about him where he’s just able to endure and win. He was losing his last fight against Andrea Arlovski until it ended with a quick KO. Fedors only loss to date was a result of a cut courtesy of a Tsuyoshi Kosaka’s elbow that glanced and cut the Russian. Elbows were also illegal in the promotion that they were competing in (RINGS) but it was still ruled a TKO. Fedor later went on to defeat Kosaka in a rematch.

A couple of good fights to check out that show Fedor’s “Magic” are against Kevin Randleman and Fujita and in the video below, you’ll see the kind of danger he was in.

Here is a wicked highlight of Fedor:




Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Jake Shields (Middleweight Championship)

I like Mayhem but I think he’ll be sent back to his village on his shield. Shields has moved up a weight class for this event to fight but Mayhem has fought at Welterweight for a long time so weight shouldn’t be a concern at all.
Shields is a fighter that I would like to see fight GSP. I would go with GSP on that but it would be better than the winner of Mike Swick vs Dan Hardy. That weight class needs some more strength to compete against GSP.
Fans of Mayhem Miller’s MTV show Bully Beatdown will be a little interested in this fight because Jake Shields has been featured beating up bully’s on this show twice and now everyone will get a chance to see Jake beat up the host.
I’m going with Shields because he has everything Mayhem has but better, and more focus. Both have great ground and good stand up but in each aspect Jake has an advantage and the big difference will be in the stand up. Mayhems stand up defence isn’t great. I remember a match between him and Frank Trigg in Hawaii where Trigg was popping him in the face over and over again like Mayhem was a little kid. Sheilds is also a very focused fighter and Mayhem is busy with his television show Bully Beatdown, making regular appearances on other television shows, and probably working on the next theme for his entrance on Saturday night.

Here’s a Highlight of fight Mayhem had in DREAM:





Gegard “The Dream Catcher” Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry “The African Assasin” Sokodju

Sokodju came out of nowhere a couple of years ago and won two HUGE fights that he was seemingly mismatched for against Nogueira and Arona. Since that explosion he’s turned into a dud.
I’m taking Mousasi in this one, who’s coming off a win over Babalo Sobral; a fighter that just beat Sokodju earlier this year. The math doesn’t add up for Sokodju to even deserve this fight so I’m taking Mousasi.


Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio “BIGFOOT” Silva
I actually didn’t see Bigfoot the last couple of times but like the Henderson’s, in Harry and the Hendersons… I like Bigfoot. He’s a giant. He’s very fast for his uncomfortable looking size and he’s ridiculously strong. However, Werdum has the advantage on the ground and is a lot faster than the fast Giant. Werdum should be able get Silva down and tap him out.

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The No Touch Knockout Put to the Test - PART 1

$500,000 to challenge this master and someone pays the fee to show the world the skills this guy really has.

Some of my favorite stuff is calling out people on crap. A favorite television series of mine was HBO's "Penn and Teller's Bullsh*t" which aired for 4 seasons. I wrote in several times trying to get them to do a series on Traditional Martial Arts because there is a PILE of it but they never did. This guy did a pretty good job of showing some of what I was hoping Penn and Teller would have.

In this video 'Science, Reason and Rational' takes a look at a Martial Arts "master" that claims to have mystical martial arts powers.

With the age of the internet and forums such as the UFC to show what actually works in Martial Arts, thankfully, delusional people like this are shown for what they really are and hopefully stop making money from the gullible people that pay their membership fees.







* A little slow but a very funny video. The master is clearly full of dilution and seems amazed that he was hit. The guy fighting him doesn't seem to be a great martial artist at all, just someone who is actually going to hit him.
After the first punch to the face the challenger could have (and in a real situations would have) continued hitting him but he respectfully let up in order to re-start.
Great video and there will be more to follow.


Stay Tuned for the follow up post, next week.
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Grandmother is Going to Fight MMA

I thought that this would be an interesting video for all of the women that I teach. Almost all of them are much younger than this.



I don't know anything about the gym she trains at but there are no black belts in MMA, in the way that there are no belts in Boxing, Kickboxing or wrestling. She's been training for four years though and if I come across anything from her fight I'll post that too.

A Good Fight from Last Nights K-MAX FINAL

This is a fight from last nights K-1 MAX Final. It's not a final matchup so no spoiler worries!

Sato vs. Kido. Really good fight that just gets better.



** If you received a video about a video showing good low kicks, it's the one below this.

"Mr. Perfect" Ernesto Hoost Highlight (Leg Kicks/Combo 3)

This is an old highlight of great Dutch Kickboxer Enesto Hoost that was done by sherdog.com. There are many highlights of him out there but this has always been a favorite of mine.

This highlight is a great example of strong leg kicks and combination's, in particular; Combo 3 (jab/cross/hook/swing kick) which many of you should recognize.

Enesto Hoost is a legend in Kickboxing and won the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 4 times. Stay tuned for a blog about K-1 and the world grand prix. It's, in my opinion, the toughest challenge in combat sports and takes a year-long battle to accomplish.




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UFC 104 - Machida vs. Rua

ADAMS CURRENT PICKS: 50% Correct

Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua - MACHIDA

Have you ever seen Invincible with Bruce Willis? Great movie. There’s a villain known as “Mr. Glass” that has really week bones. Shogun is the Mr. Glass of MMA. He’s blown out his knee twice and snapped his arm once. That’s a lot of injury and I think it’s messed with his training and career.

This is an interesting matchup and not a ‘runaway’, but I’m definitely going with Machida on this one.

The one thing that worries me about Machida’s technique is that often, when he’s in tight, in his allusiveness he looks away or down, away from the punches and that’s when a fighter can get surprised.

Everyone’s seen what odd angles can do to a fighter with Machida and Shogun actually brings a lot of this to the game as well. Whenever I’ve watched him (or his brother Ninja) I’ve always found them to be very sloppy, though a great kickboxers. Even when I watched the Chute Box instructional with Shogun and Ninja I was surprised that, even while throwing combos in slow motion to illustrate their techniques, that they didn’t have good balance and looked sloppy. All of this smack talk about the ‘slop’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Often when someone new to fighting spars against me, they often catch me with some stuff because there kicks and punches don’t look like everyone else and that can surprise you. Their lack of technique also results in a lack of power but the Chute Boxe guys have power.

Shogun has also appears to have finally turned back into a top fighter since the demise of the Japanese PRIDE promotion. When almost all (particularly the Brazilians) came back from fighting in Japan where “vitamins” (that’s code for steroids) are a way of life their abilities mysteriously dropped off a cliff. These “vitamins” are tested over here and you could see a change immediately when they came over to compete in America.

Notable fighters that showed this include: Shogun Rua, Ninja Rua, Wanderlie Silva, Big Nog, and Cro-Cop to name a few.

I remember being so impressed with the Rua brothers back in the day in particular because they would just punch, punch, punch, punch and keep punching for the whole fight and never got tired. They would strike on their feet, strike in the clinch, strike in the guard and they were relentless. When they first crossed over from PRIDE they gassed out immediately and haven’t been the same fighters since.

SO! Long story short, Rua could surprise everyone but I think he doesn’t have the skills to pull off a win. Machida is not only un-orthodox in his striking (as is Rua) but he is VERY illusive which is something Rua lacks. Rua’s chance is if something happens early but all advantages go to Machida, including the 5 round fight.

(Was he in the Goonies? It looks like he's doing the truffle-shuffle)

Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell - ROTHWELL

This is a tough one. I was really impressed when Cain took a giant shot from Kongo and, after letting his back-bone slide, attacked and got a take-down and took the win.

I also really like Rothwell. When Andrei Arlovski was let go from the UFC and went to fight for Affliction everyone saw the best Andrei fight against Ben and Ben took the fight to Andrie until he got TKO`d in the third round. It was a great fight and Andrei’s performance was so good that he was given a huge standing ovation after his fight with Ben, which surprised the hell out of me. Ben’s also defeated a fat Ricco Rodriguez (former UFC Champion) and I think he’ll take this fight.

Joe “Daddy” Stevenson vs. Spencer “The King” Fisher - FISHER

I’ve found Joe Daddy to be a hot and cold fighter. He was definitely on the ball with his latest fight against Nate Diaz. I’m going with Fisher on this one though. I like Fisher and think he’s got great heart and always bring his game and fights hard. There’s a chance of Joe’s wrestling pulling off a decision win based on control and takedowns but Fisher will control the stand up and I think will stay out of any submissions.

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Eat Out and Stay Fit

10 Tips on eating out without compromising progress

I love to eat and I love to eat out but it is VERY difficult to stick to a diet when you’re eating out. You don’t know what they’re putting into what you order and the portion sizes are always HUGE. When you go to a restaurant you’re almost guaranteed to have the fattiest and most sugar packed version of whatever you’re ordering. Restaurants do this because they obviously want their food to taste good so they use Heavy butter, heavy crème instead of skim milk and anything else that packs as much flavour (and calories) as possible.

It is possible to do all of these tips but I hope that at least a couple of them help you out!

1) Don’t accept the complimentary bread. When they bring it, tell them no thank you. You don’t want this at the table at all because if it’s there, you’re going to start to pick away at it and eat it. That’s some heavy carbs.

2) If you’re with friends that would like the bread, ask for a salad right away so that while they’re eating bread, you have something to munch on.

3) A common mistake is thinking a salad is healthy. Caesars are the worst because they’re drenched in a cream sauce and come with croutons, bacon bits and cheese. You’d be better off eating the burger meal.

4) If you’re a big salad fan it’s sometimes even a good idea to pack your own fat-free dressing with you because most places don’t have fat-free.

5) Ask for all sauces and dressings on the side and then use them sparingly.

6) Order nothing fried; food should be steamed or grilled only.

7) This should go without saying, but, AVOID restaurants that are “all you can eat” or known for their portion size

8) Know the restaurant you’re going to so you can plan what you will eat. Don’t let what other people are ordering sway you or change your plans. Go there with a plan and don’t waiver. If you waver on your choices, you’ll be more likely to pick things that are tempting and fattening. Don’t pick your food on a whim.

9) If you have to order a big hunk of something (lasagne, etc) then just order it. When it arrives, cut it in half, and put the other half in a to-go box. If they have a kids size, order that and you can eat the whole thing. Restaurant portion sizes are far larger than what anyone should eat so often taking half home is a good idea.

10) When having coffee drinks, be sure to request fat-free milk and no whipped cream. This will drastically cut fat and calories. Also, some coffee bars make hot beverages in smaller sizes than what’s listed on the menu. Ask for an 8-ounce size, which is sometimes called “Short”.

In a future post we'll put up a list of more tips for eating out.

Any questions refer to http://www.spartanmmaacademy.com