The Flog!

Kata Gatame is commonly called shoulder lock or hold or, in recent years, arm triangle. When applied, it can be painful, can choke and smother, and can result in a tap out.

The basic ground hold is straightforward:

To do a right-sided kata gatame,

1) Place your right arm under uke’s head at the same time as you take his right arm and move it across his face.

2) Put your head down beside uke’s, as close to the floor as possible, holding his right arm in place.

3) Grasp your left hand with your right. Do not interlace your fingers. Place your left hand palm up and put your right hand into it. (You can also do the hand clasp which involves the right thumb between the first and second fingers of the left hand – a very strong grip.)

4) Bring your right knee up to his waist.

5) Post your left leg out straight (on your toes) about 90 degrees from uke’s body. The higher up toward his head you can get your leg, the less likely he is to be able to escape. Make sure that your butt is low to the ground. If you need to flatten your right leg, do so, but without moving the knee from the waist of your opponent. The objective is to hold your opponent securely and still have as much of your own body weight away from him to ensure that he cannot topple you.

6) Take your right arm and torque it such that the side of your wrist bone is jutting into his spine under his neck. This is where the pain comes in.

7) Maintaining a strong grip with your hands and arms, move your arms together toward the left just a few degrees and move your body forward into uke to tighten the hold.

Uke’s own right arm aids in blocking the carotid artery on the right side of his head. Your right bicep will block the left carotid. On occasion, you might find that uke cannot breathe because his arm is covering his mouth and nose.

If uke manages to move a bit to attempt an escape, move your body, changing leg positions if need be, but once you have control again, go back to the correct position.

Kata Gatame is one of the first ground holds we learn in judo and one of the most powerful.

Click here to go to our Traditional Kata Gatame video

Click here to go to our video showing a transition from Kesa Gatame to Kata Gatame

ayjay

December 2, 2009

UFC 105 Couture vs Vera was free on Spike on Saturday. I think that when the UFC is in Europe, few people order it in North America; you can get the results on the internet within seconds of the fight, so why pay big bucks to see it? 

The only fight that I want to comment on is the co-main event between Couture and Vera. Before that, though, I find it surprising that Bisping‘s bout against Denis Kang was not the other co-main event. Instead it was the match between Mike Swick and Dan Hardy. Granted, that was a very good fight, but I thought that Bisping was an MMA demi-god in the U.K. and thought of highly by the UFC despite his most recent loss.

Perhaps my having watched so many boring heavyweight matches recently in The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 has clouded my view of fights, but Couture versus Vera bordered on sleep-making. It wasn’t Brandon Vera’s fault. It was all Couture’s. In order to stop Vera’s assaults, Couture squashed him against the cage time and time again. He managed to take Vera down in round 1, but Vera climbed up the fence almost immediately, just to be squashed again. The referee separated them several times during the bout as nothing was happening.

Mike Goldberg suggested that Couture’s rushing Vera and holding him at the fence was his wrestling background coming out. The wrestling I’ve seen has been on the ground, without a fence to aid you.

Vera tried knees and strikes when in the clinch as did Couture. Couture attempted take downs again in rounds 2 and 3. After one of the referee separations, Vera kicked Couture in the ribs twice which looked extremely painful. To avoid further damage, Couture did the clinch at the fence again.

Vera got his own take down in round 3 and had full mount, but Couture used the fence to climb up. The fight ended with nice exchanges. Unanimous decision in favour of Couture.

When Couture was interviewed post-fight, he said something about the fight not being too exciting. That really was an understatement. His technique made the fight deadly boring. It reminded me of a Bodog Fight from several years ago in which one guy held the other at the corner posts for the entire match. Couture expended all his energy on holding Vera against the fence. Where were all his ground techniques? Where were his stand up techniques? As much as I like watching MMA, this was not my idea of fun. Couture won because he controlled the fight by holding Vera in place.

ayjay

November 16, 2009

Last Friday, Dave had the class practice escapes from Yoko Shiho and Kuzure Yoko Shiho Gatame (kuzure means variation), the side four quarter ground lock or hold.

One major beef of mine is with fighters who get pinned on their backs – deliberately or in error – and can’t get out. They will get pounded, elbowed, and basically, clobbered. In the years since the first UFC with the introduction of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, we have had so many fighters lay on their backs and try to win from there. It was far worse the first few years when everyone followed the Gracies’ techniques to the letter, especially pulling guard. Since MMA fights tend not to have gis, pulling guard with the objective of sleeve chokes isn’t too practical. Pulling guard, being on the bottom, is not something to aim for: In BJJ rules, there are limited ways to gain points from that position, so you really want to get out of there. If you are there, through happenstance or deliberately, you want to get out from under your opponent. If nothing else, he can use gravity against you – he can lift his head and torso and just drop arms, hands, shoulders, and elbows on your head. If he is a strong ground and pound guy, and you are on the bottom, you may well be toast.

I know some of you love the guard, love crossing your ankles and holding the guy. You think you’re in control. In fact, the guy on top has the superior position and that’s where you want to be. If you’re on the bottom, in a BJJ match, get some points by sweeping your opponent and get out of there. Switch positions.

Dave Here - Note that you get points for getting OUT of guard, not for getting into guard.  Just that alone should tell you that it is not the desired position.  If one of the major objectives of your guard work is to achieve a sweep and get on top, then, logically, it is much better to just start on top in the first place!

Scenario: Your opponent has passed your guard and is in side mount: Practice the escapes from yoko shiho gatame and kuzure yoko shiho gatame. Chances are that the side control will be a kuzure (or variation), but the escape is similar for each variation. In judo, of course, we see the traditional and kuzure yoko shiho gatame as well.Click here to go to two escapes from yoko shiho gatame. Click here to go to escape from kuzure yoko shiho gatame.

Depending on how you learn, you may pick these up quickly and be proficient immediately. Others, such as I, may take a while to learn the new techniques, to incorporate them into muscle memory.

Crucial points for these escapes: For Yoko Shiho Gatame escapes, trap your opponent’s arm between your legs; move your body, not his, to lengthen and break his grip; facilitate the roll by pushing his head under your back (prevents him from posting with his forehead and also protects his head and neck). For Kuzure Yoko Shiho Gatame escapes, move onto your side and go under your opponent (this enables more of his mass to be on your center of gravity, making it easier to turn him); again, facilitate the roll and protect his head and neck by pushing his head under your back; if he has an arm behind your neck, trap his arm by pushing onto it with your own neck.

Practice these escapes with a partner, back and forth. You will get into slightly different positions each time, going from the escape to your own ground hold.

 ayjay

November 13, 2009

The quarterfinals of The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 began yesterday. In the quarterfinals, we have seven men from Rashad Evans‘ team and one from Quinton Jackson‘s. First up were Roy Nelson against Justin Wren, both Evans’ guys.

Evans was concerned about how to coach these people, who were on the same team, yet fighting each other. He determined that the best solution was not to coach, but to continue to have practice sessions in the different disciplines. Last week, he had tried to get Jackson’s men to come practice with his, but his approach to them was poor, somewhat egocentric, and he put down their coach, so their reaction was to walk away.

Both Nelson and Wren have jiu jitsu backgrounds, with Nelson having earned a black belt in BJJ. He was the IFL heavyweight champion and his record coming into The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 was 13-4.

Wren’s background is Greco-Roman wrestling. He was two-time national champion in high school. Before an injury sidelined him, he trained for the Olympics in Greco-Roman. While injured, he became interested in MMA and now studies with Travis Lutter. He is ten years’ younger than Nelson, and about twenty pounds’ lighter (Nelson tipped the scales at the weigh-in at 264). His record coming into The Ultimate Fighter is 10-1.

Everyone who spoke about the two men mentioned that their skills on the ground were comparable, so they would probably remain standing and slug it out. Dana White was impressed by Wren’s preliminary bout against Wes Sims but was yet to be impressed by Roy Nelson.

During the episode, the drama of Matt Mitrione‘s life continued: his “brain” still hurt (he told someone that his opponent had “rattled” his brain) and he eventually spent the night in the hospital. Afterward, he told Dana White that he still wanted to fight, but White wanted to have the doctor’s approval.

Round 1 of the first quarterfinal bout: Wren was the aggressor from the beginning, going after Nelson with big punches. Nelson rushed Wren to the fence and while in the clinch applied some knees. The referee split them up after no further action.

Both men then battled it out in the center of the ring. Wren began to fatigue at about the 2 1/2 minute mark and had his hands too low. From then on, McSweeney yelled intermittently for Wren to raise his hands. Wren threw lots of wild shots, most of which missed their mark; he expended a great deal of energy with those shots, throwing his whole body into them.

Round 2 began with jabs from Nelson and an outside leg kick from Wren. Wren then used strikes and a kick combo. Nelson continued with the jabs and, when in the clinch, Wren applied a solid elbow.

The round continued with Nelson picking Wren apart, throwing punches right down the middle. Wren’s hands were extremely low and he was exhausted. 

The fight went to decision with the majority going to Nelson. We thought the first round might have been a draw and the second went to Nelson, so it was close.

Nelson has a huge ego and told White that the fight was something for Dana to be excited about. White was again not impressed.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 is on Wednesdays at Spike at 10:00 p.m. EST.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 1

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 2

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 3- Note: Roy Nelson’s preliminary fight was in this episode.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 4

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 5

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 6

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 7

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 8

ayjay

November 12, 2009

We are now finished the preliminary fights. Episode 8 of The Ultimate Fighter  Season 10 – TUF10 had the last fight, a match between Michael Wessel and Marcus Jones.

First off, highlights of last week’s bout were shown. I noticed a couple of weeks ago, and then it was reinforced yesterday, that the highlights make the bouts look fantastic. Last week’s fight clips between Mitrione and Junk showed the two of them standing toe-to-toe and slugging. Then we saw a clip of Junk taking Mitrione down. We didn’t see the boring bits: both men leaning against each other in the center of the octagon doing nothing as the buzzer sounded for the end of round one, and later, both guys exhausted and swinging wildly, if at all. Perhaps in future seasons, the boring fights should just be highlights. At least the fights here actually show fighting: the reality show in which girls fight (Fight Girls) muay thai, and the winners go to Thailand to fight a top contender there, had video clips of the audience (!) in the middle of the bouts, so we didn’t see the whole matches. Even at that, though, they were far more exciting than the majority of bouts in this season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Back to the show: In the aftermath of the previous fight, we saw Junk’s injuries – both eyes were swollen and one eye was very bruised. Mitrione said something about his brain hurting and went directly to bed. (This is crucial to the show: in a clip for next week’s episode, Mitrione is shown going to the hospital and Slice is once again thrilled at the prospect of fighting again.)

Michael Wessel is the shortest of this season’s contestants at 6 feet tall. He has a 6,1 and 0 record in professional MMA, including a loss in the UFC last December against Antoni Hardonk. Mike played college football and was in the Arena Football League for several years. He has been a strength and conditioning coach at a university in Arizona. We see him during training practice doing strikes. The plan is for him to use his overhand right and big punches.

Marcus Jones, whom Evans calls “Big Baby”, is among the biggest of the men at 6’6″. He has a 7.5 inch reach advantage over Wessel. Jones played professional football with the NFL for eight years, but now trains with Gracie Tampa. His record is 4-1. His attitude toward MMA is refreshing: he loves learning new techniques and loves watching matches. During the training session, he laughed with glee when taught new moves. Jackson wondered whether Jones had a fight instinct, though. Jones, meanwhile, thought he had a good shot at winning.

Round 1 had Wessel go in to close the gap (he did say he wasn’t afraid of anyone). Wessel attempted some strikes, but Jones put an arm around Wessel’s shoulders and took him down with a throw which looked like a spinning uki goshi. Jones landed in Wessel’s guard and after maneuvering, tried a rear naked choke (hadaka jime) when he had Wessel’s back and finished him off quickly with a juji gatame. Jones impressed us with some decent ground work.

The quarterfinal matches were set up, with Dana White giving Jackson his wish – Marcus Jones against Darrill Schoonover. All other matches were determined through questioning the fighters and having White decide the order.

The Quarterfinals consist of:

Roy Nelson vs Justin Wren

Brendan Schaub vs Jon Madsen

James McSweeney vs Matt Mitrione

Darrill Schoonover vs Marcus Jones

ayjay

November 5, 2009

p.s. As an afterthought: I read an online interview with Mike Wessel in which he complained that Kimbo Slice was permitted to have three members of his posse, his wife and one child come to his fight against Roy Nelson. Wessel suggested that it was in Slice’s contract. This, however, was completely unfair to everyone else in the house, who may have no contact with anyone, including Wessel, whose wife was to undergo surgery for cancer while he was locked away in the house. Special treatment for Slice from the beginning, I guess.

p.p.s. In another article, Kimbo Slice told someone that he had had one day of jiu jitsu training about three months before going to the house. If he is serious about MMA, he should be training ground techniques every day. There are many techniques which will be difficult for him, if not impossible, since he is so solidly built. Marcus Jones is big, but not really muscle bound, so jiu jitsu techniques would be far easier for him to accomplish.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 1

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 2

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 3

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 4

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 5

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 6

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 7

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 9

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 Episode 7 aired yesterday without a fight with Kimbo Slice, despite hints virtually every episode. There was a major kerfuffle between Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson, such that all their coaches and team members looked very serious and people kept trying to step between them. The argument was a continuance of all the others: Jackson’s beaking off about Evans’s being cocky and Evans’ talking about Jackson’s not being a coach to his team, etc.

The fight of this episode was between Matt Mitrione of Evans’s team and Scott Junk of Jackson’s. Mitrione comes across as a goof and fool, is called “Meathead” by Evans and others, as well as “Rat”, as in ”He’s a rat”. He seems to always be involved in confrontations with other housemates. He played professional football in the NFL before turning to mixed martial arts and training with Chris Lytle and Jake O’Brien. Dana White said that he knew basically nothing about the guy.

Junk, on the other hand, has an MMA record of 6 and 2 and had his team members going on at great length about his abilities and background. He has had one match in the UFC which he took on two weeks’ notice, losing by submission in the first round. Even Dana White said that Junk would win, since he was very tough, will stand up and bang, and can go to the ground.

Round 1 of the match had Mitrione, the inexperienced fighter, catching Junk’s leg three different times to knock Junk down. He followed the knock downs with multiples strikes. Each time, though, he let Junk get up. For the first three minutes or so of the round, Mitrione controlled Junk completely. Junk looked worn out. Eventually Mitrione was tired himself, mouth-breathing, hands very low, and Junk managed a clinch at the fence. Junk just leaned into Mitrione until they broke the clinch. Junk finally got in close to Mitrione and struck many times. As the buzzer sounded, both men just leaned against each other in exhaustion.

Round 2 had Mitrione still drained, breathing through his mouth, hands down by his sides. He accomplished a few low leg kicks, but had feeble jabs. Junk tried to get in closer and managed a take down. While in full guard, Junk applied some strikes, but Mitrione had more punches from the bottom.

They were stood up by the referee. Mitrione threw a body kick, but had his hands very low and got clocked by Junk. Mitrione then was successful with most of his strikes and Junk was barely trying.

Unanimous decision in favour of Matt Mitrione.

This is the seventh match in a row which Jackson’s team has lost. Jackson left the area and smashed apart a door (one of those hollow doors with honeycomb insulation) to the change rooms. White called this fight “awesome” but our reaction here was that it was weird: Junk couldn’t accomplish anything for the first few minutes and got knocked down consistently. Only when Mitrione was tired himself did Junk get in close enough to connect (although there was a significant reach advantage by Mitrione – 7 or 8 inches). Both men had extremely poor cardio and were probably grateful that the match didn’t go to the third round.

The last preliminary fight will be between Michael Wessel and Marcus Jones.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 1

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 2

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 3

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 4

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 5

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 6

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 8

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 9

ayjay

Ocotber 29, 2009

Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 followed the antics of Zak Jensen, the problems of Matt Mitrione continuing from last week, and the two fighters who were picked by Evans for the elimination bout.

Jensen succeeded in alienating at least one other person in the house and having all the others laugh at him. In addition, he seemed to lack the ability to interact socially with the other men. Evans said the only things that Jensen had going for him were his size and that he’s a wrestler. He was terrible at training practice and, during one session while doing groundwork, was choked out by a teammate.

Amazingly, Jensen was kept on his back and someone slapped his chest in an attempt bring him to. If you know there is no spinal cord injury, basic first aid would have him turned onto his side with the bottom arm extended and the upper leg over the bottom.

Mitrione complained at great length about his shoulder, wanting to ice it after a training session. Evans kept after him about whether it was injured or was just sore.  Mitrione also wanted a cortisone injection in the shoulder. We saw him throw a football and then promptly complain about his shoulder during training. Some of the teammates suggested that Mitrione wanted to wait as long as possible before his elimination fight and the constant complaining about his shoulder would delay his being named to fight.

Jackson appeared depressed and self-involved about the losses his team had experienced. Going into this episode, his team had yet to win a fight, having lost four in a row.

Rashad Evans picked Justin Wren from his team to fight against Wes Sims from Jackson’s. Wren is a young guy, one of the shortest at 6’3″, with a very strong background in wrestling at the high school and university levels. During a year off to recuperate after an injury, he moved on to MMA. He currently trains with Travis Lutter, but plans to move to Las Vegas to work with Frank Mir. Evans thought that Wren was superior to Sims in all areas.

Sims is much taller (6’10″) and has a six inch reach advantage over Wren. He had planned on professional wrestling until Mark Coleman introduced him to MMA. In 2003 while in the UFC, he lost two matches to Frank Mir. He is far more experienced than Wren with over thirty professional matches, winning twenty-two. Kimbo Slice said that Sims wouldn’t tap out – he’d have to be knocked out or hurt.

Sims’s plan was to “stay long and fight tall”. He told the camera that he was going to crush Wren.

Dana White said he knew very little about Wren, but based on size, thought Sims had the advantage.

Although they are close in weight, with about a ten pound difference, Sims towered over Wren. At the sound of the bell, though, Wren was the aggressor, rushing Sims to push him against the fence. Sims stomped on Wren’s feet and applied a knee. In response, Wren took Sims down. Sims seemed to crumple. Wren immediately had full mount, then moved to the side and placed Sims in a ground hold – kata gatame , shoulder lock or hold or arm triangle. (The following video shows the transition from kesa gatame to kata gatame and might be of interest – kesa to kata.) Sims did not fight the hold at all. Herb Dean went over to him and moved Sims’ left arm to determine whether he was conscious. After a few seconds the arm dropped slowly to his side and he was out.

Once again Jackson did not go to his team member in the octagon. In fact, he left the ring area and went to the locker room to discuss the issues of losing all the matches.

Evans caught up with him and told Jackson that he was being himself – selfish.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 is on Spike at 10 p.m. Wednesdays.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 1

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 2

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 3

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 4

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 6

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 7

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 8

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 9

ayjay

October 15, 2009

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 (TUF10) – Episode 3 screened last night. This episode, highlighting Kimbo Slice, had been promoted extensively for weeks. Coincidentally, The Fight Network announced yesterday that Dana White said Slice would be fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Challenge regardless of the outcome of The Ultimate Fighter. 

Most of the episode revolved around Slice’s training and other people’s opinions of him (he’s humble, hard-working, coachable…). Slice said he wanted to learn jiu jitsu, in fact to learn everything. His training emphasized fighting from his back and getting up from the ground by turning his opponent over. Jackson was very concerned about how Slice would function if he had someone holding him down who had a big belly. While practicing with one of his teammates (with the aforementioned belly), Slice could not get up.

Slice would be fighting Roy “Big Country” Nelson, a very experienced MMA guy, whose specialty is groundwork, who could handle fighting Kimbo and not be intimidated by him.  Nelson’s teammates suggested that he take Slice down, put him in a crucifix hold, and continue ground and pound until the punches were unanswered. Evans stated that Nelson was one of the best guys on the ground, plus “he can bang a bit”.

The coaches once again got into an argument, but this time James McSweeney tried to intervene. Jackson then mocked McSweeney’s English accent further aggravating the situation. Evans stepped between the two men as he thought McSweeney was close to hitting Jackson, which would be cause for expulsion from the show.

At the weigh-ins, Slice came in at 230 with a three inch reach advantage, while Nelson was a huge 264.

When the men came out for the fight, we had a very muscular Kimbo Slice and a rotund Roy Nelson, with the previously mentioned big belly. Round 1 had Slice looking for an opening, throwing a low leg kick, while Nelson tossed out little jabs. Slice was listening to his corner and immediately did what he was told. He attacked with multiple shots while moving forward toward the fence. The men tied up and Nelson pushed Slice against the fence while attempting some knees and a take down. A nice ko soto gake finally worked for the TD with Nelson ending up in full mount.

So the question as to whether Slice could defeat the big belly came up early on. Nelson moved high up on Slice’s torso, trapped Slice’s left arm under his leg and used his left hand to apply many shots to the top of Slice’s head. Slice attempted to maneuver out of the hold, actually helped by Nelson’s moving the two of them such that they were parallel to the fence (allowing Slice to use his feet to push off), but they maintained this position until the buzzer.

Round 2 had Slice using his jabs, applying a huge knee, but again being taken down by Nelson when he got close for the knee. Nelson was in side mount, trapped the arm again, tried ude garami, but ended with shots to the top of the head again, until the referee stopped the match.

White suggested that Slice might fight again during this season. Scenes from the next episode showed Marcus Jones with an injury, implying that Slice might fight in his stead.

Once again this was a fairly terrible fight: Slice couldn’t cope with being held down by a big guy: he needs lots more training on the ground. Nelson is a difficult guy to deal with, mostly a loner who trains himself. This fight may show in his win column, but he couldn’t cope while standing, took his opponent down, and basically squashed him. I wouldn’t be too proud. His first comment after the fight was something about being hungry for a burger.

My thoughts: Heavyweights can be impressive – giant punches and really, heavy kicks – but they are apt to be slow, with the result that many of their fights tend not to be as interesting as those of the lighter men. We have yet to see a good fight this season. When your audience is groaning with boredom and booing at their televisions, your show isn’t very good.

The editing is rudimentary, perhaps due to others’ influences. Why not remove at least some of the repeated conversational fillers, “You know what I’m sayin’?” uttered continually by Slice, Jackson, and even Jones? My answer: “Yes, I know what you’re saying. Stop asking.” Oh, and the fights are boring.  

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 is on Wednesday nights at 10 on Spike.

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 1

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 2

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 4

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 5

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 6

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 7

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 8

Click here to go to TUF10 Episode 9

ayjay

October 1, 2009

The last semi-final of The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 (TUF9) aired last night.  Frank Lester fought in the three-round semi against James Wilks, who had defeated Lester in a previous bout (Lester took a knee to the mouth and left several teeth, real and fake, in his mouth guard in that fight).

Dan Henderson stated that he felt that Lester knew he could do better than in the previous match-up; Lester said  that if “Henderson believes in me, then I believe in me.” Lester also talked about feeling far more calm in the octagon, having fought several times already. Henderson’s direction to Lester was to throw straight punches and more of them, Lester having a tendency to throw looping punches.

Wilks said he thought he was a technically better striker than Lester and better on the ground. Bisping‘s analysis of the previous fight was that the two men were close when on their feet, but on the ground, Wilks was better than Lester.

The funniest segment of the episode was the coin to the forehead scenario: the premise is that you push a coin strongly onto your forehead, such that it sticks to your skin. Then you hit the back of your head until the coin comes off. The higher the number of hits, the smarter you are. In reality, after you demonstrate the technique, you push it on your friend’s head and instead of leaving the coin there, you surreptitiously remove it, and your friend bashes himself on the head for a long time, sometimes never grasping that there is no coin there.

They tried the game on Bisping and he actually hit himself a goodly number of times, until he realized that there was no coin and he’d been had.

We did that years ago in a restaurant and it really is funny. Eventually you have to say something, though, as the guy does bash himself.

Round one: The two men traded strikes and kicks. Henderson kept yelling for Lester to jab and go first, not wait for Wilks to do something. In fact, most of the time, Lester did not follow direction.

Wilks had his left hand very low throughout most of the match and Bisping was yelling at him to raise his hand. Lester had a couple of strong jabs and Wilks attempted a  take down, which Lester stuffed.

While in the clinch, Lester connected strongly with a couple of strikes while Wilks kept trying for a take down.

Round 2: Lester came out with strong jabs, but Wilks had some huge kicks. Wilks then tried another take down, which Lester again stuffed. While in the clinch, Wilks tried knees to the head and short strikes.

Lester had a huge jab right down the center, but Wilks rocked Lester with a head kick. While tied up, Lester attempted a take down of his own, unsuccessfully. Wilks applied knees to the head and jabs.

Round 3: Lester came out breathing heavily. Wilks struck Lester with some hard punches and a knee to the head.

When in the clinch, Wilks used the knees again, although this time, Lester went down to the floor on his knees. Wilks followed suit with several more knee strikes until the referee stepped in for TKO.

Lester’s face was a mess after all those knees. Dana White paid him a great compliment by stating that Wilks was the better fighter, but Lester was one of the toughest. Lester had had four fights in thirty-four days and was just tired and worn out. He went into the fight with a black eye and probably numerous other injuries which weren’t visible or talked about.

The U.K. has three of the four fighters in the finale this Saturday, which Bisping gloated about. Damarques Johnson will be fighting James Wilks for the welterweight final and Ross Pearson will fight Andre Winner for the lightweight final.

Johnson seems to hate Wilks, the reasons for that being unclear, except for the fact that Wilks has lived in the U.S. for some years, training and teaching various martial arts and weaponry. Perhaps Johnson feels that Wilks should not have been allowed to compete for the U.K. team while living in the U.S.

After the finale, the next bout for TUF9 is the coaches’ fight in UFC 100. Henderson and Bisping will be one of the main events that night. Bisping feels that Henderson’s time is past and Henderson thinks Bisping is a douche bag, whatever that means to him. Certainly, Henderson was more mature during TUF9, but Bisping’s coaching style worked, with his team members becoming close to each other and to him. It’ll be interesting.

The UFC The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 (TUF9) finale is June 20, 2009 on Spike.

ayjay

June 18, 2009

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 (TUF9) had its lightweight semi-finals last night. Andre Winner fought Cameron Dollar and Ross Pearson fought Jason Dent.

The first bout, between Winner and Dollar, had the potential to be excruciating for Dollar as he had a rib injury. Henderson‘s game plan was for Dollar to punch his way in, take Winner down and finish him off. During training, though, Dollar’s side was so sore, that his training was impacted. Henderson suggested that both his lightweights were going to win and it would be White‘s biggest nightmare, that of US versus US, instead of US versus UK, in the lightweight final.

During training, Winner worked on stand-up only and said he wanted to keep the fight boxing. A segment of the show dwelt on Winner’s tendency to thumb suck, something I didn’t know adults did. He was funny about it, somewhat embarrassed, and the other guys laughed about it, but were surprisingly tolerant.

Winner came into the match with a 9-2-1 record and stated that he had to pay the bills, so treated every fight as though it were the last fight. Dollar’s record was 4-1 going in. He believed that God wouldn’t have given him the chance to do this if he couldn’t handle it.

Round one began with a flurry of punches from Dollar and a take down attempt. Winner threw a big shot to Dollar’s chin, and connected, and then applied some knees.

Dollar tried for another take down at the fence, and eventually got it, but Winner rolled onto the top and then the bottom, putting Dollar into a triangle choke (sankaku jime). Dollar tried to stand with Winner’s legs wrapped around him, but finally tapped out.

Winner’s comment to the camera was that the stand-up guy won by submission. Since Dollar’s ground skills are good, Winner should be proud.

Ross Pearson was called a bulldog by the announcer and the title is apt: he’s solid, thick-necked, and keeps coming forward. Even during training, when he popped out his shoulder, he had Bisping yank it back into place and went straight back to training. Pearson said he was going to hit Dent with everything he had, hoping for a knock out.

Jason Dent’s previous matches were boring and his attitude in the house was very negative (although I don’t blame him for hating it – no television, radios, computers, phones, newspapers, and living in a confined space with fifteen other people who are not your friends OR family. Oh, and no contact with family or friends for the duration of the stay. There’s all the alcohol you could possibly drink, though.) Henderson said Dent had not yet shown what he was capable of.  Dent did say that he lost every match which had gone to decision, so he was looking for TKO.

Round 1 began with Dent’s kicking and Pearson’s striking. They ended at the fence in a clinch with Pearson’s kneeing Dent’s head, trying uppercuts, a big strike to the ribs (which caused Dent to buckle) and kicks. Pearson has a strong head kick which he used many times and, if they had not been blocked, would have resulted in a knock out.

Dent applied some heavy uppercuts, but Pearson’s tough. Pearson then answered with strikes to the body and face – many, many strikes which were unanswered by Dent.

Just before the end of the round, Dent connected a few times with head strikes.

Round 2: Dent tried some low leg kicks and strikes to the head. Pearson was very clever at the fence and timed his strikes to Dent such that they happened as Dent bounced off the fence, resulting in Dent’s getting hit each time he came off the fence.

Pearson managed a take down of his own, controlling Dent from guard, full, and half mount. After they stood up, Dent tried a take down with no success, so he did a butt flop. Pearson jumped on him and did some ground and pound here.

Round 3: Dent came out impressively with multiple strikes and kicks. Pearson replied with uppercuts and a rib/kidney shot to the same side which he hit the previous round. Pearson took Dent down at the fence and served elbows and heavy fists to Dent as Dent lay on the bottom.

Dent turned over and turtled and then went on his back again, with Pearson in his guard. Dent attempted armbars many times from the bottom, but was unsuccessful. Pearson controlled the match completely while on the ground.

Unanimous decision in Pearson’s favour.

Both fighters in the lightweight final are from the UK.

UFC‘s The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 (TUF9) is on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. on Spike.

ayjay

June 11, 2009