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Blog Poll Results Review - Who Fedor Should Fight

It looks like out of the 58 votes made so far, the result is obvious. Even though some of us truly believe that Fedor does not have to join the UFC and trade Vadim Finkelstein for Dana White, 50% of you believe Fedor should fight Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is the #2 fighter in the world. He is the UFC champion, champion of the organization that has four out of five top heavyweights in the world. Brock is also as many say a great big threat to Fedor and M1 Global/Vadim Finkelstein.

The second most popular vote is Alistair Overeem and I am not surprised. Overeem is in Strikeforce and wants to fight Fedor. He also challenges Fedor and says his management have been evading him. Why? Because they are genuinely worried Fedor may actually lose to this guy vs. Fabricio Werdum who most agree does not have the skill set to defeat Fedor.

If you try to be objective about this, the following logic clearly does not work. Vadim Finkelstein keeps saying that he would rather have Fedor fight Barnett then Overeem. Why? Because Overeem is a "steroid bully". But the argument breaks down when he says that he would rather have Fedor face Barnett. But Barnett can't fight in the US because of steroid abuse. It is very convenient also because this way Fedor can't fight neither Barnett or Overeem. Huh!

The truth is though, if Overeem is not a candidate, then Fedor will fight someone not in the top-10. Antonio Silva does not deserve to fight Fedor and there is no one else. All the top fighters are in the UFC and Fedor has to go there.

BJJ Belts

For those that love jiu jitsu, belts are not so important I think. It takes time and hard work and eventually we may get there. Progress is the most important and if you are doing well on the mats, then you are getting better. If you are winning competitions in your category, this means you are training hard and are making progress. Belts themselves is just appreciation from your teacher I guess.

I like the statistic or guesstimate from the Draculino blog though:

"Of all the white belts that start 15-20% of those will make it to the blue belt.
Of that 15-20% that make it to blue, about 10% will stay until purple.
Those people that make it to purple, 15-20% will go on to brown.
If you make it brown most of those people reach the black belt."

So there you have it. If you take the lower figures, you get 15% x 10% x 15% = 0.2% make it to brown belt and probably black belt. So for every 1000 people that walk in to the gym and take some training, only 2 guys make it to brown or black belt. That just shows how much dedication is required.

BJJ Training Injuries

When you start training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you feel like you can sprint it. I am sure that some of us really can do it. I tried to do it myself. Training six-seven times a week will benefit your skills no doubt and there is nothing that will improve your technique more than mat time.

Neverthless I recommend to all to supplmenent your jiu jitsu with weight training and rest. Your body (at least mine) cannot take so much exercise without take risk of injury and injury can really hurt.

I had surgery on my shoulder. The total time away from training was about 10-11 months. If only I did more exercises and strengthened my shoulders, I feel that there was no need for this injury to happen in the first place.

If you are in pain, don't go training. Rest, take time off. If the pain stops, go to the gym and do some passive exercises to strengthen areas of your body. If you shoulder is in pain, the worst thing you can do to it is to go training and tear something in a sparring match. There is no need for this. If you have to train and the pain is minimal, train gently, focus on technique. If you have to do sparring, do it in a controlled manner, lose if you have to but don't use your strength.

There are some exercises like the omoplata and kimura that can get your shoulder injured if it was in pain before you even came to training. Be aware of this. Injury is something that can be avoided.

There are also some creams that I can recommend you use. They basically warm up the muscles of your body and help prevent injury.

The only person that can help prevent injury is you. Wear knee pads when training. I wear gum shield as well. You don't want to go to the dentist and it is expensive. It is no likely that you will hurt your teeth but it can happen.

Vadim Finkelstein and MMA

There are many controversial personalities in the young sport of MMA that is only starting to evolve and is growing in many countries from USA to Japan and as far away from Brazil as Russia. Dana White and the UFC have secured their dominance in the US market and are now expanding abroad while the old Pride remains have risen to form the organization that is now known as Dream FC that features some of the old greats like Sakuraba and Yoshida as well as the new breed of fighters like Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

Fedor Emelianenko is a phenomenon that appeared in the late Rings promotion fights and then exploded on to the Pride arena defeating the likes of Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop among others in a colourful career that lasted between 2000-2005. Those were the years when Vadim Finkelstein took over the management of Fedor and the troubles really began to emerge.

Late into this part of Fedor's career it became clear that the talent of the Pride Heavyweight Champion is phenomenal but also that the team around hin are careful in selecting fights, often choosing to mix it with some weaker, one-dimensional and clearly underdog opponents. October 2005 marked the end of this part of the career and started to be a stage for Fedor's domination of underdog fighters who had no business fighting the best fighter in the world at the time. After the victory over Mirko that year, Fedor fought Zuluzhinho and later defeated Mark Coleman for the second time.

Pride was clearly in its final months of existance and it is understandable that a weaker opponent can sometimes be chosen to please the fans that may demand a show such as Zuluzhinho. There was no such popular support however for Zulu or Mark and therefore there was no logic to this fight.

If you take March 2006 Heavyweight Rankings, under Mirko and Nogueira there was Andrei Arlovski, Kharitonov, Aleks Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum, all of which were great fighters that Fedor could have met. Instead he chose to fight Zuluzhinho and Mark Coleman.

In February 2007, the top ranked were again Fedor, Cro Cop and Nogueira but under them the positions changed. Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera and Arlovski featured as the next best. Who did Fedor fight? He fought Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland. At the time MMA Ranks.com rated Hunt as #1 fighter in the Super Heavyweight Division that does not exist. Moreover Hunt did not achieve anything special to justify such a position in the rankings. Matt Lindland was a middleweight ranked number eight in the world. Hardly someone who should have been fighting against apparently the greatest heavyweight in the world.

The contrast is all the more visible when you look at the guys that Mirko Cro Cop fought during these two years. Firstly he defeated the highly rated Josh Barnett who featured #3 in the world in 2007 and thereafter signed with the UFC to face Eddie Sanchez and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Fedor's opponents the following years were no more impressive perhaps except Arlovski who still featured as a top fighter in the rankings. The win over Rogers, although impressive, was not a top-10 win, not nearly.

Vadim Finkelstein in this played a decisive role. His demands for co-promotion with Bodog left him unsatisfied and when Affliction came along, he took this as his moment to convert Fedor's image into cash flow for M1, which is what he did, but the scheme would not last.

The economics of co-promotion with M1 simply does not make any sense and while Fedor can be marketed to the US audiences with moderate success in Strikeforce, gap in the quality of opponents raises serious questions whether Fedor legitimately can be considered the number one heavyweight in the world not to mention pound best.

If Fedor and Vadim Finkelstein really want to fight, and make fights that the fans want to see, then they need to sign with the UFC. The best fighters are there and people don't want to see Werdum or Rogers fight Fedor. They want to see Lesnar vs Fedor badly. Thats what Vadim needs to give to the fans. Here is a link to the poll on who Fedor should fight next.

My Top 10 To Beat Fedor in MMA

1. Brock Lesnar - the guy is too big and too fast. Lesnar will take Fedor down with ease and deliver damage that will be difficult to recover from. M1 are scared of this dude.

2. Shane Carwin - Fedor has fought none that have his style. Fedor fought Mark Coleman but I challenge anyone to say that Mark Coleman can be compared with Shane Carwin in anything other than wrestling abilities.

Carwin will push Fedor against the cage and knock him out within the first round. He is a walking nightmare for M1 Global

3. Junior Dos Santos. The heavyweight with nuclear charged hands that are faster than lightening. Junior Dos Santos is quick and is probably the best striker in the heavyweight division in the world. No one seems to be able to take this guy down.

4. Cain Velasquez. Cain is one of the most hungry MMA fighters of all time. He wants to take the guy down and beat him bad but also can stand and fight with anyone.

5. Lyota Machida - the guy has an awesome stand up. He has also fought at heavyweight and would no doubt give Fedor a lot of trouble.

6. Alistair Overeem. The guy fights weak fighters but is dangerous no doubt. Finkelstein is afraid of this steroid abuser. His face has more muscle than an average man has on his body.

7. Josh Barnett - tough, tough guy who has the tools to take on Fedor.

8. Frank Mir - arrogant but talented. On the ground, I would love to see this fight happen. Frank has little else going for him in the UFC. How about joining Strikeforce and testing himself against Fedor.

9. Roger Gracie - Roger is the greatest submission fighter and jiu jitsu player alive now. If Fedor had trouble against Arona, what would happen if he was to face the best ever.

10. Anderson Silva - he is tall. He cuts from 230. Time to see the idiot Spider face some real competition and make his legacy. I would love to see this fight.

Fedor Emelianenko Ranked Number Four Heavyweight in the World

Fedor Emelianenko and his M1 friends have been picking fights for years. After a scare with Brett Rogers last November, we have not seen any action apart from endless renegotiating for more money and marketing.

At the end of the day, its not just whether you win or not, but who you fight. You can't just avoid fighting the best for five years and then say you are the best in the world. Hell, I could go and fight some people who have never trained a day in their life and win every time. That does not make me the best in the world.

Look at the poll I have running so far. We have 25 votes of which 60% are for Lesnar and only two votes for Fabricio Werdum. Now I am a huge Fabricio Werdum fan and I would rather see this fight than have Fedor do sparring in Stariy Oskol all summer, but beating Werdum does not make Fedor the best in the world.

You have to fight top-5 ranked fighters regularly to be called the best. I don't care if Fedor fights twice or even once a year. I don't like it but at the end of the day thats what he may want, but to say this crap that the guy is the best in the world when he fights guys like Werdum is still not good enough. Sherdog and other guys must realize this now and make an adjustment. The ratings must not be biased and we need to be fair to every fighter. There must be a fair system based on which a fighter is ranked at a certain spot. If he does not get so many points over a certain period but still wins the fights, he should be moved down.

Say Tim Sylvia was winning each fight but was fighting guys outside the top five all the time. Then you had guys like JDS, Carwin, Lesnar and Velsaquez all winning their fights. Tim Sylvia would still have been champion of UFC if he did not face tough guys like MIr and Fedor included. He stepped up and fought top-5 fighters.

M1-Global can shut up about Fedor being the best if he does not fight the best. When Sherdog and others do move Fedor down, this will benefit MMA enormously. M1 would realize that they cannot carry on the way they do marketing to fans over the world that they have the best fighter. They will have to make a deal. Everyone wants a deal. Dana White does. Vadim does not and this is the problem.

Sherdog Move Fedor Down!!!

SENI 2010 Promotional Videos

Guys, SENI 2010 promises to be one of the most exciting events that you have to go to if you have a chance. Royce Gracie and Ronaldo Jacare will be there and many more. I am going to go to the Ronaldo Jacare seminar and compete in the Gracie Invatational as well. This is going to be a busy weekend for sure.

Strikeforce Nashville April 17 2010

Whether you love or hate Strikeforce, there is one thing that one has to admit and that is that they put on great fights. Strikeforce Nashville is going to be one of the most spectacular shows this year with three championship bouts between some of the top rated fighters in the world.

Dan Henderson will have a chance to prove that he is one of the greatest still facing Jake Shields who has been on a winning streak for years, overcoming his opponents with great wrestling and jiu jitsu.

Shinya Aoki will face Gilbert Melendez and here again we will have to see how Aoki can take a well-rounded fighter with striking ability in Melendez. Aoki's judo takedowns and awesome bjj will however no doubt put Melendez in danger.

It is always exciting to see the great champion Gegard Mousasi in action especially against such an athletic and big mouthed US wrestler in Lawal. King Mo will have to show that he is not just a great wrestler with some striking skills but that he can deliver the real deal from all angles of the MMA game.

The bes part about the show of course is that it is actually free on CBS. Watch it live and enjoy the best fighters in the world go head to head.

Here is the trailer below:

Balancing Your Time

When my Girlfriend/Wife/Partner insists that you make a choice between training 5 times a week or her what is a good way to break the bad news to her?

"Make her feel special when you do it. Let know that she is still the most special thing in your life but tell her you're doing it for her so that she gets the benefits of a tight and tort body, a man who can protect her should the need arise, and that the time you spend away from each other will only serve to show just how much you love her and that you can appreciate the time together more." - Gracie Barra UK Forum

The Fightworks Podcast guys have done really well to cover this subject. Here are some of the relevant links:

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/04/19/161-the-mighty-significant-others-bjj-spouses/

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/11/21/spouse-support-bjj/

Most of us face this problem during some point in your jiu jitsu career. Many of us find it difficult and frustrating, trying to explain why we have to train so much and develop all the time. BJJ is a demanding activity particularly in terms of time. Some of us train a lot but also have other things in life like a full time job and a family and it can be tricky to balance the three.

In my opinion you have to do your best to explain that this is an integral part of your life. The only way to fix the problem is to make compromises. You and your partner may have a lot in common but at the same time there are a lot of interesting things that you may want to do apart.

Both of you will have to make compromises. If you have to go to a competition while on holiday, then pick a good location and take her to the ballet which she would really enjoy too. If you have to go somewhere for BJJ reasons, if you have the option, choose a good location that she would like to visit, in Europe if you don't know they are Paris, Lisabon, Barcelona, London etc ( in this order).

ADCC 2009 in Barcelona was the kind of event which you could go with your family and enjoy the weather, the beach and the attractions. Something for everyone but at the same time you got to see guys like Robert Drysdale, Jacare and Marcelo Garcia in action.

Fedor No Longer Relevant

Fedor no longer relevant among the top MMA heavyweights! Brock Lesnar #1, Shane Carwin #2, Junior Dos Santos #3 and Cain Velasquez. By deciding to fight fighters outside the top-5 for five years, he has made himself irrelevant in the MMA Heavyweight Division.

Strikeforce's Fabricio Werdum is the last real challenge for the fighter many called the best ever. Fedor could retire today and will probably be called the greatest MMA fighter ever but if he wants to be rated above the fighters mentioned above, he needs to fight top level talent who have both great striking skills and ground game.

The whole world is baffled by Fedor's willingness to stay with M1 Global and not sign with the UFC, an organization that has signed all the top talent that is around today with perhaps the only exception being Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

The story with Gegard Mousasi and the visible interaction between Strikeforce and M1 has done a lot to expose Vadim Finkelstein and M1 Global. Many say that Dana White is the most hated personality in mixed martial arts. I strongly disagree. Both Fedor fans, Fedor haters and all the other fans in MMA unite under one flag. They want Fedor to sign with the UFC and they hate M1-Global and its head, Vadim "The Evil" Finkelstein AKA Frankenstein.

Gegard Mousasi is a great fighter who has been missled by the people around him. The most baffling story was him being paid I think like a total of $4000 for his work in the Fedor vs Rogers show. Amazing. You can see that he was not comfortable to discuss this on youtube and was angry with his managers.

Gegard signed up with Red Devil and M1 because he was interested to learn from the best fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. But while he got the benefit of learning from Fedor's experience, he was also taken on by Vadim who knew how to extract the benefit from Mousasi while not paying him what he was due.

Appy Echteld (M1-Global) it turned out, appears to have lied to Gegard about the offer UFC proposed which led him to sign with Strikeforce. The refusal of M1 to give Mousasi a stake in the promotion, led him further away from the Russians and the lies and underpayment in the end pushed him to find another great fighter to learn from and get the true story about the UFC and what they are.

Gegard Mousasi turned to Georges St. Pierre to get his help and advice, not only in training but also in the management side. It is good timing that after spending time with GSP's camp and training with these guys, he decided to leave M1. No more brainwashing for fighters, its time to join the UFC to meet the best.

Who does Mousasi have left to fight after Lawal? The answer is Dan Henderson and then nobody. Even if he does not fight Hendo, it was not like Hendo was in the top-10 in the LHW division. Good choice to join the UFC then where you have Shogun, Machida, Rashad Evans and lots of other worthy competition with a diverse range of skills.

I think Gegard made the right decision. He went to the GSP camp, benefitted from the training and its true that Gegard really needs to develop his wrestling further. He also had a chance to hear the real story about what the UFC are and how they treat fighters. Fedor needs to listen and make a decision based on hearing both side and not one. If he fights for the fans, he should do what the fans want from him, which is to fight the best. Its getting ridiculous. Its like having Brazil national soccer team pick matches that they could easily win like playing soccer against India or maybe some small island. Great fighters need to be well paid for their hard training and work they put in but make fights that people want to see.

Check out the poll on who should Fedor fight and lets find out who the fans really want. Maybe Fedor will pay attention and I will send the result to Fedor's website.

Exercises for BJJ

Martin Rooney is the expert in physical conditioning for BJJ. Here are some tips I have remembered from his BJJ radio interview. Martin publishes his articles in the GracieMag, so subscribe now.

Train the Neck
Back and front bridges and any other relevant exercises. The neck is critical as it is one of the focuses. The neck takes on a lot of pressure during training and you have to prepare for this. BJJ veterans know this well.



Pulling strength - chin-ups and pull-ups
Some of the least enjoyable exercises but also some of the most useful. Pulling is one of the most important strengths in jiu jitsu and you use these muscles all the time during sparring.

Abdominal muscles - train your stomach.

Use a medball, look at some of the exercises on the web. These are the crucial muscles you are using all the time. They are very important.

Groin muscles

Work on these for your guard. This exercise prevents injuries and develops these muscles. Roger Gracie trains these muscles.

Hamstring

If you play a lot of half guard, train some hamstring curls.

Train the upper body, lower body and then cardio. Without cardio you have nothing but all these are vital. Leave some time to heal but all of these exercises are important to help your BJJ conditioning.

Martin Rooney recommends at least three work outs a week but doing five works is ideal. My opinion is that you want to work three times a week well rather than doing a little five minute session at home. Do the 45 minute intense session, make it happen and then get out.

Check out Martin Rooney's book, "Training for Warriors: The Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Workout" or look on the website http://www.trainingforwarriors.com/

Renzo Gracie Movie

Alright guys, just heard on BJJ radio from Fightworks podcast about the Renzo Gracie movie. Renzo really is a great guy and although I have not seen the Renzo Gracie Legacy DVD, this is definitely something to buy if you are a jiu jitsu fan.

For those who have never heard of Renzo, check out the videos below. For those who don't know Renzo, he is one of the biggest BJJ legends today. Not only is he one of the most active members of the Gracie family promoting the sport, he is also an MMA veteran having competed both in the UFC and Pride and now looking to return to competition signing a six-fight deal with the UFC.

Renzo is fighting Matt Hughes, the UFC champion, in April at UFC 112 Invincible and this is a match that you really should not miss.

Renzo Gracie is also one of the most respected fighters and professors. Coming from Gracie Barra he is really doing a lot to promote BJJ. I saw him at ADCC 2009 myself! Also check out RenzoGracie.com

Grappling Open Moscow Competition in May 2010

Lion Sports Club will hold an open grappling competition for all in Moscow, Russia in the middle of May this year. I understand there will be teams from across the country competing from a whole range of disciples including jiu jitsu, sambo, judo and wrestling.

Here is the link for more information: http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/component/content/article/19-introscroller/126-announce

More news to follow, stay here

Back to Training

There is nothing more exciting and enjoyable than getting back into training after a long break. Myself, I have been out due to injury for over nine months and its been a real shame to miss so much training.

BJJ is not a rough sport and is good on your body if you take care. Judo I think is more rough and injuries can occur from standing in my opinion of course depending on your sparring partner.

One injury that I got in Judo was from a throw which made be land incorrectly and hit my head on the mat. That was some years ago but I think if you know how to breakfall it is not guaranteed what can happen if your partner does something different. Some throws can cause injury and I have seen it happen over and over again.

I enjoy training. Learning new techniques and getting myself fitter for competition. Hard training and light training are both great and actually have their advantages and disadvantages.

At some point I was training around 5-6 times a week and it is then that I got my shoulders injured. Slowly this deteriorated into more and more pain especially at night and in the morning when you can't sleep on either side.

I took some breaks to let it heal but it did not seem to do anything. I wait a week and then train and it is back to where I started. The more I trained the worse it got and it seemed like nothing can be done.

First of course I took a more conservative approach, physiotherapy, so pills they game me, hot water and compressors. Nothing like this helped.

After some injections did not help surgery turned out to be the only option. SLAP lesion was diagnosed and basically this put me out of training for another seven months unfortunately as it takes a lot of time to heal up and rehabilitation can last upto a year.

Certainly this is something you never wish that will happen again. After a few months I started to go to the local fitness gym. Training my back, stomach muscles and the shoulders of course. Unfortunately I also managed to catch mononucleosis, something Brock Lesnar actually got I understand which put me out of the sports world for another two months with severe fever and endless headeaches as well as a feeling of complete exhaustion.

Finally today I am back training. With my second training session behind me and the first sparring session for so long, I feel unfit but getting ready for Monday's session once some of the muscles I have no used for for so long have recovered.

Some pain is still there of course but you try to get over it and train with care. After all for me it is all about technique and learning to be a better jiu jitsu fighter and grappler.

It is great to be on the mats with the guys though. Sparring was great and I even had a chance to do some submissions myself as well as playing for positions. We are currently practicing for the upcoming no-gi contest and it is great to practice some takedowns for this that can really improve the stand up game and help you put your opponent on his back.

Watching a lot of tapes, I have really become a great fan of the wrestling part. I prefer to put my opponent on his back and pass his guard. If I can't I will play guard and I prefer to win the takedown and I believe I should be able to do this in most cases unless the guy has a strong wrestling background himself.

Jiu jitsu is truly a beautiful sport. Really enjoy it. Keep training and check out some of the fightworks podcasts on Itunes. Check it out.