Rasul Mirzaev - Black Tiger - Reality

There is so much nonesense written on the internet around this incident, it made me want to add just my humble opinion regarding the situation.

The situation here in Moscow regarding many peoples from the Caucasus coming over has caused a lot of unhappiness among the general population. Many of the Dagestan and other country representatives behave extremely rudely and a bring many of their habits they were brought up with to Russia when they come to the country in order to make a living and have a new life. It is said to see so many migrants coming over and in groups terrorizing the general population.

However in this case, I can see a very simple story. Rasul Mirzaev, a very talented and successful athlete, sambo and mma fighter happened to be at the night club called Garazh last week. He happened to get into an argument with a guy that was mistreating his girlfriend.

How would you react if a guy 30cm taller than you and 100 pounds heavier along with his friends starts saying things to your girlfriend. Probably not very well. An accident happened. Rasul Mirzaev hit the guy, and he fell hitting his head against concrete. The situation happened thousands of time and Rasul was wrong to do so. He should have left, humbly like many other great fighters would have in his shoes, but he did not. He hit the guy, and he was wrong to do so. He should pay for this, I fully agree. The treatment Agafonov (the guy who got hit) received was not adequate and for some reason, not yet fully determined the guy dies. Is Mirzaev guilty for murder? Well, he is guilty in a way but did he mean to kill the guy? No, he did not. He is however responsible and should pay for assaulting.

I think there is nothing to be proud of what Rasul Mirzaev has done. An extremely good fighter, world sambo champion and undefeated MMA fighter with an unbeaten record of five straight wins. I met the guy on several occasions and he is probably one of the most talented fighters training in Russia currently.

Rasul Mirzaev is a fighter and an athlete. He had really nothing to do at a night club where drinking and drug abuse is the regular theme. He should have contained himself like the humble athletes before him.

What infuriates me however is when there is so much talk regarding MMA and martial arts. People, who know nothing about martial arts and hardly trained in any sport a day in their life say thing like "martial artists should be regulated, banned for life for misbehaviour" and that they are a danger to society in one way or another.
It is those people that hurt the sport, hurt the country. They dont know anything about MMA and give the sport a bad name because they somehow try to link it to crime by trying to associate it with rage. It is those people, who never heard about MMA, UFC or could not even say what the rules are in MMA, they talk in the news, talk to the press, and give our sport a bad name.

It is a great shame that this has to happen. Of course a fighter has to defend himself if he is threatened. Of course it is hard to control yourself when your family is being mistreated. MMA is a sport, and we all have to remember that the guys that study MMA, brazilian jiu jitsu and boxing, are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Look at Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture and many others. These guys could not hurt anyone.

Yes there are exceptions. Jason Mayhem Miller was recently arrested, Rampage and others had some problems with the law, but we have to remember, movie stars have more issues with the law than MMA fighters. We would not put movie stars in cages, would we? for being dangerous? Then lets stop all the nonesense that just goes on and lets stop people who hardly know what MMA really is talking about MMA and their thoughts. If you don't like the violence in MMA, dont watch it. MMA is an adult sport that has developed over the last two decades. Many great athletes formed it and it has now all the regulation needed. Lets not make out MMA fighters as villains or criminals, its not right.

Russia is a country with many warriors, who gain medals in the olimpics, whether it is wrestling or boxing. Many of these people make mistakes just like people in other walks of life make their mistakes. Lets just be honest with ourselves and open minded with others, and lets hope the judges make the right decisions. It is a great shame Bellator lost such a fine fighter though.

UFC 102 Couture vs Nogueira Review

UFC 102 was one of the best shows I've seen in a while even though apparently it did not make the numbers Dana White wanted to see. Impressive knockouts and most notably of course the spectacular KO of Demian Maia by Nate Marquardt in the Middleweight division. The fastest KO ever in UFC history, apparently only 7 seconds in to the first round. Of course a real setback for Demian, who has the best brazilian jiu jitsu in the UFC but has clearly shown his lack of striking skills which he will have to improve fast if he wants to progress further in MMA.

The fight that was supposed to make the night special, Couture vs Nogueira, did make a hell of a night. So much speculation and so many predictions for this fight were made that it is hard to include them all here. One most obvious fact was according to almost everone Couture was supposed to win this fight comfortably. The UFC SMS poll showed that something like 75% of the fans voted that Couture would win.

Big Nog is one of my favourite fighters and of course with his previous performance and the rumor that he got KOd in training, I was really disappointed. The Minotauro that we saw however in UFC 102 was not the same guy that got knocked out by Frank Mir. This was a tough guy who has successfully recovered from the staff infection and the knee injury. Clearly Nog trained a lot for this fight and although we perhaps did not see the Minotauro of the Pride days when he fought the Last Emperor, he looked strong, dominating both in the striking and on the ground.



Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro met Randy Couture in the headline non-championship fight in UFC 102. Randy looked his usual self, strong and I think the same guy that fought Brock Lesnar. This was the same Randy. He looked sharp but Nogueira simply outclassed him. In the first round, Nogueira proved his boxing is superior but also took some solid one-twos from Randy to the chin. This didn't affect Nog however and at some point they even engaged in some brutal striking, toe to toe. Minotauro proved to be the stronger man and sent Randy to the canvas but was unable to finish him as Randy was able to control Nogueira and recover. Randy's age was perhaps a factor here of course.

Later in to the second and third round we saw some very close submissions from Nogueira, securing first a D'arce choke which Couture incredibly managed to escape and later an arm-triangle. Nogueira also displayed some impressive sweeps from his very dangerous guard. He made them look incredibly easy. It was amazing. As a result Nogueira mounted Couture and dominated him on the ground for most of the second and third round.

Overall critics will say that Randy's age was a factor in this fight but really we all knew how old he was when he went in and everybody bet on Couture. Nogueira was the superior fighter last weekend, no doubt about it. Can Big Nog take on Lesnar? Well I think he still needs to improve his conditioning and in particular speed. He looked a bit gassed in the middle of the second round and I think speed and cardio is something that would help against a monster like Brock Lesnar. If Big Nog can sweep Lesnar from the guard and submit him, this could be a very different game. The problem was with Mir in my opinion is that he got taken down by Lesnar and could not maintain control and literally survive on the bottom. Lesnar took him down and kept striking and made sure he could not escape.

Can Nogueira be Champ? Some room to improve still but he could have a good chance here. Good luck to him.

The Couture Vs Nogueira UFC 102 Prediction

Randy Couture nicknamed "The Natural" is a great fighter. He has fought the best in the UFC and has been the only man to take the belt in both the heavy weight and the light heavyweight divisions.

With a background in Olympic-level Greco-roman wrestling, Randy Couture is a very popular fighter, relying on skill and enormous experience to control and defeat his opponents mainly via ground and pound.

Randy has recently faced and lost via a TKO that saw him knocked to the ground and pounded on by the menacing Brock Lesnar, the current UFC Heavyweight champion of the world. Looking very good during the first round, Randy clearly was not able to take some of the brutal elbows and punches from Lesnar and collapsed in the second.

Following this defeat he is now due to fight the Pride FC warrior, Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro. Minotauro, also known as Big Nog, is a black belt in both Brazilian jiu jitsu and judo with decent striking. He has faced nearly every top heavyweight in his time including Mirko Cro Cop and Fedor Emelianenko. Minotauro is an amazing submission artist famous for his comebacks and for his iron chin which apparently runs in the family.

More recently, Big Nog had to face another submission master Frank Mir and surprised his fans with his visibly poor conditioning and even more notably for the first time in his career getting knocked out.

Despite the comments by Minotauro himself that he is in the best shape since four years ago, rumors are continuing to grow that he has been knocked out during training and this is certainly not the Minotauro that his fans including myself remember.

Prediction: Antonio Nogueira by Unanimous Decision

Both of these fighters may risk to put their careers in danger were they to lose this fight and yet at the same time for both this will be a very tough match. Randy Couture as old as he is still looking very good considering the opponents that he has faced while Antonio Nogueira has youth on his side but his current condition raises some serious questions. Is Nogueira ready for this fight? I believe he will do his best to prepare for this battle as it will no doubt affect his legacy as a fighter. The Couture vs. Nogueira fight has been long overdue and now it has come and I think both fighters were waiting for this battle for a long time.

From an analysis point of view, striking-wise, they are probably about even. Both are clearly grapplers with some decent striking but neither is spectacular on his feet. This fight will quickly go to the ground. I think that Minotauro will almost certainly look for a takedown which Randy Couture will try to control and reverse in his favor.

On the ground I would still favor Nogueira although Randy may have some success on top. Nogueira I believe would be very difficult to control and I believe that if Randy makes a mistake, Nogueira will almost certainly capitalize on it. Good luck to them!