BAMMA 3 – MMA show at the NEC

Last weekend I attended BAMMA 3 at the NEC with some friends. I’ve only been to a few MMA live events and have generally enjoyed them and this was no exception. At BAMMA 3 though there was a certain amount of controversy concerning the main event and a bit of a media circus too.

Tom ‘Kong’ Watson was supposed to fight Alex Reid for the Middleweight belt but Reid pulled out with a knee injury. The controversy concerned Reid’s preparation for the fight, which centred on a TV program where he went to different countries trying out a variety of Martial Arts. I’ve only seen the clip of Reid rolling with Roger Gracie, and he didn’t look too good, overawed and out of his depth is probably the correct description.

Watson, on the other hand took the fight more seriously training with the GSP camp. Incidentally, GSP was present to show support for Watson in his fight with Matt Horwich.

Reid turned up to watch the event with his wife Jordan/Katie Price. It’s fair to say they took some stick! It was quite entertaining at times, particularly the two blokes dressed as Price and Reid who posed for camera’s and got the crowd going.

It needed something as the undercard was not always the best. The first fight we saw involved pink shorts and really only got going in the final round with the Norweigan Thoresen getting the decision over John Maguire. Then there was a break for 15 minutes.

It took that time for the projectionist to get one of the big screens properly operational again, after it had slipped. Not exactly UFC! The first fight after the break was for the Featherweight belt with the wrestler Mark Adams beating self-taught Alan Omer by decision. This was a much better fight. Omer looked lively but couldn’t cope with the wrestling.

Then followed three fights decided in the first round. Americans War Machine and Seth Petruzelli (Kimbo killer) both submitted opponents after barely a minute. Petruzelli seemed to be a step too far for Ryan White who did trouble him with a counter to a head kick and flurry of punches from guard, but forgot about defending his arms, an arm bar being the result.

For the Lightweight belt Rob Sinclair took out German Daniel Weichel by ground and pound TKO. He was well on top but the fight did seem to be stopped early. I was expecting more from Wiechel, although I have read that he suffered an unseen low blow which he didn’t recover from, all academic now.

The main event needed to go longer than the first round and it went the distance, although Watson only just managed to make it to the second. In the lead up to the fight, a la UFC, they show recorded interviews. The interview with Horwich was bizarre; he mentioned quantum physics and spirituality while being only just coherent. He came out bashing a bible against his chest and bumbled around the cage waiting for Watson. He did not look good, in fact he looked unprepared. I was concerned for his safety, he just didn’t look right! I needn’t have been as he gave a very good account of himself.

The fight was an old school MMA clash of styles, the boxer/kickboxer verses the wrestler. Watson dominating the stand-up until Horwich took him down, which he managed easily. Watson nearly lost to Rear Naked Choke in the first and almost again in the second or third. As the fight went on Watson was better able to resist the takedown attempts and was always much better standing. I think he deservedly sneaked it with the judges.

It was only the third BAMMA event and I did enjoy it, although it was a good job the Americans came over to fight, they significantly raised the standard of the fights. The stick that Reid and Jordan received, really helped the entertainment level but was a bit distracting from the fights. GSP turning up to support Watson was a nice touch. The interviewer was awful though, lame attempt. It would be good to have someone who knew a little about MMA doing the interviews, Reid maybe? The announcer was excellent though, Michael Buffer stylee!

We got the tickets for a last minute concessionary tenner which helped, I might not have enjoyed it as much for £25 but I will probably go again if it comes back to Brum. If this report has made you desperate to watch the rerun is on Bravo tomorrow night.

GSP v Hardy

UFC 111 - GSP v Hardy

After the rather unexciting fight card of UFC 110 this weekend’s event features a Welterweight title fight between Canadian  George St.Pierre and Dan Hardy from Nottingham. On the surface it seems as though Hardy will simply be just another victim for GSP, as he is relatively untested in the UFC. But Hardy is dangerous, he’s an athletic busy fighter, very strong standing up with plenty KO power. He has spent time training with Freddie Roach to improve his ‘hands’, and by the looks of it his timing too. He has also shown he is patient and calm under pressure, winning a number of fights by decision.

Hardy seems to think GSP will go ‘hard at it’ until he gets hit with something too big to handle. Hardy likes to trash talk and says he likes to let his opponent know he’s up for the fight and the night won’t be easy. This has worked before, he certainly had Marcus Davies rattled pre-fight, but interestingly Hardy reckons that GSP has got in his own head. I think GSP is far too cool to be affected by any trash talk, and with experience on his side is pretty unlikely to under any more pressure than before.

St.Pierre says he’ll be taking the fight to Hardy, dictating the pace and won’t be taking punches to land his own. That will be difficult standing up as Hardy is very good and can trouble GSP, if he decides to keep it standing. If Hardy has in him trouble he’ll switch to wrestling.

Hardy’s groundwork is a bit of a mystery, although he has spent time training with Eddie Bravo he is unlikely to be able to cope with GSP on the floor. St.Pierre, despite losing to them first time round, was able to easily take down both Matt Hughes (excellent wrestler) and Matt Serra (BJJ black belt), dominating them both. Hardy won’t be in the same league as these two on the ground and so shouldn’t be too much trouble for GSP in that respect.

While Hardy has been consulting Serra for tips, his chance lies in his stand up skill and KO power, which is better than Serra’s. Obviously he has to avoid being taken down and get up if he does. GSP learned the lesson of underestimating an opponent (first fight with Serra) and says he isn’t doing so with Hardy but in the same article he talks of winning in a ‘beautiful fashion’. If he gets caught up in attempting to win with beautiful technique he’s playing with fire. He won’t be able to toy with Hardy in the stand up, if he starts going for the lovely roundhouse KO, Hardy will be in with a very good chance. But he’d better take that chance sharpish as GSP will switch to a ground strategy which will most likely be too much for Hardy.

Thiago Alves

Alves v Koscheck

I like Thiago Alves, he is an aggressive fighter with excellent strikes and kicks. As such he is exciting to watch. Early in his career he was submitted a couple of times but has hugely improved his takedown defence as he showed against former champion Matt Hughes and earlier against Karo Parisyan. Fighting out of American Top Team Alves trains regularly with exceptional BJJ fighters and has clearly developed in this regard. Alves likes to uses his striking skills as part of his takedown defence, anyone shooting in on him can expect knee strikes!

Alves has excellent leg kicks which he uses to reduce the mobility of opponents, apparent against Koschek who received plenty on the way to a unanimous decision. On the ground Alves likes to get back up again, a simple tactic but ideal as he really is a great stand up fighter. Against Hughes and others, when in the opponent’s guard Alves strikes, viciously negating the other fighters BJJ game, at least to an extent.

Alves prevents a takedown against Hughes

This approach has got him to number one contender in the welterweight division, he has won his last seven fights. In UFC 100 Alves fights GSP for the title in a great match up. While not as all-rounded as GSP, Alves will pose a significant problem for him, clearly he will want a stand up battle, while GSP can fight standing he likes to bash ‘em up a bit on the floor, his takedowns are exceptional these days.

On the face of it Alves will try to spoil takedown attempts and any ground strategy GSP may have with intense striking and keep it stand up. His vicious kicks, with both knee and shin will definitely give St. Pierre problems if he lands them, while his strikes are equally as dangerous.

GSP will try to use his slick transitions between the fighting phases to wear Alves down and dominate him, probably through ground and pound and variations of it, he likes to use knee strikes to the body on the ground. He sets up his takedowns beautifully and has great success against fantastic wrestlers and BJJ fighters, it maybe more difficult against Alves as he only really wants to defend takedowns, this may be a factor.

Will the Alves’ tactic of spoil and strike be enough to stop GSP’s fluid all-round fighting style? GSP tends to come into the octagon with a strictly designed game plan for each fight; he may use something different to what I suggest, we will see at UFC 100, July 11th

George St. Pierre

GSP and Penn

I like GSP, it’s difficult not to. His fights are great, he’s never condescending to his opponents, he’s seems to be more interested in the challenge of beating them than in bad mouthing them. For each fight he sticks to a plan designed for that opponent. He trains like an athlete, using Sports Science to get an ‘edge’ and is always in fantastic shape.

While all of that is true, I really like him because he is so explosive and fluid, his transitions between stand-up, clinch and the ground are seamless. I also really like how he baffles the UFC commentators with his continual ability to out-wrestle the ex-Champion wrestlers he comes up against. He’s beaten many high level former wrestlers and Ju Jitsu MMA fighters such as Matt Hughes, Josh Koschek, Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg, Matt Sera, Jay Hieron, Jason Miller and notably BJ Penn.

GSP has now trained in a variety of martial arts after beginning with Kyokushin Karate at a young age. It’s impressive that he adapts the discipline he trains in to his requirements inside the octagon,as pointed out he hasn’t had the time training in wrestling or BJJ that others have but still manages to dominate his opponents. It’s reassuring to know that you don’t need to be a BJJ black belt or an All American Wrestling Champion to be able to wrestle to an extremely high level.

GSP comes across as an articulate intelligent bloke in his interviews and as a supremely conditioned, intelligent fighter in his fights. His dominance over opponents in the majority of his fights is notable, he has the advantage of natural athleticism, for sure, but he’s had to acquire a lot of fighting skills later in life. Certainly later than many of his opponents and as such seems to have ‘cherry picked’ skills relevant to the octagon. The intelligent training he undoubedtly undertakes resulting in him keeping the useful stuff without being distracted by the irrelevant is key, in my opinion, it’s easy to get bogged down by the detail or the Form Police. He seems able to apply his intellect to his fight preparation, other fighters seem unable to do so effectively.

Below is a clip containing excerpts from the majority of his UFC fights, note his fluidity and explosiveness.

An example of how he plans for fights can be gleaned from his blog. Talking about the recent fight with BJ Penn, St. Pierre says

“I fought a great fight, I did I stick to the game plan – it was amazing. BJ Penn is built like a boxer, and we have been studying a lot of tape, a lot of his training footage – so I know that with clinching with him, he would have built up a lot of lactic acid in his shoulders and because of his physical type he has a hard time taking out the lactic acid to make it evacuating so it make his hand very heavy and very slow after that. So my strategy was to clinch him and to work a lot to the body and on the ground. I was hitting a lot with my elbow in the middle section all the time because of his very flexible thoracic cage, he has a very weak body so I stick to the game plan. Even though the body does not do much damage it make people really tired and it really pay off for that fight. On the ground he always use a move called the Hip Eyes when he put his foot on his opponents hips and he stood up – so I knew that as soon as he opened up his guard I was controlling his ankle, elevating his leg and standing up before he does. So that’s why he would not be able to stand up from me. Also, to not let him use his rubber guard was very important for me to not let him control the over-hook, to not let him wrap my arm, all the time soon as wrap my arm, swim inside and get the better position and keep my body in a vertical position to avoid his rubber guard to not let him elevate his leg. I did very well, I work the body a lot, I clinch a lot in the first two round then after I really felt like I took control of the fight and I broke him mentally. It was a great fight – I had a lot of fun.”

You can watch the fight here, unfortunately it takes ages to load, sorry.

As GSP is able to successfully ‘cherry pick’ training methods from a variety of sources, so too are amateur martial artists, so long as we do so intelligently.

Superfrau and more bow bending

As mentioned in the previous post, we ‘created’ a Superfrau strike. It’s not easy to describe, but I will try.

1. The front (left) leg is on the toes, with the left side of the hip pushed forward and arm up, in guard, facing the bad guy.
2. This position is adopted after moving from a fighting position that Steve Morris favours, which has the back in a concave shape. Meaning that the c-shape has been bent back on itself.
3. The leg is thrust down and backward a little, ensuring the hip is pushed back on the left side.
4. This action forces the shoulder and arm forward, driving the fist to the target.
5. In essence, we bend the bow of the back

George St.Pierre used a very similar action to fire in a jab in his recent fight with BJ Penn. At the start of the 3rd round with 4.50 on the clock he hits Penn with a Superfrau! Kinda….

Now, one person that benefitted from ‘bending the bow’ was Tyson, certainly in the early years. Here’s a clip of him training, there are a lot of instances when he’s bending and releasing the bows in his back and across the shoulders. The clip should give a clear illustration of this concept.