Monday, February 25, 2013

Video of the Day - Mousasi v. Izumi

Here is Gegard Mousasi defending his Dream 205 pound belt against judoka Hiroshi Izumi in Dream 17 which took place on 7/16/11 in the Ariake Coliseum,
Tokyo, Japan.

Mousasi (33-3) is currently riding a 5 fight win streak and will make his UFC debut on April 6th against Alexander Gustafsson.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Liz Carmouche - First Openly Gay UFC Fighter

Liz "Girl-Rilla" Carmouche will officially be the first openly gay fighter to fight in the UFC when she faces Ronda Rousey at UFC 157 this Saturday for the Women's Bantamweight title.

Despite Ronda Rousey getting virtually all the attention leading up to the bout, Carmouche deserves a nod as well. While there are many gay athletes out there, no fighters have came out in the UFC. Carmouche spent five years in the Marines serving three tours of duty in Iraq. She has a stifling top game where she likes to rain down punches in bunches.

Below is Liz Carmouche fighting Kaitlin Young at Invicta 2 which took place on July 28, 2012 at Memorial Hall Kansas City KS. You can follow Carmouche on twitter @iamgirlrilla.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Video of the Day - Yarborough v. Nakano

The smother submission isn't seen very often, but here it is in all its glory. Emmanuel "Manny" Yarborough fighting Tatsuaki Nakano in Shooto - Shoot the Shooto XX which took place on 4/26/98 in Yokohama, Japan.

Yarborough had a short, odd and memorable run in mixed martial arts.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Video of the Day - Manuwa v. Petrescu

Jimi "The Poster Boy" Manuwa fought Valentino Petrescu at UCMMA 14 - Invincible on 8/7/10 in London, England.

Manuwa will look to keep his undefeated record intact fighting Cyrille Diabate this weekend at UFC on Fuel 7 this Saturday in London.

UFC on Fuel 7 takes place this Saturday in the Wembley Arena and will be broadcast on Fuel TV and Facebook.

FUEL TV CARD

Renan Barao v Michael McDonald
Dustin Poirier v Cub Swanson
Cyrille Diabate v Jimi Manuwa
Gunnar Nelson v Jorge Santiago
Ryan Jimmo v James Te Huna
Che Mills v Matthew Riddle

FACEBOOK CARD

Terry Etim v Renee Forte
Danny Castillo v Paul Sass
Josh Grispi v Andy Ogle
Stanislav Nedkov v Tom Watson
Vaughan Lee v Motonobu Tezuka
Ulysses Gomez v Phil Harris

Friday, February 8, 2013

Video of the Day - Aliev v. Elsner

Here is Sultan Aliev fighting Marcin Elsner in ProFC - "Grand Prix Global Finals" which took place on 12/10/11 in Rostov Oblast, Russia.

Sultan will be dropping from 205 pounds to 185 for the Bellator middleweight tournament.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Olympic Champ Henry Cejudo to MMA - Videos

2008 Olympic Gold medalist Henry Cejudo has announced via that he is making the transition from freestyle wrestling to mixed martial arts. Cejudo has been getting amateur boxing experience, reportedly winning the "Copper Gloves" in Arizona.

While Olympic freestyle wrestling doesn't directly correlate to MMA, the single leg, double leg, high crotch and sprawl all translate. I don't think any fighters at 135 or 125 would be taking him down. More importantly it is about having body control, the ability to change levels, use of leverage to get and defend takedown attempts, sprawl and so forth.

Here is a look at Cejudo in his 55KG, 121 pounds, gold medal match against Tomohiro Matsunaga from Bejing.


Here is the Sunkist Freestyle 55kg Final featuring Henry Cejudo against Danny Felix, go to 5:30 for the end scramble.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Video of the Day - Silva v. Bormet

Here is Wanderlei Silva fighting Sean Bormet from IVC 2 which took place on 9/15/97 in Brazil. Bormet was a 2X All-American wrestler from the University of Michigan and is currently a wrestling coach.

Wanderlei last fought Brian Stann in the headliner of UFC on Fuel 8 winning via TKO. The fight below was conducted under limited Vale Tudo rules with no gloves.


Video of the Day - Gracie v. Kimura

Here is Rickson Gracie fighting Koichi Kimura from Vale Tudo Japan in 1995. Rickson is a legend of the martial arts world, holding an 8th degree black belt in BJJ. He last fought MMA in 2000 winning over Masakatsu Funaki. Rickson's reported MMA record is 11-0, but there could be many more bouts.