The other disappointment of the night was my buddy was in town and we were suppose to go to Hooters and watch it together, however he bailed on me.  So I had to end up watching it at home in the only TV that has a box, which is in my mom’s room.  A word of advice…. don’t ever watch UFC with your mom.  Every other word out of her mouth was a variation of “Is that what you do?” Ugh!

So early next year, on March 7th to be exact, Grappler’s Quest (www.grapplersquest.com) will be having a tournament in Wildwood, NJ.  I am planning on competing in this.  Not only will this be my first grappling tournament, but it will be my first martial arts competition of any kind.  This will come on the heels of my Thailand trip, so basically I will be training MT and MMA in Thailand for a month, getting in tremendous shape, and then come back to the states to compete in a grappling tournament.  I will be in the Novice division, so I won’t be too overwhelmed… after all I have only been grappling for 3 months.  I also will be competing at the high end of my weight class scale.  The weight class is 140 to 149.9 and right now I am around 148, so I won’t have to worry too much about being out weight.

I have a good team around me giving me advice, technique, support, etc. but if anyone out there has any experience they would like to share I would love to hear it.

Thanks.

Dan

First off, let’s take a look at some of the fights coming up on Saturday.  This is a packed UFC event.  It’s funny, I only recently got into UFC about 3 months ago, but I am already catching on quick as to who some of the bigger names in the game are, so let’s take a look.

Forrest Griffin Vs. Rashard Evans

Evans, the Season 2 Ultimate Fighter star, is undefeated coming into this event, and has a plethora of highlight reel knock outs.  He also has a decent ground and pound game.  Griffin, also a former Ultimate Fighter stand out, and current champ and seems to always be the underdog, despite his 16-4 record.  I just read an article which has these 2 even matched.  They basically said if it ends early, Evans is the winner and if it goes the distance, then Griffin.  My prediction is that the champ will outsmart his opponent and push it to the distance.

Winner: Griffin by Decision

 Frank Mir Vs. Antonio Nogueira

The winner of this fight not only gets the “Interim Heavy Weight Title” but also gets the unification fight against Brock Lesnar.  Mir, is the only fighter who has defeated Lesnar in his 5 fights (the last being his victory over Randy Couture).  Mir also brings an 11-3 record into the Octagon, winning 3 of his last 4 fights.  Nogueira, nick named Big Nog, however brings a 31-4-1 record to the match.  31 wins, are you kidding me.  Aside from that he is a Jiu Jitsu master, and from what I saw the other night on the Ultimate Fighter finale, he looks like he is in SICK shape.  My prediction is that Big Nog, will win by submission after the 3rd round.

Winner: Nogueira by Submission

Wanderlei Silva Vs. Quinton Jackson

I don’t know much about either one of these fighters, although this is built up to be a great fight.  Once again, the article I just read built up the rivalry between these two fighters.  This will be the 3rd time these two have met, with Silva winning both previous fights in dramatic fashion, including a KO of Jackson leaving him hanging over the ropes in a PRIDE fight.  Well, there will be no ropes this time, but everything I have read, and in my gut, tells me there will also be no win for Jackson. Silva will win by KO.

Winner: Silva by Knock Out

Ultimate Fighter Season 8

Fight of the Night:  Junie Browning Vs. David Kaplan

Junie was the “Puck” (For those of you who remember The Real World) of the Season 8 Ultimate Fighter.  He was the guy you loved to hate, and you wanted to see get knocked out.  Well, that didn’t happen.  In fact, what did happen was he shaped up and put on a great bout verses Kaplan showcasing both his ground game and stand up skills.  He ended up winning by Submission.

Best Win\KO: Ryan Bader Vs. Vinny Magalhaes

Bader impressed in this victory.  He will give people a lot of problems in the 205 division.  He still has weaknesses, and needs to improve his ground game and submissions, but he works to his strengths and protects his weaknesses.  His KO of Vinny was SICK.  He didn’t even hit him with a direct shot, but his overhand right was hard enough to stun his opponent long enough for him to start pounding until the ref stopped the fight.

Biggest Disappointment\Surprise: Phillpe Nover Vs. Efrain Escudero

 Disappointment for the fact that Nover was not only the favorite to win, but Dana White was hyping him up to be the next GSP or Anderson Silva.  He drastically under performed.  For a guy who looked so great for the entire season, with a nice mix of ground and striking, he just couldn’t get anything off.  He lost this fight more on strategy then on physical skill.  But you have to give a lot of props to Efrain, who basically had a great game plan and stuck to it.  He controlled the fight and consistently was able to take Nover to the ground.  By the time Nover was able to shift gears and change his strategy, it was already the 3rd round and it was too late for him to win on cards.  He just missed a submission attempt towards the end of the 3rd round.  Excellent work by both fighters, and congrats to Efrain for being the newest 155 Ultimate Fighter.

I may post again on Sunday to see if I was correct in my predictions or not.

Dan

TMT Logo

I wanted to take a minute to highlight the camp I will be training at while I am in Thailand.  The place is called Tiger Muay Thai and it is in Phuket.  Most recently some UFC fighters such as Jon Fitch, Brodie Farber and Mike Swick have trained there for a combination of MMA and Muay Thai, as this camp has seperate programs for both.  Also included in the training is a running program, yoga, technique classes, private lessons, weight lifting and weight loss programs. 

Here is a breakdown of how each program works:

MMA/BJJ

Since I am a Beginner Grappler (12 months or less experience as the camp guideline) I can only train grappling during the morning session.  The afternoon session is reserved for people who have 12 months training in a grappling and striking based art respectively.  So the program breaks down like this.

9:00 am – Warm Up
9:15 – Stretch
9:30 – Drills
10:00 – Cardio/Plyometric
10:30 – Rolling

The morning session ends at about 11:00 am.  In addition I plan on doing several private lesson for Grappling/MMA training.  Each private lesson is about 1 hr and 15 mins.  I want to focus on this a lot while I am out there because the week after I come back to the states I plan on competing in my first grappling tournament in Wildwood, NJ.

Muay Thai

The Muay Thai program is offered in the morning and afternoon and is broken into 3 levels, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced.  I will most likely start off in the Intermediate program based on my level of conditioning and previous experience.  An evaluation is given upon arrival to the camp.

Here is how the training breaks down:

8:00 am – Warm-Up: Stretching / Shadow Boxing / Skip Rope
8:30 am – Muay Thai Bag / Pads / Drills Training (This includes 3 rounds of sparring M/W/F and CORE conditioning T/R/Sat)
10:30 – Cool down and Stretching

Right before I leave for my trip I will be testing for my Gold Prajid (and hopefully passing) at my school in NJ.  And in the late spring, early summer I will be scheduling my Level 1 TBA test, so this will be an excellent opportunity to get me in condition and prepared for this test.

Note: The afternoon program mirrors the morning with the times just being different.

Additional Programs

In addition to the standard training the camp also offers a Yoga Program in the mornings and afternoons, a Running program where I will be running for 3-5 km per day, a Technique class where I can shape up form, and I have also discussed doing some private Krabi Krabong training while I am out there.

If you guys want to visit the website check it out for yourself at www.tigermuaythai.com

You can also visit www.fightpassport.com and www.fightingfarang.com   These are 2 blog sites of people who have trained at this camp and have recapped their experience there.

Keep checking back for updates and have a happy holiday.

Dan