People say it all the time but it's true, MMA is growing in leaps and bounds. Internationally, the sport is more popular than ever, with all of Georges St. Pierre and others' endorsements as proof that these guys are now taken as serious athletes rather than savages. Locally, we're seeing more sports bars filled to the brim on certain Saturday nights, more live MMA shows and a pretty good pool of talent. To add to that talent pool comes UFC en espanol commentator and MMA connoisseur, Victor Davila.
Victor Davila is a big name in the MMA community and though internationally, he has conducted seminars alongside Eddie Bravo, who is considered one of the best grapplers of our generation, and has won several highly respected grappling competitions, Davila's fame is predominant in the Latin American MMA community. Davila is the voice Spanish-speaking fans hear while the action goes down in the UFC's octagon, giving it color with his MMA knowledge and insight. Much like Joe Rogan, he not only lends his voice, but is also the face to TV shows showing the UFC fights in Spanish. He conducts seminars that focus half on jiu jitsu alone and half on all other aspects of MMA throughout Mexico. To add to the already developing developing MMA scene here in El Paso, he brings his fight team, which he plans to establish like he's done in several other cities. The El Paso scene is developing nicely and Davila's presence, which he says will be for a couple of years, can only help it.
MMA's exponential growth can be seen inside the cage as well, as new techniques rise and others are proven obsolete.10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, of which Davila is the head trainer here locally, brings us that evolution in the Jiu Jitsu aspect of the game.10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is a non-traditional form of Jiu Jitsu that is aimed more for No-Gi grappling. The brand has been made famous not just by Eddie Bravo, but others who have shown it's effectiveness in the UFC and other MMA promotions, amongst them George Sotiropolous. This weekend, the 'Korean Zombie' Chang Sung Jung finished a fight with a 'twister', which had never been done in the UFC before. The move consists of getting a sort of half guard from the back, sneaking under the opposite side arm, and grabbing the head and torqing the leg and head in opposite directions (I might've done a horrible description of the move), which looks pretty painful on the spine and is one of the moves Eddie Bravo has come up with. El Paso's own branch of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is located at 11237 Pelicano Dr., Warehouse K.
YOUR SOURCE FOR MMA IN THE SOUTHWEST
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Bloodsport Championships results
Guys out Jackson's MMA with 7-1 and 3-0 records, George Sotiropolous' training partner, world titles on the line, Diego Sanchez in a fighter's corner. Bloodsport Championships delivered on not just an entertaining night of fights but also bringing bringing high, high level competition to El Paso.
For the Main Event, Willie Parks took on Jorge Ortiz and though at 16-6, Ortiz had a huge advantage in experience, it didn't matter once Parks closed the distance and grabbed ahold of him. Parks was by far the better wrestler and though the standing exchanges were pretty even, most of the fight was contested on the ground with Parks on top dropping elbows and punches. Parks moves to 4-0 and with a guy like Diego Sanchez behind him, he could do big things in MMA.
Also on the MMA portion of the evening, Matt Leyva took on Joe Gustina. Both had already fought with Gustina coming out the winner. This match played out similarly. Gustina came out with leg kicks, running around, and bouncing on the ropes WWE style. Leyva came out focused and intent on winning and though at some point he nearly sunk in an anaconda choke, and after trading several submission attempts, Gustina walked away via a deep arm bar that according to Leyva, made his arm "pop four times."
In the first MMA fight of the night, Jackson and Mean1MMA's Conrad Padilla took on ACE Fight Team's James Gabriel. Padilla came out with what would be the night's most dominant performance. Immediately after the fight started, Padilla got a takedown, transitioned to side control, dropped some elbows, put Gabriel in a crucifix, dropped some more elbows, took Gabriel's back, flattened him out and finished him with some punches to the chin and side of the head. Padilla debuted professionally and looked food doing it. He moves to 1-0 and hopefully we see fight around here some time.
The event was awesome, the Jackson's guys were super nice, Diego Sanchez was pretty cool, and with everything the event had going on, I hope to see another Bloodsport Championships event in the near future.
For the Main Event, Willie Parks took on Jorge Ortiz and though at 16-6, Ortiz had a huge advantage in experience, it didn't matter once Parks closed the distance and grabbed ahold of him. Parks was by far the better wrestler and though the standing exchanges were pretty even, most of the fight was contested on the ground with Parks on top dropping elbows and punches. Parks moves to 4-0 and with a guy like Diego Sanchez behind him, he could do big things in MMA.
Also on the MMA portion of the evening, Matt Leyva took on Joe Gustina. Both had already fought with Gustina coming out the winner. This match played out similarly. Gustina came out with leg kicks, running around, and bouncing on the ropes WWE style. Leyva came out focused and intent on winning and though at some point he nearly sunk in an anaconda choke, and after trading several submission attempts, Gustina walked away via a deep arm bar that according to Leyva, made his arm "pop four times."
In the first MMA fight of the night, Jackson and Mean1MMA's Conrad Padilla took on ACE Fight Team's James Gabriel. Padilla came out with what would be the night's most dominant performance. Immediately after the fight started, Padilla got a takedown, transitioned to side control, dropped some elbows, put Gabriel in a crucifix, dropped some more elbows, took Gabriel's back, flattened him out and finished him with some punches to the chin and side of the head. Padilla debuted professionally and looked food doing it. He moves to 1-0 and hopefully we see fight around here some time.
The event was awesome, the Jackson's guys were super nice, Diego Sanchez was pretty cool, and with everything the event had going on, I hope to see another Bloodsport Championships event in the near future.
UFC Fight Night 24: Davis/Nogueira
The UFC roster is tearing at the seams. Even on a Fight Night, there are so many intriguing match-ups that 5 of the preliminary matches will be aired on Facebook and once again, even with 9 fights scheduled to air one way or another, there's still unaired matches I wish I could watch.
For the Main Event, it's wrestling extraordinaire Phil Davis up against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Nogueira is a big name because of his boxing and jiu jitsu game but hasn't looked all that great since his UFC debut, and where he hasn't looked all that sharp, his wrestling, is where his opponent excels. Davis has dominated all of his UFC opponents but what sets him apart from the rest of the wrestling pack is his strong submission game. The odds are Davis is going to win by control with his wrestling but with guys like Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, and Lyoto Machida at the top of his division, he needs a dominant win if he wants a top 5 opponent next. Davis' name keeps coming up next to Jones' and it's his chance to show he can win against a high level opponent just as impressively as he's been doing.
For the Co-Main Event, it's hard hitters Dan Hardy and Anthony Johnson pit against each other. Coming off the KO at the hands of Condit, I see Hardy coming in with improved striking. Johnson is huge, fast and powerful but he's coming off a long lay off. This fight is very evenly matched but Hardy is coming off of 2 losses, which should have him motivated and though they both knock people out, Hardy is the more technical one and takes this by decision.
Also on the televised card, Amir Sadollah takes on DeMarques Johnson. Short notice or not, Sadollah has the better skill set and I see Sadollah putting on yet another Muy Thai clinic on a lower tier fighter. Leonard Garcia rematches Chan Sung Jung. There's always the possibility that Garcia could win a fight he should've lost just because he's uber aggressive and wild but still, I see 'The Korean Zombie' picking his shots better than last time (though I think he won that one) and hopefully the judges base it more on effective striking than on aggression and the rightful winner gets his hand raised.
On the Facebook prelims, Alex'Bruce Leroy' Caceres fights Mackens Semerzier. I like Caceres' Bruce Lee-like pre-fight attire and his style, best described as kick happy, and hopefully, that let's him the win. Jon Madsen takes on Mike Russow. Madsen has controlled all of his fights with his wrestling and in his fight most recent fight showed his wrestling has an aggressive aide with his finish of Yvel. Russow single-handedly derailed the Duffee hype train but looked unimpressive for most of that fight and though Madsen finished his last fight, Russow's own good wrestling base will negate Madsen's aggression, but he'll still get controlled. John Hathaway fights Kris McCray. Though Hathaway lost his fight to Pyle, he still has a win over top dog Diego Sanchez and even in his loss, showed a lot of heart and just natural strength. McCray hasn't looked that good since TUF, and even on the show, didn't really look that great. Hathaway wins by whatever he wants and that'll probably be standing. Sean McCorkle takes on Christian Morecraft. Both are big guys with losses to Stefan Struve, but Morecraft was beating Struve pretty good up until Struve KOed him and I see him coming in as the better fighter into this fight. Johnny Hendricks fights in an unaired bout and hopefully gets a big win so we can see that wrestling pedigree against some 170 bad asses.
The card is stacked as always. You're on Facebook all the time. Put those wasted hours to good use watching guys MMA it out.
For the Main Event, it's wrestling extraordinaire Phil Davis up against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Nogueira is a big name because of his boxing and jiu jitsu game but hasn't looked all that great since his UFC debut, and where he hasn't looked all that sharp, his wrestling, is where his opponent excels. Davis has dominated all of his UFC opponents but what sets him apart from the rest of the wrestling pack is his strong submission game. The odds are Davis is going to win by control with his wrestling but with guys like Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, and Lyoto Machida at the top of his division, he needs a dominant win if he wants a top 5 opponent next. Davis' name keeps coming up next to Jones' and it's his chance to show he can win against a high level opponent just as impressively as he's been doing.
For the Co-Main Event, it's hard hitters Dan Hardy and Anthony Johnson pit against each other. Coming off the KO at the hands of Condit, I see Hardy coming in with improved striking. Johnson is huge, fast and powerful but he's coming off a long lay off. This fight is very evenly matched but Hardy is coming off of 2 losses, which should have him motivated and though they both knock people out, Hardy is the more technical one and takes this by decision.
Also on the televised card, Amir Sadollah takes on DeMarques Johnson. Short notice or not, Sadollah has the better skill set and I see Sadollah putting on yet another Muy Thai clinic on a lower tier fighter. Leonard Garcia rematches Chan Sung Jung. There's always the possibility that Garcia could win a fight he should've lost just because he's uber aggressive and wild but still, I see 'The Korean Zombie' picking his shots better than last time (though I think he won that one) and hopefully the judges base it more on effective striking than on aggression and the rightful winner gets his hand raised.
On the Facebook prelims, Alex'Bruce Leroy' Caceres fights Mackens Semerzier. I like Caceres' Bruce Lee-like pre-fight attire and his style, best described as kick happy, and hopefully, that let's him the win. Jon Madsen takes on Mike Russow. Madsen has controlled all of his fights with his wrestling and in his fight most recent fight showed his wrestling has an aggressive aide with his finish of Yvel. Russow single-handedly derailed the Duffee hype train but looked unimpressive for most of that fight and though Madsen finished his last fight, Russow's own good wrestling base will negate Madsen's aggression, but he'll still get controlled. John Hathaway fights Kris McCray. Though Hathaway lost his fight to Pyle, he still has a win over top dog Diego Sanchez and even in his loss, showed a lot of heart and just natural strength. McCray hasn't looked that good since TUF, and even on the show, didn't really look that great. Hathaway wins by whatever he wants and that'll probably be standing. Sean McCorkle takes on Christian Morecraft. Both are big guys with losses to Stefan Struve, but Morecraft was beating Struve pretty good up until Struve KOed him and I see him coming in as the better fighter into this fight. Johnny Hendricks fights in an unaired bout and hopefully gets a big win so we can see that wrestling pedigree against some 170 bad asses.
The card is stacked as always. You're on Facebook all the time. Put those wasted hours to good use watching guys MMA it out.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Bloodsport Championships
Bloodsport Championship's "Time To Bleed" takes place at the Marriott and though the event flew a little under the radar here with us, the talent at the weigh ins, from guys out of Jackson's MMA to the UFC's George Sotiropolous' boxing coach, gave us a taste for what tomorrow night holds and it's looking like it's going to be a night filled with not only talented Pro MMA fighters but boxing talent as well (the Main Event for the boxing portion is for a legitimate world belt and a big deal in women's boxing).For the Main Event of the MMA portion of the evening, it's Jorge Ortiz takes on Willie Parks. Parks comes out of Jackson's MMA and with a record of 3-0, he means business. He was very respectful of his opponents and made no promises other than that he would get the win. Jorge Ortiz was not at the weigh-ins to get his opinion on the fight.
Also on the Bloodsport Championships MMA card, Ace MMA fight team's James Gabriel takes on Conrad Padilla, who fights out of Jackson's MMA as well as Keith Jardine's Mean1MMA, both very respectable gyms. Gabriel himself was kind of humble, just saying he's ready to fight no matter where the fight takes place, but his management insists that with the training partners he has, he's more than prepared for anything Padilla has. Padilla makes his professional debut but had a good run as an amateur and, with Jackson's behind him, is ready to have just as good of a run as a Pro.In an interesting fight where the fighters have already met before, Matt Leyva takes on Joe Gustina in hopes of avenging his only loss. Leyva, another one of the Jackson's fighters, is 7-1 with his only loss coming at the hands of Gustina and feels that with the run he's on right now, it's time to avenge his only loss and continue his climb up the Pro MMA ranks. Gustina had to cut a lot of weight and rushed out after the weigh-ins to get some food and some liquids in him so we were unable to get his take on the fight.
The boxing portion of the event brings just as much talent. Molly McConnel fights Kita Watkins for the
WIBF and GBU Jr. Welterweight World Championship titles and Gabriel Cruz, sparring partner to UFC Lightweight top contender George Sotiropolous, takes on Wesley Marquez.
We hope tomorrow night is a success for Bloodsport Championships so they can put on some more shows like this. They brought in superb talent for the event and hopefully El Paso can be host to MMA competition of this caliber more often. Bloodsport Championship's "Time To Bleed" takes place at El Paso Marriott at 7 pm. For more information on tickets or the event itself, visit http://www.bloodsportchampionships.com/.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Dominic Maldonado.
Dominic talks about his fight HW Title Fight with Mike Espiones this Saturday April 2 for Que Loco Cage Fighting at Albuquerque, NM.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Finish The Fight promotion presents:Test Of Courage Results
This past weekend, Finish The Fight's Test Of Courage finally came around and all the guys delivered, impressive finish after impressive finish. We got to witness that weird shoulder crank submission that Darrill Schoonover teaches make a guy tap, the FTF record for the fastest KO/TKO broken, and then before the night ended, we watched that same record get broken again.
For the Main Event of the evening, we got a bout for the FTF Welterweight belt between Desmond Hill and Fabian Salas. The bout started with Salas throwing out 2 leg kicks but before the feeling out process could begin Hill landed a big right hand that was the beginning of the end. Hill followed it with a barrage of strikes and once Salas fell to the mat, Hill just had to land one big, clean strike to end it. With wins over Fabian Salas and Martin Sano and the FTF record for fastest KO/TKO, Hill is the fighter to beat at Welterweight in our local amateur scene.
For the Co-Main Event, top prospects Derek 'Da Kid' Cranford and Adam 'Flex' McGurk clashed for the FTF Featherweight belt but instead of the close fight we were expecting between two of the more exciting fighters we have, it was just another classic Cranford performance. Cranford came out aggressive and it paid off. 'Da Kid' packs power, and coupled with the speed and accuracy he came out with on Sunday, he looked unstoppable, breaking the FTF record for fastest KO/TKO before Hill came out and rebroke it. McGurk is a proven badass with good stand up and possibly even better ground game and Cranford's win over McGurk is just a testament to how good 'Da Kid' really is. The win shows it's going to take a really good wrestler to beat Cranford because trading punches and kicks with him just doesn't seem to work.
Another belt up for grabs this Sunday was the FTF Lightweight Belt, as Brian Castillo took on Mitch Brown. Castillo had a lot of hype coming in to the fight and Brown, who's forte is the ground but doesn't mind trading leather, seemed a solid test to it, but the hype proved to be warranted. Castillo was the stronger guy in the clinch and though Brown defended the takedown well, he ate a punch when they broke from the clinch and ate another one coming in that dropped him. Castillo quickly followed him to the ground and ended it with a vicious ground and pound assault from mount. Castillo looked good in the clinch, standing and on the ground, and will be a handful for anyone at Lightweight.
Also on the card, Frankie Rivera avenged his hard fought loss against Vince Barreda with a quick rear naked choke in the 2nd round. Phillip Schoonover beat Justin Nixon in a split decision and showed his wrestling is much more effective against a guy his size. Fred Rodriguez came out strong against Galen Bradley, using his power for a huge, impressive slam but seemed to have slowed down by the end of the 1st round and Bradley cake out in the 2nd and used his reach and speed advantage to finish Rodriguez. Jerry Sano came out in a flurry and though Lucas Elison looked great in training, with creative takedowns and good transitions on the ground, Sano just looked stronger and faster in the cage and used that to get himself a quick, impressive win. Gary Messec took on Address Cervantes and pulled off an impressive shoulder crank that left Cervantes still in pain several minutes after the fight stopped. Emilio Alvara took on Frank Tarango in a one sided fight that saw Alvara in top position most of the fight. Tarango had no answer for Alvara's wrestling. Alvara didn't come in with big, flashy takedowns but once on top, he proved nearly impossible to push off or roll over. In the first fight of the night, it was obvious Gabriel Zubia wanted to bring the fight to Aaron Contreras but Zubia's eagerness led him to not be able to get anything done. Zubia would come in determined to stand and bang and kept getting taken down and the few times he was on top, he got over aggressive and lost position.
The night of fights left us looking forward to the next one. The Ed Tech guys looked really sharp and there's a 135 pound fighter out there by the name of Fernie Garcia out of 'Concrete Jungle' with a really interesting style, a lot of circling, counter-striking and solid takedowns, who I'd like to see against a guy like Jerry Sano or Derek Cranford. All in all, the fighters keep impressing and the events keep getting more and more interesting.
For the Main Event of the evening, we got a bout for the FTF Welterweight belt between Desmond Hill and Fabian Salas. The bout started with Salas throwing out 2 leg kicks but before the feeling out process could begin Hill landed a big right hand that was the beginning of the end. Hill followed it with a barrage of strikes and once Salas fell to the mat, Hill just had to land one big, clean strike to end it. With wins over Fabian Salas and Martin Sano and the FTF record for fastest KO/TKO, Hill is the fighter to beat at Welterweight in our local amateur scene.
For the Co-Main Event, top prospects Derek 'Da Kid' Cranford and Adam 'Flex' McGurk clashed for the FTF Featherweight belt but instead of the close fight we were expecting between two of the more exciting fighters we have, it was just another classic Cranford performance. Cranford came out aggressive and it paid off. 'Da Kid' packs power, and coupled with the speed and accuracy he came out with on Sunday, he looked unstoppable, breaking the FTF record for fastest KO/TKO before Hill came out and rebroke it. McGurk is a proven badass with good stand up and possibly even better ground game and Cranford's win over McGurk is just a testament to how good 'Da Kid' really is. The win shows it's going to take a really good wrestler to beat Cranford because trading punches and kicks with him just doesn't seem to work.
Another belt up for grabs this Sunday was the FTF Lightweight Belt, as Brian Castillo took on Mitch Brown. Castillo had a lot of hype coming in to the fight and Brown, who's forte is the ground but doesn't mind trading leather, seemed a solid test to it, but the hype proved to be warranted. Castillo was the stronger guy in the clinch and though Brown defended the takedown well, he ate a punch when they broke from the clinch and ate another one coming in that dropped him. Castillo quickly followed him to the ground and ended it with a vicious ground and pound assault from mount. Castillo looked good in the clinch, standing and on the ground, and will be a handful for anyone at Lightweight.
Also on the card, Frankie Rivera avenged his hard fought loss against Vince Barreda with a quick rear naked choke in the 2nd round. Phillip Schoonover beat Justin Nixon in a split decision and showed his wrestling is much more effective against a guy his size. Fred Rodriguez came out strong against Galen Bradley, using his power for a huge, impressive slam but seemed to have slowed down by the end of the 1st round and Bradley cake out in the 2nd and used his reach and speed advantage to finish Rodriguez. Jerry Sano came out in a flurry and though Lucas Elison looked great in training, with creative takedowns and good transitions on the ground, Sano just looked stronger and faster in the cage and used that to get himself a quick, impressive win. Gary Messec took on Address Cervantes and pulled off an impressive shoulder crank that left Cervantes still in pain several minutes after the fight stopped. Emilio Alvara took on Frank Tarango in a one sided fight that saw Alvara in top position most of the fight. Tarango had no answer for Alvara's wrestling. Alvara didn't come in with big, flashy takedowns but once on top, he proved nearly impossible to push off or roll over. In the first fight of the night, it was obvious Gabriel Zubia wanted to bring the fight to Aaron Contreras but Zubia's eagerness led him to not be able to get anything done. Zubia would come in determined to stand and bang and kept getting taken down and the few times he was on top, he got over aggressive and lost position.
The night of fights left us looking forward to the next one. The Ed Tech guys looked really sharp and there's a 135 pound fighter out there by the name of Fernie Garcia out of 'Concrete Jungle' with a really interesting style, a lot of circling, counter-striking and solid takedowns, who I'd like to see against a guy like Jerry Sano or Derek Cranford. All in all, the fighters keep impressing and the events keep getting more and more interesting.
Monday, March 21, 2011
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