good bye rio heroes

it was finally shut down awhile back. aside from the fact that the fights were unsanctioned and completely illegal. i think there were running a sports book as well.
but here was the last bastion of real no holds barred fighting. no gloves no time limits. only a gentleman's agreement not to groin strike, eye gouge, or and throat strike. hell, for the first few events they didn't allow tapping to a submission. it was up the to ref to stop the fight.
it was beautiful and pure and now it is gone. you can find downloads of some of there events online.
here is a highlight to see what you missed.

rolling, rolling, rolling...

i competed in this jiu jitsu tournament the other weekend. our school had really pushed us to compete and try to come in first in the team standings. we did a lot of hard training and had about 30 people hit the mats that day.


about a week before the tournament i was at about 135lbs so i decided to get down to 129lbs. that friday i didn't really have anything to eat or drink, other than some coffee. after work i walked into the saunas at 134lbs, two hours later i walked out 129.5lbs. i went to weigh in and then rehydrated.
saturday at the competition while i was getting ready i found out there was no one at my weight and i would be going up to fight. my first match was against a guy from MMA Institute. he kind of looked like a mini chuck liddell. the match started and i immediately pulled guard. i started playing rubber guard. trapped his hand on the mat and moved right into "chill dog". i heard his coach saying, "GET YOUR HAND OFF THE MAT!!!". and i thought..sorry dude. he aint getting his fucking hand back. i tried a few submissions but none really came close. a lot of his weight was forward and i should have been able to sweep him, but kind of froze. we basically stayed that way. when time was running out he managed to shake himself free and almost pass my guard, i recovered and went for a gogo-plata that he had to defend. we both had advantages but since mine was from an attack and his was from almost passing guard i got the decision.
after i was dead. all my muscles had cramped up and i was exhausted. i figured i would some time to rest. scott's match was next. he triangled his dude in 30 seconds. shit. then the next match was about a minute. shit. then i was up again.
i got out there, tried to pull guard but choked the guy stuffed one leg. passed my guard, took my back and rear naked choked me. wow. he told me "good fight" after. i laughed and said, "yeah for you." he then caught scott in a brabo choke. since scott and i were on the same team we decided not to fight it out for 2nd and 3rd. and whe would've beaten me anyway.
i had felt bad for losing until i saw the guy who beat me tooling on dudes in the absolute division that were 70lbs heavy than him. he won all of his matches that day.




so for my gi match i had a choice. both son and i could fight each other at 129 or move up to 139. we decided to stay down since we would get more team points that way. we agreed that neither one of us really cared about winning and were just going to mess around. he told i could start off with a flying armbar. when our match came up almost our whole team came over to watch. we started, i got my grips and threw up a flying triangle. when i was in mid air i could hear people around us go "WOW". it was going to be a race between us to see who could get DQ'd first. son with heelhook or me with a twister. at one point son had me in an armbar and i tapped because i had started sweating.


we ended up crushing in team points. everyone did really well. we had some white belts who it was their first time competing in a real tourney who really impressed me. next time i think they can win their divisions for sure.

peaks and valleys

i spent all last weekend in an attempt to get my motorcycle license. the schedule was friday night in the class room 6:30pm-9:30pm. it mostly consisted of the instructor showing movies and having you underline portions of the book you were going to be tested on. then saturday you go on the range from 7am-12pm then the classroom again from 2pm-5pm. they get you on these little 250cc "motorcycles". pretty basic stuff, but i was glad to be doing it. i have barely ever been on a bike. it kind of sucked having to get up so early, but i seeing as it was going to get up to the high 90's i didn't mind. during our break i went home and showered and changed. when i got back to the class we did more underlining and videos until it was time to take the test. breezed through it, 96 out of 100.
sunday morning back out on the range. they took us through some drills that were going to be on the final range test. i was shakey on a the drills for them and kind of nervous, but fairly sure i could pass. the test consisted of 5 parts. each test you had to pass by a certain number of points. the most points you could accumulate before failing was 21. i did alright on the first two, but when we got to the "quick stop", which is where you have to get up to about 20 mph then down shift and break suddenly. after i had stopped my hand slipped off the clutch and the bike shot forward a few more feet. fuck. what can you do? i pulled away and circled around for the next test.
while we were waiting i watched this big redneck guy who was the last in our line go. he takes off gets to the line, brakes, and then just sits there and slumps forward over the handlebars. almost like he is crying. it appears as if the instructors are consoling him. he rights himself on the bike and pulls around and does it again. when he finished the test and pulls around to the end of the line. he tells us that the first run the stopwatch didn't work. when they told him that he said he told them, "dude just fail me."
the rest of the test went ok. could have been better could have been worse. after it was over we all went to sit down while they graded us and then called us over one by one to tell us how we did. first dude they called over walked back failed. he was bummed. made the rest of us real nervous. after that it got better. everyone else seemed to be getting their little cards.
then it was my turn. i walked over and one of the instructors just shook his head. said, "sorry, you didn't pass. you needed a 20 and got a 21." my stomach turned over. it was the goddamn quick stop. those extra few feet put me over the top. he said to not give up and that he hoped to one day see me out there. i shook their hands and walked off.
in my mind i was pissed. i had taken the whole weekend, half of which in the burning hot sun, trying to get this fucking thing only to let one little slip fuck it up.
when i met up with fahs he tried to calm me down. but i was in no mood. i swore off ever getting a motorcycle. i was goddamned if i was going to spend another 150 bucks and a whole weekend doin that shit again. i was still pissed monday morning at work. but i thought what the hell, i emailed the people to see if i can take the test again or what my options were from here. like a hour later the guy emailed me back asking me to call him on his cell phone. when i did he told me he was very sorry, but they had scored the test wrong and that i did pass. i i wanted i could come by today and pick up my card. i told him i would see him there. when i picked it up he said once again how sorry he was.
it was a good feeling.after about 7 months as a blue belt burdo promoted me, fahs, scott, snake. i was not expecting that when i walked into class that night.

"let me explain...

No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

it has been almost a year to the day since i updated this thing. here is a quick one to get us back in the swing of things.

won some medals.

i got promoted to blue belt.


gave up manual labor for entry level office work.

good lord. doesn't seem i do too much. there is other stuff too. but i think its better if we pace ourselves, don't you?

instead of thinking we play donkey kong...

here is a preview of the new ufc video game.

i hope the finished product looks this good.

look out fabes...

...cuz my boy is fierce.

the other week my friend ryan parker won his first pro mma fight. disproving conventional wisdom that you should always bet against the guy with more tattoos. there was no need to go to the score cards on this one. ryan took him down, got side control, mounted and got the armbar inside of the 2 minute mark.

if you have myspace you can watch the fight here .

here is his fighter profile on sherdog.


congratulations ryan.

HOLY SHIT!!!

dana white is having to be talked off of the ledge of the stratosphere.

another birthday present

i had to keep my final birthday present secret because it's fahs' birthday present too and his wife wanted to wait to tell him. our respective lady friends our sending us to new jersey for the world's largest submission grappling tournament.

ABU DHABI

here are some of the big names competing this year:

marcelo garcia / renzo gracie / drew fickett / jeff munson / pe de pano / ricco rodriguez / elvis sinosic / leo vieira

the girls gave us tickets and a hotel room for the weekend. gotta love them.