Aleksander Emelianenko Retires From MMA

Fedor’s brother, Aleksander Emelianenko, has announced his retirement from MMA:

Dear fans,
I want to thank you for your support, for having supported me in spite of all that they say about me. Unfortunately, I will not be able to perform in the ring because of health problems caused by old injuries. Of course, as an athlete it’s a hard time. I am grateful to my fans and partners for their support, for believing in me, and I am grateful to my detractors. Your attitude always made me move forward and achieve new things. I realise now I was hit by a barrage of accusations and criticisms, not directly related to my job. Unfortunately, there will always be people who want you in bad situations to score points. I don’t want to comment on anything, explain or justify. Each of us in life does good and does bad – that is our nature. I think I did a lot for the sport and I hope my example has drawn a lot of young people to the gym. Otherwise, God will judge us all, in time. Now I want to give the publicity away. I want to take care of my health, my family, which I lost, and my daughter, who I love very much. Perhaps I will see you again. Thank you! Be well and believe in God!
Your AE

Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 2)

If you have not read Part 1 of my book review, you may do so here: Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 1)

Picking up where we left off from the clinch, we now move to takedowns and throws.  These are different than wrestling based takedowns most wrestlers are used too.  Fedor is a master of Judo and Sambo.  He shows lots of throws in his book but he also mentions how to set them up with other throws or strikes.  When you combo some of these together it makes them that much harder to stop.  Another good thing about most of these takedowns is that you are left in an advantageous position.  You don’t have to follow someone down to the ground where you can be submitted.  These takedowns usually leave you standing over you opponent, free to reign down strikes.

Next we come to the ground game.  Fedor covers most of the main positions and how to escape them.  Like with the throws, he strings moves together, so if one fails you can immediately move to the next.  This method greatly increases your chance of success.  This is not a grappling only section, he will show you how to pass a guard using strikes to set up a guard pass.

I’ve read a lot of material on MMA, Jiu-jitsu and so on, and these moves are pretty simple yet very effective.  If someone would take the time to drill and perfect all of these techniques and never learned anything else, they would still be a very dangerous and well rounded fighter.  Something else interesting about many of these techniques are that they come from Sambo/Judo instead of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or wrestling, so many people may not be used to these particular variations.  You might be able to take people at your martial art gym by surprise with some of these.

I highly recommend this book.  You will learn all sorts of interesting variations of moves you have probably never seen, get some philosophy behind why he does things a certain way, and will learn how to string techniques together.  The only real thing missing from this book is some coverage of how Fedor actually trains.  There is no mention of how much he runs, lifts weights, spars, etc.  A conditioning section would have been nice but perhaps we will see some of that in the future.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Fabricio Werdum II Announced

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (34-7-1) and Fabricio Werdum (16-5-1) will square off for a second time after coaching the next season of the Ultimate Fighter Brazil.  They last met in Pride in 2006, where Big Nog won a decision over Werdum.  Back then Werdum didn’t have very good stand up and Big Nog tore him up on the feet during the first round, knocking him down multiple times.

This time around I think things will look very different.  Both fighters are close in age, but Big Nog has a lot of mileage on him.  He has been finished several times, had multiple serious illnesses/injuries and just looks slower and older.  Werdum on the other hand looks better now than he ever has.  His stand up has improved dramatically over the years and his ground game has always been amazing.  I think Werdum can put Nog away this time, at worst he wins a decision and avenges his loss.  Nog’s only real chance is if he just lands some great punch and puts Werdum away.

Fedor: Undisputed King of MMA Review (Part 1)

Today I am going to review the book from the great Fedor Emelianenko.  I have to say, this book is fantastic.  For starters, it’s very well rounded.  From it you will learn a series of striking combinations, clinch techniques and ground fighting techniques.  Not only did Fedor dominate the hardest weight class in all of combat sports for a decade, but he remained humble while doing it.  That is why he is my favorite fighter of all time.

The techniques in this book aren’t overly complicated or fancy, but they work.  The book is broken down into three basic sections: Striking, Clinch, Ground Fighting.  Also, unlike with a lot of other fighter’s books, these are techniques Fedor actually uses.  Learning these techniques will actually allow you to fight with a style similar to how Fedor actually fights.

Striking:  The striking section has some very interesting and unorthodox techniques.  For instance, since most people are trained to lead with a Jab/Cross combo (and everyone is used to defending against it) Fedor uses a Cross/Left Hook intro many times to take his opponents off guard. He also uses hand traps (which are hardly ever used in MMA) to set up his opponents.  You can see this in action in several of his fights, including his extremely dominate performance against Tim Sylvia.  By clearing your opponents lead hand out of the way, it not only takes him off guard and misdirects his attention, but it opens him up for a strike.

The book starts out by showing single punches/kicks and all of their variations (there are multiple variations of even the jab for instance).  After learning the basic mechanics of each punch/kick, Fedor shows how to string them together into combinations.  Each punch sets up your opponent for another strike.  There is a lot of great material here.

After learning to strike from a distance we see how to strike from the clinch.  By being in close and controlling your opponents head and body, you can lead him into your punches, elbows and knees.  Fedor has been very successful in the clinch position during his fights, so learning a few of these combos would be beneficial for any martial artist.

In Part 2 we will cover Throws from the Clinch and Ground Work.

Rulon Gardner Admits He Turned Down Big Bucks to Fight Fedor

It would have been cool to see Fedor fight Rulon Gardner, both are such respectful honorable guys. Fedor has already beat several Olympic medal winners, it would have been interesting. People think the purses from the UFC are big, the UFC is small time, even now. Pride offered Rulon Gardner 1 million to fight Fedor almost a decade ago.

UFC on Fox 4: Shogun Rua vs Brandon Vera

Here we are, just one day away from UFC on Fox 4.  I already broke down the co-main event (which should have been the main event) between Machida and Bader here:  http://cinemakingdom.com/?p=182

Shogun Rua

Shogun is without a doubt one of the greatest LHWs of all time.  He is also very inconsistent lately.  Going only 4-4 in his last 8, he sometimes shows up looking like a killer who can outstrike anyone and at other times comes in out of shape, losing to guys he is far superior to.  Granted, most of those losses were after knee surgeries (he has blown out his ACL 3 times) where he had a long time off.  With all of his knee problems he is lucky to be fighting at all.

Since the knee problems Shogun has still shown off his fantastic striking skills a few times but it seems like whenever he has to go to the ground he tends to gas out fairly quickly.  I am guessing he probably can’t roll as well as he used to due to the injuries.  He also tends to fight down to his opponents level.  When he fights someone great like Machida (Shogun is still the only guy to ever outstrike Machida) he comes in with a great game plan and fights smart.  When he fights someone like Mark Coleman or Forrest Griffin he comes in and just fights sloppy and slugs it out.  He recently replaced his manager as well so who knows how he will show up.  If Shogun comes in top form expect this to be a short night, if he comes out sloppy, who knows.

Brandon Vera
What can I say about Brandon Vera?  He came on the scene and started destroying heavyweights in the UFC (his rise was very much like Jon Jones’ actually), including Frank Mir (which only took him 1 minute).  Then he had a contract dispute and had a long time off and has never been the same since he came back.  I don’t know what changed during that time off, but that killer he once was died somewhere along the way.  Vera then dropped to 205lbs.

Being a smaller heavyweight, if was argued he would be better at 205lbs but he has never looked spectacular there.  Some guys just perform worse when they cut weight, I think Vera is better at HW.  Going 4-3 (1 NC) at light heavyweight since his debut in 2008, he has never beat anyone of note really.  The thing is, he is a skilled stand up fighter and he has some pretty good takedowns as well.  He just never seems to be able to put it all together anymore.

Final Thoughts

Shogun should win this fight but if he shows up sloppy and out of shape and Vera shows up like he used to we could see an upset.  I think Vera should try to mix things up and go for some takedowns to keep Shogun guessing and try to tire him out.  If Shogun shows up as the killer he most of the time, I think he puts Vera away sometime in the first 2 rounds.  Shogun is capable of taking people down as well but in this case I don’t think he has to in order to win but mixing in some takedowns mixed with his brutal Ground & Pound wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Pride FC: Fedor vs Cro Cop

With the current state of MMA being in the gutter it really makes me miss the old days when Pride was King.  Videos like the following are just one of a billion reasons why the Pride era is the greatest era of MMA we have ever seen.  In Pride we didn't get crappy rock music talking about being the ultimate warrior, we received classical music, epic promotional videos and real background on fighters.  It was an amazing time in MMA and if you missed out on that I am sorry, I don't think we will ever see anything like it again.