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May News Part 3

5/31/03

Quote
of the Day

"People are eternally divided into two classes, the believer,
builder,

and praiser, and the unbeliever, destroyer and critic."

John Ruskin

Ultimate
Warriors In Maui!

Saturday, June 7, 2003

Lahaina Civic Center, Lahaina, Maui

6:00 gates open

7:00 fights

The fight card will be coming soon!

All you Maui fight fans make sure that you support this event,
along with the others and as the sport grows in Maui, so will
the events.

Source: Event Promoter

Fighters
Club TV Episode 11 This Tuesday

Episode 11 is finished and will premier this coming Tuesday on
Channel 52 @ our normal time slot of 830pm. (It'll then run
for the next 3 Tuesdays--same bat time/same bat channel)

Episode
11 features:

-Highlights
from Ray and Monica Cooper's "AFC 3" at the Waikiki
Shell

(including interviews w/ Ray)

-Highlights from Danny Kaheaku's "Kickin' it" at Palama
Gym

(interviews w/ Danny, Ron Jhun, Stephen "Bozo" Paling)

-Technique of the Week:

Featuring Purebred's Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto demonstrating
some of his NHB takedowns

-and of course, TV's two favorite fight hosts, Mike Onzuka and
Mark Kurano

(Jocelyn where are you?)

It's
a fast-paced show so don't miss it!

Don
Frye: Fighting Smart

By Jason Probst

Don Frye
finally gets his rematch with Mark Coleman in PRIDE June 8, and
once, just this once, he'd like to fight the right way, dispensing
with the macho stuff and letting his technique do the work.

"I'd
like to fight smart for first time in my life," Frye told
Maxfighting. "I get out there, and I'm kinda dumb in the
sense that I want to brawl. I'll stay in there, I been working
so hard, and I just want to make all of that training count.
Sometimes I want to really go out there and make it last because
I just train so hard."

Frye's
wired that way - he's a fighter to the core. With a record of
14-2, he's lost only to Coleman and Hidehiko Yoshida via arm
bar in his previous outing, last year. In UFC 11, he took his
first loss in a brutal, blood-soaked stoppage against Coleman
that saw both men dig deep in a taxing war. It was the seminal
ground-and-pound clinic for Coleman, and Frye knows exactly when
the fight went wrong.

"I
knew I lost when I woke up that morning," Frye said. "I
just didn't feel myself. I was sick and you could see it in my
matches earlier that day against Brian Johnston and Mark Hall.
I just didn't have that killer instinct."

Now
training with Frank Shamrock at Shamrock's San Jose American
Kickboxing Academy, Frye is enduring a whole new world of exhaustion
and pushing himself to develop new skills, while digging out
and polishing forgotten ones to help him turn the trick against
Coleman.

"I
came here to Frank's place to learn a new game, to learn something
new," Frye said. "I don't think Mark can change his
game plan. He's a midwestern guy, a wrestler. I don't think he's
going to change anything."

"Don's
been working on his submissions," adds Frank Shamrock. "He
was always good at avoiding them, but now we're working on that,
too."

"We've
been working on the triangle choke, it was effective versus Mark
in his last fight. We're training with chokes and arm bars, and
you know what? Frank's trying to get me to do a flying arm bar.
Which I think it would kinda look kinda silly unless it actually
worked."

The
sticking point against Coleman has always been his dominance
of top position. Nobody has ever been able to put him on his
back and keep him there. Wrestler mentality resists that before
anything else, and regardless of how sharp Coleman is in being
inactive since his September 2001 loss to Antonio Noguiera, he
still figures to be very tough to take down. But Frye and Shamrock
think "The Predator" can change the equation of the
fight by doing just that.

"We've
been training on our double leg takedowns, I used to have a pretty
damned good one, in college, I haven't used it in 15 or 18 years,"
Frye said. "We just might impose that. I think Coleman is
susceptible to that. I think he will quit mentally before he'll
quit physically. We are looking to take him down and put him
on his back. We wanna see how mentally he would do with that."
Frye expects to fight at 230 lbs., some fifteen pounds bigger
than he was against Coleman in their first fight.

At
37, Frye is the first guy to joke about how tough the training
is for someone of his experience.

"Do
I want to retire? Heck yes. I don't wanna be in it right now,
and I don't wanna be in it yesterday, because these guys are
killing me," Frye jokes, referring to Shamrock and the hard-nosed
training team at A.K.A. "I just want to get this one outta
the way."

He
also mentions that there is no animosity left after finally getting
his long-coveted fight with Ken Shamrock last year, where Frye
took a hard-fought split decision win.

"You'd
have to be a real asshole to fight in the ring for 20 minutes
with someone and still have a problem with them," Frye said.
"Everything is settled between Ken and I. I'm just glad
to get the opportunity to fight Coleman again."

Source: Maxfighting

Frank
Mir: Back in The Driver's Seat

By Jason Probst

Frank Mir
enters the Octagon in UFC 43 facing a 6'9 Wes Sims, whose dimensions
are similar to UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. It's no accident
that Mir, a contender once more after his defeat of Tank Abbot
in UFC 41, is looking to show he can beat a big guy, because
he needs to do just that in order to get a title shot.

For
Mir, the 6'9, 260-lb. Sims just means more limbs to grab on to
en route to one of his submissions finishes. At 6'1 and 240 lbs.,
Mir figures to want to take it to the ground quickly. Noting
that former champion Ricco Rodriguez was beaten by Sylvia trying
to do just that, Mir answers in that characteristic way of his
- that suggests he thinks as much about the psychology of fighting
as the aesthetics of it

"I
don't see too many guys overpowering me because I use technique,"
Mir told Maxfighting. "I think in Ricco's case, the training
partners he had, he had gotten away from jiu-jitsu. I think he
was used to doing big man jiu-jitsu, being on top. My jiu-jitsu
is little man jiu-jitsu. I am almost more comfortable on bottom.
If I'm a big guy and I use small guy tactics to beat a big guy,
with my strength and size, I should be better off. The arm bar
that Rodriguez tried on Tim, the set up was fine, but the legs
weren't down and he didn't arch his hips, and when he was lifted
up he didn't transition to another hold. But it probably didn't
com up in his training. I think a lot of guys are so much into
the conditioning aspects of fighting they forget to work on technique."

Mir
puts Sims in perspective, the way he did over previously vanquished
foes in Pete Williams, Roberto Traven, and Tank Abbott - by assessing
what his man is likely to want to do. Mir then builds his fight
plan around denying the guy the chance to do it.

"I'm
not gonna try and get this guy out of his strong point. Sims
feels very confident with his ground skills," Mir said.
"Against Roberto Traven, I waited a little bit before going
to the ground, because that was what the guy wanted."

Mir's
career momentum built readily after impressive submissions over
Williams and Traven, but he slacked off in training and started
to read his own press clippings, so to speak, prior to fighting
Ian Freeman in UFC 38. Mir absorbed a steady barrage of punches
while being caught in a ground-and-pound fight with Freeman,
and the bout was stopped after the first round with the Las Vegan
out on his fight. Perhaps the most important post-script regarding
the Freeman fight is that he was not gun-shy in facing Abbott
in his next match. He came right out and took the fight to the
ground without delay.

"I
wasn't surprised by the quick submission against Tank,"
Mir said. "I do it all the time in practice."

Mir
can find submissions in a haystack, and against Sims, he's likely
to get the chance with the long limbs and various entanglements
that occur with such a disparity in size.

In
the short list of "Who's next?" for Tim Sylvia, Mir
will definitely be up there with a win, particularly with Gan
McGee and Sylvia being unable to reach an agreement to fight
this September. Yet at the same time he doesn't exhibit a sense
of entitlement about it even if he does win; Mir takes a long
view of the UFC purse structure and the sport's exposure.

"It's
a professional sport. But it's also about who brings in numbers,"
Mir said. "You have to consider who brings in new numbers.
So, say a Maurice Smith decides to go back to UFC and it bringsa
lot of new buys, that's going to help every fighter in the long
run."

"There's
definitely some meaning behind me fighting Sims. He's a big guy,"
Mir added. "I don't think there should be weight classes
- anytime I ever trained with somebody above 280 lbs., it's easier.
There's very few guys that have the quickness to move around.
I think that's the reason there's not much reason to have a super
heavyweight class. It isn't like all of the Pride heavies are
300 lbs. How many guys out there are 300-lb. freaks and have
any ability and in shape? The only guy I can think of the states
is Eric Pele. NO matter what the size, the submissions are all
the same."

Source: Maxfighting

UFC
SCHEDULE CHANGE:

FROM AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER

Late last night word rolled in that Zuffa had just canceled UFC
44. Not really true. Zuffa hasn't actually cancelled UFC 44,
but more accurately, they have changed the date of the show.

Though
they never officially announced the show, it was widely known

that both Tim Sylvia and Matt Hughes had been expecting to defend
their titles and Rich Franklin was to fight Edwin Dewees on August
1st in Las Vegas, aka UFC 44.

Though
we were unable to reach Sylvia or Hughes, three MMAWeekly sources
did verify that Sylvia, Hughes and Franklin were all informed
that the August 1st date was not going to happen.

Questioning
the reasoning for the canceling of the August 1st date, all they
could say is that they were told that "the August 1st date
was never firm and that the UFC 44 fights would be pushed back
to the September 26th date" that had originally been planned
as the date for UFC 45.

Though
we don't currently know exactly why the date change occurred,
we do know that the UFC is now putting themselves in a bit of
an awkward position in regards to many of the fighters that they
have signed to multi-fight deals.

Most
of the fighters, such as Tim Sylvia, that are signed to a 3-fight
deal are guaranteed for those fights to take place in a certain
amount of time, usually within one year on a 3-fight deal. By
the time September 26th rolls around, it will be about 7 months
since Sylvia last fought.

Ordinarily,
the UFC would have just one more show after September 26th to
finish out the year. Given this scenario, Sylvia would then have
to turn around and fight again on the next consecutive show in
order to fulfill his contract.

And
Sylvia is just one of a handful of fighters that will be in the
same predicament which will lead the UFC to have to have a certain
number of fighters crammed onto their year end show.

After
the questionable decision by the UFC to forego the momentum generated
by the UFC 40 mega-show last year and wait 3 months before running
another show, the critics and skeptics will again be out in droves
to again question the UFC's motives. Why would they build up
such a huge card full of name fighters on UFC 42, only to turn
around and not run another show for nearly 4 months?! Again losing
out on the possible momentum that such a superstar card should
generate.

Speculation
aside, the fact is that the decision has been made, UFC 44 will
NOT take place on August 1st and fans will be facing a long barren
summer when it comes to big-time MMA shows with only the Pride
Grand Prix to look forward to in August.

Source: MMA Weekly

5/30/03

Quote
of the Day

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two
greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength
of mind.

William Hazlitt

LIDDELL
STARTING TO GET CREDIT HE DESERVES

He has beaten the best fighters in the world. He doesn't care
who he fight. He just wants to fight the best. Chuck Liddell
fights who the UFC tells him to. (Tito you listening?) Chuck
Liddell is finally getting the credit he deserves from the mma
fans and he will get a chance to be rewarded on the big stage
with a national television interview on Fox Sports Network.

The
Best Damn Sports Show is calling and "The Iceman" will
be the third UFC fighter to be on the show shown nationwide on
Tuesday evening. (Ortiz and Abbott were the only two fighters
to be on the show.) Check your local listings for times in your
area.

Liddell
is looking forward to fighting Randy Couture next week for the
Light Heavyweight Interim Title at the Thomas and Mack Center
in Las Vegas. Liddell is a slight favorite in the fight according
to oddsmakers.

Source: MMA Weekly

SPRATT
TALKS ABOUT B.E.T AND FIGHT FUTURE

Pete Spratt made an impromptu appearance on Wednesday's MMAWeekly
Radio Show and took the opportunity to talk about his next fight
in the UFC. Pete said that he would really like for his next
fight to be against Jeremy Jackson because Jackson is a great
fighter and the two of them would have a very entertaining fight.

Spratt
also mentioned Ronald Jhun, Jake Shields, and Dave Strasser as
potential opponents for his next fight, but he reiterated that
Jeremy Jackson is the one he would like to fight. Spratt said
he hopes that his next fight will be at UFC 44 on September 26,
but it's also a possibility that it won't be until UFC 45 in
November.

Pete
Spratt also said that regardless of who he fights in his next
fight, he would like the following fight to be a Welterweight
Title shot if he wins. When asked in the Live Chat Fighter (which
Spratt visits regularly) how he would approach a fight with Matt
Hughes, Spratt said he would try to chip away at Hughes and would
also have to work on takedown defense and ground escapes.

One
person that should be helpful in the development of Spratt's
ground game is Eddie Bravo, who recently got a tap-out victory
over Royler Gracie in Brazil. Spratt is going to Los Angeles
in the near future to train with Chris Brennan, and while he's
in the city he also plans to spend a lot of time working on his
ground game with Eddie Bravo.

Remember,
you can see Pete Spratt this Saturday, May 31 on BET at 12:00
PM noon Eastern Time (11:00 AM Central Time). Spratt will be
featured on a segment during the Mad Sports show in which he
educates people about mixed martial arts, gives fans a backstage
tour of the UFC, and shows fans what it takes to prepare for
a UFC fight.

Source: MMA Weekly

BUSTAMANTE
NOT FIGHTING IN PRIDE 26

Brazilian Top Team representative Marcello Tetel has gone on
the record saying that Murilo Bustamante will definitely not
be fighting on next week's Pride 26 show.

Bustamante
has been negotiating on and off with Pride since his UFC contract
officially expired on May 10, but he was unable to reach an agreement
with Pride to fight Anderson Silva (or anyone else) on Pride
26.

Though
it has not been officially confirmed by Pride or Bustamante,
several sources report that Bustamante isn't being offered anywhere
near the amount of money that he expected to be offered by Pride.

When
Bustamante's teammate Ricardo Arona had to pull out of his scheduled
Pride 26 fight with Alistair Overeem, Bustamante immediately
became one of the top two candidates to replace Arona (who has
a severe case of the flu).

However,
according to a statement by Marcello Tetel on ADCC News, Bustamante
is no longer available to fight on Pride 26 because he wouldn't
be able to get his work visa quickly enough. With Bustamante
officially out of the running, any number of fighters could sign
to fight Alistair Overeem on Pride 26, but the far-and-away leading
candidate at this point is Jeremy Horn.

Here's
the interesting about Horn though. MMAWeekly.com talked to Horn's
manager, Monte Cox and Cox said that Horn has not been contacted
by Pride. You would think they would have contacted him by know
if he would be fighting next week.

Source:
MMA Weekly

WHO
IS EDDIE RUIZ ? UFC 43 COVERAGE

Not many people know Eddie Ruiz as a fighter. As we continue
to get closer to UFC 43 next week, we continue to get you closer
to the action with the most interviews of any site in the world
today. We continue our coverage with an interview with Eddie
Ruiz.

MMAWeekly:
Eddie Ruiz joins us now. How are you doing man?

Ruiz:
I am doing pretty good man.

MMAWeekly:
You ready to fight in your first UFC?

Ruiz:
Oh Yeah I am ready. I have been waiting for this a long time.

MMAWeekly:
Well this has to be pretty exciting for you. Tell the fans a
little bit about your background? Your fighting background?

Ruiz:
I have done Shooto in Japan. I was a wrestler in Jr. College.
I wrestled all through high school– overall for the last
ten years with Division 1 wrestlers, and I played the old submission
game for the last eight years. I tried out some of my submission
skills at Abu Dhabi, where everyone is supposed to be an expert.
I did not ever really take a Jiu-Jitsu class, just hardcore wrestling
as my background, and I ended up placing 4th overall. This with
having broken ribs and like I said, not even training for that.
I end up not kissing the Princes’ ass, so they did not invite
me the next year.

MMAWeekly:
Eddie- that is funny. I know you train with Tank and I am a guy
that loves Tank. I mean there are people that know David Abbott
and people that know Tank Abbott, and I just think the guy is
hilarious. The thing I like about him is his honesty and I can
see that rubbing off on you.

Ruiz:
Exactly! What you see is what you get. Most guys are like…nothing
wrong with doing, what you need to do to make a living and do
whatever, but it is almost like they are like the “Backstreet
Boys”. They are all made up. You see what I am saying?

MMAWeekly:
Yeah

Ruiz:
There is a new generation of fighters that are fucking tough.

MMAWeekly:
Right

Ruiz:
But not too many are real.

MMAWeekly:
It is interesting, I hear you cut a lot of weight Man. How much
weight are you cutting to get to 155lbs.?

Ruiz:
I weigh around 185lbs.- but that is walking around looking good.
That is not fucking competing weight.

MMAWeekly:
185lbs?

Ruiz:
185lbs. – but when your around Tank and all, everybody throws
up a lot of weight. So you get caught up in getting big, getting
strong, but like I said, I was weighing 185lbs., but that was
also coming out of jail.

MMAWeekly:
What is it with you guys man? You guys fight in the streets,
fight in the bars…..

Ruiz:
Hey, it is just the way that it is. I do not know.

MMAWeekly:
I hear ya….

Ruiz:
I don’t play well with others sometimes.

MMAWeekly:
(laughs) All you guys down there….I am telling you. Eddie
Ruiz joins us live on MMAWeekly Radio, he will be facing Yves
Edwards coming up on June 6th from Las Vegas. I am looking forward
to seeing you fight Eddie. As far as the actual fight goes, Yves
is a pretty ought guy and I know you had a chance to see him
on film, but what is your overall take an Yves?

Ruiz:
You know what? I like him because he comes in shape and he bangs.
I do not want to go against anybody. I do not want to go fish.
You know what I mean? “This is who I have gone against”-
I do not care. Tell me about whom a guy has lost to. I can tell
you I have gone with some tough guys, Sakurai, Uno, Gracie –
not cousin, his brother, and I have gone with other top ten fighters.
I do not care who it is. I just want to get the best fight I
have out of me. I want to be losing and then come back. I want
to see what I got in me. All I can say is he (Yves) is a tough
guy and were scrapping for 15 minutes.

MMAWeekly:
I was going to say, you are more a guy that likes to take people
down and pound them correct?

Ruiz:
Yeah, don’t get me wrong. I got into Muay Thai last year
pretty solid. I can take guys down when I want, but I can also
break arms and legs. If we go there and Yves want to play ‘who
kicks harder’- we’ll play that.

MMAWeekly:
I am still tripping about you weighing 185lbs. and cutting to
155lbs. How do you do that training wise?

Ruiz:
It is just hardcore wrestling man. If you have ever seen a hardcore
wrestler for twenty years, you go to D1, to the national championships
and you see some crazy animals cutting thirty pounds. I started
wrestling and working out, and I was looking big and stuff, but
last time I fought I was 155lbs. naturally and I just started
cutting weight. I fought Caol Uno well– I was throwing him
around like a rag doll with no training. As for Sakurai? I am
in there, I know I am in there.

MMAWeekly:
I do not think a lot of fight fans even knew you competed against
these guys. Tell me about both guys.

Ruiz:
What happened was I went out there and those Saudi guys started
setting me up. They knew I was banged up. I told them that I
was hurt and I was not even in training. “Can you make weight?”
Yeah, I can make weight and they sent me out there and I go against
Royce Gracie’s brother in the second round. I upset him
in a 25-minute match. Take it! Broken ribs and no cardio….this
is what people don’t understand. I got fucking heart and
you need to break my heart. I beat him and then I go with Uno.
This would be for the finals to go against the world champion.
I take him down and control him and all of the sudden they break
us apart. He got a new start and we get in a scramble. I got
in a knee bar and I was trying to block it out because I knew
I did not have the cardio. I went for a submission and locked
it. I got into position, he got on top and I was leading 7-0
and he ended able to get me down and choked me. If you look at
the tape you know it was a man vs. boy.

MMAWeekly:
As far as MMA goes, how many MMA fights have you had?

Ruiz:
Like four, but like I said that is not even important. I have
gone to Japan in Shooto with real light heavyweights like Kanehara.
He just fought Vanderlei Silva. I do not see too many lightweights
fighting Heavyweights.

MMAWeekly:
I don’t either.

Ruiz:
It is just out of my weight class, but it is a fight. I don’t
think they have the mentality, like I said, I trained with Tito,
with Tank and it goes on and on. I’m not afraid to fight.
Don’t get me wrong we're tough. I am going out of weight
class and I have to prove myself. I can go to the KOTC and be
like “Uh…can I fight that guy?” that is not what
this is about. Do not give me a guy I am going to beat. Give
me a guy I am supposed to lose to, that is what fighting is all
about. Most of these guys want 30-0 records so they can go to
Japan. I have already been there. I have been all around the
world. I don’t want that. I want a tough guy.

MMAWeekly:
Eddie Ruiz fights Yves Edwards for his first fight. He wants
a tough guy and I think he got one in Yves Edwards. It should
be a great fight. Eddie what is your prediction for the fight?

Ruiz:
A lot of punches, bunches of punches. I know it is going to be
a good good fight. There is nothing better to fight in front
of all those warriors. I saw that poster and looked at all those
warriors- nothing better. Basically I am opening up for U2 and
Michael Jackson brother.

MMAWeekly:
A lot of the guys in the live fighter chat want to know since
your cutting 185lbs. to 155lbs., does that hurt your conditioning?
I know you are training well and have a wrestling background,
but cutting all that weight- does it effect you? Make you worried
about making it to the third round?

Ruiz:
It is a gradual thing. Anyone that knows about cutting weight
it is not overnight. I dropped 10…then 10…then 10 every
couple of months. I made sure not to cut too fast. A pound a
week. I did not want to lose my strength. I still have strength,
same thing I threw up at 185lbs.- still throwing up now. It could
be done, but needs to be done over six months. It can’t
be done in two or three.

MMAWeekly:
You told us you wrestled a lot. What is your wrestling background?

Ruiz:
I have done the whole thing. All through high school, Jr. college
state champs- full ride, but chose another road. I am no saint
brother. I made some wrong turns, but you know what? Come June
6th there is a right turn. I think it is a right turn and the
right time. I should have been the first lightweight, but I blew
my knee out. You do not get too many second chances in life and
win or lose I am fucking going out throwing the dogs.

MMAWeekly:
I like that attitude. I love how you are going to throw it all
out there.

Ruiz:
Nothing to lose. I am supposed to lose and nobody wants me to
win. I guess that is why I am going to win period! I don’t
hate the guy, he is just in front of me.

MMAWeekly:
Eddie you made your presence felt on MMAWeekly Radio. We will
get you on again when we meet up in Vegas.

Ruiz:
Right on and thanks for having me.

Source: MMA Weekly

5/29/03

Quote
of the Day

There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly
fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity,
but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of
adversity.

Elisabeth Guizot

Super
Brawl 30 News

On Friday night, June 13th, Super Brawl

will prove once and for all Size Does Matter!

Two
of Super Brawls biggest stars, Andre "The Chief" Roberts
and Cabbage will continue their collision course that may end
up with them fighting for the Super Brawl belt.

Cabbage
will face Justin Eillers, a tough young fighter who is roomates
with UFC Champion Tim Sylvia. Cabbage would like nothing better
than to beat Eillers while Sylvia watches from the opposing corner.

Sylvia
and Eillers have different plans. Eillers was a D-1 College football
player who was highly scouted by the NFL. His natural athletic
ability and size (nearly 245lbs) will make him a formidable opponent
for the Super Brawl Heavyweight Champ.

The
Chief is returning after an impressive victory over GU fighter
"King Kong" Serraille. His opponent will be the always
exciting Jonathan Ivey. Ivey moves tremendously fast for a big
man and has many victories in less than one minute.

Also
on the undercard, the finals of the most highly touted tournament
series of the year. Super Brawl promoter T.Jay Thompson and Extreme
Challenge promoter Monte Cox, teamed up over the past six months
to promote two separate 185lb, 8-man tournaments. The top two
finishers in each tournament, as well as 4 invitees will compete
in the finals held during the undercard of Super Brawl 30, Collission
Course! They include, Stephan Potvin (Montreal, 7-3), Brandon
Seguin (Canada, 6-2-1), Kaipo Kalama (Grappling Unlimited 1-0-1),
Joe Doerksen (Winnipeg, 18-5), Jay Buck (Hellhouse, 9-4), Jason
Miller (Team Oyama, 23-12-0), Desi Minor (808 Fight Factory,
4-1), and Amir Rahnavardi (Irvine, CA, 7-6).

Source:
Superbrawl.tv

Frank
Mir: Back in The Driver's Seat

Frank Mir enters the Octagon in UFC 43 facing a 6'9 Wes Sims,
whose dimensions are similar to UFC heavyweight champion Tim
Sylvia. It's no accident that Mir, a contender once more after
his defeat of Tank Abbot in UFC 41, is looking to show he can
beat a big guy, because he needs to do just that in order to
get a title shot.

"I
wasn't surprised by the quick submission against Tank,"
Mir said. "I do it all the time in practice."

Mir
can find submissions in a haystack, and against Sims, he's likely
to get the chance with the long limbs and various entanglements
that occur with such a disparity in size.

"It's
a professional sport. But it's also about who brings in numbers,"
Mir said. "You have to consider who brings in new numbers.
So, say a Maurice Smith decides to go back to UFC and it brings
a lot of new buys, that's going to help every fighter in the
long run."

Source:
Maxfighting

Game
Review - Pride FC

Creating a mixed martial arts-style fighting game with an emphasis
on realism and detail, THQ's "Pride Full Contact" is
a solid effort that offers good replay value and a thoughtful
approach to capturing the nuances of hand to hand combat.

The
game is fairly similar to previous UFC games, with many of the
same buttons used for punches, kicks, takedowns, and finishing
holds. But PRIDE FC offers more variety of positions, including
clinches, man standing vs. man on canvas, and more submission
holds. One of the original problems with earlier mixed martial
arts (MMA) games was the difficulty in balancing the ability
to throw strikes versus takedowns - in this game it's more realistic
in that if you time something right you can land a blow without
the inevitable fear of being taken down. However, you'll have
to understand the proper ranges of each type of strike - there
are dozens rated in varying degrees of speed and damage - so
the realism comes into play more than ever.

Gameplay
is good. There's a minimum of muss and fuss with load times and
preliminary screens, though the ambient details of fighting Japan
are nicely captured throughout, should you wish to enjoy the
referee's accented final words before the fight; or the trademark
hush-quiet of the Japanese audience that is an excellent touch
on part of the design team (Japanese audiences make very little
noise expect during a finishing sequence at match end).

You
can play in various modes of Survival (taking on numerous consecutive
opponents as your stamina is depleted accordingly), Tournament,
or Single Match mode. One strong feature is that when you lose
in these modes - except for Survival - you get an instant rematch
at your opponent should you wish. This makes the initial learning
curve far less cumbersome without having to go through load times
and prelim screens again.

The
detail in the fighting is excellent. There are such a rich variety
of strikes and moves, and they are suited realistically to the
fighters in the game. A tall European kick boxer like Semmy Schilt
will have plenty of kicking and punching wrinkles available,
but few submissions outside of the basics - there's a deep spectrum
of fighters to choose from, including Ken Shamrock, Royce and
Renzo Gracie, Rodrigo Antonio Nogueira, and Vanderlei Silva.
Fighters appear correctly proportioned relative to each other,
and it does make a difference in the fights with the accompanying
difference in reach and range.

Fighting
on the ground is a key element to any reality combat game, and
the PRIDE FC version is much improved over other earlier efforts.
You can stay stuck on the ground for a good while, trading shots,
or working to improve position through well timed moves, or going
for submissions. The submissions are fairly accurate in their
depiction with regards to what happens if you miss - (blow an
arm bar from the mount and you end up on your back, a nice touch
along the risk-reward spectrum). Many times, you can just have
a good old time pounding your opponent and picking when to punch
and when to block - there's a fair degree of savvy and skill
in not going overboard and timing strikes correctly to avoid
getting reversed or submitted.

The
instruction manual, though, is fairly spare and not much help.
It doesn't tell you how to do more than the most basic things,
which perhaps is easily forgiven once you're sucked into playing
the game, which happens quickly. There's no instruction, for
example, on how to keep from being reversed while in the other
guy's guard, so invariably you end up getting flipped over if
you can't finish quickly, though against the CPU opponent it
takes a while longer. The instruction manual is pretty much a
high-level overview of the game and you've got to spend some
hours in the "Training" mode to learn what works from
what position, and what doesn't.

The
"Training" and "Create a Fighter" modes are
the strong suits of this game, even more so than the actual matches.
They allow you to start from every possible position with an
opponent freely controlled by the computer, or just countering,
or trying to reverse, or doing nothing but letting you uncork
moves.

The
display on the screen during training mode would seem very helpful
if it weren't for the fact that the instructions give no real
assistance in explaining what the displays imply, and the information
flashes for a split second while you're doing a choke or a submission,
and it's kind of a frustrating peek at something you can't get
a good look at it. But if you play for a few hours you'll get
the gist of it very quickly, and with a variety of guys to work
with in sparring you'll start to develop an affinity for certain
fighters whose moves dovetail with your own favored approaches.
The sparring itself can be much more fun than most training modes
in games, because you can iron out the weak points in your live
matches by learning what moves work best in each position.

The
"Create a Fighter" method is, in a word, deep. You
begin by selecting the expectable variety of attributes for your
character, with dozens of kinds of bodily, facial, and equipment
types to choose from. Then, from every possible position, you
select from hundreds of possible moves to assign to the button
combinations. It is here that the game shines. There are so many
kinds of different individual punches and kicks, with the demo
on the screen quickly showing them, that it's almost a primer
on mixed martial arts technique in addition to an instructional
for your character. You can spend a good deal of time selecting
which takedowns to assign your character while debating the aesthetics
and effects of each. The display also helpfully indicated which
moves are chainable, unblockable, or stun an opponent; in this
you can build your fighter to your heart's content. Whether it's
a fast-handed striker, or a lugging power puncher, to a submissions-oriented
technician, your fighter will reflect your efforts and thought
processes imparted in creating him.

There's
no career mode in the game, but once you create a fighter (a
dedicated effort can take a half-hour, which is pretty fun) you
can select him from the fighter screen for all the requisite
events in the game, from Single Matches to Tournaments to Survival
Mode. Your hero can then spill blood or be bloodied to your heart's
content.

All
in all, PRIDE FC renders the details of mixed martial arts fighting
with a good degree of accuracy, and the ambiance of fighting
in the Orient is a nicely nuanced thing that gives the game an
exotic flavor. It's a solid effort from THQ, and nothing beats
the joy of landing a foot stomp to the face in live combat. The
small details in the game are what ultimately overcome the shortcoming
in the instruction manual and lack of a career mode.

Gameplay:
3/5

Graphics: 4/5

Replay Value: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

Source: Maxfighting

5/28/03

Quote
of the Day

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's
not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've
had everything to do, and you've done it.

Margaret Thatcher

World
Championships Fund Raiser

It's getting close again and we don't want to wait till the last
moment (how we normally do) to do some fund raising for this
expensive trip. We are sending a small team to Brazil again this
year to compete in the World Championships of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Due to the lack of sponsors interested in providing monetary
gifts, we have to take it upon ourselves to scrap up whatever
we can.

We
are selling School Kine cookies as our fund raiser at $5 a bag.
I know what you are thinking, "I just bought chilli from
those punks." That's why we are going with cookies. What's
better after a nice chilli dinner than some cookies for dessert?

Ok,
maybe you didn't buy chilli. Nothing goes better with watching
Jiu-Jitsu, submission wrestling, or MMA than cookies. In fact,
the UFC and Super Brawl is coming up so you will probably need
a few bags for the friends that will be coming over to watch
pay-per-view or for the long drive down to the Blaisdell.

We
have chocolate macadamia nut and short bread for sale.

Please
email us if you are interested in buying cookies by clicking
here. We will arrange to
meet you and bring the cookies to you. We have to unload 300
bags so we have a lot of work ahead of us and any help would
be greatly appreciated!

Team
HK Saturday Class Update

Team HK (a Relson Gracie Association) instructor Todd Tanaka
now has classes on Saturday from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm.

Check
out the link from the banner ad above for more details on his
school schedule and general information or click here!

Ricardo
Arona is Out of Pride 26

After
3 months of heavy training in preparation for the ADCC 2003,
Ricardo Arona was scheduled to fight in MMA against Alistair
Overren at PRIDE 26, scheduled for June 8th. Unfortuantely, Arona
won't be able to participate due to health problems.

In
a brief conversation Arona explained the situation: 'Few people
know that Mario Sperry was sick during the ADCC 2003, and we
were roommates during those days. I got the flu he had and it
affectedmy 2 weeks of preparation for Pride. It's no big deal
if I was 100% but the problem is that I had to recover myself
for some time, then put in some hard training and I didn't have
the days. I tried to train for this fight but after 2 boxing
sessions I decided that I had better wait until the next Pride
in order to be 100%'.

Ärona
now will have his recovery time and after one week will be back
to his training routine.

Source:
ADCC

Ricardo
Arona out of PRIDE 26

By Eduardo Alonso

In
a surprising turn of events, Brazilian fighter Ricardo Arona
has pulled out from his fight against Alistair Overeem in PRIDE
26, due to illness. Arona is coming off of an Abu Dhabi Submission
Wrestling World Championship Superfight win against veteran wrestler
Mark Kerr, this past May 17th, and was to make his PRIDE comeback
in June, stepping into the Japanese ring for the first time since
his win over Chute Boxe fighter Murilo Ninja Rua at PRIDE 23.
Unfortunately Ricardo became ill with a very strong flu, diagnosed
as almost the start of pneumonia, and is experiencing high fever
and all sorts of head and body aches. He is forced to quit his
training routine and has been advised by the doctors not to compete
in the next PRIDE show. Arona's friend Mario Sperry was victim
of the same flu, which cost him a better perfomance in Abu Dhabi,
and Ricardo probably got the illness from Sperry since both were
in the same hotel room during the Submission Wrestling competition.
According to the Abu Dhabi 2003 superfight champion's camp, the
PRIDE organization has already been informed of the fact that
Arona isn't competing anymore, and a replacement will be announced
soon. Both Mario Sperry and Ricardo Arona are now taking medication
and recovering with expectations of being part of PRIDE's August
card.

Source:
FCF

ADCC
2003: 77kg weight class: WHO'S MARCELLO GARCIA?????

They call him 'Marcelihno', and Marcello Garcia has been around
the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu scene for a while. He has fought BJJ
tournaments since he was a teenager, and always impressed with
very good results.

Born
in Minas Gerais, he started his Jiu-Jitsu career learning from
Paulao, a teacher from Pocos de Caldas who is under Leonardo
Castello Branco. At that time Alliance was a united team, no
splits and Marcello decided to move to Sao Paulo. He was looking
forward to advancing his Jiu-Jitsu. Fabio Gurgel as the Alliance'
most recognized representative in the city and Marcello stayed
with Fabio, where he eventually got the opportunity to teach
in Fabio's school. In early 2003, with BJJ World championships
and BJJ National titles on his resume, Marcello applied to the
ADCC Brazilian qualifiers and got the opportunity to show his
skills last January in Rio de Janeiro.

In
the qualifiers, he submitted his first opponent quickly (Guess
the submission....) and he won his 2nd match after trying several
submissions but winning by judges decision.

The
final match was against Daniel Moraes who had beaten Fernando
'Terere' in the other semifinal. Garcia pulled to his guard,
getting a minus 1 under ADCC rules. Then we had 20 minutes of
unsucessful work and he got second place. He was clearly disappointed
but he lost fair and square. They could only hope they had done
enough to impress!

It
is 3 days before the ADCC 2003. I arrived in Sao Paulo and talking
to Guy Nievens and the organizers, it seemed they were looking
for a reserve in this weight division. Sean Sherk was not coming
and the official reserve, Tony deSouza was already used. Marcello
came to mind as a great option. 'He is from Sao Paulo, we don't
even have to think about flying him in.' The mastermind behind
ADCC, Guy Nievens confirmed him.

Fabio
Gurgel was teaching private classes and I called him around 10
times in a row. His secretary took the cell phone and interupted
the class and said: 'Fabio this is the 10th time it is ringing.
You better pick up because it might be important'. When I talked
to Fabio I asked if the boy was ok and the answer was 'To fight
when? Tonight? Yesterday? Tomorrow? Just tell me when....'

I
explained it would be a reserve and Fabio said 'No problem'.
When Dennis Hallman did not show up the boy was included in the
brackets and the rest is history!!

Source: ADCC

A
EUROPEAN COMMENTS ON 2003 EUROPEAN GRECO CHAMPIONSHIPS

by: Eddie Goldman

One
of the many great features of the Internet is that it allows
those with common interests around the world the ability to communicate
virtually instantaneously. Many in wrestling, with the exception
of some old cavemen, have discovered this, and are taking full
advantage of it.

In
the wrestling community, one such person goes by the name Bo
Minkov, and lives in Bulgaria. He regularly posts on TheMat.com's
Forums. He also recently sent in a summary of the 2003 European
Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships, which I have reproduced
below, with some editing since Bo is a Bulgarian whose first
language is not English, and few readers of this site would understand
Bulgarian anyway.

Bo
has set up an English-language Yahoo discussion group about European
wrestling, which is free for anyone to join, at:

Although
this group is very new and has not had much traffic, I encourage
wrestling people to join groups like this and communicate with
each other. You can also contact Bo directly through it.

Here
is Bo's summary of the European Greco Championships:

-Only
two wrestlers saved their titles from the previous championship
- Nazarian and Eroglu.

-There were a lot of surprises - the losses of Mamedaliev, Koguashvili,
Ozal, and Khasaia; the wins of Nozadze and Ahokas. A lot of young
wrestlers are hungry for medals a year before the Olympic Games.

55kg
- The champion is M. Sandu of Romania. After the loss of Russia's
Mamedaliev to Radkevich of Belarus in the opening round, Sandu
used his chance and won against the younger Armenian and Ukrainian
wrestlers. There is not a favorite in this category in Europe,
and this is a chance for American and Asian wrestlers, and especially
for Rangraz of Iran for the world title.

60kg
- The new-old champion is Nazarian. No chances for the others
in this category. I don't see a wrestler who can beat Armen in
the next years.

66kg
- The sixth European title for Eroglu of Turkey. After he won
against Kirkvelia of Georgia, he had no problems with the younger
wrestlers from Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine. The interesting
thing is that in the first categories, the Russians have problems
and cannot find good wrestlers who are ready for titles.

74kg
- The only problem for Russia's Glushkov was Khasaia of Georgia,
but he lost to Yli-Hannuksela of Finland, and the road of the
Russian to the title was open. There are no problems for the
Russians in this category, knowing that here they have Glushkov
and Samurgashev (2000 Olympic gold medalist and 2002 World Champion).

84kg
- In this championship there were not Abrahamian of Sweden and
Yerlikaya of Turkey. This was good for Mishin of Russia, who
won the gold without any serious problems.

96kg
- European wrestling has a new star in this category - Nozadze
of Georgia. He is a young wrestler, won against Koguashvili,
and showed that everyone has to be careful with him in the future.
The surprise was the loss of Ozal of Turkey to Ezerkis of Lithuania.
He has to prove that he is one of the best wrestlers in this
category in the future.

120kg
- After the retirement of Karelin this category is still searching
for its new king. The new champion is Ahokas of Finland, but
there is not a wrestler in Europe who we can say is better than
the Americans.

Six
different countries have champions, 12 countries have medals.
This shows that Greco-Roman wrestling is popular in Europe. The
Russians are again the best in Europe. Georgia and Ukraine showed
they have wrestlers who are ready for medals. Turkey is one of
the best wrestling countries, and not only in freestyle. There
are a lot of young wrestlers who are hungry for titles, and the
champions cannot be sure that in the next championship they will
be again on the top.

The
official site of the 2003 European Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships
is: http://www.wrestling.org.yu/ .

Source: ADCC

The
5th Submission Wrestling World Championships - AS GOOD AS IT
GETS!

Submitted by: Miguel Iturrate

May 17th and 18th, 2003 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

AWARDS:

BEST THROW: CHRIS BROWN (Australia)

BEST MATCH: RONALD JACARE (Brazil) v. RICARDO ALMEIDA (Brazil)

MOST TECHNICAL FIGHTER: MARCELLO GARCIA (Brazil)

FASTEST SUBMISSION: MARCIO CRUZ (Brazil) :14 (on Alex Araujo)

It
has been the power of the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships
from the very beginning - to capture and captivate the grappling
world by bringing together the best grapplers for an elite competition.
This years event eclipsed anything ever seen before, as 87 of
the world's top grapplers left themselves on the mats in heroic
displays. It was unbelieveable, especially up close... : ) There
would be more submissions than ever by the weekend, and a new
guard in submission grappling was to emerge.

Leading
up to the event, this year was different. Brazil has always been
dominant, and now with the homefield advantage, 'TEAM BRAZIL'
was ready to shine again. But immediately in the opening rounds,
several Brazil versus Brazil matchups would force the competition's
pace and energy. It is a compliment to the athletes regarding
conduct - the Brazilians have really gotten over their historic
unprofessionalism, and they have done it without losing that
fire - it is a compliment to the athletes that it can now be
said that Brazil can host world level events in mixed martial
arts. These volatile matchups were expected to develop, but two
early stood out.

FINAL
RESULTS:

THE
COMPLETE BRACKETS AND RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE:

THANKS
TO THE BOYS AT SHOW NO PITY

Under
65.99 kg

1º Leonardo Vieira (Brasil)

2º Barret Yoshida (USA)

3º Royler Gracie (Brasil)

66
Up to 77.99 kg

1º Marcelo Garcia (Brasil)

2º Otto Oslon (USA)

3º Vítor Shaolin (Brasil)

77
Up to 87.99 8k g

1º Saulo Ribeiro (Brasil)

2º Ronaldo Jacaré (Brasil)

3º David Terrel (USA)

88
Up to 98.99 kg

1º John Olav Einemo (Norway)

2º Alexandre Cacareco (Brasil)

3º Roger Gracie (Brasil)

OVER
99 KG (217.5 KG)

1º Márcio Pé de Pano (Brasil)

2º Fabrício Werdum (Brasil)

3º Alex Negão (Brasil)

ABSOLUTE

1º Dean Lister (USA)

2º Alexandre Cacareco (Brasil)

3º Fabrício Werdum (Brasil)

Superfight:
Ricardo Arona (Brasil) defeated Mark Kerr (USA) 4-0.

Anyone
who says the ADCC tournament is a sham is an idiot anyway, but
here is further proof. If anyone would be protected, it would
be MARIO SPERRY, right? The first SUPERFIGHT Champion, he is
the man that really helped build the ADCC tournament with his
total dominance since 1998, the ADCC's inception. Losing the
superfight last year, returning to the 98.9 KG (217 lbs) divison
Sperry would meet ROGER GRACIE, a young gun ADCC Champion RENZO
GRACIE has been grooming for the event. TOP TEAM v. GRACIE FAMILY.
Again, a hard battle developed, as Sperry attacked relentlessly
with takedown attempts. Gracie proved to be worthy of the name,
as he wore Sperry down and scored points in the final minutes.

It
should be said that Sperry was heard to say 'i am old'. He returned
like a true warrior to the competition he loved and he fell victim
to the tournament's random draw immediately. For 10 minutes,
he gave his all for the competition, but on this day the younger
man would win. Renzo Gracie would pump his fists in the air in
Roger's corner, as the tournament's first unbelievable moment
had occured - Mario Sperry was gone in the first round.

It
really is not age, as Sperry is still competing in MMA at a high
level, and he continues to develop MMA and BJJ stars with Brazilian
TOP TEAM. It would prove to be the first time a a consistent
theme came up - the fighters training for PRIDE, UFC and the
like are developing different instincts, and the 'submission
only' style fighters are able to adapt quicker to this game now.
After two years, it has been a while since the athletes have
competed under the ADCC rules, and there is a real need for more
competitions under these rules.

Another
Brazil v. Brazil matchup came in rd 1. RYAN GRACIE versus RONALDO
Jacaré was a stunning match, receiving votes for fight
of the night. Gracie is a live wire, and when he goes, he is
uncontrollable. Jacaré is from the north of the country,
and he already has an established rep in JJ as a guy who does
not back down, he will slit your throat. They went at each other,
neither willing to give bottom position. At one point, Jacare
went flying over the table on a single leg from Gracie, and the
situation got heated, but the judges got up from the table and
controlled the situation. In the end, Jacaré would win
5x0 as Gracie tired. Remember this name - Jacaré!

A
notable international bout featured FERNANDO TERERE and JUSSI
TAMMELIN. Terere is a submission wiz, but he came in hurt, with
a banged up rib after a training session with MARK KERR. Tammelin,
from Finland, is tall and his game is really unorthodox, and
he gave as good as he got for while.

FERNANDO
'MARGARIDA' PONTES entered the tournament on the day of the event,
replacing JORGE PATINO, who was cut in his MECA Vale Tudo fight
the night before. This is unfortunate for ROBERT SULSKI, a rugged
European Trial Champion who was forced to sit thru a 3 hour delay
while things were sorted out. Sulski wouldn't know his opponent
until he hit the mat, and Margarida is a natural. 'Margarida'
would advance, and Sulski would not get a fair break. Reports
from the trial give Sulski a lot of points for potential.

The
tournament would be further defined by the showing of the qualifiers
from all the regions. By the end of the night, history would
be written by qualifiers from Brazil and the US. Two unbelievable
performances where also turned in by Jon Olav Einmo of Europe
and Australia's Chris Brown, putting on display the international
depth of the tournament.

UNDER
65.9 KG

ROYLER
GRACIE lost. It is resounding. One of the many lasting images
is this - Royler never made an excuse. When it happened, he looked
at the tatame, then stood up and walked off with his head held
high, mouthing only 'filho de puta', not even a whisper. American
Qualifier Champion EDDIE BRAVO had served notice.

The
weight class was packed with talent. In the first round, LEO
VEIERA, BARET YOSHIDA, ALEXANDRE SOCA and JOACHIM HANSEN would
all advance. Royler would take out CHARLIE PEARSON of AMC, getting
him with a choke. Pearson came out, tried his leg lock/takedown
and worked. Royler played around, had some fun, and methodically
cut the air off as he dominated Pearson at the end. Bravo would
work his way thru GUSTAVO DANTAS, making the 2nd round matchup
that would make history.

Royler
would get top position in the match, and several scrambles would
result in Bravo showing real guts. Royler seemed to have trouble
with his breathing at one point, but when he got to it, he pressured
Bravo. It was late and Royler was up 5-2, with a knee in the
stomach and guard passing points. Bravo had scored a sweep, then
given it back up. Bravo got to guard again, and worked hard for
the triangle and sunk it. Royler and the crowd relaxed, he had
been there thousands of times. It would come as a shocking moment
at 8:42 in the round, when Bravo would release the hold at Royler's
tap, stand up and walk toward his corner arms held up in victory.
Royler sat there for a moment. The crowd attendance was terrible
anyway, but Brazilian crowds are boisterous and it was dead silent
in the room. Bravo was gone too however - he would be too stoked
for the next round, and understandbly so.

As
for Royler Gracie, he is a gracious, unbelieveable champion and
his unbelievable streak at ADCC sees him as the only 3X tournament
champ in his weight class. In defeat, all he asked for was one
more chance, and he would be heard from again. But this moment
woke everyone up - this tourney was on, and there were to be
no questions asked - the fighters came to fight, to give there
all and to leave it in the ring, and they should be commended.

Baret
took out 'Soca' in the seminfinals to set up a final of Baret
and Leo. Leo would eat up Bravo, 15-0 as Bravo would get an injury
and bow out of the 3-4 fight. Royler would be back in the 3-4
spot, facing 'Soca' an excellent, gifted stylist who has faced
the nemesis of Royler his entire career. On short notice, it
is hard to say how hard this was on Soca, who must want to face
anyone but Royler, but for Gracie it was just what the doctor
ordered. He would beat Soca, and earn 3rd place.

In
the finals, Veiera would prove strong and fit. Yoshida is all
heart, and his guard has been described as 'infernal', but Leo
was not going to play that game. He stayed real busy, circling
and darting in, playing but never getting in too deep. His game
was more complete, and Baret would finish 2nd again. It is interesting
to speculate how a Royler-Baret or Royler-Leo match would have
gone, but we now know anything is possible. Yahra - Baret would
have been something to behold as well, as the 18 year old Amazonian
can play with anyone as well! the fastest weight division is
wide open and filled with talent.

LEO
VEIEIRA is the new champion at 65.99 KG. Leo is a special athlete,
and he was the guy that had Royler Gracie the most worried in
the division. He has been destroying people, playing with them
in JJ in his Japanese appearances, a Jiu Jitsu insider once confided
quietly, almost sacrilegiously, 'Listen, Rickson is #1, but Veiera
is #2 - his techniques are really that new and fresh right now'.

And
most impressively, he had a gameplan for everybody - he was scouting
Bravo, watching his matches, and he had a gameplan operational
for Yoshida as well. Watching Veiera, it is possible to say that
he is talented and complete enough to inherit Royler's mantle
as the cream of the crop at this weight class. There may have
been more than 1 guy in this tourney capable of taking out Royler,
but no one was ready for LEOZINHO.

66-76.9
LG

Perhaps the single biggest revelation of the tournament would
be mild mannered, unassuming MARCELLO GARCIA. Trained by Fabio
Gurghel, Garcia had impressed in the Brazilian Trials, but had
finished 2nd to DANIEL MORAES. Garcia took a -1 for playing guard
in the finals of the TRIALS, and lost as Moraes used a stifling,
defensive top position style to take Garcia out.

In
the world championships, Moraes would lose to Matt Hume student
OTTO OLSON, as Moraes would not get top position on the wrestler.
Olson would ground out local star FERNANDO TERERE as he took
out a few big BJJ names before running into Garcia in the finals.

PABLO
POPOVICH the American Qualifier took out defending World Champion
MARCIO FEITOSA, in another example of how the field was highly
competitive throughout.

Meanwhile
Garcia was churning through his bracket, taking out PANCRASE
star Kiuma Kunioku in round 1 and serving notice in Round 2 with
an unbelievable matchup with Renzo Gracie. He won the position
battle all night, getting to backs and finishing. Renzo had come
in shape, very fit at 169 lbs, the weight class he has been a
2x Champion at ADCC. He was fit and ready to go - he takes this
competition very seriously. To Renzo's credit, he would not go
down without a fight, but he lost on points to a younger gun,
and another ADCC tournament champion was gone. The field was
wide open. Garcia would throw the entire building into a frenzy
in Round 3, when he left SHAOLIN RIBEIRO asleep in :20 seconds
with a choke. Shaolin had defeated JASON RAMSTETTER in round
1 and taken Popovich out in round 2, and was one of the favorites
going in.

Another
favorite going into the night was Australian olympic wrestler
CHRIS BROWN. Brown returns to the competition known as the man
who took Renzo Gracie out of the competition in 2001 in the weight
class above. He dropped in weight class, as did Renzo, but the
rematch never materialized.

Brown
took out MITSUHIRO ISHIDA, the Japanese stylist who came through
the 16 man Japan Trials in March. In round 2, he would engage
in a war of attrition with TONY DESOUSA who represented Peru
well - he is the first south american fighter not to be Brazilian
to make an impact - in fact, to even be invited. Desousa was
the alternate, who got in when DENNIS HALLMAN was a no show.

The
blood would pour. Desoua is a grinder, as he proved in his days
as a UFC up and comer. Now living in Peru, he has been out of
touch, but he showed himself to be a legit world class fighter
again. Brown is a 5x Olympian, and he is impossible to compete
against in the preparation for a long grinding battle. Perhaps
it was frustration, or just bad luck, but Desousa elbowed him
several times in the heat of battle, splitting Brown open and
getting a lengthy medical timout while Brown was bandaged. In
OT, Brown came out with his head competely wrapped like a mummy,
and he pulled out the win over Desousa.

To
get to the finals, it was wrestler against wrestler as Brown
took on Olson. Normally this match up edge would go to Brown,
but he was depleted, and Olson is definitely in the neigborhood
- he is absolutely huge for this weight class!

Brown would not be able to continue, as Olson opened the cut
up again and the blood poured freely. Brown would fight SHAOLIN
in the 3-4 match on day 2, but he was done for the competition.
Olson advances, looking like Fryklund at the UCC, covered in
Brown's blood.

In
the 3/4 match, Shaolin would get Brown's back and win on points.
Both men fought an extremely classy match, as Brown played JJ
in SHOALIN's guard and showed that the level down under is getting
really high. Shaolin for his part, earned 3rd and did not attack
Brown's head, giving the heavily bandaged cuts clearance while
still using an abundance of technique to dominate. Shaolin is
a classy superstar in the making.

Matt
Hume always does his homework. An insider saw him running around
the back area looking for info, any info on Garcia. Another insider
warned him 'watch him, play cautious to win, this kid is magic'
- someone who had seen the Brazilian Trials. Hume is always game
for a challenge, and to his credit Olson came out fighting, taking
it right to Garcia. Garcia was a train not to be stopped, and
he certainly proved he is the real deal. He caught Olson in the
choke, for a submission in the finals. The level of the event
has skyrocketed again, and the fact that there were submissions
in the finals again, rather than people holding on, show that
the athletes are giving the all to showcase there talents in
a world level competition.

Again,
the beauty of ADCC, is that as good as he looked, Marcello Garcia
would be heard from again in the ABSOLUTES. It would be a shame
if the commitment to the World Championships waned in the 2 years
to 2005.

77-87.9
LG

This weight class was extremely high in expectations. All the
qualifiers, especially ROBERT SULSKI of Europe, DAVID TERRELL
of the USA and JACARE of Brazil received high ratings coming
in. Add returning runner up and former world Champion SAULO RIBEIRO,
'COMPRIDO' MEDEIROS and MARGARIDA PONTES led the Jiu Jitsu contingent.
Wrestlers appeared as well, led by Olympic silver medalist MATT
LINDLAND, Purdue's DEVIAN PETERSON and AMC's REESE ANDY. Pancrase
was well represented with KING of PANCRASE NATHAN MARQUARDT,
veteran DENIS KANG of Canada and YUKI SASAKI in the weight class.

But
the talk was the BIG DOG, RICARDO ALMEIDA. Dropping to his natural
weight class, and one of ADCC's biggest stars, Almeida was the
favorite in many eyes. He looked focused and ready early, and
this tournament means so much to him. Cacharao is another example
of an athlete who left it all in the ring - he literally wanted
to die fighting by the end of the weekend, so spent and emotional
were his wars.

In
round 1, Integrated Fighting's DAVION PETERSON held off the BIG
DOG' s attempts to get him to the ground, making him work. The
points kicked in, and Davion got a takedown of his own, getting
up 2-0. Big Dog was working, and he sunk a nice guillotine to
get thru the first round, nine minutes in. The attrition had
already begun. Peterson had dropped in weight class, and made
weight easily. He replaced ERIK PAULSON, who came in at 206 and
fought a weight class up.

Matt
Lindland got by Japanese qualifier YUSHIN OKAMI using solid wrestling
and his strategy of staying strong, on top and in control. Afterwards,
when he had lost to submissions, Lindland talked about different
strategies, such as playing the stand up game like Veiera did.
The strategies and the sport are evolving and the top athletes
are showing they are evolving with it. Hopefully support for
the budding sport will continue!

Lindland
would succumb to JACARE, while RODRIGO 'COMPRIDO' MEDEIROS took
out the KING of PANCRASE Nathan Marquardt. Comprido would tangle
with Saulo Ribeiro in a HUGE match of Jiu Jitsu stylists in round
2, Brazilian versus Brazilian. Australia's LARRY PAPADAPOULOUS
submitted last minute replacement KEN KRONENBERG who moved up
a weight class when MARC LAIMON got injured in the last training
session before the event.

In
Round 2 Almeida would take out AMC wrestler REESE ANDY - the
AMC guys would always come prepared, and Reese would impact the
ABSOLUTE tournament significantly.

Former
ADCC Champion SAULO RIBEIRO would have emotional hard battles
the entire tournament. Medeiros is always dangerous, as they
have competed against each other before and both come away with
wins. Ribeiro is a champion who imposes his will in his bouts,
and he is strong and has gas to go through long fights. He has
a defensive style that is hard to beat, but his style also forces
him to grind out hard fights. This would catch up to him in the
ABSOLUTES, though he was defintely emerging as the strongest
competitor in the weight class, even after hard fights. He got
points for takedown on Comprido, earning some votes for best
throw.

The
hard road would start for Saulo with a controversial match with
young DAVID TERRELL, the American Qualifier who had never been
scored on in any grappling tournament, and is the pride of teacher
CESAR GRACIE's American academy. He took the match to the overtime.
This is a battle of two defensive stylists, both winners with
winning strategies, but at ADCC, the rules sometimes dont favor
a defensive style, so funny things happen. Some think Terrel
gave Saulo a run for his money - but the once and future champion
had experienced a real tough 15 minutes - he would have to have
full tank of gas to get to the end of the journey.

David
Terrel made an impact, though there was some talk about his Margarida
match. Margarida pulled off two HUGE german suplexes, put lost
on a -1 when he dropped to guard. Margarida was a late addition,
but he was in the trials and he has never been to an ADCC rules
meeting - he doesn't know the rules, and Terrel won. Terrel would
return in the 3/4 match, feeling like he had something to prove,
game face on.

The
other bracket featured another BRAZIL v. BRAZIL war - JACARE
versus CACHARRAO. The energy level from both fighters was sky
high - repeated battles to take down each other made for stalemate
after stalemate. After 15 minutes, one OT, none of the judges
could pick a winner.

The
rules meeting was clear - if it was 0-0 after the first OT, the
judges would pick a winner - they would go on impressions if
need be: the fighter who spent more time moving forward, or was
more attempting to engage would be given the victory. After a
lengthy conference, a precedence was issued - the judges couldnt
pick a clear winner by any criteria, so the fighters were told
they would fight until points were scored.

What
ensued would rewrite the record books of ADCC as the longest
match in the tournaments! But not a moment was spent without
action as the two locked horns in a stale mate for two more OT's.

Cacharrao
is a special athlete - great fighter, but his attitude about
a fight is what sets him apart. He was not going to give up,
he was not going to back off from the onslaught of Jacare. One
of the VIP's was heard to say 'They are so evenly matched, it
is scary.' And they were - for 25 minutes. Cacharrao and the
brilliant newcomer battled with no give. It took nearly 1/2 hour
for one of them to catch the other - and when it happened, both
men redefined themselves again.

The
beaming smile of JACARE could be felt around the arena - the
boy was joyful, and his smile carries a lot of star power. He
is one of the discoveries of the tournament. The gutteral scream
of dissappointment issued by Almeida was the cry of a man who
was giving his all, of a man whose realization that on this day,
his best was not good enough and that his efforts at winning
this weight division where not enough. The realization was more
painful than anything to Cacharrao. Far from being a death cry,
Almeida really showed himself to be an athlete whose fighting
spirit will keep him at the pinnacle of the sport for a long
time. The fans of Mixed Martial Arts want to pay to see this
guy - he has star power!

But
it would be a day for the boy from the North of Brazil, Jacare.
The 'Crocodile' has a reputation for having an endless tank of
gas, and he blasted his way through the incredibly tough Brazilian
Trials looking ready to take on the world. Jacare took Cacaharao's
back for points in the 4th OT, securing the win. His match against
Saulo Ribeiro in the finals was set.

In
the 3/4 match, Cesar Gracie student versus Renzo Gracie student.
It would be David Terrel who would finish quickly, catching Cacharrao
in a footlock that caused a scream for the tap out. Cacharrao
was beat up, but he would enter his name into the absolutes.

It
should be noted that ADCC has sometimes had some matches that
are called 'questionable'. There have been situations where teammates
have met, or relatives and the results were a match that may
be less than 100%.

No
one was aware of this more than the ADCC - and steps were taken
this year to prevent it. Entries were scrutinized more closely,
waivers were signed about pre arranged fights, and a warning
was issued by the judges early in the tournament. In the past,
the matchups were there, and in Jiu Jitsu, the traditional 'closing
of the coffin' occurs, and teammates share the spoils. The fighters
responded to the challenge with unquestionably the most REAL
submission wrestling tournament of all time. Congratulations
to all the fighters, but especially the Brazilians, who many
times engaged in internecine war against each other. A historic
tournament occured and it could only have been this way - the
fighters and the ADCC organization have responded to the question
- THIS IS 100% REAL. This tournament will be proof.

The
77-87.9 KG Class was by now total combat. Ribeiro comes off a
grueling battle, and Jacare comes of the eventual 'Match of the
Night'.

When
you go to war, there is no one better to have in your corner
than Saulo Ribeiro. He is a thinker and a fighter, and he plays
the whole game, covers the whole canvas. He is a 6x BJJ World
Champion, and by the end of the day, he would have his 2nd ADCC
World Championship. And in many ways, this tournament's hardest
road was walked by Saulo.

Saulo
is part of a team of elites. Royler Gracie and he are a formidable
1-2 punch, winning everything in JJ, surmounting every challenge.
At this point, Saulo is so decorated that he walks his own road,
he corners Gracie, but there will always be a part of him that
will see Gracie as a senior, revered figure. That Saulo had to
deal with the effects of Royler's tap should not go beyond notice.

Saulo
is also mentoring his younger brother Xande, who was writing
an odyssey of his own in the tournament's 98 KG weight class.
Xande took out Dean Lister, who would later own the Absolute
class, but Xande's corner work was no less taxing on Saulo, who
emotionally was working overtime while preparing for competition.

And
across the mat stood the merciless Jacare - at this point riding
his own wave of momentum. It would take Saulo into the OT period,
and he would have to fight the whole way, complaining to the
judges, talking to Jacare, imploring himself, gesturing to the
crowd, but he would finally catch up to Jacare and take him down.
From there, Jacare showed his limitation - if you can keep him
on his back.... And Saulo emerged as the 2003 87.99 KG Champion
- his 2nd ADCC World Championships.

Another
thing people don't know about Saulo - he has long looked at Mark
Kerr as beatable, and no doubt Arona and the superfight were
in his agenda. He came in much better shape than the 2001 Saulo,
and he certainly put his name into the ABSOLUTES. The question
was, had he already paid the price in grueling matches? Saulo
would fight close to 75 total minutes this weekend, more than
any other athlete - a remarkable record.

88-98.9
KG

It
is Brazil's second ground art. The practitioners of LUTA LIVRE
have traditionally been rivals of Jiu Jitsu - poorer kids, the
word was that Luta Livre and JJ were not on the same level.

Now
comes ALEXANDRE FERREIRA into the mix. Yes he is from the poor
side of Rio, and he has dedicated his life to the art of Luta
Livre, but with his unbelievable strength and physical stature
comes a training regimen under Ruas Vale Tudo and ROBERTO LEITAO
that has lifted Luta Livre to the very elite of grappling.

Ferreira
would finish 2nd in his weight class and in the ABSOLUTE - an
unbeleivable performance that sees him emerge as a major threat
to be in future superfights. Normally a defensive fighter, Cacareco
was winning, but absorbing negative points under ADCC's 'anti-stalling'
rules, as defensive fighters are at risk to do. It was then that
the coach changed the ball game - Cacareco came out and finished
matches - the strategic adjustment was made, the techniques were
there in Luta Livre, and Cacareco should be hailed as the poster
boy who took the art from the favella!

In
the finals of what would be a grueling weight class, Cacareco
would meet JON OLAV EINMO - from Norway, one of the richest countries
in the world, Einmo has shown a dedication to MMA fighting and
to Submission Wrestling in the 2 years since ADCC 2001 that have
seen him become Europe's top Mixed Martial Artist. Now, could
he perform on the world stage again?

Einmo
answered all questions by tearing up the competition. Einmo would
get warmed up in the early rounds by taking out BRANDON VERA
in round 1 and Australian LARRY PAPADAPOULOUS in round 2.

Einmo
was looking forward to rematching Cacareco, who had taken him
out of the 2001 World Championships - and he would let everyone
in the competition know he meant business with a definitive win
over ROGER GRACIE, the man who had eliminated legends RIGAN MACHADO
and MARIO SPERRY. He rode the young Brazilians back on the ground
and standing for several minutes before finishing with the submission.
Einmo had Cacareco firmly in his sites now.

OVER
99 KG

Drop outs affected this tournament, as ROGER NEFF, RICCO RODRIGUEZ
and TOM ERICKSON weakened the American team and the depth of
the division substantially. In true ADCC fashion - several INCREDIBLE
upsets and new faces from out of no where would make this one
of the most exciting ACCC heavyweight tournaments of all time!

JEFF
MONSON would start his tourney with a win over look a like European
Qualifier MIKA ILMAN of Finland.

Pe
de Pano began his inevitable road to the world championship with
a submission win over American qualifier MIKE WHITEHEAD. Whitehead,
a big wrestler, ran into one of the ore focused guys out there
- Pe de Pano expected to wein his class and the Absolutes - and
his road had begun.

Japanese
star TUYOSHI KOSAKA would lose to upstart FABRIZIO WERDUN. Fabrizio
attended the event with Mark Kerr, as his BJJ instructor, and
at 6'3, 230 lbs, he offered to compete if need be. When the drop
outs mounted, Werdun was in, and he would make his mark. Kosaka
was merely the first to fall.

Palestinian/American
JIHAD HAMDAN took out massive TATA Duarte, but it took him an
overtie to do it. At 220 lbs, Jihad is one of the strongest guys
out there, but tackling 350 + lbs of TATA would tax the all-american
wrestler for round 2.

ADCC
star SEAN ALVAREZ would take out French stand out KRISTOF MIDOUX
in a hard fought fight.

Brazilian
TOP TEAM's ALEX ARAUJO would take out Japanese Qualifier JUN
ISHII. In round 2, Araujo would wipe out Alvarez 8-0, the boy
was gaining confidence. He would lose quickly to PE DE PANO,
who earned fastest submission in this match.

MIKE
VAN ARSDALE would mount an all out attack on massive South African
MARK ROBINSON. Robinson came in with a defensive strategy, and
he is indeed hard to take down, but this year in Abu Dhabi, if
the matches were 0-0, the judges favored the fighter who was
moving forward, trying to engage.

The
3-4 match between Araujo and Van Arsdale ended quickly, as Araujo
would be very focused for the 2nd straight day, catching the
submission early for the 3rd place finish.

SUPERFIGHT

MARK KERR (USA) versus RICARDO ARONA (Brazil)

The
matchup was 20 minutes, and it occured on Saturday night as ther
grand finale of the first day. Kerr was in the back, and there
was some concern over his condition even before the fight. To
his credit, he came out and gave it his all, but his all is clearly
not what it used to be.

Arona
would get an early advantage, on a 2 point takedown that occured
too early to score points. Under the ADCC structure, the match
would go to Arona on advantage after 1 OT, if the score remained
0-0. The match would be up on it's feet at the 10 minute mark,
when the point sytem kicked in, Kerr was tired already, sucking
wind. It would be 0-0 at the end of 20 minutes of regulation,
where Arona really established the pace throughout, but Kerr
held him off. Several times throughout the match, Kerr would
complain about incidental headbutts - Kerr would shoot sloppy
and Arona would sprawl - when Kerr was slow getting up, Arona
would charge and they butted heads many times. Kerr used the
occassions to suck for air, and the Brazilian fans let him know
about it. Arona stayed focused, as it was obvious it would only
be a matter of time.

Heading
into the OT, Kerr would approach the judges, stating 'OT is 5
minutes'. This was another sad attempt to gain time, since Kerr
himself fought a 10 minute extra period at ADCC 2001 with Mario
Sperry. The judge responded, '10 minutes' and Kerr asked 'since
when?' The final answer was 'since Roberto Traven and Sperry
fought two of them'. Kerr would not survive the next 10 minutes
and he knew it. Arona finally scored a takedown, 4 points, obtaining
side control position. Kerr was controlled for 3 seconds, giving
Arona the 4-0 edge. The few people in the place went nuts! Kerr
would be forced to work to catch up, and his tank bottomed out.
Time ran out, and Kerr was done. Hopefully, this is not a sign
that his demons are back to haunt him, but he must get in shape
if he is to fight again.

THE
ABSOLUTE:

MARCIO
CRUZ PE DE PANO

YUKI SASAKI

MIKE
VAN ARSDALE

MARCELO GARCIA

NATHAN
MARQUARDT

DEAN LISTER

JEFF
MONSEN

SAULO RIBEIRO

ANDY
REESE

MARK ROBINSON

ALEXANDRE
CACARECO

RODRIGO MEDEIROS

AKIRA
SHOJI

MITSUHIRO ISHIDA

FABRICIO
WERDUN

MATT LINDLAND

The
draw is done by an international panel of insiders and the local
promoters, with all applicant names going in a hat. Votes are
cast 1-10, the criteria is: 'What are the chances that this fighter
can win an 16 man open class tourney in the ADCC style?' Votes
are added up, and the top 16 go. Sevgeral fighters drop out,
and as the original draw is looked back upon, DEAN LISTER was
the 20th seed going in. History was starting to write itself
again.

The
opening match featured MARCIO CRUZ, the top seeded choice to
win the open weight tournament, against Japan's SASAKI, a Pancrase
star who lost to Saulo Ribeiro in round 1 of the 77-87.9 KG class.
Sasaki came out close to 50 lbs lighter, and he jogged back to
the arena from the hotel as a warmup for the match, since the
ABSOLUTE draw gives fighters very little time. PE DE PANO was
focused on sweeping both his weight class and the ABSOLUTE -
so he was ready to complete the task he is famous for in Jiu
Jitsu - sweep the weight class and the ABSOLUTE.

Sasaki
would prove to be more pesky than Cruz bargained for. Cruz played
the top postion, smothering the lighter guy and workin gto get
points. At one point, Sasaki turtled to stand, and Cruz jumped
on his back pretending to surf - really a classless move. Sasaki
kept fighting, and he achieved something noteworthy - a reversal
for a 2 point score.

In
ADCC, many matches result in a shutout, as the scramble to consolidate
a position for 3 seconds result in fierce struggles when both
competitors understand the rules completely. Sasaki got back
to 7-2 before succumbing to the bigger man's pressure again,
but it is a mark for the Japanese stylists throughout the competition
- they come to go for it - and there would be another example
in the ABSOLUTES as well.

The
second match featured American wrestler MIKE VAN ARSDALE against
MARCELLO GARCIA, who was already the darling of the competition.
Van Arsdale, an olympic level wrestler whose ability to compete
makes him dangerous at all times, is susceptible to tricky submissions,
so Gurghel's young wizard was the worst possible matchup for
the aging star. Van Arsdale struggled to keep it up, but Garcia's
attacks made him look bad, so he had to wade in and fight - an
honorable warrior. Garcia was still sharp, and he caught the
submission shortly after - Van Arsdale was submitted in under
5 minutes by the Brazilian HARRY POTTER.

Next
up, DEAN LISTER would start his unlikely odyssey, taking on KING
of PANCRASE NATHAN MARQUARDT in the first round of the ABSOLUTES.
Lister had been the unlikely 20th seed going in, and after several
drop outs, he got the call - he was just pumped to fight again.
Marquardt is tough and proven, rising to the top of Japan's tough
PANCRASE division, but Dean was a little more technical and a
little bigger and stronger - Lister was through via submission.

Marquardt,
SHAOLIN, etc. Many good MMA fighters, indeed top MMA fighters
were proving that their instincts are not as finely tuned for
this as the submission-only fighters.

Immediately,
SAULO RIBEIRO was at war again, this time battling another former
World Champion in ADCC, JEFF MONSON. This one was 0 to 0 after
an OT, since both battled hard for a stalemate. Monson deserves
credit for being more active than he has been known to be, but
Saulo is really imcredible at all aspects - his takedown defense
was more than enough to keep him safe. He tried a fair number
of takedowns as well, and his shots were good - he picked a leg,
pressured Monsen - the best takedown attempt of the match. After
15 minutes, it went to Saulo on advantage.

Yes,
when the decision was issued, Monson did throw his shirt and
things into the audience, after protesting to the judges. In
a final gesture of frustration, Monson tore off his TOP TEAM
pants, throwing them to the crowd as well. Today, they hang in
a sandwich shop in Sao Paulo.

But
Saulo would have won his last match - the tournament had eaten
another champion.

The
next match would provide another defining moment - MARK ROBINSON,
the gigantic South African who had won the 99KG and over class
in 2001, had been eliminated in round 1 of the weight tournament,
but was still considered a favorite in the ABSOLUTES. He would
meet REESE ANDY, an American wrestler trained by Matt Hume, who
came in with a gameplan and a lot of athletic ability.

Robinson's
style is hard to score on, he is simply a block with massive
strength and takedown defenses. Unfortunately, his game is limited,
and at 40, he came in a step slower this year, though fit. He
was unable to get Andy down. After Andy pressured the first half
of the match, he tired of trying to scale the mountain. Robinson
smashed Andy with a massive headbutt (some judges even thought
it deliberate), he was warned and called for a point.

Andy
was able to stay up, and Robinson did pressure, but he could
not get down a man he outweighed by 30 kilos - and he was gone
from the tournament in the first round. But Andy will have paid
the price as well.

People
may still not have been paying attention to CACARECO. In fact,
PE DE PANO was not the only Jiu Jitsu stylist in this tournament
with an rep for handling the ABSOLUTE class - RODRIGO COMPRIDO
had won 2 black belt world championships in the ABSOLUTES, and
he was focused. But Cacareco came in and sunk a guillotine that
put the young hopeful out of the tournament. Cacareco was in
the house.

AKIRA
SHOJI and MITSUHIRO ISHIDA battled hard in a match of fellow
countrymen. Shoji is a major star with Japan's PRIDE organization,
and Ishida has impressed in the ADCC style with great takedowns
and activity. In Japan, he swept a 16 man tournament in the Trials,
the only trial winner to withstand such a test. He would prove
to small for Shoji, but this little guy is someone to watch as
well.

Starting
to build a head of steam of his own, FABRIZIO WERDUN was eager
to go. He envisioned meeting PE DE PANO in a rematch of the controversial
99 KG finals. Across from him stood MATT LINDLAND, whose mind
was already beginning to adjust to the game, playing position,
working the stand up better. With a competitior like Matt, you
always have to be careful.

Werdeun would catch up to Lindland quickly, submitting him with
a violent armlock early on.

And
then, there were eight...

MARCIO
PE DE PANO

MARCELLO GARCIA

SAULO
RIBEIRO

DEAN LISTER

ALEXANDRE
CACARECO

REESE ANDY

FABRIZIO
WERDUN

AKIRA SHOJI

PE
de PANO used his size to crush Garcia, slowing the hometown boy's
all out attacking game. He snuffed out Garcia, scoring points
for position, but failing to submit Garcia. Pe advances, but
he seemed to try to rest at times during this match, he had been
through some grueling fightss

Ribeiro
and Lister battled hard again, but Saulo was beginning to show
some wear, and Lister was beginning to gain momentum. In the
end, Lister finished with a leglock, as a resigned Saulo gave
up his fight on this day.

CACARECO
and Reese Andy went at each other full steam, both very strong
wrestlers. Andy was a little spent after his battle with the
giant, and Cacareco caught him in the submission to advance again.
He had adjusted his strategy, and he was catching people and
getting thru quickly, efficiently.

Werdum
was forced to work hard by Shoji, but eventually he caught the
smaller fighter in a submission. Cacareco would prove too strong
for Werdum - he had a ahead of steam and he was coming off two
quick matches. He would take Werdun down, he lost some points
for getting up anmd retreating, and Werdum pressured with a lot
of submission attempts, but Cacareco would get through with a
5-0 win.

On
the other side, DEAN LISTER took all that PE DE PANO could throwe
at him. He was mounted, in a head and arm choke for several minutes
but he stayed relaxed, stayed on the defernse, and he wore out
PE DE PANO. Slowly, but inevitably, he won a scramble, and Dean
was out and on Pe De Pano's back. They fought until the last
seconds of the bout, and Dean would secure the hooks - and the
win, 3-0. The Werdun-Pe De Pano rematch had materialized, but
it would be as the 3/4 match.

Werdum
would be very focused, he would want a piece of Pe De Pano. Cruz
always comes to fight, but it was the end of a long road, anf
he had spent a lot of emotion fighting with the crowd - this
proved counter productive in the long run, and he would be out
of gas in the finals. Werdum would make it 1-1 in the series,
as he would win the rematch and 3rd place in the Absolutes.

Lister
would square off against Cacareco, and the battle was on. Cacareco
was pressing the action, and at one point he caught his guillotine
in deep. Lister, for the second match in a row, was in a choke
for an extended period of time. Here is where the Dean Lister
'CHAMPION' was born - he stayed patient and calm, worked the
defense, stayed out of trouble, breathed. It would be unbelieveable,
but he worked free - and then he won a scramble, elected to go
for the footlock game, Cacareco was defending. Dean was dictating
the pace of the match, Lister had a date with destiny. Lister
won by submission, ending the tournament with a definitive load
POP as he torqued the leg of Cacareco. Lister, with class, would
express immediate concern for his opponent, before celebrating.
Cacareco's run was over, but in the tourney and the absolute,
he would be the highest placing Brazilian, an amazing performance.

But
the ABSOLUTES this year, in 2003 were about DEAN LISTER. he would
survuve a lacklaster first day, he came in big enough to deal
with the heavy guys, stil lskilled enough to do his thing...
the stars were aligned correctly, and a new ADCC star was born.

CONCLUSION

What
is clear beyond a doubt is that the qualifier system works -
MARCELLO GARCIA, DEAN LISTER, RONALDO Jacare, DAVID TERRELL,
PE de PANO - all fighters who added their own chapters to the
2003 event history, came from the Qualifiers. Each year, the
level of the event takes a leap, and it is because the 'unknowns'
and the qualifiers are coming in at a sky high level.

The
Greatest of all time? Only time will tell, as the fans of MMA
get to see and hear more about this tournament. The sport of
Submission Wrstling re-defined itself, and the athletes poured
there souls out on the mats. In vicotry and in defeat, this tournament
has revolutionized what the sport of Mixed Martial Arts could
be!

Last
Attempt

After a long day of reading your favorite webpage, I bet you
are hungry for some cookies huh?

5/27/03

Quote
of the Day

"Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole
world will be clean."

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Fighters'
Club TV Tonight!

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

8:30 PM

Channel 52

Episode 10 features:

Highlights from
the 2002 NAGA Tournament.

-interviews w/ Coordinator Eric Goo & President Kip Kolar,
and Superfight

Champ Ronn Shiraki

-Grappling footage of:

-808 Fight Factory's Jim Kikuchi and Ronald Jhun

-Grappling Unlimited's Will Hagerty and Anthony Torres

-Relson Gracie students (the Furutas, Ronn Shiraki, A.J.)

-Longman Jiu Jitsu students

and, your two favorite
hosts, Mike Onzuka and Mark Kurano (Mike actually

smiles and delivers a joke at the end!)

Summer
Heat II Martial Arts Tournament

King Intermediate School Gym, Kaneohe

Sunday, June 8, 2003

Registration and weigh-in starts at 8:30 a.m.

Competition begins at 9:30a.m. sharp!

Where: King Intermediate School Gym, Kaneohe

Featuring:

USSJA Sport Jujitsu

Extreme (Continuous) Sparring

Kumite

Kata

Weapons

Entry Fee: $20.00 Per event.

Admission: $2.00

Presented by Kempo Unlimited Hawaii and Yin Kui Tsin Hao Kempo.

For more information contact Tommy Lam at 778-3601 or Kimo Robello
at 220-7113.

Thank
you for your time!

Tommy Lam

Source: Tommy Lam

ADCC
2003 Aftermath

Brazilian Team Titles Quick Results

by: Kid Peligro / ADCC JJ Editor

ADCC 2003 was arguably the best ever with great fights and incredible
surprises. In the aftermath of the event we've contacted some
of the participants to find out what they are up to:

Under
65 KG champion Leo Vieira has been busy helping Vitor Belfort
prepare for his upcoming U.F.C. match with Marvin Eastman. The
Master Team star plans to accompany Belfort to the US and be
in his corner.

U65
Royler Gracie is in Australia for a series of seminars. Royler
has been in such high demand there that word is that some of
his reps and friends are near fighting to get an 'audience' with
him. Royler comes back to Brazil on the beginning of June only
to go for more seminars.

Eddie
Bravo returned home and was awarded a well deserved Black Belt
from his instructor Jean Jacques Machado.

77KG
Champion Marcello Garcia was fighting for Alliance team and leading
his team to a second place finish.

88KG
Champion Saulo Ribeiro is relaxing with his wife Sabrina on a
resort island in northern Brazil. The 'Manster' is also planning
to release some new products that are to this point tighly guarded
secrets.

Marcio
'Pe de Pano' Cruz also fought in the national team event and
despite winning all his matches his team lost to Alliance in
the semi's

Absolute
Champion Dean Lister stayed in Brazil for a few days of relaxation,
visiting friends and yes, training. Dean was spotted at some
of the best academies in the city including Gracie Barra

Brazilian
Team Titles Quick Results

The
Brazilian Team event took place this weekend at the Tijuca Tennis
Club. The team event is always a great tourney with lots of crazy
matches. Gracie Barra won the lightweight division over Carlson/U.G.F.
Team 3 x 1. In the heavyweights it was the match between previous
teammates as Master defeated Alliance 3 x 1.

More
on this later this week.

Source: ADCC/Kid Peligro

DSE/PRIDE
Announces all PRIDE 26matches

PRIDE.26
REBORN

Date: June 8th 2003

Place: Yokohama Arena

Open:16:30 Start: 18:00

1st
Match:

Nino "Elvis" Schembri (Brazil/Gracie Barra Academy)

vs.

Kazuhiro Hamanaka (Japan/Takada Dojo)

2nd
Match:

Anderson Silva (Brazil/Chute Boxe Academy)

vs.

Daiju Takase (Japan/Free)

3rd
Match:

Ricardo Arona (Brazil/Brazilian Top Team)

vs.

Alistair Overeem (Holland/Golden Glory)

4th
Match:

Qinonton "Rampage" Jackson (USA/Team Punishment)

vs.

Mikhail Ilioukhine (Russia/Russian Top Team)

5th
Match:

Don Frye (USA/Free)

vs.

Mark Coleman (USA/Hammer House)

6th
Match:

Mirko Cro Cop (Croatia/Cro Cop Squad Gym)

vs.

Heath Herring (USA /Golden Glory)

7th
Match:

PRIDE Heavyweight champion

Emelianenko Fedor (Russia/Russian Top Team)

vs.

Kazuyuki Fujita (Japan/Inoki Office)

Source: Koichi "Booker K" Kawasaki

ADCC
2003: under 65.9 KG Finals - HOW I SAW IT!

by: Marcello Tetel

Leo Vieira X Baret
Yoshida
- This match is was one people couldn't predict a winner. Baret
Yoshida is coming back to a final match after a big strategy
mistake in 2001 and in the other side we have Leo vieira, the
man who beat the man who beat the champion.

Since
his match against Soca in the semifinals, people were saying
that Baret needed to rest up, since we all saw he was exhausted
after the match with Soca. On the other hand we all know that
when Leo starts the engines he goes full until there's no more
fuel. This would be part of this match.

The
other very important thing is about strategy. Baret showed an
improved game plan but does it matters when fighting someone
like Leo?

They
started from the standup changing grips and clinches until Leo
got the takedown when no points were awarded still. From this
point we saw Leo fighting for the passed guard unsucessfully
but at the same time dictating the pace of the fight and completely
dominating the action. Baret tried everything from submissions
to sweeps but was never even close to a good move. Leo drove
Baret during the whole fight scoring the takedown and Baret,
once more desperate, pulled him to his guard getting minus.

This
was the first time Leo fought in ADCC in his real weight division
and it was the first time he really trained for it. He was focused,
did his homework about the favorites and his cardio was like
he had 2 hearts so no matter who would be the opponents, I would
say Leo would not loose this championship anyway. ADCC has a
new 66Kg champion and his name is Leonardo Vieira!

And
this is how I saw it.

Source: ADCC

UFC
Denies Signing Briggs

By Josh Gross

Refuting a report by mmaweekly.com that Zuffa has signed Shannon
Briggs to fight on its UFC 44 card, UFC President Dana White
told MaxFighting.com on Monday afternoon that neither party has
agreed to terms that would bring the former top-10 heavyweight
boxer into the Octagon. "Not only do we not have a deal,"
White said, "we have never come close to a deal with Shannon.
The chances of Shannon fighting in the UFC are slim to none."

As
of Monday, UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia is absent an opponent
for the September fight card. Talks with Gan McGee have stalled.
It appears Briggs, who more than likely would have gotten a UFC
title shot in his first mixed martial arts bout, will not step
into the Octagon. That leaves limited options, one of which could
be Frank Mir should he get past Wes Sims on June 6.

Source: Maxfighting

Briggs
to Fight for Zuffa?

The
internet rumors are swirling about whether the suits at Zuffa
and the former heavyweight boxing contender, Shannon Briggs have
inked a deal to fight in the cage, under MMA rules.

Briggs
has had meetings with the UFC brass, however, no deal had been
signed. Briggs no doubt will not settle for MMA money when he
has a possible cash cow payday with a could happen match against
Tyson. Briggs, famous for putting Lewis on the canvas would be
the biggest name boxer to ever set foot in the Octagon. But in
reality, his asking price would be out of reach for a business
that struggles jump the 100,000 ppv buy hurdle per event. If
Briggs' stature in the boxing community is any indication, the
UFC should steer clear of an obvious 6 to 7 figure asking price.
Briggs has trouble garnering enough hype in boxing.

Source: MMA Ring Report

WHAT
KIND OF IMPACT WOULD BRIGGS HAVE ON MMA?

BOXER VS UFC FIGHTER: LET'S SEE IT AGAIN

I
know it's a long shot, I know the world wants Chuck Liddell vs
Tito Ortiz. Let me go on record saying I WANT to see Liddell
fight Ortiz. Let me also go on record by saying, I haven't been
drinking when I make this next statement. I believe it wouldn't
be a bad thing to see Ortiz actually fight somebody else besides
Liddell. It's this one certain opponent that would set pay per
view records.... No it's not Vanderlei Silva, no it's not Royce
Gracie, no it's not Chuck Liddell. It's actually Shannon Briggs?

Shannon
Briggs vs Tito Ortiz. Yes I said it with a straight face and
no, I haven't lost my mind . Is it a long shot? Of course it
is.....or on second thought, is it?

Here
you have Briggs who actually WANTS to fight in mixed martial
arts. The former heavyweight boxer has been training with the
legendary MMA stable, "The American Top Team". He has
been learning art of the ground game.

On
the other side, you have UFC Bad boy Champion Tito Ortiz, who
actually WANTS this fight in a bad way. Tito said he is ready
to make it happen. So why then is this fight a pay per view bonanza?

Easy.
It once again answers the 10 year old question from UFC 1. What
happens when a legit boxer fights a legit UFC fighter? Before
you think the question has been answered, ask yourself this question.
Has that question REALLY been answered? In my opinion, no.

Has
the MMA world ever seen a legit boxer in the Octagon? Well, kind
of. Art Jimmerson was a pro boxer, but most people consider him
a journeyman by all accounts with a 34-18 record.

Heavyweight
Melton Bowen had a respectable record at 35-8, but never beat
a legit fighter. Basically Bowen lost to notable's like Briggs
by KO in the first round, lost to Tony Tubbs by decision, and
lost to Carl "The Truth" Williams by KO. His record
was impressive, but he fought his share of tomato cans.

When
Bowen fought in the UFC, he did o.k. against policeman Steve
Jennum. He landed some good shots, but in the end, it was Jennum
securing the arm bar for the win.

Shannon
Briggs on the other hand, would be the most high profile, "legit"
boxer in the HISTORY of the UFC to actually step in the Octagon.
This has pay per view buys written all over it. Some people close
to DirecTV have told MMAWeekly.com that the last edition of the
UFC, (UFC 42,) only sold 40,000 pay per view buys. It's hard
to believe a few short months ago we saw UFC 40 do 150,000 pay
per view buys and now a couple of months later, it drops like
the stock market. Only selling 40,000 pay per view buys.

Folks,
it's time to regroup and go for a pay per view record. What better
way to set a record, than having a world class boxer face a world
class mma fighter? While Shannon Briggs is not a top heavyweight
anymore, let's be honest, it's very EASY for the UFC to market
this fight.

Briggs
knocked down current heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Briggs
has beaten hall of famer George Foreman. He is a former WBO champion.
(The WBO is like the "interim" title in terms of significance.
Basically your average belt from K-Mart is more important, but
who cares, it's still some sort of championship.)

The
UFC could market this easily to the public. Here's the commercial.
"Shannon Briggs, former boxing champ who knocked down Lennox
Lewis....taking on UFC Champ Tito Ortiz..., who many consider
the baddest man on the planet...." "...What happens
when a former boxing champion fights against the current UFC
Champion??? "Find out at UFC 45."

Folks
this "freak show" which the mainstream media terms
the UFC; would become the biggest media bonaza in the history
of the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Does
anyone think for a moment that Max Kellerman from ESPN wouldn't
have Briggs on Friday Night Fights on ESPN? Could you imagine
a Briggs vs Tito smackoff, a la Shamrock & Ortiz, except
this time seen by true boxing fans? The boxing community would
be interested in buying the pay per view, just for the hell of
it. Just to "see what happens" when a legit pro boxer
fights a legit UFC fighter.

Then
Kellerman could do double duty and have the dynamic duo on his
shows "Around the Horn" and "Friday Night Fights"
on ESPN. Did I mention Fox Sports Network? How about NBC which
now televises boxing every Saturday. I don't think it's out of
the question that late night television would pick up this fight,
because it's an interesting concept.

Remember
Shamrock vs Ortiz brought in a solid audience by appearing on
one network and that was Fox Sports.

Imagine
going from one network to EIGHT networks to promote this fight!
Having ESPN, Fox Sports, CNN, NBC, ABC, etc...would give the
sport the most mainstream coverage in the history of the UFC.
More eyes would SEE this potential "grudge" match on
the simple gimmick of boxer vs UFC fighter that at anytime in
UFC history. The only thing that would be better would be Mike
Tyson vs Tito Ortiz, which won't happen because they are distant
acquaintences.

The
storylines are endless. Briggs 6'4 / 240 vs Ortiz 6'2 / 220 (the
weight won't matter for this one time fight). Briggs, the master
puncher with KO ability, vs Ortiz, the master grappler with ground
n pound skill.

Does
Chuck Liddell deserve the shot? Of course. Do I want to see Chuck
fight Tito, more than anything? Yes, but ultimately don't we
want to see this sport grow and the only way is for the world
to watch, NOT 40,000 people.

I've
seen the internet crowd say, put Briggs against Cabbage or Tank
first. You CAN'T do they type of match up, otherwise you kill
the pay per view buys. You are banking on the concept of a former
boxing champ fighting current UFC Champ. That's part of the storyline.
Part of the "glamour" of the concept is having champion
vs champion. Let's be honest, Tito Ortiz can speak and talk trash.
I'm not sure how many UFC fighters we have that could do the
same on national television in front of eight networks like Ortiz
could. He needs to be "our" champion against "boxing's"
to "sell" the angle.

The
sad part about the state of our sport is the fact we need a "Gimmick"
to get over with the mainstream sports audience. I'm NOT a fan
of gimmick matches, but I'm also not a fan of crappy pay per
view buys either.

The
ultimate gimmick of boxer vs cage fighter is simple, maybe stupid,
and unfortunately the only way Mom and Pop from New York might
be interested... because of their love for boxing. This would
become the biggest gimmick in UFC history and in my opinion may
be the only way the UFC can get pay per view buys they desperately
need at this stage of the game.

Source: MMA Weekly

5/26/03 Happy
Memorial Day!

Quote
of the Day

"I don't think anything is unrealistic if you believe you
can do it.

I think if you are determined enough and willing to pay the price,
you can get it done. "

Mike Ditka

Happy
Memorial Day!

Onzuka.com salutes all the men and women who have made the ultimate
sacrifice for all of the freedoms that we enjoy each and every
day. And to all the men and women that have or currently serve
in the armed forces that protect those freedoms each and every
day.

Memorial
Day Beach BBQ for the Relson Gracie Team

Today!

Everyone:

We are having one of our outings that we normally do for our
Academia Casca Grossa de Jiu-Jitsu on a three day holiday. As
always, everyone from Aiea, as well as, any Relson affiliated
school is welcome to hang out, talk story, play volleyball and
water football, and spend time with your families. We encourage
you to bring the wife/girlfriend and kids for a day of sun (hopefully)
and fun. This will give everyone a chance to get to know each
other outside of class and increase the strength of our team.

We normally set up camp at the key hole in the middle of Ala
Moana Beach Park, right next to the tennis courts. It is the
only spot that actually cuts in to the park.

We need people to come early to reserve our spot. As you can
probably tell, Lisa and I (and Brandon) are tired of always being
the ones that come early to set up.

It is a potluck so bring whatever you want. If you want to let
me know what you will bring, I will keep a tab and email everyone
again with the list so far so there are minimal duplications.
Here are the details in summary:

When: Monday, May 26

Where: Ala Moana Beach Park in the Key Hole

Time: 6:00 am - whenever

What to bring: Potluck, anything you want. So far we have chicken
and hamburgers confirmed.

Hope to see you there!

Team
Miletich on PPV

Did anyone out there tape the Team Miletich PPV special? If so,
can I borrow your tape? Please email me if you have a copy. I was looking forward
to seeing that.

Thanks - Chris

Car
Wash Info

We
are desparately trying to find a place that is highly visible
(to get more cars) and where the schedule is open for us to do
a fund raising car wash to fund raise for our team to go to the
World Championships in Brazil. If you know if a place, please
email us the location and contact info if possible and we will
jump on it.

We
have hit many gas stations, McDonald's Waipio, and Wal-Mart with
no luck so far. Everyone seems to be booked up for the rest of
the year.

Thanks!

2003
Hawaiian Championships of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Complete
Results

Thanks
to Jeff Tsuzuki for the results

Team Titles:

Team Points / # of Competitor:

Brazilian Freestyle / Nova Uniao

Relson Gracie / Longman

Grappling Unlimited

Gracie Kailua

808 Fight Factory

Navy

Kodenkan

Gamebred

ISA Academy

Hardknocks

Jesus Is Lord

Unattached

Points / Competitors

57 33

53 37

16 9

13 20

7 8

6 1

4 2

3 1

0 1

0 4

0 2

Most Technical Award:

Sage Yoshida

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu / HMC

Kids Gi Division

Lightweight:

1) Kai Kamaka

808 Fight Factory

2) Jace Justus

Gracie Kailua

Middleweight:

1) Sage Yoshida

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu / HMC

2) Ashlynn Justus

Gracie Kailua

Heavyweight:

1) Keani Nishigaya

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Stephanie Geltmachez

Gracie Kailua

Mens
White Belt

Super
Featherweight:

1) Joey Cantiberos

Nova Uniao / Eastside Jiu Jitsu

2) Alexander Hew

Gracie Kailua

Featherweight:

1) Art Fernandez

Gracie Kailua

2) Jim Kikuchi

808 Fight Factory

Lightweight:

1) Craig Davis

Nova Uniao

2) Josey Smith

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

Middleweight:

1) Ben Duquette

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Josiah Akau

Gracie Kailua

Light
Heavyweight:

1) Ikaika Almadova

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

2) Shawn Naone

Relson Gracie Team HK

Heavyweight:

1) Russell Mito

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

2) Keoni Patton

Relson Gracie

Super Heavyweight:

1) Hyatt Moore

Navy

2) Max Murray

Nova Uniao / Eastside Jiu Jitsu

Freeweight
215+:

1) Kaimiloa Chandler

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

2) Michael Palacay

Relson Gracie Casca Grossa

Open
Weight:

1) Kevin Calleon

Relson Gracie Team HK

2) Landon Rudolfo

Relson Gracie Casca Grossa

Mens Blue Belt

Featherweight:

1) Brad Scott

Relson Gracie

2) Kekoa Fonseca

Nova Uniao

Lightweight:

1) Kiah Petrie

Nova Uniao

2) Brandon Dela Cruz

Nova Uniao

Middleweight:

1) Ahmed Diallo

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Mike Justo

Nova Uniao

Light
Heavyweight:

1) Demian Dressler

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Heavyweight:

1) Randy Lueder

Nova Uniao / Eastside Jiu Jitsu

2) Nathan Blondin

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Super
Heavyweight:

1) Dexter Kauahi

Relson Gracie Casca Grossa

2) Hiriam Palimo'o

Relson Gracie

Freeweight
215+:

1) Ryan Young

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Raymond Balderama

Relson Gracie

Open Weight:

1) Demian Dressler

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Phil Baltunado

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

Mens
Purple Belt

Lightweight
(Under 160 lbs)

1) Jared Espina

Longman Jiu Jitsu

2) Aaron Imai

Grappling Unlimited

Middleweight
(161-185 lbs)

1) Alessandro Glorioso

Relson Gracie

2) Ermin Fergerstrom

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Heavyweight:

1) Andrew Ruff

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Eric Goo

Relson Gracie

Kids No
Gi Division

Lightweight:

1) Bubba

Nova Uniao / Eastside Jiu Jitsu

2) Kai Kamaka

808 Fight Factory

Middleweight:

1) Keani Nishigaya

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Cedric Pacheco

Gamebred

Heavyweight:

1) Stephen Paling IV

Gamebred

2) Dillan Hanawalden

Nova Uniao / Eastside Jiu Jitsu

Super
Heavyweight

1) Chad Hospador

Gracie Kailua

2) Tim Murray

Gracie Kailua

Mens
No Gi Novice

Super
Featherweight:

1) Matthew Masuda

Kodenkan

2) Garrett Maeda

Relson Gracie Casca Grossa

Featherweight:

1) Noa Moke

Longman Jiu Jitsu

2) Kekoa Rogan

Kodenkan

Lightweight:

1) Justin Carr

Grappling Unlimited

2) Shane Nelson

Nova Uniao

Middleweight:

1) Sage Gassaway

Longman Jiu Jitsu

2) Chaian Alesna

808 Fight Factory

Light
Heavyweight:

1) Paul Poompan

ISA Academy

2) Ikaika Almadova

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

Heavyweight:

1) Landon Rudolfo

Relson Gracie Casca Grossa

2) Nathan Blondin

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Super
Heavyweight:

1) Hyatt Moore

Navy

2) Paul Wright

808 Fight Factory

Freeweight
215+:

1) Phillip Baltunado

Relson Gracie Kaneohe

2) Karim Abunimeh

Nova Uniao / HMC

Mens
No Gi Advanced

Super
Featherweight:

1) Lincoln Tyler

Grappling Unlimited

2) Ivan Uyeda

Grappling Unlimited

Featherweight:

1) Brad Scott

Relson Gracie

2) Meha Balmores

Grappling Unlimited

Lightweight:

1) Aaron Imai

Grappling Unlimited

2) Gilson De Souza

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Middleweight:

1) Alessandro Glorioso

Relson Gracie

2) Ermin Fergerstrom

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

Light
Heavyweight:

1) Anthony Torres

Grappling Unlimited

2) Robert Ostovich

Jesus Is Lord

Freeweight
215+:

1) Andrew Ruff

Brazilian Freestyle Jiu Jitsu

2) Raymond Seraile

Grappling Unlimited

Unleash
The Tiger!

Vernon White Ready to Take on Freeman at UFC 43

By Loretta Hunt

Although it is not quite official yet, Vernon "Tiger"
White verified that he has verbally committed to a match-up with
British brawler Ian "The Machine" Freeman at UFC 43:
Meltdown on June 6th in Las Vegas. Pending contract formalities,
White will be replacing fellow Lion's Den member and patriarch
Ken Shamrock, who recently tore his ACL and will be unable to
compete. (Shamrock could not be reached for comment.)

Although
White is coming off a highly-publicized light-heavyweight title
loss to Miletich Fighting Systems representative Jeremy Horn
from May 17th's King Of The Cage 23, his ten years' experience
in the sport makes him a worthy successor to fill Shamrock's
vacancy. With a whopping 26 fights in Japan's Pancrase organization,
two appearances in PRIDE, and his most recent match-ups in KOTC
(where he reigned as their light-heavyweight champ for a time),
White has been a longtime candidate of hard-core fans to gain
entry into America's top MMA promotion.

The
proposed bout will remain in the heavyweight division (205-265
pounds), which translates into an easing off of his usually strict
diet, explained White. White weighed in at 198 pounds for his
last bout, but has also fought at heavyweight in the past.

As
for his last minute acceptance, the always-frank White made no
qualms about his long-awaited invitation into the Octagon. "I
feel like it's about time," he commented from his home in
California. "There was a lot of politics in the past that
were keeping me from getting in there -- different matchmakers
that didn't like me (for what reasons I had no idea) and then
having to fight in different organizations -- so it's definitely
been a longtime coming. I'm going to give the fans what they're
looking for." And as for his recent loss to Horn, who will
most likely be cornering teammate and training partner Freeman
come fight night, White had this to say. "To tell you the
truth, I'm not going to look at that as a loss. I'm going to
look at that as a screwing and go on with my life."

White
is 20-23-1 in professional MMA action. Freeman sports a 14-6
record and is a 5-Time UFC veteran (3-2).

Source: FCF

CABBAGE
ON RADIO SHOW; AS WELL AS TANK INTERVIEW WHERE HE CLOWS ON JIU-JITSU
AND UFC FIXED MATCHES

MMAWeekly caught up with the one and only Tank Abbott during
the holiday weekend and let's just say he had plenty to say.
You will be able to hear the interview free today at 9am PST/Noon
EST along the internet and radio affiliates. Cabbage Correija
will also join the show live today.

Among
the topics on the table for Tank's interview, are of course his
dislike for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and he has plenty to say about
it. Abbott also sounds off about what he termed as "works"
during the early UFC's.

As
we told you yesterday, their is PLENTY of adult language during
the interview, so if swearing offends you, you might not want
to listen to the interview which airs today.

Cities
and Times for SOUNDOFF Radio around the World - Australia - 2am,
Brazil - 1pm, Bagdad - 8pm, Beijing - Midnight, Chicago - 11am,
Dublin - 5pm, Dominican Republic - 12 Noon, Edmonton - 10am,
Germany - 6pm, Finland - 7pm, Houston - 11am, Hong Kong - Midnight,
London - 5pm, Los Angeles - 9am, Madrid - 6pm, Moscow - 8pm,
New York - Noon, Peru - 11am, Paris - 6pm, Mexico -11am, Netherlands
- 6pm, Rome - 6pm, Sydney - 2am, Spain - 6pm, Toronto - 12 Noon,
Tokyo -1am,

Hawaii
6am

Source: MMA Weekly

THE
RETURN OF LAVERNE CLARK

After accumulating a 4-1 record in the UFC, Laverne Clark went
into a bit of a tail spin and lost six fights in a row. Granted
they were all to tough fighters, but MMA isn't very forgiving
when it comes to losing streaks.

But
now, Clark is hooked up with Team Extreme and Miletich Fighting
Systems and just like most fighters, it has done him a world
of good.

Back
in September of 2002, Clark got back on the winning track with
a unanimous decision over Canadian standout Donald Ouimet and
just this past weekend, Clark continued his winning ways with
a second round TKO over formerly 3-1 fighter Miguel Menendez.

That
can be nothing but good for Clark, who also has wins over Shonie
Carter, Fabiano Iha and John Lewis to his credit. If he stays
on the winning track maybe we'll be seeing him again soon in
the UFC. Regardless, expect to see much more of Laverne Clark
in the coming months as he looks to keep his new streak alive.

Source: MMA Weekly

RADIO
COLUMN: WHAT KIND OF IMPACT WOULD BRIGGS HAVE ON MMA?

BOXER
VS UFC FIGHTER: LET'S SEE IT AGAIN

Shannon
Briggs vs Tito Ortiz. Yes I said it with a straight face and
no, I haven't lost my mind . Is it a long shot? Of course it
is.....or on second thought, is it?

On
the other side, you have UFC Bad boy Champion Tito Ortiz, who
actually WANTS this fight in a bad way. Tito said he is ready
to make it happen. So why then is this fight a pay per view bonanza?

Has
the MMA world ever seen a legit boxer in the Octagon? Well, kind
of. Art Jimmerson was a pro boxer, but most people consider him
a journeyman by all accounts with a 34-18 record.

When
Bowen fought in the UFC, he did o.k. against policeman Steve
Jennum. He landed some good shots, but in the end, it was Jennum
securing the arm bar for the win.

Folks
this "freak show" which the mainstream media terms
the UFC; would become the biggest media bonaza in the history
of the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Remember
Shamrock vs Ortiz brought in a solid audience by appearing on
one network and that was Fox Sports.

Does
Chuck Liddell deserve the shot? Of course? Do I want to see Chuck
fight Tito, more than anything? Yes, but ultimately don't we
want to see this sport grow and the only way is for the world
to watch, NOT 40,000 people.

The
sad part about the state of our sport is the fact we need a "Gimmick"
to get over with the mainstream sports audience.

The
ultimate gimmick of boxer vs cage fighter is simple, maybe stupid,
and unforunately the only way Mom and Pop from New York might
be interested... because of their love for boxing. This would
become the biggest gimmick in UFC history and in my opinion may
be the only way the UFC can get pay per view buys they desperately
need at this stage of the game.

Source: MMA Weekly

5/25/03

Quote
of the Day

"If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable
of being,

then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life."

Abraham H. Maslow

2003
Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team Results

Team Titles:

1st Place: Brazilian Freestyle/Nova Uniao/HMC

2nd Place: Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

(Main Academy,
Academia Casca Grossa de Jiu-Jitsu, Team HK, Gracie Kaneohe,
Longman Jiu-Jitsu)

3rd Place: Grappling Unlimited

Bare
Knuckle Productions Presents

KICK'N
IT AGAIN II Results

Kapolei
Middle School, Kapolei, Hawaii

May 24, 2003

By Chris Onzuka - Chris@Onzuka.com

Danny Kaheaku and company put on another great kickboxing event
in a bit of a difficult venue to find, at least for me. Being
a MMA fan and reporter, you would expect that every other type
of competition would be boring to me, with the exception of BJJ
and submission grappling tournaments because I am a BJJ instructor.
However, I don't know how Danny matches up these fighters, but
the bouts were evenly matched, which can make for either boring
fights or exciting ones, which would explain all the fights that
went to a decision. These matches were action packed. Team Big
Dog brought in a number of fighters making their debuts, but
you would never have known it from their performances. They were
very well composed, threw good combinations and fought hard for
all three rounds. Hawaiian Self-Defense and Makakilo Kickboxing
also came in well-prepared and showed off the best executed kicks
of the event. The main event had 808 Fight Factory and MMA fighter,
Harris Sariento take on Team Big Dog's Wayne Perrin Jr., who
also fought in MMA. Both fighters lit up the first two rounds
and squeeze out their last drop of energy in the third with Sariento
pulling out a close decision. Props goes to Perrin, who I was
told, took the fight on days notice. If you have not made it
out to one of Danny's shows, check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Sorry if I mixed up the names of the fighters in the pictures.
Email me and I will correct that immediately.

Exhibition:

45lbs: 3 Rounds - 45 seconds

Dahwen Bright (Makakilo Kickboxing) drew Tristin Kamaka (808
Fight Factory)

Draw after 3 rounds.

Lightheavy weight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Hank Keohuhu (Makakilo Kickboxing) def. Alvin Kanehailua (Hawaiian
Self-Defense)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Lightweight: 3 Rounds - 1:00 minute

Dominator Lopez (Big Dog) def. Zane Cabacugan (Hapkido TKD)

After 3 rounds via decision.

85lbs: 3 Rounds - 1:00 minute

Kylie Delacruz-Kaheaku (808 Fight Factory) def. Lane Ma'ae (Hawaiian
Self-Defense)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Flyweight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Pat Trani (Makakilo Kickboxing) def. Shawn Hema (HMC)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Welterweight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Louis Smith (Big Dog) def. Bruce Reynolds (Hard Knocks)

TKO in Round 1 due to referee halting the bout due to the fighter
not adequately defending himself.

Flyweight: 3 Rounds - 1:00 minute

Tyrone Antonio (Hawaiian Self-Defense) def. Chris Calaruda (Hard
Knocks)

By default, due to no show.

Featherweight: Female Bout: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Hannah Smith (Hawaiian Self-Defense) def. Brandy Williams (Hapkido
TKD)

TKO in Round 1 via kick to the head.

Cruiserweight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Kevin Smith (Big Dog) def. Adrian Hose (Hard Knocks)

By default, due to no show.

Welterweight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

Justin Dano (Hawaiian Self-Defense) def. Joey Kuni (Big Dog)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Lightweight: 3 Rounds - 1:30 minutes

David Balicao (Hawaiian Self-Defense) def. Dyson Domen (Big Dog)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Middleweight: 3 Rounds - 2:00 minutes

Harris Sariento (808 Fight Factory) def. Wayne Perrin Jr. (Big
Dog)

After 3 rounds via decision.

Memorial
Day Beach BBQ Tomorrow for the Relson Gracie Team

Everyone:

We normally set up camp at the key hole in the middle of Ala
Moana Beach Park, right next to the tennis courts. It is the
only spot that actually cuts in to the park.

We need people to come early to reserve our spot. As you can
probably tell, Lisa and I (and Brandon) are tired of always being
the ones that come early to set up.

When: Monday, May 26

Where: Ala Moana Beach Park in the Key Hole

Time: 6:00 am - whenever

What to bring: Potluck, anything you want.

Hope to see you there!

Enson
Returning to Pride?

MMAWeekly's Scott Petersen reports from Japan that there are
strong rumors that Enson Inoue will make a return to Pride. Petersen
is hoping to speak in Inoue this weekend in Japan.

Source: MMA Weekly

Jens
Pulver Gets KO'd Again!

HOOKnSHOOT

Absolute Fighting Championships 3 Results

Saturday, May 24th, 2003 - War Memorial, Ft Lauderdale, FL.

By Keith Mills

Ft.
Lauderdale, FL -- Jens Pulver lost his second fight in a row
mainly due to receiving two groin strikes from opponent Jason
Maxwell while giving one in return, possibly jeopardizing his
SHOOTO negotiations in progress at this time. The fight was actually
ended when Jens was on his back with Jason on top delivering
strikes to his face but he never seemed to recover from the low
blows.

Elsewhere
on the card Jennifer Howe won the HOOKnSHOOT 125 belt by beating
Tara LaRosa. Jennifer knocked down Tara four times in one round,
proving superstitious speculation the women's belt is cursed
to be false. Jennifer came out a little tentatively and lived
up to polite criticism she tends to not get started until she
gets hit for the first time, taking one good shot from Tara before
switching gears and counter punching with combinations. With
this belt changed from the women's 135 at virtually the last
minute when Debi Purcell tore her ACL on the eve of signing a
contract for this fight and Angela Restad injuring her neck both
fighters stepped up to the plate with almost no time to train
specifically for each other. Tara deserves credit for taking
the fight when she was preparing to take on Christine Van Fleet,
a fighter with a totally different style than Howe.

Also
American Top Team's Marcus Aurelio retained his Southeast 155
belt by defending against Darrell Smith, making him the only
person to hold two regional HOOKnSHOOT belts at one time. Aurelio's
jiu-jitsu is incredible as witnessed by his defense of his Northeast
belt in Boston's HOOKnSHOOT franchise Ring Of Fury earlier this
month.

Jorge Masvidal def. Brandon Bledsoe by KO 3:55 R1

Brian Geraghty def. Mike Lee by TKO 0:53 R1

Derrick Nobel def. Wald Bloise by KO 3:20 R1

Justin Wieman def. Nuri Shakir by triangle choke 2:45 R1

Albert Jimenez def. Jim Dunn by KO (boxing match) 0:29 R1

Curtis Stout def. Efrain Ruiz unable to continue 0:01 R2

Jennifer Howe def. Tara LaRosa by TKO 2:18 R1

Fabiano Scherrer def. Scott Bowman by TKO 2:35 R1

Jason Maxwell def. Jens Pulver by KO 4:54 R1

Marcus Aurelio def. Darrell Smith by triangle choke 2:35 R1

Source: FCF

Pulver
Shocked Again

Jens Pulver was on top of the world a year ago when he was the
UFC Champion. Pulver, who hadn't lost in three years, has now
lost his second consecutive fight in just a couple of months,
this time to Jason Maxwell.

MMAWeekly
writer John Hartnett who covered the show saw the event live
and saw the surprising loss up close and said it was an exciting
night of fights and was worth the price of admission.....literally!
A press credential was not issued to Hartnett from the ticket
booth and when Hartnett asked to speak to the promoter Jeff Osborne
the ticket booth said and we quote..."who is Jeff Osborne!!...(No
Jeff, we aren't making this up, who are these clowns taking tickets
for your show? LOL!) Harnett bought a ticket and said the fans
got their money's worth especially in the Pulver bout.

Both
fighters came out and felt one another our for the first :30
seconds. Maxwell landed two controversial low kicks that landed
in Pulver's groin. The action was stopped and Pulver was offered
his five minutes to regain his composure. Once the action restarted,
Pulver came out and landed his own low blow, with a low kick
to the groin of Maxwell.

The
action was once again stopped as Maxwell was given five minutes.
Once that action began again, Maxwell came out and landed some
big strikes that sent Pulver to the ground. Maxwell quickly moved
in to the mount and landed several more big shots until the referee
jumped in and called teh end to the fight.

Also
in the 155 pound division, it was Hook N Shoot champion, Marcos
Aurelio from the American Top Team, who was dominant in his title
defense. Aurelio won in the first round over Darrell Smith by
triangle choke to hold on to his championship belt.

Source: MMA Weekly

ADCC
2003: Baret Yoshida X Alexandre Soca - HOW I SAW IT

by: Marcello Tetel

Baret Yoshida X Alexandre Soca -
Soca came for this fight with his self confidence very high level.
Just submitted his 2 first oponents and was in this tournament
for the first time in a diferent position.

Personally
I have a theory about Soca. Since the first ADCC Soca has been
putting a lot of presure on his own shoulders due to the expectations
people use to put on him. He won the first edition and came to
the 2nd and 3rd edition of this event with lots of pressure on
him. When he lost to Royler in 1999 he came back home got the
surgery on his knee (Poped during the fight) and came back to
the training routine like crazy focused to 2000's edition where
he lost again. In 2001 the same thing happened and his credentials
started to be not that good on everybody's eyes.

Soca
then was invited for this year's tounament 2 weeks prior to the
ADCC 2003 and he honestly was not even hoping for an invitation
anymore. This alone would give him no pressure since he was not
with the commitment of the win. He came to play. Now combine
this with another point very important that Soca is working on:
Since the last tournament he has worked a lot on strategy, an
unknown word in Soca's vocabulary. Who saw Soca in this tournament
knows he was playing smart and in this fight against Baret he
was the smartest I saw him fighting.

He
managed to have Baret on his guard until the 5 minutes. This
is very important because we all know that Baret's balance is
not the best since he trusts a lot on his guard and is not afraid
to play from the bottom. Soca was able to sweep him right after
the 5 minutes and was doing very well even getting another clear
sweep ending up mounted after Baret defended a guillotine.

Here
we go to Soca's mistake on this fight: I said he's working on
strategy but he definitely is still a student. The fight was
6 X 0 and Soca had only minutes lasting so people were saying
'Pull to the guard' what makes sense when you think Soca has
one ofthe best Jiu-Jitsu guards and I don't see Baret passing
his guard twice in this short period of time. He would get a
minus for the pulling but so what?

Instead
Soca prefered to scramble and ended up on standing where just
stopped for a second and Baret jump on his back and put the hooks
on standing!!! Soca was still on advantage and Baret then showed
that since last year , where he had the suicidal strategy to
pull Royler to his guard 5 times, he also changed his game and
played with the rules. Once again i have to say: ADCC IS MADE
BY SMALL DETAILS !!!!

Soca
was unable to stop Baret from getting the hooks off and on again
twice. Baret was behind in the score and in the positioning during
the whole fight and in a minute and a half he managed himself
to score 9 points under ADCC rules althought all the hard work
Soca made.

The
fight was over and Baret was in another final match and Soca
had to taste the bad flavor of a loss slip from his hand. Props
to Baret who finally seemed to learn how to play under ADCC rules
and props to Socas well for being changing his game in order
to compete head to head against anyone.

This
is how I saw it

Source: ADCC

Stankie
Back with Belfort, Jucao Wwins in Argentina, Macaco Win Turned
into No-Contest, Chute Boxe Continues Working and a New NHB Event
Debuts in Brazil!

The Brazilian
Beat:

As May
flies by, we struggle to keep up with the fevered pace in the
midst of all the travels, events, and issues going on, since
things never stop on the Brazilian fighting scene! UFC 43 is
just around the corner, and Vitor Belfort training continues
to go on as planned, now with the re-addition of his long-time
coach Al Stankie to his crew. Pedro Rizzo also keeps training
for his fight, in a much more reserved fashion, while things
are also heated at the Chute Boxe camp. MECA 8 is history and
everybody continues to train hard at Chute Boxe, with expectations
continuing to go on regarding PRIDE 26, and some new guns being
built at the team's headquarters. If this is not enough there's
plenty going on with a new event debuting this weekend in yet
another major Brazilian capital, BTT member Roan Carneiro conquering
ground in Argentina, courts changing fighting results in Brazil
and more! What else do you need? So warm-up, get your gear together
and prepare for plenty of action coming soon, as Full Contact
Fighter brings the mood for the traditional Brazilian Beat once
again!

Vitor Belfort is finishing the last steps of his preparation
for his UFC 43 fight against Marvin Eastman, in early June. After
training as hard as possible with Fernando Terere, ADCC Champion
Leonardo Vieira, and others, "The Phenom" is now just
polishing the last details, gameplan and technically wise, to
not get in his fight against "The Beastman" overtrained.
Vitor is now once again under the wings of his long-time Boxing
coach Al Stankie, who got to Brazil a little more than two weeks
ago, and will be in Belfort's corner in Las Vegas.

Brazilian
Top Team member Carlos Barreto is back to his NHB training routine
in the last couple of months, getting himself ready for a comeback
to No Holds Barred very soon. However, while studying some invitations
and possibilities for upcoming fights, Barreto is continuing
his Muay Thai training with his trainer Paulo Nikolai, that he
emphasized at the time of his participation in K-1 Brazil, although
now his Muay Thai training is more NHB oriented. Carlos is in
great shape, probably the best of his life, and told FCF that
fighting in the UFC is still his dream and goal as of now.

UFC
Middleweight Champion Murilo Bustamante's contract obligations
with the UFC are now over, and he is now able to officially negotiate
with other events. Up to recently Bustamante wasn't negotiating
with any events, due to contract obligations, but now things
are likely to speed up and in the coming weeks an announcement
about the fighter's future is likely to be made. No comments
has been made by the fighter or his management, however Japan
seems like the probable destination.

The
fight between Jorge Macaco Patino and Claudinho das Dores at
MECA 8 was considered a No-Contest this week! Both fighters fought
a war in Curitiba this May 16th, with the doctors stopping the
fight because of a severe cut to Macaco's face, and then deciding
to let the fight continue all of the sudden, giving Jorge a second
chance where he scored a rear-naked choke to win the fight. However,
Claudinho entered with a request for a review of the decision
in the Brazilian sportive justice, and after the review it was
decided this week to turn the fight in to No-Contest. A rematch
between the two fightes is being considered in a future edition
of the event.

STORM
GP winner Edicarlos "Monstro" [Means Monster in English]
is now dedicating himself fulltime to training for his professional
career. "Monstro" was in the audience for STORM GP
and ended up as a late replacement to win the tournament by KO,
like in a fairytale, and soon became the newest addition to the
Chute Boxe professional team squad. Training under professor
Israel Gomes, Edicarlos is now already preparing for both K-1
and NHB, training in the famous Chute Boxe moning sessions with
the likes of Wanderlei and Ninja, and is likely to appear at
the next STORM.

Brazilian
Top Team member Roan "Jucao" Carneiro finally fought
at Buenos Aires Total Fight, in Argentina, this past May 9th.
Carneiro fought local Tae Kwon Do Champion Sebastian Borean in
the main event of the evening. Jucao was able to take the opponent
down a couple of times during the fight, and worked to get mount
position on the ground, from where he unleashed strikes to achieve
the win around the four minute mark of the first round. Roan
won the event's belt and expects to fight again in Argentina
in the near future, as well as a likely return to MECA still
in 2003.

Chute
Boxe heavyweight fight Assuerio Silva is still likely to fight
in PRIDE 26. Although he is still waiting confirmation on PRIDE's
part, Assuerio is training hard with his participation in mind
and is reporting to be doing very well in training. Another Chute
Boxe fighter that may appear at PRIDE 26 is Anderson Silva! After
his win over Carlos Newton at PRIDE 25, Anderson is now being
cogitated to perform in PRIDE 26 against a Japanese opponent,
although nothing is still confirmed or determined. Next week
promises to be decisive in the signing or not of those fights.

Jiu
Jitsu stand out and Vitor Belfort allied Fernando Terere fought
at Abu Dhabi with fractured ribs, showing an amazing fighting
spirit. Terere injured his ribs while training with "The
Phenom" for his next UFC fight, and his pain was visible
during his Abu Dhabi matches. Still Fernando managed to win his
first match, and ended up losing the second one by points. Terere
received a proposal to fight NHB again against non other than
Japanese fighter Hayato Sakurai, however he is going to check
with his doctors the chances of a speedy recover or not, and
this will determine whether he can make the fight this time.
Anyway, Fernando told FCF he is still going, injured or not,
to help his friend Vitor in training to fight Marvin Eastman.

K-1
Brazil World Max champion, Marfio Canolleti Junior, who also
won a special fight at K-1 Brazil this February, is confirmed
as a participant at the K-1 World Max Grand Prix [up to 70kg],
at 5th of July, 2003. Marfio is training hard with his trainer
Roney Alex, who also has been training K-1 Brazil winner Jefferson
Tank, and is going to Japan along with his manager and K-1 Brazil
promoter Sergio Batarelli for the tournament.

The
8th edition of MECA World Vale Tudo, that took place at May 16th
in Curitiba, debuted this Friday May 23rd at Brazilian TV Pay
per view broadcast. Sales expectations for the event are high,
as this was the biggest MECA show ever. Promoters are now already
working on the next edition, and in about two weeks the first
details may be released. According to promoter Rudimar Fedrigo,
who is also the Chute Boxe team founder, coach and STORM Muay
Thai promoter, negotiations are going on for STORM to be broadcast
at Brazilian channel Sportv as well, and STORM Grand Prix, held
last April, may be the first ever STORM event to be broadcast
in Brazil.

Chute
Boxe veteran and K-1 winner Nilson de Castro is on his way to
fight in PANCRASE, in Japan. Despite losing to outstanding newcomer,
and BJJ World Champion Delson "Pe de Chumbo" at MECA
8, word has that Nilson is going to fight at PANCRASE anyway
in the following months. At this point is too early to name the
date or opponent, however Nilson is already back on training
with his Japanese NHB debut on his mind.

A
new NHB event is set to debut in Brazil this weekend! PROFIGHT
COMBAT SHOW is going to take place this Saturday, May 24th in
the huge city of Porto Alegre, well in the south of Brazil. The
event is being promoted by MECA veteran Luis Britto, and will
count with seven NHB fights, including the participation of Brazilian
Top Team members and a expected crowd of around 3.000 spectators.
Among the most important fights of the card are BTT member Carlos
Baruck facing Jeremias "Punho de Aço", Bitetti
Combat 1 veteran Paulo Boiko fighting Alexandre Baby, BTT member
and also Bitetti Combat 1 veteran Marcelo Alfaia facing Jose
Ricardo and Rafael Flores performing against yet another BTT
member in Fabiano Capoane. FCF will have the results soon.

Luta
Livre legend and NHB veteran Eugenio Tadeu is in fine condition
after his fight against Marcelo Giudice at MECA 8. Tadeu was
severely punished by Giudice in their fight, and had to be taken
to the hospital after the fight, causing all the fighting community
in Brazil to get worried. However, Eugenio was submitted to all
sorts of exams, such as head scans and the likes, and everything
was ok with him, so he is already in good conditions to train
and in the end he proved he is still a tough fighter.

Training
is also going hard at the Ruas Vale Tudo training camp lately.
With Cacareco competing in Abu Dhabi this past weekend, Pedro
Rizzo facing Tra Telligman at UFC 43 and Renato Babalu Sobral
preparing for Extreme Force 1 in July, action is as hot as ever
at RVT headquarters, however this time in a more reserved fashion.
Pedro "The Rock" Rizzo has been quite during his preparation
this time, giving no interviews and just training as hard as
he can, cause he understands the importance of this fight after
his recent losing streak. Usually this is when Rizzo gets more
dangerous, and FCF will try to check his preparation.

PRIDE
fighter Ricardo Arona almost didn't have time to celebrate his
Abu Dhabi superfight win over Mark Kerr, as he had to immediately
re-focus on his NHB training for his PRIDE 26 fight against Alistair
Overeem. Arona was in great shape for his Abu Dhabi outing, and
told FCF he is eager to fight in PRIDE again and won't take Alistair
lightly by any means, since training will be very intense for
the fight.

Source:
FCF

5/24/03

Quote
of the Day

"Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit

makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."

James Buckham

2003
Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Today!

Starts
time 10:30 am

EVENT:
2003 Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - Gi / No Gi
Format

LOCATION:
University of Hawaii, Klum Gym / Honolulu, Hawaii

FORMAT:
1-day tournament / 10 weight classes

Gi and No Gi Format

White, blue, purple, brown and black belt categories in each
weight class

TICKETS:
$5 for adults / Children under 10 free

ENTERTAINMENT:
Martial arts (Capoera) demonstration by SENZALA

AUDIENCE:
Open to the general public.

CONTACT:
James Tanaka at 223-9363 / E-Mail at JKT@lava.net

KICK'N
IT AGAIN II Tonight!

Come to
Kapolei Middle School to check out the best in kickboxing. The
first event had a lot of action and was a well run event. This
one promises to be even better. Fights start at 5:30PM, so get
there early!

Main Event -

Will be: Harris Sariento (808 Fight Factory)

Wayne Perrin (Team Big Dawg)

Featuring some of hawaii's young up and comming fighters-

Tyrone Antonio (Hawaiian self-defense)

Kylie Delacruz-Kaheaku (808 Fight Factory)

Chris Calaruda (Team Hardknocks)

Pat Trani (Makakilo Kickboxing)

Zane Cabacugan (Hapkido Tae Kwon Do)

And
some female kickboxers-

Hannah Smith (Hawaiian Self-defense)

Brandy Williams (Hapkido TKD)

and the youngest fighters 45lbs-

Dahwen Bright (Makakilo Kickboxing) 6years old

Triston Kamaka (808 Fight Factory)6 years old

GLOBAL
MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT G-SERIES COMPETITION

CALLING
ALL STRIKERS!!!

ARE YOU READY TO
TEST YOUR SKILLS?

In
conjunction with Chokushinkai of Osaka, Japan,

Hawaii Martial Arts Center is proud to present the high-powered...

G-3 Series Tournament

Where:
Kamehameha Schools Gymnasium

When:
June 22, 2003 at 10 a.m., $5 Adults, Kids get in free

Who:
Open to anyone interested in testing his or her skills in a regulated
Environment. Men's, women's + kid's divisions (13 + under by
weight)

How:
Go to www.hmckickboxing.com for an application
or call 808.841.5144 to reserve your spot ASAP!!!

For
rules + regulations, weight classes and sample images for G-3
classification, please visit www.hmckickboxing.com and go to the "GMC
Tournament" link.

Source: Event Promoter

PACIFIC
FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIPS II

"BATTLEGROUNDS"

NEWS ALERT

2 BOUTS ANNOUNCED

Heavyweight 265 & Under

Jacob "THE HITMAN" Fa'agai

(UNTAIMED BLOODLINE, 1-0 Waianae, Hawaii)

Vs.

Rey "THE TERMINATOR" Omar

(Freelance, 0-0 Waipahu, Hawaii)

Fa'agai, who won his debut in PFC 1 by TKO will take on Omar,
who is a kickboxer with a 25-2 record. Omar will make his debut
as two heavy handed heavyweights battle it out POUND 4 POUND.

Flyweight 145 & Under

Marcus Moreno

(BULLS PEN, 1-0 Waipahu, Hawaii)

Vs.

Brannigan Brown

(UNTAIMED BLOODLINE, 0-0 Waianae, Hawaii)

Moreno, who also won his debut in PFC 1 in the first round, will
take on new comer Brown. Brown was Moreno's orginal opponent
for PFC 1 but pulled out for personal reasons, asked to fight
Moreno. Sometimes we better be careful what we wish for and sometimes
not. So don't miss this one as these two young fighters FINALLY
square off.

More announcements to come as matches are finalized. To follow
the latest on the Pacific Fighting Championships log on to www.pfchawaii.com.

Mahalo

Source: Event Promoter

The
Official 2003 Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championships
Results

Under 65.99 kg

1º Leonardo Vieira (Brasil)

2º Baret
Yoshida (USA)

3º Royler Gracie (Brasil)

66
Up to 77.99 kg

1º Marcelo Garcia (Brasil)

2º Otto Oslon (USA)

3º Vítor Shaolin (Brasil)

77
Up to 87.99 8k g

1º Saulo Ribeiro (Brasil)

2º Ronaldo Jacaré (Brasil)

3º David Terrel (USA)

88
Up to 98.99 kg

1º John Olav Einemo (Norway)

2º Alexandre Cacareco (Brasil)

3º Roger Gracie (Brasil)

OVER
99 KG (217.5 KG)

1º Márcio Pé de Pano (Brasil)

2º Fabrício Werdum (Brasil)

3º Alex Negão (Brasil)

ABSOLUTE

1º Dean Lister (USA)

2º Alexandre Cacareco (Brasil)

3º Fabrício Werdum (Brasil)

Superfight:
Ricardo Arona (Brasil) defeated Mark Kerr (USA) 4-0.

Source: ADCC

ADCC
2003: How I saw It - The Other Side of the 66 KG Brackets......

by: Marcello Tetel

We spoke a lot about one side of the 66kg bracket and it seems
easy to forget to mention how tough it was on the other side.
To begin with, we had the runner up BARET YOSHIDA on this side of the brackets, and
Baret is someone who is always dangerous, and you cannot ignore
him ever if you want to talk about Submission Wrestling.

In
his first fight, Baret eliminated the Japanese hope Qualifier
KATSUDA TOITA, one of the best Japanese representatives. The
Jaoanese were hoping for a different bracket in order to advance,
since Baret has always gotten his submissions started like early
in ADCC! Today would be no different, as Baret worked the submission
and got it.

In
the same side if the bracket sits another ADCC veteran. ALEXANDRE
SOCA FREITAS, a former world champion with his own remarkable
record in the ADCC competition. Before the 2003 edition, Soca
already haeld a record as the competitior with the most matches
in the history of the ADCC: 16 matches and 13 wins. This speaks
for itself, but Soca came to this tournament in order to have
an even better record and since the first round he showed he
wanted the title badly. He became one of the favorites after
his two wins by submission in the 1st and 2nd rounds.

In
the second round SOCA took out the Scandinavian sensation JOACHIM
HANSEN, the man from the cold of Norway who Ko'd RUMINA SATO
in SHOOTO earlier this year. Soca went for it since the very
first second of their fight and got the submission even before
the 1st half was over.

Soca
was in again, and so was Baret: the rematch was set to decide
the one who would face Leozinho in the finals.

Source: ADCC

UFC's
August Event: GOING ON HOLD?

Strong rumors state that UFC has been calling up many of the
fighters it has scheduled for UFC 44 - the August, 2003 event
and told them to stop training.

Apparently
the show is being cancelled or moved, it is unclear. What is
for certain is that world champions Tim Silvia and Matt Hughes
were notified that there trainign for August should be interupted.

Source: ADCC

ADCC
2003: Leozinho X Eddie Bravo - HOW I SAW IT!

by: Marcello Tetel

Leozinho X Eddie Bravo - Everybody was still in shock after his
upset of Royler Gracie, and Leozinho was coming off his match
with Rany Yahya.

After
that match, I watche Leo in the locker room with Rodrigo 'Cumprido'
and they were talking about the upcoming Bravio fight. Leo was
doing his homework.

The
match started and Bravo went to his now famous 'almost buttscooting'
position. Leo was very effective, not allowing Bravo to play
guard.

I
refereed all of Bravo's matches at the North American Qualifiers
and he did exactly the same thing in the qualifiers that he did
at the ADCC World Championships. He gives the opponent the right
side of his guard. He seems more comfortable to his right to
make the scramble in his crazy half guard - it is from here he
gets his 'twister' or a sweep. Royler tried and passed his guard
to this side, although it was not easy, and Royler also got swept
in the process. He is strong to that side... Leozinho was in
attendance in San Diego at the Qualifier in October of 2002 and
he had seen Bravo playing. He knew what game to play.

Leozinho
did not even try to pass Bravo's guard to the right side. He
managed to put himself in a position to make Bravo turn his body
and give the left side for him to pass. This was the key to their
fight.

Plus
we can't forget that Leo is a wizard and a cardio machine. Combine
these elements and you can understand why the score was lopsided.
Leo passed the guard 5 times, always to the same left side which
was what Cumprido (Both attended the San Diego Trials) were talking
about when I met them in the lockerroom before the fight.

Besides
the 15 positive points, Bravo also pulled Leo to his guard 5
times after the first 5 minutes getting minus 5 for that, so
the final score was 20 X o to Leozinho, who celebrated like it
was the final match.

Bravo
did his job, he tried but Leozinho is better than him in all
aspects and showed this during their match. Bravo's load was
shot at the ADCC 2003 since he pulled out the consolation prize
due to a rib injury.

At
this point ADCC 2003 had a clear favorite, someone who has beaten
the fighter who tapped the big champion. As Rany Yarhya told
at the Hotel later, 'It's just a matter of time'.

Source: ADCC

SAKURABA
Speaks The Word Retirement...

In a shocking statement to the Japanese press, a fighting legend
revealed he is in the final stages of his career.

Kazushi
Sakuraba (the original Gracie Killer) told the Japanese press
that he may be nearing the end. He admitted that his body was
not in fighting shape and hasn't been for the last 14 months.
He did admit that he was 'remodeling' his body and will fight
for PRIDE in August.

The
announcement comes as a shock to some but Sakuraba hasn't been
given a lengthy rest since bursting on the scene in Pride. He
has openly admitted drinking problems and is a smoker. He is
also plagued with injuries that have had almost zero time to
recover and Pride keeps pushing him into tough fights.

He
originally was going to blow off getting in shape and do the
heavyweight Grand Prix but has instead chosen to go middleweight.
Reportedly the middleweight GP will start with the August 10,
2003, show at the Satiama Super Arena.

He
expressed concern over Japanese fighters to replace him and feels
that there are no young fighters to make the jump.

He
compared himself with Hidehiko Yoshida in that both are the company's
top stars and they are in their 30's. He said Pride needs to
concentrate on finding good and legitimate Japanese fighters
to carry the company in the future.

Sakuraba
has continually 'taken one for the team' and done whatever he
was asked. It has finally caught up with him but he gave no indication
when retirement would happen.

If
Sakuraba does choose to retire, he would play a key role in the
future of Pride with an executive position with Nobuhiko Takada.

Source: ADCC

ADCC
2003: Royler Gracie X Eddie Bravo - How I Saw It...

by: Marcello Tetel

EDITORs NOTE: In grappling, it is a moment that will go down
in history, comparable only to the US Olympic hockey team's victory
for the gold medal in hockey over Russia for sheer guts and come
from behind drama. Many were moved to tears....

Royler
Gracie X Eddie Bravo - This was one of the most anticipated fights
of this tournament, and people were hoping it might even be a
first round match. After his win at the ADCC North American Qualifiers,
where he was named the event's MOST TECHNICAL FIGHTER, Eddie
has been telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to fight
Royler.

Sometime
in March, reports surfaced on the internet that Eddie was stating
he would apply his twister move, whether it was allowed or not,
he would finish the fight with his signature hold. Even a DQ
would create a lot of hype!

On
the other side stood ROYLER GRACIE, The weight division's 3x
champion was in his usual 'competition mode'. Once more, Royler
was executing a gameplan since the first round, where he controlled
and submitted AMC's CHARLIE PEARSON.

The
fight starts and Eddie sat to the mat, waiting for Royler to
play his guard. Royler accepted the challenge and the fight goes
to the ground and Royler is in Eddie's half guard.

Royler
managed to pass and had the job done. No points were scored since
it was still the first 5:00. Perhaps an advantage was given,
but I don't think he would consolidate the position and stay
for 3 seconds. Bravo was in the game!

Royler
was probably confident, since he won the guard challenge once,
and was poised to pass again during the scoring time. The fight
got to the 2nd half, at which point Royler is again being the
agressor, turning it up a notch trying to overcome Bravo's half
guard. One thing Royler was doing very well: avoiding Bravo's
twister, which Bravo never came close on. I thought 'Royler did
the homework. He will get this done in the 10 minutes time limit.'

I was not understimating Bravo's achievement so far - I was impressed.
Royler was agressive and was dictating the pace. I told this
to a friend right beside me and he said 'calm down ,wait till
the end...'

At
this moment my eyes were away from the mat and I was not able
to see how Bravo swept Royler, but my friend completed the sentence
'The fight is over when the judges say it is over, when the bell
rings'.

I
started to think about this article, because Eddie had already
accomplished a massive achievement. This was something that never
happened: Royler was behind in the score for the first time in
4 ADCC editions. Eddie had worked for the sweep for a while,
securing the position, using that patient game he is going to
be famous for, rework the little things, tighten the hold again,
adjust. Perhaps his new strength added to this grip here, he
worked to secure and swept the man -

I
would have to analyze how Royler would behave, being down in
such a situation but Royler responded immediately with a sweep
of his own. This made the score 2 X 2. After that sweep Royler
was refocused and he increased the pace almost passing the guard,
then finally passing it at the 7 minute mark for points. Royler
was ahead on points. This is a feeling only those who have fought
him can know. Royler is always aware of the rules, and he manages
each situation accordingly. Methodically, he added to his advantage,
going the knee on the stomach.

Bravo
on the other hand did not look nervous and was making knee in
the stomach and even the guard passes taxing, with his flexible
legs. 7:30 in, Royler could try to get into Bravo's half guard
again and pass it or stay there forever for a points win.

Then
Bravo's legs spoke for themselves. Royler was in jeopardy due
to Bravo's flexibility and perhaps one critical mistake: Bravo
was about to secure the triangle and Royler delayed for a second
the defense, seeming to accept the danger. In the ADCC TOURNAMENT
THERE IS A LOT OF HISTORY MADE BY SMALL DETAILS!

Bravo
has more then flexible legs, they are strong as well, and Royler
could not manage to save the position. He was locked by one arm
and one leg since the other Bravo's hook was in the guard still.
I am in the business since 1984 and I saw Royler in this exact
situation several times with the gi, where the agressor has even
more grip, so I thought it was not a big deal. At that very moment,
Bravo locked the triangle with perfection.

Then
comes Royler's mistake number two: If you wait for a second to
choose options on how to defend, maybe when you decide it will
be too late. Journalistically that would be the biggest news
of the day. The triangle was deep and Royler tapped, lasting
less than a minute and half in the defense. It was 8:42.

Eddie
was in tears.

Royler
acted exactly how a champion that has just submitted should be:
Disappointed.

I
don't like to talk to the fighters after they lose. I was a fighter
and I'll tell you: there's nothing to talk about at certain points.
Give him time to himself. Some fights later down the schedule
I was able to talk to Royler: 'This is an individual sport, where
you depend 100 % of yourself. If you don't do the right things
all the time you maybe will pay the price' and continued: 'I
wish I could be a machine without wrong moves and no mistakes
but I'm not.' This was the last thing he said and I said nothing
since nothing could be said.

Then
I reflected some more about it and had a question that I still
don't know the answer to: Of course this was the worst for Royler
but was it bad for the ADCC and Submission Wrestling? Hopefully
there long term vision for the sport remains intact, for I believe
in the long term, it is good for the sport.

Royler
is already a legend without comparsion and this opens the possibility
of fresh, new things in the tournament as long as commitment
does not wane.

On
the other hand, Royler would be the only one who could be a 4x
champion, which could be good for the tournament as well.

There
may be some that may say that I am not giving credit to Bravo
and this is totally wrong.

1
- Royler is for sure one of the most experienced ADCC fighter,
with probably the best strategy every year. Perhaps he is the
greatest grappling competitor of modern times when you include
his Jiu Jitsu accomplishments.

2
- Royler makes mistakes as any human being and was not fighting
alone, Bravo was there.

This
being said, Bravo gets credit since he was the first one to capitalize
on Royler making mistakes, and for taking the opportunity this
makes him a great fighter.

Hats
of to Bravo. Or BRAVO to BRAVO. Maybe that could be his logo?

'BRAVO
2 BRAVO'

This
is HOW I SAW IT.

Source: ADCC

1st
“Southern California Pro-Am Invitational” tournament

Produced
by GrappleTV.com and hosted by Rorion Gracie

and the Gracie Torrance Academy.

Fighters
scheduled to compete:

1.
Paulo Guillobel (Machado)

2. Todd Margolis (Linxx)

3. Anthony Tolone (Marcio Simas)

4. Andy
Wang (rAw)

5. Tyron Glover (Werneck Jiu-Jitsu)

6. Cassio Werneck (Werneck Jiu-Jitsu)

7. Rener Gracie (Gracie Torrance)

8. Joe Camacho (Aloiso Silva, Submission Factory)

9. Drew Fickett (Gustavo Dantas)

10. Kenny Bond (Street Sports, Renato Magno)

11. Gerald Strebendt (JJ Machado)

12. Sean Spangler (Nova União)

13. Mario Flores (Machado)

14. Joe Stevenson (Ted Williams)

15. Dennis Asche (Machado)

16. (yet to be determined)

SUPERFIGHT:
Ryron Gracie vs. Todd Medina

Tournament
Info:

When:
Saturday, May 24, 2003

Time: 12:00 noon

Where: Gracie Torrance Academy

Tournament
Format:

o No Time Limit

o 16-Man Tournament (by invite only)

o No-Gi

o 200lbs. and under

o Double Elimination

o Closed door - not open to the general public**

o NO coaching will be allowed.

o All Leg Locks allowed (including heel hooks)

o Neck cranks allowed

Point
System:

o Basic sport BJJ point system

o No Advantages

Stalling

o It will be entirely up to the ref's discretion to

determine if stalling is taking place. Stalling will be

addressed quickly and immediately.

o First step - 'Caution' - given verbally by the ref

and noted.

o Second step - (1) point taken

o Third step - (2) points taken

o Fourth step - Disqualification

(details are still being worked out on this system)

Ways
to win:

o 15 points (by 3 point margin)

o Submission

o Ref Stoppage (injury or disqualification)

Referees:

o John 'The Rev' Jensen (owner/head instructor of Millennia -
http://millenniajiujitsu.com/)

o Randy 'Choked Out Surfer' Bloom (BJJ BB - http://www.acgjiujitsu.com)

**We
have decided to offer (15) tickets for sale @

$100 each. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. This will get you

in to see the fights (30 fights, minimum), on the mat,

up CLOSE and free food.

If
you're interested, e-mail Karlinhos ASAP @

karlinhos@grappletv.com

Source: ADCC/Kid Peligro

UFC
43 Card Suffers A BIG LOSS!!!

It
has become apparent that UFC has suffered a serious blow to the
upcoming UFC 43 card. Sources are reporting that KEN SHAMROCK
is being forced to withdraw from the show due to injury.

Maxfighting.com
is reporting that Shamrock has sustained a torn ACL in training
and is being forced to 'tap out' of the Las Vegas fight next
weekend against Ian Freeman.

This
is a serious blow to the lineup for Zuffa who projected that
most of the PPV buys would be due to Shamrock.

The
MMA hardcores will still buy the PPV. Casual fans or pro wrestling
fans, basing their purchase on Shamrock, may not find out the
bad news until the night of the show. This may not go over well
with many who don't follow MMA religiously.

It's
doubtful that Zuffa will replace such a high-profile fight on
2 1/2 weeks notice but names have come up like Vladdy Matyushenko,
Andre Arlovski and a rematch with Frank Mir. This would be an
entirely different fight for Freeman (who reportedly trained
like a madman for Shamrock).

It's
a disappointment for all. Fans, Zuffa, Freeman and especially
Shamrock who would have earned another huge payday for the fight.

Source: ADCC

Vernon
"Tiger" White Replacing Shamrock Against Ian Freeman?

Vernon "Tiger" White said on Friday's MMAWeekly Radio
Show that he is excited about making his UFC debut, but he wish
it didn't come under these circumstances with Ken Shamrock suffering
a torn ACL. When asked if his fight against Ian Freeman will
be a preliminary fight, Vernon said that he doesn't know, but
it's okay with him either way as long as he's on the card.

Vernon
went on to say that Freeman is probably strong enough to bearhug
him and score a takedown, but he thinks Freeman will try to knock
him out since that's what Freeman usually does. Tiger is hoping
to land some good punches and knees on Freeman, and then maybe
take him down. Tiger also said that he trains with a fighter
named Wade Shipp that he thinks is tougher than Ian Freeman,
so he's confident in his ability to pick up the victory at UFC
43.

Source: MMA Weekly

The
Savage Truth - Thoughts and Shots from Sin City

By Greg Savage

This
past weekend's King of the Cage show from Las Vegas produced
its fair share of action, drama and comedic events. There were
some pretty good fights, a suspect decision, and a laughable
exchange between ex-team mates. I am pretty sure KOTC was looking
for a little bit more of a crowd for their Vegas debut but all
in all it was what we have come to expect from the distance number
two of North American MMA productions.

The
fights were pretty entertaining right up until what was the marquee
fight of the night. Jeremy Horn was looking to rip the KOTC light-heavyweight
belt from the waist of Vernon “Tiger” White and although
he was successful, it was not the kind of performance a fighter
looking to return to the UFC should have been giving. And how
about the judging in that fight? I would love to have seen the
fight that the guy who scored it 5-0 for Horn saw, it surely
must have been better than the snore-fest Jeremy put on.

I
know there is a lot of controversy about the decision but I do
agree that Horn won but if that was his audition to return to
the UFC it may be a while before we see him back. And if any
one questions whether the outcome was in doubt up until it was
announced did not see Horn’s corner because Monte Cox looked
as scared as could be, like someone had just stolen his lunch
money. And believe me that is scared. All that work to get Horn
back into the UFC and it nearly all went flying out the window
with his performance against the “Tiger.”

The
rest of the fights, especially the under card were pretty good
with the Ron
Jhun-Shonie
Carter match stealing the show. These guys put it all on the
line for five rounds en route to Jhun claiming the KOTC welterweight
title with a unanimous decision. I can’t wait to see Jhun defend his belt against number one
contender John Alessio.

Diego
Sanchez might have been the fighter who made the biggest impression
on me. I saw him fight in New Mexico a couple months ago but
he did make much of an impact on my memory. His fight with Mike
Guymon was the kind of performance he needed with all the UFC
brass in attendance. Sanchez punished the talented Guymon from
the outset and imposed his will on him ending the bout with mere
seconds left in the first round via armbar. Keep your eyes out
for this gifted young fighter, he won’t be hard to spot,
he will be the one racking up the victories in the future.

That
takes care of the action and the drama, now it’s on the
comedy. Throughout the entire Horn-White fight, KOTC heavyweight
champ Bobby Hoffman, seated directly behind his former team mates
Jeremy Horn’s corner, let the verbal barbs fly as he tore
into Matt Hughes and the rest of the Miletich guys. After the
fight ended, Matt walked up to Hoffman and extended his hand
which was not accepted by the much bigger Hoffman. At this point
Hughes flipped the ole your number one sign directly into the
face of Hoffman who had nothing to say back. I think Bobby was
being the bigger man in just walking away and avoiding the confrontation
as a whole……….or maybe not.

KOTC, as a whole, is an enjoyable experience almost every time
I attend. However, I am getting a little sick of the Napoleonic
syndrome that has reared its head over the last year or so. I
have no problem with the kind of matches the show puts on and
I understand the work with a much smaller budget than their counterparts
at PRIDE and the UFC but what I don’t understand is KOTC
insistence that they are the premier show in the business.

Any
fan off the street can tell the difference in the ability of
the fighters in the elite shows and your standard KOTC. This
is not a knock on KOTC but an obvious observation. I feel the
sooner they recognize the fact that they are indeed a feeder
show for PRIDE and the UFC the better off they will be. Instead
of trying to compete they should carve out their own niche as
the number one place to find the up and coming fighters in the
game.

It
is too bad KOTC did not get the kind of support they expected
in Vegas but their ticket sales may be looked at in a different
light after UFC 43 on June 6th. I have been trying to find out
how many tickets have been sold for over a week and have talked
with everyone at Zuffa from the guy who cleans the bathroom up
to Dana White and not one person will answer my question. I am
no rocket scientist but even I can figure out this is not a good
sign. Hopefully the UFC can sell more than the estimated 300
KOTC sold. If not they will have to change the name on all their
signs from Tito to “Iceman” and start handing then
out with the free sandwiches again.

Source: Sherdog

UFC
44 Not Cancelled Just Rescheduled

Late last night word rolled in that Zuffa had just canceled UFC
44. Not really true. Zuffa hasn't actually cancelled UFC 44,
but more accurately, they have changed the date of the show.

Though
they never officially announced the show, it was widely known

that both Tim Sylvia and Matt Hughes had been expecting to defend
their titles and Rich Franklin was to fight Edwin Dewees on August
1st in Las Vegas, aka UFC 44.

Though
we were unable to reach Sylvia or Hughes, three MMAWeekly sources
did verify that Sylvia, Hughes and Franklin were all informed
that the August 1st date was not going to happen.

And
Sylvia is just one of a handful of fighters that will be in the
same predicament which will lead the UFC to have to have a certain
number of fighters crammed onto their year end show.

After
the questionable decision by the UFC to forego the momentum

generated by the UFC 40 mega-show last year and wait 3 months
before running another show, the critics and skeptics will again
be out in droves to again question the UFC's motives. Why would
they build up

such a huge card full of name fighters on UFC 42, only to turn
around

and not run another show for nearly 4 months?! Again losing out
on the

possible momentum that such a superstar card should generate.

Source: MMA Weekly

WHO
IS THE BEST GRACIE ON THE MAT?

BRAVO HAS IDEAS

Eddie Bravo made an appearance on Friday's MMAWeekly Radio Show
and talked about his recent submission victory over Royler Gracie
at the Abu Dhabi submission wrestling championships. Eddie said
that he had confidence in his ability to beat Royler. He didn't
know if it would be in that particular fight, but he knew he
would win at least one time if he rolled with Royler ten times.

Bravo
said that Royler's left side was open for a second and he had
to slap on the triangle choke very quickly. When he first won
the fight, his ego came out for a few seconds, but he dropped
to his knees and started crying tears of joy once he realized
what he had just accomplished. Eddie said that there was dead
silence in the building when he defeated Royler, other than Joe
Rogan and a couple other guys in his corner screaming loudly.
After the Brazilian fans saw that he wasn't a cocky fighter,
they gave him a round of applause.

Bravo
was asked who the toughest Gracie was in grappling and he said
no question it was Royler. He said Royler was much better than
Royce or even Rickson and he has shown that in competitions many
times in Brazil as he continues to compete and win the big grappling
events in Brazil.

Eddie
Bravo said that he's not really interesting in competing in MMA,
but he would fight Royler Gracie in MMA if Royler wanted to do
it. Eddie also said that Pete Spratt accepted his invitation
to train together, so Bravo will be training with Spratt in grappling
and submissions for a while.

Eddie
said that he will be doing more backstage segments on the next
UFC show, and unfortunately he will no longer be working for
King of the Cage because he had to make a choice between the
two promotions. Bravo also said that contrary to what some people
are saying, he left King of the Cage on good terms with management.

Source: MMA Weekly

5/23/03

Quote
of the Day

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice
what we are for what we could become.

Charles Du Bos

KICK'N
IT AGAIN II Weigh Ins Tonight!

Our
weigh in will be held Friday at Profesional Training Center (Old
Tigers Gym) in Pearl City Across Zippys Under Flamingo's at 6:30
pm. All of the fighters should be there by 6:00 pm

to sign all waivers and papers. If you have any problems call

Danny at 685-4800/Kai at 330-9484/Derrick at 672-6973

Main
Event -

Will be: Harris Sariento (808 Fight Factory)

Wayne Perrin (Team Big Dawg)

Featuring some of hawaii's young up and comming fighters-

Tyrone Antonio (Hawaiian self-defense)

Kylie Delacruz-Kaheaku (808 Fight Factory)

Chris Calaruda (Team Hardknocks)

Pat Trani (Makakilo Kickboxing)

Zane Cabacugan (Hapkido Tae Kwon Do)

And
some female kickboxers-

Hannah Smith (Hawaiian Self-defense)

Brandy Williams (Hapkido TKD)

and the youngest fighters 45lbs-

Dahwen Bright (Makakilo Kickboxing) 6years old

Triston Kamaka (808 Fight Factory)6 years old

Mahalo for all your support,

Danny Kaheaku

2003
Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Weigh Ins Today!

EVENT DATE: May 24, 2003 / Starts time 10:30 am

EVENT:
2003 Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - Gi / No Gi
Format

LOCATION:
University of Hawaii, Klum Gym / Honolulu, Hawaii

FORMAT:
1-day tournament / 10 weight classes

Gi and No Gi Format

White, blue, purple, brown and black belt categories in each
weight class

TICKETS:
$5 for adults / Children under 10 free

ENTERTAINMENT:
Martial arts (Capoera) demonstration by SENZALA

AUDIENCE:
Open to the general public.

CONTACT:
James Tanaka at 223-9363 / E-Mail at JKT@lava.net

Weigh-in Date:

Friday, May 23, 2003

Times: 12:00-1:00 p.m. or 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Place: UH Athletic Cmplx #4

AFC
3 DVD's on Sale Now!

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Buy the DVD and see for yourself!

For
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Visit
www.AFCHAWAII.com for more information.

SHERK
DROPPED BY THE UFC

In
a strange and puzzling move, Sean Sherk received his first loss
of his career to Matt Hughes at UFC 42 and what does he get for
his first loss? A boot from the UFC.

Sherk
was 23-0 before the fight and now in his first loss as a professional
he has been released by the UFC.

Sherk
told MMAWeekly last night "It's puzzling for me. I just
signed a three fight deal and was looking forward to furthering
my career, now I get dropped for the first loss in my career?
Doesn't make sense to me."

Sherk
had two more fights on his contract. Sean has agreed to come
on the MMAWeeklyRadio show today and talk about the situation,
so listen to Sean Sherk today at Noon Eastern/9am Pacific and
see what he has to say about the entire situation.

Source:
MMA Weekly

KIMO:
"I WILL WIN IN :40 SECONDS AGAINST TANK"

Kimo talked about his upcoming fight with Tank Abbott on Tuesday's
MMAWeekly Radio Show. Kimo made the bold statement that he thinks
he will submit Tank in about 40 seconds. Kimo said that Tank
is just a puncher, and that while other fighters have learned
about many different kinds of fighting styles as the years have
gone by, Tank hasn't really changed his game since the early
days of the UFC.

Kimo
said that Tank is very stubborn in this regard, and that Tank
had some potential at some point to make something of himself
as a fighter. Kimo said that his cardio is not where he would
like it to be right now, but he said it would be for his June
6 fight with Tank Abbott. Kimo also said that he is back in MMA
full-time: His job is to fight regularly and to train every day.
On the other hand, Kimo's former training partner, Joe Son, is
out of MMA and is now "in Hollywood focusing on his movie
career."

When
asked about a potential rematch with Royce Gracie, Kimo said,
"Royce knows better than to take a rematch with me."
When asked about a potential rematch with Ken Shamrock, Kimo
said that from what he understands, the winner of Kimo vs. Tank
will be fighting Ken Shamrock (if Shamrock can get past Ian Freeman).

Kimo
said that when he fought Shamrock the first time, he came into
the fight at 270 pounds with very poor conditioning. Kimo also
said that he didn't know anything about submissions back then;
whereas now, he doesn't think anyone can submit him with anything.

Kimo
is clearly not thinking about his UFC return as a short-term
thing, as he said he wants to be in the UFC for a long time to
come. He said that after Tank and Shamrock, he would like to
get a shot at Tim Sylvia, assuming that Sylvia is still the Heavyweight
Champion at that time.

Kimo
said that he didn't want to take anything away from Sylvia's
abilities, but he referenced Sylvia's title reign by saying,
"It's a nice belt, he gets to wear it for a little while."
Kimo said that the most difficult fighter for him to face would
be someone like Vitor Belfort used to be: 210 pounds, extremely
fast, and able to hit you with a lot of punches. Kimo said that
Sylvia's larger size would actually benefit Kimo, because Sylvia
would throw big haymakers and be too predictable.

Source:
MMA Weekly

U.S.
SHOOTO is Heating Up...

This
coming Saturday on May 31st, professional SHOOTO hits the Hammond
Civic Center - 5852 S. Sohl Avenue, Hammond, IN - for the second
time, in the form of the Midwest Fighting Championship. This
show promises to top the previous Hammond event and all other
mainland shows before it. There are 8 very competitive bouts
scheduled, which will serve up several courses hot Midwest talent,
PLUS a pair of highly anticipated U.S.A. vs. Brazil match-ups.
Furthermore, every bout on this line-up has something at stake,
from establishing a presence in the SHOOTO circuit (in which
you immediately receive attention at an international level),
to setting oneself up in the soon to be released SHOOTO Americas
rankings (watch out for them in July along with the SHOOTO Pacific-rim
rankings), and finally to solidifying a place in the SHOOTO World
rankings and getting a shot at the highly touted and currently
vacant Shooto MW title.

The
show is stacked with features including the HOT Midwest Fighting
girls and Hooter girls who will be on hand to spice things up.
Plus there are tons of FREE giveaways from our sponsors - Verizon
Wireless, Health Kick nutrition, Fightworld.com, Hooters, BadBreed.tv,
and many many more. Register to win at www.Midwestfighting.com.
We would also like to extend a special thanks to the official
hotel for the Midwest Fighting Championship - The Best Western
Northwest Indiana Inn. Any one who is traveling to the show or
just wants to hang out with the competitors call for reservations
and mention the show. You will get a special room rate of $69
(subject to availability, restrictions apply). Call today!!!

Best
Western Northwest Indiana Inn

3830 179th Street

Hammond, Indiana 46323

(219)844-2140

For
the card, we have four Class-A bouts topping things off.

Jake
Shields of San Francisco is coming in with his sites set on the
number 2 spot in the World rankings and a shot at the World belt.
He also is looking to get some redemption on the current number 1 ranker
Ray Cooper whom
defeated Shields in a very close decision out in Hawaii. His
opponent Milton Vieira is hungry to break into the SHOOTO and
U.S. scene and will come to fight. He is a crafty BJJ player
but Jake may have the better all around game.

More
Class-A action has the Chicago land's own Dan Gilbert going in
against Luis "Buscape" whom a lot of people have talking
about lately. As Vieira's teammate, he also has top-level BJJ
skills and this looks like the classic Wrestling vs. BJJ scenario.

Then
we have the VERY experienced Brian Gassaway taking on Keith Hackney
protégé Gideon Ray who is determined to make his
mark by getting a big win here.

The
last Class-A bout on the card has the potential to be the showstopper.
The impressive Ryan Ackerman will be matching his talents against
Joe Jordan out of Kentucky. Jordan is coming off a big win out
in Hawaii were he bested Eddie Yagin of Grappling Unlimited. Now at 3-0 in SHOOTO
he has been elevated to Class-A. Ackerman needs a win badly after
dropping two to some of the best names in the weight class (Jeff
Curran and Bozo
Paling).
He looked good in each performance and wants to prove he belongs
in that echelon. The winner here will find himself high in the
Americas rankings AND on a plane to Japan to take on none other
than the legendary Rumina Sato in his 143 lbs debut. Good luck
to both men.

In
the Class-B action we have a pair of Miletich up-and-comers in
Spencer Fisher and Drew Mcedries. Both men are ready to shine
and represent the MFS in a way that we have all come to expect.
They are taking on strikers Adam Gibson and Rafal Pisczek respectively.
SHOOTO win.

Another
Hackney fighter on the card is Mustafa Hussani, and he is taking
on Eddie Wineland of Duneland Vale Tudo. This is the SHOOTO debut
for both fighters and it is at the lower weight class of 135
lbs, which SHOOTO has been known to favor.

Then
we have the very formidable Kendrick Johnson from the Thai Wrestling
Team in Iowa coming in to challenge Bart Palaszewski from Team
Linxx under Jeff Curran. Two skilled grapplers who promise to
entertain.

The
Midwest Fighting Championship has the goal of bringing the best
talent in the world to the Midwest where the greatest fans in
the world can see it all live. This first card will do just that
and it's a huge step for Shooto's development in America. Get
your tickets today by going to www.Midwestfighting.com/Ticketsales.html
or call (847)399-9550. Tickets are also available at the door
of the Hammond Civic Center - $25 General Admission / $35 floor
seats. DON'T MISS IT!!!

Source: Rich Santoro

5/22/03

Quote
of the Day

The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It's always
been done that way."

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

Pride
26

DSE/PRIDE announced three more match up for next show PRIDE 26,
today.

Heath
Herring vs Mirko Cro Cop

(USA /Golden Glory) (Croatia / Cro Cop Squad Gym)

Qinonton
"Rampage" Jackson vs Mikhail Ilioukhine

(USA / Team Panishment) (Russia/Russian Top Team)

Alistair
Overeem vs Ricardo Arona

(Holland /Golden Glory) (Brazil / Brazilian Top Team)

Daiju
Takase vs TBA

(Japan / Free)

Already
announced;

Emelianenko
Fedor vs Kazuyuki Fujita

(Russia/Russian Top Team) (Japan/Inoki Office)

PRIDE Heavyweight champion

Nino
"Elvis" Schembri vs Kazuhiro Hamanaka

(Brazil/Gracie Barra Academy) (Japan/Takada Dojo)

Don
Frye vs Mark Coleman

(USA / Free) (USA / Hammer House)

PRIDE.26
REBORN

Date: June 8th 2003

Place: Yokohama Arena

Open:16:30 Start: 18:00

Source:
Koichi "Booker K" Kawasaki

Abu
Dhabi Day 2 Crowns Champions:

Leozinho & Garcia Dominate and Lister Emerges in the Absolute!:

By Eduardo Alonso

The
second day of competition of the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling
World championship 2003 finished the competitions on the mats
at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium, in Sao Paulo Brazil, this Sunday
May 18th. After all the struggles and uncertainties regarding
the famous tournament, it was great to finally see all of the
champions crowned. And most importantly the event showed some
amazing grapplers at the top of their games, proving that the
sport is evolving and there's no huge favorites anymore. Some
amazing surprises and great battles took place, with the downside
of the event being the lack of paying audience, and the unexplainable
treatment towards the press on the first day of competition,
which made it nearly impossible to get a decent picture of the
first fights, even for the most experienced photographers. However,
the balance is positive and day 2 of Abu Dhabi brought the finals
of each division as well as the entire absolute brackets.

In the up-to-66kg division, Leonardo Vieira completed his amazing
showdown beating Baret
Yoshida
and proving he was on a different level at Abu Dhabi 2003. Vieria
dominated all of his fights and earned his title in great fashion,
leaving no questions unanswered. Another amazing fighter in the
tournament was Fabio Gurgel student Marcelo Garcia. Garcia just
ran over the competition in the up-to-77kg, beating names like
Renzo Gracie and choking out Vitor Shaolin Ribeiro, to finally
defeat Otton Oslon in the final. Marcelo was so impressive that
he also won the prize for the most technical athelete on the
competition. In the up-to-88kg category, veteran Saulo Ribeiro
took home the gold surprising the always impressively improving
Ronaldo Jacare in the finals, and showing Saulo is still one
of the best in the world, with a strong game in every aspect.
Marcio "Pe de Pano" Cruz proved why he was the favorite
in the above 99kg division, by winning the finals against Fabricio
Werdum, showing very solid ground skills, but he unfortunately
turned the crowd against him due to his antics. Oddly enough
he would lose to Werdum in the 3rd place match in the absolute.
The biggest surprise of the finals was probably Norwish fighter
John Olav Einemo winning the up to 99kg division, surprising
the favorite Alexandre Cacareco with a choke! Einemo was a huge
underdog in the tournament, and someone must have made good money
betting on him.

The
absolute division saw another surprising champion being crowned!
KOTC Champion Dean Lister went to the arena just to watch the
second day of competition, since he wasn't cogitated to be in
the absolute, but due to injuries and such, he ended up participating
in the brackets and bringing home the title! In an amazing Absolute
run, he defeated Mario Cruz in the semifinal, getting his back
in the last seconds of the fight, tapped out Saulo Ribeiro in
the quarterfinals and amazingly tapped out Alexandre Cacareco
in the final, showing why he is considered great at leglocks
and toeholds. Needless to say, Dean was all smiles after the
competition as he was probably the biggest underdog to become
Absolute champion in ADCC's history, and earned the right to
do a superfight next year. Here are the final results of the
event:

Up to 66kg Division:

1st Leonardo Vieira (Brazil)

2nd Baret
Yoshida (USA)

3rd Royler Gracie (Brazil)

Up
to 77kg Division:

1st Marcelo Garcia (Brazil)

2nd Otton Oslon (USA)

3rd Vítor "Shaolin" Ribeiro (Brazil)

Up
to 88kg Division:

1st Saulo Ribeiro (Brazil)

2nd Ronaldo Jacare (Brazil)

3rd David Terrel (USA)

Up
to 99kg Division:

1st John Olav Einemo (Norway)

2nd Alexandre "Cacareco" (Brazil)

3rd Roger Gracie (Brazil)

Above
99kg Division:

1st Márcio "Pe de Pano" Cruz (Brazil)

2nd Fabricio Werdum (Brazil)

3rd Alex "Negao" Paz (Brazil)

Absolute
Division:

1st Dean Lister (USA)

2nd Alexandre "Cacareco" (Brazil)

3rd Fabricio Werdum (Brazil)

Superfight:

Ricardo Arona (Brazil) defeated Mark Kerr (USA) by 4-0 in overtime

Best
Fight: Ronaldo Jacare versus Ricardo Almeida

Best Takedown: Chris Brown

Most Technical Athlete: Marcelo Garcia

Shamrock
out of UFC 43

MaxFighting has learned that a torn ACL will keep UFC legend
Ken Shamrock from his June bout with Ian Freeman at UFC 43 in
Las Vegas. More details as we receive them.

Source:
MMA Weekly

UFC
43

Official Fight Card

Interim
Light Heavyweight Championship

Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell vs. Randy Couture

Heavyweight
Bouts

Tank Abbott vs. Kimo

Frank Mir vs. Wes Sims

Pedro Rizzo vs. Tra Telligman

Ian Freeman vs. TBA*

Light
Heavyweight Bout

Vitor Belfort vs. Marvin Eastman

Middleweight
Bout

Matt Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale

Lightweight
Bout

Yves Edwards vs. Eddie Ruiz

*Ken
Shamrock is out due to a knee injury.

SUPERBRAWL
vs THE NETWORKS

NIELSEN FEB 2003 RATINGS

SAT , FEB 1 @ 9pm

HOUSEHOLDS & PERSONS…

HH P12-24 P12-34 P18-34 P18-49 P21-49 P25-54 P35-64

K5 SUPERBRAWL 3 2 2 3 2 2 1 2 NOTE:

KHON EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND 10 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 Rayomond ratings

KITV SAT NIGHT MOVIE 4 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 due mostly to

KGMB AGENCY 6 1 1 2 2 2 3 5 female viewer skew

KHNL LAW & ORDER SVU 3 0 1 2 2 2 2 3

RANK #4 / tied with KHNL #2 #2 #2 #3 / tied with KGMB & KHNL
#3 / tied with KGMB & KHNL #5 #5

MEN…

18+ 18-34 18-49 21-49 25-29 25-54

K5 SUPERBRAWL 3 5 3 3 3 3 NOTE:

KHON EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND 3 3 3 3 3 3 Agency skews

KITV SAT NIGHT MOVIE 2 1 1 2 2 2 very old…most 18+

KGMB AGENCY 4 2 2 2 2 3 viewers were 55+

KHNL LAW & ORDER SVU 2 2 2 2 2 2

RANK #2 #1 #1 #1 #1 #1 SB RULES SAT NIGHT!

WOMEN…

WORKING

18+ 12-24 18-34 18-49 25-49 25-54 WOMEN

K5 SUPERBRAWL 2 2 2 1 0 0 1 NOTE:

KHON EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND 5 3 5 5 5 5 5 although not a HUGE

KITV SAT NIGHT MOVIE 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 hit w/ women,

KGMB AGENCY 5 1 1 2 3 3 3 ratings were good

KHNL LAW & ORDER SVU 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 for 12-34 years old

RANK tied #3 #2 tied#3 #5 #5 #5 #5

OTHER FACTS…

11,000 Households viewed SuperBrawl program

21,000+ viewers 18 years plus

7,000+ women viewers 18 years plus

14,000+ male viewers 18 years plus

2,000+ "working women" viewers

8,000+ male 18-49 viewers

SuperBrawl #1 with males under 55 against ALL other tv programs

Interview
with Josh Barnett

By John Hartnett

John Hartnett:
So Josh, what have you been up to lately?

Josh
Barnett: Well, one thing that I always keep in mind, even if
I'm not fighting I'm training. Training like I'm fighting, or
training someone else to fight. So, the layoffs aren't really
too much of an issue for me. If anything I usually come back
a lot stronger and better than before. But I've been real busy
with training Bob Sapp for quite a while there. Now I'm fighting
with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and I've been getting a lot of
work over there touring with them and such.

John:
Right, do you think that New Japan's worked fights have helped
you with your cardio and staying in shape?

Josh:
Well yeah, I'll say it helps with cardio and staying in shape.
Because you can't go out there and be a slob, and be able to
perform effectively and keep the pace up. When I want to demonstrate
a real fast-like fight style of a worked match. You've got to
be in better shape, you just can't get away with resting a lot
out there. But you got to look good too, always lifting, always
trying to stay on diet- as tough as that is. Always staying in
shape and doing cardio.

John:
Did you incorporate a lot of submissions and mixed martial arts
maneuvers into your worked fights?

Josh:
Yeah, a lot. It's pretty much the basis of it. My persona in
Pro-Wrestling isn't any different than pretty much me as a fighter;
it's basically the same guy.

John:
You recently had your big return bout with Jimmy Ambriz for NJPW
(New Japan Pro Wrestling). What were your thoughts on the fight,
and how do you think it went from your prospective?

Josh:
I think it went really well as far as a comeback fight and for
certain people who haven't really seen me fight yet in Japan.
I think it was a good introduction. But, I'm not really happy
with it. But, then I don't think I've been particularly happy
with any fight I've had. That's just me. I'm really hard on myself
about that. The main thing I'm most unhappy with is that I wasn't
able to pull off any suplexes or anything really dramatic or
dynamic. I think that fighting in the UFC the mind set was always
that I can't afford to lose,win at all costs and I can't take
any chances. But, now I've changed and I like to be dynamic and
take those chances. That's because I know what I can do and I
know what my abilities are from all my training in the gym and
through the people I've worked with. But the fight was good.

John:
Right, now you talked about being dynamic and adding weapons
into your arsenal. Matt Hume has told me that you really trained
on stand up and incorporating throwing knees and kicks into your
arsenal. How did you feel about including those techniques into
your game plan?

Josh:
Well, I was just happy at the first opportunity to be able to
kick and knee a downed opponent. With the UFC you can knee to
the body and you can kick the body as I did against Randy Couture.
But, it's a little different to tee off on somebody's head and
it's something I've worked on for quite a long time here. Especially,
with guys like Shoji who are going to be doing fights in PRIDE
showing him the proper techniques for head stomps and soccer
ball kicks and all that kind of stuff. Now it's my opportunity
to put it to good use but aside from a couple of knees, I really
didn't get to do a whole lot of it. But, I guess that's a good
thing.

John:
Now what exactly was your strategy going into the fight with
Jimmy Ambriz?

Josh:
My game plan was to start off standing up and work some boxing
and eventually feel him out a little bit and once I established
control of the fight then just start free styling and do whatever
I felt and what came to mind.

John:
Now with that strategy, do you think it worked well or do you
think there are still some kinks in the armor that need to be
worked out?

Josh:
Well, all I have to say is that it wasn't until that last knee
that everything was set up for me to do what ever I wanted to.
Because he was still coming in a lot and kind of pressuring me
and working for the takedown really hard. So there was a lot
of being really close and a lot of mothering, so with contact
like that its really hard to pull off something pretty enormous.
But, as soon as I landed the knee,which I thought cracked him
pretty good, it was time to give him a few shots to keep him
covered up and flat on the mat and plan my next series of moves.
But, by then it was over, the knee had landed good on the temple
and apparently dazed him pretty good.

John:
Speaking of your opponent Jimmy Ambriz, what are your thoughts
on him as a fighter?

Josh:
Well, he's a really strong cat. He's built in a way that allows
him to get a lot of body weight on you right away because he's
short and stocky. Nothing like Semmy Schilt or anything like
that, he carries a load. When he went for the single leg I was
defending it pretty well, but then his technique to get me to
the ground was basically to make himself into a cannonball and
roll right into me. Pretty hard to keep a guy like that from
getting on top of you in that sort of a dinstance. But he went
out there, he threw down, he didn't seem to be too cautious or
anything like that. He's a tough guy and I definitely think he
deserved to be the super heavyweight champion for King Of The
Cage.

John:
Now talking about your opponents, thus far in your career. Who
was your toughest challenge was?

Josh:
Well, my Severn fight was my longest but that was a tough fight
in itself because I really didn't train, and he was working throughout
the entire fight to essentially hold me against the ropes. It
was more about me trying to figure out how to get away from this
guy. To keep him off of me so that I could actually make something
happen. And it didn't come about until the fourth round, so that
was a pretty difficult fight. It was a bit frustrating and there
wasn't anything going on really. I'd say Randy was probably my
most difficult fight. But I'd also like to say Pedro because
it's the only one I've lost. So it's kind of difficult to really
pinpoint one guy. I think probably some of that is because most
of them don't ever go past the second round.

John:
What do you think is the most important lesson you've learned
from your past experiences in fights?

Josh:
Wow, now that's actually a really difficult question. You know
the biggest thing I guess for me has been learning how to control
the ring, and that when your out there it's one thing to go out
there and throw a bunch of bombs or go out and do a set of movements-
throws and submissions and such. It's another thing to command
the ring and force your opponent into doing things that he doesn't
realize your making him do. Or just to dictate the fight completely
and set a pace and make a situation where your opponent doesn't
really have too many options. Now that's something that even
when I train guys and watch people fight, I don't see a lot of.
I think that's one of those things that's really inherent as
well as learned from experience. It's something I believe can't
be taught. And that's a really important factor in my fighting.

John:
Sort of being a ring general of some sort right?

Josh:
Kind of, I don't know if that would be the best description of
it but I feel like even I can watch my fights and see where people
think I'm loosing but that's not necessarily the case. Because
I'm working down there and I'm trying to get the opponent and
put him in a hard spot so that he's not really left with too
many options. And, he might have to do something he wouldn't
ordinarily do because everything isn't available anymore. It's
essentially a battle of getting so many moves ahead of your guy
that even if he's on top and even if he's trying to strike. Actually,
what he's doing is trying to make up ground and he's not actually
moving forward. And then it's just a matter of time before it
all falls apart.

John:
Now that the hiatus has ended, and you're free to do what you
want. Who will your next fight be against, and what promotion
will it be for?

Josh:
Well, that I don't really know. I know I have quite a bit of
touring to do as far as pro-wrestling goes and I'm pretty confident
that I

will have another vale tudo in New Japan's October dome show.
I don't know who or what the scenario is going to be behind it
but I'm sure we will find somebody that's a worthy fighter. A
lot of times I had to fight in my career because it was the next
fight I had to take, because he was in line to fight for a title
or it was a tournament or maybe it was a good opportunity. I
think what is important for me is to fight the fights that people
are going to remember. It's not always about fighting the best
guy in the world or the worst guy in the world. It comes down
to fighting the guy that everybody wants to see you fight. Its
about fighting the guy who's style matches to make an exciting
fight or maybe just the guy with the most hype.

John:
So right now you just want to look for a fight that the fans
want to see?

Josh:
Yeah I want to fight the fight the fans really want to see. I
also want to fight the fight that I think is going to be the
most prestigious. I

mean I'm still interested in fighting Minotauro even though he
just lost to Fedor, because I think it would be an awesome fight.
That was one of the reasons I always wanted to fight him; regardless,
if he was the number one guy out there. I like the way he fights
and I think together we can make a really exciting match, something
that people will remember.

John:
Speaking of that match, have you had any negotiations with PRIDE
lately?

Josh:
They contacted me recently and we are always in touch because
it's pretty much understood that I like their organization and
I really would like to fight for them, it's just about getting
the right things together and just making it happen. That's pretty
much the way it goes with anybody. I'm definitely looking forward
to fighting for PRIDE in the future. I don't know when exactly
or who the opponent will be but I know it's going to happen here
shortly.

John:
Looking into the future, what goals are you looking to accomplish
for yourself within these next two years?

Josh:
One thing I think I would really like to do is set an example
for all the other fighters out there. I think mixed martial arts
in general has gone a bit to the boring side. I watch the fights
because of my interest, and business and entertainment wise.
But, I can say honestly I'm not really as entertained as I used
to be. When I really want to watch something exciting I'll probably
put in an old Pancrase tape or something like that. Nobody goes
for submissions anymore,nobody is taking any risks, and nobody
fights to get an immediate finish to the fight. They are just
sitting on top of somebody and being defensive and throwing some
strikes hoping maybe they might cut the guy or maybe they might
knock him out or maybe they might get a clean strike. In my opinion
it really isn't all that exciting to watch. You can almost be
assured unless he cuts him or happens to get a good shot in that
fights going to keep going and going and going and nothing is
going to change. I might as well just go make coffee or something.
It's not really worth my time to watch. So instead of bitching
about it, I think I should do something about it with the way
I fight. I should prove by example showing that you don't have
to go out there and just be a defensive fighter like everyone
else. Go ahead, take some risks. People like to see submissions
and near submissions, it gets their blood pumping and it gets
their heart rate up. It makes them think, any second this fight
can end. Otherwise people are just wanting to throw some strikes
and you're hoping something will happen, but you know in your
heart that nothing is. So that's just the way I feel about it.

John:
Wrapping things up here with a few final comments, do you have
anything you would like to say to your fans?

Josh:
Hey, I know it's been a long lay off but you guys are always
sticking in there with me and its going to pay off. Believe me.
Watch for these fights this year and next year and we are going
to show the world what a real exciting fight looks like.

Source: MMA Weekly

LAWLER
OUT- 6 TO 9 MONTHS

The injury that Robbie Lawler sustained at UFC 42 is more serious
than first thought. By all accounts the injury to the hip is
indeed VERY serious. It looks as though he will be out of the
fight game for 6 to 9 months.

Lawler
injured himself while fighting Pete Spratt in the Octagon and
Lawler's corner was surprised when Lawler verbally said he couldn't
go in the middle of the fight. Monte Cox who represents many
Miletich fighters said "You knew when Robbie said he couldn't
go anymore...that it had to be serious. He NEVER quits."

Later
it was revealed that he had really hurt his hip badly which may
require surgery. Doctors have told Lawler that he won't be able
to fight for many months. It seems the early prognosis is at
least 6 to 9 months minimum.

Monte
Cox Breaks News About Horn, Sylvia, Lawler, Miletich, and Franklin

Mixed
martial arts manager Monte Cox broke the news on Tuesday's MMAWeekly
Radio Show that Jeremy Horn will probably not be fighting at
UFC 44 in August. Cox said that even before Horn's controversial
fight with Vernon "Tiger" White last week, he was told
by Zuffa that Horn probably wouldn't be on the August card because
it is already so full with other fighters. Cox said that he now
hopes to get Horn on the UFC's next card in late September. In
the meantime, Jeremy Horn told Monte Cox shortly after his fight
with Tiger that he wanted to have a rematch, but Monte said he
thinks Jeremy should go down to 185 pounds now rather than later,
and he is trying to push him in that direction.

Monte
Cox also said that contrary to what King of the Cage's Eric Apple
said on Monday's show, Jeremy Horn's contract with King of the
Cage specifically states that he is allowed to fight in the UFC
without being stripped of his KOTC Light-Heavyweight Title. Regarding
the fight between Jeremy Horn and Vernon "Tiger" White,
Monte said that it was very close and that the judges ultimately
made the right decision in choosing Horn as the winner. Cox conceded
that White was the more aggressive fighter, and that "it
wasn't the fight Jeremy Horn wanted to fight." Monte said
that Horn deserved to win nonetheless because he was able to
impose his will of keeping the fight on the ground, and also
block most of White's strikes. Cox said that White did land some
good offense, but "kicking somebody's hands doesn't do a
whole lot of damage."

In
addition, Monte Cox broke news about several of the fighters
that he represents. Regarding the long-planned Heavyweight Title
fight in August between Tim Sylvia and Gan McGee, Cox said that
Sylvia "was" going to fight McGee in August. He said
that those two could still fight each other, but Sylvia will
be defending the title against someone else on that show if Zuffa
isn't able to come to terms with Gan McGee financially. Cox said
that it could be Andrei Arlovski, and it could be Frank Mir if
he is able to beat Wes Sims at UFC 43. Other news from Monte
Cox:

-Robbie
Lawler will be out 6-9 months with a severe hip injury that will
probably require surgery.

-Pat
Miletich coming back as a fighter is dependent on the status
of his neck injury, which is still not fully healed.

-Rich
Franklin's next fight in the UFC will be at UFC 44 against Edwin
Dewees, who will be making his UFC debut on the show.

Source: MMA Weekly

Super
Brawl 30 Coming Soon!

June 13, 2003

Neil Blaisdell Arena

Fight Card
Coming Soon!

5/21/03

Quote
of the Day

Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are
some men and women who refuse to believe that what they know
to be right cannot be done.

Russell W. Davenport

Memorial
Day Beach BBQ Monday May 26

Everyone:

We normally set up camp at the key hole in the middle of Ala
Moana Beach Park, right next to the tennis courts. It is the
only spot that actually cuts in to the park.

We need people to come early to reserve our spot. As you can
probably tell, Lisa and I (and Brandon) are tired of always being
the ones that come early to set up.

When: Monday, May 26

Where: Ala Moana Beach Park in the Key Hole

Time: 6:00 am - whenever

What to bring: Potluck, anything you want.

Hope to see you there!

PACIFIC
FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIPS

"BATTLEGROUNDS"

JULY 12, 2OO3

Pacific Fighting Championships is pleased to announce two talented
fighters that are confirmed to fight AFC 3 Champion Mike Labuanan
of Maui and raising Heavyweight Jacob Fa'agai of Untaimed Bloodline
Fight Club will be in action July 12.2003. Labuanan is undefeated
in MMA and wants to put himself to the test in the square ring.
Fa'agai on the other hand is a Heavyweight that looks to have
a future in this sport as he uses his HEAVY hands to pound through
his last opponent.

Fighters are still being taken as more applications comes in,
so if your interested in fighting also email pfc.hawaii@verizon.net or check out www.pfchawaii.com and fill out an application.

MAHALO

Source: Promoter

The
5th Submission Wrestling World Championships - ADCC Coverage
Begins!

May 17th and 18th, 2003 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

UPDATE
#: (6) - Will continue to be updated with details from the best
SUBMISSION WRESTLING competition in history!

AWARDS:

BEST THROW: CHRIS BROWN (Australia)

BEST MATCH: RONALD JACARE (Brazil) v. RICARDO ALMEIDA (Brazil)

MOST TECHNICAL FIGHTER: MARCELLO GARCIA (Brazil)

FASTEST SUBMISSION: MARCIO CRUZ (Brazil) :14 (on Alex Araujo)

It
has been the power of the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships
from the very beginning - to capture and captivate the grappling
world by bringing together the best grapplers for an elite competition.
This years event eclipsed anything ever seen before, as 87 of
the world's top grapplers left themselves on the mats in heroic
displays. It was unbelievable, especially up close... There would
be more submissions than ever by the weekend, and a new guard
in submission grappling was to emerge.

Leading
up to the event, this year was different. Brazil has always been
dominant, and now with the home field advantage, 'TEAM BRAZIL'
was ready to shine again. But immediately in the opening rounds,
several Brazil versus Brazil match ups would force the competition's
pace and energy. It is a compliment to the athletes regarding
conduct - the Brazilians have really gotten over their historic
unprofessionalism, and they have done it without losing that
fire - it is a compliment to the athletes that it can now be
said that Brazil can host world level events in mixed martial
arts. These volatile match ups were expected to develop, but
two early stood out.

Anyone
who says the ADCC tournament is a sham is an idiot anyway, but
here is further proof. If anyone would be protected, it would
be MARIO SPERRY, right? The first super fight Champion, he is
the man that really helped build the ADCC tournament with his
total dominance since 1998, the ADCC's inception. Losing the
super fight last year, returning to the 98.9 KG (217 lbs) division
Sperry would meet ROGER GRACIE, a young gun ADCC Champion RENZO
GRACIE has been grooming for the event. TOP TEAM v. GRACIE FAMILY.
Again, a hard battle developed, as Sperry attacked relentlessly
with take down attempts. Gracie proved to be worthy of the name,
as he wore Sperry down and scored points in the final minutes.

Another
Brazil v. Brazil match up came in round 1. RYAN GRACIE versus
RONALDO Jacaré was a stunning match, receiving votes for
fight of the night. Gracie is a live wire, and when he goes,
he is uncontrollable. Jacaré is from the north of the
country, and he already has an established rep in JJ as a guy
who does not back down, he will slit your throat. They went at
each other, neither willing to give bottom position. At one point,
Jacare went flying over the table on a single leg from Gracie,
and the situation got heated, but the judges got up from the
table and controlled the situation. In the end, Jacaré
would win 5x0 as Gracie tired. Remember this name - Jacaré!

A
notable international bout featured FERNANDO TERERE and JUSSI
TAMMELIN. Terere is a submission wiz, but he came in hurt, with
a banged up rib after a training session with MARK Kerr. Tammelin,
from Finland, is tall and his game is really unorthodox, and
he gave as good as he got for while.

FERNANDO
'MARGARIDA' PONTES entered the tournament on the day of the event,
replacing JORGE PATINO, who was cut in his MECA Vale Tudo fight
the night before. This is unfortunate for ROBERT SULSKI, a rugged
European Trial Champion who was forced to sit through a 3 hour
delay while things were sorted out. Sulski wouldn't know his
opponent until he hit the mat, and Margarida is a natural. 'Margarida'
would advance, and Sulski would not get a fair break. Reports
from the trial give Sulski a lot of points for potential.

UNDER
65.9 KG

ROYLER
GRACIE lost. It is resounding. One of the many lasting images
is this - Royler he never made an excuse. When it happened, he
looked at the tatame, then stood up and walked off with his head
held high, mouthing only 'filho de puta', not even a whisper.
American Qualifier Champion EDDIE BRAVO had served notice.

The
weight class was packed with talent. In the first round, LEO
VIERA, BARET YOSHIDA, ALEXANDRE SOCA and JOACHIM HANSEN would
all advance. Royler would take out CHARLIE PEARSON of AMC, getting
him with a choke. Bravo would work his way through GUSTAVO DANTAS,
making the 2nd round match up that would make history.

Royler
would get top position in the match, and several scrambles would
result in Bravo showing real guts. Royler seemed to have trouble
with his breathing at one point, but when he got to it, he pressured
Bravo. It was late and Royler was up 5-0, with a knee in the
stomach and guard passing points. Bravo got to guard again, and
worked hard for the triangle and sunk it. Royler and the crowd
relaxed, he had been there thousands of times. It would come
as a shocking moment at 8:42 in the round, when Bravo would release
the hold at Royler's tap, stand up and walk toward his corner
arms in victory. Royler sat there for a moment. The crowd attendance
was terrible anyway, but Brazilian crowds are boisterous and
it was dead silent in the room. Bravo was gone however - he would
be to stoked for the next round, and understandably so.

As
for Royler Gracie, he is a gracious, unbelievable champion and
his unbelievable streak at ADCC sees him as the only 3X tournament
champ in his weight class. In defeat, all he asked for was one
more chance, and he would be heard from again. But this moment
woke everyone up - this tourney was on, and there were to be
no questions asked - the fighters came to fight, to give there
all and to leave it in the ring, and they should be commended.

Baret
took out 'Soca' in the semifinals to set up a final of Baret
and Leo. Leo would eat up Bravo, 15-0 as Bravo would get an injury
and bow out of the 3-4 fight. Royler would be back in the 3-4
spot, facing 'Soca' an excellent, gifted stylist who has faced
the nemesis of Royler his entire career. On short notice, it
is hard to say how hard this was on Soca, who must want to face
anyone but Royler, but for Gracie it was just what the doctor
ordered. He would beat Soca, and earn 3rd place.

In
the finals, VIERA would prove strong and fit. Yoshida is all
heart, and his guard has been described as 'infernal', but Leo
was not going to play that game. He stayed real busy, circling
and darting in, playing but never getting in too deep. His game
was more complete, and Baret would finish 2nd again. It is interesting
to speculate how a Royler-Baret or Royler-Leo match would have
gone, but we now know anything is possible.

66-76.9
LG

Perhaps the single biggest revelation of the tournament would
be mild mannered, unassuming MARCELLO GARCIA. Trained by Fabio
Gurgel, Garcia had impressed in the Brazilian Trials, but had
finished 2nd to DANIEL MORAES. Garcia took a -1 for playing guard
in the finals of the TRIALS, and lost to Moraes used a stifling,
defensive top position style to take Garcia out.

In
the world championships, Moraes would lose to Matt Hume student
OTTO OLSON, as Moraes would not get top position on the wrestler.
Olson would ground out local star FERNANDO TERERE

PABLO POPOVICH the American Qualifier took out defending World
Champion MARCIO FEITOSA, in another example of how the field
was highly competitive throughout.

Meanwhile
Garcia was churning through his bracket, taking out PANCRASE
star Kiuma Kunioku in round 1 and serving notice in Round 2 with
an unbelievable match up with Renzo Gracie. He won the position
battle all night, getting to backs and finishing. To Renzo's
credit, he would not go down without a fight, but he lost on
points, and another ADCC tournament champion was gone. The field
was wide open. Garcia would through the entire building into
a frenzy in Round 3, when he left SHAOLIN RIBEIRO asleep in :20
seconds with a choke. Shaolin had defeated JASON RAMSTETTER in
round 1 and taken Popovich out in round 2, and was one of the
favorites going in.

Another
favorite going into the night was Australian Olympic wrestler
CHRIS BROWN. Brown returns to the competition known as the man
who took Renzo Gracie out of the competition in 2001 in the weight
class above. He dropped in weight class, as did Renzo, but the
rematch never materialized.

Brown
took out MITSUHIRO ISHIDA, the Japanese stylist who came through
the 16 man Japan Trials in March. In round 2, he would engage
in a war of attrition with TONY DeSouza who represented Peru
well - he is the first south American fighter not to be Brazilian
to make an impact. DeSouza was the alternate, who got in when
DENNIS HALLMAN was a no show.

The
blood would pour. DeSouza is a grinder, as he proved in his days
as a UFC up and comer. Now living in Peru, he has been out of
touch, but he showed himself to be a legit world class fighter
again. Brown is a 5x Olympian, and he is impossible to compete
against in the preparation for a long grinding battle. Perhaps
it was frustration, or just bad luck, but DeSouza elbowed him
several times in the heat of battle, splitting Brown open and
getting a lengthy medical timeout while Brown was bandaged. In
OT, Brown came out with his head completely wrapped like a mummy,
and he pulled out the win over DeSouza.

To
get to the finals, it was wrestler against wrestler as Brown
took on Olson. Normally this match up edge would go to Brown,
but he was depleted, and Olson is definitely in the neighborhood
- he is absolutely huge for this weight class!

In
the 3/4 match, Shaolin would get Brown's back and win on points.
Both men fought an extremely classy match, as Brown played JJ
in SHAOLIN'S guard and showed that the level down under is getting
really high. Shaolin for his part, earned 3rd and did not attack
Brown's head, keeping the heavily bandaged cuts clearance while
still using an abundance of technique to dominate.

Matt
Hume always does his homework. An insider saw him running around
the back area looking for info, any info on Garcia. An insider
warned him 'watch him, play cautious to win, this kid is magic'.
Hume is always game for a challenge, and to his credit Olson
came out fighting, taking it right to Garcia. Garcia was a train
not or be stopped, and he certainly proved he is the real deal.
He caught Olson in the choke, for a submission in the finals.
The level of the event has skyrocketed again, and the fact that
there were submissions in the finals again, rather than people
holding on, show that the athletes are giving the all to showcase
there talents in a world level competition.

Again,
the beauty of ADCC, is that as good as he looked, Marcello Garcia
would be heard from again in the ABSOLUTES.

super
fight

MARK Kerr (USA) versus RICARDO ARONA (Brazil)

The
match up was 20 minutes, and it occurred on Saturday night as
their grand finale of the first day. Kerr was in the back, and
there was some concern over his condition even before the fight.
To his credit, he came out and gave it his all, but his all is
clearly not what it used to be.

Arona
would get an early advantage, on a 2 point take down that occurred
too early to score points. Under the ADCC structure, the match
would go to Arona on advantage after 1 OT, if the score remained
0-0. The match would be up on it's feet at the 10 minute mark,
when the point system kicked in, Kerr was tired already, sucking
wind. It would be 0-0 at the end of 20 minutes of regulation,
where Arona really established the pace throughout, but Kerr
held him off. Several times throughout the match, Kerr would
complain about incidental headbutts - Kerr would shoot sloppy
and Arona would sprawl - when Kerr was slow getting up, Arona
would charge and they butted heads many times. Kerr used the
occasions to suck for air, and the Brazilian fans let him know
about it. Arona stayed focused, as it was obvious it would only
be a matter of time.

Heading
into the OT, Kerr would approach the judges, stating 'OT is 5
minutes'. This was another sad attempt to gain time, since Kerr
himself fought a 10 minute extra period at ADCC 2001 with Mario
Sperry. The judge responded, '10 minutes' and Kerr asked 'since
when?' The final answer was 'since Roberto Traven and Sperry
fought two of them'. Kerr would not survive the next 10 minutes
and he knew it. Arona finally scored a take down, 4 points, obtaining
side control position. Kerr was controlled for 3 seconds, giving
Arona the 4-0 edge. The few people in the place went nuts! Kerr
would be forced to work to catch up, and his tank bottomed out.
Time ran out, and Kerr was done. Hopefully, this is not a sign
that his demons are back to haunt him, but he must get in shape
if he is to fight again.

THE
ABSOLUTE

The draw is done by an international panel of insiders and the
local promoters, with all applicant names going in a hat. Votes
are cast 1-10, the criteria is: 'What are the chances that this
fighter can win an 16 man open class tourney in the ADCC style?'
Votes are added up, and the top 16 go. Several fighters drop
out, and as the original draw is looked back upon, DEAN LISTER
was the 20th seed going in. History was starting to write itself
again.

Source: ADCC

How
I Saw ADCC 2003...

Submitted by: Marcello Tetel

I was thinking about how to write an article about this event
and as always its very difficult to find a place to begin. I
thought I would start by decrining the fights I judged to be
the best fights, but then I realized the task would be too much!

Let's
start from the 66kg weight division. The first round had a lot
of submissions, and this is something that helped lift the level
of the event. Last competition, I wrote an article about Royler
Gracie and I remember that I Royler asked me before the ADCC
2001 'Tetel, who would you pick as winner? ' I answered him:
'Nobody. Before the first round, nobody can pick a winner.'

That
is exactly what happened again - the field was wide open from
the very beginning. The first round showed me favorites. People
I was expecting to be advancing, advanced submitting the opponents
in order to save energy for the next rounds.

Royler,
Eddie, Leozinho, Rany, Joachim, Soca and Baret submitted the
opponents in impressive fashion, and I knew the tunnel would
be even tighter in the 2nd round.

This
is the way to compete in ADCC: Use a strategy as much as you
can, but this doesn't mean you have to play for points. All the
guys mentioned above played not to save energy. The mental game
was another very important facet. Self confidence, advancing
by submission and showing your upcoming opponents how well prepared
you are and possibly making him set up a defensive game in order
to avoid your positions. This would put you in advantage under
the ADCC official's judgement. This is half of the mental battle.

The
Key of this tournament is - IMPOSE YOUR OWN GAME!!! If Royler
asked me who to pick, I would say to him 'Well, this year I will
have to wait until the 2nd round is over'. Too many favorites
with the same behavior....

Source: ADCC

Stephan
'Bozo' Paling gets another crack at the Champ

It was arguably one of the best cards in MMA history. Hayato
Sakurai TKO'ed the much talked about Frank Trigg, Kaoru Uno solidified
his place as the true champion by KO'ing the legendary Rumina
Sato in their rematch, Mishima initiated his climb up the ranks
by submitting the rugged Brazilian arcio 'Cromado' and Ray Cooper
(the current Shooto MW number one ranker) dropped a disappointing
loss to Alex Cook via an very unorthodox kneck crank.

It
all went down on December 17th, 2000 in the Tokyo Bay NK Hall.
Along with those other classic bouts, was one of the Champ's
(Alexandre Nogueira) many dumb-founding guillotine victories.
It was against the journeyman Hawaiian fighter - Stephan Paling.
It was a disappointing loss for Bozo, having turned directly
into Nogueira's chest virtually offering his head-up on a platter
for the Brazilian to secure the choke. Since then Paling has
been hungry and determined to get back in there and get another
shot at the belt (preferably with it being still around Alexandre's
waist).

Since
that loss, Paling has gone 6-1 in Shooto bouts winning his last
6, and doing it against top tier fighters all the way. His last
performance looked like another day at the office when at just
15 seconds into the bout he put an end to things by leaving his
opponent with a fight halting cut. Now here comes his chance
for redemption and once again the chance to capture the only
world recognized title at the 145 lbs weight range.

Of
course Nogueira is virtually unstoppable as the Champion. Since
Paling he has loss twice, but came back to best each of those
adversaries in rematches... and he did it in impressive style.
He is physically very strong and super aggressive. He has tons
of experience as the Champ having been as such since 1999 and
is highly regarded as one of the top pound for pound fighters
on the planet.

This
all goes down on August 10th in Yokohama , Japan on the card
that will also feature the Shooto debut of Jens Pulver.

Source: ADCC
News and Rumors Archives

May 2003 Part 2
May 2003 Part 1
April 2003 Part 3
April 2003 Part 2
April 2003 Part 1
March 2003 Part 3
March 2003 Part 2
March 2003 Part 1
February 2003 Part 3
February 2003 Part 2
February 2003 Part 1
January 2003 Part 3
January 2003 Part 2
January 2003 Part 1
December 2002 Part 2
December 2002 Part 1
November 2002 Part 2
November 2002 Part 1
October 2002 Part 3
October 2002 Part 2
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October 2001 Part 2
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September 2001 Part 2
September 2001 Part 1
August 2001 Part 2
August 2001 Part 1
July 2001 Part 3
July 2001 Part 2
July 2001 Part 1
June 2001 Part 2
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April 2001 Part 2
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March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
November-December 2000
October 2000
August-September 2000
July 2000
March-May 2000