Hmmm - I'm not sure

Now here is a thing to ponder - if you are so inclined

I was reading an ESPN article the other day about Chuck Liddell entitled This guy scares you? and it got me to thinking.

While a lot of the article was what you come to expect from these things (information about what they are like and whether they are how you would think they will be etc) there was a line in there made me raise an eyebrow and stop to think - at least for a little while

So what could they have said that made me stop and think. Well it was something that the author wrote -

"What Liddell means is that he isn't psychotic. He describes himself as "mellow, laid-back." He doesn't derive pleasure from inflicting pain, and the fact that you enjoy watching him do it says a hell of a lot more about you than him." (This guy scares you?, By Allison Glock, ESPN The Magazine)

This was a statement that I found really interesting in a couple of ways. Firstly should someone feel bad about watching the UFC and taking enjoyment from watching grown men compeat against each other. Secondly, what is it that drives an individual to be a professional combative sports competator.

Lookint at my first point I guess there are 2 answers, either yes or no. I guess it really depends on why it is that you watch MMA or any other form of combatative compettion. Do you watch it because you admire the skills of the competators and enjoy watching what some have called a human chess match, or do you watch it becuase you want to see people get hurt?

I would like to suggest that a lot of people who are fans of these sports do not watch them becuase they want to see people being hurt. That being said I am not niaeve enough to believe that this is the case for all fans (Mr Just Bleed at UFC 14) but I think these are now in the minority (although I have no evidence to back this up).

Were you so inclined (again) you could look at the way that a lot of fans respond to fights that go to the ground (where there is no ground and pound) and see their reaction as being the "hounds baying for blood" but I am happy to give folks the benefit of the doubt here. I think that there are a couple of factors that feed into this. Firstly Ju Jitsu/Grapling matches can be really confusing to watch.

If you don't understand why someone is fighting for one particular possition then where is the interest. Secondl, a lot of the time if you are a live event you will not be able to see what is happening without looking at a big screen, and even when you do this you don't have the benefit of expert comentary. I am not saying for one minute that all ground matches are actually exciting ('cos..... well thats not true) but some of them are.

Another thing that should be considered is that (especially in the UK) people have a limited range of experience in combative arts and this experience is usually limited to boxing (or wresting if you put this in the same catagory). In boxing it is all on the feet and when you hit the ground it usually means you have lost. It will take people a while to get used to the different styles but in time they will get experience that will allow them to get a further understanding. There will always be folks that don't find the ground matches interesting and will want to see a stand up match, but not because people will get hurt - just because it is more dynamic and exciting.

The second thing that I found interesting was the question of What inspires a person to become a professional fighter. Does it take someone with an aggressive attitude, someone who just likes to cause pain, or, is there more to it than that?

Having read a number of fighters blogs and articles it seems pretty clear to me that in some regards yes, it takes a different type of person to dedicate themselves to becoming a professional fighter. You have to put yourself through a lot of pain and work for not a lot of money in a lot of cases. You would expect that there is no way to categorize the people in ant walk of life, although there may be some traits that will be shared. For example most folks who work in IT have some kind of further education, the same for medicine (etc)

Looking at fighters you see that (as you would expect) there are mixed backgrounds. Some come from what you could call 'troubled' backgrounds while others come from regular backgrounds, some hold degrees while others don't.

I know that there are some folks who would think that it would take someone who was aggressive and had a bad attitude to be a fighter, but from what I have seen does not seem to be the case. A lot of the time these attitudes come from people who do not understand the sport and the people who partake in it. After all it is much easier to criticize that which you do not understand. The danger with this though is that the people that promote these myths are those that are in positions of authority, and therefore tend to have influence over decisions that are made.

I currently have 2 books sitting on my bedside table to read - both of which are to do with MMA fighters and how they came to the sport that they now seem to love. I am interested to see just how they got to where they are today and what motivates them to get up each day and do what they do.

UFC 75 - Champion v's Champion

Well this weekend was the card I had been waiting for - UFC 75 in London at the O2 arena.

This card had a lot going for it. Not only was their the title unification match between Quinton Jackson and Dan Henderson but there was also there return of Cro Cop following his defeat at the hands of Gabriel Gonzaga. On paper this looked to be an amazing card.


Jackson v's Henderson

Jackson had defeated Chuck Liddell in under 5 minutes to win his belt. This just blew people away, Liddell had been undefeated for so long no one thought that he could loose. This was, after all, the man that had managed to beat Randy Couture time and time again with seeming eeze. We all knew that Jackson was strong but his knock out of Liddell had caught everyone out.

Henderson was the Pride Joint champion and had managed to knock out the The Axe Murderer in his last fight. This fight meant that Henderson was now the only man to hold both the middleweight and welterweight titles in the organization. Whats more is that he won these title in exciting matches where he knocked out his opponents. It seemed that although he had once upon a time earned the moniker of Decision Dan (something that seemed to really upset him, somewhat understandably) he was back fighting in a way that entertained the crowds

It is not clear whether a lot of the fans new just who Dan Henderson was and what he had achieved in Pride. The UFC seemed to have decided to not market Henderson, which was a mistake. A lot of the new UFC fans tend to be biased towards what they have learnt from TUF and Dan Henderson has never been metioned there. In fact if you have not seen anything from Pride then you will not know a lot, if anything, about Henderson. This being the case how will the fans be hyped for the match - they could only base it on what they had seen in the teasers for the fight.

While Rampage made him self the new golden boy of the UFC with his knock out of Liddell and his outgoing larger than lifer personality, Henderson had no opportunity to do this. If you look at the first time the Henderson was introduced to the Fans then the one thing you will see is that it is the Rampage show all over again. This is not because Rampage was trying to steel the lime light, it is jsut the way he is.

Both Rampage and Henderson can be explosive fighters and there was a lot of excitement around the match. As fighters they share a lot of the same strengths and there were high hopes for a corking stand up match. There were questions about who had the strongest chin and would the UFC crowd see one of the fames Rampage Slams. Unfortunately by the end of the 5 rounds some fans were left disappointed.

The match started out well with Jackson throwing a lot of big punches at Henderson, managing to rock him a couple of times. The fight them went to the ground and people got a chance to see Jacksons Ju Jitsu. Unfortunately the ground game was a little slow and as there were two really strong fighters. These guys were not going to transition continually from submission to submission. A lot fo the crowd spent the duration of the fight calling on the ref to stand the fighters up, but they fairly quickly ended up back on the ground.

Looking over the fight it was a close run thing with both Jackson and Henderson trying to submit or knock out the oponent, but the crowd just did not seem to be in to it. Rampage was awarded the decision by the judges, and I think it was the right decision for them to make, but the fight left the crowd wanting more, which was a shame as this was the last fight of the night and for a lot of people that will be the one thing that they will take away.

Cro Cop v's Congo

People were also kind of excited about the return of Cro Cop. He was down to fight Chieck Congo, a guy with good stand up - another stand and brawl match which fans just love.

In every fight Congo has shown fairly solid stand up and a weaker ground game. Cro Cop is the big I am, the guy that people want to beat. It was widely reported that Cro cop is having an outstanding contract anf d the hype that followed him had everyone waiting to see what would happen in this second fight

The answer it turned out was that no a lot would happen in the course of the match. Cro cop just did not look like the man we expected to see. He seemed tentative at best throughout the fight and when Congo managed to take him down he just could not answer.

Congo again won the decision and there was a lot of debate about whether or not this was it for Cro cop - was the man done. I guess time will tell but he is not going to draw in the crowds based on his last two performances, and do we believe that he could beat Couture - well just now - not so much

Bisping v's Hamill

Billed as the TUF final that you did not see (due to Hamill being injured) this was the fight that a lot of people were most excited about. The general consensus was that this would be a short and dramatic match with Bisping dominating the whole thing.

There was a really pleasant surprise for the fans where a much improved Hamill really pushed Bisping. I do not know if Bisping had not filly prepared for the match, or thought that Hamill would be a walk over, but he did not look like he was ready for the fight.

Hamill has improved on his stand up and as usual his wrestling skills were top class. It really was a close run thing with Bisping getting the judges decision (although there was some strange scoring from 1 judge). I think that the home crowd were not that impressed with Bispings performance but it was still a tiop fight.

Alexander v's Sakara

This was a match where I was not sure what would happen I mean we had seen Sakara knock people out but would this be the case this time. I will be honest and say that this was not a fight I was excited about, but it really should have been. Alexander showed that he could take a blow as Sakara connected with a few good shots. The back and forth did not last all that long as Alexander ended the match with a great knee to the head which ended the fight by KO.

Davis v's Taylor

When Marcus Davis left the TUF series you would have been forgiven for thinking that would have been it for him. Turns out that we would all have been wrong as Davis has been working his way through his fights, winning them all successfully.

This match had people on their feet from the bell ringing. The fight moved from stand up to the ground and back again keeping everyone going. Taylor was the home boy favorite but he was eventually overcome by Davis who managed to submit the home boy by arm bar. A cracking fast paced fight which warmed everyone up


Jess Liaudin v's Anthony Torres

Liaudin was down as the home favorite (despite being French) and he did not disappoint the fans. Again this was another fast paced match where there was cracking stand up which resulted in a Torres being knocked out. It was a shame that this one was not televised as it was a great fight

Also on the card Dennis Siver defeated Naoyuki Kotani via KO and Thiago Silva defeated Tomasz Drwal via TKO.

All in all this was a great card with a lot of the under card fights being a lot more exciting than some of the title bouts and the fans were on top form (despite the a lot of booing from when they did not like the speed of the fight

Good ole boys, never doing no harm......

Last night the hillbilly was in the house.....Well technically the hillbillies were in the abc but you get the idea

Hayseed Dixie were playing one of the last dates on their current tour and we had managed (at long last) to get tickets for one of their shows and we were not disappointed

The show started with an excellent warm up band called called neck show played Irish folk punk rock - sounds weird I know but they were actually really good and a lot of fun. Most folks seemed to really like them and they really got the crowd worked up ready or the main show.

The Dixie boys are not perhaps what you would expect from a band. Imagine 4 older guys in their lat 40's some of whom are dressed in dungarees, all of whom walk out with a bottle of larger (or ale depending on who likes what) and just start chatting from the stage. If you have got the picture then you are looking at Hayseed Dixie.

Now if you are wondering what the boys from down south play well think of your Queen, Aerosmith, Greenday, ACDC and any number of other groups. Now change those tunes to be bluegrass rather than rock, ensure that they are played acoustically and you have a standard Dixie album

The pace of the show was frenetic with the band playing song after song, interspersed with a bit of chat and joke. It was one of the most enjoyable concerts I have been to largely because everyone was there to have a good time. If you looked around the hall then all you would see would be folks singing and dancing.

Unlike a lot of bands you will see the boys played a good mix of tunes from all of their albums rather than just the new one (Weapons of Grass Destruction) and the crowd loved it. When they played Aerosmith and Queen the place went mad!

If you like a bit of bluegrass metal rock then you will definitely enjoy one of these concerts. The CD's are fun but the concerts take it to a whole new level.

If you are interested then take a look at their website and see what you think - then just sit back and sing along - Gimmie a crate of ale, and a crate of larger and just enough ice to keep it cold........

And Still..........

UFC 74 the card that on paper had a certain heavy weight champion handing over his title and belt to the man that knocked out Cro-cop with a leg kick to his neck.

Guess what if you put money on that being the case - then you will be short what ever you placed down. I on the other hand would be somewhat better off as I bet on Couture winning and he did in grand style.....again

I was nervous before the fight - I mean while I hoped that Couture would be victor I did wonder would Gonzaga be able to trump the champ?

On paper Gonzaga paper was the favorite - he is substantially heavier and taller than Couture and is reported to have good standup as well as top BBJ. All in all he looks like a well rounded package, and he is riding on the wave of beating Cro-cop in a totally devastating manner. If you were then to look at Couture - the man is in his mid 40's and is now past the age that many hold as being the age that someone should continue in full contact sports, he moved down a weight category from heavyweight when he lost to a number bigger, stronger fighter.

The one thing that was on Couture's side is the fact that he is far and away the most experienced out of the two and he knows a lot about how he fights and his strengths. Combine this with the fact that he is rumored to have one of the best training regimes - then things start to become a little more balanced.

Couture again showed his improved stand up skills, but was rocked a couple of times when Gonzaga caught him a couple of times, It was looking to be a close run thing, with differing opinions as to who had won what round. Third round - Gonzaga had no way to defend the raining blows and Herb Dean ended the fight. Now it was unfortunate that there had been a clash of heads that resulted in Gonzaga getting a broken nose but Couture managed to take advantage and retained the belt

The rest of the card was also pretty cool as these things go. There was a cracking fight from GSP who beat Josh Koschek by decision after dominating 3 rounds and beating the wrestler at his own game. For the first couple of rounds GSP looked to be a little tentative with his stand up, although his wrestling skills surprised everyone (including his opponent). GSP very quickly showed that he could play the wrestling game and appeared to psyche out Kos who thought he would dominate the wrestling. By round 3 GSP was in the zone and was happy to show his usual stand up talent.

There had been a lot of debate around whether or not the GSP that would fight would be the man who beat Matt Hughes, or the man that was beaten by Matt Serra. Turned out it would be the former rather than the latter.

There were a number of other fights on the night that kept the crowd (and viewers at home) entertained Roger Huerta made everyone laugh by using the large screens to see where his opponent was manage to land some blows - it was a shame that he did not manage to beat the guy before a judges decision was made.

So now it is late and I have to try and sleep before I go to work for a 9am meeting. but for now we get to say (In best Bruce Buffer stylie)..........

And still UFC Heavyweight Champion.....The natural Randy Couture

Published!

I almost forgot to mention - I am now a publish photographer. Having had a pile of photographs up on Flickr I received an email saying one of them had been shortlisted for an online travel guide (schmapp).

I was kinda surprised to be honest with you - but buzzed as well. I have never had anything shortlisted before so I was chuffed. I was even more surprised when they came back and told be the photo was being included

Anyhow if you wanna see it then see below for the photo link

Click me