MMA: Lyoto Machida's "Boxing Blast"

OK, I made this animated gif... it's Lyoto's "boxing blast".

Way past my bedtime... GN all.

MMA: 2 joke animated pictures of Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans

Rashad was very classy in his defeat. I like him and I like Lyoto also. I was torn by this fight, but I was thinking Machida's style would be able to defeat Rashad's.

Here are 2 animated gif's I found off of Spladdle. The first one was made before the fight this past Saturday. The second was made after the fight. My thanks to the unknown gif maker(s).





Click the thumbnails for a bigger picture.

NEWS: Mike Tyson's Daughter Found Hanging From Cord

Cut and pasted from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521777,00.html:

Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter is on life support and in "extremely critical condition" after she was found hanging Monday morning from a treadmill cable in her family's Phoenix home, police said.

Exodus Tyson's 7-year-old brother found her on a treadmill with her neck on a cable attached to the exercise machine, police Sgt. Andy Hill said, calling it a "tragic accident."

The mother sent the boy to find the 4-year-old girl who was playing in a separate room. The boy found his sister in distress and got his mother, police said.

"Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console — it's kind of a loop," Hill said. "Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it."

The girl's mother took her daughter off the cable, called 911 and attempted to revive her.

Responding officers and firefighters performed CPR on the girl. She was rushed to nearby St. Joe's Hospital after she was found around 10:30 a.m local time, MyFOXPhoenix.com reported.

Hill said former heavyweight champion Tyson had been in Las Vegas but flew to Phoenix immediately after learning of the accident.

Tyson could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to three of his representatives were either not returned or not answered.

Hill said everything in the investigation pointed to an accident. "There's nothing in the investigation that revealed anything suspicious," he said.

He added that responding to calls involving children is an officer's most difficult duty.

"Those are the things that stay with you in your career," he said. "We always hope for a miracle — not to have the worst happen to a child."

Tyson lives in the house with his girlfriend and their two children, MyFOXPhoenix.com reported.

Click http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/text_only/tyson_daughter_accident_05_25_2009 for more info.

My prayers goes out to Mike Tyson and his family.

MMA: UFC 98 - Hughes X Serra & Machida X Evans animated gif's

Got these pix from Spladdle. Enjoy!



My thanks to the GIF makers at FightReport.com. Round 1. Click the pic for a bigger picture.





My thanks to the unknown GIF maker. Round 3. Click the pic for a bigger picture. Click the animated GIF for a bigger picture.


Hughes was rocked in round 1 from Serra's headbutt and right hand. Serra couldn't finish Hughes. Serra gets taken down in round 2 and Hughes controls and dominates with his ground and pound. Most of round 3 saw Hughes in control and with a little left to the round, Serra gets a takedown and starts his ground and pound. Hughes wins by unaimous decision.

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My thanks to the GIF makers at mma-core.com for the next 4 pictures. Click the pix for a bigger picture.







Evans was tentative and when Machida turned it on, he exploded. First 2 pictures are of the KO that cemented the win of the Light Heavyweight Championship for Machida. The last 2 pictures were from earlier in the fight.

MMA: Dream 9 - Jose Canseco vs Hong Man Choi

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/canseco+hong+man/video/x9ef1v_hong-man-choi-v-jose-canseco-dream_sport

sorry... cannot get it to hotlink or embed.

Enjoy!

MMA: UFC 98 - Evans vs Machida

Click for a bigger picture.

Date: May 23, 2009
Time: 10PM ET/7PM PT
Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Tickets: Ticketmaster & Stubhub

Main Event: Light Heavyweight Championship
205#: "Sugar" Rashad Evans (18-0-1) vs Lyoto Machida (14-0)

Main Card:
170#: Matt Hughes (43-7) vs Matt Serra (16-5)
185#: James Irvin (14-5-1) vs Drew McFedries (7-6)
185#: Dan Miller (12-1-1) vs Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
155#: Frank Edgar (9-1) vs Sean Sherk (37-3-1)S

Undercard Bouts:
170#: Brock Larson (26-2) vs Chris Wilson (13-5-1)
HWY: Pat Barry (4-0) vs Tim Hague (9-1)
155#: Kyle Bradley (13-6-1) vs Phillipe Nover (6-1-1)
205#: Krzysztof Soszynski (18-9-1) vs Andre Gusmao (5-1)
170#: Brandon Wolff (7-3) vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-3)
155#: David Kaplan (3-2) vs George Roop (8-5)

Sadly, I don't know most of the fighters.

I think Lyoto wins by decision unless he gets some miraculous opening Rashad presents him and Lyoto gets a KO. I think Lyoto is elusive enough and capitalize on his counter-attack game against Rashad. I like both fighters but going with Lyoto on this one.

Despite Hughes having lost his previous 2 and hasn't fought in some time, I think Matt Hughes wins, I don't think Matt Serra has adapted his BJJ to MMA. I don't see how Serra will win.

Looking forward to Saturday's UFC.

MOVIES: BANGKOK DANGEROUS - knife drill animated gif's

In time, I will make more and add more knife scenes from movies... I only had time to make these 2 from Nicholas Cage's BANGKOK DANGEROUS





Click for bigger pictures.



I want to put up something from Tommy Lee Jones/Benicio Del Toro HUNTED in the future.

~sg

EBOOKS: Boxing by Philadelphia Jack O'Brien

Kirk Lawson, yet again, has republished another rare OOP book. This time it's Boxing by Philadelphia Jack O'Brien. My sincerest appreciation to Kirk Lawson and his contributions to the martial arts community yet again!

Print: $9.70
Download: FREE

Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Light Heavyweight, claiming "American Middleweight," and boxing in all divisions, including a Championship match for the Heavyweight Championship of the World against Jack Johnson, wrote his manual in 1928.

In his career he fought such notables as Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Bob Fitzsimmons, and even Anthony J. Drexel Biddle.

O'Brien's comprehensive manual includes not only the standard instruction on how to punch, defend, and footwork but also covers fine aspects of ring generalship such as reading an opponent's intention, likely fighting styles, how to escape being cornered. O'Brien also provides in depth instruction of training up, diet, even sleeping advice. He includes instruction on how to minister to common injuries, advice on body toughening methods, and teaches the aspiring Referee.

This manual is a classic piece of history and an indispensable addition to the library of any boxing historian, boxer, and aspiring martial artist.

Download the pdf here: http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_65/7150000/7150097/1/print/Boxing_by_Philadelphia_Jack_OBrien.pdf.

Enjoy!

NEWS: The World's Best Illusion: The Secret of the Curve Ball

Devin Powell
Inside Science News Service
May 13, 2009


WASHINGTON, D.C. (ISNS) -- The three best visual illusions in the world were chosen at a gathering last weekend of neuroscientists and psychologists at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Florida.

The winning entry, from a Bucknell University professor, may help explain why curve balls in baseball are so tricky to hit.

A properly thrown curve ball spins in a way that makes the air on one side move faster than on the other. This causes the ball to move along a gradual curve. From the point of view of a batter standing on home plate, though, curve balls seem to "break," or move suddenly in a new direction.

This year's winning illusion, created by Arthur Shapiro of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, may explain this phenomena. His animation shows a spinning ball that, when watched directly, moves in a straight line. When seen out of the corner of the eye, however, the spin of the ball fools the brain into thinking that the ball is curving.

So as a baseball flies towards home plate, the moment when it passes from central to peripheral vision could exaggerate the movement of the ball, causing its gradual curve to be seen as a sudden jerk.

Click to read more and check out the pictures/flash video for the illusions.

MMA: Lyoto 'The Dragon' Machida 1 - Background and Takedowns

NOTE: This entry contains gif's that I didn't make. I dl'd off of Spladdle blog and uploaded to my pichost to save on original gif-maker's bandwith. My thanks to the unknown gif maker(s).

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Let's take a look at Lyoto 'The Dragon' Machida.

The buzz around Machida is that he is elusive, currently undefeated, and that his background is Shotokan Karate. To be trained in a traditional martial art and to be successful in MMA is a rarity these days as the MMA fighters of today seem to train a blended MMA hybrid style of BJJ, Muay Thai, boxing, and wrestling. It seems MMA has turned to the TMA to get an edge in MMA competition.

Lyoto Carvalho Machida (born May 30, 1978) is a Brazilian mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter currently fighting as a light heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

The son of a Japanese-Brazilian Shotokan karate master, Yoshizo Machida, Machida holds an undefeated record that includes victories over former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin, and current UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn. He is currently ranked as the #2 and #4 light heavyweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly and Sherdog respectively. Machida is noted for his karate-influenced striking style that implements an unorthodox stance and an elusive strategy.

Machida fights out of Black House.

For more info, check out:

• Official Site
• www.mixedmartialarts.com
• Sherdog
• Wiki

Some animated pictures of his takedowns. A friend (ronin) says the punch to sweep takedown is from Shotokan.

UFC 76 - Lyoto vs Kazuhiro Nakamura - September 22, 2007

2 takedowns in this gif




1st one is probably in other MA, but when I first saw it, my knee-jerk reaction was that it's a silat takedown called, IIRC, Kengit Siko.

WFA - Lyoto vs Vernon White - July 22, 2006

UFC 79 - Lyoto vs Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou - December 29, 2007

UFC 67 - Lyoto vs Sam Hoger - February 3, 2007

takedown look familiar? :-)

UFC 84 - Lyoto vs Tito Ortiz - May 24, 2008

Suplex time.

K1 Heroes 1 - Lyoto vx BJ Penn - March 26, 2005

How would you describe this takedown?

UFC 94 - Lyoto vs Thiago Silva - January 31, 2009

My friend Ausgepicht posted to the Spladdle Forum:

Funny, if you showed someone a highlight or a bunch of GIFs of Lyoto, they would think he was a ridiculous, technical machine....which he clearly is, but if you told them these ninja moves were done rounds or fights apart, they would be flabbergasted.

I think anyone watching the GIFs or highlights would come away thinking that this is simply how the guy fights....just beating the sh!t out of everyone.

Truth is that there's at least 5 minutes between these ninja moves!

This is part of Machida's elusiveness… he picks his spots… counter-attacks. When I saw some of his fights, I was probably like a lot of the typical MMA fans, looking for an exciting match with a knockout for the payoff. I initially felt bored watching his fights. But as I watched more of his fights, I realize what was going on. He is an excellent technician. Great tactitian and sticks to his strategy of counter-attacking. This all adds to his elusiveness. He thoroughly frustrated Tito Ortiz when they fought. Ortiz is quoted as saying, "He’s very elusive and it was tough to chase him down, he’s a great fighter."

I've noticed Machida does something with his body which I call the Machida Sway. He sways/rocks his body to and fro, kind of like what the Dog Brothers call the 'snaky stick'. The stick hand is always in motion to mask the intention of a strike. Machida seems to me the same when he sways his body. In a future entry, I will take a look at his feinting... the Machida Sway.

Machida will be facing 'Sugar' Rashad Evans for a shot at the Light Heavyweight title. Good luck Lyoto Machida!

MMA: Bellator Fighting Championships

There's a new MMA event called Bellator.

Bellator Fighting Championships is a first of its kind Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion that will be broadcast nationally in the U.S. starting April 2009 through an exclusive television agreement with ESPN Deportes. Bellator will also be broadcast to countries around the world through a collection of broadcast agreements.

Bellator, Latin for “Warrior,” began with the realization that the fighters and the competition between the fighters must be the central focus of any Mixed Martial Arts organization. With that in mind, founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney set into motion a new business model in MMA, where elite, world-class fighters will control their own destiny. At Bellator, fighters use their hands, knees, elbows, feet, hips and heart to determine who fights for the world title. In short, Bellator is a modern MMA tournament, bringing together a collection of world class competitors under one banner to fight for the right to call themselves World Champion. While matchmaking plays a key role in the development and maturation of fighters at various stages of their careers (particularly early in their careers), once fighters become world-class competitors, our belief is that they should be able to control their own destiny.

Bellator’s events will be nationally televised through ESPN Deportes, with each broadcast focusing solely on the fights and fighters. Bellator Fighting Championships is not a “reality television” program, but is instead real sports programming in its purest form. Bellator is simply the best fighting the best to determine who becomes champion and who earns the largest purse. Bellator’s premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events which will be broadcast every Saturday night in primetime, with the first show airing April 4, 2009 (click here to view full schedule). The nationally televised events will showcase a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature bouts. There will be four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season #1 over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.), Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.) divisions. Eight world-class fighters from around the globe will be represented in each division. To win the Bellator Championship, a fighter must win a total of three fights, each consisting of three five-minute rounds over a three month period. At the end of the initial three month, 12-event season, Bellator will have crowned four Bellator Champions and will have awarded each Champion $175,000. In round #1 of the competition, winners earn $25,000. In round #2 (Semi-Finals), winners earn $50,000 and in the Finals, winners earn $100,000.

Check out http://www.bellator.com/ for more info. From this young event, comes an awesome sub as well as an awesome KO.

In the running for KO of the year :-)

BFC (Bellator Fighting Championship) 6 - Yahir Reyes X Estevan Payan - 5/8/2009 - Reyes with a spinning backfist KO of Payan

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In the running for submission of the year :-)

BFC (Bellator Fighting Championships) 5 - Toby Imada X Jorge Masvidal - 5/1/2009. Imada with an Inverted Triangle Choke








NOTE: I got these pix off of Spladdle and my thanks to the unknown gif maker(s).

MOVIES: Donnie Yen's Ip Man (Chain Punches)

Here are 3 animated gif's I made of Wing Chun Chain Punching. Granted they are from the Hong Kong movie IP MAN starring Donnie Yen (SPL, Flashpoint, Dragon Tiger Gate, Iron Monkey 2, Blade 2, Highlander 4, etc), but they looked cool, I was learning how to make animated gif's and I like Donnie's movies.

Enjoy!

EDIT 3/3/13:  Noticed my pichost deleted my 2nd pic and recycled the URL to my first pic for someone's pic of a car. Reupped these pix. These were amongst the early GIF's I ever made and set at 300 pixels width. I may remake these to be 400 pixels width which is my current favorite width.

TECHNIQUE: Superman Punch in MMA

Here is an early instance of the Superman Punch used in MMA:

BIB - Beatdown in Bakersfield - Savant Young X Danny Suarez - 2006-11-17


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NOTE: The above 2 animated pix were made by me off of a youtube flv. The quality is not that good as you can see, but the source wasn't high quality:

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2 recent instances of the Superman Punch. Not my pix, my thanks to the unknown gif maker(s) for them. I got them off of Spladdle and uploaded to my pichost to save on bandwidth:

UFC 92 - Forrest Griffin X Rashad Evans



UFC 94 - GSP X BJ Penn

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For more info:

• Check out my friend's, Jason Couch's, article on the Superman Punch here: http://martialhistory.com/2009/02/the-superman-punch/
  
• http://www.markstraining.com/2008/03/rare-but-effective-strike-superman.html
  

Expert Village's How-To instructional vidclip

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It is said that some TMA like Goju-Ryu, TKD as well as Muay Thai has this punch. Just curious, anyone recall the first instance of the Superman Punch in MMA?

MOVIES: MERANTAU (Silat movie)

In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his “Merantau” a century’s old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community’s young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta. After a series of setbacks leave Yuda homeless and uncertain about his new future, a chance encounter results in him defending the orphaned Astri from becoming the latest victim of a European human trafficking ring led by the wildly psychotic, Ratger and his right-hand man Luc. With Ratger injured in the melee and seeking both his “merchandise” and bloody retribution, Yuda’s introduction to the city is a baptism of fire as he is forced to go on the run with Astri and her younger brother Adit as all the pimps and gangsters that inhabit the night hound the streets chasing their every step. With escape seemingly beyond their grasp, Yuda has no choice but to face his attackers in an adrenaline charged, jaw-dropping finale.

Check out http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/nearly-three-minutes-of-extreme-ass-whuppery-the-trailer-for-merantau-arriv/ for more info as well as the official movie site: http://www.merantau-movie.com/.

The trailer looks cool. It may have some kerambit and sarong/malong scenes from the looks of the trailer. *crosses fingers* I love the sarong/malong material.

My thanks to Guro Crafty Dog on the heads-up.

MOVIES: Dark Eden (Silat movie)

The Dark Eden Trilogy is a profound epic adventure in the spirit of 'Indiana Jones' meets 'Enter the Dragon'. An inspiring action adventure which captures extraordinary martial arts in a mystical quest for the truth. In the 1970s Martial Arts films were revolutionised by Bruce Lee, then Star Wars created the most epic fight scenes, and now Dark Eden will forever change the way the world views Martial Arts & Adventure Films.

Pendekar Steven Benitez is involved with this movie. Check out Sun Bear's blog for more info: http://thesunbearskendang.blogspot.com/2009/04/for-stickgrappler-dark-eden-trailers.html as well as: http://goldenlightstudios.com/glse/dark_eden.htm.

My thanks to Sun Bear for the heads up!

BOXING: Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton

UGH! Real life - all day. Didn't have a chance earlier to post my prediction. Won't post the results in this entry. Will post the results when I find some pix to put up also.

I don't have time to watch boxing, let alone watch MMA/UFC's, which I really like to watch. Some UFC's I make the time to watch some of the bigger fights. There was so much hype going into Pacquiao vs Hatton that I made time to watch it. I've not watched either boxers' fights before. I will say this... OMG! the winner impressed me!

Time to sleep. Good night one and all.