People Who Need To Be CroCop’d: The Revenge!

What’s good, World? Sorry I haven’t been updating this blog in a while, I’ve been busy with work, training, getting ready to move to the city, and whatnot, but I’m back and ready to update you with a new list of people who need to have a date with CroCop’s shin!

Now, before I begin, I would like to make a change to the previous list, which could be found at http://wp.me/pADPv-C (because I suck at html and have no way to turn a simple phrase into a link). I would like to remove Robert Pattinson (who stars as Edward Cullen) from the list because it has come to my attention that he actually HATES the Twilight series and thinks that the author is a delusional adult (check Google if you don’t believe me). Therefore, he is removed from the list. Now, onward to the new list!

1. Kanye West – Hey Kanye, I’ m really happy for ya, and Imma let you finish, but your stunt in the VMAs was total douchebaggery. Total douchebaggery! Don’t get me wrong, I like his music, but the man is so egotistical it makes me sick to my stomach. I’m kinda ashamed to even like his work, to be honest.
2. Any Youtube celebrity who’s not the Angry Video Game Nerd,  Marie Digby, the creaters of Ask A Ninja, Dr. Ashen, or associated with Red Matter Media – The reason why I leave these few people out of the several people on Youtube who are in dire need of having their brains scrambled is because these people have talent! Got it? T-A-L-E-N-T! In fact, don’t bother searching up anyone but those people I mentioned on the site because it’s a waste of time if you’re looking for an example of the word (by the way, go to http://www.redmattersite.com and sign on to the forums. Tell ’em a crazy Nova Scotian that knows how to choke people sent you)!
3. Uwe Boll – The man has killed several video games by making crappy movie adaptations of them. I used to like Bloodrayne until he decided to do a movie about it, that jerk. Plus, anyone who feels the need to have a boxing match with his critics to shut them up (I’m not kidding, he fought his critics….in a boxing match. Seriously.) deserves to take part in a MMA match and see how it feels to actually fight. I can volunteer! *cracks knuckles*
4. Erik Estavillo – For the longest time, I didn’t have the faintest clue of who this guys is, but then again, I haven’t been to GamePolitics for the longest time either. Here’s the skinny; this guy sues Sony for banning him from online play on the PlayStation Network for being a douche, then sues Microsoft for his Xbox 360 getting the Red Ring of Death, sues Nintendo for firmware updates messing up a channel that helps him unlock stuff without any effort (hacking, basically), then sues Activision/Blizzard for, get this, making the characters in World of Warcraft walk slow! Now, I do feel his pain on the Xbox 360 crapping out, considering I had the same problem, but did I sue Microsoft for it? No! I just hooked up the PlayStation 2, and enjoyed some nostalgia! Therefore, he needs to kick to the cranium to wake the hell up!
5. War Machine – No, I’m not talking about “The War Machine” Rhino, or War Machine the Marvel comics character, I’m talking War Machine the MMA fighter. Guy’s a loony Mcloonytin, and the fact that he changed his name to War Machine proves it! Oh well, police are already searching for him, so he’ll have a date with the Health Inspector sooner or later! NAW PICK UP DAH SOAP!

Ok, so I think I’ve put enough people on this list for the time being. Hopefully I could put up an editorial or two somewhere down the line, but until then, stay frosty!

Disclaimer: Don’t take this seriously! This entry is just for comedic value and there is absolutely no malice intended!….Ok, maybe a little!

UFC 105 Predictions!

Property of Wikipedia, Zuffa, UFC, and all that jazz.

Ok, so considering the other url has been a bit flaky, I’m going to use this url again from now on. So anyone who goes back to this url will indeed find new content posted, including this one! So let’s do it!

Normally, I don’t do predictions for upcoming UFC events since crashing and burning on UFC 101, but I figured that I might as well give it another shot and see how it works out for UFC 105!

Randy Couture -vs- Brandon Vera: This is a match I could file under the “Weird Match-Up, But Still Intriguing Nonetheless” files, no doubt. This fight is intriguing for the simple reason that it’s the classic “Youth vs Experience” type of battle that will pit Vera’s speed and agility against Couture’s grit and cage intelligence. Knowing Randy, he’ll be able to muscle Brandon up against the cage and use his Greco-Roman/dirty boxing combo to pick “The Truth” apart. Brandon’s good, no doubt about it, his Mauy Thai could cause a problem for his opponent, and plus Father Time may catch up to Randy, but then again, we all said that about Randy how many times? I got Randy winning by decision.

Prediction: Couture by decision.

Mike Swick -vs- Dan Hardy: Hmmm, tough one to call. I gained a lot of respect for Dan Hardy when he defend the sport after professional boxer Bernard Hopkins made fun of it, and he seems to come off as an intelligent speaker, but he’s been untested as a fighter. And fighting someone like Mike Swick who’s only lost one fight in the UFC is basically going headfirst into a brick wall. I expect Swick to blitzkrieg his way into a second round (T)KO.

Prediction: Swick by (T)KO 2nd Round.

Micheal Bisping -vs- Denis Kang: I haven’t seen a lot of Kang but what I’ve been seeing from his UFC tenure, I haven’t been impressed. Then again, Bisping just got through a highlight reel KO from Dan Henderson, bringing his confidence into question, so it’s pretty much a coin flip on who could keep their act together. Given Bisping’s experience in the UFC, I give Bisping the edge and he’ll use his counter-striking en route to a decision.

Prediction: Bisping by decision.

James Wilks -vs- Matt Brown: In a fight that pits a grappler vs a striker, you have to give the edge to the grappler. James Wilks, the Welterweight winner of “The Ultimate Fighter Season 9”, showed some solid submission skills in his victory at the finale, something that Matt Brown has been suspect to, losing a fight to eventual middleweight winner Amir Sadollah during TUF 7 to a triangle choke. My call? Wilks via submission, first round.

Prediction: Wilks by Submission 1st Round.

Ross Pearson -vs- Aaron Riley: Coin flip time!

*flips coin*

Ok, Pearson. Probably by (T)KO…….2nd Round. Yes, I’m being lazy, what of it?

Prediction: Pearson by (T)KO 2nd Round.

Ok, let’s see how it goes! UFC 105 is coming up this Saturday, FREE ON SPIKE!

EDIT: And two things extra:

1) Go to http://www.redmattersite.com to listen to “Background Noise” which is a podcast featuring 5 guys from Halifax, Nova Scotia talking about news (whether weird, serious, of just plain hilarious) from that week. It’s NSFW though, but they do bring up some valid points here and there.

2) Please pay your respects to the vets of the two World Wars today on Remembrance Day/Veteran’s Day. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to live the lives that we have. They paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms, so pay them the respect they deserve.

I’ve Moved! (At least to a new url)

Hey guys! Just firing off a quick post to let you know that I’ve moved the blog to a new url, which is http://philharrismma.unfilteredmma.com/.

This new system that it’s under is going to have more of a MMA focus, which means that the new blog would probably be getting more traffic, so look out for new comments and whatnot from MMA fans. Hopefully this all works out and the few people that read this blog will enjoy the new one!

Controversial Decisions: MMA’s Human Error

So UFC 104 just passed by and while Lyoto Machida was able to keep his title via a unanimous decision, there has been some (and by some, I mean A LOT) of controversy surrounding the decision. Now, considering I haven’t seen the fight yet (and going to the MMA forums in the internet would be useless because forums are always ripe with bias), and also I can’t judge MMA fights worth beans anyway, I’m not gonna comment on the fight. I am, however, going to comment on the idea of controversial decisions in MMA.

As far as I can tell, controversial decisions in MMA are about as annoying to a fan as an early stoppage, but obviously, fights that end in decisions that leave people scratching their heads and wonder if the judges were too distracted by the ring girls to accurately score the fight (Hey, I know I get distracted by the ring girls myself, so I can’t blame them)  are few and far between. Which is the probably the reason why fights like Machida/Rua have fans going batshit crazy than an early stoppage.

Now, while I would like to see controversial decisions disappear faster than Criss Angel owing child support, it’s not gonna happen. Even if we change the 10 point must scoring system, it’s still not gonna happen. In fact, the only way I could see this happening is to replace the judges with robots. Sounds ridiculous, right? But that’s what you would have to do to remedy such a problem.

As long as the judges have working organs, messed up decisions are gonna happen, no matter how well trained the judges are. Because each judge is gonna have a different perspective on the fight. One judge would say Fighter A would win a round because he scored takedowns and controlled the fight, but another judge would say Fighter B won the round due to aggression and effective striking.

Granted, there may be some way to keep these decisions down to a bare minimum, but as much as people like UFC president Dana White want to get rid of controversial decisions altogether, it’s impossible unless we teach robots to judge MMA fights, or get rid of the time limits.

Training Log #4

Another week, another couple of days worth of training. Can’t write too much because I’m at work, but I wanted to fill you guys in on what went on during my classes instead of writing another editorial.

Last Tuesday I went in for BJJ class and we worked on escaping/reversing submissions, something that I found to be extremely productive and helpful because it allowed me to use technique to escape instead of just brute force.

The whole gist of the class was that we would think up of an escape from a submission and then show it to the class. It was great because I figured out several escapes from armbars and triangle chokes, but there’s one submission that I’m sure I will research an escape for: the omoplata. My favorite move, but I wanna figure out how to escape it if I ever have it applied on me.

—-

Next Thursday, I went for “Striking for MMA” and I realized that it was just me and the coach, which is great because it allowed me to work some things that I was lacking, which happen to be proper defense and footwork. I can hold my own during sparring, but when someone comes at me with a flurry of punches, I end up covering up and just going backwards, which would lead me to having my back up against the wall and ready to be punished.

So what we worked on was me taking a step back and circling away from his power while popping the jab out to keep him away. What this does it forces the guy to reset but I’ve noticed that it creates an angle, an opening, for a counter-attack or a takedown.

After working on this for a bit, we worked on proper footwork. Moving forward, back, left and right, all while keeping my feet from crossing or getting to close together. Also, we worked on making sure that I could mirror my opponent’s movements, try to get him to move where I want. This went over great and I feel that I could finally get the footwork down. After finishing up with two 2 minute rounds of a jab-right straight combo, and 2 two minutes round of thai kicks, we ended the class.

I Pity The Rampage!

"I pity the fool!" *Rampage howl*

So unless you’ve been hiding underneath a rock, then you might have heard the news about Quinton “Rampage” Jackson taking the role of BA Baracus in the upcoming remake of the 80’s TV show “The A-Team”.  It’s strange how so many MMA fighters as of late have been working on blockbusters (Cung Le in “Fighting”, Roger Huerta in “Tekken”, etc.), also while taking several months before fighting again.

In Rampage’s case, his December 12th fight with rival TUF 10 coach Rashad Evans is expected to be pushed back three months (meaning that the two will fight sometime early 2010) and will mostly likely be featured on the UFC Primetime program. Which means that there is going to be a LOT of hype being put behind this fight. Think about it, first TUF 10 (which will premire in less than 10 days), than UFC Primetime. Whether or not this will be a good thing is still hard to say, but whether or not it’ll be worth it will depend on how entertaining the fight is.

You know what? No, it’s not worth it. Twelve weeks of pre-fight hype without a fight is gonna be costly for the UFC. And using UFC Primetime to try to keep the fans interested in this fight is too risky. Let’s just hope this isn’t gonna end up like Shamrock/Severn 2, or else there’s probably gonna be a riot.

And if that does happen, don’t expect the rest of the A-Team to come in and save the day.

MMA (Mighty Morphin’ Arts)

(Photo Courtesy Of Suckerpunch Entertainment)

No, that is not a photoshop. Yes, the tattooed guy in the pic used to be the Green Power Ranger. Yes, I’m a sucker for nostalgia.

As the above picture would suggest, Jason David Frank (of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers fame) has decided to make the jump from being a costumed pop culture icon to a MMA fighter, and considering I grew up watching the Power Rangers when I was young, this was probably the coolest bit of MMA related news that I’ve heard in the longest time. Well, that and Fred Ettish coming back to the cage and getting a win, 15 years after getting the living bejebus beaten out of him at UFC 2, but I digress.

From what I read from his interview (which can be found by clicking on the picture above), he sounds like a wicked striker (creating his own martial art and training with Master Toddy), but there’s a bit of a question mark on his ground game and takedown defence. Sure, he’s got a blue belt with Gracie Barra (spelled out as Gracie Baja in the interview, as not to confuse anyone), but there’s the quesion of whether or not he could handle his own in a MMA fight should it hit the ground. And competing in MMA at the age of 35 doesn’t help his chances of victory (although, guys like Randy Couture have proved many critics wrong).

Suffice to say,  there has been quite an influx of celebrities, sports athletes, etc. that are making the jump to MMA. And while some have seen loads of success (see: Brock Lesnar), others have basically crashed and burn (see: Jose Canceco). Where do I think the former Green Ranger stands? Honesty, I hope he has a nice career, maybe even gets a title in the process. Do I see him in the UFC? Unlikely. But stranger things have happened in MMA.

Oh, and for those who think he’ll go out like Canceco, consider this: Jose is bigger than Jason, and there’s a youtube video of Jason whooping the former slugger during sparring. And Jason won’t be fighting Hong Man Choi, either.

10 People Who Need To Be CroCop’d (In No Order)

Nowadays I see a lot of people, mostly in pop culture, who just annoy the everything out of me, and I’m sure that they annoy the general populace  as well. So as a service to mankind, I have created a list of 10 people who deserve who get CroCop’d (For the casual MMA fans, and people who have no clue what I’m talking about, getting CroCop’d means getting a shin upside the noggin’. This is made famous by Croation MMA fighter Mirko CroCop, who was known for knocking his opponents out with, you guessed it, a head kick.) So here it comes: the list!

1. Perez Hilton – Why? Because that slap he got from Will.I.Am’s (of Black Eyed Peas fame) manager hasn’t got him to stop running that poor excuse for a website, maybe getting a shin to his fat head will. Plus, he kinda compared himself to Rihanna when people said that he deserved it, saying “Did Rihanna deserve it when she got beaten up by Chris Brown?” No. Mainly because Rihanna is a talented singer. You just annoy people.
2. Stephanie Meyer – For completely screwing up how people look at vampires now. Back then, when people had vampire movies like Dracula, Interview with A Vampire, Blade, and others, vampires were looked at as bloodsucking, card-carrying bad asses who demanded respect. Now, thanks to Stephanie Meyer’s series of impromptu toilet paper, now vampires are looked at as sparkling emo sissies. Thanks, Mrs. Meyer, thanks a ton. Oh, and could you do me a favor and tell all those damn fangirls that Edward Cullen doesn’t exist? It’s hard enough getting a date when getting compared to that dipstick!
3. Robert Pattinson – See above.
4. Jonas Brothers – If I really have to explain myself, then apparently you haven’t seen the South Park episode regarding the Jonas Brothers. Simply put, the whole “purity ring” business is just a way to sell sex without all the public knowing it. To quote Russell Brand on this subject: “As long as those rings are on their hands, no one will know where those hands have been going.” (Did he actually say that? Haven’t a clue. I remember him saying it during a comedy show but I can’t find the exact quote, so bite me)
5. People who wear “TapOut”, “Affliction”, or any fight shirts but don’t train – To clarify, I don’t mind people walking around with those type of shirts, not at all. It’s the people who wear those shirts and try to pass off as a fighter. Fighter posers, basically. This annoys me to no end. Guys, if you wanna wear a “TapOut” shirt and call yourself a fighter, make someone in your gym tap out!
6. People with crappy cars that have spoilers, body kits, etc. – Seriously? Why waste your money on a crappy car like a Dodge Neon in hopes of making it look like a reject from “The Fast And The Furious”? Sorry, but the only thing you guys are succeeding in doing is making yourselves looking like tools.
7. Jack Thompson – Only the hardcore gamers will know who this guy is and why he deserves to be on here.
8. Paris Hilton – *sigh* She’s given more reasons to get CroCop’d in her daily life than I care to write down: being famous for being the daughter of a owner of a crappy line of hotels, putting out a crappy sex tape, being a crappy singer, being a crappy actress. See the trend? Good.
9. Lady Gaga – Ok, I will admit that her song “Just Dance” is catchy as hell, but half the time she looks like a drug addict. Plus there have been rumors about her having “mixed nuts”. And I’m not talking about almonds and cashews.
10. Chris Brown – I cannot, and will not, condone violence against women. At all. Therefore, not only does Chris Brown deserve to get CroCop’d, but he should also have Cheick Kongo knee him in the groin a couple of times.

So, that’s it! Hopefully you guys enjoyed this list!

Training Log #3

Hey Everyone!

Just got back from jujitsu training today. Got a nice workout and had the chance to practice some stuff that I already knew.  Here’s how it went!

After a nice warm up, we first started the class working on sweeps that we knew from our back (sit-up sweeps, scissor sweeps, butterfly sweeps, etc). I’ve noticed that my sit-up sweeps were quick and clean, but I have to work on some of the other ones. After that, we worked on any guard passes that we knew, which I felt needed a bit more work. Luckily, I got a “Ultimate MMA” magazine a couple of weeks ago that has some potent guard passes that are worth studying for next time.

Next, we worked on very light rolling (the jujitsu term for sparring). Little to no resistance, just working on submissions, submission escapes, transitions, sweeps, just working on proper technique. I impressed my partner (who was a blue belt) with nice armbar escape that I learned from “FIGHT” magazine a couple of months ago. Here’s a youtube video of BJ Penn doing it (it’s the second one, and also I don’t own the video or created it in any way. Yeah lame, I know, but would you want to piss BJ off? I wouldn’t!):

Anyway, we then worked on an escape from the half guard to taking someone’s back. Given my size, I had some trouble with this, but after a few more tries, I got used to it. It’s helpful because I don’t know a lot of moves from half guard so I’m gonna go over it in my head tonight until I’m sure that I could do it without any problems. Soon after, we did a drill that involved the guy on top to pass guard and the guy on bottom to either sweep or submit. Unfortunately, I didn’t fare so well, but then again, my failures allow me to learn and improve myself further.

Well, with that, the class was over. Yeah, I know it’s not much, so I’m gonna add a little something different for you guys!

Training Log #2

Wow, what crazy week of training! I remember during my first year of doing this that I was going to two classes a week, but now that I have to bring up my cardio I’m going to a strength and conditioning class once a week. Suffice to say, my legs have been killing me for the last couple of days since doing striking and conditioning on the same day. They are feeling better today, still sore in same places, but I can still walk. Damn, the things I put myself through to get stronger.

Anyway, last Tuesday was pretty easy for me, just worked on a new takedown which I’m sure is a judo throw called “Tani Otoshi” or Valley Drop, followed by getting from side mount to full mount, followed by forcing the opponent to give up their back before finishing with a rear naked choke. Nothing too crazy, and I came out of that class without any injuries.

Thursday, on the other hand, was a test of my gameness, my heart. The initial warm up was more of a work out, with using a skipping rope, jogging, and what would be my least favorite exercise; wind sprints. Because I ended up getting tired and forced to slow down, the coach made me go through two more laps. So in addition to five laps, I did twelve more laps of wind sprints. So yeah, I was sucking wind after that. Then, we carried a heavy bag and walked around the mat for three, one minute intervals before slamming it on the ground.

Soon after, we worked on striking on the heavy bag while standing over it, pretending to keep ourselves from being nailed with an upkick, and when there’s ten seconds left, we threw a flying elbow followed by several straight punches from mount. After three rounds of this, we worked on being on the bottom, practicing upkicks while our partner was holding a thai pad.

The next drill I was put through involving standing over our partner while he was holding a thai pad and he was trying to control our knees and hips and keeping us from throwing decent punches on the pad. I was doing decently while standing over my partner until I realized I could hold the guys legs and control him so I could throw those punches without any problems. Too bad my partner didn’t clue in to this while he was standing over me, because I kept him from throwing any half-decent punches because I controlled him with ease.

Anyway, after that, we did more wind sprints, and guess who did two more? Yup, me! At the end of the class, I was sore as hell, sucking wind and trying to get all the oxygen I could.

Now, you’d think that this is where the entry ends. I was pushed, and I came through. I would’ve just went home, happy to get an intense workout as I watched TV and ate junk food. But I didn’t. I stayed over at the mall for a bit, and then went back for conditioning class.

For those who don’t understand how intense these classes are, let me put it this way: MMA conditioning classes would make your high school gym classes feel like a friendly game of “Duck, Duck, Goose”.  No surprise there, you’re training to be a fighter after all, so you gotta train your body to handle the intensity of an MMA bout.

The class involves circuits; one minute intervals at a station that involves an exercise, whether it’s ground and pound, bag work, shadowboxing with 5lb weights, etc.. Well, one of stations that was during this circuit involved an old friend from this afternoon. Yup, you guessed it, wind sprints. Not only that, it also involved wall jumps (getting on your hands and feet and putting your feet up on the wall twice) before doing the sprints. So, after the class, I was limping home, sore as hell, but happy to show myself how far I could push myself.

Test: Passed.

– PH