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I personally enjoy watching boxing for many reasons. First of all, you see punching ability at its finest. I enjoy the multiple punch combinations, great head movement and hand speed that makes boxing unique from other stand-up arts plus it’s great to see punches thrown with maximum leverage and perfect balance.

The punching ability in mixed martial arts and other striking arts still has a long way to go to match the skill of pure boxers in that regard although a fighter doesn’t necessarily have to excel at boxing to be successful in the sport of MMA. It is a huge advantage as a fighter, however, to have great strikes with your hands as long as your wresting and ground game is strong enough to keep you standing long enough to take advantage of it.

The only downfall about watching boxing is that I generally have a feeling of who is going to win a match early into the fight where as in mixed martial arts I am never certain of who the victor will be. That’s the reason I believe MMA is the more exciting spectator sport.

It’s great to have many different types of combat sports to watch. Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai and mixed martial arts all present combat and head to head competition in different ways and under different rules but each sport is exciting in its own right.

Hopefully in the future we see more television coverage of the many combat sports we all love to watch.

I’m finally back lifting weights again with my trainer Eric Wong. Due to my injury I stopped lifting weights for nearly two years as those type of workouts seemed to make my post concussion symptoms worse.

So far I’ve felt great after lifting except for the muscle soreness throughout my body. It’s a good type of pain though. The type that tells me I’m getting stronger and better conditioned every day.

I’m working to put on a few extra pounds of muscle over the next two months. After that I’ll be focusing on my NRG system training as I prepare for competition sometime early into 2009. I’m going to compete in one of the larger U.S submission wrestling tournaments although I have no date set yet. I’m super excited to get back to competition and look forward to all of the intense training ahead of me.

I’ll keep ya posted…

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk and have seen many posts on various internet forums questioning the fact that Brock Lesnar was given a title shot after only a few fights. Many other people seem to question Brock’s abilities and imply that he won the title by having some good luck in the cage as opposed to legit talent and skill.

Yes, the guy came from the WWE which is more entertainment and flash than real fighting. He has showmanship skill and knows how to get crowds of spectators fired up, a skill which he has honed throughout his years of professional wrestling but many people seem to forget or try to ignore the fact that Brock Lesnar is an great athlete. He is a competitor that has risen to the top of his sport — Won the 2000 NCAA wrestling championship — which is no easy task. In terms of toughness, I’m betting that MMA is a lot less rough on his body than pro wrestling ever was and what’s scary for the other heavyweight fighters in the UFC is that Brock seems to be able to take a punch. He also seems to be improving at a rapid pace, bringing something new to the cage — some nice knees and elbows last fight — each time he enters.

Another factor that troubles many green –another word for fighters with little experience–MMA fighters up is the pressure of fighting in front of large crowds. I can guarantee that Brock doesn’t feel any added pressure from having thousands of eyes glued to his every move. I’m guessing it adds fuel to his competitive fire, making him train harder beforehand, fight harder during the fight and celebrate even harder after a victory.

In an organization — the UFC — with no highly organized ranking system Brock was given a shot at the title and he won it. There’s nothing wrong with that as I think he brought even more hype to our excellent sport and will pose as a serious threat to anyone he is faced off against. I’m excited to see who the UFC pairs Brock up with next but I really don’t see someone taking him out anytime soon. Although, this is mixed martial arts and we’ve seen some crazy things happen over the years.

Halfway through my set of pushups I lost control of my emotions. Immediately I found it hard to breathe, my stomach twisted and convulsed as tears burst from my face. I knew that I shouldn’t have done it but I did anyways. As I lied flat on my stomach, with my arms wiped of all their strength I realized that I should have known better.

Working my way up to the one hundred mark it became much more difficult to do multiple push-ups at once. The fact that I was crying made everything even more difficult. I was forced to do one or two at a time then take a few seconds break before I would repeat the process. It took me a while but I eventually completed my set.

“Do one hundred sit-ups!” yelled my father, the moment he noticed that I was done with the push-ups. Any emotional control that I had been able to muster up by that point crumbled at the sound of his loud voice as it rang through the house. I cried loudly as I started the sit-ups.

I would be embarrassed about telling you that I was crying except for the fact that I was seven at the time of this story. When I was a child, I was rarely grounded or put in my room for a time-out like most children were. Instead I was given push-ups, sit-ups or a combination of the two each and every single time I got in trouble. Occasionally I would get a swat with the hand when I really acted up.

One time at school, I remember one of my earliest friends telling me about how he had gotten in trouble with his parents the night before. “How many pushups did you get?” I asked him. He simply stared at me with a confused look on his face. The more I investigated and spoke with other children I realized that not every kid was punished like I was. Actually no one was!

My father must have dished out several thousand push-ups to my brother and I growing up. At the time I hated doing them but I still train martial arts and still practice doing push-ups so I guess it wasn’t that terrible of a way for him to punish us. I’m sure there are punishments much worse.

I just got home from my friends house where I watched the UFC 91 card. What a great night of fights! I don’t think the UFC has ever shown more fights during one broadcast than they did tonight.

I was really excited to watch the main event matchup between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar. It didn’t disappoint. Randy did a fantastic job wrestling with Brock and landed several hard strikes throughout the bout. Brock showed great composure by staying relaxed when pressed up against the cage and during that rare moment when he was put down on his back. He also proved that he can take a shot after absorbing a few clean strikes to his head. I think he will be the champ for quite a while because he seems to be improving with each and every fight. He’s definitely one scary dude!

The card was filled with great submissions, solid striking and one hell of an uppercut. That punch was straight out a video game!

Every time I watch a UFC I get more pumped to get back in there get back at it. This Monday I start lifting weights again with my trainer after nearly a year off. I’ll keep you updated on how things are going. I should be ready to compete in a bjj/wrestling tournament very soon.

Cheers.

Here’s are my UFC 91 picks. Make yours in the comment section below.

Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar – Lesnar (TKO by ground and pound)
Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson – Florian (Decision)
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Josh Hendricks – Gonzaga (Submission)
Nate Quarry vs. Demian Maia – Quarry (KO)
Dustin Hazelett vs. Tamdam McGrory – Hazelett (Submission)

Think you’re being followed?

If you think you are being followed cross a street, then move towards a well-lit and populated area. Use the reflection from windows, pictures and shadows to raise your awareness of what’s going on around you.

2009 Joslin’s Canadian Open

We just wrapped up our annual martial arts tournament weekend. The two day event consisted of a karate tournament on Saturday and a grappling tournament on the Sunday. It was a great weekend full of action as competitors from all over came out to compete for our championship belts.

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The karate event, which consisted of sparring, forms and weapons divisions, finished late Saturday afternoon. As it was winding down I along with dozens of hard working volunteers began setting up the gymnasium at Sherwood High School for the children’s grappling competition which was about to take place that evening.

Several hundred young grapplers showed up with high hopes to take home first place honours. The action was fast and intense over the three hour span of competition. In the end, many smiling faces showed me that the kids were having a great time. It’s great to watch the next generation of martial artists battling it out with such high skill and enthusiasm.

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On Sunday we had a tremendous turnout at the adult portion of our grappling event. Running nine mats, without breaks throughout the entire day, the competition finished late in the evening. Our team of referees worked dilligently to keep thing rolling smoothly. After all the action, championship belts were awarded to competitors from many different martial arts schools.

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I’m still a little wiped out from the weekend but I’m excited to plan some improvements for next years tournament. We’re planning on moving to a larger venue to start but have many other great ideas that will make things more enjoyable for those that attend the Canadian Open.

We just finished setting up for the 2008 Joslin’s Canadian Open. Everything is in place for the karate/martial arts tournament which is being held tommorrow (Sat.November 8th).

Late tommorrow afternoon we will be running the children/youth grappling competition, which always consists of many great matches. Last year we had over 200 youth competitors at the event.

All of the adult grappling action is taking place on Sunday starting at 9am with the advanced gi divisions. So if you want to see some great matchups come out early. Every year we see some fierce battles as competitors from all around North America compete for the Canadian Open customized championship belts. I’m pumped to see who wins them this time around.

If you want some more info check out the “Canadian Open” section of our website http://www.joslinsmartialarts.com.

If you make it out to the tournament be sure to come up and say hello.

I always loved this vid .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_vvI26NnwE&hl=en&fs=1]