Should MMA Ever Be an Olympic Sport

In honor of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Sochi Russia tonight, I am taking this opportunity to write about the merits and likelihood of Mixed Martial Arts becoming an Olympic Sport.  The early-2000’s brought a meteoric rise in popularity to MMA, and since then, I have often heard a calling amongst MMA enthusiasts for it to be made an Olympic sport.  Proponents will point to it’s globalness, popularity and history, while also drooling over the chance to see a knockout style tournament reminiscent of the movie “Warrior”. On the other hand detractors will point to the sports violent nature, recovery time needed for fighters, no governing body and a lack of quality amatuer presence.

The sport of MMA has been around for millennia, dating back to the Coliseum and prior, however, it’s recent emergence can be attributed mostly to Dana White taking over the UFC and bringing it’s stature to the “SportsCenter” level.  While yes, the sport existed in Japan decades before the UFC first broke onto the scene in the early-90’s, it was not globally accepted.  The UFC floundered in it’s early years, and struggled to turn a profit, while well known politicians, including Arizona Senator John McCain called for it’s ban.  It was not until Dana White took over, instilled rules making the sport less barbaric and created a tremendously popular reality television show, “The Ultimate Fighter” that showed the more personal side of mixed martial artists.  This led to a exponential rise in popularity in the sport, generating hundred of millions of dollars.  This popularity puts financial pressure on the IOC to consider making it an Olympic Sport. While the Olympics struggles to make sports like speed-walking, badminton and curling lucrative, MMA would surely be popular and profitable.

The popularity of the Olympics adding MMA would be intriguing for fight fans because the tournament would have to be designed to start and finish within two weeks.  MMA is typically a sport where injuries are so prevalent that it is assumed that fighters will take 2-6 months between bouts.  Tournaments such as this would force the sport to regress to the roots of the UFC, where the athletes fought in a knockout tournament style completed in days, not months.  The precedent has been set for fighters to fight in rapid succession, because the “Ultimate Fighter” demands that their fighters fight once every 10 days. Which brings up the questions of who would fight in Olympic MMA?

The IOC does not have any precedent towards amateurism or professionalism.  While most sports allow only amateurs, including boxing, some Olympic sports have allowed semi-pro (baseball) while others professional (Basketball, Hockey).  I can not imagine Dana White would allow his fighters out of their contracts and risk injury to fight in the Olympic mega-tournament.  This would leave the fighting to the amatuer/semi-pro circuit. Unlike boxing, amatuer MMA does not have a strong contingent of fighters.  Many boxers, have dozens, even hundreds of bouts before turning pro. This type of amatuer culture does not exist in MMA, where fighters typically turn pro after a string of only a few victories.

While the IOC reluctantly accepted wrestling back into the 2020 Olympiad, the fact remains that wrestling in the Olympics dates back to the original Athens Olympic games from ancient Greece. However, this style of wrestling would be more akin to modern-day MMA than it would be contemporary wrestling.  The sport’s violent rules allowed for “Strangling” and “holds intended to persuade the opponent to concede defeat through pain or fear”.  These rules were permitted and were an integral part of the sport.  

Ultimately, I think the IOC will never come around to making mixed martial arts an Olympic sport.  While the concept intrigues casual fans, the only professional power (UFC) seems completely uninterested in the concept, the deciding body, the IOC believes the sport is entirely too violent, lacks international rules and a decent circuit of amatuer fighters.  Fight fans, such as myself, will merely permitted to enjoying this sport through the lens the UFC has designed for us.  

DMX Vs George Zimmerman to Box Next Month

If I were a man who has recently skirted by a jury after murdering a child, I would probably lay low, stay out of the limelight. This is not the case for George Zimmerman, who has allegedly accepted a pay-per-view boxing match against former average rapper DMX.  

The bout, scheduled for March 10th, will pit, attention-whore George Zimmerman, two years removed from killing an unarmed teenager, against well-known, albeit untalented rapper DMX in what promises to be a hot-mess.  Earlier this month, Rapper DMX told TMZ that “I am going to beat the living f--- out him… I am breaking every rule in boxing to make sure I f--- him right up”.  This type of vitriolic talk might put fear into Zimmerman’s heart, but besides DMX’s heavy conviction record and fearsome look, this might stand to be Zimmerman’s fight.  After all, most of those charges are for drug possession and substance abuse, so the likelihood that Earl “DMX” Simmons has been slaving it away in a boxing gym is doubtful.  

On the other hand, it came out as relatively embarrassing when Zimmerman’s former boxing coach testified during the Trayvon Martin trial that “n [George} never got off shadow boxing, hitting the heavy bag and learning how to punch”.  All in all, I am expecting a thoroughly humiliating night of boxing for both of them.

UFC 171: A quick analysis of March's Welterweight Championship MMA Card

Dallas will be playing host to Johnny Hendricks championship MMA bout against Robbie Lawler.  This would be somewhat of a “home-cage” advantage for Hendricks because the city he grew up is a short drive away from Dallas.  Hendricks, the far more credentialed combatant, will be fighting Robbie Lawler, a journeyman MMA fighter, who has had a career of major ups and downs.

This title fight was made possible when Georges St-Pierre surprised the world when he vacated his title after a successful (yet highly controversial) MMA title defense against Hendricks last month.  

In my eyes, the obvious favorite in this fight is Johnny Hendricks.  Johnny was a phenom wrestler in college, a four-time all-american and a two-time national champion.  Since getting to the UFC he has looked virtually unstoppable, accumulating 15 wins, and just two losses, one of which was an extremely controversial decision against GSP.  

Lawler on the other hand is something of a journeyman, who has lost 5 of his last 11 MMA bouts, and a good, but certainly not an outstanding 22-9.  Lawler has shown he has strong muay thai, and is a pure mixed martial artist in the conventional sense of “mixed”.  But for my money, never bet against the superior wrestler.  Hendricks is not simply the better wrestler, he is miles ahead.  

The card will include a myriad of other rising stars vs old journeymen, showcasing fighters like Carlos Condit, Rick Story, Diego Sanchez, and Jake Shields.  

If you are interested in entertaining your pallette of what we can expect in UFC 171, simply watch Cain Valesquez vs. Junior Dos Santos in UFC 166.  As always, Lawler has a punchers chance, but if these two fought ten times, I think Hendricks wins nine of them.  

Past Steroid use by Belfort, could be a major factor in his MMA bout vs Weidman in Las Vegas

After Chris Weidman put yet another hurting on Anderson Silva in UFC 168, Dana White announced that Weidman would be defending his title against phenom Vitor Belfort and that the MMA bout will be slated for either May or June in Las Vegas.

Obviously Dana wasn’t serious about moving fights out of Las Vegas permanently, as he mentioned he might after the Hendricks vs. Pierre fiasco.  But having Belfort fight in Las Vegas raised other eyebrows, because in 2006, Belfort failed a drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.  Belfort tested positive for having steroids in his system when he was randomly tested after his fight with Dan Henderson.

Since the positive test, Belfort began experimenting with testosterone replacement therapy, claiming that he uses TRT therapeutically because his body has trouble producing normal levels of testosterone naturally.  

In his home country of Brazil, Belfort has received exemptions to use TRT, and has taken most of his fights there, however, the Nevada State Athletic commission has given no such exemption.  Nevada, and other U.S. regulators on the subject are more stringent and much less likely to grant a testosterone exemption.  

The likelihood of such an exemption is unlikely.  Belfort could very likely have received his condition due to steroid use in the past.  Executive Director of NSAC Keith Kizer has stated that he doubts the commission would grant leniency in this case.  Belfort likely developed hypogonadism from past illegal steroid abuse, and therefore should be granted no exemptions by the commission.  

Belfort and Dana White have both expressed confidence that Belfort will be able to MMA Bout in Nevada, citing notorious cheaters like Chael Sonnen as precedents for exemptions who currently has a testosterone exemptions.  The NSAC has not expressed the same kind of confidence.

Either way, Belfort has stated that he will gladly take the MMA bout in May/June whether he is granted an exemption or not.  He has stated that he believes he will still be able to fight to his fullest without the use of extra testosterone.  

6 Reasons Wrestling Must Change It’s Uniform

For years wrestling has been struggling with it’s identity.  Singlets are ugly, archaic, are easy to make fun of and leaves no appeal for the masses. For this reason wrestling needs to change not simply at the Olympic level, but at every level from little league, high school, college and beyond.

Other Contact Sports do just fine without a singlet: The UFC and other MMA organizations are growing in popularity, and the wrestling community is dwindling and almost lost olympic status.  The reasons for the two sports popularity is beyond the scope of this article, however, the wrestling community could at least seem more current with today’s martial art look.
1. Wrestling Singlets are ugly: There is no getting around the fact that singlets simply don’t represent what is copacetic in style today.  Unless you are an old European man, it is not acceptable to be wearing a speedo, and the singlet is not much better than this.  Who wants their bulge sticking out for the world to see it.  This could turn a man away from the sport who would otherwise join.
2. UFC is in the 21st century, wrestling seems stuck in the 60’s:  We have all seen clips of NFL players wearing leather helmets, and we have all seen John Stockton wearing those high skimpy shorts.  These styles are not seen anymore because they aren’t cool.  Wrestling has proven that it is the most useful base martial art in the world. Just look at UFC champs Cain Velasquez, Chris Weidman and what should be current champion Johny Hendricks all of whom were all-american wrestlers.  Despite this useful base, wrestling is not seen as “cool”.   
3. Wrestling gets enough grief about being “gay”: The wrestling singlet only exacerbates the mentality that the sport is all about “Sweaty men rolling around with each other”.  The people who say this quote never seem to have an answer for the fact that wrestlers turn into the best fighters, and 90% of fights find themselves on the ground.  And I have never once heard anyone say that fighting is “sweaty men rolling around with each other”. The two sports are far too similar for one to get this negative stigma and the other to not.  A uniform change alone won’t solve this problem, but it will be a start.
5. Fight shorts look cool:  Following up on point number 4, fight shorts are badass, they look cool, and are associated with the fastest growing sport in the world.  If wrestling were to make a hybrid of these shorts, it could help bring the sport into the 21st century.
6. Give the wrestlers some appeal outside the wrestling community: The only people who don’t want the change of uniform are archaic old wrestling coaches who are stuck in their outdated mentality.  Wrestling singlets don’t reach the masses.  Not every person who watches the NFL played football in their lives, in fact, most did not.   But everyone can appreciate how cool a football player looks decked out in pads.  People have similar affection for the baseball uniform, with the baggy white pants, and unique uniform top.  Wrestling lacks that lamen popularity.  Again, a change of uniform alone won’t solve the problem of reaching the masses, but it will at least do away with the negative stigma currently associated

If you liked this article, try these similar articles:

Train Jiu Jitsu with Those Better Than You

Top Five Reasons Jiu Jitsu Will Be Used In a Street Fight

Can Jiu Jitsu Be Drilled From Home

What’s Better for MMA? Jiu Jitsu or Wrestling

7 Reason Why Competition in CrossFit makes you Better

Competition in life makes you a better person, it is what the American society, and the world thrives best on. If you are trying to better yourself than it is most likely because you are trying to be the best YOU. It's time we stop giving out participation medals, and seeking goals that are difficult to obtain.

1. Eagerness to not fall behind: Are you going to suck at first, of course.  You can’t learn how to play chess first try.  But if you do everything you can to get yourself “up to par”, you will grow much faster in your gym.  No one wants to look like an idiot, and this drive to make yourself “one of the guys” will force rapid improvement.
2. CrossFit gyms give you a Better Knowledge of What the Body is Capable Of: Look around the gym, do you think there is any way YOU will be capable of pulling off the feats you see from the others during the day’s CrossFit WOD.  Guess what, when they walked in on Day 1, they look just like you! Their CrossFit technique was terrible, trust me!  I own a CrossFit gym, and while some learn faster than others, everyone looks like a goof on day 1. No one is judging you, because they looked like you their first day.
3. CrossFit gyms always have Others to Push You: Take it from someone who owns a CrossFit gym.  I push myself as hard as I can so that I will have the top-score, but I am thrilled if someone can beat me.  I will demand it out of my students.  I don’t want it to be easy for me to be beaten, but that’s the point.  Anything that’s hard is worth having, right?  Members at CrossFit gyms are just like that.  They want to push themselves past the next person, but if someone passes them, they want to get a better time to keep pushing themselves and the others in the gym.
4. Not wanting to lose to a CrossFit girl: CrossFit girls are awesome! They are tough, competitive and just plain “one-of-the-guys”.  The chances of you losing to a girl your first time in the gym is likely.  Don’t worry, they are used to this and won’t make you feel inadequate.  Your goal will now be to push yourself to at least their level and beyond.  If you can catch them, they will respect you for it.  Plus, CrossFit girls are hot!
5. Competition in the CrossFit gym, makes you better at life: Think about your days back in high school,  where you wanted to be the best quarterback or wrestler or jeez, tuba player.  We live in a competitive society, and this is ingrained into our social consciousness. It’s time you embrace this.  Find someone who is a little bit better than you in the gym...or life... and try to make your time (abilities) better than theirs.  This won’t be easy, because they will be improving to, but if you have benchmarks and goals, than obtaining them is so sweet!
6. CrossFit is Healthy and not unsafe: Not only will you be competitive in the gym, thus making you more physically fit.  But those around you will be transforming the physical appearance, and their mental attitudes.  You will see them going through the transformation and you will do whatever you can to transform with them. It’s a team atmosphere, and everyone is their to health.  You’ll improve your mental health by having more friends, releasing natural endorphins and pushing yourself past limits you only dreamed of.  You will improve your physical health because you will be increasing your strength and stamina, and will be surrounded by a crowd who eat right with the paleo diet.
7. CrossFit competition is Fun: It just is!  For all the reasons listed above.  If you took state in high school, it was probably one of the greatest moment of your life, and if you didn’t take state, but strived towards that goal, than you know that it was A) Fun to chase that goal and B) Made you a better person.  Don’t coddle yourself, embrace how fun the CrossFit lifestyle can be, and push yourself like you didn’t know possible.

9 Reasons You Should Be Dating a CrossFit Chick

9 Reason you should be Dating a CrossFit Chick

Guys are always trying to figure out reasons for, or not to date a chick. There’s a million reasons that play into what kind of girls we as guys should be dating.  So let’s start with why guys should be dating athletes, in particular, athletes that do CrossFit.

1. CrossFit girls are seriously fit. You ever seen the CrossFit games?  Has anyone ever watched those girls and thought anything but “Wow!  Those girls are attractive”. You sick of going to the gym and seeing your girl on the elliptical even though you know it’s a waste of their time.  Well, now not only will they be doing real functional exercises, but you will have an actual lifting partner, not just someone who shares the ride to the gym with you.

2. CrossFit girls show Dedication. I don’t know about you guys, but I want a girl who has her own goals, not just a girl who muddles around me. CrossFit chicks tend to not only be dedicated to getting better at CrossFit, but also better in life.  That whole mentality, “If I can finish this today’s CrossFit WOD, than I can do anything”.  Expect goal oriented chicks, who are the aforementioned “Hot chicks” in reason #1.

3. CrossFit girls are (for the most part) "guy's girls." - CrossFit chicks want the lift that’s the hardest, and will make them the best at sports. This natural interest in sport-specific workouts often translates into a fascination of other athletes and their sports.  Expect them to watch the game with you on Sunday.  

4. Independence is key for CrossFit girls. CrossFit chicks don’t need us men.  They are independent, if you are holding her back from her gym time, than they will kiss you goodbye, because they want their extra time to be spent at their CrossFit WOD.  Don’t get me wrong, if she WANTS you in her life, than you will have her.  But try to keep up!

5. CrossFit Girls are Competitive. These girls feel like the sky is the limit.  You will find yourself pushed in life, as hard as they are pushed in the gym.   Who wants the girl who’s scared to try things?  Nobody! These CrossFit chicks will push you as hard as your friends will, but good luck being as good at anything as them! Don’t want to lose to a girl?  Than be competitive right back, it’s all part of the fun!

7. You ever tried a CrossFit Girls last Paleo recipe? You ever had any of these meals?  They are incredible.  Some CrossFit girls are more Paleo than others, but regardless, you will find yourself eating DELICIOUS meals, your wasteline shrinking while she gets more sexy as well.  They don’t eat peckishly, instead they eat heartily trying to strengthen their body, not just make it skinny.  

8. CrossFit Girls have Personality. To do CrossFit you have to thrive in a group setting.  You have to be able to be competitive with a group, and yet not scared of having others beat you.  Expect girls who are witty, sharp tongued and love practical jokes.  

9. CrossFit girls have great sex: Physical fitness lead to better sex.  Not only will she be more attractive, but she will also be stronger, have better stamina, more flexibility, etc.  So if the first nine reasons why you should be dating a CrossFit girl weren't enough... this should really drive it home for you.

This is a guys perspective to a women’s article in the Huffington Post