My Cross-Post Moment of Zen

The other blog that I write for, Questionable Stoppage, covers mixed marital arts and fighting. I naturally assumed there would be little cross-over between that and this. However:

 

For you political only types, baldy is Dana White, President of the UFC and the biggest fight promoter in the world. Mohawk is Chuck "The Ice Man" Lidell, legendary MMA fighter. Reid is currenty in the (political) fight of his (political) life and the election is just a couple of weeks away. White and Lidell showed up to help Reid out at a Get-Out-the-Vote rally.


Here are the White and Reid voting:

This may be the only time in the history of both blogs I can put the same post up on both. Hat tip to Cage Potato for the pics.

Cross Promotion

Attention.

Completely off-topic new blog called Questionable Stoppage has been created by me to cover Mix Martial Arts and such. MMA is like politics, only cleaner. There are rules.

The Science of Monkey Ku Fu

What Could Go Wrong?

Like most adults I've had very little in way of fights and violence in my life. No, Muay Thai class does not count. But every close call I've had, every heated moment and "wow, dude, i though we were going to have to throw down for a minute" event in my life has come in a bar.

So naturally, such a conflict-filled place is the ideal environment to introduce guns!

Way to go Arizona! Other States just start bar fights. Arizona finishes them. With gunfire.

Scenes I Love Part 2: Who is the Master?

For those of you who haven't seen The Last Dragon, I pity you, for you are missing out on 98 minutes of pure win. The most epic mid-80's kung-fu/Motown movie ever created. And it all comes down to the final confrontation between our young hero, "Bruce" Leroy and the baddest mo-fo in the town, Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem. Its not over till somebody reaches the final level:



If you want the whole movie, you can watch it here. Why haven't you gone yet?

Dreams Come True

So lately I took some kick boxing classes and started following MMA. Which has created a new and interesting fantasy: train with Gina Carano, get some pointers, then spar a little and get my ass kicked thoroughly kicked by her. Is this strange?

Anyway, it turns out that somebody gets to live my dream. Sure its a funny little hairy dude from Maxim but still, hope springs eternal:

Fight Night

So, I went to my first real, live Mixed Martial Arts fight night this weekend. Very enjoyable, in a back-to-basics, go-hunt-meat-with-a-stick kind of way. This was not big-time Ultimate Fighting Championship Pay-Per-View with big-time fighters that you know. This is the struggle. The only way you know these fighters is if you went to school with them, or work with their dad. You see that guy who’s 18-2 and fighting on pay-per-view? Well, his first five wins came at small regional promotions like this.
The whole set-up is very tribal. I would love to unleash an anthropologist on this scene. The fighters come in to music, all tattooed up and with 0 percent body fat. They each have an entourage of least a couple, and sometimes more than 10, guys. I want to be the No. 4 guy in the entourage. The first three guys have real jobs – cut man, water and coach in some combination. But dudes No. 4 and higher just need to wear the matching T-shirt and walk in like a badass. Maybe carry the belt if your man is a champion. Every fighter had their cheering section, but size of crowd did not equal a better fighter and plenty of people went away disappointed. The whole setup is a very elaborate dance. The refs, the ring card girls, camera-folk, the corner guys come in and out the cage at their appointed times. From pre-fight inspection to post-fight photos, the entire thing is well scripted. The only bit of true chaos in all this is the fight itself. You’ve got no idea how the fight is going to turn out. Is the guy in the green trunks really intense or just really nervous? Do all the muscles on that guy mean he’s powerful, or so muscle-bound he can’t defend himself? That’s why we ring the bell, and that’s why we watch.

Metaphor

We are going to hear a lot about "taking the gloves off" in this next stage of the campaign. I would just like to note that the main reason that you wear gloves is not to protect the guy getting punched, it to protect the guy who's punching. Your hands are filled with lots of little bones and tendons. Very breakable little things. You can really hurt yourself punching. Most self defense systems put punching with bare fists last on the list of things you do. The gloves, the wraps and the tape you see on boxers and MMA guys is so you don't break your hand hitting the other guy repeatable in the face (Like so).

All of which is say, John McCain is just going to hurt himself with this crap.

Girl Fight

Last night CBS put MMA on primetime TV for the first time. The Kimbo Slice thing I leave to others, but the best fight of the night belonged to the women. Gina Carano is what's next. Are you ready? This is the natural evolution of a world of Buffy, Tomb Raider, Xena and the like. You tell girls they can kick ass, show them movies where they kick ass, pretty soon, somebody is going to come along and do it for real. So. is this progress? Is the highly skillful application of violence something women should aspire to?



Beautiful Disaster indeed.