The first fight was between Marcus “Big Baby” Jones and Matt Mitrione.  I was hoping for Jones to railroad him in the first round, and he did have the first round won.  Then Mitrione came out in the second round and caught Marcus with two solid punches to the jaw.  Marcus went down for the count.

Then Kimbo Slice, the Internet sensation, went up against Houston Alexander.  Both men have very dangerous hands with insane knockout power.  However, the fight was not all that exciting as Alexander danced around Kimbo for most of the fight out of fear of Slice’s heavy hands.  The few moments of action were great, and Kimbo pulled out a victory by decision.

The third fight with contestants from the show was James McSweeney and Darrill Schoonover.  James controlled the fight from the beginning and would be the clear victor if the fight went to the judges.  Although Schoonover was no slouch and took some major hits, he still managed to get in some good hits and manage the ground well.  However, the fight ended in the third with an attack of knees and punches from McSweeney.

On a side note, this fight made me not be a McSweeney fan.  He clearly lost TUF because of getting cocky in the ring, and once again he was doing the same thing.  His coaches told him to keep the fight off the ground and trade blows.  James responded by waving them off.  Not cool.

The championship fight came down to Brendan Schaub and Roy Nelson.  Roy “Big Country” Nelson was dubbed by UFC president as the least athletic-looking man in all of professional sports, but that meant nothing as he knocked out the very athletic Schaub in the first round to become The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 champion.

To keep with the tradition of UFC’s Ultimate Fighter reality show, the coaches of the opposing teams face off in the Octagon at the end of the season.  The drama and anger that builds throughout the episodes usually drives the fight’s ratings through the roof.  This is a good thing for pay-per-view income.  However, on December 12th this fight probably will not happen.

There has not been much promotion for the fight or any real acknowledgment from the UFC of his retirement.  It is up to the fans to form their own assumption at this point.  It is a sad thing for me to admit because he is one of my favorite fighters, but I think his statement is official.

He landed the role of Sgt. B.A. Baracus (Mr. T) in the 2010 version of the A-Team.  Originally, he took the role because of the sentimental value of it.  He said he and his father used to bond while watching the show and doing this would be special for both of them.  Rampage is now hoping this movie will kick off his acting career.  Recent jaw surgery and more frequent fighting injuries have driven him to want to retire as a fighter and pursue acting.

This is a smart decision.  Realistically, a fighter of this caliber can not continue to take these beating for years to come.  I give him credit for thinking of his future even though a fight against Rashad Evans could draw in lots of money.  Normally, I would think he would take this last fight and draw in the money.  That was until Dana White mocked him publicly.  He belittled Rampage’s future as an actor.  I am not sure about you, but if my boss put me on blast and I had the chance to stick it to him…I would.

In the ring, he has been beaten only once professionally.  I have watched many of his fights and never was impressed with a single one.  Surely, he must have some skill to make it to the top in this tough sport of mixed martial arts.  It always seemed his victories were…well, lucky.  He would be beaten the whole fight.  Eventually, he gets that lucky strike that wins it for him.  Or he bores me to death with wrestling the other to the point he controls the fight.  Neither are exciting to me.  He actually puts fear into me that the sport will evolve into what boxing became.

I have not seen an exciting boxing match in years.  Most fights have fighters finding ways to avoid punching each other by hanging on the other guy.  Boring and lame.  Rashad Evans makes me think of those fighters.  I surely do hope that MMA doesn’t go in a similar direction.  What is scary, is that most big name fighters are world class wrestlers.

Back to him being a tool.  It is clear that in this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the producers agree.  He tries very hard to talk trash to “Rampage” Jackson and fails miserably.  Even when he brings up some topic, I think that a Kindergartner on a swingset could drive home with more testosterone.  Rampage just agrees with him now, and he still seems to win the trash talk war.  He can’t even find a way to talk trash about a 5-0 lead over Jackson without looking like a total tool.  Rashad should just stop trying and stick to something less manly.

Finally to get back to my point about the producers, they give him almost no footage during the show.  If it is not him directly coaching, he is a ghost.  Thankfully, Rampage is interesting enough to keep my attention.

Season 10 is featuring heavy weight fighters, which usually are large cumbersome fighters who bloody up the mat.  The fighters on this season have not impressed me at all.  All three fights have been boring, and none are really even worth talking about.  However, I will give you a very brief breakdown anyway.

In the first fight Jon Madsen defeated Abe Wagner by decision.  This fight stayed on the ground for the most part with Wagner on bottom eating strikes.  I do have to admit the fight was a very blood one with Wagner staining the mat for the rest of the season.  After the fight he had the deepest gash I had ever seen on his forehead.

Next, former pro football player Wes Shivers versus the British James McSweeney.  I am not sure what the heck happened in this fight.  In the first round, both fighters stood there gassed.  The second was not much better.  However, McSweeney pushed the action more, so the decision went to him.

Third up was the most disappointing fight for me.  The surprise contender Kimbo Slice, the Internet phenom, took on a former pro-MMA fighter, Roy Nelson.  Roy got rocked a few times by the heavy hands of Kimbo and took Kimbo down to the mat, where Kimbo was a turtle on its back.  Roy used his extremely large belly to counterbalance his mount and owned Kimbo in side control.  The sad thing is that even with getting Kimbo into the “beatdown” position, he did very little damage.  The ref only stopped the fight because Kimbo couldn’t shake the big man off of him.

The best part of the season is Ramage Jackson, the coach who keeps losing fights, trash-talking.  He was calling Roy Nelson’s belly the moon and asked the home audience, “Really, how could you lift the moon off you?”

The answer is that both people are correct.  By modern definition, a sport is an “athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess” (www.dictionary.com).  Most people can argue that golfers are not required to be world-class athletes.  However, there is great skill and physical prowess required to hit a golf ball properly.

From many naysayers’ point of view, a sport is an activity requiring you to work up a sweat or one engaging in physical contact.  If this is the case, tennis, racing and (arguably) baseball are not sports because there is little to no physical contact.  Although, all of these activities require the practitioner to be in shape to play well and all require skill.

This argument requires me to bring out my inner geek and go back to the word in which ‘sport’ originated from, disport.  This word means “to divert or amuse oneself” (www.dictionary.com).  By this definition just about anything can be considered a sport and could even make a case for hunting, fishing, darts, billiards, etc.

The simple breakdown of definitions adds confusion and leaves much to opinion.  This is why there is much to debate about in the eyes of sports fans and fanatics alike.  A simple fix would be to sub-catagorize each.  You have full contact sports like football, hockey, MMA, etc.  However, this will lead into debates over what a true full-contact sport is.  Truthfully, we have to agree to disagree or engage in all of the routine trash talk that true fans enjoy.

I want to close by addressing the person who said MMA isn’t a sport.  MMA meets every criteria for a sport.  In fact, I would love to have many other athletes take an elbow to the head and continue on as if it didn’t happen.

In my book, You Can’t Beat Me, I cover this concept.  I am going to relate this concept to fighting.  When we fight or compete, our adrenaline starts pumping, and we often act out of instinct as opposed to our intellect.  This can be very bad for us when we decide to flinch and get ourselves into a worse position.  If someone faked a punch to my face and I reacted by throwing up my hands, they could have a field day on body shots.  This concept is the exact reason we throw fakes and jabs.

The way around the reaction action is to respond.  When there is a response to a situation, the action is thought out and calculated as opposed to a flinch.  Sounds great, huh?  That is until you get in the ring and get hit for the first time, then all thought processes go flying out the window.  Now you are reacting to the punch and opening yourself up to the attack.  Then you will react to that and the cycle will continue on forever.

Responding to a situation is something that can come from strict training.  You have to workout in a way to where you actually “flinch” with the smart move.  This is why we have to practice the same move over and over again in our training sessions.  All of those hours of drilling submissions and submission escapes actually are a good thing.

We are preconditioning our minds to respond to a situation instead of panicking and delivering a flinch.  Flinching loses fights.  Responding sets you up to overtake your opponent.

I was blessed with an instructor who made me drill the basics of fighting over and over and over.  I had to learn good footwork and proper technique until I could do it in my sleep.  I hated the repetition, but now I finally understand the value.

Martial art students learn self-control and discipline, and they get to hit stuff really hard.  All of  these things are great sources for reducing stress.  Self-control is attained by learning to focus.  When we focus on a move or an item we learn to target our minds and energy.  Being able to zone our mental lasers onto a certain thing enables us to tune out the stressors in our lives.  This concept is similar to husbands tuning out wives when being asked to do something.

Certain arts have been passed down over thousands of years.  Each move needs to be practiced many times in order to perfect it.  It takes a great deal of discipline to practice the same move over and over again.  Good masters drive the reason for perfection into our hearts and minds.  When we get to the levels of teaching others, but with poor technique, we are not honoring our art.

Discipline affords us the opportunity to control our feelings and emotions to a certain degree.  When we possess the self-discipline to force our minds not to focus on the things that do not matter or the things we have no control over, we are combining self-control and discipline.

The last benefit of martial arts that relieves our stress levels is hitting things really hard.  Banging on a target, board or even a body can make you feel a lot better.  I would spend hours hitting my heavy bag or headache bag when things started to get to me.  It really helps.  By focusing all of that energy into a strike and releasing the tension in our bodies, it allows us to forget all of our worries.

Practicing martial arts is the stress pill that we all need to take.  After one class your life will be depleted of much stress.

There are many established arts that have been around for decades and even centuries.  Some of the more popular ones are Kung Fu, Taekwondo and Karate.  Kung Fu is an art that patterns its fighting styles after the way animals fight and defend themselves.  Taekwondo is art that stresses self-defense.  The moves are 80% kicks, and great coordination and strength are developed through the practice of this art.  Karate is an art with the same principles as Taekwondo but not as many kicks and footwork.

After researching which art best fits your needs, it is time to decide if you desire a traditional or modern school.  Traditional schools focus more on the basics of the art, stressing discipline with rigid movements and a formal atmosphere.  Modern schools are less focused on the basics and employ more exciting movements.  These schools appear to have less discipline yet more energy.

The final factor is if the school is a hard or soft school.  This is something that is mainly determined by the art that is taught.  Hard schools have more physical contact and increased strength conditioning.  Soft schools stress less contact.  Softer schools are the better choice for children and those not seeking the contact.  Adults and athletes may enjoy a more physical art and school.  Kenpo and Judo are examples of hard arts, and Tai Chi is a soft one.  The other arts vary depending on the master’s focus.

When choosing your school take time and do the research.  Don’t settle for the first school.  Go to all the ones you find, and see for yourself which are best for you.  Focus on the attention given to the students from the instructors, how safety is stressed and the school’s reputation.  Most schools offer trial lessons or trial periods. If they do, take full advantage.  No matter which art you choose, remember not all improvements come overnight.

This French art has been called Parkour, and the practitioners are called traceurs.  The movements are strictly insane and jaw dropping.  The whole point of this art is to use buildings, trees, mailboxes, etc. as devices to get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.

In the 90s a growing trend of freerunning or freestyle running was growing throughout the US and Europe.  This is where people would test their limits by jumping off of high objects or anything not normal for the average pedestrian.  It equated to skateboarding without the skateboard.  The French took this craze and formalized it.  Now there are clubs popping up all around the world.

This art utilizes moves from gymnastics and martial arts alike.  The moves take great dexterity and physical conditioning to complete.  For instance, climbing up the side of a building.  Traceurs need to have rockclimber strength and then use displacement techniques when hitting the ground from the 20 foot jump that comes later.  Their movements are like ninja monkeys within an obstacle course.

In preparation for this story, (which basically consisted of watching YouTube videos) I witnessed people leaping horizontally over fifteen feet and more utilizing  a vault technique.  One guy even ascended to the third floor of a multi-level shopping center without ever touching a step or elevator button.  I highly suggest you do the same homework I did.

Although very few people have heard the name Parkour, millions are witnessing it in action in movies and on television.  Those who saw the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, witnessed this art of movement in action during the opening scenes.  Just a few weeks ago, I saw another display of Parkour while watching the TV show, The Unit.

Parkour is very exciting to watch and probably even more fun to do.  Just remember, do not try this at home.

The new season of The Ultimate Fighter will begin April first.  This year is the first time two nations will face one another.  It is already shaping up to be an awesome season.

To start, the coaches are two excellent trainers and fighters.  Michael Bisping is the winner of The Ultimate Fighter and is very exciting to watch with his Muay Thai style.  In fact, he (almost single-handedly) put MMA on the map for the UK.  The coach for the USA is no slouch.  Dan Henderson is a well rounded fighter known for his toughness and wrestling skills.  He is a veteran of the Octagon and has much to offer his team.

The season will begin with the thinning of the herd.  Each country will offer sixteen fighters, and they will have fight each other.  The losers go home and the winning eight stay to play.  All the training and fights will take place in Las Vegas.  This season will be especially interesting.  Not only are the fighters fighting for a six-figure contract, they have the pride of a nation resting on their gloves.

My hope is that because of the attention this season will draw, the fighters will be ambassadors of their nations and for martial arts as a whole.  Martial artists are traditionally disciplined and very humble.  Past seasons have not exemplified this spirit in the home of the fighters.

I know the ratings are boosted when viewers are expecting the teams to act like idiots, but as an American and martial artist I am hopeful.  I guess Paul Revere would say, “One by land, two by sea, armbar in Octagon”

Does anyone else share the same feelings as I do?  What is more important: a great season or being ambassadors of the sport?

Lastly, go team USA.  Make it an All-American championship.