Herschel Walker and Jason Frank both are known names who are helping to bring light to the sport and challenge themselves in a whole new way.  This past season of The Ultimate Fighter had a few former professional football players who revealed this sport is quite tough.  They showed that to make it in a match of three five-minute rounds conditioning had to be top-notch.

Now, bring in Herschel Walker, the Heisman Trophy holder, who recently debuted in MMA.  This 47 year old was heralded for his level of conditioning in his recent fight.  Although he is nowhere near ready for elite fighters, his fight was impressive.  Walker walked away with a victory and is currently trumpeting a 1-0 record.  Many of the MMA in-crowd stated this will probably be his only fight, but it was a good one and he helped shine more light onto this great sport.

The next newcomer is Jason D. Frank.  He has been in the shadows of the MMA world for quite awhile now.  However, he had his first fight on January 30th and won by submission in the Lonestar Beatdown.  Jason is best known for his time on the kid’s television show, The Power Rangers.  This martial arts master and fighter who is belted in numerous arts is now 1-0 as an MMA fighter.  He enjoyed a first round victory using an omaplata.

He let me in on his training video, and there was no doubt in my mind that he would run through whoever climbed in the ring against him.  He has been preparing to fight MMA for a long time, and it showed in his training and in his recent victory.

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.

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.

Imagine spreading the word about the wheel.  You would have to roll it over to a buddy’s house.  If he thought it was cool, he’d make one and roll it on to another.  After hundreds of years, the word has spread.  Imagine if they had the Internet in those days.  Caveman Carl takes a picture of his wheel with his iPhone covered in authentic Raptor hide, emails it on to all his friends and they do the same.  In days the world will be informed.

MySpace and Facebook have done the same thing over the past few years.  They have provided an avenue to share music, thoughts and friendship with countless others.  Fighters now have their own version…Anointed Fighter (http://www.anointedfighter.com).

This site allows fighters to network with other fighters and share stories and trade info.  You even can blow off some steam and talk to friends that you make online.  There are many of the same features that are available through MySpace.

One interesting twist to this site is that it is a Christian website.  Many MMA fighters have become increasingly spiritual these days.  So in addition to making friends, there are links to Bible Studies.  I am personally a huge fan of this site.

Many people look at Martial Artists as vandals and thugs.  MMA fighters often do have the appearance of a felon.  Bloody cage bouts do not suggest the contrary to an outsider.  Most Martial Artists are very deep people.  You have to possess great control over your mind and body simply to survive the training.  That strength has come spiritually throughout all generations of Martial Artists.

Very few people realize this, and sites like Annointed Fighter will help the world to see that there are more dimensions to a fighter’s mind.  Martial Artists focus on growth physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Now you know.

Currently, I have been involved in some research about strategy and game plans for an upcoming book, and this led me into looking at how fights have ended since UFC 76.  What I discovered is that 17 fighters have tasted defeat by this deadly choke.  In fact, chokes in general are the avenue to many victories in MMA.  Guillotine chokes and triangles each made my top five.

How?  Those who have ever rolled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu know most people go for the neck right away.  Chokes are not incredibly hard to learn, and the techniques are often fairly natural, whereas an arm bar or kimora takes a little more thought.  That could be one reason right there.  The thing you go for the most is often going to be the move you land the most…simple statistics.

Another reason is many fighters fail to properly protect the neck.  Many times a fighter thinks there is no way a fighter will get them into a choke and delay defending this attack until it is too late.  Once the hooks are in, it is often too late.

The guillotine is the simplest movement but the hardest to get a submission.  I get out of most attempts and usually waste lots of energy trying to get others in them.  I always am amazed to see the pros land one.

The triangle is not so tough either.  The set up for this choke is fairly easy, and most of us make that one tiny mistake when in another’s guard to allow it to happen.

Now to get the rear naked choke, you have to get behind your opponent.  You need to have to get your arm around their neck and your legs need to prevent them from spinning their bodies.  In my opinion, this is a very tough set up on paper.

How then are so many people losing?  What can they do to avoid getting choked out for a submission?