An update for fans of the ‘Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves’ series, which I posted about a few months ago (I was surprised to note today that that post is the most popular in this site so far this year). Chris Crudelli has got a new show that will premier on BBC3 in the UK tomorrow night at 7pm.
Details:
Kick Ass in a Crisis
A Renegade Pictures production for BBC3
TX: 19.00 SATURDAY 17 MARCH 2007
Martial arts guru, Chris Crudelli is back on BBC 3 – to show you how to survive in a bar room brawl, escape from a marauding gang and how to deflect a knife attack or bottle attack or worse. Using his impressive combo – martial arts and mind tricks – Chris takes a group – among them self confessed wimps and victims of crime and in just five days transforms them into urban warriors.
Its been a long time since a posted a tai chi post. I really should do so more often. Here’s another great video of Master Ma Yue Liang, doing pushing hands. See also my previous post about Master Ma, with some background on him and a longer clip.
UPDATE: And this is what I call Ultimate Lameness:
Just goes to show, there is a right and a wrong way to lose an eye in a cheesy martial arts movie. It also goes to show, that it really is funny until somebody loses an eye, and then its just hilarious.
Check out this video of the Sydney local up and coming MMA fighter James Te Huna taking on Takahiro Oba at X-plosion. The event was held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on August 18th.
Way to make a comeback!
Here are some Te Huna highlights from the last couple of years.
Not only is their coming bout this Saturday night a title fight (UFC Light Heavyweight), but it is also a long-awaited rematch between the two, punctuating Sobral’s 10 fight winning streak, since he was last beaten by Liddell back in 2002. In that bout Sobral was knocked down by a left high hook in the first round. Liddell has also had a long run of wins, his last loss being back in 2003 to “Rampage” Jackson.
Sobral (27-5-0) seems to have the fitness edge over Liddell (18-3-0); he’s been working hard developing his stamina with sand and hill sprints, among other things. He’d be planning on using that edge to wait til Liddell tires and perhaps slips up, allowing himself to be taken down. At 30, the Brazilian is also 7 years Liddell’s junior. Sobral is masterful on the ground, while The Iceman prefers to end his fights standing and is known to stubbornly resist being taken down and do so very effectively. As time wears on in the fight it is likely to shift more and more in Sobral’s favour, if he can hold his defence together in the first two rounds, and I think that is what will happen. I am going with a Sobral victory in this one.
The Forrest Griffin (12-3-0) vs. Stephan “American Psycho” Bonnar (also 12-3-0) is another long awaited rematch. Both fighters are coming off a loss, Griffin a close one to Ortiz and Bonnar to Rashad Evans. Their last fight, in the finals of the first UItimate Fighter reality TV show, is considered one of the best in UFC history. That fight is haled with bringing UFC into the mainstream, after their three round toe-to-toe battle reportedly drew 10 million viewers at the peak of the show, up from an audience of 2 million at the start. My money is on Griffin, who has gotten much better since their first encounter, to win again.
The third fight is between the French kickboxer Cheick Kongo and the wrestler Christian Wellisch, known as “The Hungarian Nightmare”. Don’t know much about these guys, or the next pair Hermes Franca and Jamie Varner. In my ignorance I am going with Kongo and Varner respectively. The last fight on the televised card is Nick Diaz (who is replacing Thiago Alves, unable to fight due to illness) versus Josh “The Dentist” Neer. I am going with Neer for that one.
Here’s the full card:
Live PPV Fight Card:
Chuck Liddell (c) vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (BRA) Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar Cheick Kongo (FRA) vs. Christian Wellisch (HUN) Hermes Franca (BRA) vs. Jamie Varner Nick Diaz vs. Josh Neer
Pre-PPV Preliminary Card:
Wes Combs vs. Wilson Gouveia (BRA) Cory Walmsley vs. David Heath Rob MacDonald (CAN) vs. Eric Schafer Yushin Okami (JAP) vs. Alan Belcher
And now for some bad news – the fight between the current PRIDE champ Vanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva and Liddell (current UFC champ) that was announced at UFC 61 for November has been called off. The reason given was “negotiation issues” between PRIDE and UFC management.
Here are a couple of videos to refresh your memory.
Stiffman1 has made a “Bonnar Griffin tribute”, in anticipation of their rematch. Check it out, it shows their previous three round stoic battle.
Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang was the son-in-law and the best known disciple of Wu Chien Chuan, the founder of Wu style taiji. He truely was one of the last remaining great Chinese martial arts masters of old. Master Ma was jailed by the Maoists during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but continued to teach tai chi in Shanghai, China, right up until his death at the age of 97, in 1998. The following video shows Master Ma giving a pushing hands demonstration when he was already 93 years old.
So apparently there is a documentary coming out next week about the long running feud between Tito and Ken. It is called “Relentless: Tito Ortiz -vs- Ken Shamrock: The Untold Truth Behind UFC’s Legendary Feud” and the release date is this Tuesday, the 18th of July.
All I’ve been able to find out about is this bit of promo:
This DVD is a high impact, no holds barred, behind the scenes look at how the blood feud between Tito Ortiz and the Lion’s Den got started.
– What did Tito’s shirt really say? – Did it spark a riot thrown down between some of the best fighters in the UFC? – Why does the Ortiz/Mezger war continue even today?
You’ll find rare, exclusive video, photos, and candid, revealing interviews with Tito Ortiz’s former manager, Sal Garcia, amongst others.
You’d hope this has their fights in full and its coming out next week because they are throwing something together that includes last week’s fight. Guy Metzger is listed as “starring” as well. So is this going to be good? I have no idea. For me it comes down to how much actual fight footage is in the 105 minutes which this video goes for and they are not giving much away on that front. If anyone finds a review, point me in the right direction.
Click the ad link on the sidebar to order from Amazon or get more info.
I’ve noticed a lot of people are coming by this site looking for video of the Ortiz vs Shamrock fight from Saturday nights’ UFC 61. Whatever video of the fight has shown up on Youtube or Google Video has been quickly taken down due to copyright infringement. I did just see a poor quality recording on Youtube, so if you search for something like “ufc 61″ or “ortiz shamrock” there you may be lucky. What I saw was basically a recording made by someone holding a video camera to their TV screen, so you can imagine the quality. And from what I could make out of the fight, you did not miss out on much.
Here’s a video of the post fight press conference.
I also came across this nice video of the first Ortiz vs Shamrock fight, and the more recent Liddell vs Ortiz fight, check it out.