Tag Archives: superfight

PGL Middleweight Tournament Preview

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I’m competing against Garry Tonon tomorrow at the PGL (here’s my previous blog post about the event). In no-gi, I’ve gone against several very good competitors, but this is probably the toughest opponent I’ve faced yet. He is a 2011 and 2012 no-gi world champ at brown belt. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

I think that organizing 8-man tournaments like these is great for jiu jitsu. I believe that grapplers at any rank can put on a show, and as PGL grows, more and more exciting brown and black belts will step up. The event is short (relative to a normal tournament) so it’s interesting for spectators. Also, it’s streamed live online for free and then you can watch it on demand a week later. Here’s the link: PGL II – Middleweight Tournament Plus Super Fights. It starts at 7pm (Saturday, Nov 23, 2012).

The four match-ups in the the preliminary round are:

  • Dennis Pressey Jr vs Juan Vazquez
  • Garry Tonon vs Lex Fridman
  • David Elias vs Steve Wilson
  • Michael Padilla vs Robert Mudrak

The two superfights are:

  • John Battle vs Zach Green
  • Bill Algeo vs Matt Dosk

Seriously though, thank you to Keith Egan, Josh Saper, Seema Shull, and all the PGL staff (including the ring girls) for putting this event together. I’m exciting to go watch it tomorrow. This is like the New Jersey version of Metamoris.

Comparing Top Salaries of Combat Sports

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There is an illusion that since UFC is “fastest growing sport” that its stars would be paid on the level of other professional. That illusion was shattered for me when I found out that the prize money for Chael Sonnen from this weekend was just $50,000 (source). Of course, he perhaps earned over a million dollars through sponsorship deals, but still.

The following are the top earners (based on approximate yearly earnings from their fights alone) from each of the sports in a recent year.

  • Boxing: Floyd Mayweather at $85,000,000
  • MMA: Rashad Evans at $710,000
  • Freestyle/Greco-Roman Wrestling: $0 (unless they medal, then some countries give bonuses. Russia is highest with $100,000 bonus for gold)
  • Judo: Teddy Riner was paid $100K without sponsors and then sponsors bring that up to a about $1,000,000.
  • Jiu Jitsu: ADCC pays $40,000 to the superfight winner. World Pro pays $30,000 to the winner of the absolute and $8,000 to the winner of the division. Ultimate Absolute pays $10,000 to first place. So someone like Andre Galvao who won almost all of these prizes, could earn $88,000 a year.

It’s clear that superstars in any sport get paid well. An example of that is judo’s Teddy Riner. But still, it surprised me that the top 10 earners in boxing still make more than the top paid UFC fighters.

For many Olympic sports, money is not the main motivator, which is why the Olympics often feel like the purest form of athletic competition. There’s something beautiful about a human being sacrificing the prime of his or her life for the singular (and nearly impossible) goal of a gold medal…

Review of Operation Knee on Belly

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Jared Weiner has come out with a new dvd set Operation Knee on Belly.

I’m a big believer that a good instructional dvd or book can take your game to another level. For me, for example, Marcelo Garcia’s x guard book opened up my game to where I could be dangerous (against people at my lowly level of blue belt) off my back.

But at the end of the day I’m a top player, and that’s where my favorite top game instructional comes in: Operation Knee on Belly. The following are some of the things I particularly like about it (off the top of my head).

Emphasis on Control

Jared emphasizes the kind of knee on belly position control that people often associate with  controlling the back mount. For him, it’s not a quick transitional position. It’s a place where you stick around and can finish the match. He discusses that extensively throughout, but especially in the “Principles” part of the set.

Impose and Finish

A lot of the techniques on the dvd set aren’t responses to something the opponent does. Instead you’re imposing the dominant position and going after the submission that you want. Just the way I like it! That includes triangles, chokes, kimuras, armbars, omoplatas, etc. Jiu jitsu is very much about the push-pull reactions, but sometimes you can really impose your game on the opponent to the point where their options are very limited. This makes the task of controlling position and submitting the opponent much more manageable.

Live Speed and Common Mistakes

Two extra things that I particularly like is that for each technique Jared shows the technique at live speed a bunch of times with entries into knee on belly from both sweeps and guard passes. After showing all that, he describes some of the common mistakes people make for each of the techniques.

Complete System

The same fundamental concepts run throughout the instructional, so taken together Jared presents a complete system of attacks from knee on belly (in both gi and no-gi).

Teaching Style

While perhaps not essential, one of the most memorable parts of the instructional is the style of Jared’s teaching. There’s a certain mix of intensity and humor that makes watching the set both entertaining and motivating. Words like crush, smash, drive, torque, twist set the “mood” perfectly. And of course, there’s the frequent mention of “grinding the sternum”.

While jotting down the above few comments I came across a picture of Jared that I had from the first time I saw him in person (competing and winning a superfight in the summer of 2010). I remember being very impressed at his guard passing style. He was relentless.

And above all I think that’s what makes his instruction great. He uses the techniques he teaches to consistently score on and beat other top black belts in his division.  Of course, a great instructor doesn’t have to be a great competitor, but it sure doesn’t hurt ;-)