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WHAT A MAN!!

 

This weekend MMA fans across the world were treated to one of the most magical nights in MMA history. The UFC made their long awaited return to Japan where Lightweight champion and comeback king Frankie Edgar was to defend his title against the unsubmitable Benson Henderson. The fight was spectacular, it was filled with back and forth action, shifts in momentum, slick striking, technical grappling and brute force. It was one of the most remarkable displays of martial arts I have ever seen, which makes what I want to discuss even more disappointing. During the fight, Twitter was erupting with adoration for Frankie Edgars toughness and grit, tweet after tweet (from respected MMA writers) read, “what a manly performance”, “what a man!”. Not only do statements like this reduce martial arts to faux masculinity and frat boy-ism, it brings light to a bigger problem: Equating toughness, grit, heart, persistance, and skill to manliness. If his performance was “manly”,  is a fighter who doesn’t fight with the same tenacity “womanly”? Was Meisha Tates title winning performance against Marloes Coenen also “manly”?

MMA isn’t just for boys anymore, when we start to call certain skill sets or traits “manly” we leave out the talented and successful women in the sport we love.  During a time in this sports short history in which we’re trying to convince the general public that there’s more to MMA than blood and broken limbs, I think we can do ourselves a great service by dismissing these terms and referring to amazing fighters as exactly what they are: Amazing athletes. What Frankie Edgar (or Tim Boestch for that matter) accomplished is nothing short of amazing. The heart he has shown over and over throughout his career has little to do with his “masculinity” and everything to do with an iron will and determination. Reducing something so awe inspiring to a term thats rather exclusive is not only lazy, but its disrespectful. I may sound like a broken record, but its time that we give MMA the respect it deserves.  Gender specific terms have absolutely no place in a sport for everyone.

 

The Peoples Champ

The Peoples Champ

Saturday night at UFC 141 in Rio, Featherweight champion Jose Aldo successfully defended his title against Team Alpha Male wrestler Chad Mendes in what many (including myself) consider the finest performance of his very young career. It was clear from the opening bell that Mendes had no answer for Aldo. Once we realized that the challenger was unable to take the champ down into his world, you got the feeling you were watching a vicious predator stalk its prey.  Mendes biggest strength and only means of escape from certain death, was his speed and athleticism but that was completely nullified by Aldos brilliant onslaught of technical violence. Every takedown was denied and every leg kick was returned with much more ferocity. Mendes was doomed, and late in the first round he finally met his fate. After commiting himself to taking Aldo down against the cage the champ unleashed a devastating knee. Mendes was left unconscious.

What took place next is one of the most electrifying moments in MMA history…

Flying high on the adrenaline of the moment Aldo ran out of the cage and  into the crowd to be embraced. As the crowd went into a frenzy Aldo was hoisted onto the shoulders of his fellow Brazillians. We weren’t just watching a fighter celebrate a win, we were watching a star being born. We witnessed a country put a man who is from the worst parts of that nation be embraced like a national hero. The moment that crowd erupted they poured their hopes and dreams into him. Most of us will never achieve that level of success, when you’re from where Aldo is your chances of succeeding are even more slim and when you consider that, what this young man achieved is even more impressive. He represents thousands of urban youth that will probably never make it out of ghettos all over the world. Nothing was ever given to him, he worked his way up using his athletic gifts and work ethic.

What the UFC (and sports in general) needs is more Jose Aldos and fewer athletes attempting to be the “heel” to market themselves. Aldo has become one of the biggest stars in Brazil by being genuine, humble and winning convincingly. Jose Aldo is the true peoples champ.

I have Aspergers, and there’s nothing wrong with me.

Hello everyone. Its been awhile since I updated this here blog, but a lot has been going on in my life. I started a new job and found out that I have Aspergers Syndrome. I cant say that Im surprised at my diagnosis, I was tested for Autism at the request of my teachers when I was 7 years old. But unfortunately, not much was known about Aspergers back then. As long I wasnt drooling and was able to go to school everyday I was considered normal. But I’ve known my entire life that I wasnt like everyone else. I’ve never felt like I was part of anything, I’ve lived my life as if I was watching a movie. Things happen around me and sometimes I have a hard time understanding how I effect them. I am the ultimate spectator, I see and hear everything going around me. I dont posses the ability to separate sounds, if there are 5 conversations going on around me I hear each one of them clearly. This makes most situations extremely overwhelming for me, unless Im sitting in a dimly lit room by myself Im probably uncomfortable. The hardest part about thus far has been finding out that non aspies see things when they look in other peoples eyes. People say they see others hopes, dreams, love and everything else. On the rare occasion that I can muster up the strength to look in someones eyes I just see them for what they are, eyes. Even though I dont think there’s anything wrong with me, I find myself mourning things I didnt know I never had. I do want to feel what everyone else feels and see what everyone else sees, but I never will and thats been kind of hard to deal with lately.

Now that Im learning and progressing, I’ll be able to become not only a much better person, but I much better writer. Im sorry for the long and unexplained absence, and I hope you guys stick around to see whats to come. Thanks for reading!

Jon Jones and Rampage are both black.

One of the debates the black community has always had (and probably will continue to have for years to come) is the debate over how much of your blackness you have to give up to be accepted by mainstream America. Jon “Bones” Jones and Quenton “Rampage” Jackson represent both sides of that argument. To a lot of MMA fans, “Rampage” and Rashad Evans claims of Jones being a “fake”, “snobby”,  or a phony just seem like ordinary trash talk. But amongst brothers, those insults cut  much deeper.  They arent just ordinary insults on your character or fighting ability, they’re insulting to your blackness. Calling Jones a “snob” suggests that he thinks he’s too good for the “rest of us”. It suggests that he wants to forget everything about his roots. Its basically calling him an Uncle Tom, and judging from an interview Jones did for Black Voices, the most defining and important examples of racism in his life came from other black people.

 ”Considering that wrestling and MMA are not considered sports that African Americans dominate, did you have to deal with racism while coming up?”

“Absolutely. The first issues of racism came from my own people. In high school, when I came to the lunch table all the black kids would say things like “Why are you wearing all that spandex? You go to wrestling practice grabbing another dude and sweating. You’re gay.” All I could do is swallow my pride and know that regardless of what they said, that was my niche. I had to be comfortable in my own skin to realize that it was okay to dare to be different.”

(African Americans have a long and storied history in wrestling, this question is, in my opinion irresponsible and shows the person doing the interview didnt do his/her research, but I’ll leave that for another blog entry)

The first part of Jones response wasnt about being the only black person in entire towns during wrestling tournaments or that feeling you get when you know people are staring at you judgmentally, it was about the black kids in his class that called him “gay” for wearing spandex and participating in a white mans sport. When you’re part of a community that only makes up about 12% of the population, feeling ostracized hurts, a lot. I cant be 100% sure, but I’d be willing to bet that the people calling Jones “gay” acted a lot more like Rampage than Jones. I think thats why Jones seems so flustered and annoyed in interviews lately. Rampage is a bully and those of you who have been bullied in school know, that feeling of helplessness never really goes away. 15 years later and I still get nervous when I come across someone that bullied me in middle school.

In most interviews before this fight Jones has been very clear and articulate, but lately he’s been stumbling over his words and sounding unsure of himself. He’s sounded more like a 10th grader defending himself against the cooler kids than a confident champion.

I dont think Jones personality is the only thing behind peoples sudden hatred of him, some of it is jealousy.  Jones is a phenom, he makes even the most experienced veterans look like rookies, he appears to run through his opponents without effort. People hate that. Especially people like Rampage who’ve had to claw their way up to the top of their professions.

Rampage on the other hand is the cool kid in class that everyone loved and feared. Sometimes we laugh at his jokes because we’re scared he may kill us if we dont. He’s funny, talented and dangerous. Never passes up an opportunity to make people laugh. But he’s out of his fucking mind. He’s also paranoid, goofy and because of where he came from and how he grew up he’s had to work harder than most to achieve everything he has he probably feels like Jones is taking all the fame and credit he’s worked so hard for.

Having 2 black people fight for a major belt in MMA is a big deal. I know Jones and Rampage claim they arent thinking about it, but how can they not? Race matters, its always there. Ignoring it doesnt make it go away. Im not a huge fan of Jones, but I am happy that for the first time in MMA we arent  shown in such a singular way. Im glad they’re different.

ANDERSON SILVA

 

Hurricane Irene is hours from my apartment. My girlfriend is sleep in bed next to me and her family is laid out in various places across every room. We’ve stocked up on water, toiletries, batteries and anything else we could think of. To be honest, I’m kind of nervous…but Im not thinking about the hurricane coming towards me. Im thinking about what Anderson Silva just did to Yushin Okami. What makes Silva so amazing is that by fighting him you play into his strength, which is fighting. It must feel awful to not be able to punch a man whos standing in front of you with his hands down, and your only job in life at that moment is to punch him. What Anderson did tonight cements his place at the top of the all time greats discussion. No one in the history of this young sport has dominated as many top fighters as he has. The only man in the UFC to even come close to beating Silva fought “The Spider” when he had a bruised rib, AND he was was juiced up. You know what happened? He still found himself bloody, unconscious and on the losing end of a battle.

Sometimes I think this fight is too young for statements like “we’ll never see another fighter like Silva”, but the longer he dominates, the truer that statement becomes.  Anderson isnt just a fantastic fighter, what separates him from other great fighers is the air of mystery that surrounds him. When he does media he seems kind of fun and goofy, never shows his cards. But inside the cage that all changes. Deadly accuracy, sneaky submissions and brutal power. He’s as hard to figure out outside of the cage as he is inside. The only thing we really know about him is that he’s good at fighting. Sometimes I think that when we’re all old and thinking about our glory days, 2 things will still be the same; Jay-Z will still be good at rapping and Anderson Silva will still be good at beating people up.

UFC On Fox. Its Important.

 

 

When the news of the UFC leaving Spike for the FOX family broke earlier this week, one thing people kept asking themselves was “what did the UFC give up to get this deal?”. After the official announcement was made, FOX told us that there would be a press conference soon, where they would make a “major” announcement.   We wondered if people would be fired, if rules would be changed, and most importantly, would Gladiator Man finally meet his maker? Only time would tell.  To tell the truth, Im over Danas “big announcements”. When I heard the words “big”, “announcement”, “ufc” and “major” in a sentence I checked out. We’ve been conned to the point of memehood by Danas major announcements. No one really takes them seriously anymore. I even took time out of my day to tweet Tomas Rios that this “major” announcement didnt mean shit. After all, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Fast forward to the big announcement and aside from TUF getting a much needed revamp and the UFC having the support of 3 different networks, there wasnt really much major to the announcement in my eyes. At least until I really sat down and thought about it.

Gone was Joe Rogan yelling “ITS FIGHT TIME BITCHES” at the top of his lungs, no more showing up to press conferences in a t-shirt and jeans (apparently, Dana didnt get that memo), no more “f bombs”. For one of the first times since I’ve been a fan, MMA felt like a real mainstream sport. I didnt feel like I had to defend the sport I love to my anti-violence peace loving friends. So to me, the big, major announcement is actually what they didn’t announce. This deal is important, not only because of the major network shelling out a huge amount of money to support MMA, but because of the suits and professionalism they can put behind the sport. I’ve always maintained (here, on Twitter or on various other message boards and MMA communities) that in order to take MMA into the mainstream, it needed to shed the frat boy image. The fewer Affliction shirts and the less nu-metal the better. MMA is a sport full of intricacies, drama, intelligence and some of the best athletes on the planet, its time the people with the money and the people calling the shots act like it its more than 2 people beating each other up.