‘Tis here that I reveal my involvement in the martial arts.
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Friends’ MMA-related Websites
– A fight prediction site that operates based on statistical analysis to determine who the winner will be. Also analyzes interesting factors involved in fights such as how they have historically finished (KO, Sub, Decision) and the difference a discrepancy in reach makes (or doesn’t) in a fight.
– By far my most formative martial arts years were spent here.
– Where I currently coach.
MMA-related/Fitness-related Websites & Articles
– An interesting counterargument to the RICE protocol.
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My Background:
In the Beginning
Since the day my uncle brought home a Bruce Lee video (Return of the Dragon), I have been deeply enamored with martial arts. I originally bought into the esoteric superpowers Kung Fu would provide; and after being slighted by a local Ninjutsu school (I had called and left messages, yet they didn’t find it appropriate to ever call me back), I decided to commence my formal training in the deadly arts at Jung’s School of Old Martial Arts (a now defunct chain of martial arts schools).
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The Gradual Awakening
While in college, I continued to practice daily. I drifted further away from forms and more into free-sparring. My goal had always been to be a good fighter, not a performer. After experimenting with Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido and self-devised training routines, I suddenly became disenchanted with martial arts in general and seriously considered forsaking them in favor of other activities.
However, during my senior year, my good friend O’Donnell introduced me to the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, an art that would change my life. He had very limited experience with the art, from the get go I was able to roll on equal footing with him and thus I mistakenly thought that I was a master of this quaint little art. To the initiated in BJJ, it is clear what exactly the astronomical difference between even a white belt and a blue belt is; therefore, I was simply unaware of what an experienced practitioner would be capable of. I graduated from college thinking that all the hype surrounding BJJ was just that: hype.
Upon arriving in Taiwan I trained with a gentleman by the name of Tony Fares who claims to be a black belt in Jiu Jitsu (of the European variety). I will not speak ill of Mr. Fares because he welcomed me openly at his gym even though I couldn’t really afford to pay for classes there. That said, training groundwork with him simply enhanced my misconceptions about BJJ because when I rolled with him, again it was on completely equal footing. Now I knew that not only could I handle a white belt, but in a matter of a few months I could even handle a black belt!
My ego having reached a critical mass was due for some downsizing. One day I saw an add on a school bulletin board requesting grappling training partners. Turns out this noob was just a blue belt; it was so obvious I would be out of his league in terms of skill that it might not be worth my time. But maybe, I can help this poor bastard to learn a thing or two about grappling. Enter Rama.
Rama had been on a year-long break from grappling and wanted to get back into it–poor mortal would likely burst into flames open witnessing my awesomeness firsthand. We went to train and it was there for the first time that I learned the difference between the inexperienced and the experienced. In a mere 6 minutes, I was afforded the opportunity to demonstrate every single way in which I sucked at grappling: positionally, I was dominated from start to finish; submissions were bountiful, at least 6 if not more, yet they all seemed to involve me tapping out. How could a scrawny, miserable blue belt run circles around me in such a tragicomic fashion? I finally realized I had been deceiving myself and that BJJ was for real. It was then that I started learning from Rama in earnest and through Rama, I met my most influential grappling instructor to date: Gordon.
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The Evolution of Combat
My most formative time as a fighter was undoubtedly my tenure at Evolution Combat in Taiwan. One day, Rama had invited a gentleman by the name of Gordon to train with us; he brought a student of his. They proceeded to trounce us (Gordon was a purple belt at the time) effortlessly [NOTE: Rama asked me to clarify that he didn’t get trounced; it was those of us who were noobs at the time that got a beatdown. Happy, Rama? Now everyone knows how cool you were.]. So why would these skilled practitioners come train with such noobs? Well, I would find out later it’s because Gordon loves training, that’s why.
Eventually, I would sign up at Gordon’s school, Evolution Combat, for an afternoon class. After a sizable group of beginners dwindled in number until it became just me, I would expect most instructors to either start charging for private lessons or to simply cancel the class. Gordon did neither. He wanted to train; I wanted to train; so we simply trained. In the beginning it probably wasn’t the most entertaining experience for Gordon as our difference in skill levels were somewhat akin to a child’s compared to a god’s. Over the months, I trained hard and eventually started to get tapped out less and less. I could feel some semblance of a skill-set developing and it was all thanks to Gordon’s pure desire to train.
My first BJJ competition took place approximately 9 months after having started training at Evo. I signed up for the beginners division, which was for everyone with under 2 years of experience. I had fully expected to get my ass kicked, but at least to have it kicked in a variety of ways I was not yet accustomed to–everyone knows that when you roll with the same guys repeatedly, you begin to learn their style; thus success in grappling against them is not necessarily indicative of your overall skill level; rather, it is indicative of your skill level in relation to them; rephrased, one my liken it to taking a test you’ve memorized the answers to and getting 100% as opposed to taking the same test and only having studied for it; if your score is still 100%, THEN it’s impressive. To confound and make matters worse, there were only two of us in my weight bracket, so they kindly decided to bump us up from the 73.5-79kg to the 79.5-84kg category; I had weighed in at 74kg… (it was my first time competing and I had no idea of how to perform a weight cut or anything, so I didn’t.)
One of the organizers (kind of being a dick) said, “Now if you win, you’ve really earned it!” Yeah, thanks for the encouragement, asshole. After bullfighting the big boys and finishing the first two matches by RNC, I somehow made it to the finals.
This was for my weight class. I was utterly exhausted by the end of this match and then found out that in BJJ competitions there are also absolute divisions where weight class is irrelevant and big guys go against the small guys and the best pound-for-pound competitor is determined. Luckily my first match was against a dude who barely weighed enough to make it out of the children’s division; he kicked my ass. Well, to be fair, I remember him winning by a point; however, he was about 3 times smaller than me, so he was obviously the more technical of the two in our match. Years later I would be fortunate enough to train with him upon the inception of Team One.
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Mixing Martial Arts
Eventually, I remembered that fights generally tend to start on the feet–unless your assailant attacks you while you’re peacefully napping, that is. It is because of this that I decided to renew my studies of striking arts. This time, however, I was determined to do it right. I opted to go the route of boxing to learn good footwork and how to effectively use my hands. I started training with Datou at the Xindian Boxing Club. Then the magical 9 month mark hit and I decided to play a game… a game of DEATH! I signed up for my first MMA fight and it was against a Taiwanese underwater demolition expert whose fight epithet was (and still is) Frogman.
Around this time, one of the regulars at Evo, Tex, and I had started to become good friends. His striking was slick and he was kind enough to share with me his plentiful knowledge on the subject. He is the single biggest influence on my current striking style. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to turn shit into gold and focused on defensive striking with me instead of offensive striking for the first fight. The gameplan we settled on was to grapple with Frogman because as the saying goes, “he had a cure for insomnia in both hands,” and we figured I would have the grappling advantage. Much to my and my coaches’ surprise, Frogman too seemed only interested in grappling. It was a hard-fought battle, but I eventually pulled off a win by guillotine choke in the second round.
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Competition in the Golden Age
During the Golden Age my war-buddies Tex, Toby and Anders went all out and competed in a total of 7 MMA matches, 10+ Sanda matches, 5 Muay Thai matches and 20+ BJJ matches winning golds, silvers, bronzes and (sometimes) just shame. We trained together and bled together, so when we competed together, even though it was only one of us in that ring/cage/mat, we were fighting with the strength of the group. Anders had to leave us in late 2010 to go be an adult or something, but the rest on us pressed on and continued to compete, though his absence was missed.
Ironically, the area of fighting in which I seem to have done the best is in striking (despite originally lacking in experience and confidence). I have fought in 5 Sanda matches and won every round getting two golds along the way. I fought in an amateur Muay Thai match against a tough German guy and somehow managed to eke out a win (although it was probably the closest fight I’ve ever had and if he had won the decision, I would not have been surprised). Thus, my striking record amounts to 6-0.
Here I make a comeback after shamefully blocking a kick with my head.
By Sanda rules, two knockdowns = TKO.
Close Muay Thai match; should I have lost? You decide.
I’ve had moderate success in MMA competitions going 2-1. In August of 2010, 6 months after my first fight, I was afforded the opportunity to fight Mr. Liu at PRO MMA 4. He was a tough dude and slick jits specialist. He got the win by choking me out with an RNC. That fight was a lot of fun and I was lucky enough to get to train with him months later during some Team One practices.
My most recent fight against a nice guy named Lawrence.
Oddly enough, I seem to have performed the worse in my BJJ competitions. Over the course of the last 3 years, I must have competed in around 10 of these competitions and only placed in half of them. I think a part of me enjoys BJJ the most, but I might not be cut out for it. In my most recent competition; however, I managed to somehow get 1st in my weight division and 3rd in the absolute for the advanced division, finishing two fights by chokes (D’Arce & Guillotine), winning two on points and losing one on points (though he had my back and had me in serious trouble for a while, I managed to survive the match).
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Team One Taiwan
I learned more from this group of warriors about all aspects of fighting than I ever could have if Evo had remained isolated. Exchanging ideas and training with the more experienced fighters from Taiwan BJJ (where Andrei trained; my opponent in my 2nd MMA fight) and Tough MMA (where Frogman trained; opponent from my 1st MMA fight) was an invaluable experience for me. Tex and Gordon taught me so much about fighting, but one thing they couldn’t provide by themselves was the variety Team One provided.
The premise was simple: train together to make us competitive at the international level. I competed several times while training with these awesome fighters even though it resulted in a conflict of interest once (during the Fabian fight because he was associated with Taiwan BJJ’s Muay Thai contingent Taiwan Muay Thai); however, I didn’t mind because Fabian was a nice guy (we talked before and after our fight just like training partners would–even though I never did end up getting the chance to train with him afterwards). The only times I competed under the Team One Taiwan banner, though, was at the Yangming Cup Sanda Tournament and for my last MMA fight.
I am very grateful to all those who trained with us including: Anders, Andrei, Demetri, Frogman, Gordon, James, Jen, Justin, Major, Raul, Rocky, Sam, Toby, Tex & Vova.
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ICSA
I am currently located in Bangalore, Karnataka in incredible India. My friend Rama (as you might remember from earlier in my martial odyssey) decided to open up an MMA school and asked if I would help teach there. I have been here for a while now and see the students making some serious progress. I’m glad I’ve had this opportunity to come spread the good word of MMA to the locals and I hope they will love it as much as I do.
Here’s a video of Rama showing an ultra-slick technique to trap a defending arm while attacking from the back.
chaosisharmony 