UFC 107

Thoughts:
Paul Buentello is a damn fun fighter to watch, win or lose. He needs to figure out what Brock Lesner taught Frank Mir: heavyweights have to lift heavy weights. (more on that below)

The change of camps was good for Kenny Florian. He needed a change of scenery after the loss to B.J. Penn. We won't know if the change of camps was good for Clay Guida for a few more fights. Kenny changed to drop off the baggage of the loss. Guida changed camps to train with fighters who are better than he is, and improve his game. The latter takes longer than the former.

Jon Fitch needs to make up with the matchmakers at Zuffa. He's constantly getting horrible match-ups for him.. but he keeps winning.

Frank Mir.. where to start. New Trainer: Mark Dellagrotte, New strength and conditioning coach: Mark Philippi (who has forgotten more about getting people strong than many people know) and one of the best Jiu-jitsu instructors in the world (Robert Drysdale)
He's pushing the weight limit, He looks strong, motivated, and 100% committed, even though I think he's grating and cocky I think he's taken his game to a whole different level.
That said, I am sick and tired of people who don't know BJJ talking about how Frank is "the greatest BJJ practitioner in MMA." He's a good black belt. He has that thing in his brain that makes him want to finish fights. He is very good at finding submissions in scrambles and forcing them till the guy taps, but that is far from the "best."The arm bar that broke Tim Sylvia's arm is a perfect example. Sylvia was out. He got his elbow to the mat, Frank just happens to be strong enough that that didn't matter. He was able to break the bones of Sylvia's forearm where a smaller guy would have to attack the elbow.
Could he sub me? probably. Does he chain submissions together as well as Miguel Torres? No. Does he use jiu-jitsu to control his opponents as well as Damien Maia? Not even close. So let's let it go. Frank's a finisher, and has a great guard for a big man, but that does not mean he's "the best jiu-jitsu player in MMA."

Cheick Kongo, Mir was right. Work on becoming a complete fighter, or go back to kickboxing.

Deigo Sanchez's wrestling is overrated, even I fell for the hype. He's a good high school wrestler, but it's going to take more than that to get B.J. Penn fighting off of his back. Is Grey Maynard good enough to do it? I hope we find out soon.

B.J. Penn credit's his win to Marv Marinovich. On the countdown show they showed some of the training that B.J. Penn was doing leading up to this fight. Lots of balance work, lots of 'running cones', lots of machine work. Pretty much everything in the "training for the circus/speed camp hand book."
It's hard to say with the brief bits that were shown to know the reasons those movements were used. Who knows; B.J. is hypermobile, he might need ankle stabilization that unstable surface training provides. For B.J. the most important thing is that he works hard, even if the training is sub-optimal as far as power output, and rate of force development; with his talent if he's entertained and works hard then he'll be a better fighter than if he avoids the gym. Isn't that is the ultimate goal?
That said, I don't think he's working optimally, but it's hard to say when you've never trained that particular athlete. It'll be interesting to see how B.J.'s condition and strength progress (or not) as he continues to train this way.

Bonus: Multiple time WSM winner Mariusz Pudzianowski had his MMA debut. If you search youtube you can still find it. Youtube keeps pulling it down for copy-write infringement, and people keep re-posting it. I'll save you the trouble: Mariusz leg kicks the guy a couple times, damn near taking him off his feet with every kick. He pins his opponent against the ropes and just 'big brothers' him to the ground (grab head push to mat). Then hammerfists the guy into next week. Interesting, but in a circus side-show kind of way.

Training this week:
Monday:
Day:
Fat grip rows:
3x12 at 135

dips:
15-12-10 at bw

chins:
some

Gun show: get your tickets!

BJJ:
couple cool sweeps from guard leading to chokes. Good stuff. Good roll with Brian. Gassed at the end. Technical roll with Michelle, working on my guard. Lots of fun. I finally have some pants that are decent to go with my white Kimono. The ones that came with it never fit. I had some cheap ones from OTM, that I got in California at the Pan-ams. They were made from super heavy canvas. I swapped them out with these from Atama. Incredible improvement. Much lighter, more freedom of movement.. and actually about the same price. Total win.

This morning's lift:
bench:
3 at 160
3 at 185
10 at 205
5 at 175
5 at 175
Was a little sore going into this session, so I'm happy with the numbers.

1a rows:
3x 10 at 90.

that's it.
Mahalo.