4th of July and 116.

Greetings true believers! I had a busy weekend.
First off.. thoughts on the fights from this weekend:

As much as I dislike Eddie Bravo,George Sotiropoulos looks like a legit lightweight. Crisp striking and his gumby-like physique is perfect for the rubber guard. I do think he gives up the takedown a bit easily, and will have problems with top-control guys like Grey Maynard and Clay Guida but then again there are very few truely complete fighters.

I was almost sorry to see Stephan Bonner win. He's a very likeable guy who would be great announcing or as a public 'face' for the UFC, but he just doesn't have the right mentality to win fights. He'd rather 'wade and trade' than show off his very crisp boxing.. and eventually he's going to be a sad story.

I like Krzysztof Soszynski, but I'm beginning to wonder if he hasn't hit his ceiling. He's well rounded enough to beat anyone with glaring holes in their games, but not good enough at any one thing, he doesn't have a "strikeout pitch." Something he's so good at that that the other guy has to gameplan around it. He would be well served to visit AKA, Tri-star or another camp with a great striking coach since that seems to be where he's most comfortable. Put some polish on his skills to take him to the next level.

Chris Lytle looked great. He's always going to be a gatekeeper, but by fighting smart he may have moved himself up a notch in that area. Used one of my all time favorite submissions to finish Matt Brown.

What to say about Chris Leben. He seems to have grown up. He beat two tough guys in two weeks, and did it with a smile on his face. That said he needs to work with a boxing coach and a jiu-jitsu professor À la carte instead of just training "MMA" because he has the ideas of these arts without the fundamentals, and fundamentals win fights.

Yoshihiro Akiyama is in a terrible spot. A pariah in Japan (for being of Korean decent and very good at Judo.. among other things) Akiyama has had a couple pretty mediocre performances here stateside. He's too small and gets pushed around by American middleweights that cut more weight than he does, and his conditioning is suspect. He should have been able to escape that triangle, it was loose, and poorly applied. He simply ran out of gas. He needs to train at a better camp, and he needs to drop a weight class (or add some muscle mass) or he's going to be out on his ear.

Brock Lesnar is a legit fighter scaled up to 2:1. He needs to learn to circle out of trouble on the feet (damn near cost him the fight on Saturday) but his transition from side-control to mount to side-control to finish the arm triangle was great. The dose of humility he showed after the fight was even better. Makes it easier to like the guy. Maybe nearly dieing of an intestinal rupture taught him some humility, maybe Dana White just talked some sense into him.. or maybe he's just eating more vegetables these days and is more regular.. who knows.

I think Cain Velasquez could be a tougher fight. More polished on the feet, better wrestling, and better feet. Shane Carwin is strong and athletic, but he has plodding feet that really are the difference between a good wrestler and a great one. However, I don't know that Cain is big and strong enough to keep Brock from winning the fight by just "big-brothering" him around the cage. Looks like we'll see.

Sorry Shane, a puncher's chance just isn't good enough.

Training the past week:
Friday fun:
4 sets of 5 slosh pipe presses.
1 set of AMAP (I got 21)
1 set of 1/2 amap
TRX pendulums with a pause (20)
TRX plank holds for max time.

Saturday:
BJJ Couple good rolls, nothing epic. Just getting out of my head.

Monday:
BJJ Taking the back, back escape, and chokie goodness. Good roll with the purple belt that drubbed me last week, got to roll with the professor (which is always great), and one more roll with one of the bigger white belts.
When I got back from time off for the kid I was rolling great. I was super focused, and I had really taken things to the next level. Now, I'm just tired and that focus is gone.. and it's pretty obvious. I need to get it back.

Tuesday:
5/3/1 deads and military:
Deads (prescribed reps only):
5 at 275
5 at 330
5 at 370
10 at 275 x3

Military:
5 at 105
2 chins at bw +25
5 at 120
2 chins at bw +25
7 at 140 (prescribed +2 had one more in me, but I'm keeping this conservative)
5 chins at bw (amap)

Called it a day from there.
My upper back and hamstrings are pretty sore today.

Had a good 4th. Ate a ton of BBQ ribs and banana pudding.
Monday got stuck out on one of the islands, and took 3 hours to get back to the mainland. Otherwise a great weekend.



Mahalo.