Coaches are literally a dime a dozen in mixed martial arts, but one stands quietly among the handful of elite teachers in the sport: Brazilian jiu-jitsu guru Marc Laimon.
Laimon has proven himself to be one of the more intelligent coaches in the sport of MMA. Laimon’s been in the sport for more than 12 years, when he went to his first jiu-jitsu class at the Gracie Academy. His desire to fight got Laimon interested in learning more about the discipline … the rest is history.
“I always wanted to know how to fight and I didn’t really know what was the best,” Laimon told MMAmania.com. Laimon saw his first MMA event (UFC 4), which featured Royce Gracie defeating Dan Severn in the finals to win his third tournament.
Laimon was impressed and knew that jiu-jitsu was what he wanted to do.
“I saw UFC 4 and I saw Royce fight and I was like wow,” Laimon said. “What he did made sense to me.”
At the time, Laimon was going to college and looking to be a chiropractor, but he dropped out to practice jiu-jitsu full time. Laimon had a 3.87 GPA when he dropped out.
“I immersed myself in college and I wanted to succeed in that,” Laimon said. “I pretty much did the same jiu-jitsu. I immersed myself in trying to be successful and understanding as much of it as possible.”
Laimon views jiu-jitsu as much more than fighting. He views it more as a science.
Continue reading ‘Brain behind it all: MMAmania.com exclusive sit down with Marc Laimon’
It seems like forever since the last UFC or Elite XC show went off.
It’s actually been three weeks for the UFC and Elite XC hasn’t been a part of a major event since Frank Shamrock and Cung Le fought in March. The point is it’s been a while for some since they’ve been able to get their MMA fix. Not to worry though, tonight Cage Rage 26 will attempt to fill that void.
Cage Rage 26 will be streamed live on ProElite.com later on this evening, taking place at The NEC Areana in Birmingham, England.
The main event of the night is a heavy weight championship bout between champion Ian “The Machine” Freeman (18-7-1) vs. challenger Paul Cahoon (10-10).
Freeman has only lost twice in his past 11 fights. Those two losses were to Andre Arlovski at UFC 40 (TKO) and to Melvin Manhoef at Cage Rage 17 (KO). Notable wins for him during that span were a TKO win over Frank Mir at UFC 38 and most recently a decision win over Mark Epstein at Cage Rage 18.
Cahoon is riding a nice win streak himself, winning his last five contests and seven of his last eight overall. The lone loss was also a first round TKO to Manhoef.
I’d give Freeman the edge in experience, but say Cahoon is probably the more confident fighter right now. We know this fight is going to be fought on the feet for the most part and both men are comfortable there.
Freeman is the naturally bigger fighter, which I think might have an influence in the outcome. Add that up with the experience factor and I think Freeman has a good chance to hang on to his belt tonight.
Prediction: Ian Freeman 2nd round TKO
The co-main event is another title fight. Mark “The Beast” Epstein (14-10) vs. Matt “The Hardest” Ewin (19-9-1) for the Cage Rage middleweight title.
Both of these guys are popular British Cage Rage veterans. Epstein is more of a stand up knock out artist type fighter, while Ewin is more of a submissions specialist.
It’s a nice clash of styles, but that doesn’t mean both of these fighters aren’t capable of defending the others strengths. They both have enough experience to know whats going on inside the cage.
I look at the list of guys Epstein has fought and I see names like Michael Bisping (twice) Ian Freeman and Travis Lutter. Then I look at Ewin’s list and see names like Martin Kampmann (twice) Andrei Semenov and Travis Lutter.
Put simply, they’ve both fought some tough guys and at different weight classes.
I’m looking forward to this fight. It will probably come down to who is able to execute their gameplan more effectively. I think the longer the fight stays on the feet, the more it favors Epstein and the more it stays on the mat, the more it favors Ewin.
Prediction for the fight: Ewin 2nd round submission (rear naked choke)
Here’s what the rest of the card looks like:
Continue reading ‘Cage Rage 26: Get your MMA fix today (Saturday)’
When given the opportunity to talk to former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, I jumped at it. I knew there were some definite questions that I wanted to ask him — not only about his upcoming opponent Lyoto Machida, but also about one of the hottest topics in MMA today, and one that he’s been very outspoken about in recent months: Fighters’ pay.
Knowing Tito would never back down from a question, I fired away, and what came out of it was nearly 35 minutes of pure Tito Ortiz.
I asked him about holding the fence against Rashad Evans at UFC 73; how he plans to close the distance on Machida; if he’s concerned at all about needing to readjust to fighting outside the Octagon, once he presumably leaves the organization this summer; and if he thinks he can use his wins over Forrest Griffin and Wanderlei Silva as leverage to get back in.
Tito surprised me. He even commented on a few fighters who might not be as happy as you’d think with the UFC.
While it’s a long interview, I just couldn’t bear to cut it down. So read what you want of it. It never gets dull talking to Tito.
“The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) faces Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida (12-0) at UFC 84: “Ill Will” just two weeks away on May 24 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It will be the last fight on his contract, and reportedly the last time you will see Tito Ortiz in the UFC Octagon.
Continue reading ‘Old School Beatdown: MMAmania.com exclusive interview with Tito Ortiz’
Affliction — one of the most recognized and popular clothing brands out right now — made its bid to become the latest mixed martial arts promoter official today during an episode of “Inside MMA” on the HDNet network.
It’s been known for some time now that Affliction would throw its hat into the MMA ring. In fact, the UFC and Elite XC recently banned their fighters from wearing Affliction gear during events because of the looming competition.
And if the proposed inaugural pay-per-view (PPV) fight card slated for the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on July 19 is any indication of things to come, then Affliction will indeed pose some stiff competition.
Here’s what we can expect thus far:
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia
Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo
Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
Ben Rothwell vs. TBA
That’s one hell of a star-studded line up … and there’s more than likely still more to come.
Of course, it will be interesting to watch this all unfold — successful MMA promotions are a dime a dozen. It must also be noted that Affliction will have to clear a few regulatory hurdles, too, which the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) is mandating for the show to go on.
In particular, according to SportsIllustrated.com, the “CSAC requires a bond that covers twice the fighters’ costs.” That’s no small feat, considering some of the unconfirmed salaries that are being tossed around (Fedor is rumored to be making more than $1 million guaranteed and Sylvia is set to pocket at least $800,000).
Do the math … and that’s just the possible main event purses.
In addition, the CSAC will request urine tests from Sylvia and Barnett — both fighters have tested positive for the banned performance enhancer earlier in their careers.
Regardless, if Affliction can get all its ducks in a row — and not blow its wad straight out of the gate — this could be something special. Let’s just hope those in charge realize this is a marathon and not a sprint.
Check out a video snip of Affliction Clothing Vice President Tom Attencio on “Inside MMA” after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Affliction MMA show debut official for July 19′
Props: HardcoreSportsRadio.com
Quoteworthy:
“… I know there are a lot of people out there doing steroids, cheating and every time I run into one of them, I’m going to call them on it and then I’m going to beat the shit out of them.… It’s going to be a historic night because all the kids out there will realize that you can do it with just hard work alone … he wants to say he has heart and all this different shit, but you can’t confuse steroids with heart…. It’s two different things, a guy with heart is a guy doing it with blood, sweat and tears, waking up with the sore back, the sore body.… What would happen in the old days when you get caught with a couple of aces up your sleeve, they kill the guy right there and that’s why I say Sean Sherk is dead….”
A fired up UFC Lightweight Champion, BJ Penn, talks about his upcoming title defense against Sean Sherk at UFC 84: “Ill Will” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 24. “The Muscle Shark” tested positive for steroids after his win against Hermes Franca at UFC 73: “Stacked” in July 2007 and has not competed since because of a six-month suspension. Penn doesn’t like steroids or steroid users very much … this one is personal.
A “Dragon” looks for his coming out party while a “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” looks to be the spoiler in this week’s edition of the Friday Night Throwdown.
In the second part of this three-part series, we will look at the other light heavyweight battle between Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz at UFC 84: “Ill Will” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 24.
This fight could be the fight that could reshape the rankings of the light heav