Ask any martial artist worth his or her salt, and they’ll tell you that it’s imperative for police officers to learn and regularly practice a solid martial art. This isn’t due to bias and preference; it’s due to the simple nature of what happens when a suspect resists arrest and, quite simply, puts you in […]

In the early 2000’s, before beginning any martial arts training, I was a fan of Toughman boxing contests on TV. The draw of these bouts was their human-interest factor: two non-professional fighters would don headgear and 16oz gloves, meet in the ring, and slug it out for three one-minute rounds. This premise was ridiculous but […]

Big losses and long stretches of inactivity can do strange things to fighters. Some of them will develop a new shtick, or use an old one to set off the media drama that will win them another fight and possibly a bigger paycheck. But the strangest thing it can do to a fighter is to […]

At last, Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor are going to fight. The trash-talk, wordplay, and toughguy-drama (mostly fueled by McGregor) is settling down, and this is the quiet before the storm that will go down tonight at UFC 194. Unless one of these guys plays an unexpected takedown game, we’re going to see a brutal […]

Last Saturday, I coached my teammate Rubin Pushpangathan at The Good Fight’s Winter BJJ Open submissions-only tournament. He took 2nd place in white belt gi – a division I love to watch due to its elimination of avant-garde leg-lock games that are typically used to stall. Anyway, with two submission wins, a grueling back-and-forth in […]

Well, I’m glad I’m not a betting man, because I would have lost a lot of money last Saturday at UFC 193. I would have put all my money on Ronda Rousey beating Holly Holm via superior clinch work, takedowns, and ground control. Holm certainly prepared well, as she negated almost all of that. But […]