Mayweather Pounds Hatton to 10th Round TKO

There's not much to say about this one, but enjoy the video here and ESPN's story after the break.

Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. destroy Ricky "Hitman" Hatton b
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LAS VEGAS -- The overwhelmingly British crowd was deafening as it cheered, chanted and sang for Ricky Hatton throughout the fight, but it couldn't fight for him.

He could have used the help.

Floyd Mayweather, faster, more skilled and far more accurate with his punches, dominated Hatton and knocked him out in the 10th round to retain the welterweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night.
Most of the fans in the wild sold-out crowd of 16,459 had come all the way from England to support their hero. They sang throughout the fight, even singing for Hatton as he lay dazed on the canvas after being knocked down for the second time.
Mayweather put an exclamation point on his pound-for-pound No. 1 status with a clinical destruction of the reigning junior welterweight champion, who moved up for the opportunity to face the "Pretty Boy" in one of the most anticipated fights in years.

"I took my time. I fought inside and outside," Mayweather said. "A true champion can adapt to anything. I already knew coming in it was going to be a rough night and that it was going to be tougher than most of my fights. I didn't prepare halfway. I had a great training camp."

Mayweather, who is 30, hinted that it might have been his last training camp and talked about retiring, the same way he did after winning the title from Carlos Baldomir in November 2006.

When asked about facing titleholder Miguel Cotto next, Mayweather said, "He's a hell of a champion, and there are great guys at 154 [pounds], but I have done everything I can do in the sport of boxing and I am not going to fight anybody. I accomplished a goal tonight because one of my dreams was to fight in the U.K., but I couldn't. So I had the best of the U.K. come to me."

Hatton (43-1, 31 KOs) was never really in the fight even though he tried to rough Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) up by bulling him into the ropes, wrestling with him and making it a physical fight.

Hatton took the loss with good humor.

"What a fluke that was," he said. "He is very good at making you miss. He was better inside than I thought. He caught me. It was working, but I didn't quite stick to the game plan. I was a little gung ho. He wasn't the biggest welterweight I've seen, but I felt the difference. I knew what the tactics were. I wasn't quite good enough to apply it tonight."

Mayweather was clearly in control before rocking Hatton in the 10th round. He knocked him down with a left hook, and Hatton was badly hurt. He didn't look as though he knew where he was when he got up, but referee Joe Cortez let the fight continue.

Mayweather wasted no time jumping on him again, landing a flurry of punches, including another left hook that sent Hatton staggering backward and down again. Cortez called off the fight at 1:35 without a count at the same time the white towel was thrown from Hatton's corner.

"He was definitely the toughest competitor I ever faced," Mayweather said. "I was throwing body shots, and he kept coming. I see now why they call him the 'Hitman.' But then I threw the check hook. They teach us that in northern Michigan in the amateurs, and he walked right into the shot. He never saw it coming."

Said Hatton, "He's very clever. He picked up a couple of shots, and that was that. I was forcing it, and I was doing well. I should have been a touch more careful. He knocked me out, but he wasn't the hardest puncher I've ever fought. He's very accurate. Knock me down, I keep getting up. Ricky Hatton is still going to fight."

The entire week of the fight, the Brits had poured into Las Vegas hoping Hatton could replicate other massive British upsets against American fighters, such as Randy Turpin's shocker against Sugar Ray Robinson to win the middleweight title in 1951 and Lloyd Honeyghan's shocking knockout of Donald Curry to win the undisputed welterweight title in 1987.

It wasn't to be.

It took a few rounds for Mayweather, who was fighting in his adopted hometown, to look comfortable against relentless Hatton, but when he finally did, he started to let his hands go and was able to catch Hatton with combinations.

He cut Hatton, 29, over the right eye in the third round, and in the fourth, Mayweather started to land clean, crisp shots. He stunned Hatton with a three-punch combination.

In the sixth, Hatton lost a point when he shoved Mayweather into the ropes and hit him behind the head.

Mayweather shook the blow off, then continued to pick Hatton apart. He staggered Hatton in the eighth with a straight right hand that snapped his head back as the Americans in the crowd burst into a chant of "USA! USA! USA!"

Mayweather continued the assault and was battering Hatton with combinations and body shots, which was supposed to be Hatton's forte.

By the ninth round, Mayweather's stiff left jab was snapping Hatton's head back and it looked as though it was only a matter of time until the end.

Mayweather said he wanted the knockout. His power has been questioned, and he has battled hand injuries.

"I wanted to show the fans I can punch with power," he said. "I feel like in one of my last fights, I gave the fans a dud. So I wanted to come back and give the fans a great fight."

HBO will replay the bout Dec. 15 (10:15 p.m. ET/PT).

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Mayweather And Hatton Prepare To Do Battle

In what has to be the biggest (talent wise) fight since Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis squared off back in 1999, undefeated champs Mayweather and Hatton will go at tonight to determine which Welterweight is the true legend.  The Arizona Republic brings us a detailed analysis of the Superfight:

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has the bling and belts and everything else that blinks like Las Vegas neon. He even has Wayne Newton, Mr. Las Vegas, in his entourage.

But Mayweather's town will sound like an English pub tonight. There haven't been so many Union Jacks in one U.S. city since before the American Revolution.

The Ricky Hatton army has invaded with songs, chants and drink.
It will leave with all of that and several thousand hangovers. But it came for more. It is in Las Vegas to see its leader, Hatton, capture the welterweight title. Hangovers are a better bet.

Mayweather (38-0, 24 KOs) is favored to keep the bling and belts against Hatton (43-0, 31 KOs) at the MGM Grand tonight. There are several reasons to pick Mayweather, all as simple and as clear as a scale and a tape measure.

At 5 feet 8, Mayweather is two inches taller than the 5-6 Hatton. At the official weigh-in Friday, Mayweather was at the welterweight limit, 147 pounds, or two more than the 145-pound Hatton. That difference figures to multiply by tonight's opening bell. Mayweather has fought at heavier weights. He beat Oscar De La Hoya last May as a junior-middleweight (154). He is considered a natural welterweight. Hatton is trying to put big pounds onto his body and into his bank account.

"Beat the midget, beat the midget," Mayweather chants as he does his road work on Vegas streets in the final version of HBO's 24/7 portrayal of both fighters.

Mayweather looks down on Hatton in every possible way. He has worn a toy-store like crown to mock the Brits and their reverence for their royal family.

In part, perhaps, that's why there are lot more cheers than bets for Hatton. He's the likeable David, a people's champ, against the pound-for-pound Goliath. The consensus is as loud as the chanting Brits, many of whom traveled from Hatton's hometown, blue-collar Manchester.

There's hope that Hatton will upset and finally silence the trash-talking Mayweather. But there's not much belief that he can.

"This ain't Rocky VII," Mayweather's uncle and trainer Roger has said repeatedly in interviews. "The guy who is supposed to win is gonna win."

But Mayweather also has seen tapes of Hatton, whom he considers to be too slow and too small. Hatton is non-stop, throwing punches at a whirlwind rate. But nobody is more adept at ducking blows than Mayweather.

"Floyd has never seen pressure like he'll see from me," said Hatton, who laughs at Mayweather's comments that he is one-dimensional and several dimensions below world class.

But Mayweather's speed is an element that Hatton has not encountered. The guessing game has Hatton getting cut by Mayweather's jabs in a headlong pursuit to slow the fastest fighter of today's generation in a bout that ends with Mayweather winning a late-round TKO or a decision.

But if it's Hatton, Mayweather's toy crown will look like the real thing. It'll look British.

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Boxing Is Back!

Just when critics claimed that boxing was all but dead, the unthinkable sees to have happened. The promoters, fighters, television executives, and seedy businessmen seemed to have come together in a valiant attempt to bring boxing back to its glory days. With the next six months stacked with great fights this could indicate a change in the trend of lackluster fights and sizzling scandal. This isn't the first time boxing has been against the ropes and like a cagey old veteran, you can never count out America's oldest sport. By Doug MacEwan

News late last week that welterweights Miguel Cotto and Sugar Shane Mosley have an agreement for a fight Nov. 10 in New York is another piece in a potential 2007 rebirth of a sport that was given last rites before and after Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s dull May 5 victory over Oscar De La Hoya. Finally, a well-worn metaphor taken from boxing by politicians during every campaign and sportswriters never seen at a ringside can be applied to the battered game itself: It's about to get off the mat. With the next six months packed with super fight after superfight its clear that the boxing community has taken notice of other combat sports, particularly MMA, that have eaten into its fan base.
With the recent announcement of the Cotto-Mosley fight boxing has put an exclamation point on its claim that its back, and better than ever. In Mosley there is some of that old quickness, familiar poise and lots of smarts. In Cotto there is a chance to finally occupy a starring role that has been vacant in Puerto Rico since Felix Trinidad's retirement. It has all the elements for a classic.

Then again, there are multiple chances for more than one fall classic, with Jermain Taylor vs. Kelly Pavlik on Sept. 29, the Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera rematch Oct. 6, Mikkel Kessler vs. Joe Calzaghe on Nov. 3and Ricky Hatton vs. Mayweather on Dec. 8.
Reasons for the looming optimism rest in boxing's inherent nature. Like the boxers themselves, the business is at its best when threatened. That edgy resiliency has expressed itself in different ways through countless decades and repeated death notices.

This time around, it has one man to thank: Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Without the business threat from his mixed martial arts circuit, boxing still would be a mixed mess. For that, White already is boxing's promoter of the year. No matter what happens in 2007, there's no other contender.

Dana White and many others in the Mixed Martial Arts community would have you believe that boxing’s latest attempt to regain its fan base is too little too late. While that is yet to be seen I have a sneaking suspicion that there is too large of an investment from far too many powerful people to let that happen. In any case I look forward to watching what is sure to be the best boxing in recent memory.

Here is the Stacked Lineup

Sept.8: Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga (Showtime PPV)
Vargas' farewell fight should be a brawl against one of the most exciting and controversial fighters out there
Sept.15: Juan Manuel Marquez-Rocky Juarez (HBO PPV)
Marquez's first jr. lightweight defense headlines a stacked card.
Sept.22: Vitali Klitschko-Jameel McCline (Showtime)
Ex-heavyweight titlist Klitschko ends his 2½-year retirement against perennial contender
Sept.29: Jermain Taylor-Kelly Pavlik (HBO)
Middleweight champ Taylor faces legit No. 1 contender in the brutal Pavlik
Oct.6: Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera (HBO PPV)
This is the rematch many have anticipated since their first bout. Expect sparks to fly
Oct.6: Oleg Maskaev-Samuel Peter (Showtime)
Peter finally gets his long-awaited title shot against the tough Maskaev
Oct.13: Sultan Ibragimov-Evander Holyfield (TBA)
Holyfield goes for fifth heavyweight title. Rebirth or retirement at age 44?
Oct.13: Juan Diaz-Julio Diaz (HBO)
Lightweight unification bout between exciting young fighters
Nov.3: Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler (HBO)
Super middleweight unification bout and maybe the biggest fight in division history
Nov.10: Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley (HBO PPV)
On paper, it's the best matchup of the year. Both fighters seem to be at the top of their game
Nov.17: Joan Guzman-Humberto Soto (HBO)
Hard-core fight fan's fight as Guzman defends jr. lightweight belt against grossly underrated Soto
Dec.8: Floyd Mayweather-Ricky Hatton (HBO PPV)
Ready for the hype? Pound-for-pound king's encore to win over Oscar De La Hoya comes against undefeated British star

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Breaking News: Trinidad to Fight Roy Jones Jr. in January

Today, Don King announced in a press conference a match up boxing fans have been salivating over for years. Some time in January, Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad will squre off in a fight between two of our generation's greatest champions.

Felix "Tito" Trinidad and Roy Jones Jr., two of the era's greatest fighters, were on a collision course to meet in 2001. But Trinidad ran into Bernard Hopkins and was knocked out. Up in smoke went one of the boxing's potential megafights.
Fast forward to today, when promoter Don King announced plans to match the future Hall of Famers in January at a venue to be determined, most likely New York's Madison Square Garden. TV details were also undetermined, but the fight will be on pay-per-view.
"It's the people's championship," King called it, flanked by both fighters at his South Florida headquarters.
"It's two titans, two legendary fighters coming together to fight," King said. "This is what the public has waited for for a long time, and now they're going to have it. So, Tito is saying in the words of the inimitable and incomparable Cyrano de Bergerac, 'Don't bring me no mortal men, bring me giants.' And a giant is coming in Roy Jones Jr., one of the legends of our time, one of the greatest fighters in the world. So you got two of the greatest fighters in the world meeting each other."

With King working feverishly behind the scenes to convince Trinidad, 34, to continue his career, the Puerto Rican icon announced last month that he would come out of a second retirement.

His target was Jones, 38, the former four-division champion and pound-for-pound king, and Monday Trinidad signed the contract at King's office.

It was unclear if Jones had signed. Also unclear was the weight for the fight. Jones is a light heavyweight and Trinidad's last fight was at middleweight. Trinidad probably will move up from 160 pounds to Jones' 175-pound weight division.


"This is going to be one of the most thrilling events we've seen in boxing in many, many decades," King said. "This is about pleasing the people."

Jones (51-4, 38 KOs) has won two fights in a row since his fast fall from grace in 2004 and 2005, when he lost three in a row, including back-to-back brutal knockouts to Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. After a year off, Jones, 38, returned to outpoint Badi Ajamu in July 2006. Last month, he outpointed Anthony Hanshaw with rumors of a possible showdown with Trinidad swirling during the promotion.

Trinidad, 34, is a former three-division champion. He called it quits in 2002, but triumphantly returned to knock out Ricardo Mayorga in October 2004.

That victory set the stage for Trinidad to fight Winky Wright, who is far more skillful than Mayorga. Wright easily dominated Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs) en route to a virtual shutout decision win in May 2005, which sent Trinidad back into retirement.

On Monday, Trinidad was certainly out of retirement mode.

"I'm waiting to knock you out, OK baby," Trinidad told Jones.

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IWF's Updated Pound For Pound Boxing Rankings

As we continue to bring you the most comprehensive coverage in the world of combat sports, we put together the latest pound for pound rankings for professional boxing. For those of you who have missed out on some of the great fights that have gone in the last year or so we have included recent highlights for every boxer on our list. By Doug MacEwan

Top Ten

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38-0, 24 KOs) Welterweight Champion
Plus: After a laughable retirement Floyd decided to lace them up one more time for a megafight with Ricky Hatton. Both champions come in with undefeated records and even if most see it as a one sided boxing clinic, expect it to be another huge PPV event.
Minus: The Hatton fight is huge but if Floyd wants to cement his legacy he needs to fight someone that presents at least a minor risk. Matches against Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Paul Williams or Antonio Margarito would all be more competitive.

2. Manny Pacquiao (44-3-2, 34 KOs) Junior Lightweight
Plus: Now that the contract feud between Top Ranked and Golden Boy is over expect to see Manny being Manny....which is putting opponents to sleep. With nothing but important fights for Pacquiao and boxing fans around the world for as long as we can see. Pacquiao starts Oct. 6 with his rematch against Marco Antonio Barrera. Presumably, that will be followed next year with a rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez, then hopefully matches with the likes of the Joan Guzman-Humberto Soto winner, Edwin Valero and eventually Juan Diaz at lightweight. Pacquiao has more significant fights available to him than just about any fighter in the world.
Minus: Unlike most normal people, Pacquiao has a difficult time making his scheduled flights. He "missed" at least two flights and postponed two others from the Philippines to the United States, forcing Top Rank and Golden Boy to delay once again the formal news conference to announce the rematch with Barrera. He finally made it to Los Angeles on Aug. 7, but please, someone get the man an alarm clock and a driver. If they wanted an assurance that he would arrive when originally scheduled, Oscar De La Hoya would have to promise to meet him at LAX with another sack of cash.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) Junior Lightweight Champion
Plus: Although Jorge Barrios, Marquez's scheduled opponent in a Sept. 15 HBO PPV main event, fell out of the match because of torn retinas, Marquez didn't hesitate to accept tough Rocky Juarez -- who gave Barrera a life-and-death fight in May 2006 -- as the substitute opponent.
Minus: It's not Marquez's fault, but why are we getting Pacquiao-Barrera II (when Pacquiao already crushed him the first time around) in October instead of Marquez-Pacquiao II? That fight is by far the more fan-friendly match when you consider that they have much unfinished business after their incredibly action-packed draw in 2004.

4. Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) Light Heavyweight Champion
Plus: The old man can still get it done, winning a well-deserved close decision against Winky Wright at age 42 after a year out of the ring and brief retirement. It might not always be pretty with Hopkins, but he is effective, knows how to win, and has proven over and over that he is a great fighter.
Minus: Next time he wants to promote a fight by giving his opponent a purposeful shove in the face at the weigh-in, as he did to Wright the day before their fight, Hopkins might want to warn a few of us who are on the stage so we don't end up getting hurt. His own trainer, Freddie Roach, was caught up in the scuffle and fell off the stage, injuring his ribs. That is just not cool. Hopkins deserves to be fined by the Nevada commission.

5. Winky Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) Middleweight
Plus: Wright's loss to Hopkins was a very close, highly competitive fight. Wright must be given credit for going up to a most unnatural 170 pounds for the match. He is at his best at middleweight, so you can't hold the defeat against him too much.
Minus: The pool of potential major fights is not deep for Wright. His best bet is to hope Jermain Taylor beats Kelly Pavlik on Sept. 29 so he can try to line up a rematch of their controversial 2006 draw. A more remote possibility, but one Wright desperately wants, is that De La Hoya will call his name for a meeting at junior middleweight.

6. Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KOs) Super Middleweight Champion
Plus: It took a lot of compromise on both sides, but it got done -- Calzaghe against Mikkel Kessler this fall in a showdown of undefeated champions. The winner of the fight (which ought to be highly entertaining) will be the clear, undisputed, no-questions-asked, No. 1-by-acclamation, best super middleweight in the world. It's probably the most significant fight in the 168-pound division since Roy Jones moved up from middleweight to challenge then-champion James Toney in 1994.
Minus: Can't you just see it now -- brittle Calzaghe injuring his hand in early September and the fight being called off?

7. Israel Vazquez (42-4, 32 KOs) Junior Featherweight Champion
Plus: Vazquez regained the title by showing enormous toughness to battle through two horrible cuts -- one over each eye -- to knock out Rafael Marquez in their dramatic and bloody rematch, which is the leader in the clubhouse for fight of the year honors. All credit to Vazquez, whom few gave a serious chance to win after he suffered a badly broken nose and quit on his stool in their first all-action fight in March.
Minus: He's been in so many grueling fights the past few years that you wonder just how long he can keep it up. He's only 29, but the wars he's been in have to have taken their toll.

8. Rafael Marquez (37-4, 33 KOs) Junior Featherweight
Plus: The two-division champion was stopped in the sixth round and lost his 122-pound crown in the thrilling rematch with Vazquez, but it was a sensational fight. Obviously, there figures to be a rubber match early next year.
Minus: Although we won't argue vehemently about it, we thought the stoppage of the fight was just a tad premature as Marquez not only lost his title but also saw an impressive seven-year, 16-fight winning streak (with 13 of the wins by knockout) come to an end.

9. Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) Middleweight Champion
Plus: You can complain all you want about how bad Taylor has looked in recent fights. You can complain that he has fought a pair of junior middleweights in Cory Spinks and Kassim Ouma in his past two fights. You can even complain that he hasn't had a knockout since February 2005. What you can't complain about when it comes to the true middleweight world champion is that he is taking on an extremely dangerous, legitimate middleweight contender in power-punching Pavlik. It should be a terrific fight.
Minus: Complaining about his difficulties making 160 pounds before the ink on the contract with Pavlik was even dry sort of sounded like Taylor was trying to set up an excuse in case he loses. He ought to remember that Pavlik struggles to make weight just as much as he does (if not more so). The difference is you don't hear Pavlik's team complaining about it.

10. Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs) Junior Lightweight
Plus: Barrera thinks he has one more big fight left in him when he faces Pacquiao in a rematch of his 2003 knockout loss. Give Barrera credit for wanting to fight the best available opponent in what he says probably will be his last fight. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, though. Barrera has spent his entire career fighting top-notch opponents.
Minus: With Erik Morales going down to David Diaz and announcing his retirement, it means there won't be a fourth chapter of boxing's greatest recent rivalry. Had Morales won, or continued to fight, there had been discussions between Top Rank and Golden Boy about a fourth fight next year.
Second 10

11. Sugar Shane Mosley
12. Ricky Hatton
13. Miguel Cotto
14. Oscar De La Hoya
15. Joel Casamayor
16. Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon
17. Chris John
18. Cory Spinks
19. Mikkel Kessler
20. Juan Diaz

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Combat Sports 101: The Styles Behind MMA

Many argue that the world of combat sports has evolved far beyond the boxing and its glory days. People crave more than two men only utilizing their two hands, battering each other for twelve dreary rounds. These days, people yearn for more action and with more action, there comes more technique.

The answer to this craving is the future of combat sports. It is mixed martial arts.

Mixed martial arts is a combat sport is composed of a wide assortment of fighting technique, techniques which range from striking to grappling.

In this little educational piece, I will run through the primary styles of mixed martial arts used today (note the word primary; it may not include every single art out there).

Striking

I. Muay-Thai Kickboxing

Muay Thai, also known as Thai Boxing or The Art of the Eight Limbs, is Thailand’s national sport. Techniques of Muay Thai usually include the feet, shinbones, fists, elbows, the clinch and knees.

Muay Thai’s worldwide popularity blossomed around the 1990s, being extremely effective in mixed martial arts fights. Muay Thai remains as one of the most popular styles of striking amongst MMA fighters today.

Muay Thai has showed great effectiveness in mixed martial arts today. Fighters who have found much success with Muay Thai include current UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva, former PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and the majority of the Brazilian-based Chute Boxe Academy. Although these fighters’ styles revolve greatly around the art of Muay Thai, they have incorporated elements of grappling, wrestling, and submission wrestling in order to compete in MMA.

II. Kickboxing

The art of kickboxing differs from that of Muay Thai kickboxing. Kickboxing focuses mainly on utilizing just punches and kicks opposed to standing elbow strikes and the clinch as in Muay Thai.

The term “kickboxing” alone is usually independent of “Muay Thai” and often refers to American and Japanese derivatives of the sport.

Kickboxing of course has proven to be quite effective as well. Most notable fighters whose primary arsenal relies on kickboxing are Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Mark Hunt, both of whom fought in the K-1 organization before transitioning into MMA.

III. Boxing

Boxing in my opinion is one of the greatest styles a fighter can learn to develop their standup skills in MMA. Boxing is essentially the style of the hands, so I believe there is not a style out there that can top it as far as punching goes.

The main components of boxing include one of the most under used strikes in MMA today, the jab to set up combos, the cross, the hook, and the uppercuts. Defense includes slipping, bobbing, and footwork.

Boxing is used in MMA today by high profile fighters such as PRIDE’s lightweight champion Takanori “The Fireball Kid” Gomi, Nick Diaz, and UFC’s former lightweight champion Jens “Little Evil” Pulver.

Grappling

I. Jiu-Jitsu

There is no question that more than 50% of the ground skills involved in MMA is contributed to by Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu focuses on grappling and in particular ground fighting using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent into submission and ultimately tap out!

Jiu-Jitsu was said to include many “dirty” techniques and was then adopted by the Gracie family and turned into a “cleaner” combat system.

The Jiu-Jitsu used in MMA is mainly Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), which came about when the Gracies went to the United States to spread their art. The Gracie family continued to develop their system throughout the 20th century and has refined its techniques, which are seen in much of the MMA matches today.

There is no doubt that BJJ is extremely effective in today’s MMA matches. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (or BJJ) became most popular when UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie won UFC 1, UFC 2 and UFC 4 with his superior ground game. Royce’s opponents were usually much larger and practiced other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo, and wrestling.

However, today some of the greatest BJJ MMA practitioners include: former PRIDE heavyweight champion Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, BJ “The Prodigy” Penn, Shinya Aoki, and a wealth of other fighters.

II. Wrestling

Wrestling is an essential skill in mixed martial arts today. A fighter can have a good background in Jiu-Jitsu, but have poor wrestling skills.

Wrestling, the oldest form of martial arts, includes a variety of techniques which include: clinching, holding, locking, leverage and one of the most important techniques in MMA, the sprawl.

Wrestling consists of numerous styles, such as: Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, catch wrestling, and others.

Many successful MMA champions and fighters have extensive wrestling credentials before entering a career in MMA. The most notable of fighters whom come off a wrestling background are: former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, and current UFC heavyweight champion Randy “The Natural” Couture.

However, many wrestlers in MMA have been criticized and said to “Lay-and-pray.” Lay-and-pray is a term used to describe when wrestlers take an opponent down and lay on top of them without attempts to finish the fight with “ground-and-pound” or submissions. Lay-and-prayers only seek to maintain control of positioning and smother any offense by the opponent, imposing little or no offense themselves, hoping for a decision victory.

III. Sambo/Judo

Sambo and Judo are not the most popular styles utilized in mixed martial arts but have certainly proven to be highly successful when utilized. Sambo is combat sport and self-defense system developed in the former Soviet Union, and recognized as an official sport by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee in 1938, presented by Anatoly Kharlampiev. While Judo is a combat, originating in Japan, that involves hip throws, tosses, joint locks, as well as punches and kicks. Sambo heavily resembles Judo.

Many of today’s top fighters utilize either Sambo or Judo. Fedor Emelianenko, PRIDE Fighting Championships's current heavyweight champion and consistently ranked the world's best heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter has a background in judo and is an avid practitioner of Sambo. Other fighters with backgrounds in Judo in MMA include: Hidehiko Yoshida, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Pawel Nastula and UFC’s Karo “The Heat” Parisyan.

Judo and Sambo not only has proven to be successful amongst MMA matches but is certainly exciting to watch.

So there you have it, the primary martial arts inside of mixed martial arts. I hope you learned a thing or two from this article and if you have any questions simply post a comment below!

The Lianger

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If You Like Biting, Try MMA, Says Hopkins

Bernard Hopkins spent the days prior to his recent win bashing MMA. He spent the minutes after calling his 12 round decision over Winky Wright "the fight that saved boxing." Is he right about either?

Before the fight, Hopkins had this to say about MMA and the UFC, more specifically:

"You want to watch UFC? Go down to your local bar on a Friday night. After a few drinks, a couple of drunks will start throwing punches at one another. There's your UFC for you. UFC is street fighting in a cage. Boxing is a controlled, skilled talent. There's no comparison. Boxing's not going anywhere. It's hundreds of years old, man. You want to see biting, kicking, and kneeing? Go to your nearest bar. You want to see fighting, go to Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on July 21."

I love "The Executioner," but he couldn't more dead wrong in his comparison of the sports. For someone who knows the sport, there's a big difference between "someone throwing punches," and Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell. Perhaps he's just see Frye-Takayama? In another quizzical moment, he alludes to the fact that biting is allowed in the UFC. I believe that biting was outlawed almost a decade ago, making Hopkins, similar to his career, a little outdated.

After the fight, he dropped the topic of MMA and said something just as shocking:

"Winky is tough, and he kept coming," Hopkins said. "He knows that I respect him a lot. I had no ill intent. It was all good for both gentlemen, and boxing is back."

Boxing is back? Is he nuts? Frazier-Ali IV couldn't bring boxing back, let alone the 12 round snoozefest that Hopkins won. He must know better than this statement. Wright and Hopkins are two of the most defensive boxers of this era, and he thinks that their styles colliding won back the fans? Not a chance.

I consider this just another piece in the continuing set of delusions that boxers and boxing fans alike have been telling themselves for the last ten years. The UFC is comparable to bar fights? Laughable. Boxing is back? Even funnier.

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Society Geared For MMA

A new angle on why MMA has surpassed boxing as America's dominant combat sport by Doug MacEwan

As an avid fan of both boxing and MMA, I have taken notice of all the different theories as to why MMA has replaced boxing as the most popular combat sport in the world. On the surface you hear the talk of the rampant corruption in boxing turning long time fans away, but wasn’t it Don King who promoted “The Rumble in the Jungle” during boxing’s golden age? And furthermore isn’t it the Ultimate Fighting Championship, undoubtedly MMA’s most popular organization, that is run by two casino owners with alleged connections to the New Orleans mob?

I have also listened to many an argument about the apparent brutality of MMA drawing today’s blood thirsty masses away from the more sterilized boxing environment, but anyone who has watched Gatti vs. Ward or Corrales vs. Castillo 1 can tell you that there is plenty if not more violence over the course of a twelve round boxing match as compared to a three or five round MMA fight. This theory is supported by the fact that no MMA athlete has ever died as a result of fight related injuries while boxing produces unfortunate deaths year after year.

So why are we tuning into MMA and tuning out the “sweet science”? The answer suddenly came to me this morning as I was checking my email on my new i phone while watching old UFC clips on youtube while using tivo to fast forwarding through lulls in action in last nights fight between Bernard Hopkins and Ronald “Winky” Wright . We have become an instant gratification society that wants their e-mail, their coffee, their television, and especially their knockouts RIGHT NOW!!! We move so fast these days that we find a twelve round chess matches between two boxers (no matter the skill level) to be boring. We are so over stimulated these days that we can only commit all of our focus on one fight for about ten minutes before we get up to check our myspace or fast forward to the next fight. The UFC, and MMA in general, is much better geared to entertain our society where stimulation of all shapes forms and sizes is bombarding from every direction. We don’t have time to wait for boxers to feel each other out for three rounds…..we want to see a high kick to the head in the first three minutes so we can respond to all twenty text messages before the next fight starts. Even UFC fans constantly boo the fighters when they lock up on the ground fighting for better positioning to sink in a tight submission.

I realize how oversimplified my explanation is, but you can’t deny the facts….we want action and we want it now. From the day TIVO came out and gave the viewer the ability to fast forward through commercials, our society changed. I still love boxing and will continue to fork over $50 for the big PPV events, but I don’t see the trend of MMA being the premier contact sport ever changing, and it would not surprise me if it was absorbed into MMA altogether some day. The truth is twelve rounds of chess-like action no longer fits with main stream society, and I am surprised it has taken the likes of HBO and ESPN so long to hop on board with MMA. I think an ex girlfriend summed it up best as she was breaking up with me: “you’re like a little puppy that stops playing with one ball as soon as another ball come racing across the floor….” and even though her comment had nothing to do with boxing or MMA, I kept hearing that over and over in my head as I paused the Hopkins-Wright fight ten at least times to check if I could find a particular highlight of last years PRIDE “Open Weight Grand Prix”.

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