Onra:September29th,2011

Hafa Adai,

Guam continues to grace the podium at the American National Jiu-Jitsu Gi and No-GiChampionship with Miguel Ayuyu and Mike Carbullido taking gold in the light and medium-heavy bluebelt divisions respectively and Kolo vida securing a bronze in the adult lightweight purple belt division.

For some great Karate action–Guam Kyokushinkai will hold the Second Annual Carlos Palacios Memorial Tournament Saturday at the Guam sports complex gym starting at 10am. Representing Guam, Best of Luck to the Spike22Academy’s Ryan Bigler , Joey Lopez, Scotty, Duenas, and Baby Joe Taimangalowho will be competing in the 2011 FILA Senior Grappling World Championships from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 in Belgrade, Serbia.

When UFC President Dana White made a statement that Mixed Martial Arts would become the biggest sport in the world, it almost sounded overly-ambitious, in some ways unrealistic ..even to some of the most die hard MMA fans.

However here we are today.–Not evyen 20years after the 1st Ultimate Fighting Championships and Not even 1week after being treated to yet another sellout event with their most recent event Jones Vs. Rampage… millions of fans around the world are eagerly awaiting their next big event UFC136. The UFC

Naysayers of the past and haters of today have tried to bill MMA as a passing fad and have often made statements to the sport of gladiators as modern barbarism and mindless bloodsport.

However as the sport and our athletes continue evolve, these statements proceed to fall further from the truth as this evolution continues to turn up the volume on two honorable aspects that are catapulting the sport to further places and are weaving its fabric even tighter through its growing viewer demographic—Skill and Sportsmanship.

Two very recent episodes come to mind when speaking of these issues. Guam’s most recent visiting super-talent show and Quinton”Rampage”Jackson and John”Bones”Jones resolution after such a highly campaigned drama about the history of UFC135s main event.

How many of us caught any of the fabulous performances of the “CirqueShanghai”?
By Golly, You have to see it to believe it –that was sure amazing stuff! It’s uplifting, mindblowing, and inspirational to see such extent of what the human body is capable of with ample training, perseverance, and desire.

With these qualities being the bare prerequisites of our professional fighter-athletes today—fans are sure to be even further impressed and awestruck by what our sport will have to offer in the months, years, and decades to come..

.Take for instance Lyoto Machida’s Crane kick to Randy Cotoure’s retirement in UFC129 , look at Anthony Pettis flying kick off the fences finishing Ben Henderson in WorldExtremeCombat53, or Toby Imada’s 2009’s Submission of the Year in the semi-finals of the BellatorFighting Championships lightweight tournament—Skill! Skill!Skill!Hollywood worthy performances of martial skill brought to you in real life competition throughout brilliant finishes in different title events.

All thetrash-talking between our headline fighters does its job of buttering up the anticipation of our fights—but for sport to be deemed so barbaric, you would never see the level of maturity, sportsmanship, and resolution that more often than not, comes with the aftermath that esily segregates MMA from Bloodsport. After almost 4rounds of devastating punches, kicks, and takedowns between Jones and Jackson–and Beneath the lines of conspiracy theories, self-hype, and rigorous and impressively-scientific training–grace in both victory and defeat unveiled martial artists to the surface minutes after Jones choked out Jackson and retained his light heavyweight tite.

Our fighters today hit with such skill, ferocity, and precision. It says a lot of MMA as sport when our best fighters,besides being able to block or evade the punches that don’t make their target—are able to look beyond those that find their mark and come to civil terms.
Sure its quite often that some of our best athletes might have tattooed bodies and shaved heads, bloody knuckles and black eyes.But if they can shake hands and resolve peacefully aftermonths of training their hearts out to smash each other in the cage;if they can diet, strategize, and sacrifce intelligently, surely mixed martial arts isnt as barbaric as the term cage-fighting might offer.

Since the birth of the UFC on November 12th of 1993, The Appeal of mixed martial arts competition has expanded significantly from the amusement of confrontation and the question of the most superior martial art to the additional appreciation of skill and the rise of arguably the worlds most-overall physically demanding sport . Though there still are allot of quirks to be worked out with many athletes, events, and even the sport as a whole–The fact is that there is some serious gravitation for fans and fighters towards mixed martial arts training and mixed martial arts competition. ; Highly-touted by our fans recognition of its aspects in sacrifice and perseverance—its success is increasingly catalysed through countless display of tremendous skill and sportsmanship; in strength, and more than anything else honor.

Respect for sure.

Thanks for dropping by.