Why MMA beats Boxing

From: Coed Magazine

For decades, boxing reigned as king of the sparing sports. Crowds from around the world would cheer for their favorite heavy hitters, like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Mike Tyson. But despite paving the way for the new generation of fighting sports, boxing has taken a real hit in fans and ratings to the new breed, mixed martial arts. Here’s why…

5. No Headkicks

Jabs and hooks are all well and good but what is the fun in dancing around the ring if the worry of getting kicked in the ear isn’t there? Sure guys like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis were heavy hitters, but would they be so confident in their uppercuts if they had to watch out for a Mirko Cro Cop head kick the entire fight?

4. No Submissions

Floyd Mayweather can throw down with the best of them, but can he get out of a Matt Hughes rear naked choke or a BJ Penn kimura? It’s all fun and games in boxing because there’s no risk of having your arm pulled out of its socket by Demian Maia.

3. No Takedowns or Slams

Wladimir Klitschko can punch out anybody. But can he take a huge takedown or a body slam from Brock Lesnar? Let’s see how powerful those fists are when Brock is jamming his head into the octagon cage.

2. 8 Oz. Padded Gloves

Manny Pacquiao can throw jabs all he wants because the only risk is getting a padded fist in return. Try going up against a guy with 4 Oz. gloves and see if you don’t get your jaw dislocated by Anderson Silva like Forrest Griffin did.

1. No More Stars

The Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson era was really boxing’s last gasp for air. Today, there are seldom any household names to be found in boxing whereas the UFC is full of guys like Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, etc.

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Shaq boxing match

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Robber battered trying to rob a 71 year old boxer

From: The Sun

THIS is how a burglar looked after he made the mistake of breaking into the home of a 71-year-old ex-boxer.

Vicious Gregory McCalium, 23 - jailed for 4½ years yesterday - looked like a "car accident" victim after he was punched by battling grandad Frank Corti

Still got it ... grandad Frank Corti

Frank - woken by noises as he lay in bed with his wife Margaret - DODGED the knife as the yob lunged at him in his hallway, FEINTED and DECKED him with two massive right hooks.

The former Army boxer, who as a 16-year-old won the National Association of Boys Clubs Championship, then coolly made a citizen's arrest and waited for cops.

A judge yesterday told McCalium - who wound up with a black eye, split lip and severe swelling - he "got what he deserved".

After seeing him jailed, modest Frank insisted he had no choice but to "restrain" him. He said: "We are pleased he won't be troubling us for a few years."

Hero ... Frank in his heyday

The retired car worker told how he came face-to-face with the hooded lout at the foot of his stairs in Bolney, Oxford.

Frank - famous for his fearsome right hook when he boxed as a featherweight in the Royal Engineers - said: "He took a slash at me.

"If I needed to I would do it again. I had the advantage of having done some boxing training and retained the ability to punch." McCalium's lawyer told Oxford Crown Court: "Photographs of the defendant showed what looked like a car accident.

"Photos of the scene looked more like a murder scene."

Cocktail waiter McCalium - a troublesome neighbour of the couple - denied aggravated burglary but was convicted by a jury.

Recorder Angela Morris told him: "Luckily, Mr Corti was an able-bodied 71-year-old who was able to defend himself."

She added: "Elderly and vulnerable people are entitled to demand the protection of courts from people like you who decide to take matters into your own hands and enter a property with a weapon."

Frank, just 5ft 5in and who in his boxing heyday weighed 10st, said: "The element of surprise was with me and I hit him with my right hand - hard - just below the eye.

"He was almost knocked out and the knife fell out of his hand."

Childhood pal Colin Goodenough, 73, who used to spar with Frank at Baliol Boys Club, said: "I want to shake his hand. We need more like him."

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Pankration

From: Niagara This Week

Could pankration become the newest Olympic contact sport? If you ask Stephano Horianopoulos, the head instructor at the Spartan Warrior Fight Club, he’ll tell you he and his students are going all out to try to make that happen.

Derek Maurice and Dylan Clark, two of Horianopoulos’ students, just returned from the North American Pankration Championship competition in Wisconsin where both teens walked away with gold and silver medals.

Pankration is a martial art that combines the techniques of both boxing and wrestling, as well as additional elements, such as the use of strikes with the lower extremities, to create a broad fighting sport very similar to today’s mixed martial arts competitions.

In a competition sanctioned by the Ontario Jiu Jitsu Association, Clark, 17, won a gold and a silver medal, while fellow student Maurice, 18, took home two silver medals, after both were victorious over their U.S. opponents. Horianopoulos said the time has come to have pankration become an Olympic event once again.

There is evidence that, although knockouts were common, most early pankration competitions were probably decided by striking and submission techniques resulting from a variety of takedowns, chokes and punishing joint locks.

Greek mythology has is that pankration was invented by Heracles and Theseus, as methods used by each hero in defeating their most noteworthy opponents -- the Nemean lion and the Minotaur, respectively -- are strikingly similar to the submission techniques of pankration. In ancient Greece, in addition to being an Olympic event, it was also part of the arsenal of Greek soldiers, including the ferocious Spartans and Alexander the Great’s Macedonian phalanx. Pankration continued in popularity throughout the Roman Empire before being abolished by Emperor Theodosius I in 393 A.D., perhaps after one of the leading pankration fighters of the time won a match despite having succumbed to his injuries just as the referee raised his hand to indicate he’d won.

Horianopoulos said ancient pankration was a truly violent practice, a sport in which the only rules were no gouging or biting.

”There were no time limits or weight classes. People were killed,” he said. “It was the most spectacular sport in the Olympics and they usually saved it till the end.”

Over the past four decades, pankration has made a comeback, due largely to the popularity of mixed martial arts competitions featuring legendary fighters such as Jim Arvanitis, who introduced pankration to mainstream martial arts in the early 1970s, exceptional fighters, including Bas Rutten and Ken and Frank Shamrock, and instructors like Aris Makris and Angelo Melaragni, who pass along the tradition.

Horianopoulos said several of his students will compete in the 2009 FILA Pankration World Championships being held February in Lithuania. Better still, his club has been chosen to represent Ontario on the Canadian National Team. In addition to Maurice and Clark, fellow club member, 34-year-old Kevin Clow will also compete. In preparation for the competition, the 20-member club – which is run as a not-for-profit -- is organizing a series of fundraisers to cover the costs of the trip.

Anyone wishing to support the club or take up pankration, can call 289-213-4050 or visit the Lakeside Karate Club at 14 Charlotte St. Horianopoulos said there’s a concerted effort underway among pankration enthusiasts worldwide to have the sport reinstated at the Olympics, hopefully by 2012, perhaps as an exhibition, then ideally as an official event in 2016.

“We’re ready. I think we really have a chance to put together a national team for the Olympics,” he said.

~武德为首, Martial Art Morality comes first