Keenan: “How much of your “BJJ learning” do you do through analysis of competition footage? Your own and those of others? 
I think it can be a useful tool to supplement your training, so I decided to break down the bout between Craigory Jones and Gordon Ryan. Fresh from the EBI Finals, where the same position proved to be decisive twice. Let’s investigate”

Check the video of Craig Jones vs Gordon Ryan overtime armbar and Keenan’s breakdown in a video below:

Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao confirmed that preliminary negotiations are underway for a boxing match against Conor McGregor in April, 2018.

Here is the report from Skysports

Manny Pacquiao has revealed he and Conor McGregor have held preliminary talks about a possible fight in April.

Pacquiao, a senator in his native Philippines, was asked on Friday if he had approached McGregor’s representatives about a fight.

“Initially,” Pacquiao said. “But we have not yet had any follow-up conversations.

“If we can negotiate it, I have no problem. It is OK with both of us.”

Last month, Pacquiao took to social media with a message that appeared to hint at a match with McGregor:

“Happy Thanksgiving! Stay fit my friend. #realboxingmatch #2018 @thenotoriousmma.”

Pacquiao, who turns 39 this month, lost his WBO welterweight title to Australian Jeff Horn in July, having come out of retirement in 2016 to take the belt from American Jessie Vargas.

McGregor has not fought in MMA or boxing since losing to Floyd Mayweather by a 10th-round technical knockout in their bout in Las Vegas in August.

Pacquiao, who has won eight world championships in different weight divisions, stressed McGregor is just one of many possible opponents and the fight has to happen during the Senate recess in the Philippines:

“It depends who they can finalise as my opponent by April,” he said.

Aside from McGregor, Pacquiao could also have a rematch with Horn or a fight with 29-year-old American Keith Thurman who holds the WBA Super welterweight title and the WBC welterweight title.

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John Danaher is a long time Renzo Gracie student and this time he shares a story with Renzo Gracie being challenged in his academy. As Danaher witnessed the challenge here is what exactly happened there with a guy thinking he’s “unchokeable”.

Reflections on my sensei: When my sensei, Renzo Gracie, first moved permanently to the United States, jiu jitsu was in its absolute infancy here. It’s only publicity had come from early MMA fighting. The Martial arts scene in general was very primitive with all kinds of crazy arts making wild claims of fighting prowess and occult abilities.

MMA proved to have a wonderful cleansing effect on the world of martial arts as it made all claims subject to empirical testing – but that took years to complete.

In those early days of the Renzo Gracie Academy in NYC challenge matches and doubters seeking proof of the effectiveness of jiu jitsu were a common occurrence.

One night when sensei was teaching (I was a fresh white belt and there were only a few blue belts and two purple belts), a man walked quietly in and began quietly observing the class. When class was finished we all typically hung about and asked Mr Gracie questions and talked about fighting and women. The quiet stranger stepped forward into the group and politely inquired of Mr Gracie if he could test his best stranglehold. Rather taken aback by this request, Mr Gracie asked what he meant. The man stood up confidently and said, “I practice an art that makes me literally invulnerable to choke holds. Your art is based on chokes and you are famous for them. I wish to test both you and myself”.

We were all rather surprised at this claim as every strangle we ever experienced felt extremely effective and impossible to resist. Mr Gracie asked, “Let me get this straight. You are saying that if I start with a fully locked in chokehold, it won’t work on you?” The stranger looked back at him with a poker face and replied in a voice that conveyed serene confidence and mild disdain for our primitive techniques, “Yes – that’s exactly what I am saying.”

There was a long silence. The sheer confidence of the man was so astounding that even Mr Gracie momentarily looked hesitant to try. The stranger sat down in front of Mr Gracie, his back to him, and said, “take your favorite hold and do your best.” We all looked at each other and then the scene in front of us. Mr Gracie got behind him and applied his strangle hold and asked the stranger if he was ready. He raised his chin to allow the stranglehold even better access and calmly replied, “yes – are you?” If I told you, my faithful readers, that we had no doubt in our beloved sensei and his strangle, I would be a liar. Such was the confidence of this man that we were all wondering- perhaps he really DOES have access to some unknown skill or ability to renders strangles ineffective. Such was his serenity that even dear sensei, a man who had spent his entire life practicing the art of strangulation and never experienced a single failure, looked to have a shadow of self doubt in his eyes.

We all fervently looked on as sensei closed the strangle upon the stranger who sat with the calmness of a Buddha before him. Mr Gracie squeezed and the strangers face immediately showed the reddened strain of a powerful strangle. He grasped Mr Gracie’s forearm and tried to apply what looked like pressure point technique to the forearm muscles. His fingers started slipping as the strangle rapidly took effect and the stranger tapped out. We all looked at each other in what can only be described as a very awkward silence. Mr Gracie laughed and said, “well, you tapped – what happened?” The stranger looked shocked and bewildered. He immediately stated that no one had ever successfully strangled him and that Mr Gracie must have some kind of special invulnerability to his secret technique.

Immediately Mr Gracie had all of us strangle the stranger in turn. By the end the poor fellow looked like he had run back to back NYC and Boston marathons while smoking a carton of cigarettes and drinking a shot of bourbon at every mile. It was clear that any properly applied strangle even from a white belt, was one hundred percent effective on him and the mysterious art of the stranger was one hundred percent INEFFECTIVE on strangles.

As silly as it all sounds now, it was a valuable early lesson to us on confidence. We must be very clear about the BASIS of our confidence. Confidence based upon empirically supported ideas and skills is one of the pillars of successful action, both in life and in combat. Confidence based upon conjecture, hearsay and unsupported claims that go against what we normally observe to be the case, is worse than useless – it is positively harmful – as it will give us the confidence to act, but not the proven technique to succeed.

https://www.facebook.com/john.danaher.96/posts/412480475834342

Renzo Gracie Collecting Garbage by Court Order

Renzo Gracie Arrested for Beating A bouncer in New York Nightclub (Video)

Renzo Gracie B**chslapped a guy who blew an air horn in His Ear

Mackenzie Dern is ready for her Invicta FC debut with an eye on staying unbeaten in her pro career.

Tomorrow on Dec. 8, Mackenzie Dern will face former title challenger Kaline Medeiros.

Former UFC, Price fighter and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Legend Renzo Gracie is currently collecting garbage on the streets of New York. It’s a 10 days community service he earned for a brawling in a night club back in 2014. You can check the video and details of Renzo Gracies arrest on THIS LINK.

Renzo wrote on his instagram and posted a video of him and “his driver”:

“Now this is how I collect the garbage on my beloved city doing community service on court’s order by the way, we just broke the record collecting 330bags in one morning shift from 7am to 10am After and ACL replacement I’m a Jiujitsu man before anything if I had to do it I will do it with all my heart and will and of course with a broad smile in my face and poetry in my heart. But the best part was after ten days doing this job, this amazing soul who is next to me in the vídeo came with a form saying that he could get me a job with them because they were needing people that work hard like me, he said it was 10 bucks an hour only but the benefits were great I couldn’t help but give my Trash man brother a big hug Every time I have a chance I drive by there to see them I always bring some ice cream with me I try to live Life as it has to be lived. Until today they don’t know who I am, nor what I do for a living they just accepted me as one of them. What I am really is Just one of them”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BacNwDVjRRO/

Renzo Gracie Arrested for Beating A bouncer in New York Nightclub (Video)

You can also check out how Renzo BitchSlapped a guy who blew an airhorn in his ear.

Renzo Gracie B**chslapped a guy who blew an air horn in His Ear

Back in 2014 Renzo Gracie together with his friends and cousins was arrested on Sunday May, 18. 2014. after a big brawl in a nightclub in New York.

Renzo Gracie and his cousin Igor Gracie were arrested together with 5 other people at 1:30 a.m. for beating down a bouncer, 35 yr old, Craig Molesphini.

Craig Molesphini suffered a fractured right arm together with bruises and cuts, source said. But, on monday, after the fight Molesphini said:  “I have a slightly fractured elbow”.

Renzo, Igor and the rest of the crew were charged with “gang assault” and it was 2nd degree charge.

Renzo and Igor were released on $10,000 bail.

Sherdog.com confirmed with the New York Police Department’s 10th Precinct that Renzo Gracie was arrested.

“Specific details regarding Gracie’s arrest and potential charges were unavailable at the time of this writing because the 47-year-old was going through the legal process, according to a representative from the NYPD.

Gracie then became involved in a confrontation with what the witness described as the doorman. Things escalated from there, as Gracie’s group allegedly squared off with a group of 1-Oak bouncers. According to the witness, Gracie at one point had the doorman in full mount, while another one of his group hit a different bouncer with a construction cone.

The fracas spilled into the street, with more punches being thrown. Eventually the police arrived and arrested everyone in Gracie’s party, while an ambulance came for the bouncer who had been mounted by Gracie, according to the witness. It was unclear as to why Gracie and his group were originally upset.”

Incident was recorded with a camera and you can check it in a video below:

At that time Renzo was not allowed to comment the incident but he sent the message to Ariel helwani saying:

“Everything is a misunderstanding,” Renzo wrote. “We always had a great relationship with that amazing club and all their employees.

“Soon everything will be clear.”

And it really is clear. Renzo is now a Garbage Man on the streets of New York and, as we can see, he’s having fun. He even broke a Record of collecting garbage as he collected 330bags in one morning shift from 7am to 10am.

Renzo Gracie B**chslapped a guy who blew an air horn in His Ear

I’m not ready for my blue belt promotion is something that BJJ practitioners often thinks. There are many reasons why they think so but, few of the most common are: I can’t tap blue belts or some white belts dominates me. Well, it’s not about the roll. It’s not about who taps who. There is much more involved in it.

Your instructor just promotes you in front of everyone into a blue belt but you have a feeling you don’t deserve it. Well in 99.9% that’s not the case. You deserve it if your instructor thinks so.

At the end of a day you should trust your instructors judgement and assessment of your skills. While there are many reasons why you’re promoted that you obviously don’t see or you don’t understand, you shouldn’t question your instructor.

Saulo Riberio wrote an article on this subject.

“If you worry about the time and speed of your promotions, you lose yourself. Remember, before you are a blue, purple, or brown belt, you want to feel like one. You must feel that your skills are there. You cannot fool yourself. Attaining a belt is just proof that your teacher is connected with you. You will know when you deserve it. My role as a instructor is to be there and say “Its time.” But you should already realize this on your own.”

“Jiu Jitsu Is not math, and promotion is not based on attendance or calendar dates. A regimented promotion schedule based on dates or attendance is the worst way to gauge development. Jiu Jitsu is more complex than this.”

“There is no sense in chasing a belt and getting it as fast as possible. Often, people do not see that black belt will be their longest belt. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you get it in four years or fifteen. Either way, you will have the rest of your life with a black belt around your waist. Building the belt is what matters.“

In this video below Prof. Jeremy Arel talks about feelings of inadequacy about belt rank.

“This is a common occurrence in our sport and one that is often discounted by instructors upon promotion but with little explanation of why it’s not an issue.”

“There was another 8 minutes before this portion of the video but I edited it down to what I believe was the most important content. Previous to this clip, I talk about my trip to Brazil being a powerful experience because it gave me perspective and a frame of reference, specifically with the black belt rank.”

“As I continue to grow technically ,my understanding of the rank structure changes regularly as well. This is my current thinkings and concepts about promotion as a whole.”

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