Joe Rogan Gets Emotional Explaining How Eddie Bravo Tapped Royler Gracie

By
Filip Zanki
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Joe Rogan Get Emotional About Eddie Bravo Submitting Royler Gracie
Eddie Bravo is one of the first people in BJJ of non-Brazilian origin to tap out a Gracie family member back in the early days of the sport. The 10th PLanet founder managed to catch experienced legend Royler Gracie in a slick triangle choke at ADCC when he was a brown belt, and forced him o tap, much to the delight of his close friend Joe Rogan.

We’ve seen Joe Rogan emotional on his podcast for a host of different, reasons, but this last one was quite different. Namely, the legendary podcast host and BJJ black belt reminisced again about Eddie Bravo’s historic victory over Royler Gracie on his latest JRE podcast  (#1915) with Brain Simpson.

As Joe was going over Eddie’s abilities and what it meant to be able to get Royler Gracie in triangle back then, let alone manage to submit him with it, the 55-year-old said he could cry about it at the moment and clearly got emotional:

“Eddie has crazy leg dexterity… If you’re in his guard, you’re f****d. [Royler Gracie] was in Eddie’s guard and Eddie just slapped that triangle on him and started pulling the head and Royler tapped. It was insane. I was crying. I’ll cry right now… One of the greatest experiences of my life. I get emotional right now talking about it.”

The victory over Royler Gracie launched Eddie Bravo’s brand of what’s then thought of as experimental and unorthodox no-gi Jiu-Jitsu in the form of the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu gym in L.A. which is now the headquarters of a worldwide 10th PLanet empire.

The legendary triangle submission happened in 2003. 11 years later, in March of 2014, the two met again, with the fight being declared a draw, as under Metamoris rules only submission in the 20-minute match counted as a victory. Eddie however, dominated Royler Gracie once again, nearly finishing him with the vaporizer calf slicer once again proving his brand of Jiu-Jitsu works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sNT1PC3HIM

The Gracie Family Christmas Traditions: Helio Rode A Black Stallion Dressed As Santa

By
Filip Zanki
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The Gracie Family Christmas Traditions
How did Christmas time look in the Gracie family household during the glory days of Helio and Carlos Gracie in Brazil? Rener Gracie shares some of the Gracie family Christmas traditions of old.

It appears that Helio Gracie had a flair for the dramatic when it came to Christmas, pulling out all the stops, according to his nephew Rener Gracie. In an interview with Bloody Elbow, Rener shared some of the more interesting Christmas traditions of the Gracie Family:

“My dad goes all the way. He has a history that comes from the grandmaster. Grandmaster Helio, my grandfather, every Christmas in Brazil, would dress up in full Santa Clause regalia, and he would get on a black stallion, a black horse, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, would come galloping onto the property with a bag full of presents.

He would get off the horse, and climb off the ladder, and go in to give out presents to all the kids in the Gracie compound, as we called it. My dad grew up with that whole thing so he tried to preserve that here.”

Rener went on to explain how his father Rorion still upholds the Gracie family Christmas traditions taught to him by his father Helio, although he does not ride a stallion through the streets of Torrence, CA:

“My dad has gone to every extent necessary to preserve that situation for the little ones. He doesn’t come up in a black stallion in the middle of the street in Torrance, CA, but he’ll get all dressed up and go across the street in the middle of the night, where he gets on top of the neighbour’s house, so that when the kids look out the window, they’ll see Santa on top of the house.

He comes down with all the presents and crosses the street like a little old man. Then he hands out the presents to all the kids. He goes all the way, 100%.”

A curious Rener figured it all out at age 8, though, when who he thought was Santa applied another of the Gracie family traditions: grip fighting when Rener tried to pull his beard:

“That worked for me until I was 8 years old. It’s so funny because I was sitting down to open my presents, and I reached up to grab his beard to look under it, because he was very good at making this disguise.

When I lifted the beard, he slapped my hand away from it and he reprimanded me using a Portuguese reprimand that only he did, my whole life.”

The tradition is still kept alive, with Rener now inheriting the mantles of the Gracie Family Santa:

“Now my dad has me dress up as Santa, because there are always kids being born in our family, so it’s always necessary for a new Santa Clause.”

Cain Velasquez Talks About His Time In Jail: The Worst I’ve Ever Felt

By
Filip Zanki
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Cain Velasquez talks about prison
Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, who was imprisoned for eight months on the count of attempted murder has spoken up about his time in jail, after finally getting released on bail just over a month ago.

Cain Velasquez was touted as one of the greatest heavyweight champions in the UFc, but injuries derailed the two-time heavyweight champion from the UFC sooner than most people expected. He did have some incredible performances inside the octagon but eventually ended up leaving the UFC in 2019 in order to join the WWE.

The reason the once “baddest man on the planet” was in jail was for the attempted murder of the person who allegedly sexually assaulted his son. Cain went after Harry Goularte Jr., one of the owners of the daycare where Velasquez’s children went. Velasquez chased after a vehicle with Harry Goularte Jr., his stepfather, and his mother after Goularte was released on bail, ramming the vehicle and discharging his firearm at it, hitting Goularthe’s stepfather in the process.

After the incident, Velasquez was taken to Santa Clara County jail and formally charged with attempted murder. He spent the following eight months in prison and has now spoken about it publically for the first time. At the latest edition of the 100 w/ Konnan & Disco podcast Velasquez opened up about his prison experiences:

“It was crazy man… Probably the worst I’ve ever felt physically, or mentally doing something… I feel like there was such a standstill, between my body, and my mind.

They had me in protective custody. It was very low-key. Only a few people that I was able to hang out with and I guess the good thing about it is you got a lot of alone time with yourself and the bad thing about it was you got a lot of alone time with yourself.”

The heavyweight went on to share his mindset as well:

“For eight months, just a low way of thinking, versus when you’re out there competing, it’s a different way of thinking, how your brain and your mind have to be firing so, I felt like I was probably in the worst-case scenario for myself that I’ve ever been in and I feel like I always do this, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I just wanna be ready when I go out there and you know, compete and when I did, went out there and did it, dude, it was…”

Velasquez also addressed all the support he got from fellow fighters, Dana White, and his fans worldwide:

“Yeah man, I did [see the support I got from the wrestling & MMA communities] and I have and I just wanna thank everyone. I truly appreciate everyone’s support in all of it. It means so much to me. It gave me a lot of strength when I was there. So, yeah dude, I feel it and I just wanna thank everybody forever for that.”

UFC Cain Velasquez Shares Prison Epxerience

Learn How to Do the Mica Galvao Armbar (VIDEO)

By
Filip Zanki
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Mica Galvao Armbar Setup from top video breakdown
Micael Mica Galvao is the youngest black let in history, as well as the youngest ADCC champion ever. The Brazilian prodigy Micao Galvao managed to conquer the lightweight ADCC division with apparent ease and made the world aware of the new breed of grapplers that are representing the future of JIu-Jitsu. In a brand new video, he breaks down his famous Mica Galvao armbar which he used so successfully throughout his still very young career.

The setup for the Mica Galvao armbar starts very early before any grips are placed. What Mical likes to do is find a way to place an arm in the space between the elbow, armpit, and body on one side of his opponent. Once he has that, he can set up an armbar from the bottom, top, or even standing.

In the video, Mica uses the knee slice pass as the launching pad for his signature armbar setup. The first thing that is required for the Mica Galvao armbar is an underhook on the far side, placed exactly in the space described above. The underhook does not have to be deep, like for passing the guard, but rather just have an arm present in the inside space area on the opponent’s far side.

The palm on the reaching arm faces upwards, thus ensuring the bottom person cannot retract their arm to avoid the Mica Galvao armbar.

In fact, Mica sets up the grip to grab the back of the shoulder, rather than the triceps which can slip out with sweaty opponents who have short or no-sleeve rashguards. He then proceeds to bring his head and chest as close as possible to the gripping arm, effectively crossfacing the opponent’s far shoulder. This grip prevents the bottom person from turning in either direction, allowing for an easy armbar entry.

Passing the far leg over the opponent’s head from a spinning armbar entry leg does not require flexibility. Instead, he pushes the head down with the free arm, opening the hips slightly to gain a greater range of motion for the free leg.

From there, the far leg easily steps over the head, as Mica pivots on the knee of the leg that was slicing. There is no uncontrollable spin, but rather a methodical sliding of the knee behind the opponent’s back, before sitting down into a tight finishing position for the Mica Galvao armbar.

Throughout the entire motion, the initial grip behind the shoulder stays in place, or as close to the original position as possible, depending on the size of the opponent.

The extension of the arm at the very end is also methodical, without rushing. The deep gripping hand slides towards the elbow, never allowing for any unnecessary space to appear. The end grip for finishing is a double wrist grip with both hands, making sure the thumb of the opponent’s arm is pointing upwards toward the ceiling.

Finally, getting a leg over the opponent’s chest is not mandatory for finishing with the Mica Galvao armbar, as the set-up initially leads to a knee under the armpit position.

The 5 Best MMA Submissions Of 2022 (VIDEO)

By
Filip Zanki
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5 best MMA submissions in 2022

Submissions in MMA are getting scarcer as more and more people learn grappling early on. However, due to this fact, even though the number of submission finishes might be going down, the percentage of weir and unusual submission holds is going up. The best 5 MMA submissions of 2022 are the perfect example of that.

If you take a look at the 10 best MMA submissions of 2012 you’ll notice that they were all rear naked chokes, heel hooks (involving Palhares) armbars, guillotines, Darces, and the like. The only exception is Charles Oliveira’s (yeah, he was fighting in the UFC 10 years ago too) calf slicer finish of Eric Wisely.

IN contrast to 2022, apart from the ever-present rear-naked choke, the best 2022 submissions feature an inverted triangle-buggy choke hybrid, a body triangle compression finish, standing chokes, and something called the Kadowaki Special which most MMA and grappling fans from the last decade will find to be completely unfamiliar.

5 MMA Submissions That Marked 2022

the fact that people are more aware of grappling threats, especially in the context of MMA fights, means that weird, one-off type submission attacks, reminiscent of catch wrestling holds are much more likely to work as opposed to the traditional submission options most BJJ, Judo and even Sambo practitioners might e looking for.

Just like the period in the early 2010s when flying kicks and spinning back fists were just about the only things that could knock people out standing, the time has arrived now for weird MMA submissions to be the only means of tapping out an opponent inside the cage. And they are a joy to watch!

Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Texeira (Rear-Naked Choke, UFC 275)

WHi;e the submission itself is one of the two most used MMA submissions ever (along with the armbar) Jiri Prochazka’s world championship-winning application of the rear-naked choke against the legendary Glover Texeira was nothing short of astounding.

In the main event of UFC 275, Prochazka became the UFC light heavyweight champion of the world in just his third fight with the promotion, when he managed to force Texeira to tap to his rear-naked choke with mere seconds left on the clock. An impressive performance, to say the least.

Jessica Andrade vs. Amanda Lemos (Standing Arm-Triangle, UFN 205)

After Jone Jones set the standard for putting people to sleep with standing chokes, with finished THAT standing guillotine against Lyoto Machida, we’ve seen a fair share of standing choke finishes in MMA.

Jessica Andarade’s iteration of an arm-triangle, while standing against the cage versus the young and extremely dangerous Amanda Lemos was as perfect as MMA submissions can get. The strawweight contender kept calm in the fight with a very aggressive Lemos, and timed her arm-triangle perfectly to get the first choke of this kind in UFC history.

Zhang Weili vs. Carla Esparza (Crucifix Kadowaki Special, UFC 281)

You’ve got to hand it to Carla Esparza she’s been toughing it out with the who is who of women’s MMA in the strawweight division since its inception. In her championship defense against Zhan Wili, though, she encountered what is possibly the most unorthodox submission she was caught in her whole career.

Older MMA fans probably remember Hideki Kadowaki, the Japanese fighter who was finishing people left and right in PRIDE and Shooto from the crucifix. In a 2022 edition of a move dubbed the Kadowaki Special, Weili captured the strawweight UFC belt in the most impressive fashion possible against one of the most renowned opponents in the entire promotion.

The finish is a one-arm rear-naked choke from a crucifix position, making it difficult for the person on the receiving end to tap out, let alone defend or escape.

Oliver Enkamp vs. Mark Lemminger (Inverted Triangle Choke, Bellator 281)

What was initially dubbed a Buggy Choke finish by commentators at Bellator 281 was in fact an inverted triangle choke from bottom side control, pulled off to perfection by Oliver Enkamp in his bout against Mark Lemminger.

The Swedish welterweight did not have an easy time dealing with Lemminger on the feet, but made the most out of their exchanges on the bottom, catching one of the craziest MMA submissions in 2022 from a very inferior position after suffering a takedown stemming from a failed spinning back kick.

Stevie Ray vs. Anthony Pettis (Body Triangle Compression, PFL 5)

Wrapping up the top 5 list of the best and craziest MMA submissions of 2022 is a submission that is difficult to pull off in the training room, let alone in a professional MMA fight against none other than former UFC champion Anthony Pettis.

Ray did exactly that, catching Pettis in a body triangle from the back, but at a different angle to the usual rear-naked-choke hunting body triangle. In fact, instead of going for a choke he deliberately squeezed the body of Pettis with his legs until he forced the 35-year-old to tap in agony.

(VIDEO) UFC Picks the Best of 2022, Fighters, Fights, Submissions, Surprises…

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BJJ World
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Alexander Volkanovski UFC best fighter of the year

The end of 2022 is very close and it’s time for various awards ceremonies. In recent days, the UFC has announced award winners in various categories, but these are actually unofficial UFC awards, i.e. selected by their employees on the UFC.com web portal.

After selecting the winners by all categories, they also put together a suitable video clip featuring the winners and some of their best moments this year.

While in categories such as ”Surprise of the Year” and ”Knockout of the Year” there was no doubt that Leon Edwards deserved it by knockout against Kamaru Usman, there were categories in which it was very difficult to decide for the best.

It’s a very interesting category for the best fighter of the year. According to UFC.com, Alexander Volkanovski is the best UFC fighter in 2022. Volk recorded two really impressive victories in this calendar year. In the fourth month, he declassified Chan Sung Jung, and in the seventh month, he did an even more impressive performance against Max Holloway.

Almost unscathed, Volkanovski came out of the match against many of the best boxers on the UFC roster and recorded his third victory in the third showdown with Max.

Alex Pereira defeated Bruno Silva, Sean Strickland, and Israel Adesanya within this calendar year and will be seen by many as the best UFC fighter of the year. In this selection, he finished second, while Islam Makhachev with victories against Bobby Green and Charles Oliveira took third place.

The best fight of the year is also an interesting subject of debate. Still, it’s hard to dispute that Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka don’t deserve it, but no one would have rebelled if Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns or Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler had won it.

We’re not going to get too long. Each of the six categories consists of a total of 10 fighters/fights, and you can watch the complete ranking below. Don’t miss the UFC video below the standings, and in the comments on our Facebook page to share your favorites in these categories.

UFC.com awards for 2022:

Fighter of the Year (see the full list here):

1. Alexander Volkanovski

2. Alex Pereira

3. Islam Makhachev

Fight of the Year (see full list HERE):

1. Jiri Prochazka vs Glover Teixeira

2. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns

3. Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler

Year of the Year (see the full list here):

1. Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 2

2. Michael Chandler vs. Tony Ferguson

3. Molly McCann vs. Luana Carolina

Submission of the year (see full ranking here):

1. Jessica Andrade vs. Amanda Lemos

2. Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira

3. Tom Aspinall vs. Alexander Volkov

Surprise of the year (see the full ranking here):

1. Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 2

2. Carla Esparza vs. Rose Namajunas 2

3. Sean O’Malley vs. Petr Yan

New year (see the full list here):

1. Jack Della Maddalena

2. Jailton Almeida

3. Muhammad Mokaev

Gordon Ryan Shares His Detailed Review of Dillon Danis: ”Dillon is an absolute master, when it comes to the skill of staying relevant without actually doing anything related to combat sports”

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BJJ World
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Gordon Ryan Dillon Danis

“The King” Gordon Ryan doesn’t understand how Danis manages to stay relevant despite the lack of performances and big results.

Dillon Danis (2-0 MMA) over the past few years, from a promising MMA fighter and a great BJJ master, has built a reputation as the “main caricature” in the world of martial arts.

The former sparring partner of Conor McGregor has not performed for three and a half years, but he regularly calls out the best fighters in the world via social media and states that he would finish them with ease. During that period, Danis was able to be forced to tap by security in the nightclub, and his MMA win-loss record stopped at 2-0. He recorded both victories under the auspices of Bellator.

At the beginning of next year, more precisely on January 14 (1st month), Danis will do a boxing match in London. Danis managed to hook up at one event with KSI, a famous YouTuber, and he will have the opportunity to solve everything inside the ring. The acceptance of such “circus” matches speaks volumes about how low Danis has fallen, but he is still somehow followed on social networks and manages to attract attention.

Gordon Ryan, as probably the greatest “grappler” in history, often makes fun of Danis on his posts on social networks, and Ryan gave an interesting review of Danis as a guest on the MMA Hour.

”Dillon is a master, an absolute master, when it comes to the skill of staying relevant without actually doing anything related to combat sports. I don’t know how he manages it, but he still does it. Respect to him, but his family must be rich, because he does absolutely nothing to make money. He has no sponsors, and if you look at his Instagram profile, he does not teach BJJ to anyone, nor does he compete. I don’t understand how he’s not homeless. He must have had a rich inheritance or something. However, despite everything, he manages to remain relevant,” Ryan began, and the review continued.

”He was quite respected as a brown belt. He won a lot as a brown belt and then there was a lot of potential among the black belts. He then feuded with Marcelo Garcia and teamed up with McGregor. Then everything went downhill. His popularity skyrocketed, but his career kind of fell apart after that.”

 

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By the way, Dillon Danis and Gordon Ryan played one match against each other at the ADCC World Championship in 2017, and Ryan won by the decision of the judges. This is proof that Dillon Danis really had the potential to compete with the best, but Ryan “drops the ball on the ground”.

”It was my debut at the ADCC, and it was his second ADCC. He played a very tactical match and led me to the referee’s decision. In the end, I won, and after that, I tried to arrange a rematch, but he doesn’t want to. However, he was highly respected as a brown belt. What people who think he’s a dangerous guy don’t know, and I’ve been waiting a very long time to say this on some big podcast. Dillon Danis’ record among black belts is 18 wins and 16 losses. He’s not nearly as good as people think. Everyone is referring to the match against me. Yes, that was five years ago, and I wasn’t very good then either. But Dillon is 18-16 among black belts. That’s not a very good win-loss ratio,” explained Gordon Ryan.

(VIDEO) Ramzan Kadyrov’s 16-year-old Son Successfully Debuted in MMA

By
Filip Zanki
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Khamzat Chimaev and Ali Kadyrov

Young Ali Kadyrov made many people laugh with his victory in the organization run by his father.

The Kadyrov family has been attracting the attention of the MMA public more and more recently. Various UFC fighters openly hang out with Ramzan Kadyrov, get his support, and some like Khamzat Chimaev and Cody Garbrandt occasionally train with Ramzan’s son Ali.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kadyrov Ali (@za_kadyrova_k209ra)

16-year-old Ali made his professional MMA debut yesterday, debuting under the auspices of ACA (Absolute Championship Akhmat). The young Kadyrov’s debut proved to be successful and Ali scored a first-round knockout victory over Islam Akbarov, a 17-year-old who was also making his professional MMA debut.

It took the son of the Chechen leader exactly three minutes to record his first victory, but many actually mocked his lukewarm performance, especially the finish with which he achieved victory. It was far from something more serious and worthy of such a strong MMA organization, but it should be taken into account that young Ali is only 16 years old.

It is hard to say how relevant his appearances within the ACA will be, given that the owner of that MMA organization is his father Ramzan. There is no doubt that young Ali will score in similar matches as this debut he did, but who knows, maybe he will develop into a respectable fighter in time.

Nevertheless, he is a young man who is an equal match for Khamzat Chimaev in the sparring matches they do together. Detractors will say that Chimaev is not allowed to overpower the Chechen leader’s son, but Ramzan would disagree.

“Despite a formidable and eminent opponent, the boys were not inferior to Khamzat when it came to skills. As befits fighters, they analyzed their opponent’s movements and weaknesses, and then set up their counterattacks. At the end of the training, I couldn’t resist the desire to test my strength in a friendly duel with our dear brother.

It is difficult to add anything meaningful, except that it will be interesting to follow the direction in which Ali Kadyrov’s MMA career will go. So far, it only causes ridicule.

“Islam Makhachev’s days are numbered”, is one of the more popular comments on Ali Kadyrov’s debut.

Stephan Bonnar, UFC Hall Of Famer, Dead at the age of 45

By
Filip Zanki
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Stephan Bonnar Died

A little more than a month after the news of the death of Anthony “Rumble” Johnson shook the martial arts world, another MMA great has sadly passed away.

UFC hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar died on December 24, 2022, at the age of 45.

The reason for his death is still unknown, but UFC issued a statement saying that Bonnar died of a heart complication while being at work. Late yesterday evening, the UFC confirmed the death of Stephan Bonnar (15-9-0), but later it was announced that Bonnar passed away on December 22 (12th month), on Thursday.

Stephan Patrick Bonnar was a professional mixed martial Artist and UFC hall of Famer. He competed as the light heavyweight in UFC. While known for very intense and good fights in UFC he was probably most known for the fight he lost to Forrest Griffin in The Ultimate Fighter 1 finale. That fight is also considered one of the most important fights in UFC History.

He was a Jiu-Jitsu master with a nine-year-long career in UFC. He fought many UFC former and future champions like Mark Coleman, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, etc.

Bonnar would have celebrated his 46th birthday in the 4th month of next year, and he is one of the members of the UFC Hall of Fame. Back in 2013, Bonnar received the honor of being included, and he received this credit because of the iconic match he did against Forrest Griffin in the finals of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005.

Bonnar and Griffin then did, according to Dana White, “the most important fight in the history of the UFC.” In fact, the UFC was broadcast live for the first time through a publicly available TV channel. It was about the Spike TV channel, and the UFC was about to collapse and be sold before that match.

The Fertitta brothers were not satisfied with the development of the company and felt that running the UFC was not worth their invested time, money, and effort. The sale of the company was considered, and the first season of The Ultimate Fighter was the last straw for the survival of the Fertitta brothers. The viewership of that show was surprisingly good, but they needed an additional step forward on a publicly available TV channel, and that it was not a PPV, that is, that the audience could watch the event for free.

Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin put on one of the best fights in UFC history that night and earned them a handful of new fans. It was the breakthrough that the UFC needed, and the two entered UFC eternity with that fight. Forrest Griffin won by unanimous decision after three rounds, but the UFC decided to reward both men with contracts.

You can watch the legendary fight between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin in a video below:

https://youtu.be/sXPVgCRIapg

At the end of his MMA career, he was under contract for Bellator MMA organization mainly for the fight with Tito Ortiz which he lost via split decision.

Soon after he went to professional wrestling where he worked till now.

He also suffered from a severe back injury that made him hospitalized together with “cavuum septi pellucid” and a potential future diagnosis of CTE.

We can conclude from everything that martial arts left a big mark on his health.

While the cause of his death is still pending he faced a series of challenges in his personal life lately. He lost his home in Las Vegas in April this year. His wife, Andrea Bonnar wrote a post on her Facebook account: “we lost everything in the blaze”.

Thanks to the former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and his generous donation he was able to move into a new residence. Also, there was a fundraiser of over $10k raised to support Bonnar.

In September 2021 Stephan Bonnar posted a lot of videos to his Instagram profile of a confrontation at the hospital where he was looking for treatment for staph, but doctors denied him care due to him having COVID-19.

Likewise, lately, he has been posting various videos and arguments against covid masks, etc.

Watch Mighty Mouse Roll With Garry Tonon (VIDEO)

By
Filip Zanki
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Garry Tonon roll with Mighty mouse

Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, the legendary flyweight UFC champion, who is now fighting under the ONE Fighting Championship banner recently spent time preparing for his next fight grappling with fellow ONE FC fighter and legendary Jiu-Jitsu champion Garry Tonon.

Demetrius “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is the UFC record holder in the most title defenses in history. He was the undisputed flyweight champion in the UFC, reigning from 2013 to 2017, with 11 title defenses to his name. Tensions between him and Dnaa HWite who threatened to shut down the flyweight division because such dominance from Mighty Mouse made it boring led to Johnson switching over to Singapore’s ONE FC instead.

With his next fight in the ONE circle coming in May 2023, when he’ll face Adriano Moraes for the third time, Mighty Mouse has been spending some quality grappling time on the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu mats, rolling with fellow ONE fighter Garry Tonon, under the tutelage of BJJ mastermind John Danaher.

In the footage, Tonon and Mighty Mouse are rolling for just 8 minutes, mostly flowing, but including some slick transitions, takedown exchanges, and submissions. The flyweight king is a brown belt under Matt Hume but has demonstrated excellent grappling in the octagon, submitting BJJ black belt Wilson Resi in the octagon, as well as dominating Olympic Gold medalist Henry Cejudo.

Against Tonon, 36-year-old Mighty Mouse demonstrated once again that the can hold his own, although he is clearly not at the same Jiu-Jitsu level as one of the best students to ever train under Danaher.

Age only seems to be making Johnson better though, at least according to him:

“Now, being 36, I understand how to fight and how to pace myself while pushing the pace… We haven’t crossed that bridge yet. I’m still trying to figure it out, [but] I’m not too worried about it. I’m gonna train my ass off and go out there and fight.”

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