Tye Ruotolo Vs ONE Champion Marat Gafurov On December 2

By
Filip Zanki
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Tye Ruotolo vs Marat Gafurov Official
ADCC 2022 absolute bronze medalist Tye Ruotolo has another grappling super fight booked, marking his first return to the ONE circle after choking out Garry Tonon with a Darce choke in May 2022.

Tye Ruotolo will make his long-awaited return to the ONE circle, facing off against former ONE MMA featherweight champion Marat Gafurov in a submission grappling match.

Last time in the ONE circle, Tye Ruotolo shocked the world by submitting Garry Tonon, who we have seen tap on less than a handful of occasions with a very precise and tight signature Darce choke. Tye Ruotolo, who is a black belt under Andre Galvao has a very well-rounded game. He is extremely proficient at passing and top pressure, as well as strangles. Also, the two Ruotolo brothers claimed that their leg lock defense is so good even Gordon Ryan couldn’t tap them.

His opponent Marat Gafurov, while not a Jiu-Jitsu guy himself, has a very strong grappling background in Dagestani wrestling and is a rear-naked choke specialist. He holds the ONE record for the fastest submission in MMA to date (41 seconds) against Martin Nguyen. Gafurov also had 6 consecutive rear-naked choke finishes during his reign of the featherweight division in ONE.

How Gafurov’s grappling skills are going to measure up to one of the best young grapplers of today in Tye Ruotolo remains to be seen. Tye has scrambling skills that will come in extremely helpful against a wrestler like Gafurov.

Tye Ruotolo’s match is slated for the preliminaries, with his brother Kade Ruotolo in the co-main event as he looks towards his first lightweight submission grappling ONE world title defense against challenger Matheus Gabriel.

The brothers have been looking to be as active as possible on the competition scene lately, and are winning performance bonuses constantly, as they are looking to inject funds into their project of building a Jiu-Jitsu gym in Costa Rica from the ground up.

ONE Submission Grappling Tye Ruotolo vs Marat Gafurov

BJJ Kids Defend Deaf Teammate Against Bullies

By
Filip Zanki
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BJj Kids Help Deaf Teammate Fight Off Bullies
BJJ is often a great solution for kids being bullied, with the latest example coming from Peru, where a bunch of BJJ kids stood up to bullies in order to protect their deaf friends.

The Guardian Peru project is a Jiu-Jitsu gym in Peru that focuses on training kids in Jiu-Jitsu. It is also the origin point of a great BJJ kids anti-bullying story, in which a kid who trains regularly ended up being protected by his Brazilian JIu-Jitsu teammates at school.

Gym founder and catch Salvatore Sanguinetti shared how a kid named Anderson’s mother came into class, telling the coach that Anderson did not want to go to BJJ or leave the house because he was getting bullied at school.

“Anderson is a kid that came through one of the students… He is deaf and he has these motor coordination issues. But his mind is brilliant, you know? He is a kid that has been underestimated for a long time,” shared Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti spoke with the other BJJ kids in class after asking the mom to bring Anderson back again:

“I said: ‘No, you stop this and you just bring him here. And I’ll talk to him.

And he told me: ‘I don’t want to come because they beat me up in the school.‘”

He went on to share what he told the other BJJ kids in the class:

“After that, we sat down with everybody and I said: ‘You know, you guys have this brother, this teammate that is with you guys. So, anytime you see something happening to him, you must take a stand and take him away from that situation. Stand up for him.’

And that’s what they’ve been doing since then.

He’s been coming to class happy since that day… And the kids tell me: ‘Hey, nothing happened this week. He’s okay. In the school, they know that we train so nobody gets close to him.’”

The comradery fo the BJJ kids has helped Anderson not only deal with bullies but become extremely efficient on the mats as well, gaining confidence and feeling happy to express himself:

“I mean, this kid is… His heart is… He laughs all the time, he just cracks up laughing and laughing and laughing. He doesn’t stop laughing – and he tries to get you in something. He’s sneaky, too.

And he spreads that smiling to the whole class. He makes other kids sensitive to this type of situations, and it’s very impressive how he can give you hope for other kids to come.
He knows that he’s protected by his friends, you know?”

 

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A post shared by Guardian Project (@guardiangym)

Joe Rogan: “I Could Never Have Imagined This…”

By
Filip Zanki
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Joe Rogan I Never Saw This Coming

Podcast guru, UFC commentator, Fear Factor host, BJJ black belt, and martial arts fanatic Joe Rogan recently admitted that he never could have imagined that people would get tattoos on his face.

Joe Rogan is a genuine martial arts celebrity, but his reach throughout the years has extended far beyond just the martial arts or stand-up comedy communities.  The 55-year-old is now so famous, which is mostly a result of his crazy popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience”.

Joe Rogan has become an inspiration to so many people, that some of them have even decided to put his face on their bodies in the form of tattoos. Just recently Rogan commented on one such piece of art on his Instagram profile:

“I’m oddly comfortable with the bizarrely huge number of people with my face permanently etched on their body. That’s something I could have never imagined would be “normal” to me, but here we are…”

 

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A post shared by Joe Rogan (@joerogan)

While still being somewhat weirded out, Rogan does look like he has changed his tune on the subject. In previous editions of the podcast, including ones with tattoo artists he asked them to never do tattoos of himself on several occasions:

He went on to be grateful for the respect but had this to add about the reasons people would look to put his face on their bodies:

“I get it. You know it’s like we don’t want the responsibility. We wanna do it but we don’t want the responsibility.”

Joe Rogan has had clear stances on everything from conspiracy theories to the latest tin technological and psychological developments, by ushering top experts in every field to his podcast for more than a decade now. With such a huge audience, he is a genuine celebrity, so people getting Joe Rogan tattoos is not really that far-fetched.

BJJ Student Sues Instructor For Not Promoting Him

By
Filip Zanki
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BJJ student sues instructor for not promoting him
A BJJ student was so disappointed at not getting his purple belt during a promotion, that he decided to seek justice through the legal system, and opted to sue his BJJ instructor for being “skipped over” in the promotion!

For most of us not getting a belt promotion hits painfully, but is something most people shrug off. Those that don’t usually are not cut out for BJJ anyway.  When somebody doesn’t get a BJJ belt, there’s usually a very good reason for it, and when asked, instructors will gladly explain it.

For one BJJ student, though, it turns out that not getting promoted felt personal enough to result in a lawsuit against the instructor. The student claims that his instructor, Marcos Roldão, who teaches at the “Samuray Jiu-Jitsu” academy in Brazil led him on, and then denied him the purple belt he “was promised.”

According to the media in Brazil, the BJJ student arrived in the academy as a four-stripe blue belt and was asked to remove the stripes upon arrival by the instructor in question.

The student asked if he would get ta purple belt anyway on the next promotion, which was due in a few months, as is the custom in the “Samuray Jiu-Jitsu” academy. He even threatened the instructor that he would not participate in the ceremony if he would not get promoted.

During the ceremony itself, the BJJ student only got 1 stripe instead of the purple belt he expected. the instructor reassured him the next day that he would get his purple belt at the next promotion. At the next promotion, the instructor gave two more stripes to the student, withholding the purple belt yet again. He even made jokes about the student being annoying by constantly asking to get promoted.

The behavior of the instructor is not respectful, that is clear, but there is another factor to consider. This particular academy charges students 70 reais (around $5) just for the right to participate in the event.

The BJJ student in question found that he was being led on, and lost money in the process, so he decided to sue. The instructor showed up for the appointed court date wearing a purple shirt.

From Stripper To UFC Fighter: “My Worst Concussion Was Falling Off A Pole”

By
Filip Zanki
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MMA champion currently on the UFC roster who prior to mixed martial arts had quite a different path to that of most other fighters – was a stripper. Her name is Vanessa Demopoulos.
The UFC fighter also quotes falling off a pole as being her worst concussion to date, despite getting hit in the head on a daily basis in her new job.

Vanessa Demopoulos is a UFC fighter and former strawweight champion in the LFA who made her octagon debut in 2021. Her first fight in the UFC did not go as planned, as she lost to JJ Aldrich. That prompted Vanessa to a three-fight win streak, the last of which came against Maria “Spider Girl” Oliveira at UFC Vegas 65 in October.

Vanessa Demopoulos on the beach

Vanessa Demopoulos, nicknamed “Lil Monster”, recently told The MMA Hour about her transition from stripping to loving up, and what prompted her to become a UFC fighter in the first place, as she juggled both jobs at once for a while:

“It was the worst. Staying up late, constant stimulation, overstimulating your nervous system that late at night. I’d get home, I couldn’t sleep. My body automatically wakes up so early for training that even if I go to sleep late, I was only getting three hours of sleep because I’d automatically wake up. It just wasn’t good for me in a lot of aspects. I have to give a lot of my emotional energy to the job, and I just want to focus on fighting.

Vanessa Demopoulos on the beach

“So I took a risk, actually. I really didn’t have the money to quit and I believed in myself enough and I was like, ‘I’m going to make this happen, no matter what.’ So I burned the bridge and I walked away,” added Vanessa Demopoulos.

The UFC fighter claimed that despite all the striking, slamming, and ground and pound happening in training and fights, her worst concussion to date remains a nasty fall off a pole:

Vanessa Demopoulos on a pole

“[It hurt] like hell. I had the worst concussion I think I’ve ever had falling off of a pole. I fell straight down, it was almost two stories.

“I instantly woke up and ran, and then I had this giant bag of ice on my head, and I fell to sleep on the bag of ice, so that’s how I knew that I was badly concussed. For sure [worse than anything I felt in fighting.]”

 

 

Coach Mendez: Khabib Has Never Been Submitted In Sparring

By
Filip Zanki
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Nobody Could Submit Khabib In Sparring
Khabib Nurmagomedov is a legend in MMA, retiring undefeated as a UFC champion who beat the who is who of UFC fighters with apparent ease. His coach at AKA, Javier Mendez now shares that Khabib has never actually tapped to anyone in sparring.

Khabib Nurmagomedov not only has a spotless MMA record, but he also never tapped to a submission in the gym, according to American Kickboxing Academy head coach and owner Javier Mendez.

According to Mendez, in an interview for Mike Swick’s podcast:

I said it, what people don’t fully understand, he is the only person that’s never lost a sparring session. I never said rounds, I said session. Never in his life, since I have known him, has he lost a sparring session.

He might lose a round here and there, never lost a sparring session; never been submitted, never been close to being submitted in actual MMA sparring. Never.

To make things clear, the stables at AKA are filled with some of the best UFC and MMA fighters on the planet, from Daniel Cormier and Islam Makhachev to Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez. So it is not just some room filled with MMA enthusiast amateurs and hobbyists, but the best of the best in all weight classes that Khabib faced on a day-to-day basis.

Javier Mendez added that only once he saw Khabib in danger, but for a short time only:

“The only time I seen him close to being submitted was one time when Kyle Crutchmer.

I was like so shocked, dude I was about to go, grab my camera and go: “Oh okay, I got him. I’m gonna film him get actually tapped out.” And he got out of it. And I was like: “How the effin’ hell did he do that?”

Hey, he’s a phenom, that’s just the way it is.”

 

Tim Kennedy: I Got An HIV Scare After Ring Girls Orgy

By
Filip Zanki
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Tim Kennedy HIV Scare AFter Rign Girls Orgy
Tim Kennedy is one of the most interesting fighters in UFC history, drawing attention both inside and outside the octagon. the American always had crazy stories to tell, and in his latest one, he shares how he got a legitimate HIV scare after a post-fight orgy involving the ring girls.

Tim Kennedy is a former UFC, Strikeforce, and WEC fighter, as well as a special forces operator in the Army. In fact, he was one of only a handful of UFC fighters who were actively serving in the military they were fighting in the octagon.

The life of a professional MMA fighter and special forces soldier is an interesting one, to say the least, and Tim Kennedy is not one to shy away from telling crazy stories about both those aspects of his life.

On previous occasions he shared that the FBI was investigating credible ISIS threats against him, to which he made his home address public, inviting anyone to come and look for him.

On that note, Tim Kennedy also pulled out a gun at a USADA representative who happened to “stalk” his house for anti-doping urine samples at around the same time as the ISIS threats.

The latest in a line of crazy Tim Kennedy stories comes after an interview for The 38 Challenge podcast where he shares a different kind of scary experience:

“Had a couple of women pregnant, and had an orgy after a fight. One of the ring girls that was there tested positive for HIV. So then she tracked down all of her former partners. I was one of a litany of them. She walks into the gym and is like ‘Hey, I’m HIV positive, and you should get tested.”

It wasn’t actually like you’re positive or negative. It was, ‘We’re gonna take some white blood cell counts over a few months to see if you are losing your immunity.’ So that sucked.”

Never a dull moment in Tim Kennedy’s life, it appears.

Tim Kennedy Wild Stories

Felipe Pena Training At Atos For Next Gordon Ryan Match

By
Filip Zanki
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Felipe Pena Training At Atos For Gordon Ryan match
Felipe Pena is set to face Gordon Ryan for the fourth time in a Who’s Number One event in February 2023, and the heavyweight, who is the only person to submit Gordon in a match, is now training at Atos with Andre Galvao, preparing for the next encounter with the “King.”

Felipe Pena is an interesting character for those that are into Jiu-Jitsu. The heavyweight Brazilian is the only man to tap out Gordon Ryan (rear-naked choke) in a match at black belt. He is also the only man to defeat Ryan twice, the second one coming in the way of a points victory at ADCC 2017.

Gordon Ryan did get one back over his “nemesis” Felipe Pena at WNO this summer when Pena tapped verbally to pressure from the mount after 40 minutes of grappling. However, the match was marred by controversies, with Felipe Pena claiming that he was too upset to fight on account of his good friend Leandro Lo getting shot and killed the night before.

Gordon shared his side of the story, claiming Pena tried to change the rules of the match at the last minute, and it all turned into the drama that kind of overshadowed Gordon’s victory, leaving more question marks, and a total record of 2-1 in Pena’s favor.

Now, Gordon Ryan just posted on his Instagram that Felipe Pena is setting his training camp at Atos, seemingly quashing his rivalry with Andre Galvao in order to best prepare for their fourth match:

“Apparently, this guy said on his you tube channel that he’s doing his next camp for me at atos. This is so incredible for so many reasons but the number 1 reason is the rivalry between Felipe Pena and Andre was one of the biggest rivalries ever in the sport and the 2 genuinely don’t like each other.

I guess the only thing stronger than penas hatred for Andre is his hatred for me. This is absolutely incredible ahhaa. Pena Is leaving his students behind and completely uprooting his entire life to train at atos, which will help him exactly 0% In our next match. It’s alright though, daddy needs some more HP in his CadiLLACC. Free money’s good money.”

 This is what Felipe Pena said about his Atos training camp on his YouTube channel:

Technical Guillotine Ends Street Fight In Brazil (VIDEO)

By
Filip Zanki
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Tigth technical guillotine choke in a street fight in Brazil
Will BJJ work in a street fight? If you know a technical guillotine choke and armbars, it certainly will, as the outcome of one such street alteration in Brazil clearly demonstrated.

Street fights in Brazil have become really technical over the years, as this latest example demonstrates. Whether the two people involved are from rival Jiu-Jitsu or just had another misunderstanding, which they decided to solve the old-fashioned way, there was lots of Jiu-jitsu and very little striking in at least the portion of this fight that we got to see on video. Armbar attacks from top and bottom and a tight, technical guillotine are clearly visible in this altercation.

The person in the red shirt starts on top, with the person in the green shirt obviously keen on using Jiu-Jitsu as much as possible. the first thing he tries from an open guard position is a straight armlock and then tries to transition into a triangle choke, which the person in the red shirt counters by standing up. Seriously, there’s more technique in this street fight than in some competitive BJJ matches.

The fighter in the red shirt manages to stack the one in the green shirt, who stands up on his feet. For a moment there, both are in a front headlock position but the technical guillotine knowledge of the fighter in the green shirt tilts the tide to his advantage.

With both fighters still holding on to guillotine chokes, the one in the green shirt pulls guard, getting the better position for a finish, and proceeds to squeeze a very very tight technical guillotine choke. As he gets his head free, he is able to seemingly put the opponent to sleep shortly, before transitioning into an armbar very quickly and talking to his opponent, most likely asking if he yields.

The winner in the green shirt then unceremoniously gets up and leaves.

 

Draculino Explains How He Creates So Many BJJ World Champions

By
Filip Zanki
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Draculino: Expose StudentsTo Every ASpect Of The Game
Vinicius Magalhães “Draculino” explains that after his students learn the fundamentals to a level he is satisfied with, he exposes them to everything in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, allowing them t develop a game specific to themselves.

Draculino is one of the best BJJ professors in the world, and arguably, apart from Danaher, the BJJ professor with the highest number of Jiu-Jitsu World Champions. He has awarded over 100 black belts in his years of teaching, and his stables include the likes of Romulo Barral, Samuel Braga, Marcelo Azevedo, and Brandon Mullins to mention just a few.

So what is the secret that Draculino uses to be so successful as a professor in creating world champion after world champion?

As the Carlos Gracie Jr. black belt explains it himself:

“I am really big on getting down and mastering the fundamentals of BJJ. A lot of people think that they know the basics, but they really don’t.

If you have a really solid and complete foundation in Jiu Jitsu yourself, I think that you will be able to expose your students to everything. If you give them the foundations first, then – depending on their body type and physical abilities, as well as on their individual preferences – from there they can start developing their own specialties and a type of the game that they want to have.” 

Unless his students really understand the fundamentals, he keeps them working on them until he is satisfied with their progress. Then, Draculino applies his own way of teaching each student individually:

“I try to expose my students to everything, so they can branch out towards what they prefer.

Samuel Braga is a good example. He is a multiple-time world champion, plus he’s the creator of the Berimbolo – since he has always been very flexible, he was able to develop this position from the De la Riva guard and it turned out to be very handy for him.

Then, Romulo Barral and his killer spider guard. Erik Wanderley, one of my first World Champions, has a killer half-guard and really, really good pressure…

I taught them everything they needed to know in order to have a solid foundation, from which they could, as I said, branch out and do their own thing.”

So, when your coach says to focus on the fundamentals and do your reps, listen, because that is exactly what the best in the business, like Draculino, teach their students.

 

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A post shared by Vinicius Draculino (@draculinojj)

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