Fedor Gone

So it looks like with Fedor's demand for 50% of the buy-in revenues of the UFC's pay-per-view events, he didn't consider the 6 fight, $30 million payday enough so he won't be fighting in the UFC anytime soon.

Affliction Folds

With all the hype leading up to Fedor Emelianenko v. Joshn Barnett that was supposed to be Saturday, it's a massive let down for MMA fans that the fight is now off and the promotion, which had allegedly great depth at heavyweight (if but for Emelianenko alone), has folded. They have agreed to become clothing sponsors for the UFC and many of the fighters are getting divided up between Strikeforce and the UFC. We'll see if Dana White gets his wish and lands Emelianenko for the UFC, although Vitor Belfort and Gegard Mousasi (though Mousasi is on the Strikeforce Aug. 15 card for the light heavyweight chapmionship against renato Sobral) are great acquisitions.

UFC 100

Some observations:

• George St. Pierre needs to throw more strikes. He's relied too much I think on wrestling rather than trying to finish Theigo Alves.
• Is there anyone in the heavyweight division who can take Brock Lesner right now? Does Dana White have no choice but to bring in Fedor Emelioranko?
• Michael Bisbing looked too thin for Dan Henderson, as if he cut too much weight. Henderson still schooled Bisbing.
• Yoshihiro Akiyama's win over Alan Belcher was a split decision? Were they watchin the same fight as I was?

Practical Taekwondo

I finished Practical Taekwondo by Matthew Sylvester. Great book. I think Sylvester did a great job begining to answer a lot of critiques that claim taekwondo is nothing but a sport and isn't practical. Two things I would have liked to have seen:

• More on how the more "exotic" kicks in taekwondo and hapkido and how they are practical; and
• a better linkage between certain form techniques and their applicatons. For example, I think it's a stretch the way he claims a low block is a way to do a strike to the back of the head.

I recommend this book for all practioners of korean martial arts.

How we talk

I'm reading Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard. His discussion got me thinking. We have so many women self-defense classes and we tend to characterize things as attacks or defenses. Movements become passive or aggressive. By thinking in terms of attacking and defending, it influences our actions, but negatively. When we label a movement, we get into a certin thought process and all our actions move toward that label. So if we're in a fight if we call something an attack, we tend to remain in an agressive mode and not react well if your opponent takes a lucky shot. On the other hand, when you are in a defensive mode it's a lot harder to gain the advantage in a fght. We need to move to a neutral thought stance in combat and not worry about if we're pushing the fight or reacting.