BTG 144 - The End of an Era

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. Quite a few things have gone on over this past week. I just got back from Miami, so I'll talk a little bit about that. We have a UFC just finished on Saturday night. And we also have the UFC BJ show that is almost finished, I think, now. So, let's start off with my Miami trip. Uh, for me, it was a great time. Got to see my family, got to teach at my gym, and got a good amount of beach time. You might be able to tell by some of the tanning and peeling going on. Uh but it was also another great part of that trip. We got to promote two people to black belt. Well, one of them was already a black belt, but our oldest black belt, uh John became our first fourth degree black belt. And I look back at Mandam. I'm getting old when I realize that he's been training with us since 2003 February. We opened our gym in its current location in November 2002 and he joined just a few months afterwards. And uh he's been training consistently the entire time. So you're talking about somebody who has what 22 years with us now. Very impressive, right? That just having a relationship with someone that long is that doesn't come by easily. And John doesn't great guy, great character. He's a firefighter or he was he I think he recently retired. uh but just a great human being and like one of the people I'll be proud to call Black Belt. Uh I think it's a better reflection of me and my brother than it is on him because he's such a genuinely good person and he's been a black belt I believe now for 14 years. So he is now one of 13 people we have promoted to black belt and my brother and I have been teaching since 2000 maybe him since 99 so give or take 25 years and we've put out 13 black belts which is not something that we give away lightly is what I'm trying to say because I I see some people have lots of black belts and for us it didn't come as easily. Uh although we did create a new black belt as well that day uh Leo and Lionel and he is now the 13th. It was also on a Friday. So he's like, "Oh, I'm cursed on Friday the 13th as the day I got my black belt." And I think that's going to make more people scared of you. And he's another really good guy. Uh he is a student of the game. I think he's been training now it's like five or no I think it's like seven years with us and another guy who is just always on there very consistent and he is a student of the game himself studies it a lot he in fact he's does a podcast a YouTube channel that's much bigger than mine so uh he's pretty what I liked about it he's all in on this and guy who's passionate about the game. So I love it and so he's a great addition to the our roster of black belts. Uh so uh happy to see that the next generation cuz he's a young guy as well. So he'll he'll be around for a while I imagine. I also got to share some of the newer techniques and concepts that I've been working on more. You guys probably you're gonna I'm going to post everything so you guys will see it in the coming months, something like that. I did also get to train with some of these guys I haven't trained with in a long time. My train of thought was quite slow there. But uh because Leo, I hadn't trained with him in a while. So it was nice to be able to roll with these guys. And everybody I roll with I try to use everything that was just teaching them so they can see the application of it in in a in DVO. So that was a lot of fun. Anyhow, back home here in Vegas now. Yeah, I covered a little bit on Friday, the UFC, BJJ show. They've now since put on a show on Friday, Saturday, and today on Sunday. I believe their last uh aired one will be Sunday. I mean, tomorrow, Monday. And this is going to be a big spoiler, so if you don't want to hear the spoilers, then I guess you could tune out. Although, if you've been on social media, the UFC has done a pretty weird marketing thing where they release the show early in the morning on five pass. I guess it must be happening like at like 7 or 8 a.m. But they also when the moment they put the show live, they're putting all the results on Instagram, which is somewhat confusing because I and I see the same comments and all their posts because they'll put like somebody winning by submission is dangerous and they show the video clip of the win like the same time that the show's airing and you just see everybody going, "Oh, thanks for ruining the show for me." And it's like every day they've been doing the same thing because they've been dropping these episodes on a daily basis. You would think you would wait until at least the show finished being live so to speak because they broadcast it. I I think it must be 9 and then they finish at 10 or or something like that cuz I know today I actually went to watch the episode and it was live and I actually got to the end of the episode the moment I jumped in. like, "Oh, I guess I saw the result already." I don't know. Weird strategy. You would think you would tease them with the social to get them to watch the full thing and maybe show the, you know, the highlight the day later or whatnot. Anyhow, what I said on Friday still holds true today. The actual reality show stuff kind of sucks in my opinion. the matches. Now that I've seen a few more of them, they are not showing the full match. They're not show it's not highlighting it. They're kind of uh what do they call it? Then they call it uh jump cutting, right? Where they're just moving from one like it'll be maybe 3 minutes in and they'll jump into like 30 seconds as they change the camera angle without seeing the time. So, I remember one of the rounds lasted like a minute. I'm like, "What the hell happened here? It's a five minute round." So, they are selectively editing it. I'm assuming for user entertainment, which is fine. Just a little weird that you're not showing a full episode of the full fight. If in MMA that would kind of be weird if you just showed part of the fight, you know. I think with grappling it might be a little easier to do these, you know, jump cuts because a lot of the same positions happening. Uh, however, the lightweight divisions are essentially leg lock battles. They're just all people playing footsies. The or I guess the bantamweight divisions. The lightweight divisions to me are the better matches because they're actually doing everything. Seems like the lightweights, the bantamweights are just trading leg locks the entire time until someone comes out on top. I think today's episode was one exception where um I think it was Morera actually got into like an Anaconda or it might have been I think it was Anaconda. It could have been a Darus but I think an anaconda and finished the match in the Anaconda. Couldn't finish it. the time ran out, but other than that, they were trading leg locks the whole time. The lightweights, however, are actually getting, you know, back takes, guard passes. They're going to, you know, front chokes and arm locks and all sorts of different things. So, to in my opinion, lightweight division, a lot funner to watch. I think is more reflective of if you're watching MMA, what the type of grappling you would expect, right? The banttom weight seems to be very sport jiu-jitsuy where it's like all guard poles and like people trying to, you know, scoot around and play these like, you know, inverting games like something you will never see in MMA because you can't play that style in MMA. You'll get punched or soccer kicked, right? Uh it's just not going to work. But the lightweights guys like Andrew Tacket, Andy Varela, they're actually going for a style that's more reminiscent of MMA. Like this is like real in a real fight. This is the type of grappling you're going to do. So lightweight division, thumbs up. Bantamweight division, thumbs down. That that's my take on it anyways. And I think the talent level is also equivalent to that. Like the guys at lightweight, they're all pretty really they're all really tough. There's no easy matches there. I think the banttom weight is a little bit more not not as high level in my opinion. That said, they already did one round of the semis and then like I said, tomorrow would be second round of the semis and then the final um I think they're going to do as a live event and not on the broadcast if I understood it correctly because they're also going to have Bushameshi and I can't remember the Bible coach's name because like I said is another weird selection that it's a guy I've never heard of. I'm sure he's good. Apparently, he's really strong because he beat everybody on the show in arm wrestling. For somebody who's lighter than everyone else is kind of weird. Uh but uh just a weird thing. And it's funny because whenever they have like these match breakdowns, he has nothing to say. And I don't blame him. It's he's not he's not an English speaker. You know, when they put Mikey, Mikey's like giving all these different analysis and then like he'll be like, "He got the taked down. He got a reneg choke. He went and it's like why are we doing this to this guy?" Like let him I mean he I guess he has the option to speak Portuguese because I see sometimes they let him do that. but didn't seem like a great choice for somebody you want to headline a show and be like the the rival to Musamechi. I don't know. It's just weird choices in my opinion. I'm not sure how well this show is going to do. Although apparently one of the episodes got a million views on YouTube, so that's obviously good. Uh, but that's surprising to me to be honest. I don't think this show has been produced that great. However, I hope it does well because I want to see more avenues of competition. Although, I'm not a big fan of UFC trying to dominate this space. But if we have the UFC, ADCC, IBJJF, and CJI, all these other events competing, that's going to be better for the athletes having more options. Now, moving on to the UFC. Last night, the one real match of consequence was the Khalil Round Tree and Jamal Hill. Uh Jamal's ranked number four, Khalil's number seven, light heavyweight division. These are two guy. Well, Hill was a former champion and Khalil had challenged Pereira and arguably well besides Mame Medov gave Pereira his most challenging fight being a striking battle in recent time and Calo shows he's still very very dangerous. The fight with Jamal went kind of how I would have figured that he would have been the better striker. I didn't I haven't really seen Hill being like a grappler. So, it was more of like a boxer versus a Muay Thai guy. Muay Thai won here. Khalil blasted the legs of Jamal and particularly with calf kicks. And you could see, I thought it was funny because in the between the first and second round, Hill's corner is like, "Oh, he's you heard him with that calf kick. He's he's feeling it." And the first thing that happens in round two, Khalil blast Jamal with another calf kick. And then Jamal is completely on shaky legs for the rest of the fight. He's switching stances. He's being forced to fight from the opposite stance because he can't stand on that leg. And you could see the legs swollen and red. Jameal was also throwing leg kicks and calf kicks, but not to the effect. They're built different. Uh Khalil's like a tank and obviously he's training Muay Thai all the time. So, you know, they're doing all the leg conditioning. Jamal doesn't look in great shape. I mean, physically not a specimen, right? He's a big dude, taller, and probably more limby, but he's not as lean as he could be, right? Like, if we're optimizing for muscle mass, he has a good amount to go. I might be leaner than him, right? And that's not saying much in my opinion. Like, I just train for being healthy and happy, right? I'm not trying to be the optimal fighting machine at the moment. So, uh, he should be leaner. Khalil, on the other hand, is probably as lean as he can get and built like a tank. So, he can absorb much more punishment. And Khalil was able to drop Jamal a few times, but to Jamal's credit, he kept kind of coming up, never stood on his back or whatnot. And both of them didn't go for a takedown the whole fight, keeping Khalil's streak of zero takedowns alive as well, which in this fight made sense perhaps, but in other fights doesn't make sense. And it's funny to me because they talk about him training grappling and all that. It's like, yeah, but it's pretty worthless for him because the only time he's going to be in the ground, he's unconscious. So, doesn't make a lot of sense. He should, in my opinion, incorporate ground fighting into his thing, especially if he's going to try to be a title holder because that would be if I was him, the next time I challenge that title, I'm going for takedowns, right? He's not a young guy. So, in the fight world, I believe he's 35. So, he's at probably his technical peak. and this is likely the last run for the title he's going to have. He needs to make the most of it. So, if you had an ace up your sleeve, you should be pulling it in that title fight. And him going for takedowns would be that ace in the sleeve, right? Like if he does have I know he trains rapping, I believe it, and he might be good at it, too. So, it would be silly not to incorporate takedowns into your fight game because most people will probably not expect it. And it's going to ruin their base because they're now going to have to lower their stance to account for takedowns. Even if you don't care to stay on top, just by adding it in there, you're going to make your striking much more effective. But he won that fight five rounds to done. And he's calling for whatever it takes to become the champion. So if he can get a title shot, he'll take it. If he needs to fight someone else to get a title shot, he'll do that. So he didn't call anybody by name, but he wants that belt. So, like I said, like if he has an ace up his sleeve, he's been holding on to a trick for one special moment, that next title shot, he needs to use it, right? Because like I said, at this age, he needs to take advantage of it. Now something else that has happened they announced yesterday I think in the press conference post press conference is Jon Jones has officially retired from the UFC and Dana White declared this and also said now Tom Aspenol is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. In my opinion, he should have been the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world the moment that Francis Neagano vacated the belt when he decided to pursue boxing and went to the PFL. But better late than never. So, congrats to Tom. He did fulfill his prophecy that he mentioned months ago that he was going to retire John Jones without ever fighting him. For John, he left the sport in one of the more disgraceful ways in my opinion. He and he's been alluding to this for a while now saying the UFC knows my plans and I don't know why they're not announcing it. So, it might not be on him. And if it's not on him, they did the UFC did it really dirty then because they're making him look like a complete ass like a coward pretty much that held up the division for over a year. if it wasn't him. I mean, if Yeah. If it was in fact him going back and forth because I've read reports saying that the UFC offered him a big sum of money that he asked for. Well, I I think the order was they wanted him to fight. He wanted the big sum of money. They gave him that sum. He asked for a bigger sum. They gave him the bigger sum. And then he still said he didn't want to fight. That's again allegedly that's what has been reported. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but there's the the optics for Jon Jones is that now he basically retired to duck Tom Aspenol and everything he's been saying only like reaffirmed that, right? Like, oh, like I'm living my best life that I don't think that's being a duck. Um, you know, it's like, yes, that's exactly what it is. You're ducking somebody because you don't want to get into a tough fight, right? You're living your best life so that you can avoid the tough fight. So, hey, it looks terrible for him. Not to mention that on the same day, apparently they just charged him with a misdemeanor because he did another hit and run allegedly where apparently a woman was found drunk in a car and she said that she was with John and he crashed the car and he got out and ran out of the car. And that girl woman was not his wife. And apparently there's an innuendo that there was some uh sexual activity involved and that's how this guy is going to leave the sport. It sucks that he is probably the most talented fighter to ever show up in MMA, at least in my opinion. but that he's such a bad character like morally and ethically just all around just doesn't seem to be a good guy. I haven't met him in person but just by judging of the actions and you know this guy knows that he's involved himself with all the peeds that he's popped for the eye gouging and stuff. Uh it's like man why did he have to go out so ugly? you know, he could have won that fight uh against Miocic, got that belt even though I don't think he deserved it, but whatever. And then he could have just retired there and said, "I'm done." And, you know, people wouldn't have been happy about it anyways, but it wouldn't have been scandalous. It would have allowed the division to have continued to grown. Tom could have been fighting, you know, this whole time, taking on challenges or whatnot. It would have been better for that division because now that division is pretty cold. So Tom has to start taking out challengers right away to like bring that division back to life because it feels like the the exit of Francis already made that division less interesting. Then Jon Jones stalling out division just killed a lot of the interest. Right. So, uh, hopefully Tom can bring it back to life along with the rest of the cast of the heavyweight division now that there's flowing blood in that division, but really wish that John didn't go out the way he did. And he doesn't look like he's going out to a better place judging by this guy. Like I've told people, man, he's got money. Get a chauffeur, dude. Like, why are you driving? Like obviously you get drunk and intoxicated all the time. You shouldn't be behind the wheel, right? You shouldn't have someone drive for you and if you don't want to be fancy, just get an Uber, man. Like why are we doing this? You know, it's just insane. And uh actually my wife explained to me why he runs away cuz it's easier. It's a lesser charge apparently if at least what she was telling me. if you run away from an accident versus getting a DUI. Uh, which is curious, right? So, it's like that's a weird thing. Legally, you would think that running away would be