Jiu-Jitsu legend Helio Gracie has died. From sickly child of a poor Brazilian family to a fighting legend, Helio Gracie (nicknamed Caxinguele or Squirrel by his family), inspired a paradigm shift in Martial Arts. He will be Missed.
posted by tkchrist on Jan 29, 2009 - 46 comments

Don't Eat the Pictures! Sesame Street gets locked inside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on May 24, 2008 - 12 comments

This is a post about 6'4", 380 lb. professional fighter and entertainer Bob Sapp. A good place to start is this fantastic, disdainful overview of Sapp's kickboxing career through 2005. It features lots of pictures, crooked officiating, illegal blows to the back of the head, and some well-deserved humbling. Sapp is also known for a less distinguished MMA career, which includes one of the most exciting fights of all time, against the great Antônio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira (Watch it here: [Round 1] [Round 2]). [more inside]
posted by 1 on Feb 13, 2008 - 50 comments

MMA star Evan Tanner has a new vision; one that still involves fighting, but on a completely different level.
posted by the cuban on Mar 13, 2007 - 5 comments

“When I went to the bathroom there was a sign on the wall right in front of me saying: ‘ONE STEP FORWARD!.’ … I felt I needed to start something else.” Genki Sudo retires
posted by the cuban on Dec 31, 2006 - 17 comments

Last week, Pride Fighting Championships had their American debut in Las Vegas. Pride FC is a Mixed Martial Arts organization from Japan that boasts a lineup of fighters arguably superior to those of other MMA groups. Their heavyweight champion for example, Fedor Emelianenko, is considered the best MMA fighter ever by most fight commentators. They are famous for their operatic production values, regularly filling out 30-60,000 seat arenas in Japan. However, many in MMA circles assert that their product is "too foreign" for the US, and that they need to "Americanize" their product for the mass market. Is this true? Given the popularity of video games, Anime and Manga in the US, they might not have to change all that much.
posted by ishmael on Oct 25, 2006 - 68 comments