Fighting to Escape Poverty

I never go to the school. I lost my dad when I was fourteen years old. I start selling drugs, I work with guns.. to make some money for my family. My friend, he say, 'Hey bro, you gonna be shot in the head like how your friends die. What are you going to do about life, your mom needs help.' Next thing I know, I sell the gun, give back the drugs, and I start fighting hard, to help my family.

--Diego Brandao, on how he started fighting.

Though Brazil is the sixth (almost fifth) largest economy in the world (Economist, 2011), there exists a disgusting economic disparity between 'rich' and 'poor' and millions of its citizens must deal with the pressure of poverty. Despite adversity, many Brazilian fighters have managed to become very financially successful through mixed martial arts.

For many young Brazilians, entering the drug trade is a highly risky yet potentially highly lucrative escape from their impoverished backgrounds. Films like 2002's City of God stylize but do not exaggerate the violence that accompanies the drug trade; from 1979 to 2000, 48,000 people were killed by firearms in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro alone (Neate, Platt, 2006).


Rural Brazil is less violent but still ripe with poverty; the Northeast is a land shaped by "drought as well as the fear of drought" (Arons, 2004) and its traditionally agricultural inhabitants struggle to grow food to sell, let alone to sustain themselves.


It is difficult enough to even make a living in such desperate conditions, let alone learn to fight. The fact of the matter is that MMA is basically a rich man's sport. While a sport like soccer can be practiced with a goal, a ball, and some other players (and in-school programs likely exist to support it), MMA requires much more coordinating, equipment, and money. Consider that, if you cannot find a gym dedicated to the sport of MMA, you must learn to wrestle and play Brazilian jiu-jitsu; you must also learn to box and also to use your kicks. This requires at the very least a mouth guard and gloves, but could potentially require shin guards, a gi, and a protective cup on top of the monthly fees of your gyms and the sheer time and effort involved in these pursuits.


That only makes some of these fighters' accomplishments more incredible. Consider the top dog of the featherweight division, Jose Aldo, who grew up poor and trained with kids from Rio's favelas with dreams of making it rich one day ("Fight! life," 2010). Or the story of Rouismar "Toquinho" Palhares, whose background is so haunting that he, a 200lb. destroyer with a penchant for joint locks, started choking back tears during an interview with ESPN (Teague, 2011) when describing a time that he and his family had to eat pig feed in order to survive.


I love the fact that some of these Brazilians are not only incredible fighters, but remarkable human beings who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to get to where they are. You can see them in the ring, fighting with a fury, an intensity, a hunger that they carry on their backs to remind them of their roots.


Update: The morning after this entry was posted, MMAJunkie released a short article on poor fighters in Brazil. Check it out.


Sources:


Arons, N. (2004). Waiting for rain. (p. 24). University of Arizona Press.


Neate, P., & Platt, D. (2006).Culture is our weapon. (p. 116). New York, New York: Penguin Books.


(2010). Fight! life: José Aldo - the beautiful game. (2010). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btbsdhDWnOY


Teague, H. (2011, August 22). Palhares still battles to escape past. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/6881815/poverty-professional-powerful-rousimar-palhares

Wars of Race and Class in the Ring

“Come on, hit me in the face, playboy. Where is your jiu-jitsu?”
--Anderson Silva to fellow Brazilian Demian Maia, during their title fight.

Last year’s UFC 112 event was headlined by a middleweight title fight between the striking phenomenon Anderson Silva and the grappling prodigy Demian Maia. Fans expected Silva to come out guns-blazing from the bell, and sure enough, he dropped his opponent with a straight right hand early in the fight. Then, instead of swarming on the disoriented Maia with punches, Anderson Silva struck comical poses and taunted his opponent. 


The striker used his fantastic speed to feint his opponent and tag him with hard punches that Maia had absolutely no answer for. The taunts continued for 25 minutes, and Maia was helpless on the way to a decision loss (MMA Junkie, 2010).

Brawlin’ Brazilians: People You Should Watch

Picking up the sport of MMA as a viewer is kind of tough to do. Before you know which fighters you like, sometimes you have to snore through matches where nothing happens. Here are some notable Brazilian fighters that will keep you on the edge of your seat:

Junior "Cigano" Dos Santos

If you really look at how Fabricio Werdum's head moves in Junior Dos Santos's UFC debut, it's clear that the very last thing he saw before getting knocked out was the cruise missle of a right uppercut that Junior Dos Santos launched towards his face. Sometimes I lie awake at night, just staring at the ceiling and wondering what Werdum's last thoughts were.

Dos Santos's path to the UFC Heavyweight Championship fight next month was paved on straight pineboxing guys with his boxing. Dude has serious fists.

Fights to watch: Gabriel Gonzaga, Gilbert Yvel, Stefan Struve.

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

When "Big Nog" was eleven years old, he was essentially bisected by a truck. He shrugged it off and became the PRIDE heavyweight champion, and later, the UFC heavyweight champion (Sydney Morning Herald). For years, Nogueira's fighting style was the ancient art of, "get beat up until you can submit your opponent via Hail Mary-fu." He took Fedor to decision, twice, and threw an armbar on former football player Bob Sapp after being powerbombed into the mat.

Last month he was the heavy underdog when he fought former Golden Gloves champion and NFL football player Brendan Schaub (Fowlkes), as Nogueira had been knocked out in two of his last three fights and Schaub had finished three in a row by violent stoppage. The bar I was in exploded when Nogueira threw a sick ten-punch combination and put away the young lion.

Fights to watch: Randy Couture, Bob Sapp.

Anderson Silva: 



Without question, the best fighter alive. Every time he walks into the cage we watch real greatness unfold. I cannot say enough good things about him, his striking, reflexes, speed, and creativity are excellent.

He even did a dance routine choreographed to a Justin Bieber song, which, in a weird way, makes me like both guys more. We live in a world where teen pop sensation Justin Bieber and pound-for-pound emperor Anderson Silva are buddies. Is this real life?

Jose Aldo

Trying to punch a professional fighter is a lot like trying to kill a fly with a newspaper: they move around a lot and taunt you when you miss. Now, try knocking out a professional fighter in less than ten seconds, in mid-air, using just your knees. If you succeeded, you just might be Jose Aldo fighting Cub Swanson in the now-defunct WEC.

But probably not. You'd also have to have a twelve fight winning streak against the best featherweight fighters in the world, as well as a UFC championship under your belt.

Fights to watch: Mike Brown, Mark Hominick, Cub Swanson.



Sources:


"Horrific accident puts Nogueira's challenge in perspective." Sydney Morning Herald. 10 Jan. 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. <http://www.smh.com.au/sport/horrific-accident-puts-nogueiras-challenge-in-perspective-20100129-n3y2.html>.


Zeus. "Watch Anderson Silva Perform a Justin Bieber Routine Complete with Backup Dancers." MiddleEasy.com. 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. <http://middleeasy.com/index.php?option=com_content>.

The Thai Clinch: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Knees

“Grab his neck this time, I start knee! Knee! Push him down, grab, grab tight. He cannot defend the head. He cannot defend the body. I can rain! Knees! As long as I want!”

 -Former UFC Heavyweight Champion, former King of Pancrase, and MMA legend Sebastiaan “Bas” Rutten on knees from the clinch.

Muay Thai is a striking art that originated in Thailand, but was brought to Brazil in the late 1970s by Professor Nelio Borges. It was eventually passed on to a man named Rudimar Fedrigo, founder of Chute Boxe, a team that was once considered by many to house the most dangerous men in the world (BMTA). Its most famous members were people like Anderson Silva, the current UFC Middleweight Champion; Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, the winner of PRIDE's 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion; and Wanderlei Silva, PRIDE's 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix champion.

These guys are probably my favorite fighters, and some of their most memorable moments in my eyes are centered around their use of the Thai clinch. Brazilians are awesome with the clinch.

The premise of the Thai clinch is simple, but brutal: you grab the back of someone’s head with both hands, bring them close to your body, and now you have complete control of your opponent’s neck. From here, you can throw them off balance or use your knees to attack their body and face.

The clinch (also called the Thai Plum) is so effective that it was actually banned from use in kickboxing’s largest organization, K-1 (Coffeen). There are a few reasons why the clinch allows you to maximize the amount of punishment you give out while taking relatively little damage, including:

Clinching reduces the effectiveness of your opponent's attacks. This works because your control of the opponent's head interferes with their field of view, and your close proximity does not allow your opponent to land clean punches to vital areas. Notice how, in the above images, neither of the men opposite the Brazilians is capable of doing any significant damage.

Clinching allows you to control your opponent. Longtime MMA trainer Martin Rooney says that "the neck is the pillar of the body" (Rooney). That means that wherever your neck goes, the rest of your body follows. Using the clinch allows you to efficiently drag or throw your opponent via head and neck control, as artfully demonstrated by Thai Plum wizard Anderson Silva in his fight against Rich Franklin.

Silva was able to use the forward momentum of his foe, Rich Franklin, to his advantage. Franklin was whipped against the cage, which heavily limited his mobility and allowed him to be set up for a variety of strikes, throws, and trips. Moreover, part of the reason K-1 banned the use of the Thai clinch was its potential for defensive use; fighters with their backs against the wall would clinch their opponents and avoid being trapped in a corner of the ring (Coffeen).

Clinching allows you to throw your knees. You can uppercut, elbow, and kick from the clinch, but the real money lies in firing up your knees to your opponent's face or torso. Not only is your opponent's posture broken, thus lowering their head enough to be hit with a knee, but your control over their neck allows you to pull their face towards your knee as you strike.

 

Like I said before, Brazilians from the Chute Boxe camp are awesome clinch fighters. Now you know what people are talking about when they refer to something as the "Bees' Knees."

(Bees' refers to Brazilians'. I'm terrible, I know.)

Sources:

"History of Muay Thai." Brazil Muay Thai Association. Brazil Muay Thai Association. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bmta.com.br/>.

Coffeen, Fraser. "K-1 Rule Change Bans Strikes from the Clinch - Head Kick Legend." Head Kick Legend. Head Kick Legend, 27 Mar. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.headkicklegend.com/2010/3/27/1392947/k-1-rule-change-strikes-from-the>.

Rooney, Martin. "11 Myths of Warrior Training." T-NATION. Testosterone Nation, 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. 

<http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/11_myths_of_warrior_training>.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: How One Family Changed the Face of Fighting

"It's like chess, if you had a million pieces. It's a game, and the game is using your body to dominate another person's body with technique and leverage."

-Joe Rogan, commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, former U.S. Open champion in tae kwon do, and brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is the magic bullet of martial arts. It focuses on chokes, joint locks, and achieving advantageous positions during grappling to neutralize your opponent's offense. If your technique is solid enough, you can disable people that are stronger, faster, and bigger than you.


Mitsuyo Maeda brought the art of Jiu-Jitsu from Japan to Brazil and taught it to Carlos Gracie, the eldest of several brothers. Carlos opened up a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu gym in 1925, but it was his youngest brother, Helio, that took the style and ran with it.

Helio Gracie (1913 – 2009) was always smaller and physically weaker than the rest of the Gracie brothers. In order to make up for his lack of size, Helio modified Jiu-Jitsu techniques to take greater advantage of leverage. Thus, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was born (Onzuka).

BJJ is so brutally effective that 170lb. Royce Gracie (one of Helio's children) literally volunteered to step into a steel cage with over 220lbs. of steroids and spandex in Ken Shamrock at the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Obviously Royce won; otherwise there would be no point in telling you this story. But it wasn't just any David and Goliath victory--it only took Royce Gracie fifty-seven seconds for to sink his nasty rear naked choke on Ken Shamrock. Here is an excellent video of Royce Gracie's nephews breaking down the fight and its techniques on YouTube, with clips from the original UFC 1 showdown:

Since that fateful match between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has become part of every modern fighter's arsenal--you simply cannot win in MMA without being able to apply or at least avoid submissions. A fighter that has never heard of a heel hook is like a math major that doesn't know long division.


On January 29, 2009, Helio Gracie died at 95 years of age. His last words were, "I created a flag from the sport’s dignity. I oversee the name of my family with affection and nerves of blood." 

 Sources:

Onzuka, Chris. "A Gracie Family Pictorial." Onzuka Brothers, n. d. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.onzuka.com/graciepix.html>.


"Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock UFC 1 (Gracie Breakdown - Classics)." Video. Rener Gracie. GracieBreakdown, 2010. Web. 14 Oct 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSS9CuuPvQg>.


Rogan, Joe. "PODCAST #132 - Bert Kreischer, Brian Redban." The Joe Rogan Experience. 22 Aug 2011.

Why is a Chinese Guy from Texas Writing about Brazilians Fighting?

"I tried to punch him--I tried to punch him! And he literally moved his head out of the way and looked at me like I was stupid for doing it. He looked at me like, 'Why would you do such a stupid thing?' ...And then he punched me. I felt like a kid trying to wrestle his dad."

-Forrest Griffin, former UFC light heavyweight champion, on fighting Anderson Silva.

One summer, my friends and I saw a grainy video of a Brazilian fighter named Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons. He threw grown men around with reckless abandon and fought like his every limb had a personal vendetta against faces. Pele combined a violent, animal explosiveness with the grace of a dancer. By the end of the video, he seemed ten feet tall and immortal.

My name is Andre. I love the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and, being a career weekend warrior, I punch things and wrestle sweaty men in my spare time. After seeing Pele’s highlight reel, I started studying Brazilian fighters and the way they fought because I wanted to be able to do what Pele did in the ring.

(Beating up heavy bags for lunch money.)

Brazil produces the most talented and most aggressive sport fighters in the world. Champions like Mauricio Rua, Wanderlei Silva, and Anderson Silva (no relation) absolutely dominated the fight game at one point or another, inspiring fear and respect in their opponents by literally knocking out the competition.

Brazil is also the birthplace of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), a style of fighting that allows its practitioners to disable much larger, stronger opponents. It sounds like an urban legend, but Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu proves itself in the thousands of fighters who employ it in MMA matches all around the world. In this day and age, being a complete martial artist means knowing how to defend against the style and how to use it to your advantage. If you’re still scoffing at BJJ and like to pick fights, I’d suggest carrying a pillow around so that you always have a soft place to be unconscious.

Brazilian fighters, past and present, have a reputation for changing the way people punch each other in the face. I will write about the fights, the fighters, and the fighting styles of Brazil and their impact on the world.ride, ufc, strikeforce, vale tudo, chute box). Perf. Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons. YouTube, 2006. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMBzXJbEQoU>.


   Forrest Griffin talks about Anderson Silva fight. Perf. Forrest Griffin. YouTube, 2010. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1R50LpFh_M>