So this Japanese Brazilian guy comes into our gym last night to train. Our instructor introduces him to the class as Lyoto Machida. Says he does MMA, and he’s an up-and-coming fighter. He’s a big dude.. 210lbs, 6’0″ maybe, very technical despite his size. We do drills with him all night to work his grappling because he’s fighting in LA Sub X on Friday. He’s a quiet guy, really nice and respectful of everyone.

Then this morning I google him. First page of the results contains videos of his fights with Stephan Bonnar and Rich Franklin. Holy shit!!! Then I check Sherdog and find out he’s beaten BJ Penn too.

Watching his videos and having met him in person, I have to say the guy’s a class act and has a huge potential in MMA. Needless to say, I’ll be following this guy’s career and I wish him the best.

Bas Rutten is one of our all-time favorite MMA stars. The guy is just a total character, and he seems rather fixated on destroying livers. We are too, but we prefer the booze method. It takes a lot longer, but it’s way more fun.

We sure will miss his commentary on Pride.

Here is the readers digest lickity-split ROFL version of one of Bas’ self-defense videos. If you want to pick up Bas DVDs, go here. I got some just for the comedy alone.

All I could think after watching this fight is that Hunt’s head is not made of the same things that yours and mine are. Holy fuck! The guy takes about 30 big knees to the dome, stands up, and kicks the crap out of Bobish. You might say that he has heart. But I’m more inclined to suspect that he just has a rubber head. There is defintely some kind of processing mechanism in there that triggers his lumbering Samoan stature to move at unholy speeds, but I believe that it is encased in a thick rubber layer. How else can a guy take a head kick from Crocop and remain standing?

Check out this highlight reel and you will invariably come to the same conclusion. Video by Mick B.