The MMA Encyclopedia - Softcover

Snowden, Jonathan; Shields, Kendall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1550229230 ISBN 13: 9781550229233

Verlag: ECW Press,Canada, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

?“Did you see the big fight this weekend?” The question used to be about boxing matches, when the giants of the fight world were Mike Tyson and Roy Jones. Now fans are leaving the sweet science in droves for the combat sport of the future: mixed martial arts (MMA).MMA has drawn millions on cable and network television, as well as out-performed professional wrestling and boxing on pay-per-view. Fans are attracted to the sport, but unlike boxing (where strategy and technique are limited to using both your left and right hands), an MMA fight can be surprisingly complicated.The MMA Encyclopedia puts the fighters, the facts, and the fundamentals of the world's fastest growing sport at your fingertips as the definitive reference guide to mixed martial arts. The encyclopedia will break the MMA language barrier for those who don't know a wristlock from a wristwatch, while at the same time offering perspective and analysis that will entertain the hardcore fan who already has the basics down pat. With three appendices that detail the results of every MMA?fight in history, this the ultimate reference book for the ultimate sport.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Jonathan Snowden is a former lawyer, a radio DJ, and a television producer. He is the author of Total MMA, has worked for the U.S. Army and the White House Communications Agency, is trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the Army Combatives Program, and currently works for the Department of Defense. He lives in Vienna, Virginia. Kendall Shields teaches English at Saint Mary’s University and judo at the Dalhousie University Judo Club. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Jonathan Snowden ?quit his job as a lawyer after September 11, 2001, to join the United States Army. He trained in Brazilian jiu jitsu and the Army Combatives Program and fell in love with the UFC. He is a former radio DJ and television producer who worked for the White House Communications Agency in Washington, D.C. He currently works for the Department of Defense and is a Contributing Editor for UGO.com and the author of Total MMA (ECW Press, 2008). Kendall Shields lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he teaches English at Saint Mary’s University and judo at the Dalhousie University Judo Club. This is his first book.

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The MMA Encyclopedia

By Jonathan Snowden, Kendall Shields, Peter Lockley, Michael Holmes

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2010 Jonathan Snowden and Kendall Shields
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55022-923-3

CHAPTER 1

Abbott, David

Nickname: Tank

Height: 6'

Weight: 285 lbs

Born: 4/16/65

Debut: UFC 6 (7/14/95)

Career Record: 10–14

Notable Wins: Paul Varelans (UFC 6); Yoji Anjo (UFC 15.5); Wesley "Cabbage" Correira (ROTR 7)

Notable Losses: Oleg Taktarov (UFC 6); Dan Severn (Ultimate Ultimate 95); Don Frye (Ultimate Ultimate 96); Pedro Rizzo (UFC 17.5); Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson (EliteXC: Street Certified

It wasn't the brutal knockout of the 400-pound John Matua that made David "Tank" Abbott stand out in a crowded MMA landscape. It was the dance — just a little shimmy mimicking Matua's scary convulsions as he lay unconscious on the mat — that immediately made Abbott one of the UFC's biggest stars.

Before Abbott burst onto the scene in 1995 at UFC 6, the UFC was filled with respectful athletes, martial artists who conducted themselves with class and dignity. With his crass interviews, often mocking his opponents and making light of the trauma he had just inflicted on their brains with his hammering fists, Abbott was a breath of fresh air. He was the anti–martial artist, a welcoming and familiar figure for fans who still weren't sure what to make of Gracie Jiu-jitsu and the ground game. This was a fighter they could feel comfortable with: a bar fighter with a bald head, barrel chest, and long beard. This was what a fighter was supposed to look like.

"I just got out of jail for beating somebody up — in fact, a cop's son," Abbott said. His background gave UFC promoters reason to worry. But Abbott had a solid case for his inclusion in the event. "Isn't this supposed to be about fighting? And they said, 'Yeah, but you've got to have some kind of a black belt or something.' And I said, 'That's not what I'm about. I'm about fighting in the streets.' They called me a couple days later and said, 'We came up with this thing called Tank Abbott. It's from the Every Which Way But Loose movie from Clint Eastwood.' That's where the Tank came from."

It was a brilliant marketing ploy, not just by Semaphore Entertainment Group, but by Abbott himself. The Tank may have looked like an ignorant thug, but that was for show. He was a legitimately tough guy, but he was also a college graduate and a junior college wrestling star. This wasn't part of the UFC's pitch, though. Fans preferred to think of Abbott as a menacing street fighter and that was what SEG gave them.

Unfortunately for Abbott, the martial artists he professed to hate so much were more than a match for him. Abbott's career is filled with devastating knockouts of journeymen and tomato cans, but every time he stood in the cage with a legitimate martial artist, he lost and lost convincingly. Even in defeat, Tank was still able to convince fans he was the tougher guy. He was famous for heading to the bar while his conqueror headed to the hospital.

It was an act that seemed to age poorly. If tapping out to a sneering Frank Mir's toe hold didn't kill the Abbott myth, a first round knockout in just 43 seconds at the hands of street fighter Kimbo Slice surely did. Despite these convincing losses, Abbott will continue to fight on. As long as there are promoters who are willing to pay big bucks for the nostalgia of having Tank Abbott on their cards, the Tank will be there, lacing up his gloves and ready to fall down for old time's sake.

Tank Abbott: Wrestling Star

During his UFC run, Tank Abbott's biggest nemesis was the promotion's pretty boy Ken Shamrock. One SEG insider thought of Shamrock's Lion's Den and Abbott's crew as the Sharks and the Jets. Like the gangs in West Side Story, the two crews seemed destined to rumble. Instead, the fireworks were all verbal, especially after Shamrock left fighting for professional wrestling. Abbott mocked him mercilessly, but as the UFC paychecks got smaller, Abbott's opposition to pro wrestling shrank as well. In 1999, Abbott took the leap with Time Warner's World Championship Wrestling.

He joined the promotion in a tumultuous time. WCW had peaked with an evil Hulk Hogan leading his New World Order stable against aging good guys like Sting and Ric Flair. They were desperate for the next big thing and were tossing ideas against the wall with reckless abandon. Abbott was far from the only experiment; WCW also brought in KISS to help christen a KISS Demon character and signed the rapper Master P to headline a rap versus country music feud.

In this creative chasm, Abbott's wrestling persona changed by the day. He was a tough guy with one-punch-knockout power during a "Colors on a Pole" match with Big Al at one pay-per-view and the goofy dancing bodyguard for the boy-band knockoff "3 Count" at another show.

"The powers that be in WCW were changing every day; you never knew who was in charge. They just came up with new ideas and things for me to do. I think they were hoping it wouldn't go well for me," Abbott said. "I thought it was actually kind of funny to go out and dance with those guys. What the hell — let's go have some fun."

Achilles hold:

see Leg locks

ADCC

The Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championship — more often referred to as ADCC, or simply Abu Dhabi — is the most prestigious competition in the world of no-gi submission grappling. Founded by MMA enthusiast Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his Brazilian Jiu-jitsu instructor Nelson Monteiro in 1998, the ADCC's mandate is to bring grapplers from various disciplines together to compete under rules agreeable to competitors from all styles — though ADCC rules resemble those of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu more closely than those of any other art or sport. And indeed, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners have enjoyed far more success at ADCC than representatives of sambo, judo , or wrestling. Aside from Mark Kerr and Sanae Kikuta, representing wrestling and judo respectively, all ADCC champions have been top Brazilian Jiu-jitsu exponents. This is no doubt due to at least two factors: the undeniable, inherent quality of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as the premier submission discipline of its era, and the fact that the ADCC is simply not on the radar of active elite wrestlers and judo players. Perhaps one day Sheik Tahnoon's dream of top athletes from every major grappling discipline competing under a common rule set will be fully realized. Until then, it is what it is: a slightly dry but intriguing tournament featuring many of the biggest names in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and MMA.

In Their Own Words: Matt Hume on ADCC

"Sheik Tahnoon saw me defeat Kenny Monday in the first world submission wrestling championship called 'The Contenders.' At the time, he was training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu with Nelson Montero. He had seen Gracie Jiu-jitsu defeat all comers in the early UFC s, but started to see wrestlers come in and have success over some of the good jiu-jitsu practitioners. Then he saw me defeat the most decorated wrestler in only 45 seconds! He had his assistant contact me and I went to Abu Dhabi to train him and his combat team. Shortly after I taught him, he decided to hold the first Abu Dhabi submission championships and the rest is history.

"Training Sheik Tahnoon and his combat team...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ECW Press,Canada
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1550229230
• ISBN 13: 9781550229233
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 585
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland