Bruno Malfacine received by his Alliance teammates after his victory over Caio Terra for the 2010 rooster weight gold medal. All images courtesy Cohost Dan.

by Philippe Balmant

I traveled from New York City with the (mG)inaction team to Long Beach California for the 4 day Mundials event for my first time ever. I found myself in a feeling of Jiu-Jitsu Nirvana. When first arriving at the Walter Pyramid I was blown away. This looks like something out of the movie Stargate. I said to myself, “What a perfect venue to host the Mundials.” Once inside the electricity is running through my body. I felt a great festive atmosphere inside the Pyramid. This event marks my first time linking up with the entire Alliance team. Meeting Mestre Jacare and the General Fabio Gurgel to me was worth the trip alone. Watching the white/blue belts competing in 8 rings at the same time kept me looking everywhere.

The acai stand was my source of a much needed refreshing energy boost when one was needed. I limited myself to two acai bowls per day. One thing was obvious from jump street, that this energy I felt was only going to go up, till the black belt finals on Sunday exploded in full effect! From Friday through Saturday the matches were coming and going non stop. One thing I found hard was when there were 3 or 4 world champions fighting in different rings all at the same time, now that was crazy. When Sunday June 6th arrived, where there were 8 rings are now only two.

There is a connection at the Mundials, like to the BJJ life source we all share, within your own team, between academies from fighters to supporters. It’s a high dose of Jiu-Jitsu on its biggest platform with a sprinkle of a carnival type atmosphere. I fell in love with it. My best experience was meeting Rickson. My favorite moment was when my professor Marcelo Garcia won his 4th black belt Mundial title, even though the last 8 seconds had me on Skype with God. Yes!!!!

Great matches, great victories, gracious defeats, quick submissions, a back and forth war, by 1 point, by 1 advantage, or by judges decision, with BJJ history being made. Mega props to Roger Gracie. The 2010 Mundials had it all. By the end I had pretty much lost my voice, was running around on pure adrenaline and hollering at Caleb and Dan from The Fightworks Podcast. Podium, medals, pictures. That’s all folks. Except for the voice of Tony Torres still in my head saying, “You have now been DQ’d………” Nobody says it better than that guy.

A few hours later with a celebratory dinner for team Alliance, the General gives us our first toast in which he brings to light that today June 6th 2010 marks 28 years since the legendary Mestre Rolls Gracie passed away. With Alliance winning its 5th World title, and Mestre Jacare receiving his red & black belt, our entire Alliance team ended this amazing night with joy, laughter and happiness.

- Caleb

The author and his Alliance teammates.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship made it official today, former light-heavyweight champs and opposing coaches from season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter”, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (30-7) and “Suga” Rashad Evans (14-1-1), will headline UFC 114 in May.

“It’s no secret that Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans don’t like each other, and this rivalry has gotten more and more intense in the last few months,” said UFC President Dana White. “I can guarantee you that neither one of these guys wants to lose to each other, this fight is going to be insane.”

UFC 114 is set to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 29 with tickets going on sale March 27th.

Their feud began after Jackson knocked out Evans teammate Keith Jardine last March at UFC 96, both men stood nose-to-nose in the octagon trading verbal jabs. They were both signed as coaches for “TUF” making their dislike for one another quite evident during the Spike TV broadcasts. Both men were to have met last December but Jackson had signed on to film the “A-Team” movie and was unable to make that date. Now both men will finally meet in May in a bout that should be full of electricity.

“I really want to knock this guy out,” Jackson said. “I’ve never, ever wanted to knock someone as cold as I want to knock Rashad Evans out. He’s disrespected me so much, for so long. I am so motivated to train my ass off. I’ve moved my coaches into my house already – Rashad should be prepared to see a brand new Rampage in May. I saw him in Sydney a few weeks back and we picked up right where we left off. I can’t stand him. He’s a disrespectful person and I didn’t even want to beat Wanderlei as much as I want to beat this guy.”

Jackson has won two in a row, defeating Keith Jardine at UFC 96 and Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92 in those victories, putting his record at 8-1 in his past nine.

“I don’t like all the pre-fight talking, so I can’t wait until I finally get my chance to shut him up,” said Evans. “There were a lot of times on the show when I wanted to hit him right there. When Keith [Jardine] was training for his fight with Rampage, I had to mimic Rampage’s style. I can probably beat Rampage as Rampage now. Plus, he’s gotten fat. He needs to get in shape just to get in shape. I may come to the Octagon with Mr. T just to get in his head.”

Evans bounced back after losing the light-heavyweight title to current champ Lyoto Machida by defeating Thiago Silva at UFC 108 last January. The loss to Machida marked his first career loss in sixteen professional bouts.

UFC.com

Ian McCutcheon FloWrestling.org
There is not much that I can add to the discussion of David Taylor and Colin Palmer.  Unless something drastic happens, this will be the high school match of the year.  Potentially, it’s the high school match of the decade.  With six, soon to be eight, state titles between the two, this was a dream for anybody associated with wrestling.  I give all the credit in the world to Taylor for having the guts to bump up in weight class, to Palmer for accepting the challenge, and to both coaches for making it happen.  For anybody who had the privilege of being in the building, it looked like an absolutely electric atmosphere, worthy of the magnitude of the bout. 
Everything in the previous paragraph has been said a thousand different ways by writers, message board posters, and John Q. fan who heard about the match.  But after looking at the totality of the weekend, the thing that interested me most was not the match.  In one of his interviews with Flo, Colin Palmer was asked what happened in the third period, where his 4-3 lead became an 8-5 loss.  He answered that “I don’t really get pushed too much,” and “I don’t have anybody that pushes me for the full six minutes,” to flesh out his point that conditioning played a part in the result.  On the flip side, Taylor was excited to mention that there are four or five guys he wrestles with that are national caliber, adding “there’s always somebody that’s going to take you down in practice.” 
This is not a knock on St. Ed’s program, or an assertion of Graham’s dominance as a program.  They’re two of the top programs in the history of high school wrestling.  But it does raise the real dilemma that elite wrestlers like Taylor and Palmer face.  In most sports, you can practice your skills individually and excel.  Great basketball players can work on shooting and ball handling at all times.  Baseball players take batting practice and throw.  Golfers can practice any shot in the book.  But wrestlers need somebody else to wrestle.  Being great is really only half the battle.  Wrestlers that are successful at the highest levels need not only their own individual talent, but people around to push them, whether it be fellow wrestlers, assistant coaches, or whoever.  Although wrestling appears individual, the contribution your workout partners make immeasurable, and ultimately makes the difference between champion and runner up. 
Frankly, this is one of the things that hurt the chances for ever having parity in the college game.  Wrestlers who want to become the best need to go where they’ll be pushed.  I’ve complained in this space before that team talent is way too concentrated.  But when you go to Iowa as a middle weight, you’re not just going for the tradition, but for the chance to roll around with Brent Metcalf and Ryan Morningstar every day.  That’s how you become the best.  While Michael Beasley can be the best high school player in the nation, go play for a relative basketball nobody like Kansas State and still be national player of the year and a lottery pick, a wrestler would have serious trouble flourishing in the same situation.  Schools of that profile in wrestling simply can’t handle a kid like David Taylor.  Dan Gable could be coaching the team, but if he doesn’t have the people to roll around with he’s not going to reach his ceiling.  More than any coaching change, budget shift, or facility upgrade, this is what holds back mid and lower tiered programs from jumping a level. 
One final addendum.  I loved seeing the packed house for this dual.  But what made me really happy was listening to David Taylor’s interview where he spoke of the atmosphere for the match.  As a former high school basketball player who doubles as a wrestling junkie, it was great to hear that the Graham student section is led by the basketball team.  It’s great that there is a student section period.    So often, wrestling tends have an incestuous crowd, where only wrestling people go to wrestling events and support the sport.  Often it appears as if this is by design.  As an outsider, I’ve noticed wrestling folk tend to isolate themselves as a fan base.  I realize that is imbedded in the culture.  It’s a lonely sport, and being independent is how you get through it.  But that’s not a great way to build a fan base.  The Palmer-Taylor match was.  The main reason for this is it was accessible to everybody.  Taylor said that he saw so many people that have never been to a match before.  With two competitors of that caliber and an atmosphere like that gym, tidily-winks could be exciting.  And more than just wrestling people saw it live.  That’s important.  The first time I went to a wrestling match, I saw defending state champs Matt Ciasulli and Jeff Ecklof go at it in front of a sold out crowd in Easton’s gym.  The electricity in the room that night hooked me to the sport for life.  Hopefully the same thing happened to somebody else last Saturday.   

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