[mma tv] Art of War on GoFish

I just noticed that some Art of War videos are avaible on GoFish, in their MMA fights section. Those are the same videos avaible on chinese sites like Tudou.com, but hopefully they'll reach a wider audience here.

K1 Hong Kong results

results here

Chinese fighter Wang Qiang made it to the finals after beating Randy Kim and Musashi, but lost by KO to Fujimoto.

update: I watched the fights, and here's what happened. During the second semi-final match, Wang Qiang kneed Musashi in the groin, and Musashi's corner threw in the towel because he was unable to go on (he had already been kicked in the groin multiple times in a previous fight this evening). Wang Qiang was declared the winner, but the decision was overturned moments later and they decided to let the match continue after a 3 minutes rest period instead. But apparently no one decided it was important to tell Wang Qiang (who probably doesn't understand either Japanese or English) because he left the ring, leaving Musashi to be declared the de facto winner.

However, since Musashi couldn't recover in time for the final, it was still Wang Qiang who fought Fujimoto. He was actually doing pretty well, and had Fujimoto running away before getting knocked down.
I have to say I wasn't very impressed with the level of the tournament, but then again I'm a MMA fan first, so I don't know much about K1.

[china mma] AoW 7 results

Results here

There were so many draws because if a fight went the distance it was automatically declared a draw.

[shuai jiao] Wrestling King (Jiao Wang)

Thanks to Michael and his great blog Shuaijiao.tv for pointing out this new Chinese show: Wrestling King *. Basically it's about a Chinese wrestler confronting the evil Japanese and using his martial arts skills to defeat the bad guys. So ok, it's the same plot as every other Chinese series ever written, but this time it's about wrestling. Can you imagine a show about a special forces agent using BJJ to fight terrorists ? Or a unit of crime fighting Sambo experts ? Or what about a special squad of MMA fighters that go around fighting demons and solving mysteries ? (mysteries such as "can you choke out a vampire ?")

Here are episodes 1, 2, and 3.

*ps: I don't necesarilly agree on Michael's view on wrestling and its potential influence on Chinese gender perception. In my experience, Chinese female wrestlers don't look that feminine either...

[China MMA]: Art of War 7

You know, when I first had the idea of writing this blog, I figured it would be easy enough. Companies would want free publicity and would send me info about their MMA events, BJJ competitions, or exciting new V1agr@ discount without even having to ask.

But as I found out, things are not that easy. So I actually had to type in "mmachina.com" myself and press enter with my own index finger to bring you this hard-hitting news update: Art of War 7 is taking place on July 28. The event is titled "谁主浮沉", which you could translate as "Sink or Swim".

This time the theme is "Thailand Fighters vs Chinese Experts". I'm a little bit disapointed that the "thailand" fighters are not actually from Thailand, but rather Chinese Muay Thai fighters. But since they have competed (and probably trained) in Thailand too, you can expect their skills in the striking department to be up to par. So it will be a good occasion to test Sanda fighters' standup skills, or, if they are found wanting, to test their takedown and ground skills.
I still see most Sanda fighters winning by double leg + ground and pound, but it should make for interesting match ups.
Another new participant is Ba Te Er (巴特尔) (you can watch him here, black trunks at 0:40), the reigning 80kg Sanda Wang (King of Sanda). Apparently there's another Ba Te Er who plays basketball, so don't get confused.

UFC in China ?

ChinaCombat exclusive: the UFC has plans for an event in China, with the main event being a superfight between action superstars Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa !
Also on the card: Chuck Lidell, Tim Sylvia, Nick Diaz, Diego Sanchez...

At least that's what you might think after seeing the image above, which is actually the cover of a fake DVD for the movie "Long Zhong Shou" (龙中兽, you could translate that as "the beast among dragons"). If you've bought pirated DVDs in China before, you know not to judge a DVD by its cover. So the movie probably doesn't include Chuck Lidell or Tim Sylvia, and it wouldn't surprise me if neither Jackie Chan or Tony Jaa were in it.

But anyway, thanks to chinese pirates we now know that Chuck Lidell and Jorge Rivera are known in China as the "Twin Monsters from Hell".

Article about China's MMA in Fightsport !

For those of you living in France, Fightsport (the number one MMA magazine here) has a great article on Art of War. I had the pleasure to contribute to it, too !

Here is a translation from my small interview:

Sacha Greif: "it's very hard to get permission [to hold an MMA event] in China "

He trains jujitsu at the Sankuno when he's in France, but he's been living in China for almost one year. Over there, he discovered fresh and almost unexplored grounds for MMA and grappling. He follows the local scene through his blog, ChinaCombat.

Why did you come to China ?
I originally studied Computer Science, but I also studied Chinese for 4 years. I graduated last year, and I decided to spend this year living in China to put my language skills to use. I spent 4 months in Guangzhou before coming back home and then coming to Beijing to work as a web designer.

What's martial arts and MMA like in China ?

MMA and combat sports are not that developed in China, so it's easy to quickly meet a lot of the scene's main figures .

How do you see MMA's chances of developing in China ?

Frankly speaking, a lot of people are doubting that MMA will explode here anytime soon, because it's hard to change the mentalities. Add to that the fact that in order to hold any kind of event in China, you need to go through a long (and costly) process to obtain the necessary authorisations.

How woud you describe the current MMA scene ?

Andy Pi is probably the only one who really got his name out. The Sanda fighters that he trained in jujitsu are starting to have a pretty decent understanding of MMA. And Art of War events may not possess a very high level of competition, but they're still fun to watch.