The Wrestler’s Dissertation, Chinese and Western Wrestling By Dr. Antonio Graceffo Pankration, Gladiators, Mongolia, Shaolin kung fu, Catch Wrestling, the Olympics, Wushu, Pro Wrestling, Sanda, and MMA… The Wrestler’s Dissertation traces the history and evolution of Western wrestling, from Ancient Greece, to Catch wrestling champion Frank Gotch, and on to Gorgeous George, Hulkamania, and UFC […]
Rocky Marciano was born poor and died rich. But that was boxing, not MMA. In 2011 when I took the Cambodian team to fight MMA the first professional tournament in Malaysia, a lot of people were putting pressure on me to sign them to one of Asia’s most prestigious MMA promotions, even though the Cambodians […]
“Judo is a source of national pride in Japan, where the martial art originated.” (Cheng, 2012) But as larger, stronger foreigners, often with a wrestling background, entered the sport, the Japanese world-domination of Judo was challenged. Over the last fifty years judo has seen many rule changes which remove the advantage from western trained […]
Recently, I saw a Facebook video of a grappling competition, between a freestyle wrestler and a Brazilian Jujitsu practitioner. There are a lot of Youtube videos with titles like “Muay Thai vs. Kyokushin” or “Kung Fu vs. MMA” but what I liked about this particular video was that both practitioners were wearing the clothing appropriate […]
Sensei Gary Rasanen, an 8th degree grand master of judo grabs my sleeve and my lapel, similar to a grip used in Chinese shuai jiao wrestling. He pulls me into his hip, sits down slightly, while pulling my arm across his chest, and suddenly, I am airborne. I slam, hard on the mat, as his body […]
For the first time in about a year, I had no classes, no work, and no wrestling team practice for three days. So, I took my san da training mates and my wrestling teammates from Shanghai University of Sports to Fighters Unite MMA gym. In one night, we did boxing, san da, MMA, muay Thai, […]
It’s no secret that MMA in the US is dominated by former wrestlers. In fact, 8 of the 10 current UFC champions are former collegiate or high school wrestlers. In China, MMA is dominated by san da fighters. MMA in China pays a lot better than san da, which attracts a lot of fighters, even […]
The world’s first, ever, book dedicated 100% to Cambodian martial arts. In this rare work you will find stories about the three Khmer martial arts: Bradal Serey (kick boxing), Jap Bap (wrestling), and the ancient fighting system of Bokator. The book includes interviews and profiles with most of Cambodia’s living masters and some of Cambodia’s […]
Background: Mayhem II is an MMA (mixed martial arts) tournament held in Selangor, Malaysia, sponsored by Muayfit, on September 11, 2011. The event was historic because, with over 60 fighters taking part, it was the largest MMA tournament ever held in Malaysia. For the Cambodian team this was an extremely important event because they represent […]
On day six of training, with two K-1 Fight Factory instructors pushing me, I broke my personal record, 10 sets of Randy Couture speed weightlifting routine, each in just under a minute. On the first day, my average had been two minutes. These are the kinds of insane results you can get training three times […]