If there is one thing that I am good at, that thing would be eating. So when Karl Turek challenged me to a chicken wing eating contest, I knew that I had an easy win. We scheduled our showdown for Wednesday, August 25th at high noon at the Downtown BW3s here in beautiful Milwaukee. The rules were simple… eat as many wings as possible, first to stop pays! The wing sauce flavor was optional, so I went for my favorite, Parmesan Garlic, while Karl stuck with the trusty Medium. We ordered 50 off the bat, 25 each…
We cruised through the first 25 with no problem. Karl was slowed by a phone call, so I took an early lead and finished 3 wings ahead (while our 2nd round was on the way).
The 2nd round started in controversy as my pile looked smaller. After a count it turned out that I was in fact only given 20 wings! We quickly complained to the waitress (though I would have taken the help), and 5 more were on the way.
Round 2 had a fast start, but Karl started to fade. I noticed him starting to get weaker, so I upped my pace to start getting in his head. I looked up near the end (I had 4 left, he had 8 ) and noticed him giving that “holding back vomit” look. I also noticed he was starting to shake. I quickly finished mine and continually asked how many should we order for round 3. I figured if I seemed confident enough, that he might quit just to avoid buying an extra order. After some strong bluffing from Karl, he quit!!!
I retained my title of the coolest guy in the world! Karl decided to stop and not even finish his last 4. Final total-50 to 46. I danced in his face to show how proud I was!
Karl paid for the 70 dollar food bill. I, being the nicest guy ever, decided to cover the tip. Then I went home and pooped blood…. THE END
Yo my millions of Redimaniacs! I had to take a few weeks off due to being an old man, but I finally got back on the mat last week at C3-The Patriot Games (July 31st). C3 is a solid tournament, so we got the team together and headed off to Gary, Indiana. The team did awesome (as usual). Omar, Justin, Carlos, Ben, Mike, and Chris all medalled.
I did the Advanced No Gi Absolute division for the $500 cash prize. Check out this video to see how it went (story is in the video)…
As you can see, I won, but my size advantage really helped. Congrats to all my opponents on the tough matches…
————————–GLORY DAYS——————————-
My ladyfriend and I took a vacation to Door County, WI. I used to work up there for the summers during college and many dumb adventures were had. Nothing as dumb as this though-I did an eating challenge for $100. The goal was simple: eat a 26-inch pizza with one topping in one hour. Now that might not seem like much, but that is the equivalent of 4.7 12-inch pizzas (Domino’s type thickness). At the time of the challenge (7-31-98) over 100 people had tried it, and all failed including many pro and college football players! There was a photo gallery of all the failures, and I was not about to join that group. I prepped myself by eating a ton of macaroni the night before to stretch out my stomach. After work the next day, I went in and order the pizza. My advisor, Slade Martin, recommended tomatoes as the topping as they were mainly water. The cooks told us that the ball of dough was 6 lbs pre cooked!
The pizza arrived, and I went to town. I decided to eat as much as I could in 30 minutes and then take a break. After the first half hour, I had dusted off 2/3 of the bastard. I felt great! I took a 10 minute break and went back to work… The tomatoes were starting to get squishy and cold, but nothing would stop me. With 10 minutes left I had just a few crusts left, and I jogged into the finish line at 56 ½ minutes! They called the owner who rushed down to see the finish. I was awarded $100 and got to keep the pan, which still hangs in my room. I then went next door and drank a beer, followed by icecream…
My ladyfriend and I decided to stop in and order a pizza there for old-times’ sake and take some pictures of the proudest accomplishment of my life so far.
———————————-BONUS VIDEOS———————
Aaron Bridges gave me a bunch of his old videotapes to convert to digital files, so I thought I would edit them into some highlight videos to practice my editing skills.
This first one is from way back in April of 2006 at the Milwaukee Challenge II.
This next one is from August of 2006 at NAGA Chicago. You can see his improvement…
This one is really from the vault. This video was filmed in Fox Lake, Wisconsin at Justin Morris’ house. These guys threw down some carpet padding and fought Vale Tudo! There is a match or 2 were they almost smash into the furnace. I have 5-6 fights on video including Dave Menne (UFC), John Renken (Pride), Henry Matamoros, Ben Salas, Jason Strandberg, and others. It is funny to watch now, but it was all we had at the time…
Hey Redimaniacs, I had a rough May. I competed 3 times in 3 weeks, saving the toughest for last. A bunch of my teammates were headed down to the Quad Cities to compete at the Sasquatch Open BJJ tournament. I’ve competed in it before and had a great time, so I messaged Ron, the Sasquatch organizer, and tried to get into the pro division called the Lock-Ness Division. The Lock-Ness is tough, because there in no time limits. The only way to win is by submission!
There was a lot of talent in the tourney, but when I read the Jon Menke was going to be in it, I knew I was in trouble. I have known of Jon for a long time. In fact, back at Arnold’s in 2003, we almost met in the blue belt absolute division. I ended up losing my semi-finals match and getting 3rd, while Jon won 1st by beating the guy that beat me. I have been following his career since then, and I hoped that I would not have to meet him until the finals. Well, of course we were matched in the first round! About 5 minutes into the match I knew I was in for a long war. I kept repeating to myself, “I will not be broken”. I survived his attacks for over 30 minutes, until I finally won with my side choke! I had 2 more tough matches to win the $500!
Also congrats to my teammates Omar Choudhury, Ryan Williams, Chris Senner, Nate Klein, and Jack Rodriguez on great performances! The post-party was even more glorious!
Check out my highlight video from the tournament!
————-BLAST FROM THE PAST———————
After years of rumours of its existence, I finally got ahold of my original martial arts competition video tape. Way back in December 1996, I was a collge freshman looking for a sport to compete in. I joined Ben Salas’ martial arts gym and started training Muay Thai. In January of 1997 I started doing BJJ. I was training for a stick fighting competition in early February, but that got cancelled, so Ben told us about a “fight” tournament in Menasha, WI the same day. Though there were no head strikes, this seemed like the closest thing to the UFC that was around (and watching UFC videotapes was the reason I got into the sport). I was scared, but decided to try it. We drove to Oshkosh, picked up a fellow named “Kaz” who smelled of alcohol, and headed to a “dojo” in Menasha. We met Slade and Mike (two guys that I had done some BJJ with), and we signed up. It was like a scene out of Bloodsport as guys in various martial arts uniforms were getting warmed up. Black karate gis, white hapkido gis, and even a few kung fu uniforms. The lead guy had a sweet white gi with a black “plaid” design. While Slade and Mike had gis, Kaz and I planned on wearing our MMA uniforms (bike shorts and every type of brace possible, very cool!), but they made us throw on a gi top to represent a more “traditional” martial arts tournament.
I was the very first match, so I was very nervous. I was still a kid IMO, and I only had a bit of training, so I figured I was in trouble. I decided to imitate my favorite fighter who at the time was Marco Ruas. I started landing some decent leg kicks until we clinched up. We hit the mat, I took his back, and locked in a rear gi choke!
This “Kaz” guy was up next, but when they called his name he was nowhere to be found. The dojo went silent as we looked for him, and then we heard the puking sounds coming from the bathroom. Kaz had been partying all night, and got the call to compete at 3 a.m. He said what the hell and kept drinking. On almost no sleep, and wiping the puke from his mouth, Kaz threw on Mike’s gi top and jumped in there. He did not feel well, so he quickly double legged the guy, arm barred him, and went back to puking.
Slade was a former D1 nose tackle. He was strong and fast, and had more than enough technique to hurt these poor guys. In his match he tossed the guy like a toy. He finished the guy with a guillotine, but he said he wanted to suplex the guy by his neck, but the wall got in the way. Our final guy Mike was a normal guy with a good job. He was pretty big and a good martial artist, and he wrecked his guy with a rear naked choke.
As it was double elimination we got to see all the fighters fight each other. It was actually funny seeing all these strikers clinch up after a few seconds and end up going for submissions on the ground. Pretty soon the fighters were getting eliminated except for us. There was only one fighter left that was not eliminated. As the youngest guy, I was going to go against him first. He was a black belt and a defending tournament champion. While I was bigger, he was much older and had man strength. I figured I had finally bit off more than I could chew. But apparently he did not like my leg kicks, so he decided to shoot in on me! I pulled guard, swept him, and won with a front choke from mount! We took all the trophies, and the guys took me to my first strip club to celebrate!
A week later Ben Salas got a letter saying that our titles were stripped, and we were banned from future tournaments. He did not like that we…
-did not have traditional uniforms (we had to wear our arts traditional uniform and they did not like that we said we were wrestlers). Kaz and I had to borrow our teammate Mike’s gi top.
-Kaz and his drunk friend smelling of stale booze.
-Apparently he did not like our cheering. They wanted it silent for the honor of it or something…
-Our coach was showing another guy who was fighting how to do an americana during his match. We were off on the side showing the americana, instead of sitting quietly.
-Mostly I think he was just pissed that a bunch of non-traditional guys came in on 1 day notice and beat everyone.
-at our strip club party we took pictures with the strippers and the trophies. He did not like that.
Here is a vdeo edited in with a Conan the Barbarian theme (spoofing how lame the fights actually were)…
Last Saturday (5-15-10) I had a grappling match in the cage at the WFC in Appleton, WI. I decided to have a little fun with it by dressing up as my favorite pro wrestling heal from the 80’s, Ravishing Rick Rude. I went to Combat Corner to make some custom tights and started to grow out a sexy mustache. I wish I had more time to make a better costume, but we did the best we could in the few days prior. My buddy Adam decided to join in and dressed as a sleazy manager.
My opponent was an old buddy, Bill Krieg, who is the leader of the Fox Valley Grappling Club. Bill is a great grappler (ranked #3 in WI at 205+ and 2010 Pan-Am medallist) as well as a great guy. I used to stop up to Appleton train back in college, and he never charged me a dime. I also must say that he was nowhere near 100% as he was a co-promoter for the show (running on little sleep) and coach to half the fight card (which means he was running around worrying about his students instead of focusing on the match). Here is the video (edited in the spirit of Ravishing Rick Rude)…
—————————NCGA Tournament———————–
I missed this last time, but congrats to my teammates at the NCGA Waukesha MMA Open tournament. We brought 6 competitors (many of whom have less than a year of BJJ), and all 6 medalled. All 6 also did the absolute division, and all had at least one win. The Absolute Division champion (open to every weight class) was my teammate Chris Piper! Here are our results…
1st – Omar Choudhury at 135
1st – Christopher Piper at 155
3rd – Chris Senner at 155
1st – Mike Listschauer at 170
2nd – Ben Schultz at 170
2nd – Marcus Page at 205
Men’s Absolute
1st – Christopher Piper
3rd – Ben Schultz
4th – Chris Senner
6th – Marcus Page
———————-Sasquatch Open————————-
I am off to do my 3rd grappling event in 3 weeks. There is a tough 8-man pro division that I’ll try to win.
Due to an unfortunate phone malfunction, I missed my ride to NAGA. Fortunately the C3 grappling tournament was last weekend, so I had a chance to get back on the mat and erase some of those bad UFC loss feelings. My teammates (Scotty “the Scottish Scrapper” Seivewright, Ben Schultz, Omar “Baby Sas”Choudhury, and Tony “Tito Santana” Senner) and I headed to Gary, IN to compete.
C3 is a great tourney, and they offered some cash prizes for the absolute divisions, so I decided to jump in the gi and no-gi absolute divisions. Honestly, my gi game is not at a competitive level, but the offer of 400 bones was good enough to convince me to give it a try. There were 4 black belts, so I figured that I just had to get lucky twice, and I’d be rolling in the dough. I was the biggest, so I thought I could maybe overcome my lack of talent with some good old fashioned American muscle… Well that did not work too well. I met a great black belt, Jay Valko, in the first round. I kept it close early as we were tied 2-2 going into the later part of the match, but Jay started to work his magic and finished strong. I was swept, had my guard passed, and mounted in the last minute or 2, but at least I gave it a try. Despite losing I had fun and am now excited to try and up my gi game for the next competition.
Now on to the no-gi! The advanced no-gi had a $500 purse, so I was excited. There was 8 competitors, so it would take 3 matches to win. My first match was against Adam Messing from Neutral Ground in Milwaukee. I know Adam, and he is a cool guy, so I wish we did not meet so early, but we could not change it. In the second round I grappled a MMA guy. He was tough as hell. I attacked with some solid submissions, including a toe-hold that made a gross ripping noise, but he toughed them out. I finally got him in a rear-naked-type choke after a few scrambles. The final guy was a real technical and tall guy. I knew I had to keep a fast pace and avoid the triangle. After a few scrambles, I was lucky enough to catch a kimura. I won $500, woo hoo!
My teammates whooped some ass! Here are their results…
Scott Seivewright-1st INT No-Gi (170) tied
Ben Schultz-1st INT No-Gi (170) tied, 4th white belt Absolute (not bad for a 170er)
Omar Choudhury-1st ADV No-Gi (140)
Tony Senner-1st Abs INT No-Gi & $300, 1st INT No-Gi (200), 2nd white belt Absolute (12-1 on the day)
————————-MORE TRX—————————
I am still doing my TRX workouts (though I skip them pre competition, so I am behind a bit). This is the second TRX-type workout of the first week. The exercises are different from the 1st workout, so this is the first time doing them (so I suck). I did it on 4-17-10. There is an 8 week training program, so I am going to track my progress and film them. My goal is to get more functionally strong for my MMA and BJJ career.
—————————-OLD-SCHOOL FIGHT———————-
I have been transferring my old fight tapes to my computer, so I thought I’d continue to throw some of them up on youtube. This is an old fight (pre-UFC) of me versus Jason Veach (4-1 at the time) at the Duneland Classic 2 in Portage, IN on 8-6-05. Veach was a tough bastard, and I was lucky enough to finally get him on his back after taking a few good punches. I finish with a submission that I rarely use
——————–WFC THIS WEEKEND——————-
I have a tough grappling match at this weekends Wisconsin Fighting Championship in Appleton. I grapple an old buddy, Bill Krieg, who is the coach at Fox Valley Grappling Club. Bill is a great guy and a solid grappler (just medalled at the Pan-Ams last month). I have my hands full! If you need tickets then let me know! I also plan on dressing up for this match. It is a surprise, but it involves a sweet mustache that is currently infecting my upper lip. Make sure you don’t miss the show!
(Bill on far right)
———————–BUDDY’S NEW BLOG——————-
My teammate (and one of the best no gi grapplers in the state) Chris Piper started a new blog. It is still pretty raw, but he plans on throwing up some cool stuff, like techniques, matches, interviews, etc. Check it out and throw it on to your favorites for future viewing. AVANT-GARDE BJJ BLOG
I need to get back to competing, so I decided to do this weekend’s NAGA tournament in Chicago. My hand is still pretty jacked up, but I’m gonna tape it up and try my best. Being one-handed sucks, but it is even worse in the gi. Because I won’t be able to grip, I decided to just do the no-gi division. I will tape my match(es) for next week!
——————–QUEST TO DUNK——————–
I continued my plyometric workouts in my quest to be able to dunk a basketball. I videotaped my 3rd session (workout “C”). I will tape my “B” workout on the next go-round. I need to go find a hoop soon, to see if I can touch the rim.
——————-TRX WORKOUTS——————————
I love cheesy, gimicky workout stuff, so when I saw a video of Brandon Vera using this TRX thing, I thought I’d give it a try. When I saw that the TRX system in $200 I was bummed, but I saw a similar strap thing at the local sporting goods store for $50, so I bought it. I was looking for a workout plan and found “The Infamous TRX Workout” online. It is twice a week for 8 weeks and focuses on pushing your metabolic system, so I thought that would be perfect. Here is my very first workout ,Week 1 “A”, and more will follow….
—————-OLD SCHOOL VIDEOS———————–
I have been converting my old videotapes to my computer, so I thought I’d throw a few of my old matches online. Here I grapple Gabe Naylor at the Champions Challenge in Auburn Hills, MI on 3-20-05. This was in the 200+ Advanced No Gi Division. I have a size and experience advantage, but Gabe was tough as heck. Lots of scrambles and submission attacks…
That is all for now, keep checking in for more vids!
In my quest to be a better athlete, I decided the most import thing is the ability to dunk a basketball. Will the “ups” it takes to elevate and jam a basketball, I would be unstoppable in the cage or on the mat. So I went to the sports store to look for some Jumpsoles, which were the ultimate way to increase your vertical jump back when I was a kid. There was an add in the back of every magazine for them, and it was about time that I got them.
Well, it turns out Sports Authority did not have any Jumpsoles, but they did have this crazy rubberband thing that adds resistance to your jumps. So I bought myself a “Portable Power Jumper” and decided to start their program twice a week after my morning grappling. I filmed my first session of “Workout A” today and threw it up on Youtube. There are two more workout (B & C) that I will film in the future and throw them on here. Hopefully I will increase my vertical and be able to dunk this summer (which I will also film). As soon as I can dunk I’ll be an unstable killing machine.
Sorry, it has been a busy 2 weeks, so this is pretty late. Along with training, I have been getting my medicals done, made some appearances, and been doing interviews. Good news is that I got one more training video in, check it out….
—————–ALTITUDE——————————
To get ready for the altitude of the Denver/Boulder area, I bought a machine that pumps out hypoxic air. I have been sleeping and working out with the mask on. I definitely don’t want the “mile-high” altitude/lower oxygen atmosphere to affect my match.
——————OFF TO THE FIGHTS————————–
I am off to the UFC this week, so hopefully I will have some new photos and video from behind the scenes. Thanks for all the support, I’ll write a blog next week.
Week 5 is over, and only 3 more to go! The week started great, but I had a minor injury and started to feel a bit burnt out at the end of it. I might need a few days off this week to recharge my batteries. This was a busy week, so here we go…
—————————CONDITIONING—————————
One of my biggest goals in the last 3 years has been to improve my endurance. While a lot of my fatigue problems in my losses to Bisping and Bonnar earlier in my UFC career had a lot to do with mental stress, I have made it my goal to never let fatigue be the cause of another loss. I think the most important thing that I did was join my local Crossfit gym. I joined Crossfit right before my Houston Alexander fight and was immediately impressed. Running on the treadmill can get your cardio up and lifting weights can get you stronger, but neither recreate the horrible burn of muscle fatigue that you feel in a MMA fight. While nothing (not even hard sparring rounds in the gym) is the same as a real fight, Crossfit is the closest I can get. As you see in my Crossfit videos over the last few weeks, Crossfit is always a bit different. Every week I push myself to the point I almost collapse. It combines all the elements of fitness into one killer workout. Sometimes you can barely breathe, because your cardio system is pushed to the limit. Other times your shoulders are so filled with lactic acid, that you can’t hold the bar up anymore. I love it…
Check out this week’s video of one of this week’s workout. The “Fight Gone Bad” workout is obviously great for my sport. Just like a fight, you exercise for 5 minutes (every minute is a different station) and then rest for one minute. You can do it for 3 rounds or 5 (like a championship fight).
Other than Crossfit, I do other conditioning workouts, usually a “burnout” at the end of practice. Some of the basic workouts I do include jumping rope, riding the airdyne bike, running on the treadmill, or hitting the ground & bound bags. The main goal is to work in anaerobic bursts into the conditioning. Instead of just running, I might sprint for 25 seconds and then jog for 40. This recreates a similar pace to a fight. You can see me doing these “burnouts” at the end of my boxing and wrestling videos. Of course this is all on top of all the mma training, which is the bulk of the conditioning for the fight.
——————————PETTIS ON MTV———————–
My teammate, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis had a film crew following him around all week for a documentary show called “World of Jenks”. Pettis is training for a big WEC fight this Saturday (don’t miss it on Versus), so they have been filming his life including all his hard workouts. I don’t know when this will be airing, but I’ll keep you posted. Good luck to Pettis this weekend!
———————————-FIGHT MAGAZINE———————-
I was flipping through my issue of Fight magazine and was surprised to see a full-page Combat Corner advertisement with my teammate Pat Barry and I (on pg 127). Combat Corner is a local company and great sponsor for me. Check out their website. I also saw an article on page 61 on what books fighters read that includes one of my picks. Check out this months Fight magazine with Dan Hardy on the cover.
———————————-SEMINAR—————————-
This Saturday I attended a great seminar for BJJ guys that are getting ready for big tournaments. Two of Wisconsin’s best BJJers, Jon Friedland and Scott Huston, showed some great techniques, and then all the guys had some tough sparring matches. I got in some great rolls, despite suffering from a food allergy the night before that f’ed me up pretty bad.
————————WEIGHT CHECK——————–
Down to 226 this week., right on schedule. Next week I am limiting my serving size a bit more, so I expect to be around 223ish.
—————-APPEARANCE IN MADISON THIS SATURDAY————-
I’ll be at the Madison Area Builders Associations’s Home Products Show this Saturday. I will sign autographs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 6 in the Brunsell Lumber & Millwork booth (522,523, 616, 617). Autographs are free. Attendees are welcome to make a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. It is for a good cause, so stop in and say hi!
OK, that is all for this week. Check out this interesting article on my fight. See you next week!
Training camp is halfway over! One month to go, and everything is going smooth. This week I really started feeling my cardio “turn the corner”. I can push myself harder every round and every practice. The only down side of having great intense workouts is the need to rest and heal up my sore muscles. Ice and muscle cream have become my good friends. The good news is, despite being sore, I have been injury free (knock on wood)! Usually at this point of the camp I have a few nagging injuries, but I am feeling great.
This week was pretty boring outside of my training. Nothing that cool happened other than getting to watch a kickass UFC on Saturday. It had some great KOs, a sweet rolling kneebar by Chris Lytle, and one of the best grappling matches in a while (Stevenson vs Sotiropoulos). I also won $20 from Scotty, which always makes me happy.
———————BOXING——————–
This week’s focus will be on boxing. As a grappler, striking is still a work in progress for me. I am slow, need to work on keeping his chin down and hands up, and have a long way to go, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I think I made some progress in my last fight versus Ryan Bader, and that experience will only make me better for this fight. Luckily I have some great coaches to help me get better. Of course there is Duke Roufus, one of the best striking coaches in the country. Duke is the man, but he also has some great assistant coaches that help out when Duke is busy. Scott Cushman is one of the unsung heroes here on the team. Since Duke was busy at the UFC in Australia, Coach Cushman picked up the slack to help all the fighters out including holding pads for me in this weeks video.
DUKE ROUFUS
SCOTT CUSHMAN HOLDING SOME PADS
We train striking a few times per week. Monday night is our team striking night. We do a lot of technique (boxing, kicking, Muay Thai, etc.) and always finish with some sparring. On Tuesday morning is our boxing pad and bagwork session (which is this week’s video). Thursday morning is our kickboxing pad and bagwork session, Friday night is our hard “big gloves” sparring night, and of course we do some boxing in our other MMA sessions. When I’m not in camp there are some great technique group classes every night of the week too. If you are in the Milwaukee area want to get better at boxing, then definitely check out Duke’s gym.
——————–WEIGHT CHECK—————-
Once again I weighed in on Sunday night. This week I was 228, which is down 2 pounds from last week. I am right on schedule for being around 220 by fight week!
This was kind of a boring week, but next week promises to have a few extra columns as I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Check my blog out again next week!
