Vitor Belfort
UFC 126 Or Curitiba Vs. Rio De Janeiro
I haven’t written about a UFC event in a long time.
Well, that’s about to change today, because UFC 126 features two mixed martial artists fighting for the Middleweight Championship title that bring a lot to the table.
The reigning UFC Middleweight Champ, Anderson “Spider” Silva, is currently considered by many the best pound-per-pound fighter, maybe even the best fighter of all time.
Silva will enter the Octagon at UFC 126 with 13 straight wins. His last win was last August at UFC 117 against Chael Sonnen whom he submitted with triangle choke in the fith round, after he was behind on the scorecards up till that point of the fight.
It ain’t over till it’s over!
The almost 36-year-old Silva has secured 20 of his 27 career wins by KO, TKO or submission. The Spider’s list of “victims” reads like at Who’s Who of UFC Middleweight Elite: Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson and Demian Mia.
“The Spider” has never been defeated (12-0) inside the Octagon.
Silva is a graduate of the Chute Boxe Academy that opened as a Muay Thai academy in 1978 in Curitiba, Brazil.
By 1995, the Chute Boxe team was considered a prime training ground for Vale Tudo fighters.
With an aggressive and physical style focused around their muay thai skills, Chute Boxe fighters are well-rounded fighters, able to use submissions, punches, kicks, and various grappling styles as needed.
You can clearly see these elements of Anderson Silva’s fighting style, even though he left Chute Boxe in 2003 to start MuayThai Dream Team.
Along Came The Spider:
But will it be enough when he faces this formidable opponent fromRio de Janeiro in UFC 126?
At the youthful age of 19, Vitor “Phenom”Belfort had his successful debut in the Octagon a whopping 14 years ago this month. He later went on to capture the light heavyweight championship.
The Carlson Gracie master student from Rio d Janeiro is truly blessed with some of the most stinging hand speed that will wreak havoc if he has his way.
Vitor has attained 13 of his 19 career wins either by KO or TKO. Like Anderson Silva, Vitor has accomplished some remarkable victories against a number of outstanding opponents such as Matt Lindland, Wanderlei Silva, UFC hall of famer Randy Couture and Bobby Southworth.
Should Vitor Belfort win against Anderson Silva, he would become the third fighter ever to UFC titles in multiple weight classes.
The other two fighters? Randy Couture and B.J. Penn.
Introducing Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort:
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Abu Dhabi And Martial Arts?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) consists of 7 states, termed emirates, which are located in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf.
The three most well-known emirates are Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi is the capital and second largest city. It is also the country’s center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
One of the martial arts activities that has been gaining in international reputation is submission fighting.
Abu Dhabi and martial arts?
Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nayan who happens to be one the sons of the former President of the UAE, Sheik Zayed, has been the driving force in introducing martial arts to his home country.
While studying in the United States he started to learn more about grappling which led him to training in BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu).
A man with an open mind and an eagerness to learn, Sheik Tanoon also took up Russian Sambo, freestyle wrestling and Muay Thai in which he became an expert in all. A true mixed martial artist!
He sounds like our kind of guy!
After getting back to Abu Dhabi he immediately went about in creating a combat center to provide his people with the opportunity to study and learn more about martial arts. It was named the Abu Dhabi Combat Center or short ADCC.
The man of vision and action that the Sheik is, he introduced a tournament in which the world’s best and most famous grapplers and submission fighters would compete again each other.
This tournament is simply known as the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Tournament. It has become THE submission grappling event in the world and is being copied across the globe.
To give you an idea of the caliber of competitors who have fought at this tournament are for example Renzo Gracie, Royler Gracie, Mark Kerr, Tito Ortiz, Jean Jacques Machado, Rigan Machado, Rolles Gracie, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Vitor Belfort, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Roger Gracie, Dean Lister, Jake Shields and many more. Impressed? I certainly am.
Abu Dhabi And Martial Arts!
Shotokan Karate According To Gichin Funakoshi
Today I would like to share with you something about the style that got me so excited about martial arts in the first place.
The style is called Shotokan Karate and who could really describe it better than the actual founder of the style himself: Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan who introduced karate to Japan in 1917 and later again 1922.
Shotokan Karate is currently enjoying somewhat of a second wind of attention and popularity especially with UFC top competitors such as Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort applying some of its typical elements.
Here are some excerpts of Funakoshi-Sensei’s descriptions and observations:
“In Okinawa, a miraculous and mysterious martial art has come down to us from the past.
It is said that one who masters its techniques can defend himself readily without resort to weapons and can perform remarkable feats: the breaking of several thick boards with his fist or ceiling panels of a room with a kick.
With his shuto (“sword hand”) he can kill a bull with a single stroke; he can pierce the flank of a horse with his open hand; he can cross a room grasping the beams of the ceiling with his fingers, crush a green bamboo stalk with his bare hand, shear a hemp rope with a twist, or gouge soft rock with his hands.
Some consider these aspects of this miraculous and mysterious martial art to be the essence of Karate-do.
But such feats are a small part of karate, playing a role analogous to the straw-cutting test of kendo [Japanese fencing], and it is erroneous to think that there is no more to Karate-do than this.
In fact, true Karate-do places weight upon spiritual rather than physical matters.
True Karate-do is this: that in daily life, one’s mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility; and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.
Karate-do is a martial art peculiar to Okinawa in its origins. Although it has in the past tended to be confused with Chinese boxing because of the use of the chinese “kara” character in its earlier name, in fact for the past thousand years, the study and practice of masters and experts, through which it was nurtured and perfected and formed into the unified martial art that it is today, took place in Okinawa.
It is, therefore, not a distortion to represent it as an Okinawan martial art.
One may ask why the chinese “kara” character has been retained for so long.
As I discuss in the section “The Development of Karate-do,” I believe that at the time the influence of Chinese culture was at its peak in Japan, many experts in the martial arts traveled to China to practice Chinese boxing.
With their new knowledge, they altered the existing martial art, called Okinawa-te, weeding out its bad points and adding good points to it, thus working it into an elegant art.
It may be speculated that they considered “kara” (with the chinese character) an appropriate new name.
Since, even in contemporary Japan, there are many people who are impressed by anything that is foreign, it is not difficult to imagine the high regard for anything Chinese that prevailed during that period in Okinawa.
Even at the time of the present writer’s youth, lack of a full set of Chinese furniture and furnishings in one’s home was a serious impediment to the social influence of any leading family.
With this background, the reason for the choice of the Chinese “kara” character, meaning “Chinese,” as a simple case of exoticism is apparent.
Following tradition, the writer has in the past continued to use the Chinese character.
However, because of the frequent confusion with Chinese boxing, and the fact that the Okinawan martial art may now be considered a Japanese martial art, it is inappropriate, and in a sense degrading, to continue use of the old “kara” in the name.
For this reason, in spite of many protests, we have abandoned the use of it to replace it with the new character KARA.
The first connotation of kara indicates that karate is a technique that permits one to defend himself with his bare hands and fists without weapons.
Second, just as it is the clear mirror that reflects without distortion, or the quiet valley that echoes a sound, so must one who would study Karate-do purge himself of selfish and evil thoughts, for only with a clear mind and conscience can he understand that which he receives.
This is another meaning of the element kara in Karate-do.
Next, he who would study Karate-do must always strive to be inwardly humble and outwardly gentle.
However, once he has decided to stand up for the cause of justice, then he must have the courage expressed in the saying, “Even if it must be ten million foes, I go!”
Thus, he is like the green bamboo stalk: hollow (kara) inside, straight, and with knots, that is, unselfish, gentle, and moderate. This meaning is also contained in the element kara of Karate-do.
Finally, in a fundamental way, the form of the universe is emptiness (kara), and, thus, emptiness is form itself.
There are many kinds of martial arts, judo, kendo, sojitsu (“spear techniques”), bojitsu (“stick techniques”), and others, but at a fundamental level all these arts rest on the same basis as Karate-do.
It is no exaggeration to say that the original sense of Karate-do is at one with the basis of all martial arts. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form itself. The kara of Karate-do has this meaning.”
Or as Paul Harvey always said, “Now you know the rest of the story.”
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