Erik Koch

There is a very good interview here done by Erik “New Breed” Koch.  This rangy featherweight has all the tools required to cement himself as a title contender. He’s got a terrific reach advantage over most foes, slick counter punching, shocking speed, terrific head movement and solid take-down defense. That’s just about all you can ask for, but just to accentuate my point I’ll note the trio of brutal knockouts he’s delivered. This kid is two or three fights away from a shot at gold, and the only true test he must be subjected to prior to his bid, is a bout with a remarkable wrestler.

We’ve all seen the previews. We know how big they are. We know what’s at stake. I’m not going to focus on the styles or match-ups yet. I could write on this forever. But rather, I want to echo the previous post, “UFC Heavyweight Fight: Lesnar vs. Overeem“, and add my own $.02 if I may, on the possibilities that may be facing the heavyweight division after this all goes down on December 30th.

I agree with our contributor Jeff Herbst in that the heavyweight division was in all sorts of trouble about 3 years ago, and it still has a lot of work to do. There are two great fighters in the UFC at heavyweight right now, that being Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez. We had the two best in MMA go at it in November and we all loved it in all of its 64 second grandeur. Lately, it seems nobody has really done anything in the division to warrant a third person involved in this conversation.

With a face that even some who’s illiterate could read, it’s not hard to tell that Erik Koch enjoys his job. What does he do you may ask? Well, in addition to watching the Food Channel non-stop, Tweeting about the Food Channel, and wanting to eat the food he sees while he’s watching the Food Channel, the guy is a UFC fighter. And a pretty damn good one to boot.

Currently Koch is a top contender in the featherweight division (145 lbs), and in between all the food watching, has compiled a solid 13-1 mark, including a KO of the Night in his UFC debut. I sat down with Erik recently to discuss training, his roots, the journey he’s on, and where he’s going.

By Dennis Fratella

We all know ways to cut for a fight. Whether that is an easy way, hard way, as long as you weigh in at what you’re fighting at, that’s the ideal goal for fighting. Right? Not so much.

We’ve all seen fights where someone just doesn’t look like they’ve got anything strength-wise, and perhaps could be a result of that cut, and it usually is. I have a couple of suggestions to keep the weight off, while not compromising strength or your workouts, which probably go overlooked while cutting, and still getting you to weigh in right:

Always try to keep the high-glycemic carbs (sugars, breads, cereals) separate from the low-glycemic carbs. In fact, research is now suggesting that high-glycemic carbs while cutting is not the best route because it has been said to lower your blood sugar levels, resulting in quick depletion of glycogen (carbs in your muscles), making you tired – a lot faster.

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By Jillian Bullock

The Department of Justice, federal agencies, faith-based and other grassroots and community organizations are always looking to instill crime prevention programs to address at-risk youth and gang members. While many of these programs have failed, many people in the mixed martial arts community believe they have the answer.

In a lower income area of Pomona, CA, Tim Kreitzman, a MMA fighter, opened a school to target young people who are drawn to gangs. Kreitzman’s MMA School teaches kids self-defense, discipline and the value of hard work. He also gives them a place to go instead of hanging on the corners, running the streets, selling drugs or getting into trouble.

Written By Last Ronin

So you want to get a mixed martial arts book, but aren’t really sure which one would be the best.  That’s totally understandable with the hundreds of books sitting on the shelves at your local bookstore, meaning that picking one is going to be a bit overwhelming.  The good thing about buying a book though is getting to look at the reviews and hear what others have got to say about it.  Now I have read a lot of books in my time and my martial arts library is pretty fat, but out of all of the ones I own I would definitely say that my BJ Penn book is one that everyone needs in their library.

Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge by BJ Penn is a wonderful book for both beginners as well as advanced students.  BJ Penn is a true champion and ambassador of the sport, so why wouldn’t you want to know what he has to say?  This book is pretty comprehensive in what it covers and gives you just enough to get a little taste of what MMA is about.  Now don’t expect to be the future champion just from reading this book.  BJ’s book is a tool to be used alongside your training, and not the end all resource that is going to make you a black belt.

Written by: CR Hess

“Lets be clear here about something. If you get into Mixed Martial Arts, then you know what to expect. I couldn’t be anymore obvious and straight forward with that statement even if I had competed myself… Oh, wait, I HAVE!”

Every now and then we like to feature another MMA related website that we think our readers would like and most of all find useful, and we have found such a site.  We have started monitoring for the latest news in the world of mixed martial arts is MMAHeadliner.com.  So, we wanted learn a little more about this website along with the idea and person behind the headlines.  The owner of MMAHeadliner.com is Mike Schluter who started the website because he was tired of tracking the important MMA news through several websites.  So, instead of just continuing to be frustrated he did something about it.

He started www.MMAHeadliner.com which is an MMA news aggregator that pulls in all the latest and greatest news stories around the world of Mixed Martial Arts.  In his own words about MMAHeadliner Schulter had this to say, “MMA Headliner is almost one year old and was created for the hardcore MMA fan who is tired of checking for the latest MMA news”.

by Jillian Bullock

September and October are two months dedicated to National Childhood Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Month, Prostate Cancer Month, and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. However, many members of the mixed martial arts community understand that when these months end the disease will still be present. To help knock out cancer MMA organizations and fighters are on a mission is to raise awareness about this horrible disease that affects millions of people each year by holding fight events and other promotions to raise money for research, education, medical treatment, and financial aid for cancer patients and their families.

FACTS:

Halloween is quickly approaching and that means Halloween costumes need to be decided upon. So we have put together a list of great MMA and martial art Halloween costumes we could find.  From the Tapout MMA Gear founders to the yellow jumpsuit of Bruce Lee there are some really great costumes here. Let us know what you think below in the comments!

Tapout Guys Mask, Skyscraper, and Punkass Posing as the famous picture of Tapout's company founders; Mask, Punkass, and Skyscrape. Like these guys know so well you can accessories with other MMA Gear so well.