June 2009

Nothing soft survives the Bering Sea. A lone commercial fi shing vessel takes the repeated pounding of 30-foot waves off the coast of Alaska that make the 200-foot boat’s steel hull seem like it’s made from plywood. A veritable…

“Your Jiu-Jitsu is no good here.” If T-shirts with snappy sayings had been fashionable in 1880, Jigoro Kano would have stood at the gate of Eishoji temple proudly brandishing this phrase across his chest. After studying several…

My journey began with UFC 93, where I faced Chris Lytle. After an emotional victory, I headed out on vacation to Dublin, Ireland. I went to the airport Sunday morning with many other fi ghters, but not to fl y home. I was actually waiting…

If you’re a tennis pro, Roger Federer is the guy you want to play against. If it’s chess, then Garry Kasparov is the ultimate test. If you are an MMA fi ghter at 155 lbs., and you want to fi ght a legend, then BJ Penn is your…

Mike Swick is quick – maybe too quick. "If you get five fights in the UFC and five of them didn't go past the first round—that's not good. That's not a good thing,” said Dave Camarillo. Noted judo and jiu jitsu practitioner Camarillo…

Cubs outfi elder Reed Johnson is no stranger to pain. In fact it was last April 25, 2008, against the Washington Nationals when he dove off of a full sprint, going fully airborne and smashed headfi rst into the leftfi eld wall of Nationals…

“When you’re young, you think it’s going to last forever. But it doesn’t.” Don Frye says, growling the words in his diesel engine voice. “One day it all comes to an end. That’s when you realize you…

THE BLACK BELT. Deep within many martial arts communities, there oftentimes exists a popular, yet unproven, bit of folklore surrounding the attainment of this rank that is synonymous with fi nality and expertise: Legend has it that all…

"You should have killed me when you had the chance,” Matt Hughes mutters as he holds up a gunmetal gray shirt and reads it to himself. On the shirt is a soldier with a prosthetic leg and the phrase that is apropos for the situation.…

A solid game plan is the key to achieving victory on fi ght night, but what many fans don’t realize is that a great deal of that plan comes into play the day beforehand when combatants step onto the scales at their weigh-ins. For fi…