Asian MMA Podcast

First things first, In big news that isn’t MMA related but is MMA related is that Muay Thai, the art of eight limbs has been granted provisional recognition as an Olympic sport. For me, this is both potentially good and bad. In Asian MMA Muay Thai is a very common base discipline for a lot of fighters, especially here in Thailand, so it’s exciting to see another avenue for fighters to develop through. That being said, anyone who has ever seen a single muay Thai match, knows it’s beautifully violent in a way that the Olympics isn’t. That bring up a lot of fear that the OIC might look to turn Muay Thai into something similar to TKD where fighters come out heavily padded and it becomes more of a points game instead of brutal leg kicks and flesh-slicing elbows. I personally like my Muay Thai primal and devastating, not Olympic TV friendly. Now since the last show ONE had two significant signings, or at least high profile. One being Sexyama and the other being Sage Northcutt. Akiyama makes a lot of sense for ONE, he is half Japanese half Korean, two markets that ONE would like to dominate and he has a fairly good record at 14 and 6 but has not fought since November of 2015. So by the time he steps in the ONE cage, we could be looking at 4 years away from the sport. He’s still a marketable guy and I think he will do well with ONE from more than a just fighting perspective. Sage Northcutt on the other hand. He has a good record at this point in his career at 11 and 2 with 8 fights in the UFC but He really doesn’t fit the whole “Asian superheroes” model that we here Chatri Sityodtong talking about. He is pretty much as white bread as they come, so I found that a bit odd. DJ and Eddie Alverez, I can actually see, but with Sage, I have a harder time getting behind the idea of him adding value to ONE. That being said, he has a look that will really stand out in Asia, and he has become well known in the states so that could be part of the big picture for ONE, we will have to wait and see how that goes. And to that point, ONE has inked a 3 year deal with TNT broadcasting in the states that will see ONE championship break into the US airwaves. Apparently, the deal will include 24 live events on Turner Sports digital platform B/R Live and TNT will air taped events as well as a possible reality show. The first live event will be ONEs January 19th event from Jakarta, Eternal Glory, where the strawweight strap will be on the line as Joshua Pacio defends against Hayato Suzuki. Over the weekend at ROAD FC 51 Ham Seo-Hee retained her woman's Atomweight strap against a game Park Jeong-Eun via UD This is ROADs last event for 2018, with all the changes afoot in the Asian MMA universe it will be interesting to see what they have in store for 2019.   Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twi

ONE Championship Conquest of Champions, UFC Beijing, Crazy Max Muay Thai KO - Asian MMA Podcast Ep 8 This episode is brought to you by Heavyweight fights that don’t make it out of the first round because the last thing you want to see is big boys in minute 6 of a fight. I’m dana blouin and today we are talking about all the Asian MMA awesomeness that went down over the weekend and some to come. Earlier today I was on the Tiny Sumo daily drops on his IG channel talking about Asian MMA and everything going on in the scene. Be sure to check him out @Tiny_Sumo and I’ll have the full link below.  https://www.instagram.com/tiny_sumo/  I need to start out by highlighting ONE Championship Conquest of Champions that took place in Manila, Philippines over the weekend. This event saw Edward Folayang defeat Amir Khan via unanimous decision to reclaim the lightweight championship. That is going to make things interesting with Eddie Alverez joining the ONE Championship roster and the upcoming Grand Prix. The main event of the same card saw ONE Championship Heavyweight champion Brandon Vera make quick work of Mauro Cerilli to retain the strap after two years away from the cage. In other news on that card Bangkok based fighter, Rockie Bactol was dealt his first loss against Akihiro Fujisawa being stopped with elbows in round 3. Rockie came up through the amateur circuits around Asia and was recently part of the ONE Warrior Series. While this is clearly a setback for Rockie, I am sure he will bounce back and be better than ever. On a side note to this ONE Championship event, I want to point out that while I was slacking off for Thanksgiving Anthony Engelen won back to back fights a week apart on short notice both times. Fist with a first round KO against an always game Meas Meul out of Cambodia, and the very next week a first round sub against Jimmy Yabo. Anthony is a fighter's fighter who is always willing to step up. That's why we love to watch him work. Next up we switch it up to UFC Beijing which took place over the weekend and was headlined by a heavyweight clash between Francis Ngannou and Curtis Blaydes, which saw Ngannou get back in the win column with a 45 second TKO victory over Blaydes. The co-main for the card was long time Asian MMA standout Alistair Overeem against Sergey Pavlovich which saw The Reem force a stoppage towards the end of round 1 with some very nasty ground and pound. Also on this card, we had woman’s strawweight standout Zhang Weili, who has been on an 18 fight win streak with 16 finishes stop Jessica Aguilar with an armbar in the first round… Take notice women’s strawweight. In non-MMA news, there was an interesting result in Max Muay Thai that saw fighter Gou Dakui knock out both his opponent and the ref. You can check that out here. https://www.facebook.com/thefightnation/videos/878739992333257/  Next weekend Lions Head Boxing Gym in Bangkok will be playing host to AMC Fight Night. They will have both pro and amateur boxing, kickboxing and MMA on the card. We are going to get to see Mostafa Ibrahim Radi make his pro-MMA debut at this event. He has a deep amateur record from Malaysia so I am going to be excited to see him stepping up to the pros. It looks like we also have Greg McGanja Edwards on the card who is based out of Team Quest Thailand up in Chaingmai. He is always game and comes to bang. But the real gem on this card is the main who comes right out of the Street Fighter video game, Stan Tskitishvili vs the local Bangkok legend Tangmo! I’ve talked about Stan on other episodes, he looked crisp at the last FMD and Tangmo is the guy who will take any fight and always has a punchers chance. This event is just 500 baht per head, so if you are in Ba

This is Thanksgiving week and I am taking things easy, so I just wanted to talk about something I am really grateful for and that is the rise of Amature MMA in Asia. For people who compete exclusively on the Asian MMA stage, there isn't really a depth of promotions for young fighters to get experience on early on. And really, until a few years ago we were not seeing many professionally run amateur MMA events in Southeast Asia. I can recall a few that were nothing more than guys showing up to fight in a parking garage at a university with no medical staff and several fights that were clear works. And while some of those are still around, they are not the norm, events Like Kuala Lumpur based MIMMA and Bangkok Based OneShin Cup has really raised the bar for amateur MMA and given Asian MMA the grassroots it needs to develop new fighters and really grow, especially in Southeast Asia. I’ve even talked about in the past well-established pro promotions filling their undercard with amateur fights because the talent pool is deep there at the lower weight classes and they make exciting fights. For their part IMMAF has played a bit role in this, the president of IMMAF Kerith Brown is a common sight at Asian MMA events and he is a powerful voice in the amateur regulation and the move to get MMA into the Olympics. A lot of the push forward with the amateur scene in Southeast Asia has been due to him working so closely with the governing bodies as well as To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com

This episode of the Asian MMA Podcast is something different. For the first time ever I have a guest join me in the studio. I sit down with one of the most exciting fighters in Asian MMA, Bangkok based Asian MMA fighter, Javier Trujillo. we discuss his career as a fighter in the Asian MMA scene, his goals to sign with a larger organization like Rizin FF, Road FC or ONE Championship.  Javier and I also get into his background in American Folkstyle Wrestling and his early training in catch wrestling and why 10th Planet BJJ was the perfect fit for his style. We also step back and get into his background as a California firefighter and an Oregon Fire Fighter and the choice he went through to leave that career behind and pursue MMA full time in Asia.  Javier Trujillo is one fighter in the Asian MMA scene you need to be following. his fights are always exciting and there are big things ahead for him. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com  Check our Javier's 5 second knockout at Full Metal Dojo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG4AkLkiyAI 

today we are talking about all the craziness that ONE Championship unleashed on the world last week with the conference leading up to their heart of the lion event in Singapore. I did touch on some of this last week in my news recap, but there was so much of it I really thought it deserved it’s own For most fight fans the biggest news is that ONE will hold a Grand Prix in 2019 for both flyweight and lightweight which are clearly meant to showcase their newest prospects Demetrious Johnson and The Underground King Eddie Alverez. For me, this is a fantastic way to add some drama into 2019 for ONE and to really highlight their talent pools in both those weight classes. Especially flyweight. And with the UFC seemingly disbanding their Flyweight division, we might see ONE pick up some free agents who make this an even more interesting next few months. We also don’t have any word of when or how these Grand Prix events will be bracketed or take place, we will have to wait and see. For me, this rings of the old Pride FC days and I am really looking forward to seeing this get underway. In non-fight news, ONE is investing up to $50 Million into esports and partnering with Dentsu and Razer to build out what looks to be one of the worlds Of course, it only makes sense that Demetrious Johnson will play a role in this new esports. And he will be ONEs esports chief brand ambassador. I had predicted that esports would have something to do with DJ coming over to ONE and now we are starting to see those parts fall into place. But I think this is about a lot more for ONE then just a new vertical that’s hot in Asian. Chatri Sityodtong has said over and Over that ONE is in the Sports Media business, their whole business model is based around bringing as many eyes to their content as possible. That is why ONE doesn’t sell PPVs they give their content away for free because it’s about the eyeballs. I interviewed Chatri Sityodtong earlier this year and he told that approach to their business came from his contacts at Sequoia Capital after they made their first investment. That being the case it makes this a smart play, an Asian esports tournament gives ONE the ability to further leverage their already massive events schedule all around Asia and create not just live events but also an endless stream of video content that will just further attract eyes to what they are doing. The last official news from the ONE summit this week is that former UFC and Strikeforce Champion Miesha Tate has joined ONE Championship in a VP role and will be moving to Singapore to fulfill the role. There is no word on what Miesha Tates role will be exactly, I had reached out to Chatri for comment but did not receive any as of yet. If I had to guess though, I would imagine she will take up a big public role within ONE as she is very good in front of the camera and media does seem to love her. I also would not be surprised to see her take a leadership roll in growing the woman's divisions for ONE Championship. Now that is all of the official news out of the ONE Championship Summit, but a bit of unofficial news and completely speculative is that Sage Northcut could be coming ONE Championship. There was no signing announced, but Chatri did post online about how much he li

Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast  YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast  iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay  Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com    Right off the bat the biggest story in Asian MMA this week is Floyd Money Mayweather fighting in Rizin FF against Kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa. As of this recording, there has not been a rule set announced, but I would be surprised if it were anything other than boxing or some variant of boxing. Angela Lee has pulled out of her main event title fight at ONE Championship Heart of the Lion this weekend as she has injured a disk in her back that is causing a lot of pain and hindering her training. That moves the co-main event bantamweight unification bout between Bibiano Fernandes and Kevin Belingon to main event status. That is a fairly strong card for Singapore though and despite losing the draw of Angela Lee in a champion vs champion bout it's still a good card and should be fun. In other massive news, ONE Championship has announced that they will hold both a lightweight and flyweight Grand Prix in 2019, and of course, recently signed talents of Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson will play key roles in both those tournaments. At the ONE Championship summit this week Sage Northcutt was spotted in attendance, could there be another announcement to come? Let’s see. It doesn’t stop there… ONE Championship has announced they will be investing 50 Million into e-sports. In my first episode, I had talked about how esports might be a consideration for Mighty Mouse to make the move over, but I had not at all expected it to be with ONE itself. 50 Million is a massive investment and that could instantly put ONE at the top of the e-sports space in Southeast Asia. Over the weekend at FMD 16: Big Trouble in Little Bangkok they also dipped their toes into the e-sports space with a Tekken match between Malaysian MMA fighters Peter Davis and Nik Harris, both of whom have worked to expand their brand outside of MMA. At that same FMD event, Glen Sparv was able to pick up the FMD middleweight championship against a game Mehdi Bagari and Amp Boonsorn handed Thai Women's MMA standout Loma Lookboonmee her first loss to claim the inaugural FMD Woman's atomweight championship. At Road FC 50 in Daejeon South Korea Lee Jeong-Yeong was able to secure the victory and bring home the Road FC Featherweight title from the champion Choi Mu-Gyeom via unanimous decision.    

Full Metal Dojo 16 Recap and Analysis - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 3 In this episode of the Asian MMA Podcast I recap and offer analysis of Full Metal Dojo 16: Big Trouble in Little Bangkok took place on Saturday, November 3rd at Club Insanity in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Full results: FMD 16Middleweight ChampionshipGlenn Sparv def Mehdi BagheriKO (knee) at 2:52 of R2 Women’s Atomweight ChampionshipSuwanan Boonsorn def Loma LookboonmeeSubmission (armbar) at 2:06 of R1 Welterweight boutJavier Trujillo def Vinod GreywalSubmission (RNC) at 4:24 of R1 Bantamweight boutAung Kyaw Kyaw def Jaktan TangjanRetirement, R2 Bantamweight boutLong La def Chinnakit ManolaiTKO, R1 0:22 Bantamweight boutO Kay Gyi def Visarut NumnoiTKO, R1 2:59 Amateur Heavyweight boutStan Tskitishvili def Azreel IzzatTKO, 0:55 of R1 Amateur Bantamweight boutSirirot Silchaitan def. Bryson Dean CollinsTKO, 1:56 of R2 Check out the full video here: http://bit.ly/FMD16 PugilPix Album: http://bit.ly/PugilPix Clinch Report Album: http://bit.ly/TheClinchReport

In this episode, I unpack some of the best fights from FMD 16 Big Trouble in Little Bangkok - including fighters Stan Tskitishvili, Javier Trujillo Vinod Grewal, Peter Davis, Nik Harris, Loma Lookboonmee, Glenn Sparv, Mehdi YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPc6-sQ1RGi3hnUM2KhjJig Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast

Demetrious Johnson Signs with ONE Championship, Full Metal Dojo 16: Big Trouble in Little Bangkok and ONE Championship Heart of the Lion. All that and more on this episode of The Asian MMA Podcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPc6-sQ1RGi3hnUM2KhjJig Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast