Jon Jones Open Workout For UFC 152

Jon Jones goes through the motions in an open workout on the pads in preparation for his upcoming fight on Saturday against Vitor Belfort at UFC 152. Jon Jones looks impressive as usual. His punches look nice and sharp. Vitor is going to have to really bring it to stand a chance against Jones. I hope Vitor Belfort has a good game plan and is in fighting shape so that the fight is a little more competitive then most people think it will be.

Jon Jones Open Workout Video UFC 152

Video Credit: MMA Digest

UFC 152: Dana White On Jones Vs Belfort

Dana White makes his opinion known regarding Vitor Belfort stepping up to the plate to take on UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones. Dana White is far from happy with Lyoto Machida after Machida was given the chance to avenge his loss to Jon Jones and fight for the UFC title, but turned the offer down. Dana White also goes on to say that if people don't think Jones Vs Belfort is a good fight then don't watch it.

Personally I think it's a bit of a miss-match. A prime Jon Jones is just too good for anyone at the twilight of their fighting career. Watch out for the front kick to the face from Jon Jones in this fight.


Video Credit: MMA Digest

Punching For Street Fighting Reality

Fighting on the street is not recommended. You should try to avoid a confrontation on the street as much as possible. Training in boxing or martial arts will help you in many situations, including a street fight. Thai Boxing, Boxing, Judo, Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, all will help you, and by training in those arts most people will develop the mindset of trying to avoid a confrontation unless there is no other option but to defend themselves.

Obviously there are exceptions and some people want to learn Boxing or Martial arts for the wrong reasons. This post is not for promoting violence, It's for people that want to be prepared to defend themselves if the worst happens, and also to help in lessening the risk of injured hands in order to see a fight through to the end. In a street fight or self defence situation you need both hands, what if you throw a punch, land the punch incorrectly and can't use that hand again within the fight because it's swelled up like a balloon and hurting bad. You have just become hindered by injury, now your chances of coming out of that fight in one piece have been lowered considerably.

Some people say that you shouldn't punch in a street fight. In some ways this is good advice. One of the methods behind this madness is that your hands are not tough enough to withstand the force of punching someone in the face or head.  Street fights are unpredictable and in the heat of the moment your punching can be wild. This means that in a real situation you won't be able to land the perfect punch every time. Sometimes you end up landing a punch and you will connect with the smallest two knuckles (The end two). Connecting with the last two knuckles on someones face bones, teeth, and specially the head will almost certainly result in those knuckles becoming instantly swollen. Connecting at funny angles with the weakest knuckles, hitting tough bones in the face, teeth and the head, will happen in a street fight that lasts longer then a few seconds.

In fact, even one punch can result in damage to your hand if you throw a punch and it doesn't land on target correctly. Using a flat palm can be a very effective strike in a street fight, along with elbows, kicks and knees. Using these less fragile parts of the body to strike with can obviously lessen the risk of injury to your hands. However, most peoples instinct is first and foremost to throw punches.

If you want to minimise the risk of injuring your hands in a street fight you have to make your hands and knuckles as tough as possible. Boxing training can help but in boxing you always wear gloves and hand wraps when punching anything. And as much as this will still make your hands reasonably tough, it will not help that much in a real street fight situation where you have no hand protection at your disposal and it's as real as it gets.

This is where we have to look to some of the training methods used in Karate. Certain forms of Karate dedicate big chunks of their training to making the hands and knuckles solid. If you have ever seen a true Karate practitioners hands that trains in the forms of Karate that have a focus on tough hands you will see what I mean. Their hands are solid, like a pair of weapons. Lump Hammers I call them. This type of Karate training focuses on self defence and has the objective of ending a confrontation with one, or several, solid, full force direct strikes. Also with Karate, the focus for some strikes is more on landing a strike / punch with the toughest two knuckles, the two closest to the thumb. If you can train, and make it Instinct to consistently strike and land the two hardest knuckles when you punch in a street fight you will reduce the risk of damaging your knuckles immensely. And at the same time do maximum damage.

In Karate the students will punch / strike some very solid objects like wooden boards, bricks, blocks, and wood with fabric wrapped around. A normal person wanting tougher knuckles and hands for self defence protection and reduced injury does not have to go to such extremes. A good heavy punch bag will do the trick. With one sacrifice, you have to punch it wearing no protection at all. Also, to be safe it's recommended that you start this type of training by punching the top (the softest and more hollow) part of the bag to begin with. Get your hands, wrists, and knuckles used to this first. After a while as your hands, wrists, and knuckles will get used to the solid impact. Your knuckles will start to become tougher.

After a while training like this adjust the height of the bag to make the bag higher, or hit your bag lower so that your now hitting the bottom of the bag, the toughest and most resistant part of the bag. With this training you would want to connect with the two weaker knuckles at times as well and not just focus on the two biggest and strongest. That's because in a street fight, no matter how good and accurate you can punch the chances are that you will connect with the weaker knuckles at some point. So it makes sense to focus on toughening the fists as a whole.

One method that can be beneficial for replicating punching in a street fight is to have a heavy punch bag which is not attached to the ceiling or hanging on a bracket. Place this bag on a ledge at a side angle. Then do up to 6 x 3 minute rounds of bare knuckle punches. Because the bag is at an angle it will get your wrists and knuckles used to landing punches at strange, awkward angles, like what will happen in the reality of a street fight.

Do not jump straight into doing this type of training if you haven't been doing any punching / striking training for a while. You have to work your hands up gradually before going full force at a heavy, barely movable, rock solid, punch bag bare knuckle. One word of warning: Do not use a canvas fabric type punch bag for any of these type of exercises, you will rip your hands to bits. Use a leather cow hide or plastic type material punch bag. Although nothing beats training with real training partners, a heavy, unattached punch bag is also great for strength exercises like lifts, squats, take down practise, and not forgetting ground and pound. Even basic ground fighting techniques like certain position transitions, side control striking, full mount fluency, triangle submission drills. But that's another post.

Nothing is definite and no matter how tough you make your hands it will still not be 100% that you will not injure one or both in a street fight. Street fights are just too unpredictable. But by training the hands in this manner you put better odds in your favour. I wish you every success in gaining your lump hammer fists. For defence purposes of course!

Ricky Hattons Ring Return Come Back

 Come back Fight Date: November 24th 2012 against an opponent yet to be named.

As you might have already heard Ricky Hatton is making a comeback to the ring. His reasons for this are basically that he feels he has to put "old ghosts to rest". One of the main "old ghosts" is his devastating knockout defeat by Manny Pacquiao. Mentally that loss really shook Hatton up and it's quite possible that he actually needs to comeback just to ease his own mind and to be able to move forward in life feeling somewhat complete after finishing his return boxing career with a few wins to cushion the blow of past defeats. He needs to redeem himself. Even if the wins aren't against the elite fighters of his division. It's fully understandable. Who would want to end a successful boxing career on a second round 1 punch out cold knockout. Not many people.

The sad thing about his comeback is that Ricky Hatton does not want a few fights against domestic opposition and then just retire for good. He wants one or two warm ups and then he wants to fight against the elite fighters, maybe for a title. This is why many people are worried. Ricky Hatton does not live like a fighter. Actually he doesn't even live healthy when not in training. There are people saying they were out partying with Ricky Hatton in Tenerife no longer then a month ago. He has said himself he has had problems with drink and drugs over the last few years. Abuse and boxing P4P boxers for world titles don't mix well together.

All the bad living has took it's toll on Ricky Hatton, and yes he could get away with a bit of partying, eating junk and boozing here and there when he was younger and in his prime. But now, mid 30's, a few years out of the ring, and not even keeping in shape within those years. Can he come back and beat the guys that absolutely live for boxing, training full time, early to bed, no drinking, no drugs, no nothing..He is going to have a tough time and I can see why people are worried for his safety. Obviously we can't forget that Ricky is / was world class. He has only lost to the best two boxers out there so there is a lot of room in between. Maybe, with the right match making he could win a world title. Yes there are some great champions hovering around his weight classes but there are also a few title holders that Ricky could beat if he becomes super dedicated and starts living for boxing again.

How much can we expect from him. At this late stage of his career he's not going to become a master boxer or change his old style dramatically. He is basically a brawler and his boxing style is not known for it's longevity in this sport. Brawlers like Ricky Hatton take far too much punishment to get inside range to land their own shots. Hatton's defensive skills aren't going to win him any prizes either. Brawlers get hit, that's why most retire a lot sooner then skilled boxers that don't get hit as much. He will have a hard time but it's not an impossible task. Hatton's return has certainly pumped a bit of life into boxing in the UK at the moment so as long as he doesn't get seriously hurt then it's good for the sport. I just hope the rumours aren't true and Ricky Hatton does not fight Juan Manuel Marquez for his return fight to the ring. If he does we could well see his return to the ring ended after one fight.

Vitali Klitschko Vs Charr Stare Down

This could well be Vitali Klitschko's last fight. He is very involved in politics and it seems quite possible that he will be hanging up the gloves after this fight and continuing to fight for change and equality in his home country of Ukraine. Manuel Charr is not very well known in most parts of the world and those that have heard of him, or seen him fight think he has little chance of beating Vitali Klitschko, even at this late stage of Vitali's boxing career. It's fair to say that these two fighter are a few levels apart in terms of world class boxing skills and experience. Although Charr isn't without his fans. Some people are convinced that the title will be changing hands on Saturday.

Manuel Charr is lucky that he is fighting Vitali at the end of his career because if he wasn't he would get destroyed very quickly. Charr does have decent power but with Vitali's boxing style being so awkward, Charr is going to have a hard time with closing the distance, and an even tougher time jumping out of range once he has let his punches go. It should be a good fight worth watching. I believe it's being shown live from Russia on RTL.

Vitali Klitschko Vs Manuel Charr Stare Down Video


Video Credit: Bokser.org




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