Demian Maia

I am extremely excited at the prospect of Mixed Martial Artist Demian Maia. This is a guy who's success goes against everything that is supposed to be true in the modern era of MMA. Maia's stated numerous times he wants to show everybody you can win your fight without inflicting any prolonged pain to your opponent. As a 2 time world Brazilian Jiu-jitsu champion he uses his chokes to perfection winning his 5 fights in the UFC all by submission, with 4 of those earning him submission of the night honours.

But what makes me so excited about this guy is that he is a Martial Artist in the truest sense. He has no desire to go out and punch people in the face and cut opponent's faces up with elbows, he justs wants to prove his style of combat is better than yours. Which is also why I salivate with anticipation everytime Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida prepares to compete. Machida though while incorporating BJJ into his game, has shown a propensity to stand and strike with his opponents. I like a good knockout as much as the next guy, but what I like even more is a guy who can knock you out, be respectful, and not talk trash like some of the idiots they put on TV.

While Maia may not be a world champion right now, or ever, it really doesn't matter, his success at least gives these athletes a guy they can look to and model themselves after if they choose. George St. Pierre is probably the best role model MMA has in terms of acting and behaving like a professional athlete because is at the pinnacle, world champion, one of the most beloved and Sportsnet's Canadian Athlete of the Year for 2008, Demian Maia in my opinion is a more interesting case study in how people will take to a guy who almost refuses to hurt his opponents in a sport that is as blood thirsty as is gets, sorry I mean "As Real As It Gets!"

My biggest grievence with MMA is that too many of the people competing in North America are wrestlers who are looking to keep competing after their collegiate careers end. It makes for a lot of guys who want to prove they aren't just wrestlers and stand on there feet and bang it out, while not only looking like a "So You Think You're Tough?" event, it belittles proficient strikers who have studied long and hard to perfect technique that because of the small size of the gloves use in MMA can get caught a lot easier with a punch. Then I have to hear people talk about how Tim Sylvia is a better striker than Andre Arlovski because he caught Andrei with 1 big punch in their second fight, and used an abnormal reach advantage to out point him in their third fight. Just watch both of them throw a punch and you can tell who has more skill!

And as I watch Demian Maia right now, all I think is there seems to be no one else in MMA with the ability to tell the guy what you are going to do before the fightand pull it off still, and that my friends is skill.

What to expect

So in the coming weeks I'l be posting about movies I think not enough people have seen, concerts I've attended, and a detailed write up on why the Neil Young archives need to be released soon!

I'm also going to post about sports. Now I know a lot of my associates are going to think I'm a "loser" for being a Mixed Martial Arts fan. well...fuck that. Everybody loves Shogun Assassin right? While being a fan of MMA I have endured my fair share of ribbing, but I don't care. This is my shit and I'm not gonna write about every show at the Biltmore tis week because there are plenty of you guys out there doing that shit for us already.

I honestly have no real purpose for this thing, other than I read a lot of peoples blogs and wish I read one that entailed more than music or movies or sports or the daily events of life in Vancouver