Issue 114
May 2014
The sport’s strangest stories from around the globe
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
FULL-BODY ARMOUR STICK FIGHTING SET TO USURP MMA?
The future of combat sports has arrived, and it looks like two future soldiers beating the crap out of each other with weapons.
Australian company Unified Weapons Master (UWM) will hold events later this year where combatants wearing special, full-body armour (developed over four years with the help of a costume designer from the Lord of the Rings films) can use blunt-force weapons and run-of-the-mill punches and kicks to punish their opponent.
The brain child of Chiron Global, the suits fully protect the user from blows while also registering the amount of force they have been struck with. The idea is to use the data to decide a bout winner and also whether the blow was powerful enough for a knockout.
UWM CEO David Pysden said: “UWM’s vision is to create a large-scale sport and entertainment experience where martial artists can compete against each other with real weapons, with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation.” Things just got weird.
ANTONIO INOKI STARTS OFFSHOOT MMA PROMOTION
Japanese combat legend and mixed martial arts pioneer Antonio Inoki has separated the MMA and pro wrestling arms of his Inoki Genome Federation squared circle promotion.
Until recently, cards promoted by Inoki, who’s best known in the West for fighting boxing great Muhammad Ali in a mixed-rules bout, would feature both MMA and pro wrestling matches. However, Inoki Genome Fight, or IGF, will now exclusively put on MMA bouts, while the pro wrestling branch will simply be renamed Genome.
1995
The UFC considered incorporating stick fighting into its format in 1995.
TOMIMATSU WINS TITLE BEFORE FIGHT, RETAINS AFTER LOSING
Five-foot-one Japanese strawweight female Emi Tomimatsu became Deep Jewels interim 115lb champ before her title fight in February, and retained the strap even after losing by armbar.
Tomimatsu and previous FO ‘On The Radar’ pick Mizuki Inoue won the right to fight each other in February for the vacant Deep Jewels 115lb belt. However, when Inoue missed weight her opponent, Tomimatsu, became the automatic interim champ under Deep’s rules, and their fight a non-title affair.
Inoue eventually won by armbarring newly-crowned interim champion Tomimatsu in the third round. However, because of her weight infraction she was automatically disqualified – as she would have been whatever the outcome. Tomimatsu kept her championship, due to the fight being a non-title bout, and only suffered a no contest on her record.
SWEDEN, SCANDINAVIA
SWEDISH GENTLEMEN DO JIU-JITSU IN 1919
Jiu-jitsu is old. And in case you were some martial-arts-minded conspiracy theorist that didn’t believe it was, footage recently surfaced online of what is apparently two Swedish chaps demonstrating Japanese jiu-jitsu (the forefather of the Brazilian variety) while wearing a suit and tie way back in 1919.
Yes, long before UFC 1, way before the Gracie family took its jiu-jitsu to America, and 10 years prior to clan patriarch Helio Gracie laying the foundations for his version of the discipline, there were two dudes showing how the gentle art is one of the most effective fighting forms nearly 100 years ago. Of course, the techniques they’re using are far older than that – jiu-jitsu has its roots in medieval Japan.
The pair show off several moves on the silent, black and white film, including hip throws, submissions and a couple of open-guard-style sweeps, plus a few strikes for good measure. Practising mixed martial arts isn’t so new after all.
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