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Exclusive Interview with Alex Davis - the Founding Manager of American Top Team

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:34:27 +0100

This week was really great. At the beginning I hadn’t even dreamed of “virtual” meeting with Mr. Alex Davis, and at the end I am publishing interview about his view on the Judo in MMA. This all was possible due to unexpected help from Mr. Jeff Bolton, from MMA Profit Advisor who just out of the blue approached me with the great suggestion of making the interview with Alex. Few hours later Jeff introduced me and my site to Alex, who was really helpful. We quickly discussed some MMA Judo opinions.

Alex is one of the original teachers of Judo in MMA and founding manager of American Top Team (ATT is in the top 5 MMA gyms in the world). He is also a partner of Jeff Bolton from MMA Profit Advisor.

So here are the questions and answers:

1. Radovan Judoka : Lot of people know you, you are quite well known person in the media, but can you introduce yourself a little from the Judo in MMA point of view ? You are one of the original teachers of Judo in MMA...

Alex Davis: My sport is Judo. I began Judo at 12, and competed extensively, doing quiet well, almost making it to the 1984 olympics for Brazil. It was also through Judo that I became involved in MMA. I trainned with a very famous Judoka in Brazil, Luiz Virgilio, who introduced me to Marco Ruas, who was also a Judoka. Being of dual nationality, and also having competed at a pro level in Judo, gave me an understanding of competitive sports that did not exist in MMA and BJJ at the time. I tought Judo to many names...Rodrigo Nogeira, Rolles Gracie, Dustn Dennis, Ricardo Liborio, Wade Rome, Marcus Aurelio, Hermes Franca, Dan Lambert are just a few. I also tought Judo at ATT as I managed there. I was allways consulted when a fight was with someone that came from a judo background, or used Judo.

2. Radovan Judoka : How did you get to train Judo and later Judo in MMA ?

Alex Davis: I started Judo in my home town under a real Japanese sensei, Takashi Yamagushi. I was very fortunate, he not only was an outstanding Judoka and sensei, but learning Judo from a Japanese is different than from a westerner, there is so much more to Judo than just competition and throws, and ufortunatly it is lost to most of the world today. For MMA, I was tought the real mechanics and reasons of how and why Judo works. I also tought the mentality of self surpassing and perfection, which serves very well for MMA. It’s not allways about beating the other guys, but rather, improving yourself.

3. Radovan Judoka : What is your opinion about the use of Judo in the MMA ? What are the most important pros and cons ?

Alex Davis: Judo can be a very important instrument in an MMA fight. Some more complex throws are hard to use by more inexperienced athletes, but others are easy to learn and use, mainly foot techniques, or Ashi Waza. Many oportunities for these techniques apear, but MMA is more wrestling focused, so not many people use them at the moment. Also not a lot of people who actualy know the techniques and the underlying principles.

4. Radovan Judoka : Who are the best judokas in the famous American Top Team currently ?

Alex Davis: Right now, Hector Lombard would have to be at the top of the list. Danillo Villefort is another high level Brazilian Judoka fighting out of ATT.

5. Radovan Judoka : Are there any current fighters out of ATT who you also consider as great MMA judokas ?

Alex Davis: Another great Brazilian Judoka comes to mind, Nicolae Curry. Top level Brazilian Judoka. Marcos Silva, Danilo Villeforts older brother is now teaching Judo at ATT. Former Brazilian Champion.

6. Radovan Judoka : Which judo techniques are the most suitable for the MMA fights according to your practice ? Why?

Alex Davis: I would say foot sweeps, trips and so forth. Because they are easy to use, and most people don’t expect them. All that is needed is understanding and practice.

7. Radovan Judoka : What is the future of Judo in MMA ? What are the possibilities, trends or threads? Is it growing or not ?

Alex Davis: MMA is a very competitive sport and fighters will allways be looking for ways to improve. Obviously, there is much in Judo that is not being used, but can be.

8. Radovan Judoka : What would you do if Mr. Jigoro Kano hadn’t invented judo  ?

Alex Davis: That’s a hard question. Because I was tought by Japanese, and what Jigoro Kano tought was such a big part of my up bringing, I would be a whole different person for sure.

I would like to thank to both Alex Davis and Jeff Bolton for the interview.

So what are your thoughts and opinions? Put them in the comments section below :)

List of 100 Most Popular MMA Fighters on Facebook

Wed, 12 May 2010 18:21:45 +0100

The popularity of Mixed Martial Arts as a sport is growing more and more these days. Lot of people can name at least several MMA fighters, the MMA maniacs can list even hundred or two hundreds of them. The popularity is a magical and most important word for all MMA promotion companies, fighters and also fans. So who is the most popular MMA fighter ? And who is the second ?

It is really hard to determine, which fighter is the best – there are several weight categories so we can only set the best fighter for each category. But with the popularity – there is a possibility to count it. Today in the age of social and communities focused websites the fans are gathering around the groups and fanpages of their favorite MMA fighter. So we only have to research these websites to get the list of popular fighters and find out, who is the most popular MMA fighter.

As for the research, I believe we can focus on the biggest social networking website – which is Facebook. With 400.000.000 registerd users Facebook is dominating the web and it’s growth is still very fast.

For the list of 100 Top MMA fighters sorted by the Facebook popularity there were only several criteria settled:
1. The fighter has to be relevant, not absolutely local fighter – that means that he has to be listed on the Wikipedia, which is quite trustable source.
2. On the Facebook, there was no distinction between the fanpage or group – only the number of fans was important.
3. The fanpage / group has to be directly focused on the fighter – not a general MMA or UFC fanpage.

I believe that with this list we can have an overview of the actual popularity of MMA fighters. And the results are here: The most popular MMA fighter is Georges St-Pierre with more than 270.000 fans worldwide. On the second place is very popular Anderson Silva with more than 120.000 fans. The gap between the first and the second place is enourmous. On the third place we have Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, with more than 90.000 fans. I believe we all know these folks very well, now we know they ARE most popular. The numbers of fans can slightly change because the fanpages are quite vital and new fans are incoming every day or even every hour. The rest of top 100 MMA fighters can be found in the table with the number of fans recorded in the middle of May 2010 and with direct links to Facebook pages.

I hope you will enjoy the list, join your favorite MMA fighter on Facebook and support him your way. And do not forget to join my Facebook fanpage – the MMA Judo :) .

#	MMA Fighter	Number of Facebook fans	Facebook page link
1	Georges St-Pierre	271584	Visit-click here
2	Anderson Silva	124253	Visit-click here
3	Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson	89900	Visit-click here
4	Fedor Emelianenko	87361	Visit-click here
5	Forrest Griffin	64047	Visit-click here
6	Randy "The Natural" Couture	54493	Visit-click here
7	Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell	52335	Visit-click here
8	Quinton "Rampage" Jackson	47580	Visit-click here
9	Frank Mir	36134	Visit-click here
10	Tito Ortiz	29548	Visit-click here
11	Urijah Faber	24903	Visit-click here
12	Bas Rutten	23082	Visit-click here
13	Brock Lesnar	22372	Visit-click here
14	Matt Hughes	22316	Visit-click here
15	Brandon Vera	21741	Visit-click here
16	Rashad Evans	21489	Visit-click here
17	Dan Henderson	17853	Visit-click here
18	Mauricio "Shogun" Rua	15958	Visit-click here
19	Royce Gracie	15194	Visit-click here
20	Wanderlei Silva	15131	Visit-click here
21	Rickson Gracie	14093	Visit-click here
22	Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	12816	Visit-click here
23	B.J. Penn	12402	Visit-click here
24	Helio Gracie	11574	Visit-click here
25	Bobby Lashley	11037	Visit-click here
26	Cheick Kongo	10209	Visit-click here
27	Diego Sanchez	10154	Visit-click here
28	Jon Jones	9620	Visit-click here
29	Jake Shields	9461	Visit-click here
30	Jérôme Le Banner	9264	Visit-click here
31	Cain Velasquez	9121	Visit-click here
32	Dan Hardy	8976	Visit-click here
33	Houston "The Assassin" Alexander	8446	Visit-click here
34	Ryan "Darth" Bader	8080	Visit-click here
35	Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović	8075	Visit-click here
36	Kenny Florian	8007	Visit-click here
37	Joe Lauzon	7446	Visit-click here
38	Ian Freeman	7347	Visit-click here
39	Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski	6833	Visit-click here
40	Ken Shamrock	6649	Visit-click here
41	Cung Le	6623	Visit-click here
42	Renzo Gracie	6406	Visit-click here
43	Thiago Silva	6316	Visit-click here
44	Frank Shamrock	6292	Visit-click here
45	Nick Diaz	5377	Visit-click here
46	Bob Sapp	5356	Visit-click here
47	Jens Pulver	5287	Visit-click here
48	Clay Guida	5225	Visit-click here
49	Gegard Mousasi	5046	Visit-click here
50	Roy Nelson	4876	Visit-click here
51	Jeremy Horn	4600	Visit-click here
52	Mike Brown	4515	Visit-click here
53	Frank Trigg	4478	Visit-click here
54	Rolles Gracie	4452	Visit-click here
55	Kazushi "Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba	4374	Visit-click here
56	Gary Goodridge	4325	Visit-click here
57	Miguel Torres	4168	Visit-click here
58	Genki Sudo	4120	Visit-click here
59	Roger Huerta	3786	Visit-click here
60	Matt Hamill	3686	Visit-click here
61	Alistair Overeem	3617	Visit-click here
62	Shonie "Mr. International" Carter	3570	Visit-click here
63	Joe Stevenson	3464	Visit-click here
64	Jess Liaudin	3378	Visit-click here
65	Evan Tanner	3302	Visit-click here
66	Marcus Davis	3151	Visit-click here
67	Rich Franklin	3128	Visit-click here
68	Gabriel Gonzaga	2980	Visit-click here
69	Jonathan Goulet	2957	Visit-click here
70	Roger Gracie	2945	Visit-click here
71	Alessio Sakara	2810	Visit-click here
72	Thiago "Pitbull" Alves	2668	Visit-click here
73	Jon Fitch	2647	Visit-click here
74	Mark "The Hammer" Coleman	2583	Visit-click here
75	Jeff Joslin	2337	Visit-click here
76	John Alessio	2286	Visit-click here
77	Phillipe Nover	2240	Visit-click here
78	Eddie "The Silent Assassin" Alvarez	2180	Visit-click here
79	Lee Murray	2166	Visit-click here
80	Michael "The Count" Bisping	2164	Visit-click here
81	Jason MacDonald	2086	Visit-click here
82	Krzysztof Soszynski	2032	Visit-click here
83	Ryan Gracie	1997	Visit-click here
84	Heath Herring	1972	Visit-click here
85	Ricardo Arona	1969	Visit-click here
86	Semmy Schilt	1965	Visit-click here
87	Joachim Hansen	1921	Visit-click here
88	Chris Leben	1866	Visit-click here
89	Mark Munoz	1866	Visit-click here
90	Siyar Bahadurzada	1833	Visit-click here
91	"Ruthless" Robbie Lawler	1819	Visit-click here
92	Yoshihiro Akiyama	1789	Visit-click here
93	Keith Jardine	1733	Visit-click here
94	Josh Koscheck	1695	Visit-click here
95	Matt Serra	1652	Visit-click here
96	Todd Duffee	1642	Visit-click here
97	Ido Pariente	1640	Visit-click here
98	Spencer Fisher	1623	Visit-click here
99	Sean Sherk	1618	Visit-click here
100	Tank Abbott	1530	Visit-click here

Radovan Judoka

120 MMA Gyms and 1000 MMA Fighters on the Map

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:34:21 +0100

The late growth of the Mixed Martial Arts as a sport can not be overlooked any more. For some people, MMA has been here for ages, for others the modern rules define the new sport category. But all of them agree that the spirit of MMA in today’s life is young, but sound. So what is the current situation among the top MMA gyms? And where can you start to participate?

Based on their popularity, some MMA fighters already hit the big game as the natural superstars. Let’s mention only fighters like Royce Gracie, Fedor Emelianenko, Brock Lesnar, the Nogueira brothers, Lyoto Machida, Gina Carano or Mirko Crocop. I am sure anyone can easily add many more, because there is just uncountable number of MMA fighters in the world. They appear in every continent and every part of the planet and fight for their right to gain the popularity, fans and even paycheques. These fighters are “produced” in the gyms.

We can consider the modern MMA as a young daughter of other kinds of martial arts but there are already hundreds of MMA gyms, associations or clubs out there. Lot of them claim they are the best, lot of them prepare very good fighters and all of them train hard and have fun. But is there any notable top MMA gym near your location? Can you reach or even train with some of the top 1000 MMA fighters? You can find out now…

As I already mentioned, there are lot of MMA gyms and I was not able to list them all. I had to use the selection, so I based it on these criteria:

1. They attend the real MMA contests such as UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, etc. 2. Their fighter/fighters, who are listed as notable had a fight at least in 2009 or 2010. In fact, I was able to gather info about 993 MMA fighters. 3. They are “real” – some associations are only management companies, but the fighters train in their home cities etc. 4. There was a possibility to gain at least basic information about the gym and the fighters –I was not able to list some of them due to lack of info and for some gyms I had to choose only 1 location out of several.

I have to say that the TOP 120 MMA gyms is not the authoritative and definitive list and the destination may not be 100% precise. In some cases google maps positioning system is not reliable.

But apart of that, there is as much information as I was able to get and if the map can be useful for you, your friends or your blog, than I think that good job has been done :).

Enjoy.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Brett Rogers – the fight with expected victor

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:30:05 +0100

The fight between two stars of Mixed Martial Arts fighting Brett Rogers and Fedor Emelianenko took place on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago. For both fighters it was an important match, both had quite a lot of fans and supporters. But the sounds of Fedor's fans were somehow little bit lauder...

Short history so far...

The viewers of this show - the first one copromoted by the Strikeforce and Fedor's M-1 Global company had some great expectations. First of all, Fedor is considered as the superior MMA warrior and as such, he is supposed to fight in the top league - which is for now the UFC. But according to his decision he will not attend the fights against top world MMA fighters due to promotion conditions. Moreover, as the fight was arranged by the Strikeforce, there were some doubts about the potential of Strikeforce and Fedor's M-1 Global copromotion possibilities. One important information is that the UFC fans do not recognize him as much as some other MMA combatants - like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira or Tito Ortiz. But according to numbers of viewers and visitors of the last Strikeforce event – that was so far the best decision of Strikeforce management ever.

The fight...

The fight lasted only two rounds and the first one was more exciting - mainly for Brett. Both fighters started with kicking and punching and there was no "visible" victor of the match, however the victory of Fedor was expected. Moreover, suddenly came the hard part, where Brett was massively attacking Fedor on the ground with loads of punches right to his face. For most Fedor's hard fans it was a prove, that it is really achievable to beat "The Last Emperor". But Fedor is worth his position and he was able to catch the Brett's hand and try for an armlock. The second round brought one important change. The director of second round was only Fedor Emelianenko and the fans could watch his talent. After just a short time he was able to arrange the Total K.O. by punches and the referee just had to stop the fight.

The future...

Brett is considered as the top MMA champion fighting at the Strikeforce events (now apart of Fedor). But Fedors career at the Strikeforce is only at the beginning and the question is - who is going to be his next oponent? There are of course some more warriors at the Strikeforce events, but they are not at the level of Fedor. On the other hand, the gate to the UFC is (for now) closed... Well, we can expect maybe some less interesting fights at some Strikeforce events or something unpredictable...

Check out mentioned fight here: Fedor Emelianenko vs Brett Rogers or check out ALL his other fights here: Fedor Emelianenko all fights.

Radovan Judoka

The MMA Judo Forum - new feature at the MMAJudo site

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:36:05 +0100

Yoha, greetings to everyone,

in order to settle a communityof MMA or Judo friends, fans and supporters, you can use the new Forum, which is free and publicly available for everyone. Please, register yourself to the Forum and share your ideas and opinions about any fighters, events, announcements, news or about your personnal training issues or advices. If you have friends interested in the MMA, Judo or generally about the fighting or martial arts - please tell them about the MMA Judo Forum.

Thank you very much, see you at the Forum,

Radovan Judoka

The actual position of Judo in the MMA fights

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:37:50 +0100

According to my opinion, judo is one of the strongest backgrounds for any MMA fighter. Of course - there are no kicks and punches in the judo training, but for the grappling and ground fighting judo can give you a great advantage. The necessity to learn the rest is very important, but we can see in the practice, that this concept just works - let's mention Fedor Emelianenko, Hidehiko Yoshida, Karo Parisyan or Yoshihiro Akiyama - these great mixed martial art warriors have a very sound judo background and they are among the world top fighters. Other great MMA Judo warriors are on the way...

One very important aspect of Judo in the MMA fights is "correct" falling - when there are two warriors fighting within very short distance or in a clinch, and they fall together - the Judoka is controlling the "fall" to his advantage. This advantage can be one of the greatest as he can continue with the direct punches or armbars...

Radovan Judoka

The MMA Judo blog - new feature at the site

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:46:07 +0100

Yoha,

The reason of creating the MMA Judo site is to gather some friends and supporters of Judo in the MMA fights. I like to watch the MMA fights with Judo background in the cage, and even if my favorite warrior loses - I just like the good fight. I would like to gather some more info about the applicaton of Judo moves and techniques in the top MMA competitions and create a little community with the same interests - The MMA Judo.

Radovan Judoka

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