Tuesday 30 December 2008

Christmas is over




Xmas is dusted. Get your arses back to the gym. New years eve session is being held earlier, 1 o'clock, to accomodate those of you who, unlike me, have social lives.

Monday 29 December 2008

Magpie Grappler

Sherdog sports reporter Tim Leidecker seems to have taken a bit of a shine to me, having featured my bout against Weichel in his September article about 10 fights not to miss in October. Obviously he followed the result and has kindly predicted I may be the U.K.'s next big thing. I'll endeavour not to disappoint.

Taken from Sherdog.com - read full article here

Irving -- the Next UK Star?

The arrival of the UFC on British soil has invigorated the UK fight scene and motivated fighters across the country to train even harder, with UFC stars Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy leading the way. But also emerging are young talents like Terry Etim and Jim Wallhead.

Another fast-rising UK welterweight is Newcastle’s Peter Irving. Despite a mixed professional record, the magpie grappler is currently on a hot streak in his home promotion Strike & Submit, where he is the European champion. In his last two bouts, he won a decision over tough-as-nails Swedish wrestler Reza Madadi and Germany’s once most promising prospect Daniel Weichel.

The stream of tough challenges for the blonde-haired Brazilian jiu-jitsu player from northeastern England will not let up as he defends his title for the third time in just eight months taking on “Brazilian Bad Boy” Igor Araujo at Strike & Submit 9 on Feb. 8 in Newcastle, England.

Araujo, a Caveirinha black belt himself, recently bounced back from a short-notice loss in his UK debut against Jim Wallhead with an under-a-minute armbar victory over extremely experienced Russian fighter Vener Galiev in the Russian’s hometown. The Brazilian will certainly give Irving’s submission defense a stern test.



A stern test is precisely what I anticipate, take a look at Araujo's skills -



Tuesday 23 December 2008



This last year has been another strong one for the gym, many fights, many wins, few defeats. But in the age of hundreds of plastic titles held by plastic champions and agents obsessed with win/loss ratios without any qualification of those details; and a public in love with the idea of an undefeated fighter, confusing undefeated with undefeatable, enamoured with the fantasy of the invincible man, it's sometimes easy to forget that fighting is above all about fighting, not winning. Winning is the objective, and though inseperable from, still not necessarily the point. Everybody likes victory, everyone wants to win a fight, but how many "fighters" really, genuinely love fighting? Not the conclusion, the actual fight? A real fighter should be disappointed by an easy fight, the way a real fight fan is disappointed after observing a one sided encounter.

Paul Jenkins told me his favourite ever fight was his bout against Arni Isaakson, a bout which Jenkins lost, and was at points really up against it. But still, even though he'd won titles galore and fought in huge arenas, his favourite fight was from a minor untelevised event with a couple of hundred spectators - and he lost. What does that tell you?

Crezio wears a piece of custom jewelery sometimes on a chain around his neck, depicting him fighting Alan Carvalho, and there he is, immortalised in Silver, stuck on the bottom, getting smashed to bits. I've asked him a lot about his bouts, and the one he speaks most proudly of was the loss against Carvalho.

Tiarks is always keen to remind us that the Champion makes the title not the other way around. "It's about who you fought and when you fought them." Names mean much more than numbers.

Having said all that, I plan to pass 2009 in the same fashion as 2008, and never put my hands on a runner up trophy.

Monday 8 December 2008

Northern fight league

Chris Mason did it again. Great momemts documented in black and white, more on his facebook account, but here's a sample.




Saturday was a big night for us, with our squad practically making up the entire home corner.
Dangerous Dan,Franky and Simon totally overwhelmed their opponents, all finishing their fights in the first minute.
Yves had a good battle, but stuck to the gameplan and out positioned his opponent until he found the choke.
Rob was handed his first MMA loss by the Dinky Ninjas Alan Love, knocking him off a winning streak of 7 first round stoppages. Love came in looking enormous, and implemented an excellent strategy to take Rob away from his strengths. He took some hard shots, but never deviated from his gameplan, credit to him. We'll be working hard in the gym to make sure February is another clean slate for us. Christmas is cancelled. Prepare for hell.

www.freeufc.info

Cool site

www.freeufc.info

Cool site