MMA is so so so popular at the moment, (especially with the fact that Ronda Rousey is doing so well) and I have had stacks of people asking me whether I am going to get into MMA...

and my answer is no (sorry).

I'm just not much of a thrill seeker - I hate roller coasters, scary movies and anything that is risky (and yes training in Korea falls into this category) but I have a heap of mates and clients who have had a MMA fights and they have all done really well.

For me I just love Judo and Brazilian Jujitsu and the 'chessmatch like' qualities they both contain.

There are so many techniques and so much to learn and I am so keen to learn as much as I can about grappling.

Judo is just so exciting and so educational - just this morning I learnt a great way to stop my mate throwing me with a sneaky Tai otoshi.

I uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel this morning. It's an awesome highlight reel made by a friend of mine about Olympic Champion Kim Jae Bum from Korea.

It is people like him who keep my passion alive for Judo because he is so technical, so passionate and does a great job of portraying what Judo is all about and am proud to call myself a Judoka.

Have a great weekend ahead and make sure you check out some other great athlete compilations here:

Talk soon

Matt

PS for those who are into MMA have you seen Alan Belchers new Truck series for MMA?

=> Check it out here- it's pretty cool <=

Last weekend I competed in the Abu Dhabi Trials for Brazilian Jujitsu. This was the Australian nationals where the winner got a fully paid trip to the Brazilian Jujitsu World Championships in Dubai.

I drew the top competitor first round and had a pretty tough fight but ended up losing by the smallest of scores. I have included the video below for you to have a watch if you like (the footage is a bit far away at the start but around the 2 minute mark the footage gets a lot better.)

Due to the fact that us Judo guys don't really know the rules it can be a bit confusing to watch. But this is what happened.

- My opponent jumped guard so I gained an advantage.
- We fougth for ages with nothing much going on (and i get a penalty for stalling)
- We stood back up and my opponent jumped guard again (i got an advantage point)
- So I was winning 2 advantages to 0
- About 2 minutes to go I wasn't doing much (because I was winning) and I got a second penalty for stalling and not trying hard enough to pass his guard
- With 13 seconds to go I was winning 2 advantages to 1 and buried my head into his chest and gained my 3rd penalty for stalling meaning my opponent got 2 points
- So with 13 seconds to go he was winning 2-0 and when i went for another take-down he pulled guard meaning I got an advantage but no points.
- He won 2-0

After the fight I was so so so disappointed to have lost with only 13 seconds to go but I felt that my kata guruma attempt at 3:10 mark should have scored me 2 points for a take-down as he was falling over as I was already attacking.

In the end my opponent won his next 3 matches and secured his chance to compete in his 3rd World Championships.

I had a great time competing and next time will do more to look 'busy' and keep the referees happy.

It is a strange sport BJJ but it is great fun to do and is good to develop your overall awareness in Newaza.

I had a few mates also compete and they all did extremely well. Dukde Didier (Australian Judo team) fought in the Purple belt open weight and came away with a Bronze medal after 4 really tough fights.

Fosco had 2 tough fights using his open guard really well to win his first fight but losing his second. 

And Tom Casey after 1 year entered his first ever BJJ competition and had a great first fight in the -92kg White belt division winning his first match via armbar before losing his second match with  really sneaky strangle setup - Tom ended up coming away with 4th place!