Tag: Antoni Hardonk

The Travel Chronicles, Part 4: California Inspiration


(Photos courtesy of the author. If you missed the first three installments of The Travel Chronicles, click here to catch up.)

By Elias Cepeda

After any failure one natural inclination is to enter a depressive state. Another is to get on to the next thing you can take action on as quickly as possible, replacing success for failure, joy for disappointment, in order to stave off depression.

I’d just gotten my ass kicked in Canada. I very badly wanted to instantly transport to LA and Vegas where fun, work, and training awaited me. Instead, I had a long, sleepless night and ten hours of layover-ridden air travel ahead of me.

I could only be so active during that time. Mostly, I sat and thought. My cell phone was not working well up north and so I didn’t even have text messaging and phone calls to distract me. As I write this, it has been nearly four months since my fight in Canada and I have yet to watch tape of it even once.

I have, however, seen the fight, what I can remember of it, over and over in my head enough to satisfy me for some time. Most of that replay happened at the airports I arrived at, waited in, and departed from over and over that day after the fight.

I arrived in Las Vegas after 11 p.m. on Friday. The initial idea was to get a rental car and drive straight away to Los Angeles where I’d be staying with my friend Dave Doyle. Perhaps more than any other major media editor or writer over the past decade, Dave has been a major driving force in getting MMA covered in the mainstream. When he was at Fox Sports, Dave got his bosses to let him cover MMA, a true coup for the sport. He also got the Associated Press involved, doing great coverage for them and later, as an editor of the MMA and boxing sections at Yahoo! Sports, built the largest and most widely read combat sports pages in the English speaking world.

Dave now writes for MMA Fighting. Lucky for me, his smarts extend beyond the reporting and writing realm and he gave me some useful advice on my plan to drive from Vegas to LA through the night after a whole day of traveling. “You can come here any time you want, Elias, that’s fine. But if you try to make that drive as tired as you will be, you’ll probably die in the desert.”


(Photos courtesy of the author. If you missed the first three installments of The Travel Chronicles, click here to catch up.)

By Elias Cepeda

After any failure one natural inclination is to enter a depressive state. Another is to get on to the next thing you can take action on as quickly as possible, replacing success for failure, joy for disappointment, in order to stave off depression.

I’d just gotten my ass kicked in Canada. I very badly wanted to instantly transport to LA and Vegas where fun, work, and training awaited me. Instead, I had a long, sleepless night and ten hours of layover-ridden air travel ahead of me.

I could only be so active during that time. Mostly, I sat and thought. My cell phone was not working well up north and so I didn’t even have text messaging and phone calls to distract me. As I write this, it has been nearly four months since my fight in Canada and I have yet to watch tape of it even once.

I have, however, seen the fight, what I can remember of it, over and over in my head enough to satisfy me for some time. Most of that replay happened at the airports I arrived at, waited in, and departed from over and over that day after the fight.

I arrived in Las Vegas after 11 p.m. on Friday. The initial idea was to get a rental car and drive straight away to Los Angeles where I’d be staying with my friend Dave Doyle. Perhaps more than any other major media editor or writer over the past decade, Dave has been a major driving force in getting MMA covered in the mainstream. When he was at Fox Sports, Dave got his bosses to let him cover MMA, a true coup for the sport. He also got the Associated Press involved, doing great coverage for them and later, as an editor of the MMA and boxing sections at Yahoo! Sports, built the largest and most widely read combat sports pages in the English speaking world.

Dave now writes for MMA Fighting. Lucky for me, his smarts extend beyond the reporting and writing realm and he gave me some useful advice on my plan to drive from Vegas to LA through the night after a whole day of traveling. “You can come here any time you want, Elias, that’s fine. But if you try to make that drive as tired as you will be, you’ll probably die in the desert.”

Up to that point, my concept of the drive between Vegas and Los Angeles was based entirely on watching Swingers. Dave had actually made the drive himself many times. I picked up my light metallic brown (sexy!) rental car, told the clerk I had no plans to drive it out of state and then checked into the Stratosphere hotel in Vegas. I slept and began my drive west in the morning.

A Resolution To Have Fun

The UFC was going back to the Staples Center in Los Angeles in early August, about a week and a half after my fight in Canada. I hadn’t covered a UFC event in years and originally thought to coordinate my trip so that I’d be in LA at that time, so as to catch the event in between doing all the other things I wanted to do. That would mean Vegas first, then LA.

It turned out that the girl was leaving town the first week of August so I pushed LA ahead in my itinerary. I was excited to spend time my buddies Dave and Sam Sheridan in Southern California, and former WEC champ Gabriel Ruediger had set up some great training for me with Henry Akins and Antoni Hardonk.

All of that turned out phenomenal, but at the onset it was merely pretense for the real reason Los Angeles held particular sun-kissed appeal to me at that moment in the summer. I won’t lead you on any longer — things didn’t last with this particular blonde.

Travel is great for romance and adventure. Less so for stability.

At the time, the turns, climbs, and dives of that roller coaster were yet unknown to me. Before I could experience the negative consequences of it, though, I enjoyed the fleeting warmth and thrills of being more naïve than my age and experience should have allowed.

It’s a personal pattern. I can hardly fault myself or even regret those instances, though. If you’d have seen them, you wouldn’t either.

Thoughts of pretty vistas and fun friends had weaseled their way into my mind in the moments immediately before the referee stepped in to call the fight in Canada. I considered their appearance a sign of cowardice in myself at the time.

But the fight was over and the lesson learned. If I’d been distracted by what the rest of my trip could hold during my fight, the least I could do now was make damn sure it would live up to my expectations.

As me, my car and its stereo climbed onto the road together in Nevada and headed to California I allowed the smiling creations of my forward-thinking imagination to push out the harsh reality of having just lost a fight. If the water on the other end is blue enough, a drive through Death Valley to get to it can seem like a breeze.

“With Or Without Videos?”

Illinois, where I am from, is a flat land. Winding through the Hollywood hills to get to my friend Dave’s house in Hollywood was, then, unnatural in a pleasant way. For the uninitiated, there really are palm trees on either side of many roads in Los Angeles. Driving between palms is slick and pretty, no matter how much of a cliché it is supposed to be.

That may be true of Los Angeles on the whole. Dave’s Hollywood Hills neighborhood is full of “actors,” “writers,” “producers” and the like living right alongside the real deals. He’s got stories of spotting well known people stumbling out of the Scientology Celebrity Centre, which is across the street from the local grocery store.

The general outline of LA and Hollywood may seem predictable but that predictability doesn’t make the pretty parts or the grimy spots any less potent when they hit you. The weather was warm but not oppressively hot as it was in Chicago. Summer often eases its way into Angelinos’ lives, I was told, and it lingers into months others may know of as part of autumn.

Dave’s office was the deck of his complex’s pool, which was walled-in by deep green and bright, bulbous yellow. My feet are cold inside a Chicago café as I write this. Dave writes poolside inside a lemon grove. The scene was enough to make a cynical Midwesterner roll his eyes, if it wasn’t so idyllic and organically enjoyable.

I didn’t have long to enjoy it at the moment, however. I put my stuff inside Dave’s place and headed right back into my car to drive forty miles, to begin distracting myself from my recent loss in earnest.

There was dinner on the coast, a walk along the ocean shore, a movie we’d waited to see together. All very syrupy stuff unfit for a self-respecting fight publication. I will say, however, that I found myself staying out much later than I’d anticipated.

Dave was working that night, covering a UFC event from home, and just asked that I let him know when I thought I’d be coming back so that he could leave the door open for me. I enjoyed myself enough to totally lose track of time and forgot to hit Dave up. As a result, I left the Torrance area well into the early morning and headed back to Hollywood, unsure if I’d be able to get back into Dave’s place.

I texted him but he didn’t answer. No doubt he had long ago fallen asleep. I didn’t want to wake him with a phone call or worse, a creepy 3 a.m. knock on his door, so I drove without a plan, hoping that he would wake up in time to see and reply to my texts.

He didn’t. And, as I rolled on to Hollywood Boulevard, I still didn’t feel comfortable waking him up. You never know exactly how it will be to stay with somebody, even a friend, until you do. What are their pet peeves, what is within or outside of their comfort zone, etc?

Well, it turns out Dave is the most generous, gracious and low maintenance of hosts. I’d find that out when he nicely scolded me later in the morning over the phone for not simply waking him up. Especially when he learned of how and where I spent my night.

It is the responsibility of those who have come close to the other side and returned safely to let others know what it is like, to share knowledge. As such, I would like to inform those of you with intact souls who don’t already know that on Hollywood Boulevard, motels have two price levels.

I’d decided to not wake up Dave and, having seen many hotels on the boulevard just blocks from his house on my way out, I thought to get a room for what was left of the night. Riding past the neon-lit hotels and motels in Hollywood is probably like heading into an all generic drug store. One of the anonymous and brightly colored things you see on the shelf will probably safely do the trick, but it is difficult to trust any of them and all purchases feel like taking a plunge.

I rolled up into the parking lot of the first motel, got out of my car and walked towards the inn keeper who was behind glass and metal bars in his office. There was no door to get into his office. We spoke through the glass and metal bars.

“How much for a room, sir?”

“With or without videos?”

On Hollywood Boulevard motels have two price levels.

Fortunately Hollywood Boulevard has also has good Thai restaurants open late. I found another motel that had plenty of character but whose main selling point was not porn VHS tapes.

The European couple in front of me seemed thrilled by the price and amenities described to them by the inn keeper. I was less so, since my stay at the establishment would likely total just over four hours.

A hundred bucks for four hours in a room alone seemed like a poor deal. Maybe the video guy at the last motel was on to something.

At least the inn keeper tipped me to a Thai place down the road. I got back in my rental car before seeing my room and headed to get some grub. The Thai restaurant was old fashioned looking, with large, pillowy red cushioned booths over two rooms that were mostly filled, with tight cardigans, thick framed glasses, large earrings, and people wearing them, even though it was closing in a few minutes.

I ordered a curry dish to go, picked it up and headed to my car. Another had since parked in front of mine and I was momentarily transfixed. The car in front of me had a back windshield and bumper almost completely covered with photos of and textual messages having to do with Michael Jackson.

The license plate read #1 MJ Fan.

I was hungry and tired but still waited for ten minutes in my car, with the lights off, hoping that #1MJ Fan would show up and I could see what he or she looked like, maybe make eye contact and magically get a glimpse into the mind and soul of the type of person so obsessed with the late King of Pop. The idea that my waiting and watching for them made me much more creepy and pathetic than #1 MJ Fan could ever be briefly crossed my mind.

I forced it out and waited. Thankfully my patience paid off and he came to the driver side of the MJ Machine and I got to see, up close and personal, the #1 Michael Jackson fan in the world, or at least California. He was heavyset, wearing a plain black t shirt and blue jeans, white and bald.

If, reader, you are a fan of The Simpsons like I am and can remember the episode where Homer meets the large white man who thinks he is Michael Jackson in an insane asylum, you can appreciate how eerie and entertaining this moment was for me. If you’re not a Simpsons fan, you can more than likely still appreciate how weird I am.

In any case, I drove back to the motel with my Thai curry and rice in tow and made my way to the room I’d be staying in. I first walked through an unlocked high gate, past a tiny, grimy pool that sat at the bottom of what felt like a tall vertical tunnel because of the staircases, balconies and rooms around and above it, rising two stories.

My room was at the top of a dark and yellow staircase on the second floor. There was another door across from mine.

Inside it was all simplicity and romance. Not romance with a capital “R”, as in lovey dovey, but romantic as in a perfect place for a poor, miserable writer to camp out in for weeks and write.

The room was large, and was set up more like an extended stay room. A king size bed in the center with a television in front of it and a dresser underneath that. A desk to the left of that, and to the right a kitchenette with fridge, hot plate, and microwave. Behind that, a sizeable closet.

I didn’t take out a black light for close inspection but the room seemed clean, if industrial. I ate curry and watched Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia until I passed out.

Is Pat Barry the UFC’s Best Losing Heavyweight?

Filed under: UFCOn paper, Pat Barry looks exactly like the kind of fighter who ought to be cut from the UFC. But in a sport where meaningful stats are hard to come by, the record books only tell a fraction of the story, which is good news for “HD.”

Ba…

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On paper, Pat Barry looks exactly like the kind of fighter who ought to be cut from the UFC. But in a sport where meaningful stats are hard to come by, the record books only tell a fraction of the story, which is good news for “HD.”

Barry is 3-4 in the UFC, but he could easily be 6-1 or 5-2 or 4-3. And I don’t just mean that in the purely speculative, hypothetical sense, the way the flap of a butterfly’s wings could have resulted in the Nazis winning World War II. It doesn’t take a gigantic mental leap to imagine a world where Barry has a winning record in the UFC. All it takes is a look at his losses and a little bit of sympathy.

Fortunately for Barry, it’s the way he’s gone about losing that has earned him the sympathy, which explains why he’ll likely keep his job with the UFC at least a little while longer.

Consider Barry’s first three defeats in the Octagon. After a successful debut at UFC 92, he dropped Tim Hague in the opening seconds of their UFC 98 bout, only to get carried away in search of the finish and ending up in a guillotine choke. He rebounded with a knockout of Antoni Hardonk, then broke his most valuable appendages on Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s head before succumbing to a sloppy rear-naked choke.

Then, of course, came his infamous near-knockout (or, if you prefer, actual knockout followed by brilliant recovery) of Cheick Kongo in a bout that ended with one of the most spectacular comebacks in MMA history. Unfortunately for Barry, it also ended with him on his back, looking up at the lights.

You tweak one or two things in each of those three losses — a more patient attack, sturdier bones, the lack of a miraculous recovery — and Barry might be one the most successful UFC heavyweights of the past two years.

In fact, the only one of his losses that you can’t explain away with some minor blunder or bizarre misfortune is his most recent loss via submission to Stefan Struve this past Saturday night. That one was utterly and purely Barry’s fault, and this time inexperience and/or hyper-aggression weren’t plausible scapegoats.

Not that it should matter, at least in theory. There are plenty of UFC fighters who never caught many breaks but still got cut once the losses piled up. Regardless of whether Barry could have won those fights — or even should have — he didn’t. And in the end, isn’t that what counts?

Judging by UFC president Dana White’s reaction, the answer is: sometimes, but not always. Following the UFC on Versus 6 press conference, White explained that he was in no hurry to cut Barry because he “always brings it.”

In other words, he’s a kickboxer with an exciting style and an engaging personality, plus fans like him, so he gets a little more slack. It’s the Dan Hardy rule. Most guys can’t lose three fights in a row and remain on the UFC roster (some, like Gerald Harris, can’t even lose one). But if the UFC likes what you bring to the table, you might get a fourth and fifth chance to halt a losing skid. It’s one more reminder that this sport isn’t just about winning and losing — it’s also about selling tickets.

In some cases, that results in some truly forgettable missteps (see also: Kimbo Slice). But in Barry’s case, it makes for a welcome reprieve. Sure, he has some gaping holes in his game and he’ll never be UFC champion — or, most likely, even a serious contender — but he’s talented and he’s fun. Even when (especially when?) he loses it makes for a memorable night, and he’s always competitive, especially when the UFC is kind enough to keep him away from the heavyweight division’s better grapplers.

If Barry were a wrestler with poor striking rather than a striker with poor submissions defense, he’d be cut by now. It wouldn’t matter how much fun he was to interview or how narrow his defeats were. In that sense, keeping guys like Barry and Hardy around promotes a certain kind of fighting, and it’s the kind the UFC thinks it can most effectively sell to fans.

But Barry (and, to some extent, Hardy as well) is a case where this system actually feels just. He’s not a bad fighter; he’s just unlucky. He needs work on his ground game, but at least he never bores you. Even with a 3-4 record in the organization, he’s the best losing heavyweight in the UFC.

Of course, if he doesn’t want to find out just how much slack the UFC is willing to cut him, he’d better pull to .500 very, very soon. Winning may not be everything, but it’s still the most noticeable thing.

 

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Is Pat Barry the UFC’s Best Losing Heavyweight?

Filed under: UFCOn paper, Pat Barry looks exactly like the kind of fighter who ought to be cut from the UFC. But in a sport where meaningful stats are hard to come by, the record books only tell a fraction of the story, which is good news for “HD.”

Ba…

Filed under:

On paper, Pat Barry looks exactly like the kind of fighter who ought to be cut from the UFC. But in a sport where meaningful stats are hard to come by, the record books only tell a fraction of the story, which is good news for “HD.”

Barry is 3-4 in the UFC, but he could easily be 6-1 or 5-2 or 4-3. And I don’t just mean that in the purely speculative, hypothetical sense, the way the flap of a butterfly’s wings could have resulted in the Nazis winning World War II. It doesn’t take a gigantic mental leap to imagine a world where Barry has a winning record in the UFC. All it takes is a look at his losses and a little bit of sympathy.

Fortunately for Barry, it’s the way he’s gone about losing that has earned him the sympathy, which explains why he’ll likely keep his job with the UFC at least a little while longer.

Consider Barry’s first three defeats in the Octagon. After a successful debut at UFC 92, he dropped Tim Hague in the opening seconds of their UFC 98 bout, only to get carried away in search of the finish and ending up in a guillotine choke. He rebounded with a knockout of Antoni Hardonk, then broke his most valuable appendages on Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s head before succumbing to a sloppy rear-naked choke.

Then, of course, came his infamous near-knockout (or, if you prefer, actual knockout followed by brilliant recovery) of Cheick Kongo in a bout that ended with one of the most spectacular comebacks in MMA history. Unfortunately for Barry, it also ended with him on his back, looking up at the lights.

You tweak one or two things in each of those three losses — a more patient attack, sturdier bones, the lack of a miraculous recovery — and Barry might be one the most successful UFC heavyweights of the past two years.

In fact, the only one of his losses that you can’t explain away with some minor blunder or bizarre misfortune is his most recent loss via submission to Stefan Struve this past Saturday night. That one was utterly and purely Barry’s fault, and this time inexperience and/or hyper-aggression weren’t plausible scapegoats.

Not that it should matter, at least in theory. There are plenty of UFC fighters who never caught many breaks but still got cut once the losses piled up. Regardless of whether Barry could have won those fights — or even should have — he didn’t. And in the end, isn’t that what counts?

Judging by UFC president Dana White’s reaction, the answer is: sometimes, but not always. Following the UFC on Versus 6 press conference, White explained that he was in no hurry to cut Barry because he “always brings it.”

In other words, he’s a kickboxer with an exciting style and an engaging personality, plus fans like him, so he gets a little more slack. It’s the Dan Hardy rule. Most guys can’t lose three fights in a row and remain on the UFC roster (some, like Gerald Harris, can’t even lose one). But if the UFC likes what you bring to the table, you might get a fourth and fifth chance to halt a losing skid. It’s one more reminder that this sport isn’t just about winning and losing — it’s also about selling tickets.

In some cases, that results in some truly forgettable missteps (see also: Kimbo Slice). But in Barry’s case, it makes for a welcome reprieve. Sure, he has some gaping holes in his game and he’ll never be UFC champion — or, most likely, even a serious contender — but he’s talented and he’s fun. Even when (especially when?) he loses it makes for a memorable night, and he’s always competitive, especially when the UFC is kind enough to keep him away from the heavyweight division’s better grapplers.

If Barry were a wrestler with poor striking rather than a striker with poor submissions defense, he’d be cut by now. It wouldn’t matter how much fun he was to interview or how narrow his defeats were. In that sense, keeping guys like Barry and Hardy around promotes a certain kind of fighting, and it’s the kind the UFC thinks it can most effectively sell to fans.

But Barry (and, to some extent, Hardy as well) is a case where this system actually feels just. He’s not a bad fighter; he’s just unlucky. He needs work on his ground game, but at least he never bores you. Even with a 3-4 record in the organization, he’s the best losing heavyweight in the UFC.

Of course, if he doesn’t want to find out just how much slack the UFC is willing to cut him, he’d better pull to .500 very, very soon. Winning may not be everything, but it’s still the most noticeable thing.

 

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UFC Heavyweight Antoni Hardonk Retires to Focus on Coaching

Please tell us where this song ranks in the all-time “MMA Rap” list in the comments section.

According to our pals over at UFC.com, Antoni Hardonk has retired from the sport of MMA. Given that his last fight took place over a year-and-a-half ago, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, nor will it impact the heavyweight rankings, but it’s always slightly unpleasant to officially scratch any name off of the organization’s shallowest division.

Please tell us where this song ranks in the all-time “MMA Rap” list in the comments section.

According to our pals over at UFC.com, Antoni Hardonk has retired from the sport of MMA. Given that his last fight took place over a year-and-a-half ago, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, nor will it impact the heavyweight rankings, but it’s always slightly unpleasant to officially scratch any name off of the organization’s shallowest division.

Hardonk brought his K1-experience to the UFC in late 2006, knocking out Sherman Pendergarst out in the first round of their fight at UFC 65. From there he found mixed results, going 4-4 under the Zuffa banner. His final two fights were losses to fellow stand-up standouts Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry, the latter battle earning him the “Fight of the Night” bonus.

Hardonk was best known for his brutal leg kicks and for thwarting robberies before thwarting robberies was cool, but just because he won’t be climbing in the cage again doesn’t mean he’s stepping away from the sport. It’s his new found love of coaching that has pulled him away from competing himself:

“At the end of 2009, I wasn’t happy with the way things were going, but I didn’t want to give up on fighting. I love fighting and I love competing. I love to go out there and test myself against the best in the world, and it’s a great lifestyle. You only have to worry about yourself, you can be pretty selfish at times (Laughs), and I’m very passionate about the sport. So at first, it wasn’t on my mind to quit fighting. But I also always loved teaching and I think I have a natural ability for it and I’m always trying to help people. And if there’s something I’m good at, like fighting, I love to share and help people accomplish their goals. I think it’s something I always had in me, but I put it away because I put myself first and I wanted to enjoy this lifestyle and fight and compete and test myself. But taking that year off and focusing more on that other side and that teaching and coaching aspect of myself, I found that I get as much satisfaction from that as from fighting itself.”

So far his coaching career is off to a solid start. Dynamix MMA student Jared Hamman has won his last two fights while earning “Fight of the Night” bonuses and pupil Vladimir Matyushenko has scored two consecutive first round KO’s.

The Truth About Fighting Your Friends

Filed under: UFCIf UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, a…

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If UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, and there’s not enough of either to go around.

This, of course, is the inexorable logic of the fight promoter, who stands to profit handsomely if he can convince friends, teammates, and training partners to forego all other loyalties and duke it out in the cage. But then, the promoter doesn’t have to actually get in there and knock his best friend unconscious.

As UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub put it, “This isn’t basketball. It’s not like Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird playing each other and being all buddy-buddy. Somebody’s getting fu**ed up.”

Jared Hamman Wonders, What Do You Do with a $65,000 Check?

Filed under: UFCPeople kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had be…

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People kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had been an entertaining one, but Fight of the Night? On the same card that featured guys like Georges St. Pierre and Shane Carwin? That didn’t sound right.

“I thought they were telling me like, basically, that was a really good fight,” Hamman (12-2) told MMA Fighting. “I was like, thanks, I appreciate that. They had to be like, ‘No, you really won the Fight of the Night bonus.’ I had to call my manager and ask him if it was true.”

And it was. After a fifteen-minute scrap with Wallace that sometimes resembled a blur of furious arms and legs roving around the Octagon like a contained tornado, Hamman won a unanimous decision victory and, as he would learn later in the night, a $65,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.