CagePotato favorite “Notorious” Nick Newell is off to a fast start in 2014, earning his black-belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Andrew Calandrelli at Ultimate MMA in New Haven. The video above was provided by Nick’s training partner Jon Thomas, who runs the awesome charity Tap Cancer Out, which if you recall is something Nick is very involved in. Nick’s pretty good at this Jiu-Jitsu thing, with 8 of his 11 pro MMA wins coming via submission.
So just to summarize, it’s only February, and Nick’s 2014 to-do list looks like this:
1. Earn his BJJ Black Belt
2. Inspire the next generation of BAMF’s
3. Win WSOF Title.
While we send our sincere congratulations to Nick for this huge achievement, we do have to ask him to scale it back a bit. Seriously, Nick…you’re making us all look bad.
(…which begs the question, how are *your* New Year’s Resolutions going? / Props: YouTube.com/TapCancerOut)
CagePotato favorite “Notorious” Nick Newell is off to a fast start in 2014, earning his black-belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Andrew Calandrelli at Ultimate MMA in New Haven. The video above was provided by Nick’s training partner Jon Thomas, who runs the awesome charity Tap Cancer Out, which if you recall is something Nick is very involved in. Nick’s pretty good at this Jiu-Jitsu thing, with 8 of his 11 pro MMA wins coming via submission.
So just to summarize, it’s only February, and Nick’s 2014 to-do list looks like this:
1. Earn his BJJ Black Belt
2. Inspire the next generation of BAMF’s
3. Win WSOF Title.
While we send our sincere congratulations to Nick for this huge achievement, we do have to ask him to scale it back a bit. Seriously, Nick…you’re making us all look bad.
It has finally happened. After years of mocking everything from ugly t-shirts to stupid tattoos, I have found something that has genuinely left me speechless. This god-awful McDojo demonstration featuring a “Taekwondo” “blackbelt” repeatedly trying (and failing, obviously) to break a board has me at a loss for words. From the nervous laughter from spectators throughout the video to the Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-esque form that the guy kicks with to the chunk of wood that flies off the board and hits a little girl halfway through the video, the only thing I can think of writing to go with this involves a series of completely unrelated GIFs with “Write your own damn jokes, comments section.” at the end.
It has finally happened. After years of mocking everything from ugly t-shirts to stupid tattoos, I have found something that has genuinely left me speechless. This god-awful McDojo demonstration featuring a “Taekwondo” “blackbelt” repeatedly trying (and failing, obviously) to break a board has me at a loss for words. From the nervous laughter from spectators throughout the video to the Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-esque form that the guy kicks with to the chunk of wood that flies off the board and hits a little girl halfway through the video, the only thing I can think of writing to go with this involves a series of sort-of related GIFs with “Write your own damn jokes, comments section.” at the end.
There’s a long running argument that there are different levels of Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, which is often backed by how competitors do against others of the same rank.
“His style is dangerous; it has some techniques and positions that are dangerous, but not too much. It’s ABC jiu-jitsu,” he told ESPN, describing his own style as “traditional” jiu-jitsu. “Eddie Bravo’s style uses half guard,” dos Anjos said. “[My BJJ coach, Roberto] “Gordo” [Correa de Lima] made the half guard!”
(Video courtesy of ESPN)
There’s a long running argument that there are different levels of Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, which is often backed by how competitors do against others of the same rank.
“His style is dangerous; it has some techniques and positions that are dangerous, but not too much. It’s ABC jiu-jitsu,” he told ESPN, describing his own style as “traditional” jiu-jitsu. “Eddie Bravo’s style uses half guard,” dos Anjos said. “[My BJJ coach, Roberto] “Gordo” [Correa de Lima] made the half guard!”
While their submission win ratios are similar (Sotiropoulos has 8/14 to Dos Anjos’s 7/14 wins via sub) their styles are decidedly different.
A black belt under John Will since 2002, Sotiropoulos, who is also a 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Eddie Bravo, is a half-guard/rubberguard player who is very hard to submit as evidenced by his fight with Shinya Aoki in which he refused to tap to the Japanese submission specialist’s relentless vicious ankle-lock and knee-bar onslaught.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/JustinThoj)
Dos Anjos, who is a black belt under de Lima is more of a top player (which is a rubber guard stylist’s dream) who isn’t against calling it quits when push comes to shove. Remember he tapped to a Clay Guida headlock in his last bout because of a jaw injury and he did the same when caught in a heel hook by Andre Galvao in the Brazilian ADCC trials in 2007.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/felipepcs)
Dos Anjos hasn’t really demonstrated the control on the ground that G-Sots did against fellow black belts Joe Stevenson and Kurt Pellegrino, so to say he’s superior may be a bit of a stretch, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see if he’s just blowing smoke up all of our asses on Saturday night.
