It's Time for Some Testosterone

As my students and some of my friends know, I'm a big MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fan.

I did Tae Kwon Do in high school and competed in Judo in college, so I can appreciate a lot of the technical aspects. Thanks to the Judo, I particularly enjoy what happens on the ground in the submission game. In fact, in my first competition, I got chocked unconscious, which was pretty cool. It wasn't the last time, either - when we'd visit one dojo, there was a tradition that every new guy had to get choked out - kind of an initiation rite.

I gave up the judo fairly quickly, because I don;t have the body for it - have a tendency to get joint injuries. In the space of 2 years, I got a mildly separated shoulder, a torn rotator cuff, two dislocated elbows, and a severely bruised knee. To add insult to injury, since I was in the lightest weight class (131 lbs - those were the days, and are long gone), I ended up competing against kids who were 10-15 pounds lighter but had been doing judo since they were 6. In fact, one of the shoulder injuries was given to me in practice by a 14 year old, 116 pound girl who threw me around like a rag doll (in fairness, she was junior national champ the year before).

In any event, it looks like tonight's card will be a great one - the Silva/Belfort fight should provide some real fireworks, the Franklin/Griffin one should be a real crowd pleaser, and the Jones/Bader is another one I've been looking forward to.

Best of all, my local Applebee's shows the fights for free. So for the cost of getting it on cable pay-per-view, I get beer and munchies and still come out ahead.