Despite being much maligned by the combat sports world, Aikido still has a following. Many practitioners around the world continue to celebrate the art and continue its legacy, but it gets virtually no love from the MMA community at large.
This week, we start off with Jerry from Fight Commentary Breakdowns. He does a deep dive into Aikido and it’s practical uses, the frustrations of adapting it to a modern context, and a fair amount of theory:
It’s a worthwhile exploration of Aikido principles, warts and all. Most interestingly, it attempts to apply those same principles and find through-lines via which Aikido can be used in a modern martial arts context in various situations. This was another solid bit of digging and experimenting that led to a thoughtful series of explorations for the art.
Up next, we’ve got a collection of some pretty dope Kung Fu clips being applied outside of a strictly Kung Fu environment. It even features Pierre Flores, whom we’ve covered before here on BE.
On a personal level, I’ve had reservations regarding Flores in the past. It often seems that he selectively calls out masters considerably older than him. His success rate hasn’t been 100%; he got hurt pretty badly during a challenge bout in Vietnam. But props to him for putting himself out there and making this happen.
While most of these vids end up with the Kung Fu guy getting trounced or embarrassed, these were some fun and interesting examples of guys thriving and finding success in fights. Much like the Aikido vid above, it’s an excellent way to look at the further evolution of more traditional combat arts.
I have a copy of UFC 8 at home, and you’re old enough to remember (or just a massively dedicated fan), you’ll remember the theme of the event was David vs Goliath. The bouts were set to have major size disparities between opponents, and it was very intense.
And that’s one of my favorite things in combat sports. Love seeing the underdog get over on the bigger guy, any day of the week. So here we have something that warms my miserable, dark and shriveled heart, courtesy of Grappler Kingdom:
This compilation is all Judo techniques where the smaller competitor gets some shine. Lovely technique on display all around.
Keeping things in the Judo realm, here’s a breakdown of Abe Hifume (courtesy of Judo Highlights), a stellar competitor that attacks like a shark:
Next we’ve got Radikal Videos, with another compilation of devastating Muay Thai knockouts. It’s not just another knockout collection, you’re seeing the sequences and setups well before the payoff. It requires a tiny bit of patience compared to the usual knockout collection, and it’s all the better for it:
Not that there’s anything wrong with the usual knockout compilation. This next one? Straight fire:
Random addition: an India vs Pakistan Kushti match for the grappling heads:
And we’ll end things this week with a mini-tribute to Francisco Filho, former K-1 star and absolute menace. His Kyokushin background got him far in his combat sports career, and his 100-man Kumite is the thing of legends:
Here’s a collection of his competition highlights:
Some of his most intense finishes:
Be ready for the new GTA Online revamp. And remember – you might think you can fight, but there are many guys like you all over the world.
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