Category Archives: MMA

Blood and Time at the End of the World


The Temple of Kukulkan seen from the Temple of the Warriors.


Chichen Itza, northern Yucatan, Mexico

“Behind me, towering almost 100 feet into the air, was a perfect ziggurat, the Temple of Kukulkan. Its four stairways had 91 steps each. Taken together with the top platform, which counted as a further step, the total was 365. This gave the number of complete days in a solar year. In addition, geometric design and orientation of the ancient structure had been calibrated with Swiss-watch precision to achieve an objective as dramatic as it was esoteric: on the spring and autumn equinoxes, regular as clockwork, triangular patterns of light and shadow combined to create the illusion of a giant serpent undulating on the northern staircase. On each occasion the illusion lasted for 3 hours and 22 minutes exactly.
(Check video here)

[…]
I passed by and made my way to the foot of the steep steps that led up to the adjacent Temple of the Warriors.
At the top of these steps, becoming fully visible only after I had begun to ascend them, was a giant figure. This was the idol of Chacmool.

[…]
Weighing on my mind was the unforgettable fact that the ritual of human sacrifice had been routinely practised here in the pre-Colombian times. The empty plate that Chacmool held across his stomach had once served as a receptacle for freshly extracted hearts. ‘If the victim’s heart was to be taken out’, reported one Spanish observer in the sixteenth century, ‘they conducted him with great display … and placed him on the sacrificial stone. Four of them took hold of his arms and legs, spreading them out. Then the executioner came, with a flint knife in his hand, and with great skill made an incision between the ribs on the left side, below the nipple; then plunged in his hand and like a ravenous tiger tore out the living heart, which he laid on the plate…’

What kind of culture could have nourished and celebrated such demonic behaviour? Here, in Chichen Itza, amid ruins dating back more than 1200 years, a hybrid society had formed out of intermingled Maya and Toltec elements. This society was by no means exceptional in its addictions to cruel and barbaric ceremonies. On the contrary, all the great indigenous civilizations known to have flourished in Mexico had indulged in the ritualized slaughter of human beings.

Slaughterhouses

Villahermosa, Tabasco Province
I stood looking at the Altar of Infant Sacrifice. It was the creation of the Olmecs, the so-called ‘mother-culture’ of Central America, and it was more than 3000 years old. A block of solid granite about four feet thick, its sides bore reliefs of four men wearing curious head-dresses. Each man carried a healthy, chubby, struggling infant, whose desperate fear was clearly visible. The back of the altar was undecorated; at the front another figure was portrayed, holding in his arms, as though it were an offering, the slumped body of a dead child.

The Olmecs are the earliest recognized high civilization of Ancient Mexico, and human sacrifice was well established with them. Two and a half thousand years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest, the Aztecs were the last (but by no means the least) of the peoples of this region to continue an extemely old and deeply ingrained tradition.

They did so with fanatical zeal.

It is recorded, for example, that Ahuizotl, the eight and most powerful emperor of the Aztec royal dynasty, ‘celebrated the dedication of the temple of Huitzilopochli in Tenochitlan by marshalling four lines of prisoners past teams of priests who worked four days to dispatch them. On this occasion as many as 80,000 were slain during a single ceremonial rite.

The Aztecs liked to dress up in the flayed skins of sacrificial victims. Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish missionary, attended one such ceremony soon after the conquest:

‘The celebrants flayed and dismembered the captives; they then lubricated their own naked bodies with grease and slipped into the skin … Trailing blood and grease, the gruesomely clad men ran through the city, thus terrifying those they followed … The second-day’s rite also included a cannibal feast for each warrior’s family.’

Another mass sacrifice was witnessed by the Spanish chronicler Diego de Duran. In this instance the victims were so numerous that when the streams of blood running down the temple steps ‘reached bottom and cooled they formed fat clots, enough to terrify anyone’. All in all, it has been estimated that the number of sacrificial victims in the Aztec empire as a whole had risen to around 250,000 a year by the beginning of the sixteenth century.

What was this manic destruction of human life for? According to the Aztecs themselves, it was done to delay the coming of the end of the world.”

The above text is an excerpt from Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock.

Joe Rogan of UFC fame has a brilliant podcast, and one of the most interesting so far featured Graham Hancock. Check it out here: The Joe Rogan Experience – Episode #142

Other podcasts of interest:
The JRE – Episode #170 Michael Ruppert (check the Collapse post for more info)
The JRE – Episode #173 Peter Joseph from the Zeitgeist movement
The JRE – Episode #127 Part 1 Chris Marcus about Ayahuasca
The JRE – Episode #127 Part 2
…and a bit about DMT as well

Also check The Joe Rogan Database for a quick overview of all the podcasts. At the time of writing there are 192 podcasts to browse through. Phew… Too much blood, not enough time.

>MMA: The sickest submission ever?

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Wow, this is the sickest submission ever! Some kind of crazy inverted triangle choke pulled off by Toby Imada which apparently caught Jorge Masvidal totally by surprise. I bet Jorge didn’t know what was happening until he passed out standing on his feet. Amazing!

Bellator’s premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events (first show aired April 4, 2009) and is broadcast every Saturday night. Make sure to check it out!

>Jeff Monson charged with graffiti felony

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Jeff Monson
, 37, professional MMA fighter, holding a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in psychology, was charged with First Degree Malicious Mischief on January 14 for spraypainting an anarchy symbol, a peace symbol and the words “no war” and “no poverty” on the Washington State Capitol. This is a Class B felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The graffiti cost $19,000 to clean up, court papers state. Yeah, right…
What’s the penalty for wife beating again? Sexual abuse? Child pornography? Here’s an example:
Consumption of child pornography can lead to a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Read the full story here.

As for tonights UFC event, UFC 93, I sure hope Dan Henderson will kick Rich “Ace Ventura” Franklin’s ass all over the place. I’d like to see Shogun Hua make Mark Coleman suffer as well. The rest is just a bonus…

>The $1 trillion bill for war – and a bit of MMA on the side

>The U.S. war on terrorism (since 9/11) soon will have cost the American taxpayers $1 trillion – and counting. This impossible-to-grasp trillion dollar figure does not include, for example, long-term health care for the probably countless wounded or the interest payments on the money borrowed by the Federal Government to fund the war.
Nearly 5,000 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the conflicts. How many wounded? What if the U.S. would have fought their wars in the United States instead? How interesting…

And right now, Israel, with full U.S. support, is on yet another killing spree. We all know what the Bush administration has to say, but what about Obama? Now let’s hear him speak about hope, change and compassion regarding this U.S.-created, U.S.-supported disaster. Let’s hear him!

This is a world of violence. On proper terms, when rules and regulations dictate war and when equality and justice reigns supreme, I worship at the altar of Mixed Martial Arts – the greatest sport ever. And I usually hate sports…
Tonight is the ultimate MMA event of the year, UFC 92 – The Ultimate 2008. The fight card is unbelievable! I’ve been hyped up for this event for months and tonight it’ll finally climax. The 27th of December 2008 is Christmas Day for real.

This is the outcome I hope for. I’ll go back and edit this post when it’s all over.
Names in bold are my picks.

Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans –> Yes!
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Frank Mir –> No…
Quinton Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva –> Yes! Yes! Yes!
Cheick Kongo vs Mostapha Al Turk –> Yes!
C.B. Dollaway vs Mike Massenzio –>No…
Yushin Okami vs Dean Lister –> Yes!
Antoni Hardonk vs Mike Wessel –>No…
Matt Hamill vs Reese Andy –> Yes!
Brad Blackburn vs Ryo Chonan –> Yes!
Dan Evensen vs Patrick Barry –> No…

>Napoleon, Alexander, Hitler…

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The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 is on! Episode 1 was all good.
Clay Guida‘s brother, Jason Guida, appeared to be totally stupid, which was both fun and depressing to watch. Even so, he wasn’t the worst fuck up this time. The Most Stupid Fighter Award has to go to the amazing Jose Aguilar, hands down.
Jose Aguilar has got to be the funniest idiot ever to appear on The Ultimate Fighter. Period. I laughed so hard at his bullshit pre-fight talk I had to rewind it at least five times. It’s up there with Rich “Ace Ventura” Franklins amazing “Drop to one knee!” advice which he gave to Matt Serra in TUF4.

Pre-fight:

To be honest, dude, I belong with Napoleon, dawg… Alexander, dude… Hitler… That’s what I belong with, dawg. Put me back in the BC time, and the DC times, whatever, back in the day, put me back in the day, dawg. Expose myself to the masses, blazing to the masses, y’know I mean? Boom. I be conquering motherfuckers, dude. Period. Y’know I mean? Just… Pillaging, shit like that, that’s where I belong, bro.
Criminal, dawg. Straight up criminal.

Post-fight (he got pregnant, i.e. punished to pieces by this Junie guy):

Murpy’s law, bro. The sun shines on every dawg’s ass sometime.

HAHA! What a jerk. He’s the kind of moron the UFC don’t want in the game, it would be seriously bad for the sport.
Period, dawg.

>Evan Tanner – R.I.P.

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One of my all time fave fighters is dead. He was an “into the wild” guy and was about to embark on a spiritual journey into the desert. In his August 16 blogpost he wrote:

“I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”

Evan was found dead in the Palo Verde mountain area of California yesterday. More information here.
Check out EvanTanner.net and pay tribute to a true legend.

>MMA – An unbelievably involved sport

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”Most people have no idea of the sacrifices involved in becoming a mixed martial arts fighter. They basically have to train in three disciplines: they have to train striking, they have to train wrestling and they have to be trained in submissions. These are three totally different games. You know, take-down defense, take-downs, striking, kicking, punches, knees, elbows… Then on top of that they have to learn jiu-jitsu. I mean, it’s an ubelievably involved sport.”
Joe Rogan, Ultimate Fight Night 4

Sure, there are bar fighters and street fighters, but they are there to entertain the crowd, sort of. Compare Anderson Silva with Tank Abbott for example. Not that I have anything against Tank (both fighters are on my fave list), but I believe there’s a slight difference when talking well-rounded fighters here…