Integrity Never Taps Out: A Profile of Brandon "Never Quit" Quick (August 25, 2009)

Brandon “Never Quit” Quick is a name you should recognize as being at the top of the no gi BJJ scene. No stranger to the digital age in which we live, Quick has spread his techniques all over the world, making use of sites like YouTube, offering online training seminars, and most recently, the release of a three-DVD set, Fade to Black. Formerly affiliated with 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, Quick is now focused on the development of his own students and school, Trinity Combat Academy.

Over the past few months, I have been exchanging calls and emails with Quick, talking about everything from his new DVD set to his philosophies on jiu jitsu to his extensive tattoos. He arranged for me to receive a copy of Fade to Black, and my review on that will be coming soon (Hint: Anyone who wants to step up their choke repertoire in a big way should pick it up) but for now, I have narrowed my own focus to the man behind the DVD set and the ideas and motivation behind the man.



Quick was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. His parents split when he was young, and while his mother stayed in the Valley, his father bounced around from Manhattan Beach to Marina Del Rey to parts of the Valley. Adopted as a child herself, Quick’s mother tried to give back to society by welcoming in foster kids herself, a move that Quick said “just added to the chaos in the end.” In addition to the fact that seven or so people would live with them at different times, Quick’s mother also adopted some of the local boys who Quick thought of as his brothers. However, these additions to his family also brought them sorrow as one of his oldest brothers ended up missing and one passed away. However, Quick’s oldest brother, by blood, is still alive and doing well.

Quick has no qualms about the area in which he grew up, saying, “[it] sure wasn’t Disneyland and it seemed like everyone was involved with gangs,” and even his mother’s relocation of their family to Santa Clarita, which also saw his father relocate to the area as well, came too late for some. By Quick’s own admission, he got into his fair share of trouble, but when he realized he was going nowhere, he signed “a contract with Uncle Sam and I was off to Basic Training.”

“I joined the Army and specialized in explosives. I went to Iraq the first year it kicked off in 2003-2004. We went all over from Baghdad to Fallujah to the Syrian border. It was a lot different then, less politics - we smashed the enemy. Now the troops have one hand tied behind their backs with all the political junk that is going on. I have even been on missions that were totally distorted by the media. It made me so mad at all of it I still to this day don’t watch the news. There were some friends of mine who came home and some who didn’t. The real story is the guys who have been to Iraq three times and Afghanistan twice and yet the media cares more about Michael Jackson than they do the worst fighting that has gone on in Afghanistan since the first day we stepped foot there. We as a nation have become desensitized to the wars we are in and what our troops are doing. Some care but in reality 99% don’t even think about it once during their day.”

Quick’s experiences in Iraq contributed to a small part of the extensive tattoo work he has spanning both arms and his chest.

“My whole left arm is evil - dead friends, skulls, ghosts, Iraq and a spider web represent all of the bad stuff I have experienced in my life. My right arm has the crucifixion, Jesus, two arch angels, my daughter’s name and phoenixes all symbolizing my turn to Christ and rising out of the ashes. The battle of good vs evil is on my chest with my name in the middle because we are all caught in that battle. I have FTW [F**k the world] on my bottom lip [that I got] when I was at a point in life when I hated life. Now I love life, my wife and new daughter. My calf has a person’s face splitting open to a skull reminding me of two-faced people”

Quick’s martial arts background is not limited to only BJJ. He has also trained in boxing, muay thai, mma, and wrestling for sport, and krav maga, Japanese jiu jitsu and kali for self defense. However, Quick’s involvement in BJJ came at a young age. Describing his exposure to the art as a “typical story” of seeing Royce Gracie’s skills in the UFC, he got into BJJ around 1996 but always like striking as well. “As a kid I got into a ton of street fights,” Quick said. “My boys and I just loved to scrap. Sometimes you might see us in the front lawn or garage scrapping just for fun. It was the early days, though, hardly anyone knew about the ground game and it wasn’t as big [as it is now].” But even in the early days, Quick recognized the inherent strategy inherent in BJJ, describing it in terms of a “chess match”. It’s that aspect of BJJ that intrigued him the most and why he still does it today.

“[My motivation is] the love of the sport! The next generation of kids! Competition! Fighting, fitness or fun…sometimes it’s one more than the other but either way I take what I do seriously because I want to know that whether a student has been training one day or five years that if they need to use what they learned that [given] day they can. After being in combat zones and lots of fights on the street I know what fighting for my life is like, literally. People can use jiu jitsu for the cage, street or competition but I train them all the same. I teach them that BJJ is finesse, an art form but at the same time [it is] kill or be killed.”

And Quick takes great pride in making sure his students are ready for whatever situation they encounter, and he places a high value on the student/teacher relationship. He wants to impart to his students his style of grappling, teaching, his values and the importance of being open-minded to learning. In addition to teaching, he still trains and competes himself. Four days a week he trains two hours during the day and two at night and one day he utilizes one free roll session. However, he also understands the value of training with people outside his own group so he also spends some days rolling at another school to refine his own techniques, which include wrestling. Trinity Combat Academy has a college wrestler from Iowa teaching both Greco and Folk style, and Quick works wrestling in almost all of his no gi classes. In addition to all this, Quick also incorporates conditioning workouts and weight training, and at least once a week drills only technique with a sparring partner.

“It’s the greatest feeling on earth when you see people rolling how you taught them, especially when they have never trained anywhere else. Even more so is when my students go and compete with the techniques and values taught to them and win time and time again. On the other hand it can be difficult to train myself when I am teaching so much and it’s difficult to compete at the same event my students are coached by me at. The last competition I coached for nine hours and them competed. I will never do that again. I have to compete at different competitions than my students so I can focus on myself more. As for me being a student, that is why I choose to align myself with someone. I can always learn more! As one of my students said “In the same way you are a mentor and coach to us, that is what you need for yourself.” To add to that I bring in people in to the school for seminars and I travel and train as well. When I teach seminars I learn from people as well. I seem to always find a new movement or variation when I go to other schools. That is what is so beautiful about grappling. It never ends and I can never know enough.”

Quick prefers no gi BJJ to gi simply because he likes no gi better. “In [no gi] competition, practically everything is legal: leg locks, cranks, slicers, Twisters, and everyone can compete, such as submission grapplers, sambo players, BJJ players, wrestlers, pankration fighters, and MMA fighters. I just don’t like the rules in BJJ. I have nothing against the gi, I hope BJJ goes to the Olympics. I just prefer no gi.”

When it comes to individual techniques, Quick’s favorite is the Darce. When I asked why he chose to put a DVD set focused solely on chokes, he stated, “Those are my favorite submissions and I work them the most, just ahead of leg locks. A choke is harder to defend, takes more energy from you, can stop a dude on anything from adrenaline to drugs. In war it kills your enemy. An armbar will just make him scream. I had put a lot of time into the head and arm chokes, there isn’t a real good video on them [out there], Darces and Peruvians have been out there [for a while] but not an instructional [DVD] on just those and their options. When I was with Eddie Bravo he gave me full blessing and had faith in my teaching ability as did I. It [the DVD set] also includes guillotines, gators, reverse arm triangles (aka the RAT) and arm triangles. Budovideos produced it and did a sick job.”

Quick is also a fan of the competitive aspects of the art and their application both in traditional tournaments and in MMA. For traditional BJJ, he lists Robert Drysdale, Marcelo Garcia, Jeff Glover, Leo Vieira and Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles as some at the top of the game. For MMA, he sees Shinya Aoki, Wagnney Fabiano, Miguel Torres, Demian Maia, and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza as the fighters with the top grappling skills. But Quick also commented that MMA has recently exploded in popularity and so it is hard to just pick one guy, but he does love watching Aoki, both for skill and entertainment value.

Wrapping things up, I had to ask Quick about his recent split from Eddie Bravo and 10th Planet. As word spread that Quick had left, the forums were awash with rumors and speculation, not just about Quick leaving but about his military service, his skill level, everything. Here is what Quick had to say:

“I am no longer with Eddie Bravo or waiving the 10th Planet flag. The whole thing has turned into a big game of telephone on the internet. “I heard this from this guy, on this forum who says he heard from another guy that he heard Brandon say this.” Eddie and I split. I am not going to throw mud at Eddie because in the end I will still have mud on my fingers. What has become comical is these guys on the internet of all places have made it their life. It’s all some people do - sit around on a computer and talk smack and in reality they don’t know squat. They just know what someone told them. One guy even brought my family into it. So I have washed my hands of the whole situation, what is done is done and I have moved on and so has 10th Planet. People just talk smack to each other now, it’s not even about me anymore. 99.9% of these guys use it as entertainment for themselves. All of the internet drama hasn’t changed a thing except me not doing seminars at a 10th Planet school. I still conduct seminars world wide for schools and the military, am opening a second school, coming out with Fade to Black the book, have my online training BrandonQuick.com and my students are still with me including instructors working underneath me in Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas and New Mexico, my students continue to perform well at tournaments as usual. I am working with another BJJ instructor right now, Robert Drysdale. He is a super cool person and his jitsu obviously speaks for itself.. I could easily just call what I do Submission Grappling but I have been training in BJJ so long that I want to stay with it. There are many reasons, I would like to earn a black belt still, my students want belts and I would like to offer gi and nogi at my school but will offer judo, wrestling and leg locks as well.”

The split has not slown Quick down a bit (no pun intended). Just yesterday, Quick returned from a trip to Sweden where he was hosting seminars. Additionally, he still has stops to make in Oklahoma City and Denver just this month.

Thanks to Quick for taking the time out of his busy teaching and training schedule to correspond with me over the past couple months – I have definitely learned a lot about him and had a lot of fun, and I have really enjoyed Fade to Black. As I said, my full review on that is coming soon.

For more information on Brandon Quick and the Trinity Combat Academy, head over to Trinity Combat Academy. To register for Quick’s online training courses, go here. To purchase Fade to Black, check out Budovideos.com. For information on seminars and private instruction, feel free to email Brandon - bquick[at]trinitycombatacademy.com

Here is the video trailer for Fade to Black:




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Review of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's Instructional DVD Series (August 29, 2009)

When asked who is the best brazilian jiu jitsu player in MMA today, I think the first name on most people’s minds would be Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira. Able to submit his opponents almost at will, Nogueira’s submissions skills inside the cage are on a level far above any other competitor’s. True, guys like Demian Maia and Dustin Hazelett are showing some impressive skills of their own, but Nogueira is on a level entirely his own. Given that, it should come as no surprise that Nogueira has released a three-DVD series focusing on some of the most important aspects of effectively using BJJ in MMA.

Thanks to the very generous people at Victory Belt, I received a copy of Nogueira’s instructional DVDs to review.

If I were forced to pick one word to describe the three DVDs, it would probably be voluminous. Two of three DVDs feature almost two hours worth of techniques, and the third DVD features over two hours of techniques. This running time does not include the time dedicated to extras on each of the DVDs, a couple of which are almost worth the price of the DVDs themselves.

As I did with my review of Machida's DVD set, I will give you a general overview and my thoughts on the DVDs.

Let me be clear – these are DVDs meant for MMA practitioners. Sure, the techniques featured in the DVDs would largely be helpful to anyone looking to improve his or her BJJ game, but the context in which Nogueira offers the instruction is using the techniques in MMA. Both he and his sparring partner (his twin brother, Antonio “Lil Nog” Nogueira) wear MMA gloves throughout the entirety of the instruction and many of the helpful hints Nogueira offers are meant to be useful strictly for MMA because many of them are based on how to effectively use position to set up good striking.

Not to mention, just take a look at the titles: Half, Inside Hooks, & Downed Guards for MMA, Guard for MMA, and Passing Guard for MMA. Additionally, the cover of each DVD has Mixed Martial Arts: The Ultimate Instructional Set at the top of each DVD. For future reference, the total set (but not these three DVDs) also includes instruction from Anderson Silva, via Boxing for MMA featuring Silva, a DVD that I will review separately.

Although sold separately, and not as a set, the DVDs are meant to be viewed as a series and in a particular order, each building on the skills and techniques in the last. Although it is not necessary to watch one before watching the other, the progression between the three is logical and natural.

It makes sense that Nogueira would make an instructional set like this – having fought a number of top fighters all across the world, and having effectively used jiu jitsu on many of them, his useful and efficient instruction draws not only on his massive knowledge of jiu jitsu, but the realistic application of it that he has been able to use throughout his MMA career.

Now, on to the DVDs.

The DVDs are narrated by Brian Rule (also a producer on the project), but the instruction is given by Nogueira himself, in English. I did not see an option to access any other languages via subtitles or other spoken languages but this did not bother me as I was not looking for instruction in any other language.

Each DVD has both instruction and bonus materials. Within the instruction sections are technique after technique, all flowing in a logical and natural progression.

The techniques on each DVD are divided into five main sections based on position. Within each of the five sections are techniques that flow from that position. Watching the DVD, one can “play all” and watch all of the techniques and sections in a row, or simply access the techniques menu to view the techniques individually.

The thing I found most helpful (and very innovative) on each of the DVDs was what Victory Belt dubbed the “Revolutionary DVD menu design”, which features the replays of individual techniques from different angles. I know you are probably saying to yourself, “That doesn’t sound too special,” but it is not just the replays or angles that made it so useful to me – it’s the “revolutionary menu design”, which replays whatever technique and angle you pick over and over and over until you stop the DVD or return to the prior menu.

Whenever I have worked on a technique (on a DVD) with which I am not already familiar, I never enjoyed having to constantly pause working with my sparring partner to hit a button on the DVD player or remote to go back to the beginning of the technique in case we wanted to watch it again. This new menu design takes care of that problem. It will literally replay the same technique over and over until you choose to stop it, and this is from whatever view/angle (you have three to choose from with each technique) you choose. I know that any of familiar with techniques in any combat sport or martial art understands the importance of repetition. It develops muscle memory and makes you more familiar and instinctual with your own movements. While you are on your way to physically mastering these techniques, this unique option allows you the opportunity to simultaneously visually master them by being able to familiarize yourself with the different angles at your own pace without having to stop to move the DVD back during your training.

There is no verbal instruction from Nogueira while watching this option – his commentary comes only during the actual “instruction” phase of each technique. However, I did not find that to be much of a problem because during the instruction phase, Nogueira goes over the techniques slowly and methodically to make sure the viewers understand as many of the nuances of each position as possible. Then, in watching the replays, Nogueira demonstrates the technique at a slightly faster speed. Just as with many BJJ and other martial art classes, you have the technical instruction and then you work the application of the technical instruction. Again, a logical progression.

Guard for MMA

From Victory Belt:

In Guard for MMA, Rodrigo reveals for the first time his entire guard system, presenting his patented posture controls as well as all the explosive sweeps, effortless transitions, brutal submissions that they produce. Unlike most DVDs, Guard for MMA is not a collection of random moves – the techniques flow together with purpose, allowing you to capitalize on all your opponent’s defensive reactions. More than twenty years in the making, this DVD will drastically improve the ground game of any fighter who studies it.

The bonus feature in this DVD is a 40-minute interview with Nogueira, featuring sections on his childhood, life in general, and training. Perhaps the segment I found most interesting was Nogueira talking about being run over by a truck when he was a child. Just hearing the amount of injury he sustained, and survived, makes me respect him even more. And after having heard how he survived all of that, it’s no surprise to me that he can take as much punishment as he can in the cage.

Passing Guard for MMA

From Victory Belt:

In Passing Guard for MMA, Rodrigo presents for the first time his own proven methods for destroying your opponents’ closed guard, open guard, downed guard, inside hooks guard, and half guard. Dozens of detailed techniques shot from multiple angle convey how to control, attack, and pass guards like never before.

The bonus feature on this DVD is a section on grappling drills and conditioning exercises featuring 28 different things to do. As one would expect, this section emphasizes warm-up, physical fitness in general, and technique interwoven with both. These drills and exercises could easily make up a whole workout themselves. Many of the drills and exercises are ones that anyone who has attended a BJJ or MMA class has likely done, but I still caught a few new ones. All of the drills and exercises, even though demonstrated for only a short amount of time, really emphasized the amount of control that Nogueira has over his own body and it is not at all hard to tell that he truly does practice what he preaches.

Half, Inside Hooks, & Downed Guards for MMA

From Victory Belt:

In Half, Inside Hooks, & Downed Guards for MMA, Rodrigo unveils proven systems for each of these respective guard positions, teaching the dozens of unstoppable sweeps, crafty escapes, and bone-breaking submissions that they yield.

The bonus feature on this DVD was easily my favorite of all of them, and as I mentioned in the beginning of this review, this feature is one that, alone, is worth the price of the DVD. It is a 30-minute jiu jitsu sparring session (a very intense sparring session) between the Nogueira brothers. Now, you should not expect to see any flying armbars or anything like that, but I know many of you can imagine the skill displayed in this session between two men who have trained together their entire lives and really know BJJ. It was definitely very entertaining to watch, but it was also very easy to pick out many of the various techniques that Nogueira showed throughout the DVDs, and the ease with which he could put them into action.

At the beginning, I mentioned that if I had to pick one word to describe this series, it would be voluminous. If I had to pick a second word, it would be “practical”. Not that all of Nogueira’s moves would help you win in a street fight (although I'm sure many of them wouldn't hurt), but practical in the sense that these moves really do appear to be useful for MMA - as I am not a fighter, I cannot say that I have tried them in the cage myself - but as I said earlier, Nogueira really stresses the MMA applications. Numerous times throughout all three DVDs, you will hear Nogueira talking about “staying busy”, which generally means landing strikes to the body or head of your opponent. In fact, many of the positions that Nogueira teaches are ones which will, if done properly, put you in a great position to work some solid ground and pound and avoid being swept or reversed.

I think my favorite technique that Nogueira demonstrated on the DVDs was the underpass to Anaconda choke on Passing Guard for MMA. Although I generally favor a good kimura or triangle in training, the ease with which Nogueira was able to make this transition made me wonder why every fighter does not try to pull this off at least once in every fight.

Overall, I was very pleased with the DVDs. Although no overly complicated, it took me a few minutes to get used to the style of navigation within the menus. However, once I had successfully cycled through the menus a couple of times, it was no problem. The production value was high, the narration was good, and the instruction was obviously top-notch.

Thank you again to Victory Belt for the opportunity to review this great DVD series.

Each DVD sells for approximately $35, which I think is a fair price based on the large number of techniques one can find on any of the DVDs.

You can purchase Guard for MMA here, Passing Guard for MMA here, and Half, Inside Hooks & Downed Guard for MMA here.

Additionally, Victory Belt has released a wealth of excellent materials recently, in both DVD and book form, and my reviews on all of them are forthcoming.




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DVD Review - Machida-Do Karate for MMA (May 22, 2009)

Lyoto Machida will be challenging Rashad Evans for the UFC Light Heavyweight title in this weekend's UFC 98 event. Among other things, Machida has made headlines due to his karate background which has lead to his unorthodox stances and excellent lateral movement. Thanks to Victory Belt, a leading publisher of a number of instructional books and DVDs, I was able to review Machida-Do Karate for Mixed Martial Arts.

At the outset, I must say that I have never trained in karate have not and likely ever will not fight in a mixed martial arts bout. However, as someone with more than just a passing interest in MMA and as someone with some martial arts training, I jumped at the chance to review this four DVD box set.

I was intrigued by this set because I've always wondered how much of Machida's karate background could be utilized in the cage. Sure, Machida is an excellent technical fighter, but how much of that really comes from karate? The four DVD set includes the following:

Disc 1- Movement and Fundamental Strikes
Disc 2 - Striking Attacks and Takedowns
Disc 3 - Intercepting Attacks, Takedown Defense, and The Clinch
Disc 4 - The Ground Game

I found the DVDs to be fairly helpful, not just at establishing general techniques, but also in setting up various combinations. I was particularly impressed by the logistical setup of Disc 4 - The Ground Game, as it offered split-screen views of each technique, both the top view and the ground view. Both the newbies and veterans of any martial arts training should find this helpful as the simultaneous views prove helpful to make sure you're executing the techniques properly.

The chapters on the DVDs are all efficiently organized by technique, so if you want to concentrate on one technique you could just rewind or fast forward by chapter without worrying about missing something. The main menu has a sub menu that allows you to sort through everything by chapter/technique, so if you are looking for one specific technique, you can easily find it. Additionally, after watching one of these individual techniques, viewers are presented with the option of either watching the technique again or moving on to the next technique.

Each disc also features an interview with Machida, covering various topics from martial arts, combative fighting and his own history as a person and martial artist.

The DVDs are geared primarily toward English-speakers as there is an English voiceover providing the instruction throughout. Machida does speak Portuguese as he gives instructions, but if I had been listening for that only, it would have been hard to hear sometimes.

Machida works in the traditional gi with no gloves for Disc 1 and in fight shorts and gloves for Discs 2, 3, and 4, so while the set is clearly geared towards using the techniques in MMA, there is plenty of helpful instruction for those looking to practice fundamentals as well. Machida does many of the workouts with a sparring partner (one of his brothers), demonstrating the application of the techniques, but he also demonstrates many of the techniques on thai pads and focus mitts as well. Further, all of the techniques of each disc are demonstrated first at half-speed, then faster, and aside from the ground game section, many of the techniques are demonstrated with Machida just showing the technique but not hitting a pad or a person and then a second time, with Machida hitting a target. Then, Machida often engages in some free-form sparring geared toward the particular techniques that he just demonstrated. All of these aspects give viewers an appreciation for the technical aspect and the practical applications of all of the moves, and also show some combinations that one could put together.

Each DVD also features stretching exercises geared towards the specific training featured on that particular DVD, and Machida even goes as far as to address the importance of the traditional kata as part of training.

Although I was initially skeptical about how much usefulness karate instruction could prove for MMA, what one has to remember is that Machida's style is karate-based, not karate-only. There are definitely elements of brazilian jiu jitsu and muay thai present at various points throughout the DVDs. Additionally, I found the various takedowns Machida demonstrated to be both interesting and useful (I practiced a number of the techniques on all the DVDs with my training partner), but quickly realized that to effectively utilize many of these unorthodox takedowns would require a lot of practice time, moreso than with other techniques, to nail down the specific complex movements.

As a whole, the set provides a lot of useful instruction and definitely gives some great insight into Machida's fighting style. In spite of the fact that many of the techniques are initially performed at half-speed and then again at a faster speed, as someone who doesn't train full-time, I found myself wishing that the techniques were demonstrated more, or even slower. However, the fact that techniques are divided by chapter made it easy to keep hitting the chapter rewind button to skip back to the beginning of that part of the instruction. Additionally, it seems to me that anyone wanting to seriously utilize the techniques demonstrated on these DVDs would have to do so with a sparring partner, simply because of the emphasis that is put on the application of the various moves.

As I stated at the outset, I will likely have no chance to prove how useful any of these techniques would be in the cage, but I can say that a fighter (or even a non-fighter) who is looking to train in a different discipline, and who wants to learn some unorthodox, but proven techniques would benefit from checking this set out.

Priced at approximately $120 (depending on which website you check out), I thought the set seemed kind of pricey. However, there are four DVDs, and they are packed with tons of techniques, so a serious training buff could get a lot of mileage out of that $120.

To purchase the set, head over to Budovideos.com.


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My New Writing Gig - PRO MMA

As I mentioned in my most recent post, FightTicker.com is shutting down effective this Saturday, September 26, 2009. However, I wanted to let you all know that my blogging will still continue. I have joined the top-notch staff over at PROMMA.info, an excellent MMA site.

More info after the jump.

PRO MMA is a great MMA site. I first ran into site President/Owner Jack Bratcher and site VP/Editor Denny Hodge at an XFC show in Knoxville. We had some good discussions that night on the XFC show and the state of MMA blogging and reporting. Then, I met PRO MMA staff writer Dusty Adams at an RFL show in Indiana. I'd planned on live blogging that show but when I arrived was asked to commentate. I jumped at the chance, but needed a second man to play the Joe Rogan to my Mike Goldberg (or vice versa). I happened to run into Dusty, there to cover the show for PRO MMA, so I asked if he'd like to give me a hand and we did an excellent job commentating the show (if I do say so myself).

When I learned that FightTicker might be shutting down, I started making inquiries with some sites who were looking for writers and with some sites who had previously contacted me about writing for them. Ultimately, I decided that PRO MMA would be the best fit for me, and I am really excited about this new opportunity.

I do have some things to learn in terms of posting format and other logistical issues but I am hitting the ground running.

I will continue to do the live coverage of all of the shows I normally go to, as well as provide you with the best in regional and national MMA news, commentary, product reviews, and original content. I have some great things in the works right now, including some previously announced product reviews including Brandon Quick's 3-DVD set called Fade to Black, and some great products recently sent to me by Victory Belt. Additionally, mine and Puddin's radio show, Cageside Seats, will be up and running full swing again in the very near future, after I sort out some of the technical details.

And that's just me - PRO MMA already has a number of great writers and big things are happening with the site, including a blog from TUF 10 competitor Justin Wren. Wren will be posting weekly updates on his experiences on TUF, and his first entry is already in the books. You can check that out here.

I'm really happy to be part of the PRO MMA crew. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to contributing what I can to PRO MMA's already strong staff.

-PreView

EDIT: I edited the article to correctly note that Cageside Seats is not just my radio show, but mine and Puddin's :)


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Review of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's Instructional DVD Series

Thanks to the generous folks at Victory Belt, I had the chance to review Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's 3-DVD instructional set on BJJ for MMA.

In short, it's an excellent series, and the DVDs showcase a revolutionary menu that should make picking up the techniques a whole lot easier.

You can find my full review on the set as well as links to purchase the DVDs on FightTicker.com.

Enjoy.

-PreView

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FightTicker.com DVD Review - Machida-Do Karate For Mixed Martial Arts

In my role as a blogger with FightTicker.com, I occasionally get the opportunity to review various MMA related products including books and DVDs. Thanks to the folks over at Victory Belt, one of the leading publishers of instructional books and DVDs, my most recent review is of Lyoto Machida's Machida-Do Karate for Mixed Martial Arts. For the full review, head over to FightTicker.com.

To purchase the 4 DVD Box Set, head over to Budovideos.com.

-PreView


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