Black Tiger Hero Club brings black tie bouts to Beijing
Thursday, 12th November 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Part of a minority that adhered to the dress code, this group from the U.S. Embassy enjoyed a photo op with the requisite barely dressed xiaojie.
The night featured 11 five-round, two-minute fights, with all but two going the distance. Nations represented included China, the Philippines, France, Thailand and Germany. Guests chose between a beef tenderloin, roast chicken breast and pan-fried sea bass for the entrée to go with their high kicks, leg sweeps and elbows to the head.
The Battlefield X series is put on by Black Tiger Hero Club, a martial arts club in Beijing's Central Business District. Their future plans include more black tie events, as well as some more casual shows. Like their major Beijing competitor, Art of War, Black Tiger uses a training facility and highly respected trainers to grow grass roots support between events.
Here are some more photos from the night:
One of the 11 fights was a mixed martial arts bout
Some sweat and blood with your cheesecake?
The winner of the night's one female fight observing the pre-fight Muay Thai ritual
A silent auction also benefited charity.
Tags: Beijing, Black Tiger Hero Club, mixed martial arts, MMA, Muay Thai
Art of War 13: Results
Tuesday, 21st July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The most recent installment of the Art of War fighting series, Art of War 13: Rising Force, was a bit quieter than the big-time coming out party that was Art of War 12, but still featured plenty of drama.The third Art of War MMA event this year, Rising Force went down at the Olympic Sports Center Auditorium in Beijing. Here are some of the results and a few observations: (Full results here)
Champ goes down hard
Wu Hao Tian, winner of the main event at Art of War 12, was matched against the shaggy Shukhrat Minovarov from Uzbekistan, who looked like he'd been grabbed out of a pool hall and tossed into the ring. Minovarov came out like a street fighter with a flurry of punches, including a tap to the sweet spot that put Wu on the canvas and ended the fight at 21 seconds into the round. Those 21 seconds felt more like 8, and now the 23-year-old Wu definitely has something to prove next time around.
The Main Event
The main event featured China's Wang Sai, who faced Claes Beverlov of Sweden. Beverlov came in with seven fights under his belt and a record of 5-2; the much less experienced Wang was 2-0. It wasn't the night's most exciting fight, but both
fighters clearly showed up confident and well prepared. Neither Beverlov nor Wang was overwhelmingly dominant, and the Swede won with an arm bar about three minutes into the second round. It was one of those fights that could have gone either way, but it was Beverlov who was able to take advantage of an opportune moment and force his opponent to submit.
Still no win for Dai
The next fight was the complete opposite, pitting Art of War 11 main event fighter Dai Shuanghai (an Inner Mongolian who makes one of the more entertaining entrances among the fighters) against Polish judo champion Marcin Pionke. Neither of the two fighters has much punching or kicking skill, so there was a lot of stalking around the ring waiting for the other guy to swing first. The fight was better when it got to the ground, and Dai opened up a huge gash that had Pionke's left eye bloody red and swollen shut for much of the fight. As no one tapped out before time expired and Art of War uses no judges, the fight ended in a draw. It was Dai's third tie out of three fights, a fact he expressed frustration with in the post-fight interview.
Is this stuff fixed?
That question is still floating around among the general public, mainly due to skepticism about fighting in general and China in particular. The fights look legit to me, and the results seem to support that. Only one Chinese fighter won on Saturday, and that man, Zhang Li Peng, got his win at the expense of his own countryman, Yao Qiang. China went 1-7, with one draw. While rigging the matches in favor of the home team is only one way to fake it, not letting them get one international win wouldn't seem a wise strategy for attracting local fans.
A welcome addition: Mongolia
Art of War 13 introduced two new fighters from Mongolia, Dorjderem Munkhayasgalan and Jadambaa Narantungalag. Mongolia has a strong wrestling tradition, and both fighters showed superior skill and killer instinct en route to wins over much younger opponents. The South Koreans also put in a strong performance, winning all three of their fights.
Watch it all online
The Art of War Web site carries all of its past matches online, beginning with Art of War 1 here.
The next event, Art of War 14: Ground Zero, takes place September 26, moving from Beijing to The Venetian in Macao.
Tags: Art of War, Art of War 13, Beijing Olympic Sports Center Auditorium, Dai Shuanghai, martial arts, mixed martial arts, MMA, Wu Hao Tian
Art of War 12, Beijing
Monday, 25th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Michael Buffer, getting the crowd ready for the rumble
UPDATE: The next Art of War event takes place July 18, not July 11 as it says below.
Events in China often suffer from a bit of a disbelief syndrome, especially if they claim that some international VIP is going to attend. So I wasn't really surprised when friends of mine who follow mixed martial arts were skeptical about the promotion of this past weekend's Art of War Championship in Beijing. Were all of these legends of the sport really going to show up? Would Michael Buffer be there, or would it be his little brother Bruce, who isn't even licensed to say "Let's get ready to rumble"?
As it turned out, Art of War 12: Invincible, was the real deal. It was the second fully licensed event for the organizers, brothers Andrew and Konrad Pi. After working out the kinks with a show at the 3,500-seat Chaoyang Stadium two months ago, Saturday's event at the 6,000-seat Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium was a coming out party. MMA legends including Bas Rutten, referee "Big John" McCarthy and several members of Brazil's Gracie family were in attendance.
UAE citizens flown in for the fights
Art of War is backed by Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and he footed the bill for journalists from all over the world to fly in to cover the event, as well as hosting a cheering section from the United Arab Emirates, outfitted in matching gear for the occasion. The sheik himself didn't show up, but a couple of young members of the royal family were there to hand out the award after the main event.
The night had pretty much everything you can expect from a full card of bouts--a boxing-style knockout punch (Ole Baguio Larson over Shawn David), that crazy young guy who just comes out with a flurry of crazy video game punches (19-year old Yao Qiang over 29-year-old Nemat Bobomukhamedov), a promising fight stopped by the doctors in the first round (Fransino Tirta over Malik Arash Mawlayi), and a referee jumping on a fighter who takes a cheap shot after the knockout bell (Ning Guangyou of China).
Wu Haotian accepts his check
Wu Haotian of China won the main event in less than two minutes, beating Yutaka Kobayashi of Japan in a knockout. But the best fight of the night was between Rolles Gracie (Brazil, making his Asian MMA debut) and Baga Agaev (Russia), a pair of impressively fit and skilled super heavyweights. Gracie, weighing in at 110 kilograms (242 pounds) won with a rear naked choke after five minutes.
Oh, and what about Buffer? He emceed the last six fights of the night, delivering the trademarked catch phrase for the main event and nailing the fighters' Chinese, Japanese, Uzbeki and Indonesian names.
As an aside, ticketing seems to be an area in need of major improvement. Tickets available online through Emma Ticketmaster were sold out early. Sponsors that run Beijing businesses were said to have tickets for sale, but they were hard to track down. Perhaps the large contingent of special guests had something to do with it.
For an interesting look at Art of War's business position, from inside the MMA world, check out the podcast at the bottom of this entry on NoHoldsBarred.com. Once you get past (skip) the six minutes of really annoying ads, the show is interesting.
The remaining Art of War events this year take place July 11, September 5, October 31 and December 26. For more information, check out Artofwarfc.cn.
Related: MMA in Beijing: Art of War 12
Tags: Art of War, Beijing, martial arts, mixed martial arts, MMA, National Sports Center Gymnasium
MMA in Beijing: Art of War 12
Friday, 22nd May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Wu Haotian (right) stares down his opponent before Art of War 11.
The main event features China's Wu Hao Tian against Japanese fighter Yutaka Kobayashi. VIPs in attendance will include the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
(His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan), who is a major investor in Art of War; Michael Buffer ("Let's get ready to rumble!"); and several members of Brazilian jiu jitsu's first family, the Gracies. The fighters come from China, South Korea, Brazil, the United States, Korea, Finland, Uzbekistan, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
This is the 12th time that Art of War is putting on fights in Beijing, but only the second time the competition is completely government-sanctioned and publicized. The first official show took place about two months ago at Chaoyang Stadium. A dozen pairs of fighters squared off in a boxing-style ring in front of a packed 3,500-seat house. Not only were the fights at Art of War 11 good, but the event was one of the best-produced athletic competitions China has seen outside of the Olympics, complete with drama, hype, smoke and jumbotron instant replay. These guys know how to put on a show.
Mixed martial arts pits fighters against each other in hand-to-hand combat, using whatever fighting styles they want (certain strikes, of course, are off-limits). Also known as MMA, it has surged in popularity in the United States lately--Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, being the most popular organization.
The Art of War crew is looking to hold onto its position as the number one producer of these events in China. The company also operates the Art of War martial arts studio in Beijing, and airs fights via Inner Mongolia satellite TV every Sunday afternoon. It will produce four more competitions in China this year.
Emma Ticketmaster lists the event as sold out, but tickets can still be bought at The Rickshaw sports bar in Beijing (map and info available here).
Keep scrolling for pictures of Art of War 11.
The ring at Chaoyang Stadium, Art of War 11
Instant replay while the crowd awaits the judges' decision
Mongolia, with its wrestling tradition, produces some of China's best fighters (Dai Shuanghai at AOW 11)
Wu Haotian vs. Andreas Hesselback, AOW 11
Shanzhai pyrotechnics
Bernueng Sakhomsin (Thailand, left) fought Dai Shuanghai (China) to a draw in the main event. "Bring me back and I'll kill him," Sakhomsin said after the fight.
Tags: Beijing, Chaoyang Stadium, events, martial arts, mixed martial arts, Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium