When it was announced that Norwegian heavyweight John-Olav Einemo had signed with the UFC and then that Einemo would be facing Shane Carwin at UFC 131, there were ripples of interest in the MMA world.  Einemo's match-up with Carwin, of course, was off with the news that Brock Lesnar would be unable to fight against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 131, resulting in Carwin stepping up to face Dos Santos. This set up a bout between Einemo and Dave Herman.  Being a new fan of the sport relative to many of the people who expressed the most interest in the news of Einemo in the UFC, I figured it was a good idea for me to educate myself about this guy and this is what I found out:

1. Einemo has a 6-1 MMA record but hasn't had an MMA fight in over four years.  In an interview with UFC.com, he says he was never retired but that he was taking some time off from the demands of MMA:

"I knew my skills were OK … it wasn’t my level that stopped my career, it was a lot of injury problems and personal stuff, so it was difficult to train professionally and travel all the time," said Einemo, who has competed in countries such as Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Abu Dhabi over the years. "I had a young son to raise so I had more responsibilities and couldn’t just think about myself and wander around the world anymore. I always wanted to come back but there never really was a good opportunity."

2. Five of his six MMA victories were won by submission.  His lone MMA loss was by decision to Fabricio Werdum in 2006 at Pride 31.  This was the only time Einemo had a fight go to the judges, or even past the first round. 

3. Prior to his fight with Werdum, Einemo had taken a three-year break from MMA competition because he was dealing with a flesh-eating bacterial infection in his foot that was the after-effect of a foot operation.  His return on Saturday against Dave Herman will not be the first time the 35-year-old has had to make a comeback after taking significant time off.

4. Einemo is the only man to defeat BJJ superstar Roger Gracie at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championship.  He beat Gracie in 2003 but Gracie avenged the loss by beating Einemo in a superfight in the 2007 ADCC Championships.

5. Despite a background in both wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Einemo wants to be a complete fighter who is not just known for his ground game.

"I want to be complete, I don’t just want to be a ground fighter or a wrestler," he said. "I want to be able to stand with the best guys and go to the ground with the best guys … My chin is good, man. I have never been knocked out, not in a fight, not in practice."

He has been working on his standup at Golden Glory in Holland with his longtime training partners Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi and Sergei Kharitonov.

6. MMA is illegal in Norway so Einemo has to find other places to train.  In an interview with BleacherReport.com, he says,

"No, it [MMA] is illegal in Norway, actually. No martial art that has the intention to win with a knockout is legal in Norway." Einemo voiced his frustration with the situation.

"You know in all the neighbouring countries and all the European Union countries, you can do this sport. Its politics, right?"

He and his teammates have often traveled to Thailand to train Muay Thai and he says of those training trips, "We don’t train with the small Muay Thai guys. No chance. We take our own guys over there."

7. Despite references to him as "Jon Olav", "Jon-Olav", or "John Olav", the correct format for his name is "John-Olav Einemo".

Sources: UFC.com, Sherdog, Bleacher Report

I had to know more about the condition that's sidelined Brock Lesnar twice now so I did a little research on Diverticulitis.  Oh boy, do I regret it.  The description of the disease itself is nauseating, but when I started looking at pictures is when things went downhill quickly. 

Here's the 10 cent version.  When someone doesn't eat enough fiber, they have to strain too hard when they poop.  This causes bulging sacs (hee hee, sacs) in the colon (hee hee, colon).  The sacs are called diverticulum.  Diverticulitis happens when bacteria (poop) gets caught in these sacs.  They can rupture and then the bacteria in your colon spreads to the tissue surrounding it.

I wish you all could have seen my face as I typed that.  Bad stuff.  I often say, "You have to take care of your pooper."  And it's so true people.  Take care of your damn pooper.  Eat fiber.  You really need to eat fiber.  Taking a dump shouldn't be akin to going into battle.  If it is, you need to eat more damn fiber.  That's my public service announcement for the day. 

Megumi Fujii and Josh Barnett.  Photo courtesy of Sherdog

Catch wrestling is a form of submission wrestling that originated in Europe.  Think of it as traditional Olympic wrestling, but with holds and submissions thrown in.  It was called 'Catch as catch can', meaning, catch whatever hold you can get.  It resembles Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, but is more opportunistic than bjj, as the name suggests.  The fantastic K. J. Gould from over at Cageside Seats (who helped me more than I can say with this!!) put it this way: "BJJ is a trapper, setting up a trap to catch prey, using bait and waiting for a mistake to be made to trigger the trap. Catch is a hunter, tracking and stalking its prey and forcing it to make a mistake before making the kill. Catch prefers to be on top (you won't see a Catch wrestler pull guard), using weight distribution and leverage as well as pain points to make life miserable for the guy on bottom and also forcing them to make a move so the Catch guy on top can capitalise on an opening. " 

Some notable MMA practitioners of catch wrestling include Kazushi Sakuraba, Frank Shamrock, Strikeforce's Josh Barnett, and Bellator's Megumi Fujii.  

Photo courtesy of Sherdog.

If it's the day after an event, and the MMA world is all abuzz with a crappy decision win, there's a good chance Cecil Peoples was a judge.  His most recent crappy call comes after the Varner vs. Salorus fight, which he scored 28-28, thereby ensuring a draw.  It takes quite a lot to make me feel sorry for Varner, but Peoples was able to do it. Peoples was also part of the group that gave the first Machida vs. Rua fight to Machida (see the quote below for his thoughts on that).  If Peoples does have one talent, it's bringing together MMA fans for a common purpose: Cecil Peoples bashing.  It's nearly impossible to find an MMA forum that doesn't include multiple threads devoted to Peoples hating.  

USA Dojo has this biography of his exploits:

 

In the 70’s Cecil was himself one of the karate’s leading tournament fighters.  As a Kenpo Karate stylist, Cecil squared off against some of the best in the sport, and in the process earned the reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the then fledging sport of point and full contact karate.  In addition to numerous local victories, Cecil won the top Ten National Titles including the International Karate Champion, Rocky Mountain Karate Champion, California Karate Champion, New Mexico State Champion and Guatemala International Champion.

In 1996, the 8th degree black belt was inducted into the USA Karate Hall of Fame and his Van Nuys California School was named School of the Month by Black Belt Magazine.   Cecil was also named The National Black Belt Official of the year in 1998 and in 1999 he was inducted into the International Muay Thai Federation Hall of Fame.

As Chief Instructor of Cecil Peoples Karate, in Van Nuys, California this martial arts master continues to set the standard for excellence as a teacher and as a championship referee.

 

Classic Quotes:

You have to keep in mind we always the favour the fighter who is trying to finish the fight, and leg kicks certainly don't do that."  (Tell that to Urijah Faber).

Now you’re pissed off because it’s my fault that you lost your money. No, it’s not. It’s Machida’s fault. If you don’t like it, you can go to hell."

Jeet Kune Do is a form of martial arts created by one of the most awesome people to ever live, Bruce Lee.  It loosely translates to "The Way of the Intercepting Fist".  Awesome!  So what is it exactly?  Well...kind of hard to find a good answer.  The following quote is from the World Jeet Kune Do website:

The original art itself is a modification of Lee's first martial art style of Wing Chun Kung Fu. So many modifications in fact that it is very hard to see some of the similarities of the two systems. The blocks and hand manoeuvres such as grabbing, sticking, and energy techniques have their roots in Wing Chun but the finished product is pure JKD. JKD has had such an influence in the martial art word the even the core art of Wing Chun has adopted JKD sparring techniques. The second of the three arts in the core of original JKD is French Fencing. Who can deny the speed and agility in the art of fencing? The footwork is a combining and modifying of fencing, Wing Chun, boxing movements, placements and displacements. And the final art of Western or American Boxing for the Muhammad Ali hand manoeuvres and punches.

Well, that clears it right up.  From the same website comes this quote, which makes more sense:

It was born from Lee's idea to take the best of Wing Chun Kung Fu, American Boxing, French Fencing and Grappling to bring them together as the ultimate combat art, from the ultimate combat artist.

According to the Bruce Lee Foundation 

Jeet Kune Do’s stance, footwork, and major strategic points come from fencing.  A key principle in fencing, the stop-hit, is essentially the JKD namesake—the way of the intercepting fist.  The idea that you can set up your opponent so that you will be able to intercept him in his most vulnerable state—on the attack...JKD’s vertical-fist jab, proper alignment, striking surface, hip rotation, and kinetic chain sequence all come from boxing.

So, as you probably know, typical boxing gloves are those big light bulb looking things that completely cover the hands. However these gloves wouldn't work in MMA because of the grappling aspect of the sport.  So they came up with the MMA grappling gloves to give protection while still allowing fighters to grapple.  The issue is that, since the fingers aren't enclosed, they sometimes get in the way when commencing a face bashing, and eye pokes happen.  I've also heard about the edge of the gloves doing some eye damage as well.  Probably the most famous "victim" of an eye poke is Josh Koscheck, who took one in the eye (tee-hee) when fighting Anthony Johnson in 2009.

The gi (pronounced gee, like glee without the "l") is the traditional uniform of many different forms of martial arts.  It's composed of a top and pants, with the top being a wrap type thing with a belt to keep it all together (my descriptive writing skills are off the charts today!).  The belt isn't just used to keep the top closed;  it's color signifies the wearer's training rank.  Perennial UFC poster boy GSP always comes in wearing a gi before his fights, but has to take it off before he enters the Octagon, as it's against the rules to wear a gi in an MMA fight.

In this video, Jon Fitch shows us one of the wrestling takedowns he uses over, and over, and over.  As most of you will probably guess, my favorite part of this video is when Fitch says deep penetration.  Tee-hee.