So today, the Lopes/Mather/Galvin family has added another individual to the house. We all decided it would be nice to have a little critter running around the house. After decided between cat or dog, we landed on cat. We ended up at the night market in Chalong to have a look at the cats. The night market has dogs, foxes, chameleons, sugar gliders, tortoises, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles, bearded dragons, hamsters, rabbits, but what, no cats? What a joke. They seriously have all the above, yet they don’t have cats.

One of the ladies gave us her card and promised cats next week. Probably a few she’ll catch off the street in the coming week. So we opted for another idea . . . a better one.
We drove to the animal shelter today to adopt a homeless kitten. The animal shelter is very close to Tiger, PTT and Dragon. Only 5 mins away. There you can find pets that have been rehabilitated and ones that are basically homeless. We thought what nicer way to have a pet than to give one a home.

We ended up finding a small 3 week old kitten who didn’t have any mother. Small, furry and cute with blue eyes. Don’t have a name for her yet. So any suggestions, throw them my way.

Just want to give a big shout out to Phuket Top Team fighter and wrestling instructor Andrew Leone. This guy is just a bag of tricks when it comes to fighting. He’s preparing for his next fight at ROAD FC and is working his ass off at the gym.

He’s a purple belt in BJJ, a wrestling fanatic and has been improving his boxing by leaps and bounds. All this and his work rate is just outstanding. You can see Andrew killing it daily at Phuket Top Team if you want to see what real hard work and dedication looks like.

Andrew, your going to slaughter some people at ROAD FC.

Sue and I get some beach time. Beach, Sun, Sand and Kitesurfing

What’s the greatest advantage of training Muay Thai, MMA or BJJ in Phuket? Your on a tropical holiday destination island, that’s what.
I really love living in Phuket. At home when i trained, there wasn’t much to do after training, or when i had a day off. Life was filled with work, bills, errands and fixing my forever broken car. My head was filled with the deafening commotion of stress.

Here in Phuket, life is simple. You have time to slow down and smell those metaphorical roses. And you know what? They smell damn good. Here i get to stop stressing out, overthinking, or complaining. I can put my troubles in perspective and try to enjoy the short time I have in this world.

If you just finished training or just need a day to relax, head down to one of Phuket’s many tropical beaches. I usually take a breezy ride on the scooter to Nai Harn, Ya Nui, Kata Noi, or Kata Beach. There’s even a nice small one hidden away just after Patong. I sit down, lay in the sun, canon ball into the water, snorkel and even go kayaking to relax and enjoy the small things in life. It’s all up to you. How do you want to spend the day?

For me, as long as I’m living this lifestyle, I’m going to keep on slowing down and smelling those roses.

Was looking forward to this fight the most out of all the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Superfights at the BJJ Expo. I log into Facebook, find some links to the Superfights and what’s this?! The main event of all the fights is off!
Here’s the video of what went down when Braulio is standing on the mats ready to roll and waiting for Mr. Diaz. But Mr Diaz doesn’t show up, and let’s say Braulio is less than impressed.

But hey, maybe, just maybe we’ll get to see the both of them sort it out in a cage now!

Hopped into my first Jiu Jitsu session in over 6 months yesterday. Did the BJJ at Phuket Top Team under Olavo Abreu and Rodrigo Praxedes. It was actually an open mat session, but due to the number of beginners rocking up Olavo decided to put us through some drills on passing the guard using the double under pass and then went onto sliding the knew over from side control to get mount.

Some very basic moves to go over, but it was a great refresher for me to get my body mechanics back into full jiu jitsu swing. Rolling time was on and i only managed to roll with two white belts. Basically i worked on transitions, moving around, sweeps, control and passing the guard, coming back to it and passing again over and over. Thanks for the roll Rory and Kai!

After a 6 month break from BJJ, jumping into a rolling session and going balls out trying to dance around people, one position to the next, moving and moving. After two rolls my legs were like jelly . . . . with volcanic lava pouring over them. Mouth dry and a pounding headache were the all too common feelings i used to get when i first started BJJ  6 years ago.

Well it’s good to finally break back into training, especially now that Phuket Top Team is going to have two black belts training for their MMA fights and Roger Huerta will also be coming down to train in the next few weeks.

There’s been news flooding in about Adam Kayoom vs Gregor Gracie in OnceFC’s next schedualed event in Kuala Lumpur, set to go live on the 23rd of June.

Lucky for me Adam will coming down to Phuket Top Team on the 13th of May to go through a training camp for his upcoming fight. Adam is a  Bjj Black belt under Prof. Ricardo Liborio, holds a Muay Thai Record of 15-1-3, an MMA record of 4-1-0. He is also previously ranked in the top 10 fighters list in Radjadamnern whilst training with Jitty Gym in Bangkok.

Adam has currently signed to a 3 year, 6 fight contract with the One Fighting Championship MMA League. So we’ll be seeing more of his fights over the next few years.

It’s going to be an experience having him down. I’ve met Adam many times before and all i can say is that he’s a really genuine guy. I’ll try and get an interview with him during his time in Phuket training with the other two Black Belts teaching out of the gym.

After an ongoing private joke i thought it was more than appropriate to get the princess of the house a new shirt that Tiger Muay Thai was selling in limited numbers. The shirts proceeds were going towards aiding Tiger Muay Thais Brazilian Jiu Jitsu team mission it up to the Phillipines and compete in the Pan Asian BJJ Tournament this month.

They did a good job with the shirts and i hope Tiger was able to sell them all to help out the team.

Princess Sue squatting mad weights

Tiger Muay Thais shirt design

Touching down into Phuket, Sue and I made our way to the new crib Rafael (Tiger Muay Thai BJJ Instructor) had set us up with. Moving houses has been keeping me busy. I’m still moving loads of items from the old house to the new house. Even though it’s quite some work, I’m happy with the new place. So much nicer than the old house and newly renovated. New tiles new furniture, new everything. Our third house together, Rafael is once again my roommate.

Rafa having a snooze with Cheedo in our old place

It’s a big three bedroom place with a lounge area, kitchen and under cover gated parking. Even though the place was full with the essentials, it still didn’t feel too warm and homely. So Sue and I decided to frame and hang a piece of art she bought me and hang it up in the lounge area. The painting on the canvas is none other than the greatest of all time himself, Muhammad Ali.

It’s iconic, it has to do with fighting and it looks damn good hanging up on that wall.

GOAT

Proudly on display

Never leave Bangkok without hitting this place up. They are like the LA Ink of shaves and cuts. Someone should get over here and do a reality show on these guys. Now getting a good haircut is hard in Bangkok, so if you want to try out Never say cuts just jump in a taxi, or in my case a motorbike taxi and jump off between soi 49 and 51 in Sukhumvit. You’ll see the barber lollipop twirly swirly sign slash light outside the shop. Plenty of cool gear in the also from caps to shirts.

If you want a recommendation out of the barbers, i would have to choose Jack. Guy knows his shit. Too bad he wasn’t in that day.

Motorbike Taxi - See you later traffic jam

This guy cutting my hair is not Jack

After a long break from both blogging and training, I’ve finally returned to Thailand. My home away from home. Got into Bangkok around 7pm at night. Boy was the air thick and heavy. I’m excited to get back into training and becoming a food nazi so i can lose the 4 kgs i put on over the holidays! Will be starting up at Phuket Top Team again training under some new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts Olavo Abreu and Rodrigo Praxedes.

I also hear from the owner of Top Team that we’ll be getting another Black Belt on the 13th of May to train for an upcoming OneFc fight. If your good at maths, that’s three Black Belts in one training centre. Not very common in Phuket, but Phuket Top Team has managed to get 3 Black Belts into the gym at one time, three times already!

After the long journey and endless walking, there’s nothing better to ease the pains in Thailand than a foot massage.

There’s a really good FREE Ebook out there on Intermittent Fasting. I highly recommend this book to anyone out there who’s curious about IF and would like to start on IF. This is something i came along quite a few months ago. It’s a free PDF download created by John Beradi, who in a nutshell offers research-based applied sports training, nutrition and supplementation articles, as well as advice, products, and consultation services. He is also the author of some popular nutritional books i’ve read such as “Precision Nutrition” and “The Grapplers Guide To Sport’s Nutrition”.

It’s an interesting read, but like many nutritional plans and strength and conditioning plans, it’s not for everyone. But please, take a looksie.

Contents (taken from their page):

1. Summary
   

   All About Intermittent Fasting, in Under 10 Minutes

   A quick, easily-digestible summary of everything I found in my six months of experiments with intermittent fasting.

2. Introduction
   

   Hi, My Name is John. And I Haven’t Eaten in 24 Hours.

   I recently did a 24-hour fast, but I wasn’t all that hungry. In fact, I felt fine. Here I discuss why I tried this strange experiment, how it led to 6 months of self-experimentation, and what a 24-hour fast can do for you. (You may be surprised.)

3. Chapter 1
   

   Science or Fiction? Exploring the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

   The growing popularity of intermittent fasting lends it mythical status in certain quarters of the web. What is IF actually supposed to do, and does it live up to the hype?

4. Chapter 2
   

   Why Do Intermittent Fasting?

   I’ve been healthy and fit for nearly 20 years, mostly by exercising consistently and by “grazing” (eating every few hours). New goals and insatiable curiosity inspired me to try IF for 6 months. Here’s why.

5. Chapter 3
   

   Intermittent Fasting Review: Comparing the Popular IF Programs

   Intermittent fasting means a lot of different things to different people; here, I summarize the most popular IF styles and discuss the differences and similarities between them.

6. Chapter 4
   

   The Weekly Fast: My First Intermittent Fasting Experiment

   I started my intermittent fasting experiments with a simple intervention. Here’s my initial IF protocol and what happened after the first few weeks.

7. Chapter 5
   

   The Twice-Weekly Fast: When Things Go Horribly Wrong

   After my first experiment, I tried several different full-day fasting variations. Unfortunately, they didn’t go as planned. What I tried, and what went wrong.

8. Chapter 6
   

   The Daily Fast: Back on Track

   Next step: shorter, more frequent fasts. This brand of intermittent fasting is often considered more physique-friendly. Let’s see whether that’s true for me.

9. Chapter 7
   

   Wrap-up, Results, and Lessons On Self-Experimentation

   A summary of my results, with pictures. Plus, a discussion of why the sort of self-experimentation practiced in this book is both cool and important. And how you can do it too.

10. Appendix A
    

    How To Do Intermittent Fasting: Cheat Sheet with Our 3 Favorite Protocols

    Want to try intermittent fasting yourself? Here we summarize the three methods we like best and help you choose which is best for you.

11. Appendix B
    

    Intermittent Fasting Tips & Tricks

    Key concepts and strategies we cover in this book.

If you want to read up more on John Beradi he owns the websites JohnBeradi dot Com and PrecisionNutrition dot Com

Anyone tried this before? How did it go for you?

Are you an MMA fashionista? A gear buying junkie? Addicted to all things Jiu Jitsu?  Are you a Grappling Apparel whore? Yes, No or all of the above, this may be the website for you . . . . sicko. BJJHQ dot Com MMA/BJJ daily deal site, selling one item a day at a ridiculously cheap price. If you miss out on an item from yesterdays deal it’s just bad luck, no deal for you.

I’ve never laid eyes upon this website before but it seems to have been around since June 2011. They have a nice archive section where you can check out all the past daily deals and see what sort of gear and apparel they have been putting up on offer. Today is the almighty “Honey Badger Gi” to don when you want to show your opponent on the mat that your a notoriously fearless animal . . . . that resembles a weasel.

Keep an eye on the daily deals and maybe you can snatch up some bargains to add to your Fight Fashion closet.

Phuket Top Team is still in it’s infant stages as a gym. Only open now for the past 6 months, PTT has taken many strides in improving the training facilities, services available at the gym (equipment, motorbike rental, fighter sponsorship) and the number and quality of trainers present at the gym. To me, they have hit the ground running . . . fast.

Over the past few months Phuket Top Team has had high profile fighters come through to both train and teach at the gym. Such names as Roger Huerta (ex UFC and Bellator fighter), Vaughn Lee (current UFC fighter), Cyrus Washington, Chantal Ughi and Silvio Braga (3rd degree BJJ Black Belt) to name a few. Fighter sponsorships have been created, to help people who want to live, train and fight out of the gym.

Now with high season just around the corner they have sent the gym into full throttle. Expecting more numbers over the holiday period, PTT has gone ahead and made a few changes to the gym facilites to accommodate the increased numbers. A new ring has been set up beside the other one, allowing students to clinch and spar easily without worrying about hitting the ground hard. The next addition in a small area beside the Muay Thai area in which the strength and conditioning equipment can be used without taking up floor space in the Muay Thai area.

There’s plenty more in store for this gym including bigger accommodation, mirrors for shadow boxing (or boosting one’s ego), a small pool and something very very big out the back. But i cant let the cat out of the bag just yet. Here’s some pics i’ll leave you with so you get an idea of what the gym is looking like now.

S&C area

Second ring

Here’s a video i recorded a few weeks back. What you’ll find is Silviu Dorin Vulc talking to BJJ Black Belt Silvio Braga about the origins, techniques and point system of Combat Sambo. It’s an interesting video where he show’s how it differs from BJJ. The video was actually unintentional. I recorded this just before they were going to go through some techniques for me to film. As they sat down they both started to discuss some of the similarities and differences between the two sports. After they were talking for a good 3-5 mins i thought to myself “Why the hell am i not recording this?!” so i hit record, but missed the beginning of the whole conversation. Watch and enjoy the video, but just to let you know, I’m now thinking of making an extended one where i sit down with both of these instructors from Phuket Top Team and let them express what BJJ and Sambo is to them. I’ll be sure to capture it with clearer audio, so stay tuned.

Friends,

We are happy to announce that “DARE 3/11″, the third International MMA
event in Thailand, takes place on the 3RD OF DECEMBER 2011.

The event takes place at Club Insomnia Bangkok and is broadcasted live
on www.darelive.tv.

DARE 3/11 features both, Thai and International fighters, who will be
fighting in a cage.

GAME ON.

As the event will be sold out, we have extended the areas for you to
join us and watch live the most exciting MMA event ever held in the
Kingdom of Thailand.

You are now able to watch the event at four different locations:

1) Standard area of the Club/ cage side (tickets in advance, 1,100 THB only)

2) VIP Podium of the Club (tickets in advance, 2,000 THB only)

3) Darelive.tv via live online streaming for only 150 THB/ 4,95 USD

+

4) At the Insomnia’s new Garden Terrace (“New York Gardens”), live
from big screens FREE ADMISSION!

Book your ticket now as only 400 tickets to the Club are available.
This is going to be sold out, boys and girls!!

http://darefightsports.com/news/dare-tickets

EVENT INFO

WHEN: On 3rd of December 2011

WHERE: At Club Insomnia Bangkok (Sukhumvit Soi 12).

TIME:

- 12:00 Noon – Warm up event starts at the Insomnia’s Terrace (“New
York Gardens”). Highlight videos from DARE 1/11 and DARE 2/11 events
are shown on big screens together with other entertainment.

- 15:00 – Doors to DARE 3/11 event and to Club Insomnia opens.
Broadcasting starts at darelive.tv and on the screens at the Terrace.

- 16:00 – Fights start

- 19:30 – (Approx.) After party begins at the Terrace

- 22:00 – After party continues inside Club Insomnia

TICKETS ON SALE NOW. ONLY 400 AVAILABLE!

DARE 3/11 is an Opening Round event of the “DARE Challenge”, a
tournament where the team of first DARE Champions in different
weightclasses, wins a Grand Bonus of one Million Dollars.

Stay tuned for the official fight announcements!

Here’s a little video i made of a very small portion of our time in Bangkok for Dare Championships. It show’s you the NeverSay Cutz barber shop in Sukhumvit soi 51 where Robert Lek got his name and fight team shaved into his head the day before his fight to rep the gym. After we fast forward to Robert Lek’s birthday celebration at Iron Fairies. Two great places you should visit while in Bangkok.