World Of Swords

Gina Carano put womens MMA on the map, but Cris Cyborg Santos may have become the sports first dominant female champion by virtue of her overwhelming TKO victory in the main event of Saturdays STRIKEFORCE event. Cyborg simply was too physically strong and her punches too powerful for Carano, who fought valiantly before succumbing to a barrage of ground and pound punches at the end of the first round.

Before a near capacity crowd at San Joses HP Pavilion, Carano and Cyborg made history as the first women to headline a major US mixed martial arts event. Cyborg entered the cage first to a mostly negative reaction, stopping along the way to shadow box and throw kicks on the entrance ramp. The crowd went nuts for Carano, who was accompanied into the arena by Randy Couture who trained her for the matchup.

Despite the fight being scheduled for five rounds of five minutes each, the women set a frantic pace from the opening horn. Cyborgs size and strength advantage was apparent from the outset, as she landed an immediate flurry of punches before taking Carano to the canvas. Carano landed in top position, but quickly found herself in trouble as Cyborg worked for a kneebar and then a heel hook. Carano was able to extricate herself, and get to her feet but Cyborg took her back and immediately took her down again. Carano landed in top mount, however, and was able to score with some big punches from the top. Inexplicably, she backed off and let Cyborg get to her feet instead of pressing what may have been her best opportunity to win the fight.

Carano was able to land a couple of effective jabs on the ensuing standup exchange, but Cyborg caught a body kick attempt and quickly closed the distance again. Cyborg once again took her opponent to the mat and after an unsuccessful armbar attempt mounted Carano and began a brutal punching assault that eventually forced the stoppage.

Despite Cyborgs triumph the most dominating performance of the evening belonged to former DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi. In his first fight at 205, Mousasi destroyed STRIKEFORCE light heavyweight champion Renato Babalu Sobral via TKO at the 1:00 mark of the first round. Mousasis victory wasnt a shocking outcome, but the utter ease with which he handled a tough, experienced and well rounded opponent in Sobral was stunning and evoked comparisons to recently signed heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko.

Earlier in a card full of decisive finishes, Gilbert Melendez became STRIKEFORCE interim lightweight champion with a third round TKO victory over the double tough Mitsuhiro Ishida. Melendez will now face Josh Thompson to unify the belts once Thompson is medically cleared to resume fighting.

Brian Bowles used a counter right hook late in the first round to defeat Miguel Angel Torres by TKO and win the WEC Bantamweight title in the main event of WEC 42. Though Bowles entered as a highly respected, undefeated challenger his stoppage victory over Torres"a fighter who ranked high atop most pound for pound best lists"has to be considered one of the major MMA upsets of the year.

One day after a UFC 101 card that was lackluster at best and disappointing at worst, MMA fans were hoping that the WEC would deliver an exciting event as they almost inevitably do. They werent disappointed, and there really wasnt a bad fight on the card which featured several brutal knockouts along with tightly contested decisions. The event will be remembered for the main event and the shocking upset of Torres, whom commentator Frank Mir had been championing as the pound for pound best fighter in the sport of late. Torres certainly had the credentials"a fighter equally as dangerous on his feet as on the ground, hed compiled a 37-1 record entering the fight against Bowles. Since a 2003 decision loss to Ryan Ackerman, Torres had run off 17 straight victories including his most recent triumph by decision over a tough challenge from Japanese striking machine Takeya Mizugaki.

Bowles quickly announced his presence with authority rocking Torres with an overhand right and scoring a takedown within the first minute. After a groundfighting sequence, the two fighters exchanged punches again and initially it looked like Torres was getting the best of things as he landed a multiple punch combination that sent Bowles backing up. Almost out of nowhere, however, Bowles countered with a perfectly placed short right hook that sent the champion to the canvas. He followed up with some nasty ground and pound punches including a big left hand that knocked his opponent unconscious and forced the referee to wave off the fight.

In his postfight interview, Bowles sounded unsurprised by the outcome. His comments indicated that hed been very well prepared for Torres considerable skills and though he conceded that hed been stung by the punching barrage waited for the opening to throw the right hook that ended the fight. Bowles displayed considerable class in victory, and Torres conducted himself in a matter befitting a champion as he accepted the defeat.

A rematch between Bowles and Torres is almost inevitable, but theres plenty of talent in the WEC bantamweight division. The semifinal bout on the card pitted two of these competitors in what may have been an elimination match for #1 contender status as Dominick Cruz handed feisty Joseph Benavidez his first professional loss via unanimous decision.

Further muddling the picture in the bantamweight division was an earlier fight on the card, in which Takeya Mizugaki outlasted Jeff Curran to win a split decision victory. Mizugaki scored takedowns in all three rounds and did enough from the top position while fending off submission attempts to earn the verdict and make his claim for #1 contender status.

When learning the martial arts, especially if you want to be effective, you need to learn the differences, the gains and limitations, of the two kinds of punches. Knowing these punches will dictate and proscribe your combat strategy. Knowing these punches will effect your training and enlighten you as to the True Martial Arts.

A thrusting punch is the first kind of punch. A thrusting punch is like a train running into something and going through. Simply, there is no back off, and the punch goes through.

The one, main problem with this kind of punch is...what happens to all the cars behind the locomotive? They all jam together behind the locomotive, collide and become a mess. Thus, the unstoppable power of a thrusting punch can become a godawful mess.

Once delivered, a thrusting punch, is now entangled. The body behind the punch, unless the legs have moved the whole body forward, risks becoming unbalanced. Thrust, and you are forced to commit your body to the action, and possibly be overcommitted.

A snapping punch is the second type of punch. Imagine a jackhammer striking cement, but only impacting once and then holding off. It hits, damages as much as possible, and then retreats.

Now, the problem with the snapping punch is that there has not been enough weight behind the punch. Weight is not fully committed to the punch because the body hasn't move into the action. You have your balance, but the punch didn't strike as hard as you might have wished?

Now, a thrusting punch is a strategy involving moving your body, using your entire weight, committing it to the action, and if you miss you're going to be out of place and unbalanced, and you're going to then have lots of problems. The snapping punch is a strategy where you make the strike, but don't always create enough hurt. The snapping punch gives less weight, but 95% of the weight will be left in the body of the opponent, a thrust punch commits weight, but takes fifty per cent of the shock back up the arm.

So we have to continuously assess which is better, the thrusting punch, or the snapping punch. Each punch has bad points and good, and you're going to have to gauge balance versus stability, commitment versus noncommitment, weight versus speed, weight left in the body versus weight backed up the arm, potential follow ups, positioning, and so on and so on. When you're done exploring all these possibilities, however, you're going to have the right punch for the right situation.