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Posts Tagged ‘Elite MMA’

Chatting with Ricardo Talavera on the Eve of his Fight at Legacy Fighting Championships

Posted by Mike Calimbas on November 6, 2009

November 6th Ricardo from Lonestar Beatdown 2Interview from www.dncworldwide.com

We’re sitting here with our very dear friend and fellow ninja, Ricardo Talavera, who is finishing up final preparations for his Mixed Martial Arts fight at the Legacy Fighting Championships, this Saturday at the Arena Theater in Houston.

Ricardo, how are you feeling heading up to this fight?

Oh man, I feel very, very good. Very well prepared, physically and mentally.

You’re set to take on Danny Taylor of Bushi Ban. How much do you know about this guy? Do you feel that there is anything specific you need to prepare for?

I dont know much about Danny Taylor. He fights out of Bushi Ban, a very good and well-known gym. Bushi Ban is a very good gym, their fighters are pretty aggressive, they like to bang, love to strike and come ready to fight. So, to prepare for this fight i have been including a lot of Muay Thai training, Boxing and of course always to my basics, BJJ. I have been preparing to take care of Danny anywhere. If he wants to bang, then we bang, if he wants to clinch then we clinch, ground, he’ll be crazy. Whereever he wants to go, i am going to make sure he pays for it.

Who’s helped you prepare for this fight overall? What team are you training with and how have those guys prepared you for Danny?

I fight out of ELITE MMA. I train under Eric Williams and Hai Nguyen mainly, however, for this fight we have also included the instruction of Romelle Agra to take care of my Muay Thai training and also Pat Swan for my Boxing. To add to this, Coach David Campbell has been the one taking care of our conditioning out of hell training. plus of course all my teammates at Elite MMA that some how have given me and helped me through out my training.

Any predictions on how the fight will end?

Lights out. whether I choke him out, or KO him.

Are you looking forward to any other fights on the card?

Definitely, I want to see my teammate Sting Ray Blodgett kick some ass. I also want to see Robo’s fight to see what the whole fuzz is all about.

Anything else you’d like to say to your fans and loved ones before you step into the cage?

To my beautiful wife and momma to be. I am sorry for all the long and lonely nights i have put you through, Thank you for your love, patience and support. I love you.

And to my fans, thank you for the support and push through out the years…let’s get this win over with and go eat and party!!!

Ricardo Talavera is an Undefeated Professional MMA Fighter with a 1-0 record.  He is also a Petroleum Engineering graduate of West Virginia University and a die-hard Mountaineers fan. When he’s not fighting, Ricardo works as a software consultant for the oil & gas industry. You can hear more about the life and fights of Ricardo Talavera by following him on Twitter.

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Epic Gauntlet After Elite BJJ Belt Promotions

Posted by Mike Calimbas on August 31, 2009

Watch the following video of the Elite MMA Gauntlet after BJJ belt promotions this past Saturday, August 29, 2009 at the Westheimer Academy here in Houston.

Watch the purple belts for yet another good reason to want to move up in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu!

elitemmahouston

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Lonestar Beatdown 10 in Houston this Friday, June 5th

Posted by Mike Calimbas on June 3, 2009

3lonestar10

Lonestar Beatdown 10 is coming to Houston, TX this Friday, June 5th, at 8pm. The card will be a strong one for the Arena Theatre crowd as LSBD has put together THREE title fights for this event. There is literally not a single bad seat at the house at this venue and tickets are going quickly. You can get yours at www.arenahouston.com. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Full Lonestar Beatdown 10 Fight Card

  • 145 USACA Title – Jeremy Hontz (Twin Wolves) vs. Dominic Rodriguez (4oz. fight club)
  • 155 USACA Title – Greg Bellomy (Gracie Barra) vs. Gilbert Jimenez (Powerhouse MMA)
  • 170 USACA Title – Kenny Burke (Westside MMA) vs. Nathan Schaefer (TX Gladiators)

125
Bobby Powers (B3 Sports) vs. Andy Sandoval (Death Row MMA)
Martin Garcia (Gracie Barra) vs. Ed Rosino (Bushi Ban)

135
Marcus Dupar (Rocky Long MMA) vs. Ben Oliver (Elite MMA)

145
Alex Black (Bushi Ban) vs. Mario Valenzuela (Sub Boxing)

155
Aaron Croon (Team Tooke) vs Arnold Gutierrez (Legion MMA)
Vicente Gama (Rising Sun Karate) vs. Julian Vega (Elite MMA Baytown)
Cesar Gonzales (Silverback MMA) vs. Waylon Ward (Kuk Sool Won)

170
Travis Moore (Twin Wolves) vs. Michael Szanyi (World Martial Arts)
Justin Murray (Bushi Ban) vs. Alex Morono (Gracie Barra Woodlands)
Dominik Bukovicky (Elite MMA) vs. Jeremy Morris (World Martial Arts)
George Cisneros (Team Martinez) vs. Mike Castillo (McCalls MMA)
Jonathon Harris (Sub Boxing) vs. Robert Ezzell (Bradford Combat Academy)

185
John Malbrough (UH MMA) vs. Matt Goss (Rising Sun Karate)

205
Jermaine Anugwom (AMMA) vs. Artineas Young (Hoger MMA)

HVY
Jayson Pilosi (BVMMA) vs. Tim Escobedo (Legion MMA)

*Fight card subject to change without notice

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Anatomy of the Hip Escape

Posted by Mike Calimbas on February 4, 2009

First of all, we’d like to congratulate all of our newly-belted teammates from Elite MMA on their recent promotions this past weekend. We’d like to especially highlight our EIGHT new BJJ Black Belts who were promoted for achieving a goal most can only dream of.
 
 
New Elite MMA Black Belts promoted by Eric Williams - JP Shankle, Jordan Rivas, Frost Murphy, Renan Chavez, Joe Soliz, Steven Hansen, Spencer Scrivner, and Forrest Flanary.
 

The Hip Escape

 
Last night, our head instructor Eric Williams went over the finer points of the most basic element of escaping from the bottom, the hip esape. This movement is crucial for your sport game because it allows you to recover guard and get back on the road to a sweep or submission. Likewise, it is crucial for self-defense because, when done right, you have a fighting chance at minimizing damage while escaping.
 

So what are the details of the hip escape from the bottom of mount?

 
First of all, when your opponent is mounting you, they are looking to achieve the obvious, control your position from the top and lead to a submission. They would likely achieve that by isolating your arms or controlling your neck. Yet before they can do that, they have to make sure to control your spine and stabalize their positon. So before we begin our escape, let’s go over the individual principles of body positioning when on the bottom of mount.
  • Hips/Spine – Your opponent is dominant when your back, hips, and shoulders are flat is to the ground. Your goal should be to keep that from happening. The rule of though is to never let someone mount you without having one side of your hip on the ground in preparation for escape.
  • Arms – The rule of thumb with your arms in BJJ involves several different things: 1) Keep your elbows in to your ribs to avoid your arms from being exposed for armbars. 2) Do not let your arms go past your center-line. This is not only to avoid the inevitable armbar but also to prevent your opponenent from attacking your back. 3) In escapes, your arms should be used as a wedge. It is important to note that you should use the shortest wedge possible possible without overextending your
    arms. So start with your forearms if need be and work from there to free up space.
  • Legs – As with placing your back on the ground. placing your legs with both feet on the mat and your knees in the air is not the right thing to do.  At first, you may feel as if you have more power to buck someone off that way. At best, what this does is at best is allow your opponent to track your movements and ride up in the mount as they work to pin your spine to the ground. At it’s worst, this allows your opponent to grapevine your legs or cross their feet underneath your hips to stifle your movement as they work a choke. As with your hips, the correct thing to do with your llegs is to always keep one leg flat to the ground, giving your opponent no room to stabilize the position by putting their leg in.
  • Head/Shoulders – How you protect your neck is directly tied to what you do with your arms. Remember that proper arm positioning is all about keeping your elbows to your ribs and protecting your neck with your hands and forearms. And much like your hips, both your shoulders should never be flat to the ground. Proper positioning involves using your shoulder and abs to help your arms develop wedges. More on that in a minute…

The Hip Escape – Step by Step

Now that we’ve discussed the basic elements of body positioning, let’s see how they all work in concert when performing the hip escape.
  1. As you fight to keep from being mounted, make sure to pick a side and quickly establish to keep your back, hips, and shoulders on one side off the ground to keep your opponent from stabalizing the position. Make sure your arm are in and your elbows are glued to your ribs. Use your arm that is lower to the ground to establish a wedge between your hip and your opponent’s body. If getting the wedge is difficult, drive down through the tender inner part of the thigh and drive through to establish the wedge. While this is going on, your other arm (or mostly likely forearm at this point) should be blocking your opponents other hip to keep them from taking your back.
  2. If everything was done right in Step 1, your opponent should not be in a stable mounted position. Rather, you should have created sufficient room with your body positioning and wedge to begin the hip escape. Now one thing I want to focus on is the speed of which the hip escape takes place. If you are explosive and/or your opponent is inexperienced, you may get away with performing the escape in one burst. But more often than not, your opponent is fighting your every movement so it will not be that easy to create space. However, with your arms wedged in the right place, your nearside leg flat on the ground, and your back/shoulders off the mat, you’ll have the time needed to escape methodically.
  3. Remember the wedges you created with your arms? That will keep your opponent from advancing forward. What you need to do is use your nearside arm along with bringing your head closer to the leg (think crunches) to bring your knee to your elbow and back in. If you do not have the space to accomplish that just yet, continue the move by using your bent foot to push off the ground and escape your butt/hips outwards. Like I said, the movement needed to create the space necessary to bring your knee in and recover guard does not come from one burst of movement. Neither does it come from dissengaging and escaping the entirety of your body. You may gain the space necessary with one movement or a series of six small movements. But if you do this methodically, you’re going to get your space. One you do, bring your bottom knee in first, then your other one. This is important as only by bring the bottom leg in do you allow yourself the proper technique to recover guard. Bringing the top leg in may be sufficient but experienced players will just dissengage, drive your top leg down, and pass that way, wasting all the energy and technique you spent in maintaining your wedges and bringing that first knee in. So remember. knee-to-elbow and bring that same knee in before the other one.

    4. So now guys, pop quiz, what details did you notice were missing, if any?

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