Fight Scribe Bullets: Pacquiao vs Marquez edition

(This piece appeared in InterAKTV on November 6, 2011.)

by Mark Lorenzana

The third bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez is just around the corner, and anticipation and excitement for the fight have just about reached fever pitch. As usual, cinemas, sports bars, and restaurants have been aggressively marketing their own pay-per-view coverage of the fight and in the case of the last two, with the customary free drinks and brunch thrown in.

In addition, in online boxing forums, discussions between fight fans have been heating up. And of course, sports gamblers, who have been meticulously studying the odds for the fight, have been taking a closer look at the betting lines—that is, before they ultimately decide which fighter to bet on and whether or not they think the fight will last the full distance.

I’m personally intrigued about how the fight will unfold and how both fighters’ divergent paths, since they last met in the ring three years ago, will affect the outcome of the bout. On to the bullets:

— The first fight between Marquez and Pacquiao happened when both fighters were still campaigning at featherweight. That was, amazingly, seven years ago. The rematch was a weight division higher, at 130 pounds, not really a substantial move up in weight.The third fight will be at welterweight, and Pacquiao has been undefeated so far against opponents weighing 140 pounds or more: he made the aging and shot Oscar De La Hoya quit on his stool and eventually retire from boxing, he flattened Ricky Hatton in two rounds, he stopped Miguel Cotto in twelve, he gave Antonio Margarito the worst beating of his boxing career, and he forced Joshua Clottey and Sugar Shane Mosley to lace up their running shoes.

While it seems to me that Pacquiao, at this point in his career, could still go down and fight at light welterweight if he wanted to, his natural speed, quickness, and power pose a lot of problems even for legitimate welterweights. This is why he is the WBO welterweight world champion.

On paper, this would seem to be the strongest argument against a Marquez win: at this stage of both boxers’ careers, Manny Pacquiao at welterweight might just be too much for the smaller Juan Manuel Marquez, a blown-up lightweight, to handle.

— After the second fight with Pacquiao, Marquez moved up to lightweight, and to every fight fan’s pleasant surprise, the Mexican boxer eschewed his somewhat cautious counterpunching tactics in favor of a more aggressive fan-friendly style.This resulted in more exciting fights for Marquez, fights that, in turn, helped pull in more paying fans to watch him ply his trade.

But I doubt if he will try to pull off something like that against Pacquiao. I believe Marquez will fight smart and revert to his tried-and-tested counterpunching style; that is, if he wants to survive the early rounds against the Filipino.

— While a lot of boxing fans are happy that this third fight will finally push through, there are people who feel that this fight was made a little too late to be competitive at all. Marquez is 38 years old and is at the twilight of his brilliant career while Pacquiao is six years younger and has yet to show signs of slowing down.Boxing pundits have been quick to zero in on Pacquiao’s otherworldly ability to carry his speed and power up to welterweight, but a lot have failed to point out something even more impressive—Pacquiao has been able to withstand heavier bombardment from stronger and more powerful foes. It’s as if his chin has gotten stronger for every weight class he has climbed. De La Hoya, Hatton, Cotto, Margarito, Clottey, and Mosley all pack dynamite in their fists, but Pacquiao took all their best shots and shrugged them off. Pacquiao took those guys’ best shots and was never in any danger of getting dropped.

In contrast, Marquez has been knocked down by Michael Katsidis and Floyd Mayweather Jr. and was hurt several times by Juan Diaz in their first fight. We all know that Pacquiao has felt Marquez’s power at featherweight and super featherweight, but an intriguing question that needs to be asked is this: will the Mexican’s punches still hurt Pacquiao at this weight class? In turn, can Marquez’s chin be able to hold up against, say, a Pacquiao punch that smashed the living daylights out of Ricky Hatton? We will see soon enough.

— While Marquez was able to reinvent himself into a more exciting fighter this late in his career, Pacquiao has gotten some flak for seemingly being too kind and showing too much compassion for his last three opponents. Some critics have even labeled him as getting soft and criticized him for allegedly losing his killer instinct. Clottey, Margarito, and Mosley have all managed to stay on their feet and hear the final bell, and a lot of bloodthirsty Pacquiao fans have been clamoring for a knockout win for a change.It remains to be seen whether Pacquiao will go at Marquez with the intent to destroy, but It’s safe to say that these fans won’t take too kindly to another Pacquiao performance characterized by the Filipino uncharacteristically pulling his punches and looking at the referee to stop the fight instead of actually pressing on to force the stoppage.

— The outcome of the fight largely hinges on the ability of Marquez to successfully fight at the same level he has been fighting in the lower weights but at twelve pounds north of his current comfortable weight. Marquez has had one fight at 147, against Floyd Mayweather Jr., and if that fight is any indication of how successful the Mexican will be against Pacquiao, then we should assume that there is going to be a massacre in the offing.In his fight against Mayweather, Marquez looked slow, sluggish, and bloated; hence, it was another easy day at the office for Floyd. And granting that Manny Pacquiao will come out with guns blazing and looking to make up for his last three seemingly lackluster performances, then the Marquez that looked as old as Methuselah and as slow as molasses against Floyd is going to be in big trouble come November 12.

— Marquez will get a guaranteed purse of $5 million, the biggest so far in his career, while Pacquiao will get $20 million guaranteed. Pacquiao said he will force his opponent “to bleed for every cent.” What he means by that, we will soon find out in a few days. I suspect Marquez doesn’t want to find out.

Fight Scribe Bullets: Bernard Hopkins and incompetent referees edition

Bernard

(This piece appeared in InterAKTV on October 27, 2011.)

by Mark Lorenzana

— When was the last time we actually enjoyed watching a Bernard Hopkins fight? I just wanted to ask because lately, in Bernard’s last few fights, his whittled-down boxing repertoire has just been too tiresome and too agonizing to watch.In a nutshell, here’s what happened in the last few Hopkins fights: (1) Hopkins throws a punch or two, the opponent tries to retaliate, Hopkins clinches; (2) The referee breaks the two fighters, and then the fight resumes; (3) Repeat for twelve rounds and wait for the judges’ decision. I’m not even exaggerating here.Hopkins hasn’t figured in an exciting bout for the longest time. Hopkins last scored a stoppage win way back in 2004 when he floored Oscar De La Hoya with a wicked body punch, and De La Hoya couldn’t (or didn’t want to) get up.

And that’s it. Since then, Hopkins has won six of his last eleven fights the past six years (his record in that span is 6 wins, 4 losses, and 1 draw) thanks in large part to his fighting style, a style that has frustrated both his opponents and boxing fans alike.

I even know of some fight fans that have mixed feelings about the outcome of the Hopkins-Dawson fight: they told me that although they thought that the referee definitely erred in his decision, they felt a tinge of satisfaction in seeing Hopkins lose his title.

— While Hopkins is not one of my favorite fighters, I didn’t want to see him lose his belt under dubious circumstances. We have to draw the line when it comes to bad boxing officiating because it casts a bad light on a sport that has been in need of an image boost for the longest time. When Hopkins was unable to continue after jamming his shoulder on the canvas, referee Pat Russell asked Hopkins if he could still continue. Hopkins said yes, but he would have to fight with one arm. The most logical decision that the referee should have made was to rule the fight a no contest. But bizarrely, Russell awarded the TKO victory to Dawson. The unified rules of boxing states the following: “If a boxer sustains an injury from a fair blow and the injury is severe enough to terminate the bout, the injured boxer shall lose by TKO.” Being wrestled—however inadvertently—to the ground (and dislocating a shoulder as a result) is “a fair blow”?

And this is boxing?

— Pat Russell joins the growing list of infamous referees who have figured in controversial fights in the past few months.Just a couple of months ago, when Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko fought Abner Mares, referee Russell Mora watched idly as Mares repeatedly made a speed bag out of Agbeko’s family jewels. Amazingly, Mora even had the, well, family jewels to rule a legitimate knockdown against Agbeko after he was hit in the cup by a hellaciously low left hook in the eleventh round and was writhing in pain in the canvas. Agbeko ended up losing that fight (and his titles, the IBF bantamweight world title and WBC Silver bantamweight title) to Mares via majority decision.Incidentally, this is the same Mora who officiated the Nonito Donaire-Fernando Montiel fight earlier this year, the same Mora who didn’t see Montiel having a mini-seizure after absorbing a wicked left hook from Donaire, and the same Mora who administered the ten-count to a staggering, glassy-eyed, and evidently concussed Montiel and allowed the Mexican boxer to continue fighting even though he couldn’t even respond to the referee’s orders to walk toward him or to raise his hands.Of course, who could forget the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz fight? A big part of the blame should fall on referee Joe “I’m fair but I’m firm” Cortez for what happened. It can be argued that if he gave a more convincing gesture for the fight to continue and if he focused 100 percent on the fight thereafter instead of talking to some guy at ringside, perhaps Floyd wouldn’t resort to his underhanded tactic. Needless to say, now Cortez goes by the moniker “unfair and infirm” in boxing forums and blogs around the Internet.

The problem is that these incompetent referees never really get a stiff sanction whenever they screw up. To set a precedent, perhaps one of these blatantly erring referees needs to be fined, suspended, or even fired in the future whenever they screw up. The third man in the ring plays a crucial role in boxing, which is an extremely dangerous sport—there should be little room for error. What’s troubling is that these guys are even coddled as in the case of Pat Russell, who was even backed by the California State Athletic Commission.

Yup, this is boxing.

Fight Scribe Bullets: Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather edition

(This piece appeared in InterAKTV on October 14, 2011.)

by Mark Lorenzana

— Just for the heck of it, today I searched for “Manny Pacquiao training distractions,” and got the following headlines in the first page alone:”Manny Pacquiao Dismisses Distraction Talk Leading Into Cotto Training Camp”
“Distractions Continue to Hound Manny Pacquiao”
“Despite distractions during camp, Pacquiao ready for Margarito”
“Pacquiao says distractions at home won’t derail title quest”
“Roach: Distractions part of lucky charm”

Next, I went to to BoxRec.com and checked out Pacquiao’s last fifteen fights, dating back to his first fight with Erik Morales six years ago, until his last fight against Shane Mosley this year. The results are as follows: 14 wins, 1 loss, 8 wins by knockout. Not bad for a guy who supposedly can’t focus on training, huh?

This just goes to show that Pacquiao is really a cut above the rest: he can take it easy and goof off early in training, pick up the pace a few weeks before the fight, and still destroy his opponent come fight night. Can you imagine any other boxer today slacking off in training and then ending up knocking out his opponent?

Curiously, though, recent reports coming out of Pacquiao’s training camp for his upcoming fight with Juan Manuel Marquez next month seem to project the opposite: everything has been smooth sailing so far. Even the recent Baguio camp, which had been a wellspring of headaches for Freddie Roach in the past, seemed to yield positive results. Pacquiao, by the way, is already in the United States and even broke his tradition of taking it easy on his first day in L.A. by immediately jumping into the ring for sparring. He went eight rounds against sparmates Jorge Linares and Ray Beltran. With exactly a month to go before the fight, I’m pretty sure that Pacquiao fans are happy to hear that this training camp has been perfect so far.

— Still on Pacquiao, some sources say that his next opponent, should he beat Marquez, could possibly be Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley. This is not a knock on the guy, but Bradley is a small and relatively light-punching light welterweight who’s half an inch shorter than Pacquiao. There’s no arguing that Bradley is a talented boxer — he’s undefeated, he’s the reigning WBO light welterweight champion, and he is rated seventh in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list.But I don’t really see him giving Pacquiao a good fight. I mean, the guy ducked Amir Khan because he was obviously scared of the Brit, and now he’s going to fight Pacquiao who’s stronger, faster, and punches harder?Another possible opponent for Pacquiao is middleweight Sergio Martinez, but anyone can see that he’s too big for Pacquiao. He can dehydrate himself until he’s as dry as a raisin (or Kenny Florian) just to make the 147-pound limit, but what would that accomplish? If he beats Pacquiao, people will say that the size advantage was just too great; if Pacquiao beats him, people will claim that the weight cut was just too drastic and severely affected Martinez, leading to his loss. Really, it’s a no-win situation for either fighter. Which is why everyone is just wondering, why couldn’t Pacquiao’s most logical opponent at this point just sign on the dotted line and make the fight happen? Which brings us to…

— Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t fight Manny Pacquiao. Ever. Well, unless Mayweather sees a significant decline in Pacquiao’s speed, that is, then maybe he’ll consider. Just maybe.If we’ve learned anything from Mayweather’s last fight against Victor Ortiz (aside from the fact that Floyd can’t play fair even if his life depended on it and the fact that Ortiz actually has had a man crush on Mayweather for the longest time), it’s that Mayweather isn’t the same fighter he once was. Although he was winning the fight against Ortiz up until the unfortunate ending, it was apparent that he had lost a step or two.Sure, one can attribute it to Mayweather’s inactivity; that perhaps he was just a bit rusty after a long layoff, but I really think he’s not as quick as he once was. Make no mistake: Pacquiao is fast, but Mayweather is no slouch in the speed department either. Floyd makes his living at being perhaps the most elusive fighter today (with the exception of a younger version of Ivan Calderon). Obviously the mark of an excellent defensive fighter is the ability to time his opponent’s punches, but speed also plays a big factor. Pacquiao is a monster on offense because he’s fast; Mayweather is a wizard on defense because, well, he’s also fast. And with Mayweather’s speed and quickness not what it was a couple of years ago, he’s going to have a huge problem against Pacquiao.

So even if promoters guarantee Mayweather the biggest payday of his life to fight Pacquiao right now, and even if Floyd badly needs the money for whatever reason, he won’t take the fight. It’s actually funny (and strange) to see a guy who attaches “Money” to his name walk away from a guaranteed $50-million payday. Contrary to what people think, for Floyd, it’s not actually all about the money. Believe it or not, he’s also thinking about his legacy.

The sad thing is, he honestly thinks that his undefeated record will place him atop the all-time greats. When in fact, it’s fighting the best that will do that for him. And right now, one of the best is Pacquiao. If Floyd can just forget about the zero record, he’ll see that by fighting Pacquiao, he can have his cake and eat it too.

Fight Scribe Bullets: The Nonito Donaire edition

nonito-donaire-omar-narvaez(This piece appeared in InterAKTV on October 27, 2011.)

by Mark Lorenzana

Styles make fights. Every fight fan worth his or her salt has surely heard this old boxing cliche lots of times, and for good reason—the outcome of a bout usually depends on the fighting styles dished out by the fighters atop the squared ring.

In past years, different (and similar) fighting styles have given us the following: the dramatic carnage of the Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward trilogy; the fascinatingly violent ebb and flow of Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez’s four fights; the one-sided but legendary bout between Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns; the amazing comeback by the late Diego Corrales against Jose Luis Castillo in their first fight; and the shocking upset that was the Rumble in the Jungle, where an older Muhammad Ali’s speed, technical skills, and superb ring IQ proved too much to handle for a younger and supposedly stronger George Foreman.

Of course, these differences and similarities in fighting styles don’t always result in exciting and unforgettable fights, those fights that get nominated for Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine. More often than not, they result in forgettable snooze-fests like Manny Pacquiao-Joshua “the Turtle” Clottey, the second Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera fight (where Barrera changed his style to that of a marathoner), Devon Alexander-Timothy Bradley, Floyd Mayweather-Carlos Baldomir, the last twelve Bernard Hopkins fights, and the recent Nonito Donaire-Omar Narvaez fight.

Speaking of the latter, on to the bullets:

  • A lot of people I know are still furious about the outcome of the Donaire-Narvaez fight. Why? Because those guys wagered beer money that Narvaez wouldn’t last the distance against Donaire, and, well, we all know what happened: Narvaez refused to fight and was more concerned about lasting the distance against Nonito. Can’t blame the guy, though. Donaire has knocked out eight of his last ten opponents, and Narvaez can at least brag that he finished the fight on his feet. Problem is, he didn’t even win a round on the judges’ scorecards; all the judges scored the fight 120–108 for Donaire. “Neither of us wanted to make a mistake because in this kind of fight, it can be fatal. You cannot neglect an opponent like Nonito at any time,” Narvaez said after the fight. While I agree with Narvaez when he said that making a mistake in boxing is fatal, I disagree with his statement that neither of he nor Donaire wanted to make a mistake. Donaire did his job by actually fighting, which means Nonito actually took risks. Narvaez, on the other hand, plastered his gloves to his mug all night and hopped on his bicycle instead of going toe-to-toe with Donaire. While I was a bit disappointed with the fight (I began channel surfing at the start of the sixth round), a win is a win for Donaire, and he can at least look forward to more exciting and lucrative fights in the future.
  • A quick glance at the CompuBox numbers of the fight will show just how outgunned Narvaez was: Donaire threw a total of 666 punches, landing 99. Eighty-five of those punches that landed for Donaire were power shots.In contrast, Narvaez only threw a total of 299 punches, landing 41, 33 of which were power punches. When I said at the beginning of this post that styles make fights, I meant the natural fighting style of a boxer—without the fear factor thrown in. Consider this: the average super flyweight throws around fifty-seven punches a round, and when Narvaez was still campaigning at 115, four of the five CompuBox-tracked fights that Narvaez figured in showed that the Argentinian boxer exceeded the super flyweight average of punches per round: he threw 68.7 punches in a win against Everth Briceno, 83.7 against Victor Zaleta, 70.3 against William Urina, and a staggering 126.2 against Santiago Acosta. Narvaez fought those four aforementioned fights in the past year, so that was a thirty-five-year-old boxer throwing a hellacious amount of punches per round, way above the so-called average of a fighter in his weight class.
  • Obviously, Narvaez became gun-shy against Donaire because he felt that the Filipino was more than capable of knocking him out. That’s why he overcompensated on his defense, his offense (and any chance of winning) be damned. Narvaez added: “I think I have the doors open to fight again in America, but next time it’ll be in the super flyweight category.” Really? With that kind of showing in his debut fight in the United States? I don’t think so. Narvaez should remember that Joshua Clottey put on a similar performance against Manny Pacquiao, and although Clottey finished the fight on his feet, he was immediately dropped by HBO for his lackluster performance. Said a visibly disgusted Freddie Roach after the fight, “He [Clottey] was satisfied with going the distance with Manny Pacquiao, and he did. But HBO will never use him again.” Narvaez seemed to be satisfied with going the distance against Donaire, but it remains to be seen whether he will be fighting on US soil again.
  • So what’s next for Nonito Donaire? Apparently, Top Rank’s Bob Arum has his sights on a couple of options for Donaire: WBO super bantamweight champion Jorge Arce and WBC super bantamweight titlist Toshiaki Nishioka. El Travieso is fresh off a successful defense of his title after stopping South African Simphiwe Nongqayi in four rounds last month. Arce picked up his belt in emphatic fashion after beating Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. in the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight last May. On the other hand, Nishioka successfully defended his title against future hall of famer Rafael Marquez early this month.Again, styles make fights: after his disappointing fight against Narvaez, I’m looking forward to Donaire fighting Arce first. Arce is never in a boring fight, and with his all-action style against Donaire, expect fireworks. I’m not saying that a Donaire-Nishioka fight will be boring, but because Nishioka is more of a stylistic boxer compared to Arce, who is more of a brawler, a Donaire and Nishioka fight will be more of a chess match. And heck, we want our boxing.Against Arce, Nonito Donaire will be his old explosive self again. I hope Bob Arum can make it happen soon. After Narvaez, he owes us that fight. Badly.

The best way to get a closer look at (and a firsthand account of) the sport of jiu-jitsu? Get yourself choked by a brown belt

(This piece appeared in my now defunct fight blog, Pinoy Fight Scribe, in 2013.)

by Mark Lorenzana

My friend Jasmine earned her degree in Accountancy, cum laude, at the University of San Carlos in 2006 and her degree in Law at the University of the Philippines–Diliman in 2010. As a certified public accountant and an attorney, she currently works as a Junior Associate specializing in litigation, tax and corporate advisory, and corporate housekeeping at a high-profile law firm in Makati. But when she’s not being a CPA lawyer, you can find Jasmine in a gi, on the mats, trying to choke people out. Jasmine, who has a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, took up the sport a few years ago when she decided that she needed to lose some weight. Now, aside from successfully shedding off the extra pounds, she’s also quite adept at—to put it mildly—making her opponents tap out on a regular basis.

“I used to run, but I noticed that I wasn’t losing as much weight as I wanted to,” Jasmine tells me one warm Sunday night at the Cebu branch of the jiu-jitsu gym she trains at, in between training sessions. “My first day doing jiu-jitsu, I was lying in a pool of my own sweat. That’s how intense the training was.”

I see what she means. I look around and about ten pairs of trainees, their gis all soaked in sweat, are getting busy on the mats, changing their positions and holds as Norman, the head instructor, belts out instructions.

“Kimura!” Norman yells in a booming voice. “Choke! Arm bar!”

Norman, who has earned his brown belt early last year, is all business. And as he keeps on belting out instructions to his students, he sounds like a man on a mission. “Pick up the pace, execute right away!” Norman shouts. “Let’s go, a little bit faster. Move faster!”

The arm bar may very well be the most frequently used joint-lock submission in mixed martial arts (MMA) today. This particular submission is commonly performed by placing your legs across your opponent’s chest, with one of his or her arms positioned between your thighs and with the elbow joint against your hips. From this position, you will grab your opponent’s arm and position his or her forearm against your chest. When you lean back and arch your hips, you create intense pressure in the elbow joint, which forces your opponent to tap out. If the tap doesn’t come soon enough, the results can be nasty: torn ligaments and torn tendons in the elbow joint. In fact, it is not rare in some cases for the arm bar to result in a broken bone if there is sufficient leverage, power, and angle.

On the other hand, the kimura—which is named after its inventor, Masahiko Kimura, widely considered as the greatest judoka of all time—is a submission that essentially involves cranking your opponent’s arm away from him or her, which puts intense pressure on the shoulder and elbow joint, resulting in the tap. Of course this is the most simplified description of the submission as it can be—like most submissions in jiu-jitsu—executed from almost any position and angle.

In the case of chokes, Jasmine explains that there are actually two different types: a blood choke and an air choke.

Blood chokes work by compressing the carotid arteries, therefore cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain. A properly executed blood choke can render a person unconscious in as little as three minutes. Air chokes, in contrast, cut off air flow down the trachea. As such, an air choke generally relies on strength rather than technique to be effective. Air chokes are typically inefficient or ineffective for use in martial arts. And besides, air chokes are extremely dangerous and can cause major damage to an opponent—they can actually fracture a person’s larynx.

There are quite a few blood chokes employed in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA, but the most common is the rear-naked choke. Out of curiosity, I ask Jasmine how to do a properly executed rear-naked choke.

“Why don’t you show him so he knows what it feels like?” Norman, who has overheard our conversation, says.

* * *

“When you choke someone,” Norman tells me while I’m seated on the mat, with him behind me, “you’re basically cutting off blood supply to the brain. That’s why you pass out.”

He adds, “A rear-naked choke works like this. What I’m doing right now, what I’m doing is that I’m wrapping my arm around your neck like so, and then I put my other arm over the other arm like this and behind your head to try to cut off the blood supply. What you feel right now is that I’m not actually choking you yet. If you do feel a bit of sensation where it feels like you are losing a bit of light in your vision, that’s basically you panicking. At this point. Don’t worry about it, don’t tap just yet. Just relax. Now I’m just tightening it just a bit slowly. Feel that?”

“Yes,” I say.

“I don’t even need to tighten it suddenly,” Norman says. “I just have to count from one to ten and each count it’s going to be tighter. So why don’t we do this? Why don’t we count to five, don’t tap, and let’s just see if we can reach five before you fall asleep. Okay? Okay.”

“One.”

Before I could protest, I start to feel Norman’s arms tighten around my neck, a predator squeezing the life out of its helpless prey. Instinctively, I move my hand next to the forearm that’s cutting off blood circulation to my brain, ready to tap.

“Two.”

I could feel the blood draining from my face, my vision blurring, everything starting to turn black. The telltale signs someone feels before passing out.

“Three.”

I tap Norman’s forearm furiously, my hand slapping as hard as I can before I completely lose consciousness, which—in my estimation—won’t be too long from now.

“Four.”

Surprisingly, by this time, the urge to keep on tapping is replaced by a feeling of utter surrender, of complete helplessness. I feel my arms go limp. Then my entire body. By now the room is almost completely enveloped in darkness. At once falling asleep doesn’t seem like a bad idea after all. And at this point, believe it or not, it’s as if you welcome it. Sleep beckons. You give in to the inevitable.

Norman lets go.

“Five.”

Suddenly the floodgates to my oxygen-starved brain are opened, blood is pumped back, and the darkening gym is slowly bathed in light. I slowly regain strength in my limbs, in my entire body. I try to sit up.

“A little bit of zooming out, it’s just how that feels,” Norman says. “Now that’s a rear-naked choke. That’s how a choke feels.”

No kidding.

“Not quite but almost,” I manage to croak out, referring to the fact that I hadn’t totally passed out. And because I’m still conscious, I feel pretty good about myself. But not much—my throat feels like it’s been crushed in a vise.

“Yes, I know,” Norman says, smiling. “I let go before we reached five.”

Jasmine says she passed out once before, from a choke. “I was competing with this Korean guy, he was very physical, and he had me in a choke,” she tells me. “And he was talking so he didn’t notice I was already tapping out. Maybe I was tapping lightly so he didn’t notice. So I passed out. When you wake up, it’s like you wake up in the morning after a long sleep.”

She smiles, and adds, “It feels so refreshing.”

No kidding.

* * *

I’ve known Jasmine since our college days at USC, and needless to say, this is the slimmest I’ve seen her, ever. She also looks incredibly strong (she regularly does fireman’s carries on guys weighing 130 to 150 pounds at the gym). Jasmine loves to compete and has won bronze, silver, and gold medals in various local and international Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments, which include the Rollapalooza Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament, the Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championship Trials, and the Pan-Asian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Competition, among others.

Jasmine trains four days a week after work, Monday to Thursday, and also teaches an all-girls jiu-jitsu class on Saturday mornings. She tells me that if given the chance, she also plans to do cross-training in striking and eventually progress to full MMA.

Jasmine may be on to something. In November of last year, Ronda Rousey signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and successfully defended her UFC women’s bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche in an action-packed bout that saw Rousey survive an early standing face crank attempt by the game Carmouche, only to submit the challenger in the final seconds of the first round via arm bar.

And just a couple of months ago, at the Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale, two women also figured in a thrilling fight as Cat Zingano beat former Strikeforce champion Meisha Tate via brutal TKO in the third round in what was perhaps the most exciting bout on the twelve-fight card. It wasn’t surprising that Zingano and Tate bagged Fight of the Night honors for their efforts and pocketed fifty thousand dollars in cash.

It seems that the UFC has discovered an untapped resource for pulling in more fans—women’s MMA, which could potentially create new stars for the organization. And as the first couple of fights in the UFC involving women have shown, the ladies are more than capable of putting on a great show for the fans.

When I visited Jasmine during her training session, she had rolled and sparred on the mats with guys bigger and heavier than her. She had given those guys a hard time. At the risk of sounding clichéd, Jasmine’s current skill level on the mats is very impressive. Factoring in the numerous medals she’s won in tournaments throughout the years, everything Jasmine has accomplished as a jiu-jitsu practitioner is a testament to her hard work, dedication, and drive. Undoubtedly the same hard work, dedication, and drive that have taken professional fighters like Rousey, Carmouche, Zingano, and Tate to where they are now.

And looking at Jasmine as she practices her different submissions and holds during a break in my interview with her, and as the sport of MMA pulls in more interested viewers and practitioners, I can’t help but imagine a jiu-jitsu or MMA gym here in the Philippines dominated by hardworking and talented women in the near future.

No kidding.

“Arm bar! Choke! Kimura!” Norman screams.

* * *

“What’s an arm bar?” Norman asks me. “An arm bar,” he says, “a lot of people think that it’s dislocating the shoulder. It’s not. It might look very fancy, but you’re actually dislocating the elbow. So this is how it’s going to look like.”

Norman sits beside me while I lie down on the mat, him stretching my arm out and slowly twisting my elbow outward, a few inches away from the breaking point. He says, “I’m putting pressure. This is very simple, this is very basic, this is a very crude idea of an arm bar. I’m putting pressure on the elbow, I’m putting pressure against where it’s normally not supposed to be stretched. That’s how it is.”

Norman lets go of my arm, and he sits on my chest. “Now when I get to the mount, I grab your right arm in my right hand, I push your face away with my left hand, I go to your side, move your face to the side so I can put my foot over, just like this.”

By now Norman’s upper legs are both wrapped around my left arm as he grabs on to my forearm, making sure my thumb is pointed up and away from him. One of his calves rests on my neck, the other rests on my chest. He sticks my wrist against his chest and slowly lies down on the mat, stretching my elbow outward.

“Now this is nothing yet,” Norman says. “There’s already tension, but it’s not gonna break anything. When I bump my hips upward like so—”

I feel a sharp pain. My elbow feels like it’s about to pop.

He taps my elbow lightly with his free hand and says, “This is where it’s going to break. I’m using all my body’s leverage to break this part of your body.”

And I can feel it. It’s is a very efficient way to twist the elbow upward and dislocate or break it while, at the same time, immobilizing your opponent on the ground. With his calves pinning my neck and chest, pushing my back against the mat, all Norman needs to do is arch his back and move his hips a bit further upward, just a few more inches, so he can snap my elbow like a twig. By now I could feel an intense pressure against my elbow. I brace myself.

Norman lets go.

“And that,” he says, “is how you do a properly executed arm bar.”

No kidding.