#Efrain Groves

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Best Base for Mixed Martial Arts: Making the Transition into the World of MMA

Ever since the beginning of MMA competitions, the age old question of which martial art style is the best has been all but answered: there is no one discipline that is the be all and end all of martial arts, rather a broad knowledge of all aspects of fighting covering a broad spectrum of fighting styles is the formula of becoming a successful modern MMA fighter.

Forever seeking topics for a good debate, MMA fans has instead started asking about: which martial art serves as the best base for a MMA fighter? Meaning if you have to pick a fighting discipline to begin training at a young age so that a transition into the world of MMA can be relatively easy and smooth later on, which martial art discipline should it be?

A Look at the Ultimate Fighter Winners

By simply looking at past UFC champions in an attempt to analyze the success of each style serving as base to their MMA success would paint a somewhat inaccurate picture since all the champions are seasoned fighters already possessing extensive training in other forms of martial arts. A more revealing group of fighters would be up coming fighters still in the infancy of their MMA careers struggling to make the transition. One such group of fighters can be found competing on the popular Spike TV/UFC reality show: The Ultimate Fighter.

Already having 9 seasons of the reality series in the books, the show has crowned 15 winners in various weight classes thus far. A look at the martial arts backgrounds of the winners can perhaps serve as the basis of discussion to which martial art discipline provides the best base for MMA.

Season 1 winner Forrest Griffin- According to Griffin’s website, Griffin trained at the HardCore Gym for five years under Adam and Rory Singer and developed “a raw combination of martial arts fused with a bare knuckle barroom technique.” Forrest Griffin can thus be considered as training in Mixed Martial Arts right of the bat.

Season 1 winner Diego Sanchez - Diego Sanchez was a high school wrestler with Karate training starting at the age of nine.

Season 2 winner Joe Stevenson – Started wrestling at the age of 11 and started jiu-jitsu at the age of 13.

Season 2 winner Rashad Evans – An all-state wrestler in high school and also wrestled for Michigan State University. Rashad is also a jiu jitsu specialist. 

Season 3 winner Kendall Grove – Wrestled in high school before starting his MMA training.

Season 3 winner Michael Bisping – According to an article from the Sun, Michael Bisping started training in a traditional form of jujutsu known as Yawara Ryu at the age of 8.

Season 4 winners will not be included in this discussion since the season focused on veterans attempting to make a comeback which is not within the scope of this discussion.

Season 5 winner – Nathan Diaz started Gracie jiujitsu under Caesar Gracie as a teenager and is currently a brown belt.

Season 6 winner – According to UFC.com, Mac Danzig started training jiujitsu at Casey Leonard’s gym in Pittsburgh in 2000.

Season 7 winner – According to UFC.com, Amir Sadollah began his training in MMA at Team Combat located in Richmond, VA.

Season 8 winner – Efrain Escudero was a NJCAA All-American wrestler before competing in MMA.

Season 8 winner – Ryan Bader was a two time NCAA Division I All-America wrestler at Arizona State University before training in MMA.

Season 9 winner – According to UFC.com, Ross Pearson started Taekwondo and Judo at an early age.

Season 9 winner – According to UFC.com, James Wilks first started training in Taekwondo and JKD, but later moved to the US to improve on his ground fighting skills and trained under Eric Paulson in submission wrestling. Erik would use a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gi in many of his matches.

Ground Fighting is Key

Out of the 13 winners included in the discussion, 7 of them have a base in wrestling, 4 in jiujitsu or some forms of jujutsu, 1 has a judo and Taekwondo background, and 2 started outright with some combination of mixed martial arts training. Even though winners with a wrestling base make up over half of the TUF winners, it can be argued that it is due to the culture of wrestling in the USA; with a higher percentage of athletes competing in wrestling, it increases the likelihood of a wrestler becoming a good mixed martial artist later on. The same can be said of judo in Japan or Korea as that would be their most popular form of grappling.

A common thread which is obvious here is the ground fighting background that all of the TUF winners possess which would be a strong argument that a grappling base would be a better one than a base in a forming of striking art.

[caveartfair]

The Punk-Puppeteers Making Performance Art Weird Again

Poncili Creacion at Tempelhof Field in Berlin, August 2017. Photo by Lee Kuan Chien. Courtesy of Poncili Creacion.

On an impossibly blue-skied day this past August, strange beasts prowled the flat expanse of Tempelhof Field, a former Berlin airport converted into parkland. Grotesque but still kid-friendly—something between puppets and wearable sculptures—they were the creations of Poncili Creación, a Puerto Rican art collective helmed by twins Pablo and Efrain, who this summer and fall are sweeping across Europe with their singular brand of confrontational whimsy. By combining elements of dance, theater, puppetry, punk rock, improv, and carnival, Poncili offers up a new kind of performance art: smart, entertaining, unpretentious, and totally wild.

Poncili was in the park to mingle with the locals and hand out flyers for a handful of Berlin engagements, all at very different venues. One was at Teepee Land, an outdoor squatter outpost on the banks of the Spree River. Roosters ambled around the dusty grounds, which were directly adjacent to a glassy luxury condo. The evening was more open-mic reggae jam than art event. Young Germans with or without dreadlocks did their best to channel the faraway spirit of Jamaica. The scene was weird enough before Poncili took the spotlight, tumbling in front of the stage with little advance warning.

Like most of the group’s performances, this one hewed to a basic plot, sketched out in storyboard form. In it, various monsters and humanoids fought, tussled, rattled chains, yelled, faux-urinated on each other, and gave birth. Throughout, a small group of musicians (strangers, solicited for their contributions just before the performance began) provided an improvisionational soundtrack.

Performance still from NADA New York, 2016. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk. Courtesy of Poncili Creacion.

Pablo and Efrain—identical, though differentiated by their distinctly aggressive haircuts—are the ringleaders of this controlled madness. The duo, now 26, cut their teeth as high-schoolers back in Puerto Rico. While they’re not trained musicians themselves, they had peers who were. They formed a band, instructing the members (including an opera singer) as to their overall vision. “We’d put salsa, punk, and reggae in one song—we wanted to clash everything together,” explains Pablo when I meet up with him and Efrain in Berlin.

That band—which featured the brothers rapping over the postmodern muddle of styles, dressed in cardboard costumes—led to an equally boundary-less project in 2012. The seeds of what would become Poncili Creación were planted in a weekly performance series held at El Local, an art space and concert venue in the Santurce neighborhood of Puerto Rico’s San Juan. “We started as a decentralized collective,” Pablo says. “Anyone who wanted to could join and form part of the experience: Bring your own puppets, bring anything you had, and we would incorporate you into our play. At that point we were basically anarchy, this Frankenstein of art.”

“It was a collective that didn’t exist anywhere else other than at this bar, on Wednesdays,” Efrain says. After each performance, they’d solicit the audience for future concepts and participation. “This 16-year-old kid brought us a an amazing, super confusing play he had written, that took place inside a guy’s body,” he recalls. “It was a week-long project: We built the puppets, and we did his play.”

Despite how inclusive these weekly performances were, “at some point, the word ‘aesthetic’ or ‘artistic language’ was mentioned,” Pablo recalls, “and we started saying: ‘Okay, we have a specific thing that is ours.’”

A typical example of a storyboard that the collective uses to outline the basic plot of a performance. Photo by Scott Indrisek.

That artistic language grew out of the duo’s preferred medium: foam, sourced from discarded couches or mattresses, that they would then carve and paint. “It’s a cheap material with so many properties,” explains Efrain. “It expands, it contracts, it sticks to itself. It can be cut easily in any direction. You can leap on it, or throw it.” The brothers would stage what they refer to as “couch murders”: theatrical events in which, posing as contemporary cavemen, they would attack and dismember a piece of furniture, turning it into makeshift clothing and then culling the foamy “meat.”

Poncili Creación didn’t properly conceive of themselves as artists until they met Francisco Rovira Rullán, the dealer behind San Juan-based gallery Roberto Paradise. He got them to view their materials—props, puppets, costumes—as sculptures, something that could have another life in the white cube. That led to a series of exhibitions at the space, and regular appearances at art fairs like the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) in New York and Miami. They began making their version of paintings, cut-foam reliefs that nodded to German and Japanese wood carvings, but continued to activate all of these works via performances that were free-wheeling, esoteric, and more than a little shamanistic.

Some five years later, Poncili still occupies a shifting position within the art world. Pablo characterizes it as less of a collective than a “performance duo that loves to collaborate with others. From that anarchic-hippy ‘welcome all’ [mentality], we’re now finally opening up to directing other people, to be in the position of a coordinator making things happen.” That includes bringing along other members for the European tour—including Canadian muralist Danaé Brissonnet, and artist Lee Kuan Chien, who has been documenting the group’s live performances. They’ve also begun producing a series of stop-motion animations in conjunction with Tost Films, bringing their carved-foam creations to life.

Poncili Creación may often perform in galleries, but this September they’ll also take part in a French puppetry festival. Overlapping with this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, the brothers will undertake a residency sponsored by Mana Contemporary, for which they’ll launch a sort of shop-slash-doctor’s office in which they’ll spotlight various “products,” like the Telefonito, a colored-foam sculpture that turns your iPhone into an anthropomorphic character.

Performance still from NADA New York, 2016. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk. Courtesy of Poncili Creacion.

Despite institutional kudos and support, Poncili has never given up its raw roots. Earlier this year, they appeared in the basement of a Bushwick, Brooklyn space known as Bohemian Grove. With an audience packed in tight around them, their performance was visceral, loud, and sweaty, flirting with the edges of violence and aggression.

“It was intense,” Pablo says, approvingly. “That’s part of what makes us feel alive.”

“The chameleon possibility,” Efrain adds, “that this show is like water: It takes the shape of the container you put it in.”

The third of the group’s trio of summer shows in Berlin took place at Gr_und, a more typical art space in the neighborhood of Wedding. Most of the evening’s programming explored the tired and earnest clichés of performance art. A barechested, bearded man endlessly painted his face in the foyer; a woman inside the gallery swooned improvisationally. Toward the end of the evening, Poncili Creación made its entrance, heralded by one of the twins, dressed head-to-toe in foam accessories and blowing on a handmade instrument that worked a bit like an overly long vuvuzela.

The basic narrative of the performance was similar to that seen at Teepee Land—there was fighting, and urinating, and a birth, as well as a blue beast whose eyes popped out of his head, and a foam handgun that inverted and turned into a drinking cup—but Poncili had effortlessly adapted to the new venue. Without a reggae band to back them up, the brothers and their collaborators made their own rhythm. An electric saw was used to loudly slice into lengths of metal, shooting off showers of sparks; chains and other implements were scraped and banged across the rough stone floor.

Poncili Creacion at Tempelhof Field in Berlin, August 2017. Photo by Lee Kuan Chien. Courtesy of Poncili Creacion.

Much of the audience (as well as the other participating artists) clearly didn’t know what to make of the group. In contrast to the rest of the evening’s performances, Poncili felt slightly unhinged, and possibly dangerous.  

“I like this junction of performance and punk,” Efrain says. “In Miami, where we lived for a while, we started being included a lot in the music scene—they were thirsty for this kind of stuff, that is new, but speaking the same language. People would tell me: ‘I like your set. Your set was nice.’ So forget performance, or theater—we are Poncili Creación. We’re doing our thing. And if you want to see Poncili Creación, you see a set—a set of what we do.”  

“We call it an exploration,” Pablo adds. “We’re doing a show, but we’re also just learning how to be better…human beings, I guess. It’s a performance of an exploration of a life.”

—Scott Indrisek

from Artsy News

[csenews]

42 ARRESTED IN MEMPHIS HUMAN TRAFFICKING OPERATION

42 ARRESTED IN MEMPHIS HUMAN TRAFFICKING OPERATION  

 MEMPHIS – A three-day operation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and partner agencies to combat human trafficking in Memphis has resulted in the arrest of 42 individuals on prostitution-related charges; 38 men and four women. Eight men responding to the ads tried to buy sex from a minor. The Memphis anti-trafficking operation, called “Operation Someone Like Me”, is the eighth of its kind in the state between the TBI and partner agencies to help identify, investigate and prosecute trafficking, and rescue victims. Those arrested include a medical professional, engineers, a law student, a tow truck driver and construction workers.

 During the three-day operation, undercover Agents posted four ads a day on Backpage.com, for about 7 hours a day. Approximately 475 different men responded to those ads posted. More than 8,779 contacts were made to those ads, through texts or phone calls. In some ads, undercover Agents posed as a juvenile girl. Eight men responded, and paid to have sex with an underage female. Two of those specifically paid money to have sex with 14-year-old girls.  Two juvenile female victims of trafficking were recovered and referred to the Department of Children’s Services.

 Along with detectives with the Memphis Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, prosecutors with the Shelby County District Attorney’s office and the nonprofits Restore Corps and End Slavery Tennessee, TBI Special Agents and intelligence analysts conducted the undercover operation to identify potential victims of trafficking and arrest those seeking to purchase illicit sex from a juvenile.

 “We have said all along that this is a demand-driven crime, and this operation demonstrates how very prevalent that demand is,” says TBI Director Mark Gwyn. 

“Let me speak directly to men: The women you see advertised online are people, not products. We need men to step up and demand better from themselves and the men around them.”

 “Operations like 'Operation Someone Like Me' are necessary to protect the innocence of youth within our community. It is sickening to know that there are individuals who prey on our girls and women," said Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings. “Parents and family members, be aware and know where your children are and what they are doing at all times.”

 In 2015, Governor Bill Haslam signed legislation into law giving TBI original jurisdiction over investigations of human trafficking. Additionally, the General Assembly approved funding for four Special Agents, who work exclusively to investigate human trafficking cases and train law enforcement statewide on recognizing and combating this type of crime. These four Special Agents, who have now completed their eighth operation across the state, have arrested or cited more than 200 individuals during that time.

 Senate Judiciary Chairman Brian Kelsey spent time Thursday in the Memphis operation. “We’re committed – as a state – to doing everything we can to figure it out, arrest traffickers, and rescue victims,” Kelsey says. “We’re leading the nation in our approach and our work is just getting started.”

 Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees HSI’s efforts in Tennessee says, “ICE/HSI is proud to once again partner with TBI for Operation Someone Like Me.  HSI is committed to this unified and multi-faceted approach to combatting human trafficking across Tennessee.  We will continue to contribute our unique authorities to go after those looking to exploit these women as well as offer our services to the victims of this form of modern day slavery.”

 With the assistance of the nonprofit agencies Restore Corps and End Slavery Tennessee, the women identified as potential victims of trafficking were each offered services, including housing, counseling and addiction treatment.

 Earlier this year, as part of its commitment to address this issue, the TBI began the second phase of the public awareness campaign “ITHasToStop,” which includes awareness billboards, online resources, public service announcements, and contact information for nonprofits who work with survivors of human trafficking. Visit www.ITHasToStop.com for more information.

 MEMPHIS “OPERATION SOMEONE LIKE ME” STATS

 Since “Operation Someone Like Me” began in May 2015, there have been over 200 arrests/ citations.

 The investigation was conducted in Brentwood, Clarksville, Jackson, Chattanooga (twice, once in conjunction with Georgia Bureau of Investigation), Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis.

 During the three-day trafficking operation in Memphis, approximately 475 men responded to the ads we posted on Backpage.com. There were a total of 8,779 communication interactions made to TBI undercover Agents:

                *Total unique contacts – 522

                *Total number of texts – 8320

                *Total phone calls - 459

 As a result of “Operation Someone Like Me” this week in Memphis, 42 individuals were arrested/ cited, including 38 men and 4 women.

                            Those charged during the Memphis “Operation Someone Like Me” are below.

                 *Ronald Garrison, 60, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Ahmed Khalid, 26, Cordova, TN – Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Juan Valdez, 34, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Melvin Garcia, 35, unknown - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Christian Esquivel, 26, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Efrain Aguilera, 26, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Terry Lewis, Jr., 29, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Ali Awad, 21, Cordova, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Paul Palmer, Jr., 47, East Ridge, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Richard Hardin, 67, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Sam Lewis, 59, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Paul Roach, 49, Cordova, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Bret Morris, 33, Bartlett, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *James Walker, 50, Cordova, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Mario Thomas, 41, Memphis, TN – Possession of Cocaine, Marijuana

                *David Brumfield, 60, Collierville, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Harrison Chung, 40, Garden Grove, CA - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Milton Davis, 50, Arlington, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Mark Berry, 44, Arlington, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Robert Jackins, 52, Cordova, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Benjamin Gilbert, 26, Cordova, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Antonio Chacon, 32, Unknown - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Keten Patel, 33, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Carl McKee, 31, Munford, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Luis Fernando, 45, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Julio Perez, 20, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Marin Rykhlov, 39, Knoxville, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Basel Hasan, 18, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution near Church or School

                *Catasia Williams, 26, Memphis, TN – Prostitution near Church or School

                *Mikael Farris, 35, Cordova, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

                *Emmi Easton, 20, Memphis, TN – Prostitution near Church or School

                *Darry Little, 53, Marion, AR – Patronizing Prostitution (A Felony)

                *Hilario Vargas Lopez, 40, Memphis, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

                *Oscar Larios, 48, Memphis, TN - Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

                *Christopher Rodgers, 32, Braden, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (A Felony)

*Demario Davis, 30, Unknown - Trafficking for Sexual Servitude, Possession of Crack Cocaine, Cocaine, Heroin,      

   Oxycodone, Marijuana, Stolen Property Under $500

*Mitch Cooper, 43, Humboldt, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (Misdemeanor)

*Nat-Matias Armando, 19, Memphis, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

*Erin Shindler, 29, Bartlett, TN – Prostitution near Church or School

*Shanqua Patrick, 23, Halls, TN – Prostitution near Church or School

*Isaiah Williams, 47, Memphis, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

*Uriel Roblero, 23, Memphis, TN – Patronizing Prostitution (B Felony)

                The Shelby County District Attorney’s office will review each case to determine whether additional charges are warranted. Most of these individuals were cited, and will have their booking photos taken at the time they are processed.

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