Blogs

For the Fighter who wants to hoist the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE!

(That’s Joel on the far right)

Scott Umberger is one of the top physical preparation coaches in the state, arguably the country and is a friend of mine who trains some of the best fighters in our area.  He recently attended a seminar in Richmond, Virginia geared towards sports science and human performance and is kind enough, and cool enough to share it. This piece focuses around the creator of 8weeksout.com Joel Jamieson and his work with some of the UFC's finest athletes. Do yourself a favor and check it out below: 

Umberger Performance: A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend a seminar in Richmond, Virginia in which some of the some of the best minds in sports science and human performance presented.  I’m not exaggerating.  Natalia Verkhoshansky, who is the PhD daughter of one of the greatest sports scientists that has ever lived, Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky, presented.   Dr. Yuri V is actually the creator of plyometrics.  Yes,  plyometrics.  And I’m not talking about the “jumping” that you’ve done in gym class, training for a sport, Crossfit, or watching some useless P90X or Insanity video.   Real plyometrics should be reserved for elite athletes.

Some other highlights were world renowned track/sprint coach Henk Kraaijenhof, who has trained several Olympic Medal Winners and world champions.  Dr. Richmond Kalinski of Kent State, who is a former Sports Scientist from the Soviet Union, also presented, and is the one of the top hormone experts in the world.  

Check out the rest after the break

PinnacleFC June 29th: Online Ticket Ordering Available Now

PinnacleFC returns to the Iceoplex arena June 29^th and we are planning our biggest and best card to date.  Our staff works 24 hours a day to bring to you the best cards we can put together and so far, we have had great results. June 29^th will be no different as we have a huge main event featuring Mark “The Pride Of Bloomfield” Cherico (4-0) taking on UFC veteran Donny "Eagle Eye" Walker (14-9).

Walker’s last three fights were in either the UFC or Bellator and he has years of experience fighting the best featherweights around including Cub Swanson, Cody Stevens, Jeff Curran and Frank Caraballo.  Walker is far and away the biggest step up in Cherico’s unblemished career to date.  Cherico is coming into the bout fresh off of his best career performance, a first round armbar win over Strikeforce veteran Billy Vaughn. His pending fight with Walker should put him farther up the ladder and onto the big show radar.  This match up will be for the first ever PinnacleFC professional title.

Also on the card we have an all-city grudge match between former training partners Khama “The Deathstar” Worthy (2-2) and Maddog gym’s Francis Healy (1-0). Healy and Worthy were scheduled to meet in April but Healy was forced to withdraw due to injury. Khama went on to win a lopsided decision over late replacement Jason Willett and a few weeks later, we are back on track for one of my favorite fights of the year.

This time around we are also featuring two amateur titles when Rich Cantolina (9-6) attempts to derail the undefeated Derrick Wright (3-0) for the featherweight amateur title and “Prince” Fadi Shuman (4-0) will square off against newly minted rival Chris Mitchell-Humes (3-0) AKA Philly Chris for the lightweight amateur strap.

Other fights on the card feature local standout Justin Steave (4-2) taking on PA’s Mike Diggs (7-4), Evolve’s Kenny Jackson is set to make his professional debut against Reggie Merriweather and FCP amateur destroyer Jake Schilling (3-0) will look to remain perfect against his toughest fight to date in Tyler Ingram (6-1).

Check out the tentative card after the jump:

                            Maddog Gym: Photo Gallery 

The Maddog murder squad recently held a photo shoot at their war room and the results are pretty sweet.  Meet Monica, Maddog's newest spokeswomen as she dawns some of that new Murder machine swag.  Let's face it I could write a ton of funny, quirky shit here but you didn't come here for that. Props to Stefanie Scotti for the photography work and the designs you see here will be available for sale this weekend at the Pinnacle Fighting Championships event at the Iceoplex arena.

Check out the rest after the jump:

                                  2012 Tournament Winners

      2013 New York State Grappling Championships 4/13/13

The 10th Annual New York State Grappling Championship, promoted by Norman Yonkers’ Karate Connection MMA, will be held on April 13th at Fredonia Central School in Fredonia, NY 14063. 

This Grappling Tournament is Just a short distance from Cleveland OH – 2 hours and 45 minutes, Pittsburgh, Pa – 2 hours and 30 minutes, Erie Pa, 40 minutes, Toronto, Canada - 2 hours and 50 minutes, and 40 Minutes South of Buffalo, NY and easy to access from Interstate 90 to tournament event.

We Welcome All Styles of Grappling!

• There are 6 Championship Belts Up for grabs and multiple beautiful custom medals. All Kid & Teen Divisions will receive awards for all places. This is a Gi & No-Gi Tournament (Double Mod. Elimination No-Gi & Single Elimination for GI) for all Kids, Teens, Women, Men, and Masters!

• There were over 500 divisional competitors in 2012 from teams all over the country and Canada.
• We will be running 8 rings of grappling action all day long at Fredonia Central School, located at 425 E. Main St, Fredonia, NY, 14063.

The Absolute Champions for 2012 were as follows: 12 and under: Steven Seljan of Red Griffin from Grimsby, Ontario Canada, Teen: Ace Milner from Red Griffin, Women: Valerie Aspaas from BBJJ, Men’s Gi: Erik Herbert from Victory MMA, and the Men’s No-Gi Winner was Jabril Patterson from Victory MMA.

The NYS April 13th & HGC August 2013, tournaments have some cool rules: First Round Submission Only, Second Round (if needed) Submission or points. If the match requires a 3rd round, it will go to a  Sudden Death Round!

Check out the rest after the jump:

4 Reasons Why MMA Fighters Should Enter Grappling Tournaments

Mixed martial arts is a difficult sport. The amount of knowledge—boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and the connections in between—required to be a successful fighter is immense. On top of that, you have to reach and maintain an unreal level of fitness while earning a steady stream of income and scouting future fights. MMA is hard, and it’s not getting any easier. More and more fighters are stepping into the cage, and new gyms are popping up faster than campaign posters. If you are a fighter, you need any edge that you can get.

Competing in grappling tournaments is one way that you can accelerate your progress and set yourself apart from the competition.

Here are four reasons why after the jump:

Post Promoted to the front page via Hunter A. Homisteck

It happened.

A major UFC pay-per-view event just got canceled due to injury. 

Dan Henderson, challenger for Jon Jones' 205-pound belt, sustained a partially torn MCL in training and cannot fight Jones on Sept. 1.

The story gets much, much juicier though (and it's already super moist, right?).

Check out the full scoop here.