Jan Plas (Far Right) in Thailand

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It has been reported today that Jan Plas, the founder of the Mejiro Gym in the Netherlands has passed away in his jail cell at the age of 65. Jan Plas is best known for being the trainer of Peter Aerts, who went on to be one of the most successful kickboxers on an international level. Plas founded the Mejiro Gym in 1978 after numerous trips to Japan to study kickboxing with Kenji Kurosaki. In many ways, Plas is seen as one of the godfathers of kickboxing for the Dutch.

The first way is, obviously, that the Mejiro Gym is one of the most famous and accomplished kickboxing gyms in the world. Plas founded the Mejiro Gym to bring Japanese Kyokushin style kickboxing mixed with Muay Thai to the Netherlands. Plas was also instrumental in the formation of the NKBB, The Dutch Kickboxing Association.

Plas found himself in prison after being tied in with the Netherlands' notorious underworld, which came at a high price. He was involved in drug trafficking as well as money laundering, which turned into a family business of sorts, with his two children, who served as Dutch police officers, helping him. Plas found himself in a sticky situation, where he would have to betray his family or hardened criminals to save himself, and either one could end in pain. His death was reported as a suicide without any real details yet.

Regardless of his criminal connections, the kickboxing world has lost a true legend.

c. HKL/Dan Herbertson

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For the record: I will fight in the K-1 and not Against Alexander E. I read something on the web and I'm not fighting HIM.

Alistair Overeem, going public via his twitter account, that the rumored Emelianenko fight (no, the other Emelianenko) will not be happening. 

I like how he emphasizes HIM.

via www.boutreview.com

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Odd fight announcement here. Japanese veteran Musashi, fresh off last year's retirement, has announced one final fight to say good bye.  On October 23, Musashi will face his younger brother TOMO in Musashi's last send off.  This kind of smaller, one-off retirement fight is not uncommon in Japan, as it gives fighters a chance to say good bye to their fans in a less competitive atmosphere. 

The fight will be part of the Musashi Rock Festival - a concert event Musashi is promoting in Tokyo.  It will be two 3 minute rounds, but Musashi has been clear that this will not be strictly an exhibition as both men will be competing without headgear and pads.

While never the star his brother was, TOMO is also a K-1 veteran, having competed in MAX before retiring 5 years ago.  He fought in K-1 from 1999-2005, including two appearances in the MAX Japan GP. 

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From Schilt's twitter today:

"excusses to all who are genuinely concerned about my #k1belt. It was a hoax now i hope www.themotherlovers.nl break through"

The Mother Lovers are a Norwegian band who Semmy is helping promote by appearing in their next video, and apparently faking having his belt stolen in a weird promotional stunt.  On the one hand, how is this a promotional stunt?  On the other - had you ever heard of The Mother Lovers before?  No?  Well, now you have.

I'll admit it, I have a penchant for violence at times. Maybe the old ultraviolence from time to time as well. Not only that, but I have always been an advocate of existentialism, post modernism and of course, irony. When it comes to films, the more out there the better, the more they make you think and question the more you can take away from them. So, fancy that this video comes down the pike, a wonderful pastiche of Alistair Overeem's career juxtaposed by young Alex's journey throughout the Stanley Kubrick masterwork, "A Clockwork Orange." 

A beautiful kick from Cung Le, one of the top strikers in MMA today.

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It's been over two years since Cung Le claimed the Strikeforce Middleweight title, snapping Frank Shamrock's arm with a well placed kick.  Since that time, Cung has greatly faded in the MMA world, taking a lengthy leave of absence, forfeiting the title, and collecting his first loss.  But on Saturday, as MMA eyes turn to Fedor Emelianenko v. Fabricio Werdum, Cung Le returns to action, rematching Scott Smith.  It's a compelling, exciting match-up, and one that every MMA fan who appreciates quality stand-up action should anticipate.

When Cung Le steps back into the cage Saturday, one word you will hear come up quite a bit is "Sanshou".  The sport where Cung first made his name, Sanshou is very rarely represented in MMA.  As a result, though many people can identify Le as a Sanshou fighter, few know exactly what Sanshou entails.

A Chinese martial art, Sanshou (also known as Sanda) is a hand to hand combat style, which gained popularity in the 20th century thanks to Chinese tournaments.  Like Sambo in Russia, Sanshou was used by the military to help train their troops.  Competitions are point based, with an emphasis on effective striking and throws. 

Watch one of Le's old Sanshou fights, and you will not see many differences from his MMA bouts.  A very proud Sanshou representative, Le has stayed true to his Sanshou roots, utilizing elements from that sport to achieve positive results in MMA.  Specifically, Le uses certain Sanshou techniques to his advantage:

• Striking variety - This is probably Cung Le's greatest strength.  The man simply has a huge arsenal of kicks at his disposal.  As a result, you can never be sure exactly what he is throwing.  Most fighters stick to the basics with kicks, but Le will throw from both legs, and at targets all up and down his opponent's body.  A great example of this is seen twice in round 1 of the first Smith bout.  Early on, Le hits a gorgeous spinning back kick that Smith sees coming, but just can not figure out how to block.  Later in the round, he surprises Smith again by using a quick head kick thrown off his lead leg - a very rare kick, but executed beautifully.  Which brings us to...
  
• Striking accuracy - All the kicks in the world would mean nothing if they didn't land.  But they do.  Just ask Frank Shamrock and his shattered arm.
• Incorporating punches - While all the attention is put on Le's kicks (and rightly so), he uses his hands very well.  Check out his MMA debut against Mike Altman, where he ends Altman's night with a nice punch.
• Takedown defense - It's no secret that Le wants to keep his fights standing.  He usually gets his way, thanks to his Sanshou-inspired takedown defense.  In Sanshou, takedowns score highly, and Le used them well.  Although he does not use takedowns much himself in MMA, he has maintained the use of his Sanshou defense in order to stop others.  Shamrock attempted to bring their fight to the ground on a few occasions, and never once succeeded.  When Le does use his throws, he typically keeps on his own feet, again nullifying the ground game.  This is another holdover from his Sanshou training, where a takedown scores higher if you maintain your feet while performing the throw. Le uses this skill to keep the fight in his comfort zone at all times.
  
• Volume of strikes - Sanshou can be won by knockout, but it is largely a point-based style, which means that a higher volume of effective strikes leads to victory.  Le keeps up that volume in MMA, keeping his opponent on the defense.

This last point leads to the criticism commonly thrown at Le - that he is a point fighter who lacks consistent knockout power.  Critics of Le feel that, by simply looking to outpoint his opponent, Le lets them stay in the fight, keeping the door open for a comeback.  And that is exactly how things played out in the first Smith fight.  Le dominated the early portion, but Smith, the best come from behind fighter in the game today, stayed in it, and was able to KO Le in the 3rd. 

On Saturday, a lot of questions should be answered about Cung Le.  Was the Smith loss due to ring rust?  Age (Cung is 38)?  Or has he simply reached his peak?  Will he be able to put Smith down this time before Smith's inevitable final surge?

For anyone who has seen many of Le's fights, Saturday will likely present few surprises.  At his core, Cung Le is a Sanshou fighter, and he will likely remain a Sanshou fighter throughout his MMA career.  There will be no huge change of style from Le - we know what to expect from him.  And what we can expect is a beautiful stand-up attack, mixing in the kinds of kicks you just don't see enough of in MMA.  It's a chance to watch a true master of a rarely used stand-up form display his skills.  As a stand-up fan, I can't wait.

Watch Le in a technically gorgeous Sanshou exhibition:

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MiddleEasy sinks their teeth into something and much like a rabid dog, refuses to let go. After running a story a while back with talk of Fedor Emelianenko possibly retiring, which M-1 refuted, Zeus came across this rather interesting tidbit while looking through a translation. 

Fedor Emelianenko: (After a long pause) "Я не хочу так далеко забегать вперед. Я думаю только о предстоящем бое с Фабрисио вЕрдумом. Всё будет зависеть от того, как я в нем выступлю. Вот. У меня осталось два боя по контракту, дальше будем смотреть. Если буду чувствовать себя хорошо, то будем заключать новый контракт. Вот. Нооо... Я ВСЁ БОЛЬШЕ ДУМАЮ УЖЕ ОБ УХОДЕ."

Don't speak Russian? I don't, either. The rough translation that I get for the last line is that he will "go away" if he is not content. Of course, that is what Google told me. So let Zeus fill you in on the rest:

The part in bold is what Steven Bash failed to translate. In English, it reads: "If I will feel good, I will sign a new contract. But, I am more and more thinking about retiring". There was also a part in the conference call where Fedor directly blames Strikeforce for not having his fight in April. Steven Bash translated this as: "It was between Strikeforce management and Vadim Finkelstein to decide".

The audio is there for anyone to listen to. In no way is this fabricated. We've been on this 'Fedor retirement story' earlier this month when we broke the news that Fedor will be running for political office and that he was considering retirement. When other media outlets contacted M-1 Global for a clarification, they confirmed Fedor's run for office but completely denied that Fedor may retire.

The plot thickens.

Badr Hari, in the ring in Marrakesh, accepting a jacket from the Moroccan amateur boxing team.

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Back in March, we reported on the news that Badr Hari was considering representing Morocco in the 2012 Summer Olympics as a boxer.  Now, it looks like that idea is one step closer to becoming a reality.

On May 22, Hari attended the Olympic Qualifying boxing tournament in Marrakesh.  This event determines who represents Morocco in the 2012 Olympics.  Hari met with officials, and was invited into the ring, where he was presented with an official team jacket.  Footage of Hari in the ring is available in the full entry.

Short of an official announcement, this is as clear a sign as we can get that Hari is indeed still actively pursuing this opportunity, and that there is a very real chance we will see him in an Olympic ring.  Both Hari and Moroccan officials have said that they want Hari representing them in London.  The hurdle has been whether the Olympic Committee will deem Hari an "amateur" boxer (a requirement for Olympic boxing), or if his professional kickboxing career will disqualify him. 

Of course, it is important to note that this footage is from May 22 - before Hari's disqualification in Amsterdam, before his involvement with the police escalated, and before the very public accusations of being involved with organized crime.  How this will impact Hari's Olympic bid remains unknown, though it certainly can not help.  Even if Morocco offers him the spot, they still need the ruling from the Olympic Committee, and if the committee has not yet made that ruling, Hari's recent negative actions and press could easily sway the vote against him.

Personally, I suspect much of Hari's legal matters will need to be sorted out before he is officially given a spot.  A fighter who has fled the police, been involved in a very serious public assault, and now is gaining a reputation as a part of organized crime does real damage to the Olympic brand, and the IOC is fiercely protective of that brand.  Boxing has not been a focal point of the summer Olympics in recent years, so it's entirely possible Hari's involvement would blow over with little discussion.  But his name will draw increased interest towards this event, and this is a story that the media could eat up.  Of course, a media with less knowledge of his history could easily be sold the same "redemption" storyline kickboxing fans were presented with in the wake of the Bonjasky DQ, and the Olympics is a huge industry that surely would appreciate a boost in one of their more overlooked events. So the Olympics faces the same double-edged sword Hari brings to all organizations - with Badr Hari you get a big name that increases public interest, but also the potential for a powerfully negative story.  Is it worth it?

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