Jason Dent on Sherdog Pros Pick UFC 149

A knee injury to Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz set in motion the events that led to an interim title bout between Urijah Faber and Renan “Barao” Pegado in the UFC 149 headliner on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Faber has recorded three wins in his past four outings. The 33-year-old Team Alpha Male founder last appeared at UFC 139 in November, when he submitted Brian Bowles with a second-round guillotine choke. A former WEC champion at 145 pounds, Faber wrestled collegiately at the University of California at Davis. In 31 professional appearances, he has never been submitted. Faber views “Barao” as a different kind of threat than the man he was originally booked to meet....

Jason Dent: Picking and pulling for Faber. To be honest, I’m not that familiar with Renan just yet. I have to believe Faber has fought the tougher competition, though.

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Written by: Bob Donaghy

George Comer Named NAAFS July Fighter of the Month

Every month NAAFS selects on fighter to single out and honor with the Fighter of the Month accolade, this month it's GR's own George Comer.

It's not widely known that 'Bonesaw' was a reluctant enrollee at GriffinRawl.  He didn't want to get involved with fighters, and it took the intervention of his lifelong buddy (and already a GR fighter) Ryan Lose to convince him that it was a good idea.  Turns out it was a very good idea.

Congratulations George, you've earned it.

Written by: Bob Donaghy

Pacific Northwest Muay Thai Camp

Two weeks ago GR's Mauy Thai instructor, Kru Aaron Veverka (aka Juice), and George Comer traveled to the woods outside Portland, OR for a five day Mauy Thai training camp.  By invitation only, the The Pacific Northwest Muay Thai camp provides an immersion training  experience unlike any other in Martial Arts.  Five days of nothing but intense training in  conditioning and technique.  No phones, no TV, no Internet, just Mauy Thai.

At the end of the camp Kru Aaron was awarded Associate Rank in the Thai Boxing Association of America.  The very interesting video of his Associate test is below.  Congratulate Juice when you see him at the Academy on his achievement.

Kru Aaron and George wrote about their experience:

Kru Aaron Veverka: The Pacific Northwest Muay Thai camp was an invigorating yet tiring event. It happens over a 5 day period. Four days of intensive training followed by a day to get everything together and wish everyone well.

You start with a 1 to 3 mile run in the morning followed by stance drills, then an hour for breakfast. Then it is time for extreme drills and/or station training, then an hour for lunch. We received boxing training that took up between 1 to 2 hours a day immediately followed by station training. Stations are as follows: Heavy bags, Shadow Boxing, Thai Pads, Timing sparring and Plum (clinching). Often some of the stations were doubled or tripled.  Thai Pads were at least doubled daily, other times tripled. Every station was a minimum of four rounds at 3 minutes a piece. Other days it was 8 rounds per station. You can see where this gets a bit tiring after a while. After that we often did 3 on 1 drills followed by 8 count body builders. We did 140 8 count body builders alone at the end of the day after our workouts.

Classes were all taught by the highest professionals, including but not limited to : Grandmaster Surachai Sirisute(Founder), Ajarn Bryan Dobler, Ajarn Bryan Popejoy, Ajarn Rex, Ajarn Kim, Ajarn Greg Nelson, Khun Khru Scott Elliott, Khun Khru Sam Adams, Khun Khru Natalie Roy Brown, Khun Khru Scott Anderson

George Comer: The Thai practices were long and grueling with minimum break in between.  The coaches broker all movements down so you can lean from the bottom up. Favorite parts was kick-boxing in the pouring rain and doing knees up the hill and 140 straight 8 count body builders.  The camp included 6 am mountain runs and 7-9 hours of practivce and starting with fundamental and working to more advanced techniques and combos.

The camp is held annually; Juice has been invited for the past 7 years, he's allowed to bring 'guests', which is how George came to go.  Next year the event will be in Portland again, anyone thinking about upping their game in Mauy Thai should think hard about attending. 



Written by Bob Donaghy

IGC II Delayed to September

Due to time pressure it's been found necessary to postpone the IGC II Tournament.  The Academy is disappointed at this development and will do everything possible to get the tournament back on track as soon as possible.

As soon as the details can be worked out, we will announce the new date, most likely in September.  Please contact Jason Dent  if you have any questions.

Thank you for your patience.

Written by Bob Donaghy

Jason Dent on Sherdog: Pros Pick Silva vs. Sonnen 2

Edited from Sherdog

Their first bout was epic, complete with an ending even the best scriptwriter could not have crafted.

Chael Sonnen had trounced middleweight champion Anderson Silva in every facet of the game at UFC 117, and it looked like the middleweight title was going to leave the Octagon with someone else. Nothing Silva tried seemed to work against the American wrestler. Then came the fifth-round triangle choke that forced a stunning Sonnen tapout and kept “The Spider” on top of the 185-pound division.

In the nearly two years that have passed since, Sonnen has only increased the personal venom with which he has attacked Silva. The two men will meet again in the UFC 148 “Silva vs. Sonnen 2” headliner on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Sherdog.com touched base with a number of professional fighters and trainers to gauge their opinions on the UFC 148 main event:

Jason Dent: I’m going with Anderson to win once again. Chael caught him by surprise the first match, and I just don’t see it happening again. Anderson has too many tools for Chael to deal with. I respect Chael as a fighter, but I’m not a fan of his antics at all.

Click here for the rest of the article on Sherdog

Written by Bob Donaghy

GriffonRawl Drops Two at RFO

Saturday, June 30th, three GR Fighters made the trip to Mansfield for RFO's 11th event.  Jason Dent and Donny Walker made the trip too and cornered the fighters. 

It wasn't our night.  Two of our fighters were stopped, and the third didn't fight because his opponent was in a car accident on the way to the event.

Quick Results

• Ryan Lose (155) TKO loss to Bill Gingery early in round 1 by cut
• Dan Ramacciato (155) loss referee stoppage 3rd round (it was a war)
• Joe Callari did not fight

All three guys deserve praise for putting themselves on the line with these fights and all three will come back to win with the support of the team and more work in the gym.

Written by Bob Donaghy