Lennie’s blog

I began taking karate lessons in 1965 when I was 14 years old, and continued for 4 to 5 years.  It was a school run by military people, and we did some of our training on military bases and we did shows on those bases.  We had one tournament on Fort Monmouth army base, and I was proud to defeat a lot of soldiers and get second place.

In the early 1990s I saw the very first group of UFC events.  Royce Gracie impressed the hell out of me.  The most impressive thing he did was to submit Dan Severn despite the fact that Severn outweighed him by about 100 pounds of muscle, and he was an accomplished wrestler.  I decided to learn Gracie jiu jitsu.  The only way to learn it at that time was to buy instructional videotapes because there were no classes in it and no books about it.  I bought what must now be considered a real classic, the very first instructional videotape series, done by Renzo Gracie and Craig Kukuk.  I learned a lot from those tapes.  Later Craig Kukuk opened a school near me, and I attended classes.

The early UFC events were different from today's MMA.  They were not timed.  There were no rounds.  No judges.  The fight continued until someone tapped out or was unconscious, or stopped by the referee.  Head butting was allowed.  Hair pulling was allowed.  In fact, Royce Gracie pulled Kimo's hair quite a bit.  Royce insisted that the fights would not be timed, because he needed a lot of time to submit some of his opponents.  He would have clearly lost a decision to Dan Severn if that fight had been separated into a few 5 minute rounds.

Another big difference was that the fighters had to fight 3 times in one evening if they wanted to win the day's tournament.  Royce had to pull out of one of those tournaments after defeating Kimo, and a nonentity ended up winning that tournament.

When I attended Craig Kukuk's class, I heard a lot about Rickson Gracie.  Craig received his black belt from the Gracie family, and he was in awe of Rickson.  He told us that Rickson would line up all his brothers and cousins one after the other and submit them like nothing, like a chess grandmaster walking from table to table checkmating other chess masters.  Rickson was really the only Gracie that Craig used to talk about.

It's a shame for us that Rickson was already a bit past his prime when MMA really took hold.  Obviously he couldn't defeat the top fighters now.  I think he is in his 50s.  I wonder if he could have beaten today's Spider Silva, in his own weight class of middleweight, in his prime.  MMA has come a long way since the 1980s, when Rickson was king.  I like to think he could, but that's one of those questions we just can't answer.

My favorite MMA fighter today is Fedor Emelianenko.  He's such a gentleman, such a modest and understated man, always praising his opponent even if the opponent has said unkind things about him.  I also like that his physique is that of a normal man, not a superman.  He doesn't have a six pack.  In fact, he has a little extra weight around the middle, and I call him The Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Since Fedor has never really been beaten, I think he has earned the right to be called the best pound for pound fighter in the world today, until someone beats him.  He has a loss on his record, but that was from a cut resulting from an illegal strike, and had it not been a tournament, he would have been given a disqualification victory.  Since he couldn't continue in the tournament with that cut, the other fighter was declared the winner and allowed to continue.  Fedor later defeated the only man who ever got a "win" over him. 

Compare that record to the others who are being called the greatest pound for pound in the world.  They have all lost big time.  B.J. Penn, Anderson Spider Silva, and Georges St. Pierre all have clear losses on their records.  When GSP was recently asked who the greatest P4P is, he said it is Fedor.

New Yorkers are sad to say goodbye to their much-loved Yankee Stadium. What would you miss most from your home town if it were torn down?

I'd miss my house.  It would get pretty cold in the winter if my house was torn down.  Not to mention rain and snow.  Plus, my bed is in my house, and I'd miss that.  And the kitchen and refrigerator are in my house as well, so there's something else to consider.  And what about the bathroom?