I just got back from Edmonton, Alberta where I was commentating the first event of the Elaine McCarthy’s Let’s Get it on MMA series. The event took place on Friday night and was broadcast live on a very cool website called www.gofightlive.tv.

I’ve commentated at several MMA shows before but this was different right from the start. First of was the impressive fact that that the entire show was being broadcast live, which instantly put extra pressure on us commentators to perform well. There would be no second takes, no chances to go back and try things again if a mistake made. I felt nervously excited as fight time approached.

Secondly, everyone involved in this show was extremely professional and talented with a ton of experience in the fields of MMA, video production, audio and lighting and all of the other things — you wouldn’t believe how much is happening at once — that go on behind the scenes to provide us fight fans with high quality mixed martial arts entertainment. The talent that the LGIO team has really forces you to bring your best to the table.

The Ring Announcer, Ray Flores, has got some serious skills and was a really cool guy. When we were at the after party he announced my name, weight and height for me as if I was set to fight in the cage. It was awesome! Look for him to do some big things in the game.

I was very lucky to have a great partner for the commentating gig, radio personality and former MMA fighter JT McCarthy. He did the play by play while I added some colour to it all with breakdowns of technique, concepts and strategies. JT is the man! He unbelievably went through his lengthy live intro piece, lights blasting in his face, without a cue card or teleprompter and nailed the entire thing. It was crazy!

Just watching him doing his thing before, during and after the show helped me a lot. I’m really looking forward to working with him again on the next show in the series.

The fight card ended up being full of action with a few nice knockouts, a wicked neck crank submission and some close battles all taking place in front of a packed house.

The next LGIO MMA show is set for May 21^st and I believe the one we were just at will air very soon on CHCH television.

I’ll post more info soon…

I recently did a screen test for the upcoming Canadian MMA Promotion called “Lets Get It on MMA!” in the hopes of landing a spot as one of the event commentators.

I got it!

This exciting MMA promotion is going to be awesome!

It’s using a tournament style format with the fighters that win their bouts on each card –which are being held every month —  advancing to the next round of competition. The champion in both the welterweight and lightweight brackets will be decided inside the cage during the finals in December.

I’m heading out this week to work at the promotions first event which is being held in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday April 23, 2010.

It’s going to be a great night of fights!

For more info on this event and the promotion visit www.letsgetitonmma.com

Here is a video of the last time that I competed in karate style tournament (nearly 15 years ago). This was my weapons routine, using the bo staff. This video was taken at the world championships in Washington, DC.

I used to practice the bo so much! A few months after this competition I decided to focus solely on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA after I ended up taking a guy down into the mount position during a karate match. He was trying to take my head off and acting crazy so I tripped him to the floor. As soon as I had the mount he started screaming “Get him off me!”. The referees pulled me off him before I could sink a choke in .

(The first few seconds has two heavyweights sparring)

I recently had the opportunity to appear as a guest on hardcore sports radio with UFC legend Royce Gracie. We went on a day after Royce taught a great seminar at my martial arts school. The interview was broadcast on TV (The Score) later that same day.

Here’s the Audio.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Be sure to check out the Morency show HERE. Those guys are awesome and are always interviewing some huge names in sports!

These videos show some of my final workouts before I travelled to Quebec to fight for the Apex welterweight world title against Nuri Shakir. This was the fight before I got the call to fight Josh Koscheck in the UFC.

I was dehydrated at the beginning of the video, having already dropped probably 10 pounds in 4 days. I had put the weight back on by the time I was hitting pads in my hotel room the next morning.

TRAINING A FEW DAYS OUT AND THE MORNING OF THE FIGHT

FIGHT TIME!

At the MMA Expo I got a chance to sit down with hosts Jonathan Baldock and Robin Black and be a guest on the No-shit MMA show. Here’s the video.

Here’s a video filmed a few weeks ago during our segment “In the cage” on Y108 radio. I’ll be back on the air this Tuesday (March 10) between 7:30-8am. Ben & Kerry agreed to some cool stuff near the end of this show. Should be fun when we get it all going. Catch this weeks show locally on the radio or over the internet at www.y108.ca.

Here’s an article in today’s Hamilton Spectator.

http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/453927

Here’s a video of one of my UFC Fight Night preparation sparring sessions before my bout with Josh Koscheck. The fight took place on Miramar Air Station and was shown live on Spike TV.