The Judo Crusader got a couple of emails yesterday and although he is reluctant to reply to the type of email that he got yesterday – it’s time the the world knows and understands this.

The truth of the matter is this. A 6 minute Freestyle or Greco Roman match or a 5 minutes Judo match is more taxing than 3 five minute rounds of Mixed Martial Arts. It’s harder – plain and simple.  And if you don’t believe The Crusader, then ask Maurice Smith which is harder, MMA or Professional Kickboxing. 

I met Mo Smith at Disneyland a couple of years back and he said the same thing, Mike Van Arsdale said the same thing and if you have the opportunity to ask Randy Couture how he’d do on the World Stage in a Greco-Roman match, I’m sure his answer would shock you.  Ask Karo Parisyan what would happen to him by minute 3 if he lined up at the Judo World Championships.  I’ll tell you what would happen. His lung would come up through his esophagus.

I’ve rolled on the mat with the best in the world and nothing has compared to a 5 minute round with Jimmy Pedro or a session with Kosei Inoue. NOTHING!!!! And I’ve seen the training regimens of some of the best athletes in the world. As a matter of fact, I spoke with Coach Ferguson (see blog roll to the right to visit Coach Ferguson) yesterday (what an @sshole) and he told me the some of the best conditioned athletes that he’s ever seen were soccer players, judo players, wrestlers and some marines. He said he considered marines athletes too. I didn’t ask him why because I didn’t want to hear him run his mouth.

But that’s neither here nor there. I believe that as the sport of MMA becomes more and more popular, it will cause more athletes to look at the sport with some type of opportunity for development. Right now, if you’re a grappler, the upper echelon of your sport is the Brazilian Jiujitsu World Championships, the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championships, UFC, and Pride, for the most part.
And I’ve talked with people like Ruslan Mashurenko (through a translater of course) and he said that he barely trained for Abu Dhabi when he went. I could understand that because when I talked to Rhadi, he said that he barely trained either. And I know what they mean when they sare barely. People don’t understand that Judo athletes and wrestling athletes – that have the Olympic and World Championships to look forward to, DO NOT TRAIN for Abu Dhabi and these other tournaments like they do for the Olympics of the Worlds. This other stuff is “on the side” cross traning opportunities or just fun stuff. 

The Judo Crusader’s friend, Celita Schutz, who just won the Abu Dhabi trials and beat a BJJ world champion, competed because there’s money opportunities. After she won she said, “Boy! I better get in shape!”

The mindset is just different and until people step out there in different areas of sport – they really can’t speak with the legitimacy of the Judo Crusader. I’ve flown around the world and have seen it all (well most of it – I’ve never been to Amsterdam)