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Thailand is known for many things, they have a very rich history and culture. Their form of kickboxing - Muay Thai is absolutely brutal. Fighters from all over the world will go to Thailand to train traditional Muay Thai. It's kind of a right of passage in American kickboxing. So if you ever travel there, be sure to go train and even watch a fight in person. Something interesting about Muay Thai fighters, they smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. Not just in general but while training. It's kind of encouraged even. There was a season of Ultimate Fighter where they brought in an American fighter who had trained in Thailand for years to spar with the shows fighters. He showed up drunk and still kicked all their asses, made it look easy. Muay Thai is big on utilizing your knees and elbows, wrapping people up and fighting in the clinch. Blows from elbows or knees are devastating and often banned by different fight promoters. Muay Thai does not ban these and instead encourages that you use them. So you could say Thai fighters are as tough as they come. They will often start training as young as 5 years old. Muay Thai can be traced back to the 16th century. It was influenced by the martials arts out of both China and India where Thailand sits between. Traditional Muay Thai and Boxing are some of todays most popular sports in Thailand. This culture has honed one of the best fighting styles in the world, for that we at Fight TV are very grateful for Thai fight culture.

The sweet science comes down to much more than just punching power, but to understand boxing on a scientific level punch power is a good way to start. If a boxer wants a win via knockout then they're gonna want to have some heavy hands, some bombers, the haymakers. This can be understood as simply as the equation for force, because the more force behind a punch (with the right accuracy) will achieve a knockout. Force equals mass times acceleration. It's no secret that heavier weight classes punch harder, because they have more mass. That's why you see guys like Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis being the top 2 hardest hitters in UFC. They've actually measured these guys punching power and Francis Ngannou holds the world record for most powerful punch at 129,161 units of force. We measure force in newtons. So to punch harder you need a solid amount of muscle mass. Then you need the technique that comes with it. The speed and ability to throw your body mass into the punch, which is called a "kinetic chain". The average amateur boxer is hitting around 2,500 newtons of force and striking contact with about 300 pounds of force per hit. Ngannou and other heavy hitters are striking at well over 1,000 pounds of force per punch. Your punches are kinetic energy and equal the mass of your body to the fist, multiplied by how fast it's moving between point A (somewhere beside you) to B (someone's face.) That momentum making contact and transferring kinetic energy if your punch. Kick, elbow, headbutt, whatever. Force = Mass X acceleration (punch power) = Fist / Body behind it x Speed from A to B

When choosing what type of grappling style to study or what type of gym to go to, you'll hear all kinds of things. "BJJ is best" or "Sambo beats all the other styles." When in reality, it's all about context. Why do you want to start training? Are you wanting to just pickup some self defense? Are you training for a upcoming fight and know your opponent is mean with ground and pound? These are the variables that will discern what discipline you want to train in. Sambo and BJJ are probably the broadest of the grappling styles, they encompass everything from takedowns to submissions. They teach different things at different ranks like most BJJ white belts don't get to learn heel-hooks while newbies to Sambo are often taught that very early. Regardless both styles give you a very broad introduction and study of grappling. So if you want to just learn general self defense, these are tow good styles to study. 10th Planet Jiujitsu is a no-gi system. Meaning they don't wear the white karate uniform with the belt. Jiujitsu without the gi is give and take. Practicing without a gi lets you move faster and experience a more realistic simulation of an actual fight or encounter on the street. Practicing with a gi however, slows you down to make you more technical while honing your grip strength with thick cloth to grab translating to better holds in wrists and such. 10th Planet is a fun system, many of the worlds best Jiujitsu practitioners hail from 10th planet gyms. Greco Roman Wrestling is ideal for takedowns, and takedown defense. If you want to focus on those two things, or be the type of fighter that opts in for ground n pound versus submissions. This would be a discipline you'd want to study. A good wrestler can maintain dominant position over a grappler and subdue them with strikes, we see it all the time in MMA. so if you're more of a striker than a grappler, Greco Roman Wrestling is the way to go. Your best route as a amateur or pro fighter is to be well rounded and train accordingly for who you fight against, preparing for their strengths/weaknesses. Commit a little time to all of these styles but focus on what's best to prepare for your opponent. If you just want general self defense, find the best camp. I've seen gyms like a ex Hollywood stuntman who teaches all disciplines, but he was a stuntman not an expert in any style. You'd probably rather go to a gym with more experienced instructors in their disciplines for self defense. So it's not always the style but equally the instructor to consider, and be sure to ask how they feel about you cross training. Old school camps don't like that, they want you only training with them. Many of those camps still yield top performing fighters. Newer gyms actually promote cross training and want you to learn as much from others as possible. Just make sure that gyms narrative fits how you want to train as well.

1. Jon Jones Jon Jones is on a 4 win fight streak, has 10 wins via Knockout, 6 wins via submission, and 7 wins via decision. 10 title defenses. A 58% striking accuracy and a 44% takedown accuracy. Averaging 4.3 strikes landed per minute and 1.8 takedowns every 15 minutes. 95% takedown defense rating. His average fight lasts about 15 minutes. 2. Kamaru Usman Kamaru Usman is on a 18 fight win streak. 9 wins via Knockout, 1 win via submission, and 9 wins via decision. 4 title defenses. A 54% striking accuracy and a 47% takedown accuracy. Averaging 4.6 strikes landed per minute and 3.2 takedowns per 15 minutes. 100% takedown defense rating. His average fight lasts about 16 minutes. 3. Israel Adesanya Israel Adesanya has 15 wins via Knockout, 0 wins via submission, and 6 wins via decision. 3 title defenses. 50% striking accuracy landing 3.9 punches every minute. Averaging 0 takedowns every 15 minutes. 82% takedown defense rating. 89% of his striking is from stand up. 52% of his strikes to the head, 17% to the body, and 31% to the legs. 4. Alexander Volkanovski Alexander Volkonovski is on a 19 win fight streak. 11 wins via Knockout, 3 wins via submission, and 7 wins via decision. 56% striking accuracy with 6 strikes landed per minute. 35% takedown accuracy with 2 takedowns per 15 minutes. 70% of his strikes from standup with 57% of those to the head, 11% to the body, and 32% to the legs. 5. Francis Ngannou Francis Ngannou is on a 5 win fight streak. 12 wins via Knockout, 4 wins via submission, and 0 wins by decision. 38% striking accuracy with 2.2 punches landed per minute. 0 takedowns per 15 minutes. 66% of his strikes are from standup while 15% in the clinch and 19% on the ground. 79% of his strikes go to the head with 12% to the body and 9% to the legs.

Fight culture exists around the world but what makes it unique is always the community behind it. Mexico is no stranger to fight culture, holding the second place for countries with most professional champion boxers. I've got friends who compete and competed in the past, I'm consistently told that if you want to fight in Mexico, you better be aware of what you're in for. The Mexican style of boxing known for its ferocious offense, attracts combat athletes from all over the world. The best fighters on the planet travel to Mexico to learn their style of boxing, just like people travel to Thailand for Muay Thai. While Soccer is Mexico's biggest sport, Boxing comes in at number two. Many boxers there play soccer too, which significantly helps their footwork, dexterity, and conditioning. Julio Chavez, Juan Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, and Andy Ruiz jr are just some of the current and prior greatest fighters in the world who come from Mexico. When you see these boxers come out, you see a lot of their flag colors and embodiment of their proud heritage. Mexican boxers are as elite as they come, they prove it every fight too! So if you're an up n coming boxer or fighter who wants to work on their boxing. You need to visit some camps in Mexico. Romanza Gym in Mexico City is world famous, the best fighters in the world are aching to get in there. Ignacio Beristain is in the World Boxing Hall of Fame, and you'll be training with him if you step food into Romanza Gym. Mexico is very well known for it's fighters. So if you step foot over there to train be sure to bring immense respect and humility, or you'll swiftly become humbled regardless. Fight culture there is just as strong as Sambo Wrestling in Russia, Muay Thai in Thailand, Jiujitsu in Brazil or Japan. So if you're going there to fight, you better bring your A game! Fight.TV has lots of love for our Mexican boxers and fighters abroad competing / training there. We often host pro boxing PPV events there. So if you want to see some of this action, tune in with us!

There's no if's, ands, or but's about it - Khabib is the GOAT of modern MMA. This man sells his PPV's without the need for atrocious smack talk and audacious insults, he sells his fights because of how explosively he fights. Khabib doesn't talk trash, until you enter the cage with him. Then it's Khabib standing over his opponent making it rain punches while telling the other dude to just give up! It takes some serious grit to refrain from smack talk and then effortlessly do it during mid fight. If there was one athlete that you want your kids looking up to, It's Khabib Nurmagomedov. The man is incredibly humble. Goes out of his way to take pics with fans like the elderly woman who stood outside of UFC headquarters with a sign requesting him. He travels around the world to help his team members and friends train, he won't even accept payment for it either. Khabib has an immense respect for his family as his mother asked him to refrain from competing after the death of his father. The greatest MMA fighter on the planet, a man rich in wealth and famous friends - still respects and listens to his mom. He had a great relationship with his father, who he anoints much of his success in MMA to. If you haven't seen the video, you can watch a young Khabib wrestle with a bear. You can tell he's been a fighter since birth just about. While he isn't currently competing, the man is still coaching. His prior 5 coached fighters, have all won their bouts. In and outside of the cage, Khabib is a phenom. His fight record is 29-0, he's never lost. Undefeated as a fighter and coach, if there was ever someone you wanted in your corner. Someone you wanted to look up to and emulate, whether you're an athlete or business person or artist. You can find a mentor in Khabib. Some of his quotes that speak magnitudes of his character - "Climb the mountains so you can see the world, not so the world can see you." - "Only the passion for the dreams, courage to pursue them, determination to succeed, turns them into a reality." - "Money and fame doesn't change people, it just shows you who they truly are." Mr. Nurmagomedov, we here at Fight.TV salute you. For your humility, for your respect, and all around presence you bring to this sport we love so much. The world would be a much better place if more folks conducted themselves like you. We know your family, friends, and late father especially are so proud! Thankyou for everything you do.

The Diaz brothers are synonymous with fight culture. They've been here since the earlier days of UFC in 2008 for Nate and 2003 for Nick. They were both fighting professionally before, and kicking ass. Nick was a IFC, Strikeforce, and WEC Welterweight champion, Nate was fighting top contenders in WEC. They were born to a Mexican-American family in Stockton California. They grew up street fighting and carry that mentality along with them into their career. Nate is famous for his sentiment on fighting where he doesn't want it to be about sportsmanship and shaking hands, he wants to wreck shop. The brothers have been doing martial arts since they were kids. They started training Brazilian Jiujitsu under Cesar Gracie, who they both received their blackbelt under. 2008 for Nick and 2012 for Nate. Nate still co-holds the record for UFC bonus awards, and also held the record for most UFC PPV sales at one point. Nicks most monumental fights were those against Robbie Lawler, who while Nick was known as a grappler bested Lawler in striking, shocking everyone. His fight with Frank Shamrock put Strikeforce on the map of promoters who host a mean fight, Nick TKO'ing Shamrock in the second round. Diaz beat BJ Penn by decision and what a wild fight that was, watching two grappling legends beat the shit out of eachother, but Nick won via decision. The brothers are also huge advocates for cannabis, they're entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry owning brands like Game Up Nutrition. They run a gym - the Nick Diaz Academy. They're charitable and care about their community. You can tell by the mural of Nate Diaz in Stockton.

Jiujitsu is a brutal sport, it's often called human chess. Joe Rogan, Russel Brand, and Wiz Khalifa to name some - are just a few people you may heard of who roll. Rolling is sparring in Jiujitsu. When you're at an experienced gym it's going to be full of all belt ranks. Don't let that discourage you from training at new gyms though, because lots of one on one with a blackbelt instructor for standard rough $100 a month is still a killer deal. When you're at an experienced gym though, there's belts of all ranks and the lower rank belts are going to be less graceful in their grappling and more likely to injure you. The blue belts (first rank above white) all have something to prove against the new white belts. Your purple and brown belts will be a little more forgiving but also submit you more quickly. The black belts will take time to teach you stuff while you're rolling. So with that being said, you have a serious scramble fest against other white belts and newer blue belts. They're all going to kick your ass, rub your ears in the matt, and make you sore regardless. Even the other new guy who you best most times, will tap you out. It's a humbling experience really. Your job as a white belt is simply to survive. Try to retain what you learned in the drilling and technique repetition between rolls. While rolling, don't fight armbars to the death. Save that for competition. I was the white belt who would risk losing an arm to get out of an armbar, DON'T BE THAT WHITE BELT. Don't be afraid to tap. Be afraid of injury. Just focus on surviving. In practice you'll slowly learn how to gauge what levels of submissions are dangerous and what range of motions you can still prevent or escape from them. When you first start Jiujitsu, everyone is going to kick your ass. Unless you have serious wrestling and grappling experience, just get ready to have your ass kicked. After awhile, the ass kickings will be less bad. You'll pickup on the body motions that create the space and separation you need to breathe. You'll learn to trap arms and legs, pass guards without using your elbows as ice picks, avoid going for the full mount and find comfort with side control. It's a process, but you'll learn it. Just focus on surviving and keeping your body intact. Nobody is going to judge you for tapping. Instructors will pull you to the side and tell you, that you're going to seriously injure yourself if you take practice too seriously. The people who stay in Jiujitsu are generally fairly humble, forgiving, and helpful. So just survive, learn, and try to have fun with your Jiujitsu family! Breath, take your time, ask all the questions, and pat your rolling partner on the back when they tap you out. Because they just taught you how to avoid it the next time!

1. Experience It's often said that there is no better teacher than experience. This is true especially when it comes to fighting. You can have the best home gym, train at the most expensive camps, and workout all you want but it doesn't come close to having a good sparring partner and mitts person. You really want to be training around people who can kick your ass and teach you why you're getting your ass kicked. You want to have the experience of actually going toe to toe with other people than can fight. Hours on the heavy bag, running for miles, and doing stuff you see in the Rocky movies helps but when it comes to combat sports it's all about the experience points. The greatest fighters of all time like Mike Tyson, BJ Penn, Floyd Mayweather, these dudes are renowned for their work ethic while sparring or practicing. 2. Cardio Next to learning how to fight by fighting, cardio is how you fight longer than the other person. Swinging punches is an easy way to gas yourself out. It's almost like running is easier, if you've ever gone rounds with then people you know. Running long distances, sprints, cardio-kickboxing. These are all solid ways to make sure that if you ever do compete or need to defend yourself, that you can go the distance and remain full of energy while your opponent is gasping for air. Fighters with great cardio who you see never setting the pace and never losing tempo are Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Urijah Faber. These dudes are well known for relentlessly chasing down their opponents and never ceasing making it rain punches/kicks because their conditioning is that serious. 3. Footwork Footwork is super important. It borderline is already picked up with #1 as experience but, footwork deserves it's own niched training outside of sparring or mitts. Agility drills, learning to hit a target regardless of where you step, learning how to pivot and throw your weight in with punches is something that the best display well. Footwork is your base for fighting, your balance, how you set everything up. If you ever want to study good footwork watch Anderson Silva, GSP, and especially Dominick Cruz fight. Dominick Cruz actually has a free footwork program you can find, it's great. 4. Power POWER. When you see people like Francis Ngannou, Kimbo Slice, Brock Lesnar, Dan Henderson, get in there and stone cold slobber knock dudes out in one punch. That's power. It takes not just raw strength but the technique to utilize it. You'll see lots of big strong dudes kind of tense up as they swing, but that limits your power. Physics lesson, force equals mass times acceleration. So the mass of your fist and body behind it, multiplied by how fast it's moving equals its force upon contact. If you pay attention to the bodies entire range of motion, watch Mike Tyson throw one of his famous uppercuts. That uppercut damn near comes from the ground up, he throws his legs, hips, core, and torso into the punch a full body range of motion and effort into one punch. Getting an uppercut, hook, or overhand from a heavy hitter that knows how to utilize their power is absolutely devastating. 5. Focus Fighters like Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones - meditate. There's something about being able to clear your mind and focus, that translates well into being able to control a fight or turn around losing one. Even the legends of combat like Miyamoto Musashi as the most influential samurai ever, Sun Tzu author for The Art of War, and many other famous warriors/tacticians from history liked their peace time to think and plan. Focus is an important part of combat as it's easy to lose your head and start scrambling. Remaining stoic, keeping calm, and approaching a fight with the energy as Anderson Silva against Forrest Griffin. That's really the kind of focus you want to have in a fight and you can work on honing it outside before the fight.

With the rise of the MC-Dojo's turning martial arts into a pay for blackbelt center. Handing out black belts for Jiujitsu to kids. Even Gracie gyms online program that rewards belts for sending them videos of you reciting techniques and doesn't require the extensive periods of rolling sessions that develop real experience. We feel like combat sports is getting watered down. When The Paul brothers first showed up on the map, it felt like another slap in the face to fighters and fight fans everywhere. It used to be that becoming a fighter meant climbing ranks. You started out by doing things like Golden Gloves, Olympic boxing, and you fought your way through the contenders. The Paul brothers have come along and changed this. They got their start on social media making funny and controversial videos. Then went 180 degrees and decided to put in those grueling hours in the gym to compete in combat sports. So these guys aren't really in it for just the money, obviously they have something to prove. I've slowly begun to become Paul brothers fans. You can tell on camera they're boisterous to promote the fights. Off camera they have a genuine love for the sport, and concern for the quality of life combat athletes have. Jake Paul has been consistently calling out Dana White and his unfair treatment of fighters. While many people just accept things like the Reebok deal shunning fighters from their sponsors. Or a gladiator made billionaire telling his gladiators they're "fucking up" his budget. It felt like I was the only one concerned with that issue. So seeing Jake take a stance there was nice. Many fight fans are still on either side of the fence. They love the Paul brothers ability to promote fights and Immediately climb to fighting the champs. They hate the young in their prime Paul brothers for bypassing all the other young hungry boxers, while targeting retiring MMA fighters and dudes who are way past their prime. I am still discouraged by that. If you think about it though, that's the animosity that fuels their PPV sales. That's a calculated move. Build the animosity until everyone wants to see them get KO'd. So here's my stance. If the Paul Brothers continue to grow PPV sales, champion better career conditions for fighters, and eventually fight peers - young hungry dudes in their prime. Then they're helping the sport. If they continue to fight the old heads and challenge MMA fighters to come box, they're soft. Do you think they're hurting or helping the boxing world?

1. Standard heavy bag. Generally comes in weights of 80, 100, and 120 pounders. Although you can get some bags that weigh hundreds of pounds. This is where perfecting your basic boxing starts. Putting in those hours on a heavy-bag. 5 minute rounds with only your left hand, then right hand, then both, then just left jabs, then just right jabs. Your arms feel like spaghetti afterwards. Over time, they can throw more punches without feeling weak. They hit harder, faster, grow more accurate. The standard heavy bag is a must for any boxer. 2. Thai bag, like a heavy bag except longer and lower to the ground so you can practice low kicks. If you're a Muay Thai fighter or kickboxer, a regular heavy bag just won't do. You can't practice leg kicks on a standard heavy bag. Generally Thai bags are more narrow but weigh about the same. You see the bags fold in a lot more as you strike them, so they have less swing. It seems like they absorb shock better, so when it comes to throwing a flurry of strikes in one combo. The Thai bag reigns supreme in practicing your kicks and low/high combos. 3. Double end bag. The good ole double end bag, kind of confusing to use at first but it remains just as fun through training from a noob to experienced fighter. It's a combination of practicing your jabs, crosses, head movement, and counter punches. The bag is about the size of your head and fastened between a ceiling and ground bungee. The bag flies around as you hit it, and comes right at your head. So as you hit it, you have to bob your head out of its way. A must for any striker. 4. Speed bag. That thing you see boxers effortlessly bounce around on a wall mount. That there is a speed bag. It's all in the name, it trains your hand speed. Mostly these bags are all about rhythm, being able to move your hands quickly in a pace that matches the bags bounce. The faster the hand speed, the quicker you can bounce it. The fastest boxers can practically make these bags sing. 5. Teardrop bag. The teardrop bag is about the same size a standard heavy bag, but its shorter, wider, and shaped like a waterdrop. It's ideal with Muay Thai and mastering your knees / elbow strikes. It's also great for uppercuts. There's variation like uppercut bags and wrecking ball bags, which are similar but more orientated for uppercuts and just boxing. Many people say they're all different but I believe these types of bags to all roughly fall under the same category. There's of course other punching bags out there on the market and in the gym, but unless you're getting into the more complex striking equipment like the Bas Rutten's - Body Action System or the Liteboxer Pro. There's really not much difference between bags below the fancy stuff. So as long as your local gym has these 5 bags, it's all about your sparring partners and who is running mitts at your gym.

Jiujitsu originated from Japan. It was the Samurai style of grappling for when combat went to the ground and nobody had weapons. It was and still is a pretty devastating form of self defense that spread around the entire world. Many Japanese migrated to Brazil and there, Brazilian Jiujitsu became a thing. Two cultures that really loved grappling, Brazilians flocked to jiujitsu gyms. It was the Gracie family that brought it into the mainstream U.S with the early days of the UFC. Where you saw these smaller dudes going in and very quickly taking down / tapping out these giant guys when they didn't have weight classes. Some people didn't even think it was real. You know it's real if you've ever had a rolling session in a real Jiujitsu gym. Jiujutsu is a hard-core sport. You pretty much spend your first year just learning how to survive if you have no grappling experience. It puts a lot of stress on your body, but the knowledge of grappling and being able to defend yourself is worth it. So it's just kind of weird how it's evolved today. Much has changed in the sport and what became famous for it's nasty takedowns, is now also synonymous with "butt scooting." Decades ago, a jiujitsu tournament was guaranteed to show you the filthiest throws, slams, and explosive grappling. Today, you pretty much just watch two dudes butt scoot towards each-other and flop their legs around taunting the other person to approach their guard. Until one of them grabs the other guys leg for a heel-hook. Now of course this isn't every match but it's become often enough that its expected and even joked about in the grappling community. What's next for jiujitsu? Will we ever go back to the more brutal days of sweeps and rear naked chokes in every match? Or will the butt scooting evolve into something even more odd?