My Martial Arts journey started in 1996. Although I didn’t know it at the time, the experience I had as a kid in Kyokushin Karate would be a tremendous influence on me, and shape me as an adult. I stopped training in Karate in 1999 and didn’t pick up another discipline until 2007, after high school. I started training in Muay Thai and forthwith, and felt an unwavering affection for it. A friend of mine told me about this cool thing called “MMA” in 2006. At the time I had never heard of it, and didn’t know such combat sports existed, I only knew of boxing and traditional martial arts contests. Although I didn’t watch any live events then, I saw some highlights of various fighters, one standout being BJ Penn. I sporadically watched PPV events throughout 2007 as my interest steadily developed, but the one that hooked me was BJ Penn flying across the cage to decapitate Sean Sherk at UFC 84, in a brutal attack on Sean’s life. I watched with my mouth agape and as a witness to this violent encounter, could not comprehend the swiftness and viciousness of what I had just seen. In totality I have amassed about 8 years of martial arts training, and I’ve spent the last 16 years of my life completely immersing myself into this unique form of combat, and learning as much as I possibly can. Even when I’m not part of a Martial Arts school, I train at home. I love writing and as a result, I started For The Hardcores. I began my official process in July of 2023 and published the first article that September, but the seeds were sown in 2019 when I started writing in my own personal (private) blog. The idea behind this is to preserve combat history, and share my knowledge and passion for the sport with hardcore and casual fans alike. I also think I bring a unique perspective to fighting and I hope that I can inspire people through writing about Martial Arts, especially since it has given so much to me. Over time this project will evolve and I will take on new topics, and try to broaden the lens through which we view physical combat.
Thanks for the reincarnation @HongKongPhooey ! I need to get better at promoting my shit, thanks for the kick in the ass. I’m actually in the midst of migrating my content to Substack because it seems like a good fit for me. So right now my articles are sort of funky. More incoming
Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!
Follow up shots
Karo was one of my favorite fighters in the day. I wish he fought more
Is Rickson up to 600 wins now? Everytime I check the number grows. I have a feeling after he dies the win rate will slow down a little.
That guy is and was a madman. Sucks he had to deal with so many injuries and psychological shit. Imagine the ceiling on Karo if he trained hard 100 percent of the time
His throwswere the shit. His standup wasnt very good, even for the time. He had power but not great technique.
Honestly I think I read 450 somewhere recently. I was like wasn’t it 400 a few years ago. Rewatching his old Vale Tudo fights he actually had some good standup skills compared to modern Gracie fighters. He even threw low kicks. It’s a shame he was already in his late 30s when NHB was growing, kind of like Ruas and other guys.