Beat the Streets Rumble on the Rails stops at Grand Central Terminal in New York City Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Iran and Russia traveled across seas to compete with the United States freestyle wrestling team at the Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal. The competition will be held adjacent to the annual Beat the Streets Awards Gala, following wrestling at the Bryant Park Grill. Obe Blanc earned the honors of being invited to wrestle at the event for the United States.

In a Jiu-Jitsu match, it can end in the blink of an eye.  When two extremely talented grapplers are waging war in the human game of chess, all it takes is one brief opening for one man to make a move and end the match, even if it had just started.

This analysis was on full display when I recently watched Davi Ramos match up against Team Renzo Gracie member, Warren Stout.  It was The Ultimate Absolute in New York City and as I mentioned in the opening statement, all it took was one little opening.

The Southwest's largest grappling and brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament is just days away. Southwest Grapplefest 9 is this Saturday, May 4th at Cleveland High School in
Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Competitors still have time to register online, up until Thursday May 2nd 5:00pm, at www.combatsportsclub.com. For those last minute folks late registration is available at weigh-ins Friday night and Saturday morning. Spectator tickets are available online or at the door. Weigh-ins are Friday May 3rd from 5-8:00pm or Saturday morning 8-9:00am both at the venue.

Come see the excitement of submission fighting live, eight matches at a time all day long starting at 10:00

Twenty-Four Seven Entertainment presents “Enemy of the State” this Friday night, at Ector County Coliseum in Odessa, TX; an evening of professional MMA featuring fighters from around Texas.

Shark Fights veteran Jarret Jones (6-6 of West Texas MMA) will face Mitchell Hale (6-4 of Future Fitness Fight Team) as the main event, with a match between another SF veteran, Anselmo Luis Luna (7-3 of Jackson’s MMA) against Damon Jackson (4-0, Bellator and KOTC fighter) as the co-main. Also on the main card is a title contention between Sherdog Prospect Ricky McCall (4-0 of Bushido MMA) against Neal Ewing (3-0, Dallas, TX), and another 11 matches featuring local fighters, sure to please the hometown crowd.

The NCAA Division One Wrestling National Championships at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, continues to prove each round is worth the price of admission. The tournament is a three day event starting Thursday March 21 and ending Saturday night March 23.

Each match is a must see event experience that only your own eyes can bring to life. Here is a little taste we captured throughout the NCAA tournament.

World champion BJJ black belt, Professor Rafael “Barata” de Freitas (5-0, Gracie-Barra New Mexico) will be making his Legacy debut this Saturday, March 1, at the Arena Theatre in Houston, TX, and broadcast live on AXS TV. Freitas is slated to face Chuck Liddell teammate, 12-year-veteran, and former WEC fighter Antonio Banuelos (20-9, The Pit) on the main card. We met up with the Professor after he finished working out with long-time friend, UFC fighter Diego Brandao, at the east side Albuquerque location of GBNM.

24/7 Entertainment brought amateur MMA to Midland in a big way, this past Saturday, Feb., 16, at Midland’s Horse Show Arena. The show, 'No Remorse' featured 13 amateur MMA fights, and filled the floor of the arena, with more than half of the fighters making their ring debut; the card displayed talent from around West Texas and New Mexico. The evening’s main event saw West Texas MMA’s Jonathen Nieto (3-1) against Ferocity’s Alec Williams (2-0) at 155-lbs. There were three nearly identical rounds of brief standup exchange followed by takedowns for Williams, and Nieto’s frustrated attempts to escape dominant position by the Williams, whose wrestling was evidently superior, but who could not seem to lock in a submission. Williams won the fight by unanimous decision, but the main event was far from the most exciting fight of the evening.

In wrestling you hear the phrase “work smarter, not harder”, meaning to complete skills with fundamentally sound technique. A wrestler whom completes moves fundamentally sound will be able to accomplish more, and finish opponents quicker using less energy.

One particular skill that tends to be commonly used where wrestlers seem to struggle when finishing off foes is the cradle. Cradles are a very effective wrestling technique that often only produces near-fall points. When done properly a cradle is an extremely tough move to escape from, and leads to pin-falls ending the match.

After five years hosting successful grappling tournaments, New Mexico based Combat Sports Club presented their first event of 2013, a first ever jiu-jitsu tournament for the “City of Crosses.”

Picacho Middle School was the site of this inaugural combat sports event. More than one hundred Las Cruces area grapplers showed skill and sportsmanship alongside athletes from Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Amarillo, Tucson, Lubbock, Santa Fe, and more.

Perhaps the biggest presence was from El Paso, with eleven teams and many independent grapplers who competed. All told over three hundred competitors attended; the result was a competitive well run tournament that left everyone asking: When’s the next one?

"Enough is enough!", Arlene Sanchez-Vaughn, head Striking Coach at FITNHB, and co-owner (along with her husband, Tom Vaughn, head coach at FITNHB as well as Power MMA in Gilbert, AZ) has made a radical decision.

After seeing story after story in the news - not only in the United States, but around the world – about the many ways in which women are victimized, she decided she had to do something about it, as much as is in her power. Therefore, from now on, FITNHB will no longer charge any female any fees.

This applies not only to fighters, but to anyone who wants to train at all; whether for fitness, fighting, fun or most importantly, self-confidence. "We want to empower women, help them grow."