Thanks to Dave Riddle from Spar Customs (http://www.sparcustoms.com) for putting together the MMA Trifecta, which included the MMA Expo at The Arena, the UFC Viewing Party and the After-Party. Dave put in a ton of work and produced a great event. Thanks to all the vendors and sponsors as well as the attendees. Hope to see you all again the next time the UFC comes intow town!

At 35, Anderson “The Spider” Silva is an absolute MMA powerhouse. He has dominated the Middleweight division of The UFC since he first entered The Octagon in 2006. His MMA training is unquestioned. He has a background in Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu (similar to what our Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu trainers teach at The Arena), and has held many titles including UFC Middleweight Champion, Cage Rage Champion, and others. He remains undefeated since 1/20/2006 and has held the championship belt since 10/20/2006. Silva has faced some of the most talented competitors in his division – and other divisions – and has found no one yet who can match his speed, agility, and lethal knockout power.

But what was once a longtime love affair between Silva and the stunned, amazed, and flabbergasted UFC fan base and executive leaders has quickly soured over the past year into disgust and disinterest. The problems started in April of 2009 during a title defense against Thales Leites at UFC 97. What promised to be an interesting matchup between two skilled MMA artists quickly turned into a pathetic and boring bout where Anderson Silva spent the entire fight refusing to get on the ground with Leites, who spent 5 rounds doing his best impersonation of a crab lying on its back trying to bait Silva to wrestle with him. It didn’t take long for the booing to start, and after the seemingly endless fight was over, most fans proclaimed it the worst fight in MMA history…

A year later, Silva’s fought Demian Maia at UFC 112. The best grappler in the UFC, the thought that Maia was perhaps the only contender to give Silva a run for his money made many fans hopeful. After five rounds Maia hung in there against Silva, but Silva won unanimously. Many fans weren’t too happy about the way the match panned out, due to Silva’s mocking gestures; some fans even left the fight early.

Many fans swore they would never watch him fight again, putting Dana White in the position of needing to defend the sport he has spent his professional career elevating to national fame.

So with the UFC executives against him, the fans against him, and his fellow fighters against him, the question remains: will Anderson Silva reign supreme forever?

The answer is a very definite “no.” Even if he remains unbeaten, he will have to balance his ego with humility to keep his fans, not merely scoff at the contenders put in front of him. Based on the past year, the chances that he will be able to do that are slim. What he demonstrated at his last appearance in The Octagon is that the most serious fight will not come from a challenger but from his own sense of invincibility. And history tells us that inflated ego is usually the first step on the tumble down from grace.

Silva fans out there? What do you think about his past fights and the best contender for his next bout.

The Arena’s fight team continued it’s winning streak on July 3rd. The Arena entered 3 fighters in the Native Fighting Championships and all 3 fighters dominated, each winning in the 1st round. Joe Duartes fought first and won in 90 seconds, followed by Mike Parker who won in 65 seconds, followed by Mike Burlison who KO’d his opponent in 10 seconds.

The Arena Team has been on a roll. Both Chris Cope and Cris “Cyborg” Santos won by TKO’s in 2nd round of their respective Strikeforce fights on June 26th. And before that, The Arena went 3 for 3 at the Native Fighting Championships on 5/29 with Saul Galindo winning by TKO in the 1st, Cosmoe Cala also winning by TKO in the 1st and Kyle Reid winning by TKO in the 2nd.

Additionally, Stephen Abas, Olympic Silver Medalist and Wrestling coach for The Arena won his MMA debut at Tachi Palace on May 5th. KJ Noons won recently as well, in both Dream on 3/22 as well as in Strikeforce on 6/16. And one of The Arena’s boxing coaches, Rich Power, extended his professional boxing record to 11-0 on March 27th.

The Arena hopes to keep its fighters winning as long as they can, as the gym continues to build its fight team and provide its fighters with outstanding coaching and training. Additionally, well-known MMA Manager Jeff Clark is helping guide the careers of many of The Arena’s team members as he gets fighters signed with numerous fight promotions including the UFC, Strikeforce, M1 Global, Dream and Bellator.

Thirty years ago, the sport of the toughest men around the world was, without a doubt, boxing. The myriad Rocky films stand as just a small testament to the powerful grip boxing had as the number one gladiator style sporting event around. Yet within the past decade, another fighting challenge has evolved: mixed martial arts.

Unlike boxing, which is all about striking ability, MMA training combines upper and lower body forms of skill and strategy – including muay thai, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and yes, boxing – into an extreme competition that is a test of endurance, athletic ability, and intelligence.  MMA is dynamic, multi-leveled, and intoxicating. Some say it goes places boxing never can, and yet many others disagree stating boxing combines skill with endurance that many MMA fighters could hardly attempt to match.

The problem that boxing faces is that as MMA has risen in popularity, it has attracted the eyes of the young talent that would, in an earlier generation perhaps, ended up as boxing champs. However, the fact still remains: boxers make millions more per year than MMA fighters ever could. Not only that, fighters like Mayweather and Pacquaio are seen as champions to both younger generations and old. There are many MMA fighters that are respected as well, but are still surpassed in popularity by Mayweather and Pacquaio.

An area that boxing has a leg up compared to MMA involve regulations. More states are willing to allow boxing because it’s a time honored sport. MMA, on the other hand, is not allowed in some states such as New York because of what is falsely perceived to be the brutal nature of the sport. Those state guidelines are changing, but not quickly enough.

Both sports seem equally publicized on cable networks and via pay-per-view. HBO, Spike, Showtime, and even NBC and CBS are getting in on the action with these sports. The two are pitted against one another, and advertisers are equally interested in both.

At the end of the day, it is hard to tell if boxing is truly a dying sport. MMA is no doubt on the rise in popularity as boxing continues to lose some of it’s audience base. But in the end….do we really care? If you’re like us, you are an avid spectator (or fighter) in both sports and have respect for each discipline.

There is no doubt that we are living in an MMA world. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Dana White, Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta, the masterminds behind the multimedia juggernaut that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), MMA has been taken out of the shadows and thrust into the spotlight. Now, MMA gyms are sprouting up around the country, particularly in the Las Vegas and San Diego area. Yet what might surprise the average MMA viewer is that there is a whole other dimension to the sport that has not been flashed around on Spike, Versus, and Pay-Per-View: the feminine element.

MMA has a reputation for being an exclusively male sport. It just makes sense in the minds of most fans: the blood, the toughness, the brute strength of the sport is one hundred percent masculine. How could a woman even begin to compete in a world as savage and intense as this?

Meet Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, who trains at The Arena in San Diego with The Arena Team. Santos has a fierce passion for the sport and incredible power that has led her to victory in nine out of ten fights; seven of those victories came from KO or TKO. She is a fierce fighter in the featherweight division (145 pounds) of the StrikeForce league, and is widely considered to be one of the top 2 pound for pound female fighters in the world.

In her last nine fights, Santos has dominated her competition and proven clearly there is room in this growing sport for female athletes. Though the female leagues have been the focus of derision among male fans over the past decade, fighters like Santos are willing to push the limits of their physicality and the sport. This has resulted in Santos turning into one of the best fighters in the world, male or female.