Gameness Blog

It’s Christmas eve and I just got done eating with my family. It was the most quiet Christmas I’ve ever had. My brother and his wife and kids are in Florida with her family and my grandmother died in April. That made for 5 less at the table this year and it didn’t really seem like Christmas.

I took a week off and went to Costa Rica for a week after the fights for some R&R. I had some friends fly out from California including my good buddy and jiu-jitsu inovator Eddie Bravo. I’ve known Eddie since 2000 and am very proud of all he has accomplished.(including tapping out Royler Gracie) If you haven’t read any of his books or watched his dvd’s check them out at http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=24623

I’m sure there are other places you can get it but budo video’s is a Gameness affiliate and was easy for me to find.

There was an article in the Nashville scene last week about the fights on December 11th. It was a good article and gave a good depiction of the night. It even compared our fights to other fights that have gone on in Nashville. I kind of felt bad…

I’ve stated very clearly that I think the level of MMA that I’ve seen go on in the state is horrible. I think the level of fights that have gone on in Nashville are bad. That said I don’t want to take anything away from the guys that are training hard to participate in these events. I think there are some fighters with potential to be good. They just need the right training and realistic guidance as to what there level really is. I do hope that whoever is matchmaking these events puts them with someone that is also training hard and can showcase there actual skill.

I’ve had a couple guys call in that have been at other shows and went to ours that want to start training. I want to give an open invite to anyone who is fighting in the area to come out and train at our gym. We have a ton of guys that compete in every sport of MMA i.e. boxing, muay thai, wrestling and bjj, and of course also guys that compete in MMA. We also have fighters that stop by on a regular basis to train from all over the country including multiple pride and UFC  veterans.  If you want to come in and focus on strengthening any of your weaknesses don’t be shy and I can promise you we’ll be glad to help.

There are some good photo’s of the event at www.combatlifestyle.com My friend Tracy Lee flew in to cover the event and got some good shots. Also my friend RARA did a blog at www.missrara.com

Hope all is well and Merry Christmas!

Ed

We went 7-3 last night which wasn’t bad considering the fight card. I think the Gameness Fighting Championships pretty much set the bar for what an MMA event should be in Nashville.

For MMA in Nashville nothing has come close to last night and considering it was snowing I was really surprised at the turn out. I actually couldn’t have asked for a better night. The place was packed, the fighters were skilled and evenly matched and the event was run professionally.

I don’t know the exact numbers but they said we had 217 tickets left up front. That mean there were about 2000 people there. It was awesome. I’m really proud of all of my fighters. Even the ones that lost showed a lot of heart.

I had a reality show that was shooting me all day and it was a crazy day to say the least. Glad it’s over and glad it all happened.

Peace!

As you are probably well aware mma in now legal in TN. There’s still questions with the pros, but amature MMA is legal and rolling.

There’s already been a few events in TN and from what I’ve seen it’s been a total embarrassment for the sport. The level of fighters that are fighting on these cards is flat out horrible. I understand there are people out there that want to make a few dollars on mma events, but what they seem to fail to realize is that fans won’t go back to bad shows! There’s even been cards where no fighters have got out of the first round! Talk about a joke!

I had an event a few years ago where my guys fought in St. Louis. We had 5 guys fight and all my fighters beat there opponents in under 6 minutes combined. Some could say that we did something great, but the truth is the level of competition sucked and when fighters from Nashville MMA fight against an untrained average am fighter my guys are going to win quick.

We have a fight card on December 11th and I made very clear to the match maker to find good opponents for all of our fighters. I don’t want any cake walks and boring ass fights. Of course I want our guys to win but I refuse to have bad fighters fighting on this card. I don’t think it will take long for people to realize who know’s what they’re doing and who doesn’t.

TTYS,

Ed

Well Brandon lost as I’m sure many of you saw the fight. I was holding the American flag walking him out and I’d forgot the rush of 10,000 fans screaming and cameras all over you.

I was a little depressed after the fight and didn’t feel like writing about it. I’m over it now and it’s back to the drawing board.

We’re holding MMA fights on December 11th and should have over 12 guys from our gym fighting. The response that we have got for our event has been huge, Because the Gameness name is so big, fighters from all over the world wanted to come fight in our first event. We’ll be having them every 6 weeks and we’re trying to highlight the local talent before we grow too big. We’re pretty much limiting the first one to local fighters from my school and two of my satelite schools in Murfreesboro against guy from within 500 miles. In the future I think we’ll be able to have all pro shows and swap back and forth with am shows.

We actually had some idiot try to get a coalition against our event thinking that somehow these loser TMA schools could effect our events. Everyone and their brother is trying to do mma events now and it’s something of comedy. I’m now getting offers from other legitimate events asking if there champions can feed into our shows. The people that have been in the sport and have been around real MMA know that we’re the only promotion that can actually put on and sustain good fights in the middle TN area. It’s going to be sad to see such a low level of MMA but I’m confident they’ll get bored with it and want to see real fights.

Fact is my bad ams will beat there best fighters.

Talk to you soon.

Ed

I’m in England now and am getting ready to go to bed. Today we got up at about noon and went and got a bunch of stuff we needed. The plugs are different here so we had to buy new adaptors to plug in our computes and phone chargers. I forgot my camera so I bought a new digital one. I thought I got a good deal and then realized that it didn’t come with a rechargable battery, just double a’s… It went dead afer just a few pics.

Brandon looked good today. We trained at Braulio Escrima’s school and they were cool. Braulio was in the states but his guys let us train. The new Thai pads help a lot, although but he still kicks hard as hell. After training we went and bought some dvd’s for the apartment and then I had my radio show to do. It was 8 here and 2 in Nashville…

Tomorrow is much of the same. The coffee here is really fresh so I’m looking forward to that! I’ll write again soon…

Ed

I’m waiting for my flight to leave at the Dublin airport. I’m flying to England early with Brandon so I’m gonna be away for a while. The flight over was good as I was able to work, un distracted and got a lot done.

I’m not really sure what the schedule will be today, but I know we’ve got to get on a sleep schedule. I haven’t slept in over 24 hours and I want to make sure I don’t get sick again. I have hand sanitizer that I’m constantly using so hopefully that helps.

I bought new Thai pads for the trip. Last time I held for Brandon, unknowing to him or anyone else, he ripped my shoulder pretty good. I have a torn rotators cuff and I felt something in it rip. I have some thicker pads that should help with the impact.

I can’t really explain how hard he kicks. I’ve held for heavyweight pro dutch Thai fighters, other pro Thai fighters and UFC veterans and no one comes close to kicking like Brandon. It’s very tricky because he switches stances and fights orthodox and south paw. Quite frankly, it’s dangerous as hell and if I make one mistake I can get severely injured. I enjoy the challenge though and after the first day I should have his timing down and vice versa and we should be fine. It’s just been a while for us…

The Ireland airport is pretty cool. Lot’s of shopping and it’s obvious the fashion is much different here. The people are nice. I wish I could stay and take in a bit more of the culture.

I’ll write again when I get to England.

Ed

I got back from Brandons training camp and I was exhausted. I normally work late so my sleep schedule was all out of whack when I suddenly had to be up at 6am. MD is an hour ahead of us here in Nashville so I tried to go to bed at 1am eastern. At 3am I was still awake looking at the clock in discust. Some time after that I would go to sleep and the alarm would go off at 5:15am. I think I got about a combined 10 hours sleep the whole week.

I got back to Nashville and immediatly felt like I was getting sick. The next morning I woke up congested, sick with a fever. I was super motivated to get back to work and go out this weekend but the best thing for me to do was stay at home. I’ve been stuck in the house now for 2 days and am still sick, but the fever is down.

I’m hoping I’m well by Monday as I’m itching to train and work! I’ve got a couple new projects I’m working on and I have some guys I’ve got to get ready for some fights. My schedule is going to be pretty busy the next month, but then again it’s always busy. Next weekend I have a recruit coming in to meet with us,I’m flying to Vegas for NAGA October 3rd-5th, possibly going to VA oct. 10-12th for a fight, flying to England October 16th-19th for Brandon’s fight in the UFC, going to a marketing seminar the next weekend and that pretty much wraps up my October.

MMA should be coming to Nashville soon and I can’t wait. There’s gonna be a lot of wanna be promotions popping up. I can’t wait to get this thing going. 3 years of work and patience is finally coming to an end. We’ve been getting slammed with venue’s and offers to hold fights. Finding the right place has been interesting. We’re hiring a very well respected match maker out of Ohio to match the fights. We’re actually going to pay the professionals good money for a change and open sponsorship opportunity’s up to the am’s. We have over 20 fighters at Nashville MMA so we’re going to have to split the shows up. One being pro and some am’s and the other being all am’s.

My good friend and former King of the Cage owner Bud Brutsman was in Nasvhille about a week and a half ago. I talked with him about our gameplan and he thought it was great. Years ago I watched Bud and Terry grow KOTC. They were the first MMA show that I knew that could sustain a profit over a long period of time. He sold out a couple years ago, for a nice pay day… Bud’s also a T.V. producer and was in Nashville shooting a pilot. He promised to come out to the first event so I’m going to hold him to it!

Gonna try to get some rest now.

Peace!

Ed

Brandon is looking good. We’re a little over 4 weeks out and this is the hardest part of his training. We had 3 training sessions today, with the first starting at 8:30 am. I had lunch with him and he’s positive and focused. We normally don’t talk too much about his training and fights but for some reason we did today. He’s mentally sound and looking very strong.

I’d write more, but I’ve got to be up at 5:30 am for the 6:00 am training session… sounds crazy but that’s what it takes to be a champion!

Ed

I’m in MD until Thursday. I have a meeting tomorrow and then I’ll be off to Brandon Vera’s training camp. I flew down a day early to watch Rhadi Fergusan give a presentation on training.  It wasn’t one of those train smart and don’t push yourself too hard speeches. It was a suck it up, train like a madman, stop making excuses type deal.

Rhadi was a 2004 Olympian in Judo and is one of the top strength and conditioning coaches in the world. I met him 7 years ago after seeing him compete in the pro-am of grappling. He was a beast and brought an incredible intensity to competition. Just 3 years later, he made the U.S. Olympic team in Judo and about that time I joined team Lloyd Irvin. His training sessions with Lloyd were legendary and he pushed the limits beyond what the body is supposed to do.

Training like that is NOT for everyone. It’s actually not for the majority of people. Training like Rhadi is talking about is for champions only. If you want to to be a champion, you have to make sacrifices that most people would never dream of. You have to push your body harder than you ever thought you could and then push it harder again. I’m going to try to bring Rhadi to Nashville to give the same presentation. For more information on Rhadi go to www.rhadi.com

I’ll be updating the blog this week and tell you how the training is going.

Ed

Just a few short years ago I started Nashville MMA at 100 Oaks mall. We had just over 2200 square feet, an old boxing ring that made horrible squeaking noises, and a small mat area to train jiu-jitsu. Since we started over 6 years ago, we have grown to one of the largest MMA gyms in the country with a 20,000 square foot facility, two boxing rings, tons of mat space, and a full size MMA cage. We have trained fighters at every level and are the only gym in Nashville who has sent someone to the UFC.(and we started with him from scratch)

It’s hard to say the exact number of students we have, but I can tell you that in the last 3 years we have signed up over 700 students. The growth of Nashville MMA has been noted in various media outlets and for the third straight year have been given the award of a TN fast 50 company.

Our success at Nashville MMA is no accident. Our instructors are highly decorated competitors and our staff is kind, friendly and helpful. If you are thinking about joining a martial arts gym, make sure you give us a call and see for yourself why so many people in the middle TN have chosen Nashville MMA to train. Call 615-297-4430 and ask for Ray or Jamie. They’ll be happy to answer any question you have and schedule you in for a private, one on one lesson.

I hope to see you soon!

Ed Clay