I had the privilege of interviewing a young and up and coming MMA fighter named Donovan “The Ginger Bread Man” Carboney.  He just had his first amateur MMA bout on Friday June 25, 2010.  This fight ended in 1:00 with Donovan the victor by KO.  The bout was sanctioned by Camo-MMA.  Watch the fight below.

Donovan is a Muay Thai and Submission Wrestling fighter who trains under THE YARD MUAY THAI in DTLA, and GCS in Echo Park.  I asked Donovan a few questions regarding his first fight and his career in MMA.  The interview was very entertaining.  Here is the conversation:

Ben: Is 170lbs the weight class you prefer to stay at?

Donovan: Until I can afford to hire a FT strength and conditioning coach, I figure so. I like the idea of competing at 185. I was 170 lbs at 16 years old, and to be the same weight 12 years later is a little odd for me.

Ben: How long did you train for this fight?

Donovan: I got word of this fight toward the end of April, so roughly about 2 months, I didn’t find out who or what my opponent was about until maybe the final 3 weeks leading up to the match, and didn’t get a CLEAR idea of who he actually was until the day of.

Ben:  How did you feel from the moment you walked to the cage until the fight started?

Donovan: For a second, I was a little worried because my opponent was wearing Daisy Dukes, but otherwise, I was suprisingly calm this time. I seen my opponent and knew right away, I had been working out with and training with much badder dudes than him in practice.

Ben: How did it feel to win your first fight by knockout?

Donovan: Although I think it was stopped a smack or three too early, it felt real good.

Ben: I understand you’ve had a few ameture kickboxing matches before this fight.  Do you see your self staying with full contact MMA matches?

Donovan: No doubt – The kick boxing matches were strictly to gain ring experience, and get comfortable fighting in front of a crowd. I wouldn’t be opposed to competing in another kick boxing match, but my future is in MMA.

Ben: Do you have sponsors yet?

Donovan: No sponsors officially, but I am talking to a couple people interested in working with me.

Ben: What got you interested in becoming a mixed martial arts fighter?

Donovan: I’ve always been attracted to physical competetion – I realized you can’t count on no one but yourself, and gave up on team sports like basketball, couples bad mitton, ETC. I had an epiphany one evening laying in bed. I was sick of office work, I was thru with team sports, and the question I asked myself was, “WHO DO YOU RESPECT?” the only answer I had to that, was UFC fighters.. I never lost a fight growing up (a fair one), and the rest is history. Follow your dreams bro.

Ben: What do you like most about mixed martial arts?

Donovan: I LOVE EVERYTHING about MIXED MARTIAL ARTS… I’ve opened my mind like nothing I have ever done before to soak up every bit of knowledge my trainers in Muy Thai and Submission Wrestling teach me. It’s the ultimate, hands down, undisputed king of competetion. No better bragging rights that to know you can kick HIS FKEN AZZ… I don’t care if my opponent can beat me at UNO (which no one can beat me at UNO, that is just an example), because I CAN KICK YOUR ASS…

Ben: Does your family and friends support what you are doing?

Donovan: Everyone in my family seems to be on board aside from my #1 (my mom), I try not to mention any bit of competing around her… I just call her up to tell her I love her, before and after. I think she knows what i am trying to tell her, which is,  ”I am ok”

She thinks it is barbaric, and wants me in real estate. She is not only worried about me, she suprisingly worries equally as much or even more so for my opponent.

Ben: Wow, that is interesting.  She sounds like she is a sweet women with a good heart.

Donovan: She doesn’t have an understanding quite like I have, about how short life on earth really is. She sheltered me all through my adolecent years, and this is just me now making up for not being allowed to play HS football.

Ben: Is there anything else you would like to say?

Donovan: Yeah! Thank you – I couldn’t have done it without my friend support. I dare not call you fans. You are my friends, and I am utterly shocked at how many people have my back and sacrafice their personal lives to see me succeed. It’s as though I am representing them. It’s tough to explain and describe really. But I truly discovered the reality of how I have touched people by seeing how willingly so many offered themselves, services, knowledge, time, thoughts, discipline, prayers, and healthy well wishes to ensure I wouldn’t be defeated. I love ya’ll mutha fkas!! THANK YOU… I WILL REMEMBER THIS SH*T I PROMISE!!!

Conclusion – The interview was kind of short but very entertaining and I learned a lot.  Donovan is with no doubt focused and I look forward to seeing him develop throughout his MMA career.  He is well rounded and very entertaining to watch.  He brings charisma, determination and class to the cage when he fights.

Donovan also would like to give special thanks to Marlon Canales (Predation T-Shirts) who really went above and beyond to help him get the victory.

Years back when I first started regularly hosting UFC events at my house I got into many discussions with my dad about UFC taking over the spot light boxing has and such.  My dad has always been a big boxing fan and one of this arguments was that boxing is better because you often see guys who go many fights without losing all the way to the top and fight for the title.  He said you don’t see that in the UFC, or in MMA in general.

Well, the time has finally come.  Rashad Evans is set to fight Lyoto Machida for the light heavy weight title on Saturday the 23rd.  This will be the first time in UFC history that 2 undefeated guys will be fighting for a title.

Rashad vs. Machida

Rashad Evans is no doubt a tough dude.  He has shown impressive victories over many good fighters but yet people still don’t seem to have faith in him like they should.  He is an all around dangerous fighter and has proven his skills.  However, Machida is a very unique fighter which so far has proven very difficult for many to overcome.

Machida  seems to overwhelm his opponents with skill and aggression.  He uses throws and Karate moves in the fight which most fighters rarely experience.  He also is very agile and well rounded which makes him pretty much able to handle everything his opponents have to offer.

Rashad will need to be smart and try to get good quality shots if he expects to beat Machida.  I think he can could put Machida away with one good punch or kick but they have to land solid.  Rashad seems to be a good counter fighter and Machida seems to be an aggressive fighter.  I won’t be surprised if Rashad catches him with a nice counter punch to put him away.  If not Machida might just be too much and overwhelm him and beat him up.   I think Rashad will have to beat him standing up and be the better striker.  I don’t if he tries to take him down and beat him it will work.  I say this because both of these fighters fought Tito Ortiz.  Rashad was very well matched up against Tito on the ground but Machida just beat Tito up the whole fight.

Final Verdict

I like Machida a lot so I want him to win, but this fight really could go either way.

Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra

I think this fight might end up more exciting than the main event.  Anytime you have so much tension between fighters it is always exciting.

Matt Serra is a very good jujitsu fighter,  I have watched him in the past show some awesome skills on the ground.  He only recently started focusing more on his standup skills.

Serra’s win over St. Pierre

His win over St. Peirre was very controversial to people but the truth is he punched him in the face and knocked him out.  If you want to call it a lucky punch you can but it really isn’t.  Everyone knows that punches are thrown with intent to hurt and if they land for whatever reason it still counts.  We all know that St. Pierre is a better athlete and everyone really likes him, but he should have been more careful in that fight and he was lucky to have the opportunity to prove he was better.

Matt Hughes is a very tough wrestler and in his early career he was one of the most exciting fighters to watch as he picked up guys and walked around the ring with them, then slammed them.  He has defintely become less effective against the current skill in the 185 lbs. division.  What is interesting to me is that Matt Hughes usually doesn’t have “bad blood” with fighters and is pretty respectful about it.  However, Serra has talked so much trash that he actually has Hughes pissed off.  Hughes says the only way to shut him up is by hitting him in the mouth.  Even his wife says she wants blood.  I like this because it is going to make Matt Hughes very aggressive and we just may see a very exciting fight.  I want the old Hughes back of body slamming dudes.

Final Verdict

I have always been a fan of Hughes so I would like to see him win.  If Hughes tries to standup with Serra he might get knocked out.  If he does what he does best and that is control him, keep him down, and pound him, he should come away with the victory.

I won’t comment on the rest of the fights on the card.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship decided to end this year of 2008 with a grand finale of fights.  Two belts will be at stake tonight.  On one hand we Light Heavy weight Champion Forest Griffon taking on #1 contender Rasha Evans for the Light Heavy Weight Title.  Then we have the two Ultimate Fighter show coaches battling it out for the Heavy Weight Title.

Rashad has shown well rounded and impressive skills against some of the top fighters in the light heavy weight title and should give Forest a run for his money.  although Forest is tough he should play it safe and try to take Rashad down and pound or submit him.  I think Forest has superior ground skills.

For the heavy weight title, if Frank Mir wants to battle it out on the ground The Minotaur, then he better bring his “A” game.  The Minotuar has shown he is tough anyway you fight him.  This will fight should be a long fight if not then a fast knock out by The Minotaur.

The real reason I am interested in this fight is because of the fight between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva.  Wanderlei is my #1 all time favorite fighter of MMA.  He is a brutal standup fighter that has never and will never bring a boring fight to the table.  He has fought Rampage two other times before this fight and both were knockouts of ugly fashion and I am confident that Wanderlei will do it again in this fight.

I also happen to like Rampage as a fighter as well.  He is also an exciting and tough fighter to watch and I have been a fan for awhile.  The problem is, when he faces my favorite fighter I can’t be on his side on this one.  It usually sucks to watch two fighters you like because deep down you want them both to win.  However, not in this case.  I want to see Wanderlei back on top where he belongs.

I don’t want to get into the details of the other fights happening tonight.  You can simply go to the UFC’s homepage to see the card and the weigh-ins.

This will no doubt be an exciting night for fight fans out there and I wish all the fighters the best of lcuk in their up and coming fight.  It takes a lot of sacrifice and courage to step in the octogon or ring for an MMA match and my hat goes off to all these brave souls.

The following two highlight videos you are about to see were taken from YouTube users.  They are an artistic depiction of the renowned MMA fighter, Zakushi Sakuraba.

He is a Japanese submission fighter who brings one of the most exciting and unique fighting styles to the light.  I have always been impressed with this man.

Note:  His nickname is, “The Gracie Hunter.”  Watch these videos maximized, and with the volume up for the full effect.

These are two of most impressive highlight videos I have ever watched.  Props goes out to the creators of these videos.  Make sure to visit their Youtube profiles and comment, etc.

Last night I was hanging out with some friends when I suddenly got a text message from my other friend with “Evan Tanner died.”  I was shocked!

I immediately went online to do some research and different sources said that a body was found in the desert and was believed to be UFC fighter Evan Tanner.

Then a hearty situation turned into a quite time of mourning and disbelief.

I liked Evan Tanner.  I have watched most of his fights in the past and I always liked him.  He was a calm and collective guy but was a very tough fighter.  I remember watching him win the middleweight championship in UFC 51.

I never got the opportunity to meet Evan in person but I am confident he was a great person.  The interesting thing about how he died is that he died in the desert.  My friends and I go out to the desert all the time and this event will make us think twice about safety.

Evan will most definitely be missed.

Good Bye.

Ok, I could have took more time on this picture but you get the point. This was very surprising to me when I first heard about it. It was not surprising that Shamrock took the fight it was just that he would be the next to fight Kimbo.

It’s as simple as this folks. Ken will most definitely get knocked out if he tries to stand with Kimbo. On the other hand if he does what he is good at and takes him down for the submissions we could see Kimbo in trouble.

It really all depends on how Ken reacts in my opinion. I still can’t wait to see this fight though!

Update: Ken was not fit to fight Kimbo due to cut over eye during training.  Then the substitute fighter knocked Kimbo out!!

Well, they are not actually going to fight but they did have a rock, paper scissors match! This video was posted on Wanderlei’s Site.

The champ is here! Well, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Forest Griffen of the UFC is here in California and he did an interview on the KROQ radio station.

They started the interview off by asking him questions about how he broke his left arm during a fight and he replied with,

“It felt like a shock, and I was like, What is this all about? Then I just kept on fighting.”

They went into how he started his career. Kevin asked him how he came to be a MMA fighter and he said he first wanted to be an NBA player but ended up becoming a UFC fighter.
They asked him about the fight with Rampage and what was going through his mind after that punch that hurt him. He said he was making the mistake of ducking his head and when he went back to the corner they told him, “Don’t duck your head!”.

Then Forest told them, “Ya, I kind of figured that out guys.”.

Next Forest talked about the philosophy of live for the moment. Next they told him how he looked like he got angry during the fight but he said he was just frustrated with himself.
Forest talked about his reaction when they announced the winner of the fight. He said they messed with the words when they announced the winner of the fight and he thought he lost.

At this point they took a small commercial break and when they returned they took some callers and asked about Anderson Silva. Forest says Anderson Silva is an an illusive fighter and is good at not getting hit and he should learn from him on how not to get hit.

Next they went into to asking him about the incident with Quinton Jackson and he said he would rather not comment on something that he doesn’t know too much about. He hopes Rampage doesn’t get into too much trouble. They asked what he thinks about Rampage’s truck with the big picture of him on it. Forest said he made fun of Rampage for having the picture and Rampage told him if he got a free truck with your picture on it for FREE would he take it and he said, “yes”.

At this point they took a few callers questions. One guy called in and and asked him about conditioning and he went into detail about his conditioning techniques. One technique of note was when wrestling you should always wrestle with a fresh guy each round. This really improves your conditioning. Forest also mentioned that he has been doing a lot of interviews lately instead of training and he loves it.

Someone called and asked about what he is going to do after MMA. He said he has no other talents so there is no end for him. It’s fight until he can’t anymore. He wants to keep doing it and hopefully make enough money to live off for the rest of his days.

Forest takes 9 showers a day! He says that he wrestles around with a lot of sweaty dudes so he just likes to be clean. He also mentioned putting a small amount of bleach in the shower?! They had a laugh with this and cracked a bunch of jokes.

They ended the interview with a few wishes of good luck and appreciation for doing the interview and that was about it. Most Kevin and Bean interviews are fast paced like that because they are always on a tight schedule.