Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Renzo & Serra-The Teacher/Student Relationship in Modern MMA!

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On March 27th, Georges St. Pierre, arguably the best P4P fighter on the planet, is defending his WW strap against Dan Hardy at UFC 111 in New Jersey. While the fight itself has some enticing technical scenarios, there is another aspect to this match-up that really intrigues me. Its the fact that St. Pierre is being trained by Renzo Gracie and Hardy is being trained by Matt Serra. Gracie is Serra's longtime teacher.

GSP has periodically trained at Gracie's academy for the last 7 years, and has made training at Renzo's school in New York City a big part of his camp for this fight. Hardy, on the other hand, has recently been working with Matt Serra. Matt is one of Renzo's top students, and the last fighter to beat GSP. Serra didn't just beat GSP, he humiliated him, forcing him to tap from strikes. Let me repeat, he TAPPED from strikes! Basically, he quit and cried for mercy.

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Tapping from strikes is a very rare occurence in MMA. Prior to GSP committing that cardinal sin, the last time I remember that happening was when Remco Pardoel committed a similar sacrilege against Marco "the King of the Streets" Ruas way back at UFC 6. That was in September of 1995. For those with issues doing math, that was over 14 years ago!!! 

In April of 2008, GSP fully redeemed himself by dominating Serra in their rematch at UFC 83 in Montreal. No one is questioning who the better fighter is between GSP and Serra. Georges undoubtedly is. Nor am I questioning GSP's heart. He got caught, was badly hurt and reacted. It happens. But did that fateful night at UFC 69 leave a lasting impression in GSP's head? Will knowing that Hardy is training with Serra, the only fighter in the last 5 years to solve the riddle that is GSP's dominance, have an impact on his psyche? I think it might!

Now back to the main topic of this blog. Anyone who has ever trained in martial arts understands the unique relationship between a teacher and student. The student ALWAYS has to show the utmost respect to his teacher and very rarely will a student compete against his instructor/sensei. This raises the question; are Renzo and Matt competing against each other by training opposing fighters in such a high-level fight? I would have to say they are. Will that have an impact on their teacher/student relationship? To some degree, it has to.

Even though Georges has been training at Renzo's academy for the last 7 years, he has never actually trained with Renzo himself until now. He's always worked with John Danaher, one of the very qualified instructors who teaches at Renzo's school, and also one of his earliest American blackbelts. Danaher also assisted Renzo in the writing of his first book on BJJ, earning a co-writer credit in the process. Since Renzo is training for his upcoming fight with Matt Hughes at UFC 112, the first to be held in Abu Dhabi, it makes perfect sense for these guys to train and roll together. I'm sure both guys are learning from each other and greatly benefitting from the experience. Renzo gets to roll with GSP and prep for Hughes' wrestling, while GSP gets to sharpen up his BJJ skills and learn from a true legend in the game. I still remember the first time I saw Renzo fight in the now long defunct World Combat Championship. Renzo stepped on Ben Spijkers neck after ckoking him out. Renzo has always been a respectful fighter but on that day Spijkers deserved it. He pulled some disresectful BS during the day prior to the fight that justifiably pissed Renzo off. I've been a big fan ever since. His intensity was palpable!

In public, and in interviews, Gracie and Serra can say whatever they want, but their relationship has to be somewhat strained by this. I wouldn't say its damaged, but I think it has to be strained. Money must be a factor. Given how huge the UFC has become, the "$$$nake" has to have reared it's ugly head. Is there too much money at stake to uphold "old school" martial arts traditions? That depends on who you ask. Then again, this whole scenario might just be the creation of the producers of UFC Primetime on Spike TV. Their job is to create drama, and this situation certainly does that. Mission accomplished!

I am not questioning the actions of any of the people involved, as I have IMMENSE respect for all of them. I'm just making observations. The pertinent questions are; What is real? What is fabricated for TV? And what role does money and television exposure play in all of this? Everyone does what they have to do to put food on their family's table. You can't fault a man for that.

Only those intimately involved can answer those questions, but without a doubt, we are being treated to some great TV, and hopefully we get a great fight as well. On paper, GSP walks through Hardy as easy as a Sunday stroll, but the fight still has to happen. We all thought the same thing before the first fight with Serra and look how that turned out. After seeing the first 2 episodes of Primetime, I'm starting to think Hardy will be a much tougher opponent for GSP than most are giving him credit for. This should be a very competitive fight.   

The irony in this situation is that I don't expect to see much BJJ being used in this fight. We have 2 world class BJJ instructors involved on the training side, but we'll potentially see little or no jits on display in this match. Hardy's best chance at victory is standing and banging, while GSP will most likely use his patented formula of wrestling, TDs and GnP. If we do see any jits, it will be by GSP, probably an RNC after Hardy gives up his back due to eating too many elbows. I hope I'm wrong  about this and we get treated to a technical jiu-jitsu match, but I just don't see that happening. As fans of MMA and BJJ, we should only be so lucky!

Just to add, its great to see New York City playing such a pivitol role in GSP's training regimen. Besides spending a significant amount of time at Renzo's academy, GSP trains muay thai with notorious instructor Kru Phil Nurse at Lugsitnarong Thai Boxing Gym in Chinatown, NYC.

http://www.budo-mma-nyc.com/

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