Features
23/05/09 - The Art of War
It's 16 degrees and a fair amount of traffic on the road. All you can think about is being late, not getting there on time and what lies ahead - and that's on the way to the airport.
The notorious Manchester weather decided to spare us on the day we travel to China on behalf of Fighters Only Magazine and as guests of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. An avid MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and representative of up and coming Chinese MMA promotion; Art Of War China, has arranged for representatives from each leading MMA publication to fly out and report on 'Art of War 12: Invincible'.
The Beijing-based promotion relies heavily on Far Eastern competitors and AOW 12 has especially impressed us up to now. Politeness, professionalism and dead accurate timescales go hand in hand as the Art Of War organisers strive to get everything perfect, right down to the smallest details. Everything runs like clockwork here and Art of War, despite having just 11 previous shows to its name, has a real big show feel to it.
Moving onto the actual show itself; the format is very similar to Pride Fighting Championship with one added bonus: elbow strikes are legal, whether standing or grounded. The same soccer kicks, yellow cards and round times are used. Fighters are to be penalised a percentage of their purse for either missing weight, illegal techniques or 'stalling' the action. Simple fact: there must be action, if you shy away from the action - you must pay, literally.
The round format is almost identical. A 10 minute opening round and 5 minute second round, albeit it with a 2 minute rest period in between rounds (as opposed to Pride's 1). The referees are world renowned with Big John McArthy and Yuji Shamada joining Hong Kong-based, seasoned BJJ referee and BJJ brown belt, Thomas Fan.
With Rolles Gracie fighting on the card, the influx of Gracies popping up at the hotel is unreal. Living legends Rickson and Royce are due to make appearances to support their younger family member as well as Renzo and Royler. With MMA fighters Damien Maia, Tim Sylvia, Farbricio Werdum, Joachim Hansen also attending, the event is attracting some real high profile names.
AOW is the only licensed MMA event in China and screens to millions of viewers on domestic networks. But it has bigger plans. Everyone in the hotel has been referring to it as the 'Chinese PRIDE' for the last few days, including veteran commentators Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros.
Sun Tzu famously wrote that the Art of War is deception. But Andy and Konrad Pi, the promoters behind this show, have rewritten the rules for 2009. For them, the Art of War is to make sure everyone is watching. The number of star names floating around is testament to the pull this fledgling show has and if they can find themselves their own Chuck Liddell or Kazushi Sakuraba, they will be well on their way to being the Chinese PRIDE and the pride of China.
Stephen Li
Art of War 12 Fight Card:
–Wu Hao Tian (72 kg/158.7 lbs) vs. Yutaka Kobayashi (71.8 kg/158.3 lbs)
–Rolles Gracie (113 kg/249.1 lbs) vs. Baga Agaev (104 kg/229.3 lbs)
–Dai Shuang Hai (70.7 kg/155.9 lbs) vs. Atsuhiro Tsuboi (71.7 kg/158.1 lbs)
–Malik Arash Mawlayi (72.2 kg/159.2 lbs) vs. Fransino Tirta (71.6 kg/157.9 lbs)
–Ning Guang You (65.9 kg/145.3 lbs) vs. Sirojiddin Uzakbaev (64.7 kg/142.6 lbs)
–Ole Baguio Laursen (72.4 kg/159.6 lbs) vs. Shawn David (71.8 kg/158.3 lbs)
–Kelvin Fitial (112 kg/246.9 lbs) vs. Kanechika Koji (110 kg/242.5 lbs)
–Xue Guo Bin (72 kg/158.7 lbs) vs. Marko Huusansaari (72 kg/158.7 lbs)
–Chris Bostick (89.7 kg/197.8 lbs) vs. Kim Ho Jin (87 kg/191.8 lbs)
–Wang Sai (78 kg/172 lbs) vs. Kim Whi Gyu (78.5 kg/173.1 lbs)
–Justin Holdaas (77.9 kg/171.7 lbs) vs. Lee Hyeung Seok (78 kg/172 lbs)
–Yao Qiang (71.6 kg/157.9 lbs) vs. Nemat Bobomukhamedov (78 kg/172 lbs)
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