We're Back With Another LineStar Weekly Knockout!

Written by LineStar contributor, combat sports enthusiast, and practitioner, Chris Guy.

Instagram: @therealsethgeko & Twitter: @DadHallOfFamer

Every year it gets bigger, heavier. The chain longer. The path of defiled earth left in its wake gets deeper, wider. Although imaginary, the limitations imposed aren’t. No scale can weigh its burdens. It’s more often mocked than congratulated. It’s treated not as a measurement of wisdom but as a device used to calculate the ground covered since one’s prime. It’s a numerical value, invisible to the naked eye, hanging over our heads and inescapable by all. It’s cultivation for a growing list of things we can’t do. Things we shouldn’t do. And things we never had the heart to do.

During youth, it’s unimaginable. The greatest fiction ever conceived. An occurrence experienced only by others and never one’s self. Among the rest, it’s feared. And fear is the mind-killer. The ol’ ball and chain. Age. The shackles of life placed upon us by some long-forgotten a-hole.

Patricide; a new bullet point on Glover Teixeira’s resume after slaying Father Time. He shattered the mold, burned the cloth most are built from. At forty-two years old, Glover Teixeira became to oldest first-time UFC Champion ever. Teixeira is proof that age is meaningless to some. Proof that life isn’t a countdown, a race against the clock. Life, much like fighting, is about pace and finding your own.

For many, age is an excuse to quit. For others, it’s a reason to keep going. More often than not, conventional wisdom lacks it. They say: “Dreams come true.” No, they don’t. But that doesn’t mean you should ever stop dreaming. Just never get attached to a single one and let it deter you from chasing another should you fail to reach it. It took Glover Teixeira nearly ten years to get back to a title shot after losing to Jon Jones in 2014. Take a look at him now.

Main Card

Colby Covington (+240 ) vs Kamaru Usman (-310)

Covington: DK: $6.9k | Usman: DK:$9.3k

Back to back numbered UFC’s. Back in the day, all UFC events were numbered. The UFC held one Pay Per View card a month before The Ultimate Fighter was on Spike TV, before Fox Sports Fight Nights, and long before ESPN Plus and Fight Pass cards. UFC 268 will feature a rematch from one of the best welterweight title fights ever seen. I still give Rory McDonald vs. Robbie Lawler the edge, but Colby Covington vs. Kamaru Usman is a close second.

Let's start with the Champ, one of the most dominant Champs in the UFC, Kamaru Usman. I’ve said it before every Usman fight; Kamaru Usman just hits different. I said it before the Burns fight; Kamaru’s striking ain’t pretty. He doesn't have fluid combinations and fancy footwork, but his punches cause more damage than any fighter I’ve seen other than Francis Ngannou. Usman sparks people; they see Fourth of July fireworks when he lands his jab. I said it again before the second Masvidal fight. You can land ten punches to every one Usman punch, but Usman’s one will cause more damage.

Fighters get lured into a false sense of security that they’re winning the stand-up exchanges, and in some cases, they are, but Usman can steal all the momentum real quick. Gilbert Burns had Usman rocked in the opening minutes but couldn’t seal the deal; five minutes later, Herb Dean was waving Burns off after a series of jabs led to his downfall. Anticipating a heavy wrestling game plan, Jorge Masvidal slept on Usman’s boxing, figuratively and literally. In the second round, Masvidal was asleep on his shoulder like he was wearing a neck pillow on a red eye. Masvidal got blasted so hard with an Usman right hand that the super slow-mo replay looked to be in real-time. Every bead of sweat left Masvidal’s head like The Matrix bullets.

In the first Covington fight, Usman was a little overwhelmed early by Covington’s pace and high output. Usman slowly began to change the tide of the fight with his right hand and attacking the body. Several times throughout the fight, Usman hurt Colby with straight punches to the body and laid the groundwork for Kamaru’s late-fight success. One big hole that Covington was able to take advantage of was Usman’s lack of defense from the southpaw stance. Every time Usman switched stances to match Covington’s, Colby made Usman pay with overhand lefts and hooks.

There are only two things I love watching more than my 1990's Dallas Cowboys VHS box set. One, watching Luke Rockhold’s cornermen rush to remove his shoes while Luke's asleep on the canvas before anyone can draw inappropriate male anatomy on his face. Two, watching Colby Covington eat three square meals through a paper straw after his first fight with Kamaru Usman.

It took me a while to accept it, but Colby Covington is a damn good fighter. Except for the Usman fight, Colby hasn’t forgotten he's a wrestler. He had ten takedowns against Robbie Lawler, seven against Rafael Dos Anjos, and about one hundred against the man who lost to Jake Paul in a boxing match, Tyron Woodley.

I gotta say it: Colby is on a different level; he’s a different breed. Colby walks every syllable that he talks. He's on some Olympic power walking type-ish. You know those guys who look like they’re jogging real slowly, but they’re actually walking. And you ask, why the !@#$ don’t they just run? Anywho, Covington’s pace can’t be matched. Against Usman, Colby threw over one hundred strikes per round. He’s capable of doing that and initiating takedowns and ground and pound. Colby is one of the few fighters who can consistently reach third and fourth-level strikes with extended combinations. His hand speed is underrated and catches people by surprise, and he covers for technical shortcomings on the feet with volume. Also, watch out for his left high kick. It gets to your head real quick.

The first fight saw two elite wrestlers/grapplers acknowledge a grappling stalemate with zero takedown attempts and clinch control from either fighter. Both fighters should look to clinch and wrestle this time around, but Colby would benefit more if he implemented takedown attempts and dirty boxing in the clinch. Another twenty-five minutes standing with Usman will likely lead to a similar result for Colby. He just can’t match Usman’s power for five rounds.

Right meow, there are only two welterweights who can beat Kamaru Usman. I used to consider Wonderboy Thompson one of those two, but Gilbert Burns exposed Wonderboy’s lack of takedown defense. Colby Covington and Khamzat Chimaev are the only two guys at 170 lbs. who can beat Usman. The first fight was anybody’s fight until Usman dropped Colby with 1:45 left in the final round. Until that moment, the fight was two rounds a piece, and the fifth round was close until Usman finally broke Colby with right hand after right hand.

Fantasy-wise, both fighters have massive value even without a finish. Knockdowns and significant strikes landed will be high for both. In the end, the difference will be recent activity. Usman has defended his belt three times since the first Covington fight, while Colby hasn’t fought in over a year since beating Woodley. Usman has improved his striking since the first meeting, and the inactivity could be a big disadvantage for Colby. Last week, the main-event-winning streak came to a screeching halt like a student driver approaching a left turn yield. But overall, the picks were still silky, elegant at 11-3. Bust out the sandalwood Yankee candles and put it on wax; Kamaru Usman via TKO, round four.

Winner: Kamaru Usman | Method: TKO Rd.4

Zhang Weili (-120) vs. Rose Namajunas (+100)

Weili: DK: $8k | Namajunas: DK: $8.2k

Mulligan: a second chance, a do-over, usually after the first chance went wrong because of bad luck or a blunder.

Weili Zhang is getting a Mulligan. Does she deserve it? I don’t know, but I think Dana White and the UFC decision-makers feel as if Rose Namajunas robbed the MMA community of an all-time great championship fight when she KO’d Zhang in the opening minute back in April. The KO blow came after a brief feeling-out process by both fighters in the opening seconds. Rose threw a lead-high kick without a switch, and Weili zigged when she should have zagged; she blocked low to protect the body, and Rose brought the kick high to the head. It was a no-doubter. Luck? It’s never luck when you do exactly what you've trained half your life to do. “Lucky punches” are excuses for getting your ass cracked.

“Thug” Rose Namajunas is exactly that, a thug, a gangster. I hope this fight will be the one Rose shows up to with “Thug Life” tatted across her belly like Tupac. She’s a two-time World Champion who completed the golden path of Shai-Hulud, the true path of a great champion after a spice awakening. She climbed the mountain, fell, and climbed back to the top after losing her belt to Jessica Andrade.

Rose has excellent bilateral movement and is a sniper from the outside with her hands. She is not quite a combination striker; Rose throws single shots in quick succession that aren't quite combinations, there is a difference in cadence. Like a traditional boxer, Rose slips and rolls off her punches and ducks her head off the centerline when she throws her right hand. Pay attention to that right hand. Rose throws it with a slight hitch; her elbow flares out before the hand is propelled forward, and it creates a delay that is a lot like a pitcher throwing a changeup. If the batter is expecting a fastball and gets the changeup instead, they are thrown off balance.

While Weili Zhang can thrive in a firefight, Rose needs a more controlled kickboxing match and isn’t particularly good at exchanging in the pocket; her punches are too long, and she often gets beat in close range. Andrade found success with her short, powerful hooks midway through the second round against Rose in their second bout. Also, Rose tends to fade a little in late rounds and has shown holes in her wrestling and guard game from the bottom.

Don’t let that one-minute TKO loss fool you; Weili Zhang is still a pound-for-pound top-five women’s fighter. Weili Zhang is the perfect combination of athleticism, technique, and elite physical conditioning. She’s strong for her size, explosive, and she can push a pace that few on this planet can match. After losing her first professional fight, Zhang didn’t lose again for twenty-one straight fights. A big reason for that streak was Weili’s sound overall MMA skills. She has elite-level striking and grappling and doesn’t have to rely on one path to victory.

Zhang’s hand speed allows her to consistently throw three to four-punch combinations and bookend them with kicks. If Zhang starts with hands, she finishes with kicks and vice versa. When Weili finishes hand combinations with her lead hand, she lands it every time; boxers like Lomachenko and Pacquiao are masters at finishing with their lead hand, routinely sneaking that last punch in around the opponent’s guard.

You should know by now, I’m petty; I love pointing out other people’s flaws, and Weili Zhang has plenty of them in her striking. Her defense is her offense. Weili’s pace and continual aggression are her only means of defending herself from strikes. She lacks head movement, rarely taking her head off the centerline, and she has a habit of throwing naked leg kicks with her head straight up in the air. It only took Rose one minute to expose those holes in the first meeting.

There’s not much you can take away from the first fight other than Weili Zhang is going to have trouble getting inside Rose’s long strikes, at least early in the fight. I’m not sure Zhang can finish Rose, but we already know Rose can finish Zhang. The first time around, I picked Weili Zhang for the edge she’d have in cardio in the late rounds, but this time I’m going with Rose to control Zhang from the outside. Rose Namajunas via TKO, round three.

Winner: Rose Namajunas | Method: TKO Rd.3

Michael Chandler (+175) vs. Justin Gaethje (-220)

Chandler: DK: $7.3k | Gaethje: DK: $8.9k

This is a quote from the Weekly Knockout before UFC 254 about Justin Gaethje before he fought Khabib:

“Can Justin Gaethje win this fight? Yes. And he will. Gaethje will mark the first opponent who won’t be beaten by Khabib before he steps into the Octagon. Wrestling was Gaethje’s gateway into MMA, and he was an NCAA Division One All American. Gaethje’s offense won’t be stifled by a hyper-focus on defending takedowns. When his back ends up on the mat, and it will, he will have the ability to force scrambles and get back to his feet.”

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The literal, exact opposite was true. Gaethje did, however, win the first round by causing heavy damage with his patented calf kicks. Khabib said after the fight that he would have been in big trouble if Gaethje had landed one or two more kicks. It was a big reason why Khabib wasted no time getting Gaethje to the mat in the second round. Gaethje landed some big overhands in addition to the calf kicks, but he never stopped retreating; he never set his feet and sat down on his strikes. Ill quit beating around the bush and beat on the bush; Gaethje was scared. I hope I never have to say those words again.

What makes Gaethje special is his fearless aggression and kill or be killed style. And he throws nothing but bombs. If Gaethje had played baseball instead of fighting, he could have been the first ambidextrous pitcher, switching from the right side of the mound to left mid-at-bat. He has a unique way of throwing his hooks and overhands like he’s throwing a baseball, and he has KO power in both. He particularly likes to throw his lead hook after a right leg kick. He ducks off to the side when he throws the leg kick, and the motion naturally loads up the follow-up hook. It’s his bread and butter.

Michael Chandler has the wrestling skills to implement a similar takedown-heavy game plan as Khabib, but he lacks the same treacherous submission game. If Gaethje keeps this fight standing, Chandler will eventually wilt under Gaethje’s power. Chandler has a TKO loss on his record from leg kicks. Gaethje can wreck Chandler’s leg with just a couple of kicks and render his takedowns virtually useless.

Chandler has always reminded me of a more dynamic Matt Hughes; that’s lofty praise as Hughes is an all-time great. Wrestler striking, Matt Hughes was the epitome of it, and Chandler might have the best in the game. Basic one to two-punch combinations, with tight technique and heavy power, good enough to hang with elite strikers, but mostly used to set up takedowns, that’s wrestler striking. MC’s right hand is a piston, and he uses it to cover a lot of distance. When he lands it, people take naps. He used it to hurt Oliveira badly in the first round of their title fight but failed to score the finish.

Last January, Dan Hooker showed Chandler too much respect by allowing Chandler to stalk him around the cage, forcing Hooker to give up ground and constantly retreat. Chandler’s high fight I.Q. was on display when he made a mid-fight adjustment to close the distance by switching stances mid combination. While pursuing Hooker, Chandler stepped forward with his right hand, making it a lead hook that dropped Hooker.

Chandler’s ground game is a throwback to Mark Coleman and Tito Ortiz, the originators of ground and pound. Tito never bothered to advance position from the top; he sat in his opponent’s guard and dropped elbows and fists and more elbows. That’s Chandler’s style. He doesn’t waste much energy passing guard and punches the clock in the closed guard like a mini Tito. There’s one place you don’t want to be when facing Michael Chandler, underneath him.

The keys for Chandler: defending leg kicks and implementing level-change takedowns. Gaethje throws a lot of naked kicks; Chandler will try to time and catch them and use them to get Gaethje to the mat. If Chandler doesn’t have an answer for the calf kicks, it could get ugly quick.

Both fighters can finish this fight, but I think Gaethje has far more tools on his stand-up belt. Chandler’s offense is mostly dependent on his right hand, and it rarely deviates. Also, I don’t see Chandler’s wrestling against Gaethje as fight-ending wrestling like Khabib’s. MC can control Gaethje on the mat and win a decision, but I don’t think he’ll finish Gaethje on the mat without a knockdown. Justin Gaethje via TKO, round three.

Winner: Justin Gaethje | Method: TKO Rd.3

Shane Burgos (-200 ) Billy Quarantillo (+160 )

Burgos: DK: $9k | Quarantillo: DK: $7.2k

This one is two dogs howling at the moon, two dogs off the leash taking dumps in your rose bushes. These guys are wild. Both of these guys are all offense and zero point zero defense. Shane Burgos is a turn-the-other-cheek striker who fears offending his opponent if he defends any of their strikes. Also, energy spent defensively is energy not spent offensively. Burgos's all-or-nothing style quickly turned him into a fan favorite but also quickly turned him into Woody when Andy walks in the room against Edson Barbosa in his last bout. Burgos suffered one of the scariest TKO’s I’ve ever seen. It was a delayed reaction to a series of Barbosa punches that, at first, Burgos appeared to shake off. The next thing I knew, Burgos was buffering, then lost all server connection and crumpled against the cage with Barbosa nowhere near him.

Shane Burgos is a survivalist who can get along in the most extreme conditions by camping out in the pocket, his only sustenance, a meager diet of beetle dung and shrub roots. Offensively, Burgos is a mother-shut-your-mouth. Burgos will use the low calf kick to open up his hands once the opponent's attention is on his necrotic leg. He works behind a heavy boxer’s jab that he doubles and triples to gain entry into the pocket. Once he’s in the pocket, he unloads with alternating power shovel hooks while changing levels and attacking the body. In addition to nasty leg kicks, Burgos has excellent up-the-middle teep and snap kicks that he uses to vary his attacks. BUT, like the Kansas City Chiefs, all offense and no defense caught up to Shane Burgos. Now Patrick Mahomie is out there looking like Patrick Swayze, and Shane Burgos looked like a solar-powered robot during an eclipse just a couple of months ago. Little known fact: Shane Burgos was the inspiration for track four on the Slim Shady LP.

Billy Q is a BDSM fighter who thrives on physical punishment. He’s a tale-of-two-halves fighter, a notoriously slow starter, who likes to stage Cooper Rush to Amari Cooper late fight heroics. Quarantillo has an excellent all-around game, with deceptive one-punch striking. His strikes are a beat short of being considered combinations; they’re more like successive one-punch strikes with little dead air in between. More than anything, this guy has heart and finds his way out of bad positions constantly. The problem is, he finds himself in bad positions constantly.

Some fighters have solid stand-up cardio, but Billy Q has solid MMA cardio and can push a heavy pace while blending wrestling and grappling into his stand-up. The key for Billy will be handling Burgos’s power. Quarantillo gets hit like genetically modified cigars do in my one-car garage. He can’t stand and bang with Burgos until one of them drops because that will likely be Billy.

Burgos is opening as the big (-200) favorite, and that has to be attributed to his power advantage. Billy’s value is in high output, his ability to make this fight ugly, and a possible late submission if he can get Burgos’s back. Burgos’s value will be in a TKO/KO finish on the feet, even though Billy has only been finished once in his nointeen-fight career. Shane Burgos via decision.

Winner: Shane Burgos | Method: Decision

Frankie Edgar (+140 ) vs Marlon Vera (-170)

Edgar: DK: $7.4k | Vera: DK:$8.8k

The last time we saw Frankie Edgar, he was receiving another written warning for sleeping on the job. This time, the infraction occurred only twenty-eight seconds after he clocked in. A flying knee from Cory Sandhagen slumped Edgar to his hands and knees like he was praying to the sandworms. That fight was like Asstros fans talking about their 2017 World Series “win,” hard to watch. Frankie will always be one of my favorite fighters of all time. He was at his best when he was undersized in the lightweight division, the division he became a Champion in.

Edgar’s abilities to seamlessly transition from striking to wrestling and his perpetual lateral movement have been the trademarks and keys to his sustained success over the last decade. Frankie wrote the book on setting up takedowns with strikes, using short quick combinations to raise the opponent's guard and level change. Frankie has lost three out of his last four because he hasn’t committed to his wrestling. Maybe he doesn’t have the hand speed to set them up like he used to. But, like sticking to the run to open up play-action in the NFL, Frankie will have to commit to his wrestling and takedown attempts against Marlon Vera. Vera has an excellent top game, but his guard is like Taco Bell breakfast burritos, highly suspicious.

Marlon Vera was The Ultimate Fighter Latin America winner and has become a fringe top ten fighter. Vera is a slow starter and has lost some close decisions because of it, but he has never been finished in his twenty-six-fight career. Vera can fight from the outside and can also thrive in a firefight, using shovel hooks on the inside and long straight punches from the outside. He uses a variety of peppering kicks to set up his hands and uses aggression to fill the gaps in his technique.

On the mat, Vera is a gifted grappler with excellent strikes from his guard. But it’s Vera’s ground and pound and submissions from the top that are most formidable. He fought “Wavey” Davey Grant in his most recent bout and battered Grant for most of the fight. In the fight previous, Vera lost a competitive decision to Jose Aldo, who has been on a tear lately.

Vera will have to use up the middle snap kicks and uppercuts to discourage Edgar’s level changes. He will look to establish the pocket from the outside and relocate the fight to the mat on his own terms. If Vera ends up on his back, there has to be an urgency to force scrambles back to his feet.

I just don’t know how much is left in Frankie Edgar. How much of what? Fight? No, he’ll always have plenty of that. I don’t really know, but I will when I see it. Marlon Vera via decision.

Winner: Marlon Vera | Method: Decision

Prelims

Highlighted Matchup

Andreas Michailidis (+200) vs. Alex Pereira (-250)

Michailidis: DK: $7.1k | Pereira: DK: $9.1k

Alex Pereira is the dude who beat the dude who beat all the other dudes except for the dude who beat that dude a couple of months ago. He’s the guy who beat Israel Adesanya twice. Well, one was a Valero robbery, and both wins were in kickboxing, not MMA. But the first win over Izzy was a KO in which Pereira dropped Izzy with his patented left hook. Alex Pereira is the current Glory Kickboxing Middleweight and Light Heavyweight World Champion. He has a 3-1 MMA record and to say his UFC debut is highly anticipated is like saying Asstros fans are the worst fans in sports, an understatement.

Alex Pereira is a tall, long kickboxer who looks like Sagat from Streetfighter. His hands are an oxymoron; he has the longest, short strikes you’ll ever see. He uses every inch of his long reach, but his punches are straight and quick to the target. Pereira’s lead left hook will make you faint like 1960’s Beatles groupies. He throws it while sliding out of the pocket as a check hook and as a lead while moving forward. People drop when he touches them with it.

The unknown about Pereira is his overall MMA game. But he’s Brazilian, and Brazilians are born wearing a Gi, and from what I’ve seen of Pereira in MMA, he seems to have solid clinch skills. Make no mistake, this fight is a Mel Gibson Apocalypto sacrifice to appease the MMA gods. Andreas Michailidis isn’t a TLC scrub, but he isn’t a world-class striker either.

Michailidis throws heavy, wide strikes, and if Pereira takes him for a joke (do you like fish sticks?), the right high kick could spoil Pereira’s debut real quick. The problem for Michailidis is this is a terrible style matchup for him. He throws nothing but overhands and hooks and charges forward aggressively head first. But straight punches beat wide, round punches all day and every damn night. Pereira will have to be careful to navigate around Michailidis’s right high kick because if he gets caught slipping, he’s gonna have a bad time.

I say all that to say this. Alex Pereira via TKO, round two.

Winner: Alex Pereira | Method: TKO Rd.2

Twenty-Twen-Twen Sleepers

Twenty-Ten-Twen Sleeper

Imagine knocking someone out in one minute, having to fight that person again, and being considered the underdog. That's the case for "Thug" Rose Namajunas. She smoked Zhang Weili in their first meeting in just over a minute but is entering the rematch as a slight (+100) dog. It's rare to get a plus money underdog who has already KO'd their opponent.

Colby Covington gave Kamaru Usman his toughest fight to date. With 1:45 remaining in the fifth round, the fight was too close to call. Covington is coming in as the big (+240) dog, and remember, he had Usman hurt twice in the first fight. A follow-up or two could have changed UFC history. Colby's pace should once again cause Usman problems, especially early. Usman was also hurt in the opening minutes against Gilbert Burns and tends to get off to a slow start.

Billy Quarantillo is coming in as a (+160) underdog against a guy who had the power shut off due to nonpayment in his last bout. Billy Q has the overall skills to make this an ugly fight and test Shane Burgos on the mat.

Long shot Underdog: Jordan Williams at (+300) against the debuting Ian Garry. Williams has a TKO victory on The Contenders Series against the Brazilian Deebo, Gregory Rodrigues. Jordan has awkward stand-up and weird, stupid power. I don't know much about Garry, but from what I've seen, he has solid stand-up, and this could likely be a kickboxing match, and Williams has the sleeper power to surprise Garry. Plus, have you ever heard of a Gary who spells his name with two R's?

Pick 'Em

Al Iaquinta (+150 ) vs. Bobby Green (-185 )

Winner: Bobby Green

 Method: Decision 

Phil Hawes (-350 ) vs. Chris Curtis (+265 )

Winner: Phil Hawes

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Edmen Shahbazyan (+100 ) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (-120 )

Winner: Nassourdine Imavov

 Method: TKO Rd.3

Ian Garry (-400 ) vs. Jordan Williams (+300 )

    Winner: Ian Garry

 Method: Decision

Gian Villante (-125 ) vs. Chris Barnett (+105 )

    Winner: Chris Barnett

 Method: TKO Rd.1

Dustin Jacoby (-360 ) vs. John Allan (+270 )

    Winner: Dustin Jacoby

 Method: TKO Rd.3

Melsik Baghdasaryan (-300 ) vs. Bruno Souza (+235 )

    Winner: Melsik Baghdasaryan

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Ode Osborne (-185 ) vs. C.J. Vergara (+150 )

    Winner: Ode Osborne

 Method: Decision

Thanks for reading LineStar Weekly Knockout! We'll be back next Thursday with another one. Until then, good luck and support your local MMA Gym.

About Me

My name is Chris Guy, and I’m an avid combat sports enthusiast and practitioner. I’ve been a fan of MMA since the early 2000s when Limewire was still around, and I downloaded Bas Rutten’s Big Book of Combat. In 2004, I started training Muay Thai at City Boxing in San Diego, CA. I competed as an amateur for many years, and I've also dabbled in Jiu-Jitsu. I follow many different disciplines, such as Combat Ji-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Glory Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA.

I’m equally as enthusiastic about the craft of writing, and in addition to writing about combat sports, I also write short fiction and music. I hope to bring unique prose to sports writing, and along the way, encourage people to not only become Martial Arts fans but to also become Martial Artists themselves.

In the future, you may see me refer to the Thunderdome; it's an ode to the old Mad Max movie and refers to the world-class training facility I built in my one-car garage. It's complete with throw dummies, wrestling mats, heavy bags, and six months' worth of Chef Boyardee cans from when I thought the world was going to end back in March. I hope you enjoy my work, and if you don’t, the Thunderdome has an open door policy.

Check out my Podcast The Whiskey (S)ick Podcast on Apple and Spotify. Parental Advisory Warning