Spray Paint Car Blog

Ian Murphy was most definitely in too deep and the fact he was allowed to fight at DREAM.2 in April 2009 against Ronaldo Jacare underscores the profound lack of regulation and oversight of Japanese mixed martial arts. There really is no regulatory oversight of the sport or the actions of individual promoters. The fight culture rooted in sumo and continued in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts is extremely backwards. Fight promoters first, second and third priorities are making money. With the exception of the top stars, fighters are largely viewed as interchangeable and expendable. Mandatory drug testing is completely nonexistent and theres little elective testing by the individual promotions. Even the simplest steps to protect the fighters well being are unenforced or non-existent.

There’s not a state athletic commission in the US that would have sanctioned the DREAM 2 matchup between Ian Murphy and Ronaldo Jacare. Murphy had just turned 22, and as of a couple of months prior to his DREAM 2 appearance was completing his senior season of wrestling at Cal State Fullerton. While he was a standout collegiate wrestler, he’d been seriously training for mixed martial arts for little more than a month. He’d never even had an amateur fight. While his athletic background definitely suggests potential as a MMA fighter he was essentially a novice.

His opponent at DREAM.2, Ronaldo Jacare Souza most decidedly was not. Jacare began training in judo at age 14 and later changed his focus to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Now 27, Jacare is a BJJ black belt and has been called one of the most feared submission grapplers in the world. That was evidenced in 2006 when Jacare fought former UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture to a draw in a submission wrestling event. Jacare would have been a tough matchup for even his original opponent, tough veteran Frank Trigg. When Trigg pulled out less than a week before the fight DREAM parent company FEG approached Murphy who readily agreed.

The fight itself was essentially over before it began. Murphy was visibly nervous to the point of near panic as he made his ring walk. He could be seen taking a few deep breaths to steady his nerves. While any fighter would have felt a few butterflies walking into Saitama Super Arena for the first time, Murphys obvious apprehension transcended this. This underscored the reality that he hadn’t any real experience or knowledge competing or even training in a mixed martial arts environment. While his collegiate background is impressive, DREAM could have likely found an equally competitive opponent for Jacare on the street in front of the arena.

Jacare dominated the fight from start to finish, with Murphy’s strength and physical conditioning the only things that kept the fight going as long as it did. Murphy’s cornermen were clearly clueless about how to help their fighter. The end came when Jacare made Murphy tap out to a rear naked choke, evidencing that he’d had no experience on how to defend a basic MMA submission.

Ronaldo Jacare is the one player in this story that can be held blameless. He did what a fighter is supposed to do, which is to try to defeat his opponent to the best of his ability. Virtually everyone else involved in the fight bears some measure of culpability. DREAM’s promoters should have never offered Murphy the fight, and Murphy and his handlers should have never taken them up on their offer. Fortunately, Murphy was unharmed aside from a decent beating but the potential for tragedy in a situation like this is obvious.

A legitimate regulatory body would have never allowed the Murphy/Jacare fight to take place, but unfortunately such oversight doesn’t exist in Japanese fight sports. In the US, state athletic commissions regulate mixed martial arts using many of the same rules as boxing. In Japan, it’s essentially unregulated and exists in a ‘wild west’ type environment where literally anything goes.

There have been some incremental changes to the Japanese fight sport world, specifically the creation of a Japanese Mixed Martial Arts Commission to serve as an oversight body for the sport. At this point, however, it is an independent entity and without some government involvement to give their regulatory efforts some ‘teeth’ they can’t have much of an impact.

The sad reality is that with the glacial pace of progressive reform within Japanese political culture any government involvement is unlikely. Even if a death were to occur the lack of progress in boxing regulation when faced with a similar scenario doesn’t provide much hope for improved safety rules for MMA fighters. While WVR is trying with their MMA oversight commission the only hope for real change in the near term is for promoters to realize that protecting their fighters is in the best interest of the sport which, in turn, is good for the bottom line.

Tags: auto, sports, mobile

People use airsoft guns for many reasons and activities. For instance, some people shoot cans in their backyard, some hold airsoft wars against friends, and others join teams to participate in organized combat simulations. The purpose of your airsoft gun should be an important factor when purchasing one.

Those who just want an airsoft gun to shoot at targets can make good use of an inexpensive spring pistol. These guns are low maintenance and you don’t need anything fast or fancy or simple plinking, so you can just search Google for “airsoft spring pistol” and purchase the one you like most.

Spring shotguns and automatic electric guns are good airsoft guns for activities like backyard wars because they both have high rates of fire. Spring shotguns will release pellets as fast as you can pump the gun and are relatively inexpensive.

If you want something better than a spring shotgun, try an automatic electric gun. AEGs are built to perform similarly to real assault rifles, which make them ideal for both sniping and full out firing. These of course are more expensive, ranging anywhere from seventy to over four hundred dollars and also use many more pellets in one use than slower firing guns.

An alternative to the costly automatic electric gun would be a low powered electric gun, which offer just about the same firing rate as AEGs but cost significantly less. The reason why LPEGs are cheaper is because they can’t reach the same feet per second as AEGs can.

Those who are on airsoft teams will tell you that it is not a cheap hobby by any means. Not only do airsoft team players require the highest quality guns in order to perform their best, they also need to invest heavily in equipment that protects them and enhances their abilities in their specified positions (the positions being riflemen, snipers, support gunners, and grenadiers). For example, sniper positions require high precision sniper rifles with a minimum FPS of 400ft and extra optics whereas a rifleman’s position requires a high quality automatic electric gun with a high capacity magazine. These two airsoft team positions are the least expensive.

If you want to be a support gunner, you can decide on a machine gun or an AEG with a box magazine to hold more pellets, which is the cheaper of the two. The AEG is a good choice for grenadiers as well, though this position also requires a grenade launcher and lots of grenades. The equipment needed for both support gunning and grenadier positions are more expensive than sniping or being a rifleman. In any case, all positions would benefit from having a gas pistol on them as well.

As you can see, shopping for guns for airsoft use is not as simple a task as one might think. Before heading out to the store, make sure you know exactly what you intend to use the airsoft gun for and what kind of budget you’re working with.

Tags: outdoor, mobile, auto