The Fight Library Newsletter with Blaine Henry - Issue #2

Hey Everyone! Issue 2 of our newsletter and I’m really enjoying Revue, the new distributor of the letter we’re using. If there are issues (like no pictures last time), bear with me, I am still figuring everything out on here. Let’s look at some of my stories from the last week!

Also, bear with me on the lack of content coming in the next couple weeks. New job has me doing lots of hours. I’ll be back soon enough!

Every fighter looks up to someone growing up. That idol serves as a goalpost to strive to reach. I asked who would Kwon Won Il choose to spar or fight with throughout history, and his answer was the most legendary name.

“I would love to try challenging Bruce Lee. He’s my idol. I want to learn all his movements.” Won Il continues on saying, “Actually, anyone who’s in a higher level than me, I would love to challenge to get better.“

UFC Vegas 18 was a banger of a card and Cory Sandhagen stole the day. His flying knee knockout of Frankie Edgar was phenomenal and nothing short of spectacular. For Rokfin premium users, I did a Technical Readout on the knockout.

A premium Rokfin membership is only $9.99 and it helps me monetarily. In addition to all my premium content, you’ll get all of Rokfin’s premium stuff included. James Lynch, May Scouts, Chael Sonnen and more are the names you can look forward to exclusive content from.

On My MMA News, I went on a thought experiment and pontificated on what could happen if the UFC were to close down. This one is a fun piece and I used boxing as my template as to what could happen.

UFC closing it’s doors would be good and bad for several reasons. More cross promotions: great. The WBC MMA World Champions and mandatories: bad.

UFC Vegas 19 is a classic stylistic matchup of a power puncher versus a grappler. Curtis Blaydes is looking for his first shot at the title with a win but will likely have to wait. With Francis N’Gannou getting the next shot and Jon Jones getting the next, look for Blaydes to have to win against Lewis and another fight soon thereafter.

Derrick Lewis has been there, of course. He was dominated by Daniel Cormier in his first fight for the belt. In that fight he was wrestled to death. The Blaydes fight offers Lewis a chance to show his progression since that fight on his wrestling defense. Lewis was wrestled quite handily against Oleinik in his last fight. This five rounder has the potential to be finished at any point in the fight.

Longer term readers of the site will recall my UFC 251 Aftermath post were I said that Kamaru Usman was boringly effective. He had just beat Jorge Masvidal and it was pretty lackluster but dominant.

This post’s title is just a callback to that because Usman was anything but boring at UFC 258. He was hurt by Burns in the first and my heart jumped out of my chest. But Usman pursued and was as mentally strong as you can be. Usman did have some moments where I was rolling my eyes, like kicking the thigh of Burns, a la the Demian Maia fight, but I didn’t even remember that until I thought about the fight. Fact of the matter is, training with Trevor Wittman was a great thing for Usman and he should absolutely stay there. Wittman focused on what Usman did well on the feet and it made him more dangerous. “You are a champion because you jab” is a quote that rings out in my head from Whittman to Usman during the fight.

Usman has a plethora of options that would all do quite well. First is absolutely Leon Edwards. Edwards is at the top and is about as technically sound as you’ll find in the welterweight division at this time. While he’s supposed to fight in March against Khamzat Chimaev, that fight fell through and Edwards is welcoming any challengers. Should he pick up a win there, he’s the number one choice for Usman in the division.

Second: Colby Covington. Covington and Usman went to warren their first fight. Usman won by knockout in the fifth in a fight he was likely losing. The rematch has to happen. The only issue is Covington is one win removed from that loss against a washed Woodley. You’ll find a hard sell on that for Usman with so many other options out there with the beef the two have. In addition, the Whittman-Usman duo would be nightmares for Covington and I believe the fight would be one sided in Usman’s way as opposed to the first.

Third option is the money fight: Jorge Masvidal. I don’t really like this fight but it could help Usman cash in one more time before going through the rest. This fight does nothing for me.

The bad guy of The Karate Kid Part 3 returns us from the story of Miyagi in Japan and brings it back to Reseda, California and the big bosses there. Thomas Ian Griffith played Terry Silver, a business man and karate master that shows early on that he is a snake in the grass.

What I think the best part of The Karate Kid Part 3 was the new type of struggle LaRusso had to go through. After two movies of wanting to fight, this time, Daniel LaRusso does not want to fight. He isn’t interested in defending the All-Valley Karate title after some coaching from Mr. Miyagi. LaRusso is forced to decide weather or not fighting is worth it anymore. The movie also shows why LaRusso loves bonsai trees in the new Cobra Kai series.

Another great thing about the movie is we actually see Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi’s relationship strained with the mental warfare from Terry Silver. We know LaRusso is like a son to Miyagi but there is a point in the movie that we see just how much Daniel-san means to Miyagi in a heartbreaking way.