Top Menu

29 Oct 2011

CONTEST: UFC 138 TICKETS



Hey guys, awesome new apparel company Strike Fightwear (who recently just opened up their webstore and just so happen to have commissioned a number of art designs from me) are giving away two tickets for UFC 138 and a Strike Fightwear T-shirt!!!

UFC 138 is being held in Birmingham NEC, UK, on Saturday November 5th - that's ONE WEEK AWAY!!! So because of the short notice, this comp is only available to UK residents only. Sorry!

To enter, post a comment on here with your answer to this question:

Who is your favourite UFC fighter?

TERMS:
The contest ends on TUESDAY 6pm BST and a winner will be announced that evening (chosen at random). Please include your email address in the answer so we can contact you asap as we'll need your mailing address to post the tickets to you. I will erase all the comments after 24 hours. Anyone not responding within 24hours of my email will lose their chance and a second choice winner will be picked. No cash prize alternative.

Good luck!


:)

28 Oct 2011

Academy Tour: Nova Forca, Epsom, Surrey



Last night I took the opportunity to visit Nova Forca BJJ in Epsom, Surrey, UK. The academy has just relocated to a studio within the Energie Fitness Centre on the High Street which itself is literally slap bang next to the mainline train station - with frequent trains from both Waterloo and London Victoria.

Nova Forca is run by BJJ black belt Ricardo Da Silva. Originally from Brazil, Ricardo has been teaching BJJ in the UK for over ten years, making him one of the earliest instructors of the sport in this country!

I had a great time training with Ricardo and all the crew. The vibe is friendly and the instruction is solid. Ricardo taught 3 techniques and made the class drill these repeatedly. He is a stickler for perfection and he was keen to ensure each student performed the techniques correctly. It was nogi class on the night that I attended and there were around 25 students on the mats. I was told that gi class can reach up to 45 students!

It was good to catch up with Mark Stephenson, who I fought couple years ago, and good to see him don his freshly awarded brown belt. Tim Radcliffe, one of my honey badger sponsored fighters was there too and I wish him luck on his next MMA fight - bizarrely, located in the Dominican Republic!

Thanks to everyone at Nova Forca for making me feel ultra welcome. A full interview and report will be published in the next issue of Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine.


:)


24 Oct 2011

Contest: Win a Honey Badger Rashguard (size Large)


Good people of the world, this is my very last pre-production Honey Badger rashguard. It's a size LARGE. You want it? Do I give a sh*t? Of course I do. So to win this last ever pre-production rashie (final production version is a little different with added logos etc) here are the details:

TO ENTER
The artwork on this rashguard has been subject to intense debate with people either loving it or hating. I want you to play devil's advocate and write - as a comment on this blog entry - the most creatively venomous 'review' of the rashguard as you can. No profanities please, I want clever but naaaasty critique. Make it mean, make it deadly, make me laugh out loud.

Comment here on this blog, not Facebook. Please include your full name and location, but if you want to avoid spambots, then leave out your email address and just keep an eye on here when I announce the winner and you can contact me by email or Facebook with your mailing details.

Entries close on WEDNESDAY 26th October midnight BST - a winner announced the next day.

Judges decision (ie me) is final. Remember the prize is one size LARGE long sleeved rashie.


DON'T FORGET
Pre-order for this baby ends on Monday 31st October (conveniently end of month payday, yay!)
You can buy it through these retailers:

UK - Tatami Fightwear

USA - Budovideos
Germany - Gi Direkt
Sweden - TatamiBJJ SE
Finland - MESH
Japan - BT Fightgear

Good luck!


:)

22 Oct 2011

Review: 4Q2 Fight socks



Grappling or fight socks are a relatively new introduction to the grappler. They straddle the division between full on wrestling shoes and Totes. Guest reviewer James Fairclough kindly wrote a review of his purchase of one brand of fight socks. This is his review...

[Photos c/o 4QS Fightwear]


18 Oct 2011

Team Honey Badger

So I'm having fun pretending to be a proper brand owner and I even managed to bribe convince a few BJJ friends of mine to represent the brand. It's less of a sponsorship, more of a conceptual gathering - a bit like the Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood. Our motto is, We don't give a sh*t! Blatently lifted off the Randall video I know, but hey, why not run with it, it works perfectly for grappling fighters! Anyone can join Team Honey Badger. The only requirement is that you are badass enough to not give a sh*t what people think - oh and it helps to wear my Honey Badger themed fightwear ;)





...and there will be more members of Team Honey Badger so watch this space!!!


:)

12 Oct 2011

There's No Such Thing As...

bad publicity, just publicity!

I'm not sure who came up with that quote first, but I think it perfectly sums up the response to my Honey Badger Rashguard so far. Check out the awesome comments it has been receiving from the forums...

(btw, this really is exactly the kind of love it or hate it 'Marmite' response I thought might happen and genuinely enjoy the attention the design is getting!):
  • "Did this design team just sit down and decide to make the ugliest expensive rash guard they could think of? If so, kudos! Mission accomplished."
  • "Cool idea but poor execution IMO. Would prefer more honey badger and less...other crap."
  • "this rashguard sucks. there are a lot of cool T-shirt designs with HBs on them."
  • "It's hideous, and the Chinese characters on the sleeve are totally random and unrelated"
  • "Not your best work IMHO mate. I think you've gone overboard with the symmetry on the front."
...and so on. Obviously there have been equally copious amounts of praise but the bad comments are the funniest.

To quote another famous line: ""The only thing worse than being talked about is not..." (Oscar Wilde Google tells me). Haha, so true. And to help matters along, here is some proper publicity I have been involved in helping to get the Honey Badger Fightwear message across:

Raspberry Ape versus The Honey Badger
Last weekend we filmed a short film in the style of a UFC fight trailer. It might seem put together quickly but actually filming too an entire day. My thanks to the Lock and Roll Show team who went to great lengths to make this video.



Team Honey Badger
I hand picked a bunch of BJJ friends who have agreed to help me rep the brand, I'll be posting their fighter profiles on here and Facebook in the next few days.



BJJ Weekly
The very excellent e-mail newsletter BJJWeekly (do subscribe if you haven't already) ran a competition to win a Honey Badger rash guard. Their task was to ask all their followers on Facebook to invent a rap in honour of the Honey Badger.

The winner was Paul Ramey from North Carolina and this is his rap:

Eeeeeew, he's NASTY! Skillful and CRAFTY! Honey badger don't care cuz his jitz is so DAFFY! Crazy ankle biter, this beast is a fighter, absolute division just got a little bit tighter. He takes a savage course, he's the king of the scavengers. You better watch yo neck because he's comin' to ravage yours!

BJJ Weekly are also running my button advert in their newsletter for a few weeks.


We'll do two more giveaway contests over the next fortnight. Next up will be one hosted by UK magazine Jiu Jitsu Style so keep an eye on their website and Facebook group for news of this competition.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has so far fallen in love with the honey badger design and paid their hard earned money for the pre-order. I'm really honoured you like it enough to buy it. Actually you loved it too much on Monday morning because the volume of traffic when the pre-order window opened actually crashed the Tatami Fightwear website. Thankfully it was soon up and running.


:)

8 Oct 2011

Apparel: Honey Badger Rashguard


Summary
Rashguard designed by me to test the services of custom fightwear company Armourtech Clothing. This product is now available for pre-order until October 31st.

Disclosure
This product was designed by me and I receive royalties from the sale of each one.

Introduction
So what's with the whole honey badger thing? First of all, these small and rather unattractive little creatures are often cited as officially the world's most fearless animal (Guinness World Records). That's pretty much enough of a reason to inspire awesomeness in my book. But wait, there's more...


3 Oct 2011

Review: GenX Grappling T-shirt & NoGi Shorts


Summary
Loose fitting 'rash' guard and ultra light nogi shorts combine to produce a light and comfortable package for nogi or MMA training. The grappling t-shirt was perhaps a little too warm to be worn as an undergi layer but overall, a stylish and functional option for the submission wrestler and mixed martial artist.