I’ve already, briefly, uh, “discussed” the release of Miguel Torres when I heard about the news on Thursday. Since then, more details have come out concerning Dana’s reasoning for letting Miguel go. There has also been a good amount of discussion among the MMA media about whether or not Dana’s actions against Miguel were justified. Read more »
Whoops…
“Justin” is 6 feet 2, 250 pounds, with a build that looks like it could split open a suit jacket during a particularly violent sneeze.
But the mixed martial arts expert from Des Plaines insists it was his “training,” not brawn, that allowed him to wrench a loaded pistol from the hand of an alleged mugger who had the weapon pointed at his chest Friday night on the Southwest Side.
“I don’t feel like a hero,” said Justin, who did not want his last name used. “Training matters. If you’re well trained, you have a chance to survive.”
Anthony Miranda’s bruised and battered face — and Justin’s unblemished, chiseled one — leaves no doubt about who came out the victor in the encounter.
On Sunday, Miranda, a 24-year-old convicted felon, was ordered held on $350,000 bond, following a hearing at the 26th and California courthouse. He is charged with armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm in the alleged attack. Police say Miranda shot his own ankle during the struggle with the gun.
Justin, who says he hails from Romania, was happy to talk about the encounter, which he said happened around 11:30 p.m. while he was waiting in his parked car for a buddy to arrive. Justin made it clear there would no photographs taken during this interview — not even one that showed only his torso.
Justin said Miranda originally approached him and asked if he could have a light for a cigarette. Justin replied that he does not smoke. That’s when Miranda pulled out a gun and shoved it against the side of his head, Justin said.
“He asked me for my wallet, for my phone and my keys,” Justin explained. “I told him I don’t have a wallet, I only have cash. He cursed me — like ‘m—–f—–.’”
Justin said he handed over the $30 in cash he had stuffed in a his car’s cup holder, but Miranda was not satisfied, Justin said.
“At that moment, he backs up the gun and he racks it,” Justin recalled. “The gun jammed. He racked it a second time. He ejected the bullet on the ground. He went down and grabbed the bullet and said, ‘Look, m—–f—–, it’s a hollow point. I’ll blow your brains out.’”
That’s when Miranda ordered him out of the car, Justin said.
Justin said he looked at the man facing him, pistol pointing at his chest, and was pretty certain he was about to take a bullet.
“I wasn’t scared because I’m trained,” Justin explained.
Justin then demonstrated to a reporter the sudden, rather effective maneuver that disarmed his attacker.
“The round went off,” Justin continued. “I put him down to the ground. He was fighting. He didn’t want to give up.”
But at the same time, Justin said: “He was begging me to let him go. He said he has a baby.”
Justin then kept his attacker collared until police arrived.
Asked about his training, Justin offered only vague hints at his background: “Former military,” “high-risk training,” “Hostage rescue.”
He said he makes a living in a variety of ways: “Sometimes I do clubs. I do close protection.”
Maybe the kid was trying to test how tough he was (I mean, as tough as anybody is when threatening someone with a gun. Well, looks like he failed the test. Enjoy taking this story back to your boys, dude!
A couple of days ago, we put up an article recalling a story told by Mike Pierce about how Rick Story beat the bejesus out of some poor schlub unlucky enough to be his sparring partner in training. Rick Story recently told his side of the story (kind of) through one of Mixed Martial Arts’ most credible and respectable communication mediums… The MMAJunkie forums.
OK I figure this is one of the best places to start. What Mike Pierce said about me hitting Abel when he was on a knee saying stop is BULL s**t. Abel wasn’t some random person off the street either. At the time he was 1-1 as a professional and had been training with us for 3 months. He was a 4 time All-American for William Penn college in Iowa and actually beat me at nationals my first match my junior year at Southern Oregon University. What Mike also decided to forget to say is how many times Abel had tapped him that week in training (I think 2 by guillotine). What Mike also forgot to admit was how well Abel did in sparring against Brad Blackburn (at the time current UFC welterweight). Abel was new to our team but not new to the sport and not a poor defenseless kid. Abel did have Vertigo and had taken time off. Pat would not let him sparr without a doctors note saying he was cleared. I had talked with Abel before the session and asked him how his Vertigo was doing, he said he was cleared but to be safe I told him I would only throw body shots. We do sparr hard at BRAVE LEGION but not stupid. I would never hit anyone that was telling me stop. Anyway we have a rule too, if someone is rocked drop the intensity down to 10% and only throw to the body so your partner can recover to continue and we don’t fall into the habit of stopping when someone is close to being finished. Pat would never encourage the continuance of hitting someone that says stop. Anyone that has half a brain would realize this wouldn’t be something that could be kept secret for very long. How come this sounds like an isolated incident? Probably because it’s a lie. If it happened before it wouldn’t be something you could contain. Anyone that knows me would agree that I am not that kind of a person, and I am confident when I say this. Mike and Pat were never friends, Mike had been kicked off our team before because he wasn’t a team player and it was just a fact their personalities clashed. The only reason we let Mike back on the team is because I told Pat I wanted him as a practice partner. I never not got along with Mike but he wasn’t the kind of person that I would like to go hang out with I personally thought Mike was very self-centered and selfish and had a huge ego. As far as me being brain washed its far from the case. I am friends with Pat, we hang out and do things all the time and I cannot say the same for when Mike was on our team. I decided to invest in our gym BRAVE LEGION and have been running strong with our team ever since. Pat is an awesome coach a great friend and only has our teams best interest in mind. I listen to Pats coaching and don’t think listening to my coach is a bad thing. Pats coaching has brought Mike and Myself to the UFC in a short period of time. Supposibly I am brain washed because I am still listening to my coach who got me into the UFC after ten months of training and working with my business partner to make sure my investment and my team succeeds. If this is brain washed well I guess I am guilty. I am a college graduate, spent 8 years in the National Guard and was a Platoon Leader for almost two years. I make my own decisions but work as a teammate with my coach and business partner Pat White bottom line, and because Mike is not a team player he probably wouldn’t understand this concept.
This all happened around the time when Mike was preparing for his fight with Julio Paulino. I helped him train for this fight just like most of his other ones. He came out of that fight with a little bruise on his cheek and no other damage. I was not there but Pat had talked with Mike and said “since you didn’t take any damage we are going to need you to be back in the gym on Monday to help Ricky for his fight in three weeks.” Mike no-shows for an entire week. Pat and myself tried to call but typical non-team player he was he didn’t answer his phone. Mike shows up on the following Tuesday I believe weighing almost 200lbs. Pat told Mike he needed to be at 190lb. training weight to be a good practice partner for me. Mike came in the next day weighing only a pound lighter, Pat told him it was the last time he could train if he wasn’t going to make weight because he needed to be at a realistic weight for me. Pat told him to not show up until he was. Well that was the end, Mike never came back. Mike did leave a letter to Pat thanking him for all of the training and stating he would like to come back and sparr from time to time but our team was not a good fit for him. It left a bad taste in my mouth just for the fact that I helped him train for his fight and he decided to bail and not be a team player in my most crucial weeks of training for a fight.
These are some of the reasons why Pat and Me didn’t want Mike on our team anymore. Mike and one of our teammates were told to go do a specific workout on the track and to do it with each other to help push themselves. Mike ends up taking his girlfriend to the track worked out by himself and left our car-less teammate who lived less then two minutes away high and dry to find his own way to the track. When confronted his response was something along the lines of him not being responsible for our teammate which I believe is really messed up. Pat told me about a time when they were at the airport and there was a lady on the ground crying looking through the contents of her dumped bag for a passport or something and Mike pointed and was laughing at her, what if something was seriously wrong with her? There was one time when Mike came into the practice room and told Pat and Me that his girlfriends child was (funny) and locked the kid in the room because he was getting annoyed and then laughed. These are isolated events that stick out in my mind but know there are tons more, but all of these hopefully paint a little bit of a picture of what kind of a person Mike is behind the interview questions or cameras.
There were numerous times in person and in interviews where Mike has said this is an individual sport, just like wrestling which justifies how he acts. Try training for a fight on a desert island by yourself Mike. Mike has been at Team Quest and when he came to our team seemed to have countless bad things to say about Matt Linland and Robert Follis and how it sucked so bad there. It just seems like he is doing the same to us at BRAVE LEGION now. Mike is obviously trying to maliciously affect our gym and my career by telling lies about Pat and Myself. He seems like a crazy ex-girlfriend that tries to make their ex-boyfriends life miserable. I don’t intend on having an Internet battle just giving my side to everyone. I have read the forums and I am seriously amazed at some of the things people say only hearing one side. Hopefully this evens things out a little bit and gets read by a lot of people. I did laugh about the all of the soul patch comments though.
So, uh, yeah… There you have it. Rick Story’s side of the incident… In there… Somewhere…
Clearly unless the sparring partner in question comes out and sets the record straight this is going to be nothing more than a case of he said/she said, but if these two meet in the cage at some point down the line. I’m sure this issue will add some extra spice to the bout.
Hello, and welcome to the first edition of The Big Five! This week we are going to be taking a long, strange look at, in my humble opinion, the five best MMA entrances of all time. Most fighters use their entrance to get themselves focused and pumped up for the fight, but a select, wonderful few, take this opportunity to provide one hell of a show for the fans. Here are some of the greatest (and/or strangest) examples of such “artistry”
#5 – Jason “Mayhem” Miller, WFA: King of the Streets, 7/22/06
Are there better entrances out there? Maybe. Hell, there may even be better Mayhem Miller entrances out there, but this one deserves mention. This was Mayhem’s first fight in the mainland US in over a year at that point, and this entrance (and fight, against Lodune Sincaid) can be almost directly traced back to as when Mayhem’s popularity took off.
Lots of leg kicking goodness! The sack is full of fantastic MMA news as well as Shooter’s review of Brock Lesnar’s new auto biography, “Death Clutch”, (AKA I Hate Alot of People”) Scorcho leads the review of UFC 131. Be sure to give it a listen
Rings Radio 6/13/11: "What About My Legs, Charlie Murphy?!?!" [ 1:13:08 | 29.29 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
