xenergy

xyience

PROELITE.COM PARTNERSHIP WITH ONTHEMAT BRINGS TOGETHER THE BEST OF ONLINE MMA AND GRAPPLING

Posted on | May 22, 2007 | No Comments

PROELITE.COM PARTNERSHIP WITH ONTHEMAT BRINGS TOGETHER THE BEST OF ONLINE MMA AND GRAPPLING

Renowned Journalist, Entrepreneur and Jiu-Jitsu Champion, Scotty Nelson, to Help Build ProElite.Com Grappling Fan Base with OTM Cross-Promotions

(LOS ANGELES) – May 22, 2007 – Continuing its growing number of alliances and partnerships within the world of combat, ProElite.com, the comprehensive and inclusive online community for MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters, fans and organizations, announced today its exclusive licensing and content partnership with MMA media and retail company, OnTheMat (OTM).

During this multi-year commitment, ProElite.com will use its comprehensive user tools for the MMA community to enhance OTM’s world famous grappling fight brand through promoting its retail fight gear and clothing business and its online destination, OnTheMat.com. The two companies will share resources including OTM’s database of fighters and fight schools and ProElite.com’s database of registered users. In addition, ProElite.com will leverage OTM’s thousands of hours of grappling event videos for programming and promotional purposes.

“Scotty Nelson has built one of the most iconic and authentic businesses in our industry,” said Kelly Perdew, President of ProElite.com. “Scotty Nelson and his brand are world renowned and his partnership with ProElite.com opens up a rich pipeline of grappling content featuring some of the biggest names in MMA, as well as branding possibilities for our organization and MMA fans.”

Founded in 1997 and led by jiu-jitsu champion and renowned grappling journalist, Scotty Nelson, OTM is a media and retail company that, through OnTheMat.com, produces 20-30 video magazines, instructional and tournament compilations a year. The site offers its users thousands of free online videos, a discussion forum, a jiu-jitsu related encyclopedia and an online shop. The OTM brand has also produced many of the world’s greatest grappling events, such as Grappler’s Quest and Abu Dhabi Combat Club’s championships. In addition, OTM’s six retail stores in California, Las Vegas and Hawaii, will promote ProElite.com services to their customer base.

“There is no one in the industry I trust more with the OTM brand than Kelly Perdew and ProElite.com,” said Scotty Nelson, OTM founder and CEO. “The convergence of technology and ProElite.com’s growing popularity among MMA fans made the timing of this partnership right. I am anxious to tap into the vast network that ProElite.com provides.”

ProElite.com’s brand neutrality in growing the MMA sport is demonstrated by its recent deals. For example, ProElite.com will be the exclusive online social networking destination for SMP, Inc. that will distribute promotional video for SMP-produced reality shows, MMA videos, photographs and editorial content from Tapout Magazine and MMA Worldwide magazines. In April, ProElite.com integrated popular MMA online destination, MMAMix.com, into its lineup of partners.

ProElite.com and OTM are headquartered in Los Angeles.

# # #
About ProElite, Inc. (www.proelite.com)
ProElite Inc. (PELE:PK) delivers the most exciting entertainment experience in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) with live arena-based entertainment events, cable television programming on Showtime Networks and community-driven interactive broadband entertainment via the Internet. ProElite embraces MMA with the highest levels of honor, integrity, discipline and self-esteem all the while remaining inclusive for fighters, fans and schools. ProElite’s live fight division, EliteXC, delivers spectacular live MMA fight events that showcase the world’s top fighters. ProElite’s interactive business, ProElite.com, capitalizes on the growing popularity of the sport of mixed martial arts by building a community of mixed martial arts enthusiasts. In addition to streaming the most exciting live fights to the web, ProElite expands the fan base of the sport by providing a comprehensive set of online social networking tools for fans, fighters and organizations. ProElite.com – Empowering the Fight Community TM

About OnTheMat (www.onthemat.com)
OnTheMat (OTM) is comprehensive retail and media company that serves the world of combat grappling. As a media company, OTM, through its website, OnTheMat.Com, produces 20-30 video magazines, instructional and tournament compilations a year while offering its users thousands of free online videos, a discussion forum and a jiu-jitsu related encyclopedia. As producers of grappling events around the world, OTM is involved with sponsorship, promotion, competition and media coverage of each event. As a retail company, OTM serves grappling fans and fighters with a line of clothing and gear offered through OnTheMat.Com and its six retail stores in Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii. OTM was founded in 1997 by grappling champion, entrepreneur and journalist, Scotty Nelson. OTM is headquartered in Los Angeles.

MARK “LIGHTS OUT” MATHESON INTERVIEW

Posted on | May 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

MARK MATHESON: WORKING TOWARD A COMEBACK

By: Rich Bergeron

[mpinpage]

Mark “Lights Out” Matheson of Team Dragon Warrior is a young man who literally fought his way out of the projects and accomplished his dreams through hard work, dedication and constant practice. Nursing a shoulder injury that put him on the sidelines, Matheson will undergo surgery to repair the damage and then set about doing some damage of his own in the New England MMA circuit once again.

The Lynn, Massachusetts native first watched the sport back when UFC 1 hit the airwaves. He was just seven years old then, and the more he saw the more he wanted to participate. A friend of his, who will be fighting in a match this coming summer, showed him some moves before he started seriously training in martial arts after he found Sensei Steve Pento. Running classes out of his basement dojo, Pento took Matheson under his wing. “A little while later I found my first fight,” said Matheson. “Everyone’s dream is to become a professional at something. I just always had an interest in Ultimate Fighting, but I never thought I’d do it. I just had an opportunity and jumped on it.”

Pento, who is paralyzed from the waist down and still manages to train in MMA, is one of Matheson’s biggest role models. “Sensei Steve taught me first of all discipline, and he’s a big inspiration. You just have to look at his situation and what he does.” he said about his teacher. “Outside of training my big inspiration was my fiancée, because she’s always been 100 percent behind me, and she really supported me through it all.”

MARK AND SENSEI STEVE PENTO AFTER MARK’S UNANIMOUS DECISION WIN AT WFL’S LACONIA MAYHEM AGAINST MIKE “THE PSYCHO” HANLON

MATHESON’S FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER LEARNING AN ARM BAR FROM HER DAD

His ultimate goal in the sport is to be a full-fledged professional Ultimate Fighter. He knows the UFC is “a longshot,” but he’d love to make it to that level or get into a King Of The Cage show. “I’m not really out to beat people up,” he said. “I just want to improve my skills, make my sensei proud, and win a title.”

Last December, Matheson had his plans put on hold when he suffered a terrible shoulder injury. He dislocated the shoulder going for a takedown shot on Bobby McAndrews who came in with more of a boxer’s skill set than an MMA fighter’s. Matheson is still bothered by how “arrogant” McAndrews was about what he considers a cheap win. “It was really bad. I sprawled, my shoulder popped out, and when I went to go tell the ref, he hit me in the eye,” Matheson recalled. “Then he’s running around celebrating like he just knocked me out. He should have said, ‘I don’t want to win that way.’ A true fighter should not celebrate a win off an injury he didn’t even cause through his own skills.”

To make matters worse, McAndrews clapped him on his bad shoulder after the fight, and Matheson said even his girlfriend was disrespectful. “I’m one of the classiest fighters you’ll ever meet,” he explained. “When I go up to introduce myself, I always say, ‘Let’s put a show on.’ It isn’t a fight, it’s a competition, but when it comes to him [McAndrews] I’m looking for a fight now.”

He’s looking forward to coming back and somehow earning a rematch with his new arch-enemy. He would also like to get back on a steady winning track after starting out 2-4, facing three undefeated fighters in his first three matches. Still, not all of his losses were discouraging.

“My best fight was probably with Ben Manseau, because I had very limited training at the time,” he said. “I went in there, and in the first round I knocked him down with a right hook, and I rocked him with a nice head kick. He took me down and tapped me out in the end, but I went into that fight on three days training, and I took a guy that was a Miletich Fighting Systems guy, I took a guy that was 5-0, and I gave him a good fight. That inspired me. It hurt me when I lost, but it inspired me to keep going.”

GOING FOR A HEAD KICK AGAINST MANSEAU AT COMBAT ZONE 17 TAKE CONTROL

MARK PRESSING THE GROUND AND POUND GAME

It has been a long, difficult journey for Matheson so far, but he refuses to let one small hurdle stand in his way. “I started out at about 135 pounds, and I was a heavy drinker, but then I met Sensei Steve, and he turned me into the fighter I am now,” he said. “I came way too far from the life I lived to let my shoulder stop me, so I’m trying to get back and do it 100 percent.”

EVEN THE CAMERA CAN’T CATCH MARK’S FAST STRIKES IN THIS SHOT OF HIS KO OVER DAN KOBUS OF MSA AT COMBAT ZONE 15

Though he now lives in Manchester, New Hampshire, Matheson said he will “always represent Massachusetts.”

Look for the time off to reinvigorate his vision and get him focused on coming back with new intensity. “I’ll definitely be back as a different fighter,” he said.

[/mpinpage]

A GYM OF HER OWN

Posted on | May 22, 2007 | 4 Comments

MARINE WIFE GETS GOING WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH
MONICA SANFORD’S CAMP LEJEUNE CLUB JIU JITSU EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

By: Rich Bergeron

[mpinpage]

Monica Sanford is just one of a growing number of women getting involved in mixed martial arts, but instead of being content with taking a few classes, she started her own gym. The wife of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines deployed now in Iraq, she has spent her time away from her husband establishing two local North Carolina jiu jitsu gyms with one based at Camp Lejeune and the other in nearby Jacksonville.

While stationed in Hawaii, Sanford and her husband met Relson Gracie and took lessons from him. “From the first lesson, I was hooked,” said Sanford. “He taught me what was called the rape guard position, and it’s perfect for self defense.”

The encounter with one of the famed Gracie clan led Monica to continue practicing the art of jiu jitsu over the following years as she and her husband moved from base to base. “It’s the first thing I do when I move somewhere, find a place to train,” she said. “That’s why I opened my own gym here, because there was no place where the main focus was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. When I first moved here we had a black belt instructor here, and I took lessons from him, but he left.”

Shortly after moving to Camp Lejeune, the club’s concept grew from a dream to reality, and today there are two thriving locations in the community that is home to 30 to 50,000 Marines. “They all love it,” said Sanford. “BJJ and ground fighting is good to learn as a combat technique and good for them physically. The club is now affiliated with a sixth-degree black belt under Rickson Gracie, Luiz Palhares. We’re affiliated with his school now, and we even have one of his black belts coming to teach tonight.”

MONICA AND LUIZ PALHARES

Her aptly named Club Jiu Jitsu now caters to Marines and citizens alike, at all the different levels. Though usually blue and purple belted instructors teach the class, she occasionally has black belts come in to teach when she can find them. There are also guest instructors from the Mixed Martial Arts circuit who lead class every so often. She will have a guest come in soon who is an Olympic hopeful and another to follow who is the head of the Marine Corps boxing team. The Marine Corps wrestling coach already came out to the club to do takedown defense and takedown drills with her students. One of the club’s wrestling coaches is a professional cage fighter, and other local fighters come in to share their knowledge, too. As if all that weren’t enough, there’s even a Muay Thai instructor who comes in every other weekend. “We pretty much run the gamut,” she said. “Though, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the primary focus.”

At her all-inclusive establishments, she prides herself on attracting people who come to learn all kinds of techniques and shed their egos at the door. She maintains that most of her students come to “share something or learn something” at her gyms.

“The guys love it, and they all think it’s super cool. We try to get good training people in to train them, and even though we’ve all seen it on the UFC shows, and we all know it works, when you actually do it it’s very humbling for some people,” she said. “A lot of people come in and think they can just fight.”

Being a lady in a sport with mostly male participants has never been a real problem for Sanford, who explains she can be girly and glamorous off the mat and then go right back to being a fierce, competitive fighter when playing the role of instructor. “As afar as being a woman, it’s the best workout, and it’s the best for self-defense, because it relies on your positioning on the ground. Women in a fight usually have to fight from the ground, and it’s all about technique,” she said. “But, I can be the biggest girly girl on the side with my silver earrings and pink high heels.”

It helps that Sanford has always been active before embarking on a mission to master martial arts. “I’ve been learning martial arts for about five years now, and before that I did 15 triathlons, I ran marathons, and I was definitely active, but nothing like this at all,” she said. “My husband had been doing it for over eight years, and he got me hooked on Ultimate Fighting and cage fighting, and that was it. Once you’re immersed in it, you get addicted. It’s very addicting, that whole lifestyle, and I’m seeing lots of women get into it. I’m actually trying to bring a fight card to the base, and I want a woman’s fight on the card. It would be the first one on a Marine base.”

She does encounter the occasional sneering male chauvinist while teaching her classes, but she usually sets them straight when she shows them what she can do. “It takes them as long as it takes for me to get down on the mat, show them the technique, and show that it works,” she explained. “I know I have to prove myself, and sometimes I have to go above and beyond to prove myself. When I get on mat and show the techniques, they know it works. You can’t just talk the game, you have to do the game. When I get them in a guillotine in two seconds flat, or in an arm bar in two seconds flat, they know it works.”

She does admit that, like any school, guys come in with the attitude that no girl can teach them anything they don’t already know. Sometimes they even come in and think nobody has any new skills to teach them. Sanford said she often sometimes sees these students with “the ego from Helll” and gets to watch them find out they don’t know all the tricks in the book. “Either I go and show ‘em or one of my guys show ‘em and humble them, and either they exit the building mad and never come back, or they say, ‘I need to learn this stuff,’ and put their egos aside. And it’s mainly people who come in with egos that are the problem,” said Sanford. “I’ve only had a couple in three months, for the most part, and we’ve had over 100 guys come through the doors, out of about fifty thousand type-A Marine type personalities. For them to come in with no egos is awesome, and they’re all great kids.”

MONICA, SOME GUEST FIGHTERS, AND HER TRAINING STAFF

Still, Sanford warns that those without thick skin need not apply. “If you’re afraid to break a nail or mess up your hair, it’s not for you,” she said. “But, you can still be pretty when you step outside, and most of the guys don’t even recognize me outside the gym when I’m in town.”

Monica sometimes even gets the chance to use the fact that she’s a woman to motivate students to try harder. “When I’m on the mat doing it, I totally enjoy when I am teaching brand new guys who’ve never done it, and their light goes on and they see that it works. If I can tap ‘em out, hold them from submitting me, or put them in positions they’re not used to being in, they see my strength and technique, the light goes on, and they smile and get all humble. They say, ‘I need to learn this,’ and it’s that whole male ego thing. If a guy comes in and gets tapped out by someone smaller, or by a girl, they can’t have their ego get smaller, and they want to learn it,” she explained. “It’s very rewarding, and I’ve had one young marine with me about a year, and he’s grown leaps and bounds in personality and on the mat. I’m also a nurse, so that helps when I’m out with a bunch of 20-30 years olds banging each other around.”

In addition to being a martial arts instructor, Sanford holds a business degree from Hawaii Pacific University and a nursing degree from Johns Hopkins University, maintains a nursing job at a local hospital, and raises two children. “It’s not just a sport for knuckleheads or thugs,” she asserted. “I have a brain in my head, and it’s not like I go out and try to beat up people.” She enjoys being able to both train and run the business, and she’s glad to have the opportunity “to see fighting everyday.” She insists, “It’s a great job.”

As far as competition, she doesn’t see it in the cards, but she still enjoys the practice and won’t completely rule it out. “My signature move, I always try to get, is the arm bar. It takes my entire body to get an arm bar on a big huge guy, but if I’m fighting somebody in my guard, I have to go straight to trying to break their arm,” she said. “I have not competed, but I think I would have if I started a lot sooner. I just don’t think I would heal as fast as some of these young kids, and now that I’m doing this five days a week, I feel old. I may do it. I don’t think I look old or act old, but I feel old. I can’t really say I will never, but I have not to this point.”

Although she does see plenty of older students coming in, she reports that the average age of her classes is about 25 years old. “I have some younger students, and I have doctors and lawyers and privates all the way up to colonels. It’s just a good mix of everybody,” she said. “I took my club to a competition, about eight of my guys, and six won. We’re getting into a little bit of everything, taking road trips with the guys, and going to tournaments and fights.”

MONICA AT ONE OF HER CLASSES

She said she does her best to keep some of the older people in her classes up to speed and allow them the glory of tapping out the teenagers and twenty-something “big strapping Marines.” She’s happy to see the sport spanning generations so smoothly. “It’s just awesome to be in the sport and to be part of it like I am. It was a great opportunity when I first came here, and I’m just proud of all my guys, and I do it for those guys. I give them respect, and they give me respect. It goes both ways, and I treat ‘em all like my babies,” she said. “My husband’s been in the Marines for 23 years now, and I respect every single one of ‘em.”

She will always be a serious fan of MMA and can’t wait for what the future of the sport holds. “It’s so damn cool that you can have just total domination and then get up and shake hands,” she said. “Any fight you ever see, it’s about who wants it more, and then each person stands up with total respect for the other person, and that’s just beautiful.”

To find out more about Sanford and Club Jiu Jitsu go to:

CLUB JIU JITSU’S MYSPACE

[/mpinpage]