Gabi Garcia

Jiu-Jitsu black belt and now officially a MMA fighter, Gabi Garcia answered the critics after her first fight, this December 31, in Saitama, Japan.

Gabi posted on her social media channels her first impressions after the TKO win over Lei D’ Tapa, at Rizin FF New Year’s Eve card.

“Swollen face but a smile on my face after the fight. My life changed this past June, when I was invited to debut in MMA. I moved to California by myself and started to learn wrestling, muay thai and boxing all at the same time. I didn’t understand a lot of it and I cried and thought of giving up many times. I got kicked a lot and felling pain became a routine. Even so, I met wonderful people and made great new friends,” wrote Gabi.

She then addressed the most common critic found online after the fight, which said that her striking did not show the level expected in a professional MMA fight: “Those who thought I would have a perfect boxing technique, with everything in place, were wrong. I needed 16 years to win my first gold medal in Jiu-Jitsu competitions, so I couldn’t become an MMA champion like the ones you see on TV in only six months. Perfection only comes with time, and most of the time, it never comes.”

Gabi also wrote about the fight itself: “We had all planned out until I got punched in the face. Have you ever thought about being there where I was? Making your first professional MMA fight for a packed Saitama Super Arena? Well! It’s easy to judge my performance looking from the outside. You have never even been pinched, let alone punched. Talk is cheap.”

Despite the critics, Gabi saw the hole experience as mostly positive: “I got punched hard, went down, everything turned black, but I had the heart to come back and win the fight. Then, I was cheered by the same crowd that later on cheered Fedor with the same intensity. People travelled hundreds of miles and some people travelled half around the world to see me fight. You can’t put a price on that.”

After breaking the ice, Gabi is already making plans for the future. She announced the date of her next fight: “Now it’s back to the gym as the next battle already has a date. Japan, I see you again on April 17, in Nagoya.”

The name of the opponent is yet to be announced.

Watch Gabi’s MMA debut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXguGeCcyV8

MMA is back to Japan in great fashion.

Rizin Fighting Federation held its New Year’s Eve event this Thursday in a evening of fights that featured almost everything you can think of in terms of entertainment.

It had great action and serious talent on the ring, but also had its fair share of freak shows and the well known weirdness so common to MMA shows in the country.

Fedor Emelianenko returned to MMA after three years of retirement to easily dispatch of Jaideep Singh with some fierce ground and pound from the mount early in the first round.

A video posted by GRACIEMAG | English Edition | (@graciemagazine) on Dec 31, 2015 at 3:44am PST

Kron Gracie also ended his fight in the first round. The son of Rickson Gracie used his world-class Jiu-Jitsu to beat Asen Yamamoto with a triangle choke after a action-filled round.

A video posted by GRACIEMAG | English Edition | (@graciemagazine) on Dec 31, 2015 at 3:24am PST

Gabi Garcia had to overcome a early knockdown after a well-landed left overhand by Lei D’Tapa to win via TKO.

Visibly nervous, Gabi hit Tapa with a spinning right punch and then finished the fight on the ground with a series of punches until the referee stepped in.

A video posted by GRACIEMAG | English Edition | (@graciemagazine) on Dec 31, 2015 at 1:20am PST

Other than that, King Mo beat Teodoras Aukstuolis and Jiri Prochazka to grab the innaugural heavyweight belt.

Click here for the full results.

Rizin Fighting Federation kicked off this Tuesday, in Tokyo, Japan, with the Saraba card.

In the main event, Shinya Aoki needed not much time to defeat Kazushi Sakuraba in under 5 minutes.

Aoki, 32, took the match to the ground in the first seconds, passed the guard of 46-year-old Sakuraba and punished the veteran with punches from the mount until the referee stopped the fight.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Shinya Aoki #RizinFF #Rizin pic.twitter.com/jdcdO4TkuD

— ZombieProphet (@ZProphet_MMA) December 29, 2015

In the heavyweight Grand Prix, the results of the quarterfinals were:

King Mo beat Brett McDermott; Teodoras Aukustuolis beat Bruno Capelloza; Vadim Nemkov beat Goran Reljic; Jiri Prochazka beat Satoshi Ishii.

Rizin FF returns this Thursday, with its New Years Eve event, also from the Saitama Super Arena, featuring the semifinals of the GP and super fights featuring Fedor Emelianenko, Kron Gracie, Gabi Garcia, Bob Sapp, Akebono and others.

Know more at www.rizinff.com.

Fedor Emelianenko is getting ready to return to MMA at New Year’s Eve, at Rizin Fighting Federation.

At 38 year old, Fedor will make his comeback after a 3-year hiatus.

Watch the video above with some of his training camp in Russia.

Fedor’s opponent is yet to be announced.

Após três anos parado, Fedor está com treinos a todo vapor para lutar no Saitama Arena, no Japão. Ele, que é considerado um dos maiores lutadores de MMA de todos os tempos, não parece ter perdido o ritmo de anos atrás.

Confira o vídeo abaixo e diga se Emelianenko tem condições de dar os mesmos espetáculos de outrora.