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Posts Tagged ‘history’

While mixed martial arts fighting has only recently become popular in the United States, contests between fighters of different martial arts disciplines have taken place in Japan for many years. They weren’t called “mixed martial arts” until recently, but they were definitely an embryonic form of the now booming sport. Many of the most famous events of this type took place in Japan during the 1970′s involving pro wrestling legend Antonio Inoki.

Inoki would often face other martial artists in fights that are widely accepted to have been “worked” (having a predetermined outcome) in the same manner as professional wrestling matches. While Inoki faced a number of karate, judo and boxing champions his most famous match was certainly his fight against world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

There are differing accounts of how the best heavyweight boxer in history found himself in a ring in Tokyo’s Budokan Arena against a pro wrestler. One thing is certain–it was viewed as an easy payday for Ali, who’d lost a good chunk of his prime earning years to his controversial stance over the Vietnam war. That’s what got him there in the first place, and that’s what kept him there after the two sides began squabbling over the rules and the outcome of the fight. Some suggest that it was supposed to be a “fair fight” going in and once Ali saw Inoki spar he insisted on rules changes to tilt the fight in his favor. Another more likely version of the story suggests that Ali’s handlers knew that the fight was supposed to be a “work” all along. They made the deal with Inoki’s people based on this fact, and were all on board as to the outcome of the match and how it would “finish”. The “original” plan was to have Inoki win in a controversial manner that would keep his undefeated streak in “MMA” matches intact while allowing Ali to “save face. The only person who wasn’t aware of the game plan, however, was Ali himself. When informed that he was supposed to “take a dive”, even in a convoluted fashion, Ali refused. No agreement was reached between the two camps and at the last minute a legit fight transpired. The promoters were left with a sold out Budokan, a worldwide PPV audience and two fighters who despite every effort to the contrary would actually have to fight each other.

The rules that were in place on fight night were so ridiculously one sided in favor of Ali that it almost defies belief. Inoki wasn’t allowed to hit Ali with a closed fist, nor strike him in the head at all. He was also prohibited from using any sort of choke or submission maneuver. Most problematically, he was prohibited from trying to take Ali to the ground. In other words, Inoki was basically not permitted to do anything that would threaten Ali with any sort of physical harm.

The result was an absolutely horrible fight. Neither man showed much interest in engaging the other, with Inoki spending most of the time on the ground doing what he could under the one sided rules. Inoki threw kicks at Ali’s legs, Ali threw an occasional jab and tried to protect himself from his opponent’s leg strikes. The fight ended a 74-74 draw, with the real losers being the fans.

An interesting postscript to the fight is that the referee was former pro wrestler “Judo” Gene Labell, a legit tough guy whom some have suggested could have beaten up both Ali and Inoki at the same time despite his advanced age. Had he chosen to do so, it would certainly have been welcomed by those watching the fight live and on closed circuit.

In the aftermath of the fight, Inoki’s popularity was greater than ever–in a perverse way he was something of a hero due to his trying to fight despite the rules being stacked so soundly against him. He remained one of the country’s most popular professional wrestlers and even enjoyed a career in Japan’s parliament. Without missing a beat, he quickly resumed his series of fights against other martial artists who were apparently all more comfortable with the “worked” environment of pro wrestling. Among his “victims” was none other than Leon Spinks, presumably serving as some sort of vindication for his draw with Ali. The popularity of these matches led to a number of promotions that were essentially hybrids of martial arts and pro wrestling, and these led to the big Japanese MMA promotions of today.

Ross Everett is a noted writer who has written on sports gambling and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared on TV and radio talking about boxing, cricket and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a wombat.

Pablo Picasso, born in Malaga, Spain in 1881, was the son of an art teacher who encouraged him into the art world, and quickly recognised his talent. After joining the Barcelona School of Fine Arts at the age of 14 Picasso progressed quickly and soon convinced others of his extraordinary talent and creativity as an artist.

Picasso spent the years of 1900 to 1906 in what is referred to as the Blue and Rose Period. The Blue period involved the use of blue in most of Picasso’s works to represent a negativity and sadness of his paintings and those within them. Art experts, even those who rejected his later innovative style, respected his blue period. The rose period signalled a choice of brighter pink tones over the previous blues.

Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and George Braques all became friends of Pablo Picasso after he moved to the capital of arts, Paris, in 1904. Here Picasso was introduced to new art movements by its very influences, such as French Fauvism and Picasso.

Picasso was a big fan of the works of Paul Cezanne and this was the inspiration for the newly founded art movement of Cubism, and later, Synthetic Cubism. Fellow artists George Braque and Juan Gris were also key to the principles of Cubism.

Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 as a protest against an air attack during the Spanish Civil War and is one of his best known paintings, not only for its quality, but also what it symbolised. His symbolic styles were continued in Dying horse and Weeping woman.

Guernica by Picasso remained at the museum of Modern Art, New York until 1981. After that it was taken to the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain and then the Queen Sofia Center of Art, also Madrid in 1992. Picasso had prevented the Guernica returning to Spain until the end of Fascist rule by General Franco.

Death is a part of life. We all know this, yet we all get very emotional and upset should we lose someone close to our hearts. And rightly so, if we’ve lost someone who we have spent a great deal of time with over the years, of course we should feel this way, we miss them and we want to remember them.

Whether you have lost an old friend, a parent, or worst of all a child, you will want to remember them as they were when they were at their best. The ideal way to do this would be to have a memory box.

Memory boxes are most commonly used for the in the heartbreaking situation of a Mother having a stillbirth or a miscarriage. They are simply boxes that contain representations of how the deceased child was or would have been.

Usually, memory boxes will contain these items, give or take a few depending on the person; moulds of the child’s hands and fingers in clay (or something similar), the child’s inked fingerprints, the birth details of the child along with his/her name, pictures and a lock of hair.

This is not the only situation in which memory boxes are used. It is becoming more and more common for people to make them for themselves when they know that they are on their way out.

This might be appropriate if a parent knows that they are going to die, but their children are young and still need them, or simply if someone has a lot of close friends or family and they want people to remember them, age is not necessarily relevant.

Some items that would probably be included in this case would be; most likely, lots of pictures, mostly of the person with the people that they will give the box to. Also, any personal or trademark belongings, for example if someone always carried a particular watch, then that would probably be included. Fragrances such as perfume or after-shave that the person was known for wearing is fairly common as well.

The boxes are always personalised with the persons name on the outside (well, not always, but usually). They make a perfect keepsake for anyone who has lost someone dear to them until the day comes when they make their own memory box.