British lightweight Terry Etim faces Edward Faaloloto on the main card of this Saturday's UFC 138.
Bloody Elbow has an interesting feature outlining the eccentric martial arts back ground of both fighters. Etim comes from a Luta Livre background:
Marcio "Cromado" Barbosa is the founder and head coach of The Renovacao Fight Team in Brazil, which he created to keep the Luta Livre tradition alive and relevant in modern day MMA.
Cromado was a student of Eugenio Tadeu, who trained under the father and son duo of Grand Master Fausto Brunocilla and Carlos Brunocilla, who in turn were students of the legendary Robert Leitao and the original founding father of Luta Livre, Master Euclydes "Tatu" Hatem.
Etim journeyed to Brazil to prepare for his UFC debut with Azevedo at RFT and is now a student under Marcelo Brigadeiro; one of Cromado's star students who opened up an RFT affiliate school in the UK.
Faaloloto has an even more exotic resume with a background in two indigenous Pacific disciplines Limalama and Kajukenbo:
Limalama means "hands of wisdom" and was founded by American-Samoan Tino Tuiolosega, who started with a foundation in Polynesian martial arts called "Lua" which centered around boxing, kicking, wrestling, throws, joint and bone dislocation, nerve-center attacks and "dirty fighting".
Tuiolosega went on to complement his Lua background with the five animal styles of Chinese Kung Fu and began to develop his own fighting system. The end result was Limalama, a diverse combat philosophy that integrated boxing, clinch-fighting, grappling and submission holds but relied heavily on a mixed striking style rooted in Kenpo karate.
Another unique martial art born from Hawaii, Kajukenbo was created in the late 1940's when a congregation of masters from various traditional martial arts disciplines formed "The Black Belt Society". The group's intention was to train together and learn from one another to determine the most effective conglomeration of martial arts for realistic combat scenarios.
What arose from those sessions was a mesh of Karate, Judo, Kenpo and Boxing, all of which combine to make up the name "Kajukenbo."
Loading comments...