MARCH 29, 2012: Recently, a friend of mine asked me an honest question with regards to Will Ribeiro. He asked, “What makes Will a hero? What makes him any more special than anyone else?” Well, that’s not necessarily an easy question to answer. Why does anyone deserve that label? I do acknowledge that it’s a term that definitely gets thrown around way too much these days. With that being said however, I feel quite strongly that it describes someone of Will’s character perfectly, and I also feel that he is quite deserving of that particular title if only because of...

“Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love.”—Morihei Ueshiba Recently, I had the pleasure of watching a video on ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ special, which specifically highlighted the life and challenges of an aspiring MMA fighter from Utah by the name of Rad Martinez. What specifically caught my attention and what made Rad’s story so unique and inspiring wasn’t just that he was working hard to pursue his athletic dream (which is difficult enough), but that he was also balancing...

“See me as a meal ticket, but I’m no lunch line.”—Big Sean, Rapper Earlier today it was announced that current UFC Featherweight Champion, Jose Aldo, finally decided to part ways (I prefer the word “dumped”) with his long-time MMA management team, Tough Media Inc., which as many MMA fans already know, consists of two main founders—Ed Soares and Jorge Guimaraes (aka “Joinha”). No doubt, this has got to come as a tremendous blow to both Soares and Guimaraes, as this is now the second time in only seven months that they have lost one of their superstar “UFC Champion” clients…sorry…I...

Written by James Ryan “Success without honour is an unseasoned dish. It will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.”—Coach Joe Paterno Brazilian entertainer, MC Frank, seems like a truly great guy. It’s really refreshing to see the support that he and many others have been offering former WEC fighter, Will Ribeiro, especially when you consider that so many others have tucked-tail and run away from the controversy due to callousness or fear of retribution. As a side note, I would just like to say the following with regards to Will and the whole situation that went down with...

Written by James Ryan “You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.”—T.S. Eliot In that regard, I can certainly empathize with UFC fighter, Miguel Torres—to a point that is. On one hand, it’s a good thing that the UFC brought Torres back from his recent termination over a “rape van” joke that was made via Twitter (actually, it was less of a joke, and more of a quote from the unusually offensive TV show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which currently airs on the new home network of the UFC—FOX Television). #ironic On the other hand, Torres never...

There has been no other person that I have ever met in my entire life that has faced as much criticism and hatred than Will Ribeiro’s brother, Wladimir Alves. The reason? As a result of his own desperation, Wladimir embarked on a social media campaign to help his brother who is now confined to a wheelchair down in Brazil (which I have been told by others that “being handicapped down in Brazil is the equivalent of living in hell”), but a funny thing about this criticism is that it only seems to come from those who are fans or members of the fighting circuit. Beyond that, Wladimir is continuously...

It’s been a very upsetting past 24-hours for Will Ribeiro supporters, as news filtered out yesterday into multiple social media networks, that Will was apparently being barred from attending the UFC 134 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this upcoming weekend. The reason? Apparently, my new book, Desolate Warrior was to blame. Despite the many differences between Will and his former friends and managers over at Black House MMA (Anderson Silva, Rodrigo Nogueira, Ed Soares, Jorge Guimarães, etc.), and also between myself and Dana White, I still found this news incredibly hard to believe. From a...

The way I see it, the problem with MMA’s popularity (or “lack of” popularity from a mainstream sporting perspective) has absolutely nothing to do with accessibility. In other words, between Spike TV, Sportsnet, Facebook, and of course, UFC Pay-per-views (or illegal Internet streams of PPV’s—whichever suits your financial needs), I haven’t had to miss a single UFC event since long before I can even remember—minus the ones of course that I consciously chose to miss due to the occasional family or friend obligation. In fact, I have been a loyal fan of the UFC since the very beginning,...

As many MMA fans are already well aware, this past week was a massive step forward towards the UFC’s ultimate goal of mainstream acceptance and popularity, as they signed an exclusive network television deal with Fox Television worth approximately $100 million per year over the next several years. That’s a lot of cheese. “Familiarity with evil breeds not contempt, but acceptance.”—Roy Hattersley The deal will include four live events per year, along with the usual Spike programming of The Ultimate Fighter reality show—a show by the way, that has steadily dropped in ratings ever since...

As you may or may not have heard, in a recent move that has shocked millions of MMA fans from around the world, Black House fighter and top UFC Heavyweight contender, Junior dos Santos, announced via his Facebook and Twitter accounts (how’s that for an official press release?) that he is no longer under the strained and questionable management skills of Ed Soares, Jorge Guimarães, and/or Tough Media Inc. “I am officially no longer managed by Tough Media Inc. or Ed Soares. For any press requests, sponsorship inquiries, or other matters, please contact Ana Claudia Guedes at anaclaudiaguedes@mac.com.” So...