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Imperial Athletics
The Blackzilians was a professional team of fighters in mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, amateur wrestling and catch wrestling located in South Florida. The team had included former UFC champions Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Eddie Alvarez and Kamaru Usman. History Owned by Glenn Robinson, Blackzilians, started when MMA fighters Jorge Santiago, Danillo Villefort, Yuri Villefort, and Gesias Cavalcante left American Top Team. The name 'Blackzilians' was coined when Strikeforce Middleweight Danillo Villefort was looking through their management's website and pointed out to Robinson that every fighter (at the time) was Black or Brazilian. It was reported on September 20, 2018, that Glenn Robinson, Blackzilians founder, had died of a suspected heart attack. As of 2017, the Blackzilians as a gym is considered defunct. Many of its members have left to join Sanford MMA, now Kill Cliff Fight Club (founded by Blackzilians trainers Henry Hooft and Greg Jones) which is ...
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Neil Melanson
Neil Melanson is an American submission grappling coach. Melanson specializes in catch wrestling, while drawing elements from judo, and focuses his coaching specifically on grappling in mixed martial arts. He is especially known for his guard work, leg locks and triangle chokes. He is currently the head grappling coach at Jaco Hybrid Training Center. He is the former head grappling coach at both Xtreme Couture Las Vegas and Alliance MMA. Melanson's hybrid grappling style comes from his training under Gene LeBell, Gokor Chivichyan, and Karo Parisyan (who awarded him his black belt) at the Hayastan MMA Academy. Gene LeBell learned catch wrestling from feared wrestlers Lou Thesz and Ed "Strangler" Lewis, which is mixed with Gokor Chivichyan's expertise in judo and sambo. Melanson considers this unique style a massive influence on his grappling, and has since incorporated techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling into his own style. Throughout ...
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Danillo Villefort
Danillo Villefort (born August 5, 1983) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist. Villefort has fought for the UFC, WEC, IFL, World Series of Fighting, and Professional Fighters League fighting in their Middleweight division. Biography Villefort was born in Brazil, he was raised in competition, being the son of Vale Tudo legend Francisco "Master Indio" Silva. He was also the god-son of Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. Villefort is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and has been doing Judo for over 30 years. Villefort is a founder and was a Judo MMA with the Blackzilians for over 6 years. In 2016 Villefort got bronze medal at the Judo Veterans World Championships in Fort Lauderdale. In 2017 Villefort became Champion at Judo US open at the light heavy weight division. World Extreme Cagefighting Villefort was set to face Jake Rosholt but Rosholt came down with an injury, the fight would have to be postponed. The WEC then disbanded their middleweight division. Villefort drop ...
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Idel Torriente
Idel Torriente Leal (born September 9, 1986) is a Cuban amateur boxer who won the Pan American featherweight title 2007 and qualified for the Olympics. Career In 2006 the southpaw beat teenage star Roniel Iglesias in the semis of the bantamweight national championships but lost the final to superstar Guillermo Rigondeaux 4:13. He went up to featherweight and won the national title vs Ivan Oñate 21:18. At the PanAms 2007 he beat Jesús Cuéllar (Arg), Nicholas Walters (Jam), Orlando Rizo and Abner Cotto (PR) in the final 7:5. He lost his national title 2008 to archrival Iván Oñate but was sent to the qualifier where he qualified for the Olympics by beating Robson Conceiçao and Luis Enrique Porozo. In Beijing he beat Prince Octopus Dzanie 11:2, Enkhzorig Zorigtbaatar 10:9 but lost to Shahin Imranov 16:18 and didn't medal. In 2009 he went up to lightweight but lost the national final to Lorenzo Sotamayor. He was sent regardless to the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Champion ...
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Boxing At The Summer Olympics
Boxing has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since its introduction to the program at the 1904 Summer Olympics, except for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, because Swedish law banned the sport at the time. The 2008 Summer Olympics were the final games with boxing as a male only event. Since the 2012 Summer Olympics, women's boxing is part of the program. Summary Events The boxing competition is organized as a set of tournaments, one for each weight class. The number of weight classes has changed over the years (currently 8 for men and 5 for women), and the definition of each class has changed several times, as shown in the following table. Until 1936, weights were measured in pounds, and from 1948 onwards, weights were measured in kilograms. From the 2016 Summer Olympics, male athletes no longer have to wear protective headgear in competition, due to a ruling by the AIBA and the IOC that it contributes to greater concussion risk. Female athletes will ...
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World Boxing Organization
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF). The WBO's headquarters are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. History The WBO started after a group of Puerto Rican and Dominican businessmen broke out of the WBA's 1988 annual convention in Isla Margarita, Venezuela over disputes regarding what rules should be applied. The WBO's first president was Ramon Pina Acevedo of the Dominican Republic. Soon after its beginning, the WBO was staging world championship bouts around the globe. Its first championship fight was for its vacant super middleweight title, between Thomas Hearns and James Kinchen; Hearns won by decision. In order to gain respectability, the WBO next elected former world light heavy ...
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World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO). The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level. Founded in the United States in 1921 by 13 state representatives as the NBA, in 1962 it changed its name in recognition of boxing's growing popularity worldwide and began to gain other nations as members. By 1975, a majority of votes were held by Latin American nations and the organization headquarters had moved to Panama. After being located during the 1990s and early 2000s in Venezuela, the organization offices returned to Panama in 2007. It is the oldest of the four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), which sanction world championship boxing bouts, alongside the ...
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Guillermo Rigondeaux
Guillermo Rigondeaux Ortiz (; born 30 September 1980) is a Cuban professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the unified WBA (Super), WBO and '' Ring'' magazine super bantamweight titles between 2013 and 2017, and the WBA (Regular) bantamweight title from 2020 to 2021. He has also challenged once for the WBO junior lightweight title in 2017. Possessing one of the greatest amateur records of all time, Rigondeaux won consecutive gold medals in the bantamweight division at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. He is also a seven-time Cuban national champion at bantamweight (2000–2006), finishing his amateur career with a record of nearly 475 fights with 12 losses; the last of these losses occurring in 2003. After Rigondeaux's defection in 2009, he turned professional and remained undefeated for almost nine years. Rigondeaux has been lauded by boxing trainer Freddie Roach as being "probably the greatest talent I've ever seen." He i ...
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Catch Wrestling
Catch wrestling (originally catch-as-catch-can) is a classical hybrid grappling style and combat sport. It was developed by J. G. Chambers in Britain . It was popularised by wrestlers of travelling funfairs who developed their own submission holds, or "hooks", into their wrestling to increase their effectiveness against their opponents. Catch wrestling derives from various different international styles of wrestling: several English styles (primarily Lancashire, as well as Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, Devonshire, and Irish collar-and-elbow wrestling). The training of some modern submission wrestlers, professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists is founded in catch wrestling. Professional wrestling, once a legitimate combat sport, was competitive catch wrestling. The original and historic World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was created in 1905 to identify the best catch as catch can wrestler in the world, before the belt was retired in 1957 and uni ...
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Kill Cliff FC
Kill Cliff FC, officially known as Kill Cliff Fight Club (formerly known as Sanford MMA, Hard Knocks 365 and Combat Club) is a mixed martial arts gym based in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It was originally founded in 2017 by Henri Hooft and Greg Jones as Combat Club and later Hard Knocks 365 before being rebranded to Sanford MMA in 2019 after obtaining a sponsorship deal with Sanford Health. In July 2022, the gym rebranded to Kill Cliff FC. Overview In 2017, Henri Hooft left the Blackzilians and alongside Greg Jones, founded the gym, Combat Club in Boynton Beach, Florida. This later rebranded as Hard Knocks 365 after moving the gym to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in order to accommodate a bigger facility. Some of the fighters who were originally training at the Blackzilians would join the new gym. In 2019, Hard Knocks 365 rebranded to Sanford MMA after obtaining a sponsorship deal with Sanford Health. A new training facility was opened in Deerfield Beach, Florida as part of the d ...
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African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Africans who are from the United States. While some Black immigrants or their children may also come to identify as African-American, the majority of first generation immigrants do not, preferring to identify with their nation of origin. African Americans constitute the second largest racial group in the U.S. after White Americans, as well as the third largest ethnic group after Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of West Africa, West/Central Africa, Central African with some European descent; some also have Native Americans in th ...
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Strikeforce (mixed Martial Arts)
Strikeforce was an American mixed martial arts and kickboxing organization based in San Jose, California which operated from 1985 to 2013. It was headed by CEO Scott Coker. Its live events and competitions have been shown on CBS, debuting on November 7, 2009, and Showtime in the United States. Internationally, Strikeforce events have been broadcast Super Channel in Canada, Primetime in the United Kingdom, SKY PerfecTV! in Japan, HBO Plus in Brazil, Space in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on the American Forces Network. In early 2011, Strikeforce was purchased by American Ultimate Fighting Championship owner Zuffa LLC, which eventually closed the promotion and brought the remaining fighter contracts into the UFC roster. History Founded as a kickboxing organization, Strikeforce later expanded into mixed martial arts. Its first MMA event, '' Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Gracie'', was held on March 10, 2006, at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The event was Calif ...
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