Long Island MMA Fight Team | MMA on Long Island

The Long Island MMA Team is Growing Strong!!

At UFC Fight Night 83: Cowboy vs. Cowboy, Dennis “The Menace” Bermudez went up against Tatsuya “The Crusher” Kawajiri and got himself an impressive win with a unanimous decision.  Kawajiri grinded out the first round by pressuring Bermudez, trying to force him against the cage and to the ground where Kawajiri assumed he had the advantage.  In the second and third rounds Kawajiri learned the hard way that his strategy does not work against Dennis the Menace.  Bermudez put his explosive striking to work whenever there was space, and closed the gap to control and deliver some vicious ground and pound which lead to his victory.  This win marks another dominant performance from a fighter on the Long Island MMA team.

Bermudez has been training and fighting out of Long Island MMA located in Farmingdale NY, and it seems all of the fighters out of this gym have been victorious as of late!  Welterweight contender Ryan LaFlare closed out December of 2015 with an extremely impressive performance against Mike Pierce.  LaFlare’s whole career has been dominant as he is currently 12-1 and has won 5 out of his 6 UFC fights.  Each fight we can see just how his skills are improving, LaFlare’s earlier matches showed a lot of his wrestling background and more recently he has showcased his superior striking skills he developed under the training of Henri Hooft.  Another UFC fighter out of Long Island MMA is Lightweight contender Chris Wade.  Chris has won all 4 of his UFC matches and finished 2 out of 4 with first round submissions.  Wade’s most recent win was at UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs. Cruz against The Ultimate Fighter contender Mehdi Baghdad.  Chris dominated Baghdad for 4 and a half minutes before locking on a rear naked choke to finish, and this fight was scheduled on short notice!  Chris has been confident in his skills and has recently called out some of UFC’s top fighters like Sage Northcutt and Connor McGregor. Not only does Long Island MMA have top notch UFC fighters, but it is also a home for the Bellator Bantamweight Champion Marcus “Loro” Galvao.  Galvao has gone up against the best Bellator has to offer and is currently holding the title with a 4 fight win streak.  Galvao took this title from Joe Warren at Bellator 135 where Loro had Warren screaming from the pain of a serious kneebar. You can see that Long Island MMA has top notch trainers, each specializing in the many different arts that can make a complete fighter.  Not only is the instruction at Long Island MMA the best, but the facility in which they use is also the best and cleanest MMA facility on Long Island.  They use a 12,000 square foot facility which includes over 5,000 square feet of training mats, full MMA cage, bag section, weight and cardio equipment, locker rooms and showers, sauna, and even an in house Sports-Massage Therapist.  The team is constantly growing so don’t hesitate to call now and schedule your FREE private lesson with one of their professional instructors!

NEW: Long Island MMA FREE Technique

NEW: Long Island MMA FREE Technique 

Long Island MMA Fighter Bobby Bodden was training at Long Island MMA for his next up and coming fight with female MMA fighter Sarah Thomas. 

Bobby and Sarah took time out of there busy training schedule at Long Island MMA to show us some of the techniques they are working on. In the below video Bobby and Sarah shows us what to do after you slip a jab. These techniques are pretty simple but they can be combined with other techniques to really add some steam to the combinations.

Check out Long Island MMA's Youtube channel for more techniques, and please don't forget to like comment and subscribe!

Long Island MMA on UFC 197 | Long Island MMA

It has been confirmed!  On April 23rd 2016 we will see the highly anticipated rematch between Jon “Bones” Jones and Daniel Cormier, as well as a matchup between Demetrious Johnson and Henry Cejudo.  The UFC had hoped that 197 would be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, being the organizations first event held in the state of New York.  The federal court has not yet ruled on Zuffa’s appeal on New York’s MMA ban, causing the preliminary injunction UFC was hoping for to be denied by a federal judge.  In light of all this the UFC has moved the event to Las Vegas. At UFC 197 Jon Jones will be looking to regain the Light-Heavyweight Championship that he never lost from Daniel Cormier.  DC is the last person Jones fought inside the Octagon before he was stripped of the title due to his hit-and-run incident in New Mexico.  At the time Jones was scheduled to fight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, but was replaced by Daniel Cormier after his incident became public and UFC was forced to take action.  DC had defeated Johnson and successfully defended the title against Alexander Gustaffson, and he feels this time around he is ready for Jones and the fans will see different results than their previous bout.  Jones on the other hand is confident he will defeat DC again, regain his championship, and give Rumble Johnson the fight he deserved last year. The Co-main event we will see the UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson against the Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo.  Mighty Mouse Johnson has been one of the most dominant champions the UFC has ever seen.  He is on a 9 fight win streak and has been the only Flyweight Champion the UFC ever had. Henry Cejudo on the other hand has had a very successful career himself, not only was he a 2008 Olympic Gold-Medalist, but he is currently 10-0 in his MMA career.  Demetrious has dominated all of his recent fights, making it seem as if no one is on his level.  Cejudo is in for the biggest fight of his life; let’s see if he is ready for the test. UFC 197 is building to be a card you don’t want to miss.  BJ Penn has announced his return to the UFC in the Featherweight division, and they are planning for this comeback to be at UFC 197.  His opponent is TBD at the moment, but it is exciting to hear that such a legendary fighter will be returning.  Let’s keep our fingers crosses for BJ to find a good opponent, and for Jon Jones to keep himself out of trouble!

A Win for Long Island in UFC!

A Win for Long Island in UFC!

This past weekend at UFC 194 we witnessed the upsetting loss of the UFC Middleweight Champion,
Chris Weidman, to the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Luke Rockhold.  Despite Chris’s
efforts to defend his title, Rockhold finished him with a 4th round TKO to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion.  This may have been an upsetting for many of Weidman’s hometown fans
from Long Island, NY, but luckily Chris wasn’t the only Long Island boy fighting this past weekend!
Ryan LaFlare, fighting out of his gym in Farmingdale, NY, took his 12th professional win against Mike Pierce on Friday at The Ultimate Fighter Finale.  LaFlare has won 5 of his 6 UFC fights, and intends on adding more to that list!  This fight against Mike Pierce was really important because LaFlare was coming off his first and only career loss, and he came back better than ever.  Ryan LaFlare dominated Mike Pierce for 3 rounds ending in a unanimous decision.  LaFlare had made some improvements in his striking game and out-struck Pierce with clean counters and devastating body kicks.  Pierce was forced to attempt his takedowns on LaFlare, but all his attempts failed as LaFlare was able to stuff them, create the space he needed, and continue dominating on the feet.  The excitement increased at the end of the 3rd when both fighters bit down on their mouth piece and finished with a barrage of punches until the bell rang.  Sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win.  It’s important to learn from the losses we encounter and

celebrate all the wins along the way!

Long Island MMA Technique Series: Boxing | Long Island MMA

Long Island MMA Technique Series:

If you are from Long Island and in any way involved in the boxing community the name Herman Williams should ring a bell. Coach Herman is Long Island MMA’s head boxing coach. One of the things that make coach Herman unique is that although he is unquestionable a skilled boxer and boxing coach Herman is also well skilled in many other martial arts as well.

Coach Herman wrestled in his high school days as well as participated in many Brazilian jiu Jitsu classes shortly after.  Coach Herman has a deep understanding of the ground game when it comes to fighting which makes him an ideal boxing coach for a mixed martial artist. On Long Island it’s difficult to find a better suited coach for a MMA fighter.

In this video series coach Herman shows us some of the finer points on how to throw a Jab. Coach Herman teaches us how to defend a Jab as well. This is a great video for those of you starting out in mixed martial arts. The Jabs is one of the most fundamental strikes in MMA and you cannot be a good MMA fighter without a successful jab.

UFC’S BEST STRIKING COACH COMES TO LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK!

UFC’S BEST STRIKING COACH COMES TO LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK!

Renown striking coach, Henri Hooft, had made his way back to Long Island this past weekend for a kickboxing seminar at “Long Island MMA and Fitness Center” in Farmingdale, NY.  Hooft has trained some top fighters such as Anthony Johnson, Rashad Evans, Eddie Alverez, Vitor Belfort, Tyrone Spong, and Long Island’s own, Ryan Laflare.  It is never wise to miss an opportunity to train under such a knowledgeable coach.  With a style that blends the disciplines of Muay Thai and Dutch Kickboxing, there is no better way to take your striking game to the next level.

Henri Hooft left the soccer fields as a child to start karate lessons, and soon found his way into kickboxing.  After years of kickboxing he had moved to Thailand while still competing in the Netherlands.  The cross training helped attribute him to be such a well-rounded trainer with the ability to blend styles as needed.  Hooft holds 89 Kickboxing matches in his professional career, and has earned World and European titles.  He currently works as the head striking coach of Blackzillians fight team in Boca Raton, Florida.  We are lucky that we are able to host a Henri Hooft seminar, here at Long Island MMA in Farmingdale, once a year.  I know many people are looking forward to his next visit to New York

The turn out on this seminar was excellent.  There were enough people for everyone to work with many different partners of different skills and sizes, and Henri had made a point to give each person enough attention to help them advance their own game.  After almost two hours of cleaning up our fundamentals everyone had the opportunity to join in some sparring sessions at the end.  Asking around the gym afterwards all you could hear was positive reviews!  “It was a great experience and I will definitely be coming to the next one” says Long Island MMA’s Mike Morris.  “It was really awesome to work with such a renowned trainer who has worked with so many great fighters, some of the tips he gave me are going to have a big impact on my technique” said Keiran Kirk, member of Chris Weidman and Ray Longo’s Power MMA in Garden City, New York.   It’s good to see practitioners from all over Long Island to gather for such an event, everyone is looking forward to the next time Henri Hooft can make his way here!

Wrestling Technique's from coach Kyle Cerminara | Long Island MMA

 In these two videos Long Island MMA coach Kyle Cerminara teaches us some cool techniques one set on techniques from a collar tie and one set of techniques from a fake single.

We see how to manipulate our opponent by creating a dominant angle and there by executing either the throw by to single leg, or the knee pick. Each take-down is excellent for its own particular application and we hope you are all able to add these to your drilling. Remember, perfect practice makes perfect execution!

The second set of techniques is from a fake or failed shot. Coach Kyle enlists the help of UFC fighter "The Menace" Dennis Bermudez to help him demonstrate the technique. First you get your opponent to step back using a leg touch or a single leg attempt and then when your opponent steps away you use superior footwork and some specific positioning to  get to a high crotch take-down.

MMA Technique - Pole Drag Side Kick | Long Island MMA

In this video Long Island MMA Muay Thai coach, Anthony D’Angelo, teaches us the pole drag side kick. This technique is excellent for closing distance and entering into punching range. As demonstrated, the pole drag side kick is followed up by several punches and Coach D’Angelo stresses that the combination be ended with a kick; really sticking it to our opponent. This should be an extremely useful kick for strikers that are having trouble closing the distance to land their punches.