[sambosteve]

Hi all,

This Friday or Saturday, the New York Times will be publishing an fairly comprehensive article on Sambo. The Times will cover history, Sambo's role in MMA, growth of the sport in the US, etc. Interviews with many noted sambists appear including Fedor Emilianenko, Igor Kurinnoy, Vlad Koulikov, and David Rudman. Also noted in the piece are ASA co-founder Alexander Barakov; MFS Iowa Coach Gregg Humphreys; Dayn DeRose; Rorion Gracie; Serge Gerlach, and myself. Additionally, the Times has produced a companion video for their website as well as a photo slide show. Much of the video has been filmed at New York Combat Sambo.

News being what it is...spontaneous and unpredictable, it has not been determined whether it will run on Friday or Saturday (even though the video and article are finished). There is also always a small chance it will run on another day if a notable story happens in the sports world which will take up space in the paper this weekend. However, the article is planned to be published before this Saturday's Affliction: Banned Pay Per View fight card which highlights noted sambists Fedor Emilianenko, Andrei Arlovski, and Alexander Emilianenko.

[YeahBee]

cool

We had a gem in a major newspaper recently advertising a local judo comp headline read (Come see judo a sport similar to karate but without punches and kicks"

):

[MMAtheist]

Sounds good...but they're interviewing Rorion Gracie about SAMBO? I don't know if his comments will be all that positive...

[sambosteve]

Actyally, his comments were about early MMA. His comment on sambo was actually very positive.

[MMAtheist]

I expected, at best, he'd say something like "SAMBO is okay...but clearly inferior to GRACIE Jiu-Jitsu."

[SuperSuperRambo]

Good stuff. Post a link to the article if/when it comes out online. How did this article come about? Seems kinda random for the Times to profile a martial art that's not even that popular here.

[MMAtheist]

The Perfect Throw | New York Times Video

Here's a video of it...

[damit2hell]

just to clear up the rules, there is ippons in Sambo? or is it tourny specific?

[threemilepilot]

Here's the article, great read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/sp...hp&oref=slogin

[wOg]

Originally Posted by threemilepilot

Here's the article, great read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/sp...hp&oref=slogin

I caught that one this morning also. Very well written article, I thought.

That's one thing about mainstream coverage of jiu jitsu, judo and, now, sambo. It tends to be much more positive than coverage of MMA. They tend to treat grappling sports the way they do activities like yoga: a little "foreign" and exotic, but not controversial or threatening.