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Just read Karo's new instructional book, Bro!
I just finished reading Karo's Judo for Mixed Martial Arts, I thought I'd post a mini review:
The book was co-authored by Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza, who have also done similar books with Randy Couture and BJ Penn, both of which I highly recommend if you are interested in learning MMA or grappling techniques.
The book starts out with Karo's history, how he and his family moved to LA in the '80s. He talks about his Armenian heritage and how it has impacted his fighting. He was basically a punk growing up so his father forced him to learn Judo from Gokor when growing up. He excelled at it very quickly and by the time he was a teenager he was defeating much older and experienced judoka in competition.
His first fight was when he was 14 and his father and trainer took him to Mexico to compete in an early MMA match. His opponent was a crowd favorite, a 22 year old fighter with a decent amount of experience. Karo defeated him and afterwards some women in the audience "kidnapped (him) and turned (him) into a man."
He talks about all of his UFC fights, Dave Strassler, Shonnie Carter, Matt Serra, Nick Diaz, Diego Sanchez, and GSP. He defends his losses, which were usually because he didn't train enough for his opponents. He mentions the infamous TUF incident between him and Nate Diaz, too.
The book was finalized before the KO loss to Alves, so there is no mention of that.
The techniques are presented very well, with step by step instruction, multiple angle views of almost every technique, and instances where he has used a technique in either Judo or MMA competition.
The book breaks down into several sections: Throws (seo-nagi, osoto-gari/leg sweeps, hip throws, slamming techniques), Grappling (pins, submissions from top and bottom, escapes from bottom, transitions) and ground and pound. The throws really stand out in this book since he goes in depth to explain how to catch an effective grip on a person when they are not wearing a gi. The grappling is pretty basic: most of the stuff covered in the submissions sections can be found in other BJJ books. If I could compare it to another book out there, I would say that the techniques presented were similar to Dave Camarillo's "Guerrilla Jiu-jitsu", since they both combing submission grappling with Judo throws. There is a bigger emphasis on throwing technique in this book where as the submission aspects took center stage in Camarillo's book.
Overall I would highly recommend the book to anyone who practices or is interested in Judo for fighting. There are a lot of techniques in there that will help you be more effective with your throws.
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