Jeff Hanneman’s obituary, as published in ‘The Guardian’. A suitably loquacious obit about the lion’s share of the creative brains that will drive Slayer into the pantheon of rock and roll greats.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/03/jeff-hanneman-slayer
Jeff Hanneman, guitarist of the magnificent, soaring, crushing, excoriating speed metal band Slayer, has died aged 49.
One of the high points of my kickboxing career was walking out to the song ‘Dissident Aggressor’ from South of Heaven.
I trained to it this morning.
This week, at the urging of David Foster Wallace, I read two stories by Jorge Luis Borges: ‘The God’s Script’ and ‘The Immortal’. In the same way I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when Princess Diana was killed, I will always remember sitting at that Glenferrie Road café, killing time in between clients on a grey mid-morning when I read those two stories. Continue reading
On Saturday May 26, the Cindarella of fightsports will strike out in pursuit of the UFC Heavyweight title. We love and respect Junior Dos Santos as one of the few gentlemen remaining in what has increasingly become a thug sport (see the woeful weigh-in shaenanigans of Diaz and St-Pierre), but my money is on the great Antipodean.
I salute Dos Santos, but Mark Hunt is in my heart.
All hail the Super Samoan!!!
Revenge of the beard!
International Kickboxer Magazine, March/April 2013
In Queensland, people grow all kinds of crazy things in their backyards. At Jamie Stamp’s house in Ormeau, it happens to be a kickboxing gym.
“It started off as a small shed down the back of the house,” says Jamie. “Since Anthony [Vella] has come along, the place has grown in leaps and bounds. It’s getting bigger and bigger! We’ve already got six of our regular fighters matched for February, and there’s fifteen or so fighters down there altogether.” Continue reading
Ramon Dekkers is one of the greats of Muay Thai; probably the greatest Westerner to ever don the Mongkon. He had two hundred fights for one hundred and seventy-five wins, which would probably have been an even greater number had he not taken so many fights back-to-back with as little as a week in between.
Sadly, Dekkers died today, aged 43. He made a massive contribution to my fighting and training life; he and his father Cor Hemmers made my experience of living and training in the Netherlands fantastic.
Blitz Magazine, December 2012
The day I talked to Peter, he was managing multiple tasks and unsure I’d be able to get any sense out of him.
“I’ve just come from ten rounds of sparring!” Continue reading
Mark Castagnini is one of the key players in Australian Thai boxing. Beginning his career as a fighter, he went through traditional martial arts before taking up Thai boxing almost by accident and discovering that it bought him to the ultimate test of his training. From there, he has been involved with developing and disseminating the sport at every level, editing International Kickboxer Magazine, working as a commentator alongside Michael Schiavello on Foxsports, promoting events and running his own martial arts academy, Hammer’s Gym. Mark spends a little time telling us about his passion for the sport, what its Australian roots are and the directions the branches are moving in. Continue reading
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” Continue reading
Theme Park at its Darkest 