Human Weapon - TV Show

[Zen-like Todd]

There's a new TV show on the History Channel called Human Weapon.

Two guys (one a MMA guy, and another guy who had a cup of coffee in the NFL as a DE and has a wrestling background) go around the world from country to country, focusing on a martial art and its country of origin. At the end of each episode, they have a match (typically with some restrictions/modifications) against an experienced high level practitioner/competitor of the art.

I've found it hugely entertaining and informative. So far they have covered Muay Thai, Escrima, and Karate.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the martial arts, or anyone who likes Man v. Wild/other survivalist shows.... basically, anyone with testosterone.

Has anyone else in the Tailgate been watching this show?

http://www.history.com/minisites/humanweapon

[twa]

No but it looks interesting, I will make sure to catch the Marine Corps martial arts special.

[Jumbo]

Saw the preview and plan on following it.

[Birdlives]

Very intriguing, thanks for the heads-up.

[bpoch]

As a Martial artist I tuned into this show. It's pretty cool. I saw about 1/2 the Muay Thai and all the Karate one.

I like the MMA guy, but the bald ex football player is a waste. He fought in the Karate episode and he should have been destroyed. He seems like just because he's big and strong he is going to be good enough to hand with a finely tuned fighting machine.

[Zguy28]

I have watched the Escrima and Karate episodes. They are pretty amazing.

The highlights that I particularly remember are

Escrima - a move where you slide your arm over the neck and under the arm of a grappler and force them down to the ground.

Karate - when the Sensei broke the baseball bat with a hand strike

[Zen-like Todd]

Bump, it's on again tonight. I believe this week's episode is on Judo.

So far they have done:

Muay Thai

Eskrima

Karate

Savate

(Judo)

[stevenaa]

I've been watching. Missed the last half of the Karate episode. The Savate was pretty interesting, and I'd like to try the Eskrima sparing with the foam covered metal pipe. That looked fun. Thanks for the heads up for tonight. Will set the DVR.

[Doozinbrah]

Yeah its a pretty kick *** show. I do agree with the poster who said the big guy would have had his *** handed to him if it was full go in the Karate episode. But, even so its pretty cool.

[stevenaa]

I think that their opponents on each show have been taking it easy. They're supposedly fighting champions caliber fighters.

[sasha]

Bump, it's on again tonight. I believe this week's episode is on Judo.

So far they have done:

Muay Thai

Eskrima

Karate

Savate

(Judo)

Yeah, I have watched all of them. It's educational and pretty entertaining!

[Zen-like Todd]

I think that their opponents on each show have been taking it easy. They're supposedly fighting champions caliber fighters.

Well, the karate match had limitations (no shots to the head), the eskrima match used foam wrapped wooden sticks, and the muay thai guy more or less kicked Jason's ass despite Jason's MMA experience. The fact that Bill did well against the Savate guy didn't really surprise me, Savate didn't impress me at all. It struck me as a cut down version of Tae Kwon Do, and lacking all of the surrounding ritual benefits of that art.

[ChampSkinsFanatic]

let me see if I can see it on youtube, I always miss it on tv

[Zen-like Todd]

Interesting/funny interview with the hosts:

http://www.fhmonline.com/articles-4865.asp

On their new show, The Human Weapon, hosts Bill Duff and Jason Chambers travel the globe studying the history of different martial arts and competing in full contact fights with international champions. FHM Online faced off with the tough guys to find out if there’s a difference between getting your ass kicked in Japan or Greece.

At the end of each episode of The Human Weapon one of you faces a martial arts champion. Be honest, did any of the fighters take it easy on you?

Jason Chambers: Everyone has the understanding that we’ve only trained for a week, but I don’t think they take it easy on us. The fighters don’t hold back when it comes to kicks or punches. But, luckily, they’re not 10-round fights. They’re three rounds. Still I’ve gotten a lot of injuries—a bad shoulder, twisted fingers, messed up elbows.

Bill Duff: There’s a certain attitude when it comes to martial artists—the idea that what they’re doing is the best. They look at me as an outsider. They’re like, ‘Okay, this guy is going to try to make us look bad in our own sport.’ When I did the karate fight they held nothing back. The guy was trying to take my knee out. He probably kicked me in the leg 100 times. Because I’m the big, traditional American muscle guy they say, ‘I’m going to hurt him because our stuff is that good.’

You have traveled all over the world. Which country has the toughest fighters?

Bill: I would give it to Israel right now. They are surrounded by enemies at all times. Even in their nicer areas they have to be on guard.

Jason: The Israelis have been fighting on a daily basis since the inception of their people. They not only had to develop their own martial art [Krav Maga], but they had to constantly evolve it because situations are changing. A lot of martial arts haven’t changed in 500 years. But nowadays you have to worry about modern threats like bombs, people with handguns and terrorists on planes.

Bill: They’ve actually developed techniques for those situations. Usually when they fight it’s in a crowd. It’s not one on one. It’s three or four Jewish guys versus five or six Arab guys and they’re clashing. You can’t take a guy down with Jiu-Jitsu or wrestling because as soon as you do that you’re taking a bottle or brick or a knife to the face. You have to quick strike, check your surroundings and get the hell out of there if you can. Israelis actually practice that as an art. It’s really intense.

Historically, was there a great era for fighters?

Bill: Every martial art has their Muhammad Ali. The Greek fighting style Pankration, for example, has this guy called the Octopus. He was such a great fighter that he went against Alexander the Great’s greatest warrior. The guy had full armor and a shield and the Octopus was buck-naked with a club. He beat the guy to death in 30 seconds.

Jason: I always thought that was odd. Why not wear clothes?

Bill: It’s a Greek thing.

Which fighting style was the hardest to learn?

Bill: Eskrima [Filipino stick fighting] was the hardest for me, because I had zero background in stick fighting. The Eskrima sticks are very slick and the climate in the Philippines is so hot. So when you’re doing it your hands get sweaty. A couple of times I hit myself in the head. Once, the stick went flying out of my hand and hit the cameraman.

Jason: For me, it was karate. It wasn’t the techniques of the art or the weapons—what really got to me was the training methods. Since karate’s been around for so long, they didn’t have the Joe Weider weight system at home or the GNC down the street. They had to use these iron bars. They really pushed their bodies to physical limits that I wasn’t accustomed to. I really found it to be an arduous process.

What’s the most brutal injury you’ve seen in the ring?

Jason: I’ve seen a guy’s shinbone break. It was pretty bad. These guys were kickboxing and one guy threw a kick that caught the other guy’s shin. His leg turned to rubber. It looked like he had two knees.

You guys both worked as bouncers. What was the worst beating you ever had to dish out?

Bill: A guy had some drinks in him and he wasn’t going to leave when he was asked to leave. That happens all the time, but this guy hit me. He just flat out hit me. I put him in a full nelson and I cranked it. By the time I got him out the door and let go he didn’t run to his car—he just melted. I thought I killed the guy. I thought I broke his neck or something. But luckily his buddies came out and smacked him around and he got up. I was crapping my pants.

Jason: Nobody respects me coming over as the bouncer, especially if it’s a guy Bill’s size. I actually had a situation where a big guy didn’t want to leave. They called me to the front. He said, ‘This is your bouncer?’ I tried to talk to him, but he didn’t want to listen. I took out my flashlight and I said, ‘You can have this.’ I threw it up in the air and he went to grab it and I shot in and boom! I knocked him out. It was fun.

What’s your advice on surviving a violent attack?

Jason: It’s such an involved question. It’s kind of like saying, ‘If someone throws a punch what do you do?’ To make it simple, if you’re not trained in martial arts, the three things you want to look for are eyes, throat and groin, because they’re the most primary targets. Being able to identify your exits is important too. You don’t want to sit there and wait for his buddies to come over.

So who would win in a fight between you two?

Jason: We’re lovers not fighters.

What if there was $1,000,000 on the line?

Bill: I’d rip his eyes out.

Jason: I’d choke him silly.

The Human Weapon premieres Friday, July 20 at 10 p.m. ET on The History Channel

[Zen-like Todd]

Not a bad episode this week, although I think they could have done a better job. Jason got his ass handed to him by the judoka.

[Destino]

Karate - when the Sensei broke the baseball bat with a hand strike

I saw that, he used his wrist and arm bone if I remember correctly. Hand would have been too easy apparently. lol

[Fergasun]

I thought the Savate episode was interesting and informational... but the Savate-or completely went easy on the guy in the ring. He took 1 or 2 hard shots.

[DanDan]

In the Muay Thai epsiode I thought the Thai fighter was going to break Jason's sternum. Everytime Jason would try to move in the Thai guy would kick Jason in the sternum so fast it was quicker than you can blink and eye and it was almost taking Jason off his feet. Jason knew if he was trying to even think about moving his hands down the Thai fighter was going to hit him with a elbow to the head.

At the beginning of this episode they show showed a Thai match when one of the fighters got an elbow to the head. He was split from his eyebrow all the way to the rear of his head. He was also carried unconscious from ringside. Toughest lick I have ever seen anyone get bare bone to bare bone.

This was the roughest episode I have seen so with one of them fighting.

I'm sure the Americans would knock one of these other fighters out if they could. They just can't get to them especially the Thai's. That dude would have beat either one of them to death.

Dan

[Zguy28]

In the Muay Thai epsiode I thought the Thai fighter was going to break Jason's sternum. Everytime Jason would try to move in the Thai guy would kick Jason in the sternum so fast it was quicker than you can blink and eye and it was almost taking Jason off his feet. Jason knew if he was trying to even think about moving his hands down the Thai fighter was going to hit him with a elbow to the head.

At the beginning of this episode they show showed a Thai match when one of the fighters got an elbow to the head. He was split from his eyebrow all the way to the rear of his head. He was also carried unconscious from ringside. Toughest lick I have ever seen anyone get bare bone to bare bone.

This was the roughest episode I have seen so with one of them fighting.

I'm sure the Americans would knock one of these other fighters out if they could. They just can't get to them especially the Thai's. That dude would have beat either one of them to death.

Dan

I wonder how the Muay Thai guy would do against somebody like Tito Ortiz?

[Destino]

I wonder how the Muay Thai guy would do against somebody like Tito Ortiz?

Depends on the rules. If it was UFC rules Tito would use his size and strength to take a Muay Thai fighter to the ground. If it was strictly a stand up fight things would be different.

[Zen-like Todd]

I wonder how the Muay Thai guy would do against somebody like Tito Ortiz?

The Muay Thai guy's standup struck me as easily being competitive with high end UFC standup in his weight class. He'd have to do some BJJ training before he even thought about stepping into the ring however. He was so much faster than Jason it wasn't even funny.