There's no fighter too tough, nor skill too difficult, for Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson. Want to know which battle was the most painful, or what fighting style they think is the deadliest? All you have to do is ask!
POST YOUR QUESTION on the boards, and look back here for as many answers as they can handle, given their busy schedules!
Q: Hey Jimmy, I noticed on the Kali episode that, on the night before the final fight with the marines, you go to bed unscathed, but you wake up with a black eye and a cut lip. Was this an editing error, or did you punch yourself while you were sleeping? Maybe you can tell us a good story about the Manila nightlife.
-- tanuki
A: Got my black eye from Doug. We were doing a scene with us training on the beach with wooden knives the night before the fight and Doug knocked me in the eye with the side of his knife. The reason you don't see it in the bedtime scene is because it had only happened a few hours before and didn't turn black until the next day. I will get Doug back for that, mark my words!
-- Jimmy
Q: Jimmy and Doug, have you done or will you do Southern Dragon Claw (may also be called Dragon Kung Fu), Tai Chi (also called Tai Chi Chuan and Taiji), Hsing Yi (also called Xingyiquan), Ba Gua (also called Baguazhang), Southern Praying Mantis, Xing Yi (also called Xingyiquan but may be different from Hsing Yi), or Northern Shaolin (a style of Kung Fu)? These are all Chinese martial arts.
-- mythman25
A: We haven't yet, but who knows next season. The keys to the martial arts we do on the show are these:
1. Is the style visually interesting?
2. Is there some kind of contact element we can use in the final fight?
3. Is the location where the style originated interesting historically or visually?
4. Is it remarkably different from any of the other styles we have done TO A NON-MARTIAL ARTIST?
For the styles you just named I think the last one is key. We did a kung-fu episode -- will the audience (of mostly non-martial artists) tune in to see us do another branch of kung-fu? That was part of the reason we didn't really go into the differences between different Kali/Arnis styles in Manila, because to the audience it's a guy hitting someone with a stick; the details aren't as important.
Let me know if I can clarify further, and thanks for watching!
-- Jimmy
Q: I've got some experience with a few different styles (San So kung fu, Kenpo and tai-jutsu mostly), and from what I've noticed it seems like more modern arts (past 100 years or so) tend to be more specialized in one area (striking, grappling, kicking), where older arts tend to be more generalized. Given your experience with all these different arts have you noticed the same thing?
[Also], since you have an extensive MMA background, especially in jiu-jitsu, is there a noticeable technical or attitude difference between traditional Japanese-style jiu-jitsu and Brazilian/Gracie jiu-jitsu?
-- SgtGF
A: I certainly agree with you about the specialization of martial arts. I would guess it has something to do with the sport aspect of competition becoming more popular as martial arts have evolved. Unfortunately, I have never trained in Japanese jiu-jitsu. From what I understand it involves more throws and counters to striking attacks, as opposed to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which focuses almost entirely on ground fighting.
-- Jimmy
