Tiger Schulmann MMA Rules at Bellator

Friday Night's Bellator Fight Card, that concluded by the crowning of their first Welterweight Champion, will go down as the night Tiger Schulmann MMA officially became a big name in the MMA community, and no longer just another Karate School.

TSMMA, was founded by Shihan ("Master") Danny "Tiger" Schulmann in the mid 80's with a small school in Quakerstown Pennsylvania, called United American Karate. Tiger Schulmann being an innovator was not comfortable with the traditional Karate fighting defenses for the American streets and took his Karate Style (Kyokoshin Karate) and combined it with Boxing type skills to combat the typical American fighter. Over the years he incorporated more Kickboxing and Grappling and eventually became the single largest Martial Arts System in the US; known as Tiger Schulmann Mixed Martial Arts.

The TSMMA system has always produced quality fighters, most notably (until at least now) in Muay Thai and Kickboxing, featuring Champions such as Uriah Hall, Shannon Maceo, Munah Holland, Will Hamilton and Jimmy Rivera, amongst many others. They have dominated the East Coast circuit in organizations such as Lou Neglia's Ring of Combat, Combat at the Capital and the recent Asylum Fight League. Friday night at the Mohegan Sun changed all that.

June 12, 2009 4 TSMMA fighters took to the cage for the Bellator Fighting Championships. All 4 fighters would win in convincing style in front of a packed house and a nationally televised audience for ESPN Deportes.
Jimmy "El Terror" Rivera would lead things off for Team TS. Rivera came in with a 3-1 Pro MMA record, a 7-0 amateur MMA record and a 4-0 Amateur Kickboxing record. He has held the New Breed and WKA East Coast Muay Thai Belts. "El Terror" in his second Bellator fight would dominate from end to end winning a unanimous decision over Nick Garcia.

Uriah "Prime Time" Hall, known in the Martial Arts community for his devastating striking game as witnessed during last seasons WCL ( a Pro Kickboxing association created by Chuck Norris- yes, THAT Chuck Norris), and his flashy kicks, not to mention the official MMA instructor of The People's Champ. Hall making his first appearance in a cage put in another dominating performance for Team TS, as he put on a striking clinic vs. the veteran Edwin Aguilar. Very rarely do you see someone in his first major event dominate a veteran like Hall did during his 3 round match, which ended with the referee stopping the fight in the last 30 seconds of round 3 as Aguilar could not defend the barrage of uppercuts and round kicks that Hall was putting on him. Hall displayed tremendous agility and speed as he hit Aguilar with an unorthodox variety of attacks which included Superman punches, knees, flying spinning hook kicks and spinning back kicks. Hall proved you can bring these skills inside the cage as Aguilar's defense was of no avail. Hall also displayed tremendous strength (as did all the TSMMA fighters) throwing Aguilar around physically; including tossing Aguilar off, while being mounted!

Nick Pace would then become a YouTube legend with one of the most devastating and ferocious KO's you will ever see. About a minute into round 1, Pace would hit Collin Tebo with a flying knee kick while following up with a devastating right while Tebo was bouncing off the ground. The ref stepped in and that was it. Pace is now the unofficial King of YouTube and MMA message boards everywhere. While his nickname is "Pretty Boy" his fight game is vicious.

The Main Event of the evening was the event the would change all for Team TS, an event that pitted TSMMA best fighter, Lyman Good- a perfect 9-0 MMA Pro record against, Omar De La Cruz, a fighter who knocked out former UFC Welterweight Champ (yes, the same division that now has George St. Pierre as it's Title holder) Dave Menne to get into the Bellator Welterweight Championship Finale.
Good, who might be the most physically imposing Welterweight fighter in the world, came to the ring with one focus. Dominate his opponent and win the belt. The winner would receive a $100,000 check, an immense purse for a non UFC bout (by comparison, Uriah Faber and Mike Brown each made less than that in their WEC Title bout last week). Good, who takes care of his two sisters and his mother, a fighter out of Spanish Harlem, would use the money to change their lives; a better life than what they had till then.
He would not disappoint; not his family, not his fans and not Team TS, who would now be known as a top fight training system, not only to their students, but to the entire MMA community.
Good powered Cruz right down, was held in the guard, just picked up Cruz and pegged him against the cage. This put Cruz in a very uncomfortable position and before long Good, was hailing lefts and rights that Cruz could no longer defend. The ref stopped the bout and Good was crowned the first Bellator Welterweight World Champion.
Team TS all showed a tremendous advantage in their conditioning, power and speed. While this wasn't the first Professional success for Team TS, it was surely it's greatest and will now be put on the map along with the Lions Den, Team Couture, etc. in the MMA fight training scene.