Aaaahhhh….The BLOGGER!!! @mark248am

I’d have to say the first time I ever really got introduced to the ”BLOGGER” was while I was teaching in Thailand. At the time I had never blogged, and honestly besides a few MMA websites, didn’t even browse the web much. YES…This was during MYSPACE ERA. I even remember finding ol’ Boyd Clarkes blog from when he trained with me, long after he left to open Phuket Top Team…lol

Truth be told, as I found out by Perez Hilton, people can get famous for blogging about anything!!…Here in Kuwait the Blogging scene is huge, and it’s big money with several of the websites generating so much traffic that they are able to sell advertisement space and implement other marketing strategies to monetize their websites into full time jobs.

There are two types of Bloggers. Anonymous, and Public. The Anonymous blogger is usually kinda like the kid who is 14 years old, sitting in his moms basement with a TAPOUT shirt on, talking about how horrible of a fighter Anderson Silva is after this past weekend.—Keyboard Warriors.

The Public blogger…is kind of a Wild Card. You really don’t know what type of a blogger you will encounter. Personalities are almost as different as the reasons why someone would even start blogging in the first place. Some have a sense of entitlement the you would expect from JayZ complaining about his dressing room, others are super down to Earth everyday people. I’m not sure which style of Blogger is more stressful to a business owner the public or private one…lol

Today I met with a guy named Mark from 248am. Anyone from Kuwait already knows him as 248am…but anyone from anywhere else in the world probably knows him as the guy who got sued by Benniehanna for his blog entry. Freedom of speech in America…isn’t the same here folks!!!

Here in Kuwait his website covers most of the big news, and is one of the best ways to find out about cool new stuff happening in Kuwait….since moving here I check it pretty regularly and judging by the amount of traffic it generates, so does everyone else in Kuwait.

While being here I’ve hit him up a couple of times…even bringing up the Flex Fitness incident in an email…however today was the first time we got to connect.

I met him at the old Hard Muscle Gym in Salmiya, which for those of you who haven’t been…this would probably be the Kuwaiti version of Rocky the movie legends training facility..lol. I gave him a BJJ private, and we just kinda got an opportunity to kick the breeze a bit and network. Super chill guy, someone I would probably hang out with outside of work.

Went over a basic backfall, the stand and base, and a nogi armbar from the guard.

Following the technical training we did a bit of grappling. To my surprise Mark has actually done a bit of Gi BJJ at Sidekick Academy, and it showed!!

He did a great job of keeping posture, and had good submission recognition skills, while being in good shape.

We probably did a solid 20-30 mins worth of sparring, and he was Keen each round. At 35, he certainly is in good enough shape that he could compete in Nogi Grappling, with a bit of hard training probably medaling in his age and weight division.

Hopefully I can talk him into training with me a bit more after Ramadan, as he has a bit of potential…I can see it now..his fight name in lights on the marquee…TKN”….THE KEYBOARD NINJA.

Those of you who follow my blog and aren’t in Kuwait, check his blog out…it’s a great example of the potentials of blogging. He’s usually got some interesting stuff, worth a save in the favorites.