Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Knock Out Dog Fighting
Friday August 14th and Saturday August 15th were exciting days for Knock Out Dog Fighting. Former Heavyweight World Champion and Knock Out Dog Fighting team member Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski was in town for the Strikeforce fight so he was our MMA fighter that visited the Santa Clara County Juvenile Detention Center on Friday August 14th.
Prior to going in to the center, we introduced Arlovski to Dolores Carr, the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Knock Out Dog Fighting recently teamed up with the District Attorney's office for their anti-gang campaign.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr, Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski, Kris "The Pit Bull Lady" Crawford
Arlovski talked to the juveniles about making the right choices and the discipline needed to become an MMA champion. That "real men" don't abuse animals to show how tough they are. Andrei spoke about challenges he has had to overcome in both his personal and professional life. He put emphasise on how the discipline and self-control needed to be successful in the sport of MMA has given him the confidence and the mental strength to be successful in life. Arlovski graciously answered questions like "What does it feel like to be knocked out?"and "Do regular people always challenge you to fight?" To which Arlovski answered "It hurts both physically and emotionally" and "My training in MMA has given me the discipline needed to walk away from trouble and the mental strength to know that actions and choices I make can affect my future, both in and out of the cage." The main point of Arlovski's talks were that even though they are all at a low point in life, they all have what it takes to be champions at whatever they choose to do if they think about their choices, work hard and stay disciplined.
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Kris, Eric Rapaport, Arlovski
After we finished up at Juvenile Hall, we took Arlovski over to the police department to meet Rob Davis, the City of San Jose Chief of Police. Arlovski was excited to hear that Chief Davis has been to the Ukraine and Russia before on a Police Exchange program. The San Jose Police Department is a member of the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force and has a Gang Investigations Unit that investigates gang-related crimes. The Unit is also responsible for maintaining a working relationship with schools, social services agencies, community based organizations, and other criminal justice organizations in a systematic approach to the prevention, intervention and suppression of gang-related criminal activity.
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Arlovski, Crawford, Chief Davis.......................... ...........................................Arlovski, Sgt. Bowers, Chief Davis
After visiting with the Chief of Police we headed over to the gym at the Washington United Youth Center located in the infamous "triangle" - three neighborhoods that are home to some of the oldest gangs in San Jose. The Mixed Martial Arts program helps at-risk young men and women get fit, lead healthy lifestyles, and increase self-esteem. Getting at-risk kids off the streets and involved in activities such as Mixed Martial Arts develops both physical and mental strength - the kind of strength it takes to resist peer pressure and involvement in gang-related activites like dog fighting.
As a reward for overcoming obstacles to stay out of gangs and for mentoring other kids and getting them to come to the gym instead of hanging out in a gang, we chose two kids from the gym to go to the history making Strikeforce fight with Arlvoski and the Knock Out Dog Fighting crew on Saturday the 15th. It was also done as an incentive for other kids to get involved in the MMA program. While at the gym, Arlovski signed autographs and gave out the newly released Round 5 Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski action figure to the kids that would be coming with us to the Strikeforce fight.
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The following day, on Saturday August 15th, the Knock Out Dog Fighting team members came together at the popular San Jose, California sports bar and grill, Britannia Arms-Almaden, for a benefit to "Knock Out Dog Fighting".
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The Knock Out Dog Fighting MMA fighters that joined us at the event were Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski, Kim Couture, Cung Le, Josh "The Punk" Thomson, Jake Shields, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, Elaina Maxwell, Jose "La Bamba" Palacios and many more. Frank Shamrock was unable to attend the event due to he was announcing at the Strikeforce fight later that day. However, he donated a pair of autographed boxing gloves and a copy of his new book "Mixed Martial Arts for Dummies". We were also joined by Knock Out Dog Fighting members IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Ray Arde and NPC Figure Champion Mona Liza "MO" Reyes.
Since our team members are some of the best MMA fighters in the world, several media outlets also attended to show that these extraordinary athletes take their responsibility as role models very seriously and are demonstrating that they are champions both in and out of the cage by helping us Knock Out Dog Fighting. HDNet's #1 show Inside MMA was there as well as Fight Magazine and This Week in Combat Sports. There was even a "reporter" from TMZ in attendance!
Knock Out Dog Fighting team members
Jake Shields, Jose Palacios, Andrei Arlovski, Cung Le, Anthony Johnson, Mona Liza Reyes, Ray Arde
Knock Out Dog Fighting members Jeriel Bey and Mona Liza Reyes speak at event
To see more photos from the event, click HERE
Scott Asnault from This Week in Combat Sports taped his show at the event and interviewed a lot of our fighters for his show. Check it out below:
After the event at Britannia Arms-Almaden, several members of Knock Out Dog Fighting joined Arlovski and the two boys that were our special guests at the history making Strikeforce event featuring Gina Carano and Cris "Cyborg" Santos. The owners of Cloud 9 Limousine believe in the Knock Out Dog Fighting program so they generousally donated a limousine for the evening to make it an experience of a lifetime for the two boys.
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