Martial Arts
Martinete or Contralona? — The Death of a 75-Year-Old Referee and the Truth the Frame Does Not Tell
The Arithmetic of Five Rounds: Barcelos's Stretcher, a CT Scan, and the Suspension That Hasn't Been Announced
UFC 331: The ‘Greatest Lightweight Era’ Claim, and an Olympic Prospect Broken in 12 Seconds
Imane Khelif Returns to the Ring Under a Cloud of Controversy: A Six-Round Test in Paris
Imane Khelif Returns to the Ring Under a Cloud of Controversy: A Six-Round Test in ParisAfter more than two years away from the ring, Algeria’s Imane Khelif is set t...
Dakar's First Medal: Le Hoang's Silver and Vietnam's LedgerBefore dawn broke, the score drifted out of Dakar's taichi hall: 9.346. Then...
The Empty Field Is the Finding: Bangladesh's Combat Sports Carry a Label but No PathwayIn May 2026 I stood at ringside in Dhaka with a bout sheet in my hand. It had...
The File With No Numbers: Combat Sports' Real Deficit Is the Ledger, Not the TalentA file landed on my desk on Monday morning. The heading was filled in, the...
Combat Sports Analysis Confronts a Data Vacuum: The Methodological Crisis in Fight-Sport ReportingCovering combat sports begins long before the writing — it begins at the...
Three Wrong Anthems: The Protocol Failure the Medal Table Cannot ShowThree times. At one Games, across three separate medal ceremonies, the wrong...
A Judo Star Who Fell Outside the Safety Net: How Tomofumi Takajo's Arrest Exposes the Silent Failure of Japan's Sports SystemThe story broke in Dhaka in the evening. I was in a Nagoya apartment at 3 a.m...
Martinete or Contralona? — The Death of a 75-Year-Old Referee and the Truth the Frame Does Not TellI play the clip again. I slow it to 0.25x. I mute the crowd noise, the...
From Ring to Courtroom: The Hidalgo Referee Death, a 'Banned Move' and an Unfinished TrialA 75-year-old referee lay on the canvas, and above him stood a wrestler....
The Empty Ledger: Bangladesh Combat Sports' Invisible Archive and the Count of Four Karate GoldsLast month I ran a routine check. The question was simple: where is the...
RAF Abu Dhabi: Importing MMA Stars onto the Wrestling Mat, and the Quiet Conflict of Two Belts in One DivisionOn 14 November, the last image at Abu Dhabi's Etihad Arena before the lights...
Empty Files, Full Verdicts: Why Evidence-Free Analysis Poisons Martial Arts AdjudicationI rewatched the moment until the crowd noise stopped mattering. But this time...
The Arithmetic of Five Rounds: Barcelos's Stretcher, a CT Scan, and the Suspension That Hasn't Been AnnouncedInside the cage, the final bell usually sounds like something else — a roar,...
Barcelos Was Ahead on All Three Cards: The Fifth-Round Slam, the Stretcher and MMA's Medical GapTwo minutes and ten seconds into the fifth round. Three judges, three...
From Kindergarten Teacher to Asian Champion: Lo Thi Phung's MMA Journey and the Asian Games 20 HeartbreakOn September 20, 2026, Lo Thi Phung of Vietnam lost to South Korea's Lee Bomi...
The Wall Beneath Four Bronzes That Nobody CountsSeptember 23, from a desk in Osaka. On screen is a short Vietnamese-language...
Vietnam's First Medal Was Teqball; Its Arithmetic Was KataThe scoreline looked like a typo at first. 0–5. Five judges, zero votes. Bui...
UFC 331: The ‘Greatest Lightweight Era’ Claim, and an Olympic Prospect Broken in 12 SecondsIncheon studio, three in the morning, microphones pointed at the corners. The...