I don't have tv, but a friend forwarded me this...not sure what the quality of the info will be (just from reading the eskrima section), but anyway.....
MMA: NEW HISTORY CHANNEL SERIES HOSTED BY MMA FIGHTER TO TRACE HISTORY OF HAND TO HAND COMBAT, COMPLETE DETAILS
by Mike Johnson @ 3:53:00 PM on 6/28/2007
STARTING THIS SUMMER, THE HISTORY CHANNEL® VIEWERS CAN STEP INTO THE SHOES OF FIGHTERS FROM ACROSS THE CENTURIES AND AROUND THE WORLD FOR AN IMMERSIVE INTERNATIONAL JOURNEY INTO THE HEART AND ART OF HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT HUMAN WEAPON
Series Premieres on Friday, July 20 at 10pm ET/PT
HUMAN WEAPON follows Jason Chambers, America ’s own fighting Welterweight Champion & Bill Duff, former Pro Football Player & Wrestler, as they train with international hand-to-hand combat masters and learn the history behind the world’s most fascinating forms of combat…Culminating with a heart-pounding fight challenge.
New York , June 2007 – This summer The History Channel® embarks on a remarkable journey across the globe to reveal the history behind one of humankind’s most ancient skills: the art of hand-to-hand combat. Viewers will join hosts Jason Chambers – mixed-martial-artist and professional fighter – and Bill Duff – former professional football player and wrestler – as they embark on a mission: to explore the history and practice of these time-honored combat arts. Together, Jason and Bill fold back the rich historical and cultural layers of Muay Thai, Eskrima, Judo, Karate, Savate and more in the ultimate search of HUMAN WEAPON.
This journey of human experience is one the two hosts will take with their fists and their feet…with their sweat and blood. They will walk in the shoes of people of many cultures who used these fighting techniques – skills that were born out of each society’s need to defend itself. And at the end of each journey, one of these two warriors will face the ultimate test – he’ll try to survive a real fight with a true HUMAN WEAPON.
Their thrill-seeking quest takes hosts Jason and Bill to some extreme and exotic places. Each episode of HUMAN WEAPON charts an expedition through foreign continents, famous cities, exotic villages, back alleys and lush landscapes in their quest for a different type of combat. After learning about the history and culture, and training in it themselves, they will see if they have learned enough to take on one of the professional fighting masters in the discipline – and survive.
The first week of HUMAN WEAPON (July 20) takes the hosts to Bangkok to learn different forms of the ancient art of Muay Thai, also known as the “Science of Eight Limbs.” In this fighting technique the hands, shins, elbows and knees are developed into weapons designed to crush an opponent. As in every episode, the hosts experience the history of the art, how to train in it, and the culture it evolved from. In their journey through the exotic kingdom once known as Siam , Chambers and Duff discover the origins of Muay Thai in an ancient Buddhist temple, battle professional fighters in a hardcore rural gym and immerse themselves in the jungle camp of secretive Muay Thai Master Preang. They’ll become intimately acquainted with all eight limbs. Until one of them must use what they’ve learned in a fight against the Champion Yodecha.
In future episodes of HUMAN WEAPON we find the fighting pair battling an opponent in a jungle cockfighting pit, practicing ancient wrestling moves on a water buffalo and learning the secrets of a death strike in a Japanese temple. We follow Chambers and Duff as they travel the world from Japan to France , to the Philippines and Israel and beyond, absorbing each nation's singular history and traditions, while learning how each individual location gave birth to its distinct form of combat.
Some of the topics covered in HUMAN WEAPON, in addition to Muay Thai ( Thailand ), are: Eskrima ( Philippines ), Judo ( Japan ), Karate ( Japan ), Savate ( France ), Pankration ( Greece ), and Krav Maga ( Israel ).
HUMAN WEAPON Hosts
Jason Chambers. A Total Fighting Challenge Welterweight Champion, Jason Chambers has a record of 16 wins and 4 losses as an MMA fighter. He has been training in various martial arts since the age of six. Jason has fought in “Deep” in Japan and “Rento Maximo” in Mexico and all over the USA . He has trained under Renzo Gracie and currently trains under Eddie Bravo in Jiu-Jitsu. In addition, Jason also holds the rank of “Phase 1 Instructor” in Jeet Kune Do under Joe Goytia. Some of Jason’s current training partners are Karo Parisayn, Bas Rutten, and Randy Coture at Legends Gym in Hollywood , California .
Bill Duff. Pro Football player, bodyguard, wrestler and stunt double, Bill Duff holds a brown belt in Korean street fighting (Toa So Dou) under Master Davis of the Wa Wrang Studios in Riverside , New Jersey . He is a two-time heavyweight state champion wrestler, member of the New Jersey Hall of fame, and undefeated in bar fights. Bill, 6-foot 4 inches tall and 280 pounds, was a professional football player for seven years. He started for the Orlando Rage in the XFL and spent the 2000 and 2002 NFL Europe seasons with the Berlin Thunder, helping them win the 2002 World Bowl Championships. Continuing his career with the Arena Football league, he played for the Indianapolis Firebirds and Columbus Destroyers. Prior to this, he played for the Cleveland Browns in their expansion year 1999-2000. He was also co-captain of the 1997 SEC champion Tennessee Volunteers.
On History.com, HUMAN WEAPON will include a game, the history of all different forms of hand-to-hand combat, exclusive fighting short-form video, and “motion-capture” footage showing the different types of moves. There will also be host photos, bios, and video interviews, a glossary of terms, an episode guide, tune-in information and more. One fight in each episode of HUMAN WEAPON will be shown in detail on History.com.
The new series HUMAN WEAPON is produced for The History Channel by Jupiter Entertainment. Executive Producer for The History Channel is Marc Etkind. Executive Producers are Steven Land and Zak Weisfeld.
The History Channel® is a leading cable television network featuring compelling original, non-fiction specials and series that bring history to life in a powerful and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. The network provides an inviting place where people experience history in new and exciting ways enabling them to connect their lives today to the great lives and events of the past that provide a blueprint for the future. The History Channel has earned four Peabody Awards, three Primetime Emmy® Awards, ten News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel reaches more than 93 million Nielsen subscribers. The website is located at
www.History.com.
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Upcoming episodes of HUMAN WEAPON:
MUAY THAI (July 20)
Hosts Jason Chambers and Bill Duff journey to Bangkok , Thailand , home to one of the world’s most distinctive and devastating fighting arts, Muay Thai. After witnessing beat downs and knockouts at legendary Lumpinee Stadium, they’ll travel across the country perfecting the moves of the fighting style known as the Science of Eight Limbs.
From ancient killing techniques in the jungles on the border of Burma to weapons training among the ruins of a Buddhist temple, they’ll master all aspects of this centuries-old discipline in the hopes that one of them can survive a fight against an international Muay Thai champion. Thailand
ESKRIMA (July 27)
Hosts Jason Chambers and Bill Duff travel to the island nation of the Philippines , where the indigenous fighting style, Eskrima, was formed. From ancient forts in Cebu City to a modern military base in Manila, our hosts will learn the stick and knife techniques that were used to kill famed Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the 16th century, battle the Japanese in WWII guerrilla raids and wage an ongoing struggle against the terrorist organization Abu Sayef in the jungles of Mindinao.
Along the way, they’ll attempt to take down a 2,000-pound water buffalo using techniques developed on the rice paddies at the foot of the Manalanga Mountains , and perfect their Eskrima stick-twirling techniques on rickety bamboo rafts beneath the waterfalls in the jungles of Badian. Finally, one of our hosts will enter a gritty cockfight ring for an Eskrima stick fight against a five-time world champion. Philippines
JUDO (August 3)
Our hosts, Jason Chambers and Bill Duff, are in Japan to explore the techniques and history of Japan ’s national art of hand-to-hand combat: Judo – the science of the Samurai. Derived from the bloody battlefields of feudal Japan and jujutsu fighting styles of the samurai, judo has an illustrious past of deadly skills and honor. Along their journey, our hosts travel through the towering metropolis of Tokyo and the Samurai capital of Kyoto . They’ll train with an elite police force and journey to the mountaintop hideaway of legendary master, the descendent of a 400-year-old line of samurai
Under the intense training of the masters, Jason and Bill quickly discover the spectacular throws, merciless pins and strangling chokeholds that are an integral part of this powerful combat art. Jason and Bill’s journey eventually leads them to Tokai University , where one of them will muster the strength and newly acquired judo skills required to take on a world-class judo champion. Japan
KARATE (August 10)
Hosts Chambers and Duff travel to the island of Okinawa , Japan , the birthplace of one of the most deadly hand-to-hand combat arts in the world, Karate. Our hosts will journey across this legendary island, learning all aspects of the fighting art Okinawans created to help battle invading Samurai warriors over 400 years ago.
After practicing the shocking techniques of Iron Body Training in a 600-year-old castle, mastering heart-stopping vital point strikes in an ancient temple and putting themselves through the rigorous training regiments of ancient Karate masters, one of the hosts will step onto the mat to face a black belt, and Okinawan Champion, in a true Karate battle. Japan
SAVATE (August 17)
Hosts Jason Chambers and Bill Duff are in France , to study the combat art of Savate. Literally translated to mean “old boot,” Savate developed through necessity. In the early 1800s, violent street gangs looking for trouble ruled the Parisian underground scene. Their prey was the aristocratic class who, to protect themselves, began taking self-defense classes. Over the years this training evolved into modern Savate – an exacting combat sport, and also the official hand-to-hand assault system of the French RAID police.
On their mission to uncover Savate’s distinct style, Jason and Bill navigate the dockyards of Marseille, roam the grounds of a 14th-century castle, and even breach a secret police training site to practice and perfect the painfully efficient kicks and punches that comprise this elegant yet ruthless art of combat. Finally, one of our hosts will enter the ring to take on a Savate heavyweight champion. France
PANKRATION (August 24)
Hosts Jason Chambers and Bill Duff plunge into the cradle of civilization, Athens , Greece , to explore what some thing is the world’s original mixed martial art. Literally translated as “all powers,” Pankration is the ancient Greek art of hand-to-hand combat. Nearly four thousand years old and made famous by Spartans and ancient Olympians, Pankration has recently been revitalized as a modern sport. One that Jason and Bill will experience firsthand.
From back alley gyms to the oldest standing fortress in all of Greece, our hosts immerse themselves in the origins of wrestling, boxing, grappling and kickboxing and come to understand why Pankration has inspired art and literature and martial arts for centuries. At the end of their journey, one of them will face the ultimate test: a legal Pankration match with a World, European, and six-time national champion Pankration fighter - a true Human Weapon. Greece
KRAV MAGA (August 31)
Hosts Jason Chambers and Bill Duff travel to Israel to study one of the deadliest and most effective hand-to-hand combat systems in the world. Specifically designed for the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1940s, Krav Maga is a dirty, anything-goes fighting style that is used to disarm and destroy assailants carrying multiple weapons.
Our hosts journey to some of the most sacred religious locations in the world as they learn to escape deadly chokes, deflect weapons, and perfect ruthless counterattacks in their quest to become true human weapons. Never before have our hosts learned a martial art that is not only physically demanding, but also a combative necessity in this war-torn country. Their journey ends with a fight against an entire unit of elite-level Krav Maga professionals.
