The Martial Art the French Colonial Army Feared Most -- And Never Fully Destroyed

In the borderlands between Vietnam and Cambodia, a fighting tradition took shape that combined animal-style kung fu, spirit possession rituals, and guerrilla warfare into something the French colonial military spent decades trying to suppress. The Bảy Thưa rebellion held a fortified swamp position against rifles and artillery for an entire day. The fighters carried talismans. They entered battle in altered states. They did not appear to fear death.

This is not mythology. It is documented history -- and the combat system behind it, Thất Sơn Thần Quyền, is still practiced today in Vietnam and in diaspora communities across the world. Read the full article on dojoandring.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Russian Middleweight Who Studied Floyd Mayweather on VHS and Never Lost a Fight

The Russian Middleweight Who Studied Floyd Mayweather on VHS and Never Lost a Fight

There is a short list of world champions who retired undefeated. There is an even shorter list of those who did so because injury forced their hand, not age, not politics, not a bad night in the ring.

Dmitry Pirog belongs to that second list.

Twenty wins, zero losses, fifteen knockouts. A WBO middleweight title won by knocking out one of the most talented prospects in the division. And a scheduled fight with Gennady Golovkin that never happened, leaving a question the sport still cannot answer.

What made Pirog remarkable was not just his record. It was the way he built it. He learned to box by watching VHS tapes alone, without a trainer, dissecting the movement of Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather until he understood not just what they did but why. That self-taught foundation produced something rare: a puncher who thought like a chess player, a pressure fighter who never stopped defending, and a middleweight whose uppercut worked equally well at every distance.

The full technical breakdown of how Pirog fought, what made his shoulder roll different from everyone else's, and why analysts still compare him to James Toney when discussing defensive craft, is on Dojo and Ring.

The African Combat System That Only Knows One Thing: How to Put You on the Ground

There is a reason Dambe boxing from northern Nigeria looks more like ancient warfare than a modern sport: because that is exactly what it is. Spear for attack. Shield for defence. No time limit. One decisive blow. The full breakdown — history, technique, and the major commercial turn — is live on Dojo and Ring. 

There is a reason Dambe boxing from northern Nigeria looks more like ancient warfare than a modern sport: because that is exactly what it is. Spear for attack. Shield for defence. No time limit. One decisive blow. The full breakdown — history, technique, and the major commercial turn — is live on Dojo and Ring. [Read more →]

There is a reason Dambe boxing from northern Nigeria looks more like ancient warfare than a modern sport: because that is exactly what it is. Spear for attack. Shield for defence. No time limit. One decisive blow. The full breakdown — history, technique, and the major commercial turn — is live on Dojo and Ring. [Read more →]

There is a reason Dambe boxing from northern Nigeria looks more like ancient warfare than a modern sport: because that is exactly what it is. Spear for attack. Shield for defence. No time limit. One decisive blow. The full breakdown — history, technique, and the major commercial turn — is live on Dojo and Ring. [Read more →]

When the World Champion Leaves on a Stretcher: Notes from the JFKO All Japan 2026

At the 10th JFKO All Japan Full Contact Karate Championship in Tokyo, the reigning WFKO world heavyweight champion entered as top seed and did not make the final four. Yuta Goto was eliminated by ippon in the quarterfinals and carried from the arena. In knockdown karate, a world title is context, not protection.

Shinkyokushinkai claimed nine of the ten available titles across men's and women's divisions. Tatsuya Enda won the heavyweight crown. Tenshin Sawai took the lightweight title for the second time. Three hundred and fifty-four competitors. Two days. No margin for error.

Full report, results, and analysis at dojoandring.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The One-Strike Fight-Ender: What Muay Thai Science Tells Us About Real KO Power

Most fighters assume knockout power is something you either have or you don't. The science says otherwise.

A 2017 biomechanics study recorded elite Muay Thai practitioners generating up to 6,400 Newtons of impact force with the roundhouse kick — at peak foot velocities of 18.3 metres per second, the fastest kick measured across all combat sports. That kind of force doesn't come from raw size. It comes from the efficiency of the kinetic chain, and the kinetic chain is trainable.

On dojoandring.com we break down exactly what builds finishing power in Muay Thai: from hip extension velocity (the single strongest predictor of kick impact force across Muay Thai, karate, and taekwondo) to the strength base that makes explosive output possible, to the accuracy that turns a solid strike into a fight-ending one.

Five training variables. One coherent system. No filler.

 → Full article on dojoandring.com

When the Score Changes the Mission: The Hidden Structure of Team Kendo

Most people watching a team Kendo match see five consecutive duels. One athlete follows another, the scores accumulate, the team with the most wins takes the encounter.

That reading is not wrong. It is just incomplete.

Underneath the sequence there is a system. Each position carries a specific tactical mission, and that mission is not fixed. It shifts with every result. The Chuken entering with the team two matches down is fighting a completely different battle than the Chuken entering with the team two matches ahead, even if the technique looks identical from the outside.

The full breakdown of all five positions and the logic that connects them is on Dojo and Ring.

The Martial Art the Warsaw Pact Trained With — And Almost Nobody Knows

In 1988, North Korean military instructors traveled to East Germany to teach a combat system most of the world has never heard of. East German airborne troops trained in it. Polish soldiers trained in it. It was called Kyeok Sul Do — or Gjogsul, depending on which side of the Iron Curtain you were on.

This is not a historical curiosity. It is a martial art still practiced today, still tied to the ideology that created it, and still almost entirely opaque to outside observers.

The full analysis, including the only authentic footage released by North Korean state media, is on Dojo and Ring.

Read: Juche Kyuksul: When a Martial Art Becomes an Ideology.

The Hidden Reason Fighters Gas Out Before the Final Round

Conditioning matters. But there is a reason some fighters look fresh in the fifth round while others are visibly struggling after the second, even when both have trained equally hard. The answer is not aerobic capacity. It is structural organization, specifically how efficiently a fighter transmits force through the body and returns to a ready position between efforts. Before your next training session, read this. It will change how you watch a fight, and how you prepare for one.

Read the full article on Dojo and Ring.