International Grappling Competition
WUMA International Championships
(Grapple & Strike)
On the 17th July WUMA was holding their international championships. Just coming off our inter club competition I was feeling confident that all my students where ready and well prepared for this. It was going to be the biggest squad we had taken to any grappling competition; Training had gone well over that last month all building up to this, I was excited and I had a good feeling we was going to do well today………..
I arrived at the academy at 2:00pm happy to see everybody there in good sprits waiting to get going, ready to make the 1 and a half hour journey to the Cheltenham venue where the international championships where being held this year. The journey was relaxed with everybody talking and feeling quietly confidant, I couldn’t wait to get there. We arrived and met up with the rest of the squad that had travelled up earlier and the guys from the Leamington branch. I walked into the venue, the atmosphere was good, with the kickboxing fights underway there was lots of noise and you could feel the buzzing of people around you, fighters warming up, people hitting pads, wrapping their hands, getting ready for combat. The crowd was cheering for the fights that where already underway, I took a long look around, looking at the fighters getting ready for their kickboxing matches – you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. I felt nervous for the first time; I had been here before competing myself, but this time I was coaching and I felt more nervous than I had ever felt before, I knew everybody was well prepared and wanted them to do what I see every week in training – I knew if they did that then everything would go good. It was time to shake of the nerves and get everybody to weigh in. I had chance to watch a few fights before I got the call that we had 30 minutes before the grapple and strike competition would start. I gathered the 10 man squad for a light warm up and stretch as team, it’s important to get the body prepared for combat and I wanted everybody together as a team – train as a team, fight as a team.
We got the five minute warning call, meaning the first grapple and strike match would start very soon. We all started to make our way to the combat area, the butterflies started again; it’s a lot more nerve racking coaching than fighting I can tell you. We entered the fighting area, I looked in the eyes of every person on the squad – they all now had their fight faces on, the butterflies flew away and the nerves disappeared, in that moment I had supreme confidence in everybody.
Cameron Burkinshaw
Cameron put on a clinical performance hardly putting a foot wrong, he came very close to finishing the fight in the first round and dominated the second round to earn himself a one sided victory and the international championship. It was good to see the hard work Cameron has put in to his training show through in this match it was a well deserved victory.
Brandon McDonald
Brandon showed his fighting sprit and even though Brandon was fighting a bigger opponent he never gave up and showed his tenacity and persistence, though Brandon lost I fully expect to see him bounce back continuing his development as a fighter.
Toby Foxon & Callum Burkinshaw
It’s never nice when you have to fight a team member, so full respect has to go out to both Toby and Callum, they both went out there and put everything in to the fight – and at the end of the day a competition is a competition. Callum put on a picture perfect armbar to finish the fight early in the first round showing good control and great technique. Callum earned himself an international title with Toby getting 2nd place.
Paul Mueller
Paul pulled out an outstanding performance in his fight. The first round was close with Paul finding his feet, after spending quite a bit of time on his back in the first round I thought that the judges may have favoured his opponent on points, after a re-grouping in-between rounds Paul came out in the second round to pull out an amazing turnaround dominating the stand-up and coming close to a submission, only to end in the must bizarre way, with Paul’s glove coming off and both fighters separating the referee decided that this was a “tapout” by Paul and gave the victory to his opponent. I really believe with only 30 or so seconds left that Paul had turned the fight around and would have won the fight had this bizarre situation had not occurred. To me this was the turnaround of the night.
Steve Foxon
Steve put in a gutsy performance in his matches showing the fighting sprit we have become accustomed to and showing the younger generation that this is not just a sport for the youth of today. Steve’s stand up looked crisp and he landed quite a few good shots. Taking one look at his opponents face after his second battle would testify to that fact, and although losing, both his opponents knew they were in a fight, Steve did the club proud.
Brad Boyden
Brads confidante and maturity lend him to two excellent victories on route to becoming WUMA international champion. Only 16 years old facing two men a lot older, stronger and more experienced brad came out and took the fight to the both of them, he dominated the fight standing to the point that both men wanted to take it to the ground to avoid his strikes. Once on the ground Brad dominated and controlled them both with a good technical display of wrestling. Brad came extremely close to finishing his opponent in the final, using a part of the rubber guard series we had only worked on the week before Brad managed to secure the Omoplata and very nearly finished the fight – My personal favourite move of the night.
Richard Reading
Rich impressed me in his first fight showing slick stand-up totally outclassing his opponent, it was not long before his opponent wanted to take it to the ground, with a small mistake from his opponent rich saw the opening and swiftly locked in the guillotine with excellent technique. A move I had seen used perfectly a few weeks earlier by his training partner Wayne, After the Fight Rich thanked Wayne helping with the technique.
The second fight saw Rich in the final where he would face off against somebody from our own club…. Marcus
Marcus Boyce
Marcus showed a dominate performance in his first match, coming close on a few occasions to finishing the fight with a submission before eventually locking up a guillotine and switching it to a front naked choke, there was no escape for his opponent, it was either tap or nap – thankfully his opponent was smart enough to tap.
The second fight saw Marcus and Rich in the final – Calling this a fight was an understatement it was more like a war of attrition, both guys giving everything they had. The first round saw Marcus come very close to finishing the fight with an Armbar only to see Rich through pure grit and determination escape. The second round was a lot closer with both guys leaving everything out there. This was pure fight of the night material. Marcus’s first round dominance made up the mind for all of the judges and saw him crowned WUMA grapple and strike international champion.
Tony
Tony’s first fight started well with him gaining the upper hand for the majority of the match, only to make one mistake which his opponent capitalized on leaving him to fall pray of a straight armbar. Tony had now other option but to tap, with his arm damaged and Tony unable to fully extend his arm what was to follow was a true case of indomable spirit (or craziness I’m yet to fully decide) Tony decided to take on his second fight, one armed! Considering Toney had the full use of only one of his arms he put up a good fight.
After all the fights where over I felt and immense amount of pride, every single person had done themselves, the club and myself proud. I walked away feeling happier than I ever had at any of my previous competitions, even the ones I had competed and won myself. We finished the evening with 4 international champions, 4 second place finishes and 2 third place finishes.
Well done guys keep up the hard work, Train Hard – Fight Hard.
Written by Lee Walford, (SLK MMA coach)