NAGA Midwest 11/16/2008
NAGA returned to Evanston, IL for one of their last tournaments of the year. This second stop in Illinois had an even better turn out than before. Over 1,000 athletes came to compete, and their ages ranged from 4 to 48. Every competitor was out to win one of the new NAGA samurai swords, and the expert divisions were battling for one of the championship belts. The NAGA staff had their hands full.
With such a large tournament, competitors came from as far away as Canada and Arizona. The teams with the highest amount of competitors were Gracie Barra Chicago, Combat- do, Team Vaghi, Team Torres and New Breed Jiu Jitsu. Unfortunately the team results were not in as of 11/20/2008. The tournament started out with the children’s and teen’s divisions first. The amount of promise and technique that the young competitors had was inspiring. Jasmin Vazquez, a 4 year old girl from Combat- do, competed for the first time and placed third in both her gi and no gi divisions.IN the adult competitions there were multiple surprises. In the no gi divisions, the high light was Eric "Red" Schafer won the men’s expert no- gi Super heavyweight division. In the gi division, the man to watch was Rodrigo "Comprido" Medieros. Rodrigo won both the Men’s and Masters’ brown and black belt gi Super heavyweight division. The women’s blue belt winners were Kaitlin Carlucci In the light weight division, and Darci Garner in the Middle weight division. Sylvia Reyes won the women’s expert no gi division.
NAGA has one more event this year on December. It will be held in Grapevine, TX on December 6. Next year NAGA plans to start the year off with their NAGA World Cup January 24. The next NAGA in the Midwest will be the Arnolds, a two day event, March 6 and 7. Check out nagafighter.com for information on all of their grappling events!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Belt Testing ‘Down Under’
This past weekend Brazilian Top Team Australia had their annual belt promotion The head instructor is Gustavo Bomba Toledo, a BTT black belt under Bustamante and Liborio, promoted seven students to their blue belts. The new blue belts are Kane Gehling, Joel Vogler, Greg Kleynjans, Jason Grant Mckell, Clint George, Remo Curcio and Dale Lomax. Also at the promotion, Fabricio Mendonça, the assistant instructor for BTT Australia, was promoted to his brown belt. Brazilian Top Team, which originated in Brazil in April 2000, has now grown to have 24 schools in 7 countries. They have been working tirelessly for the past eight years to help spread Brazilian jiu jitsu all over the world. The Australian team is about a year and a half old and has around 40 students. They have also started to make an impact on the Brazilian jiu jitsu scene in Australia. They most recently had success at the South Australia Brazilian jiu jitsu championships where eight competitors helped bring home eight medals. Congratulations to all of the students at BTT Australia. Keep up the Amazing work and we hope to hear more about our friends in different countries
Battleground 19
The Last Straw for Battleground?
December brought Battleground to its final show of the year. It took place December 3, 2008 at a local club in downtown Indianapolis. Unfortunately the events of the night and the legislation being passed in the Indiana congress may make it impossible for Battleground to keep working. The main event was scheduled to be Same Toole vs. Al Thomas but Al ended up not being able to make it to the show. The rest of the matches were created and set up half an hour before the fights started. Battleground has open to the public fights. Fighter s can walk in the day of the fights and weigh in, and then be set up with a fight. The new Indiana legislation beginning in January will prevent shows like Battleground from possibly existing. The night consisted of eight total fights; five of the fights were ended by referee stoppage, three of the fights were won by submission. Normally a break down of each fight would follow but due to some controversy I am compelled to write about what happened during the fights.
Injuries are a normal part of MMA and cage fighting and to protect not only the fighters but the fight promotion as well the fighters sign a consent and waiver form. Unfortunately a few of the forms were not legally signed and it became a problem when the fighters got severely injured. One fighter turned out to be 17 and this was only caught after he ended up going to the hospital with a broken nose. He would have been allowed to fight if a parent had signed for him, unfortunately because it was a bar he would not have been allowed in to fight since you must be at least 18 years old. The other major controversy of the night was the third fight of the night, Jeremy Murray vs. Jake Parsley. One of the fighters, Jake admits to not planning on fighting. He had drank with his friends at home before going to the bar where the fights were had a few more drinks, before being approached by the promoter. The promoter offered him money to get in and fight, since they were low on fighters. Jake being drunk agreed and ended up fighting. During the fight Jake and Jeremy both were ruthless against each other, and they had to call it a draw after the EMT’s on sight would not let either fighter continue. The next day Jake went to the hospital and found out not only would he have to have cosmetic surgery to fix his nose. He also had to have his jaw wired shut after it was broken in the fight. Jake admits to being too drunk to drive and in some of the video Jake stumbles on his way up the stairs into the cage.
Battleground has always been questionable. Having last second fights with people out of the crowd, or not having a completely safe ring or cage for the fighters to fight in have made it more of a side show than an MMA show. They have also failed to keep a doctor on sight. This last show has left them without a venue. After hearing all of the issues the bar refused to allow them back. With all of the rules that will be coming into play in January, Battleground may not be able to clean up their act and have sanctioned fights.
December brought Battleground to its final show of the year. It took place December 3, 2008 at a local club in downtown Indianapolis. Unfortunately the events of the night and the legislation being passed in the Indiana congress may make it impossible for Battleground to keep working. The main event was scheduled to be Same Toole vs. Al Thomas but Al ended up not being able to make it to the show. The rest of the matches were created and set up half an hour before the fights started. Battleground has open to the public fights. Fighter s can walk in the day of the fights and weigh in, and then be set up with a fight. The new Indiana legislation beginning in January will prevent shows like Battleground from possibly existing. The night consisted of eight total fights; five of the fights were ended by referee stoppage, three of the fights were won by submission. Normally a break down of each fight would follow but due to some controversy I am compelled to write about what happened during the fights.
Injuries are a normal part of MMA and cage fighting and to protect not only the fighters but the fight promotion as well the fighters sign a consent and waiver form. Unfortunately a few of the forms were not legally signed and it became a problem when the fighters got severely injured. One fighter turned out to be 17 and this was only caught after he ended up going to the hospital with a broken nose. He would have been allowed to fight if a parent had signed for him, unfortunately because it was a bar he would not have been allowed in to fight since you must be at least 18 years old. The other major controversy of the night was the third fight of the night, Jeremy Murray vs. Jake Parsley. One of the fighters, Jake admits to not planning on fighting. He had drank with his friends at home before going to the bar where the fights were had a few more drinks, before being approached by the promoter. The promoter offered him money to get in and fight, since they were low on fighters. Jake being drunk agreed and ended up fighting. During the fight Jake and Jeremy both were ruthless against each other, and they had to call it a draw after the EMT’s on sight would not let either fighter continue. The next day Jake went to the hospital and found out not only would he have to have cosmetic surgery to fix his nose. He also had to have his jaw wired shut after it was broken in the fight. Jake admits to being too drunk to drive and in some of the video Jake stumbles on his way up the stairs into the cage.
Battleground has always been questionable. Having last second fights with people out of the crowd, or not having a completely safe ring or cage for the fighters to fight in have made it more of a side show than an MMA show. They have also failed to keep a doctor on sight. This last show has left them without a venue. After hearing all of the issues the bar refused to allow them back. With all of the rules that will be coming into play in January, Battleground may not be able to clean up their act and have sanctioned fights.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
