New material for the martial arts nomad fight blog came with the presentation of The Canadian Extreme MMA Championships for 2010, The Red Robinson Theatre in Coquitlam BC on Friday night, April 23. Fighters from BC, Alberta, Yukon, and Ontario were on the card to determine in 19 fights who would be the national champions in Amateur MMA In Canada across six weight divisions. This championship series was presented by the Canadian Amateur Combat Sports Council, that designed the series to provide important experience and recognition for young and upcoming fighters, just as Canadian jurisdictions are beginning to sanction pro mixed martial arts events.

The fight series took the name of ‘Extreme’ for two reasons: first being that a fighter may have to fight up to three times in the same night to claim the division title, and second that the series made use of a ’30 second ground rule’, where fight that has gone to the ground for 30 seconds is stopped by the referee, the fighters are stood up and the fight continues. Use of a 30 second rule has been discussed in other MMA fight series since it has been proposed as a solution to help keep the action alive and fights decisive; MMA fight organizers want rules to make better fighters with better fights. The Extreme series could be called a testing ground for the rule and it was seen to work well in this context. The 30 second rule enabled fighters, many who are from a standup striking background, to have a chance for a better ground game. The fighters would either take the chance more often to shoot in for a takedown, or work hard to defend knowing that they would not get tied up for too long on the mat. What the fight fans got as a result was more variety between stand-up and ground action, and they would cheer in sequence with the changes in action.

Following long-standing fight night traditions, card girls were on hand to keep the event running like clockwork. But someone hired card girls so sexy they needed a military escort. That job was filled by three men who could truly be said to be among the toughest guys in Canada, represented by the honour guard of the Royal Westminster Regiment. The gentlemen soldiers were otherwise in agreement by the end of the night that bearing our national flag and escorting the card girls carefully through the ropes beat overseas deployment.

Some very fast fights happened on the mat and few lasted the duration of 2 minutes for one or two rounds for the later matches. Some of that could be attributed either to good craft of choking the guy out or by getting outclassed, plain and simple. Once that got sorted there were lots more fights lined up for the event.


The largest division for the night was Welterweight, from 156 to 170 lbs. In the first round, the better fighters won by TKOs from rear naked chokes, quick and decisive strikes and ground submissions. The exception of Danny Doing and Rob Woodcock in the first fight of the evening which turned out to be an evenly matched pair of fighters and came to a unanimous decision for Doig. Johnny Kozlowski and Eli Wyse got to the belt round with Doctor’s stoppage and TKO, and Kozlowski took the division with a referee declared TKO at the end of a 30 second ground rule whistle.


The Featherweight category(135-145 lbs) first round would see Oren Hanscomb and Shane Jung advance to face off against each other with 30 second wins by anaconda and guillotine tap-out respectively. Their championship round fight quickly became anti-climactic with 5 minutes of stoppage due a serious groin injury due to an unintentional strike, and Hanscomb walked away with the belt.


The Lightweight division (146-155 lbs) first round featured a well matched battle between Andrew Stainthorpe and Mark Shean, in a fight demonstrating good striking and escape skills from clinches and mounts. There would be some debate between the judges decision after the fight, at first mistakenly given to Shean, and after, properly awarded to Stainthorpe. As a result of neither of the other two fighters in this division being able to come back for the belt round, the division title was awarded to Andrew Stainthorpe.


The Middleweight division (175-185 lbs) advanced Michael Guermoudi by judges decision in a fight with two ground stoppages, who would go against Brian Ernst who won by a rear naked choke tap-out in 42 seconds. While Brian Ernst defended well, restablishing guard several times against Guermoudi while on the ground, Guermoudi’s superior ground fights in the guard, his sweeps, strikes, throwdowns, and slams enabled him to take the fight with a final beatdown.


The Light-heavyweight division, for 186-205 lbs had only three fighters. The division introduced Brad Robinson to the local fight scene in a well matched, hard standup win against Kyle Warman. Robinson would then go to the belt round against Tyler Warman (bro of Kyle?). Robinson would take the fight of the night in an INSANE FIGHT, going through big ordeals as he was almost choked out with a front guillotine, with a beet red face, escaping only to get rocked hard several times by strikes from Tyler Warman, crumpling to the mat only to get right up again, bouncing off the ropes like a drunken sailor, to surprise everyone with getting Warman with a strike and takedown. He then mounted and pounded Warman with massive, vengeful headshots alternated with knees to the torso. The crowd went absolutely nuts, he was almost out of it… for a moment everybody was counting Robinson out, and then he bounded back brilliantly with an righteously inspiring victory after almost losing it. The doctor and paramedic were brought in to the ring for Warman after the referee stopped the fight by knockout. Robinson was on CBC Radio One on Monday April 26 to share his personal story, which is just as inspiring and a little surprising. He is a recent arrival to BC from back east, arriving less than a year ago in Vancouver on a Greyhound with less than 40 bucks in his pocket, sleeping at shelters for the first couple of months, volunteering at The Gathering Place Community Centre, doing what he could until he could get on his feet. Robinson is not attached to any local martial arts gym and used a borrowed heavy bag to supplement his training. He has some experience bouncing at bars, but he has to have some raw talent in there and amazing drive to face challenges outside the ring like he does inside of it. Surely some gyms around town are going to look at this guy as a real prospect.

Craig Garriot would take Herbert Moon in the 3 man Heavyweight division (206-265 lbs) in the battle of the big guys. Reece Doherty from Fort St. John who did not advance in the judges split decision held up the event with a special announcement. He called his girlfriend to the ring, got down on one knee, and proposed to her. She accepted, and there was a general sense of relief in the crowd, as no-one wanted to see a mma battle between couples. The referee pronounced love victorious and they posed for kisses with a rock on his new fiancee’s finger.

Full Photo set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623940552622/


Link for fans of the lovely card girls: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623279493008/

Here is my final thing for my fight blog for Tiger Balm, I found that some of the video was not bad at all, and some great moments captured the essence of Tiger Balm International. In the video is a collection of short clips taken throught the day, from flying Kung Fu, to weapons, Pankration, and kickboxing, and more. Enjoy.

You are invited to attend the BC Open Martial Arts Championships, Saturday April 17th, 2010, a 13 Point rated National Black Belt League event and   “AAA” Sport Karate International League rated.  Check out www.nblskil.com for more information on the world’s largest Sport Karate circuit.  Points earned at this event will go toward competitor’s qualifying and seeding at the NBL/SKIL World Games to be held this year in New York State in December.  Whether you are a follower of this circuit or not you will find this event is not one to miss.  Some of the top competitors from across the Pacific Northwest Conference will be vying for top honours in their divisions.

Please note there are also volunteer opportunities for  this event, as well as openings for judges. See the facebook page for more details.

Website: http://www.bcopenma.ca/

Facebook Group page for BC Open Martial Arts Championships

Tournament Location:

New Westminster Secondary School, Vincent Massey Gym
835 8th Street
New Westminster, BC

Event Sanction:

13 Point National Black Belt League Sanction
AAA Sport Karate International League Rating

Rules:

SKITA rules will be used.  All blackbelt and under blackbelt players must enter divisions based upon the age they were on January 1^st at 12:00 am.  See exceptions in the Rules at a Glance, Forms Section 6 in this brochure or online.  Complete rules are available at www.nblskil.com

I went to the second day of Tiger Balm Internationals for some fresh content for my fight blog and also because I entered in the WKC full contact continuous sparring division, which is why I did a bunch of training and lost all the weight.

A tournament is always a busy scene and participants have to show up well in advance because anything could go down. For example if divisions are too small, they can get combined with other divisions, and suddenly the day goes by faster, or if there are free mats and enough judges a division can get moved to the open mat and the day progresses faster. Injuries, meetings, impomptu debates can also prolong the day.

The schedule for the day would include Kung Fu, Weapons, Kata demonstrations, Pankration, and WKC no face and full contact continuous sparring. I got there at 11:00 and met up with friends from the gym and I shot photos of the action until my division was called to the mat around 5:00 PM.

Jon Funk, Sifu instructor of Mantis Kung Fu and Organizer of Tiger Balm International 2010, stopped and talked with me during his busy day just after addressing competitors for a Pankration division. We talked briefly about what busy events tournaments are, and that things were proceeding to plan with the usual concerns that happen during the event. A two day martial arts tournament takes months of planning and preparation and the end result is a gymnasium full of people and the action goes on all day long. I asked him briefly about other attempts to present martial arts events in Greater Vancouver such as the recently announced cancellation of MMA Expo. Jon understood how such an event could have its difficulties not understanding how to work with all the different stakeholders in the community and various levels of government, all who could have an impact on the future of holding such events. Its something that takes some skill in knowing how to do. Just as I thought, organizing such events is a black art unto itself.

My fight was the first up in the division. I was put up against a guy from Basi’s Lions Den Kickboxing from Calgary. I started out strong but didn’t figure on what I had to do during a ninety second long fight. So I knew when it was over that I did well; I got in lots of head shots, I listened to Sensei Ali and fought like he told me to, but the judges decision went to the other guy and that was ok. I cant control whether I would win or lose the fight, but I wanted to have a good strong fight and that is what I got.

My training partner Aaron Blanchette did a little better and won his first fight and was 1-1 for the day. Way to go Aaron! Osu.

There are 225 Photos in the Tiger Balm International 2010 Day 2 Photo Set. Here are a few of my favourites.

Link to the full set on Flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623730470672/

Link to full set of 225 images on Flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623730470672/

I have lots of new photos to share with you on my martial arts blog. This weekend I was at Tiger Balm 2010. Below are some of the photos from day one of the tournament. The Tiger Balm tournament is a big two day event with competitors from martial arts schools from across Western Canada, Washington State, and perhaps elsewhere.

The day for me started early. I woke up at 7AM and weighed myself to discover that my weight had finally dropped that last pound to 200.2, as a result of a big effort dieting and fasting on the last day, munching on ice cubes overnight. Hungry and parched I made it to the weigh-in at 8:00 at the tournament location at Capilano University, already stirring with people when I arrived. With the official weight ticket in hand, some paperwork completed, I started re-hydrating and putting a few calories back into my system for my Sunday fight.

I came back a little later for photography and to cheer on the competitors from Versus21 where I train. Day one of Tiger Balm was a full day of Kung Fu demonstration forms, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sanshou, Submission Grappling, and Pankration matches. The stands were packed with fans, coaches, and competitors. Its like a school of fish that meet and come together to form a giant swarm. In the gym, the intensity is palpable and action runs all day long on all the mats. I have posted 321 photos to the flickr photo pool for day one. Here are a few I like more than the others from the pool.

Want to see more? Link to 321 photos in this set on flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623600791109/

Want to see more? Link to 321 photos set on flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623600791109/

I like to cover tournaments in my fight blog. Tiger Balm 2010 has been very well attended. I have lots of tournament fight photos to go through which I will be posting to Flickr soon enough. In the mean time, here is a shot from the stands to show you how big an event it is.

Come see the real Karate at the 10^th Anniversary Vancouver Cup 2009 Karate Championships.

Featured at the event will be world famous Kyokushin knock down fighting matches, traditional “Kata” forms competition, Karate demonstrations and Taiko drum demonstration.

Sunday, December 6 2009
British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) 3700 Willingdon Ave. Burnaby, BC.
Doors @ 12:00 pm, Fights @ 12:30 pm

Admission:
Adult (13 & over): $10.00/ea ($15.00 at the door)
Child (6 – 12): $5.00/ea ($10.00 at the door)

More Info: http://fightingart.ca/

Saturday at the 2009 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships featured Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Submission Wrestling. The event was as well attended as the night before at the big gymnasium at BCIT. Even MMA fighter Kalib Starnes came by to cheer on his friends. There were also a couple of entries from the gym where I train, Versus21.

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622532152799/

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622532152799/

Here are some shots of the Karate and Tae Kwon Do action at the 2009 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships on Saturday.

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622656455388/

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622656455388/

Here are my select shots from Tiger Balm 2009.