Sunday 12th October saw the successful return of the Combat Base inter club but this time focusing only on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, both gi and no gi.

The Combat Base Inter Club BJJ Championships were used experimentally
to see if clubs are going to support the idea of a closed gi and no gi competition, a club championships which will provide us with champions within our group plus assist in the grading process. Also promotes a little friendly rivalry within the group and will especially help beginners to try competition in a safe and friendly environment whilst still providing the adrenaline dump.

The competition itself kicked off with the lightweight white belts, Leroy Holcroft representing Combat Base Bolton against Lewis McEnaney from Combat Base North East and what a start it was. Both guys put on a great show which set the standard for the rest of the day, the first match of the day is always the toughest. Eventually Leroy got the choke and the stage was set.

The Caged Steel team were entering their first gi grappling competitive matches as a team so as Wajad Sadiq (Wax to his friends) took to the mat, all eyes were on him. Unfortunately he ran straight into Factory BJJ’s Ronan Roche on a rich vein of form who racked up a number of points to take the win but Wax did himself proud and paved the way for later.
Ronan then himself lost to Combat Base North East’s David Vincent who was in fine form and then outpointed Wax by one point to take first place in the Lightweight division. David looks like he is a very good prospect, having trained only 8 months and is a credit to the CBNE team headed by brown belt coach Steve Muckle.

Combat Base Bolton competitor James Canavan got off to a winning start in the middleweight division against Combat Base’s Paul Keegans only to fall to Paul’s team mate Jason Farrar in the final following a tough match which really highlighted how frustrating the points system can be. James attacked Jase from the off, throwing up triangles and arm bars forcing Jase to defend for the majority of the match. Jase defended everything that came at him and then took his opportunity 30 seconds from the end. He escaped an arm bar attempt, passed guard and quickly took mount securing the points victory and the gold medal.

Medium heavy saw Caged Steel MMA fighter Billy Glossop make his gi debut. He said his goal was to survive for one round but did much better than he expected by outpointing tough Combat Base competitor Francois Van Staden. Billy advanced to meet Combat Base’s Mark Richards in the final where Mark won a comfortable points victory but aggravated a back injury forcing him to withdraw from the no gi division later that day.

The heavyweight division surprised a few people as the heavyweights are not usually renowned for their agility and movement but every competitor played the game as though they were much lighter. Tomasz Winconek, fighting in a weight above his natural medium heavy, got the submission win over Gareth Price. Not be outdone James Parker from Combat Base Doncaster also got a submission win over Rogan Tonks by Americana.

Rogan got some immediate redemption as he took 3rd place by kimura leaving Tom and Parker to battle out for the gold. After a tough battle which left the judges debating the match, Tom got the decision.

And so to the blue belts…..

In the super featherweight division, representing Caged Steel was 2nd dan Judo black belt Neil Gilpin against Factory BJJ coach Ian ‘Doug’ Mochen in a distinctive battle of styles, Neil having the aggressive Judo top game whilst Doug is playing the Jiu Jitsu guard game. Doug has the ability to remain extremely cool under pressure and pressure he was definitely getting from Neil whilst all the time Doug was just setting up his submission. When he was satisfied with his position he got the submission that left Neil no option but to submit.

In the featherweight division Jay Furness took the gold with submission wins over John Sherwood and Leroy Holcroft who had just got his blue belt about 10 minutes previously.

Lightweight division saw Combat Base’s Andy Krlic face off against Factory BJJ’s James Nardone. Andy seemed a little off his game which James capitalized on immediately, after that Andy was always playing catch up but James has too much experience for that and got the win. Great match.

Final gi match was a purple belt superfight between Team Fulinkazan head coach Spenna and Combat Base Doncaster head coach Danny Mitchell. Both of these guys are known primarily as MMA fighters but what most people don’t know is that they are both very proficient gi players too, as was evidenced in this match. As the match went the full distance
Spenna had just outpointed Danny for the W.


GI Results

WHITE BELT
Feather (Pena) >70kg
1st Leroy Holcroft Combat Base Bolton
2nd Lewis McEnaney Combat Base North East

Light (Leve) >76kg
1st David Vincent Combat Base North East
2nd Ronan Roche Factory BJJ
3rd Wajad Sadiq Caged Steel

Middle (Medio) >82kg
1st Jase Farrar Combat Base
2nd James Canavan Combat Base Bolton
3rd Paul Keegans Combat Base

Medium Heavy (Meio Pesado) >88kg
1st Mark Richards Combat Base
2nd Billy Glossop Caged Steel
3rd Francois Van Staden Combat Base

Heavy (Pesado) >94kg
1st Tomasz