Las Vegas, Nevada – On Saturday, September 29, 2007, World Grappling Games hosted the first annual "Quest for the Best" Submission Grappling Championships at the world-famous Mr. Olympia exposition in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the first time a Submission Grappling event has ever been hosted as part of the Mr. Olympia festivities, which allowed the Submission Grappling scene to further cement its mark on the masses of mainstream health and fitness enthusiasts who were in attendance at the colossal mall-like facility of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Located just off the Las Vegas Strip, this WGG promotion took center stage as the weekend's premier sporting event in Las Vegas, sandwiched comfortably between the "Florian vs. Thomas" UFC event 10 days prior and the "Pacquiao vs. Barrera" boxing event 7 days later. Some of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling's finest showed up to compete, while others showed up to show their support and coach their teammates and students. Just as important, many more up-and-comers, children, and teens in the sport attended either to get their feet wet in the sport of competitive Submission Grappling for the very first time or to further hone their skills on the mat, as they continue on their quest to be the best at this sport.

The event started with the kids, children, and teen divisions, followed nicely with the first Superfight, before the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions began. Next came the second Superfight, which was followed by the Advanced division finals. The first Superfight of the day was between local Cobra Kai Academy teammates Simpson Go and Sonny Nohara. These two young featherweight phenoms are brown-belts in jiu-jitsu under the "American Ronin" himself Marc Laimon. To those familiar with these two grappling studs, they thought they would be in store for nothing more than a friendly grappling demonstration between two of the finest 140-pounders in the country. However, just because they are close friends and training partners, things aren't always as they seem in this sport, and this match would prove to be no different. Simpson was born in the Philippines and had his hotty girlfriend in attendance. Sonny was born in Hawaii and had his wife and baby daughter at home. This was a battle of the islands, Philippines vs. Hawaii at its finest, and neither man dared return to their woman a defeated man in this Battle of the Pacific!


Simpson "Pekinese" Go vs. Sonny "Boy" Nohara

This match started off with fireworks! As Sonny put on his trademark colors in a green and gold rasta-man colored ankle band, he tossed Sim the red and white one, only to bean him in the head accidentally! Or was it?! Marc Laimon made sure this gesture did not go unnoticed and began razzing Sim by saying, "OooOooo are you gonna take that? Did you see what he just did??" As Sim, Sonny, and the surrounding crowd laughed, one had to wonder if Sim had plans to settle the matter once the match began! That is when Sim removed his hooded sweatshirt, sporting a sleeveless OTM rash guard, which immediately prompted Laimon to have the referee inspect Sim for a concealed weapon's permit before the match began, due to Sim giving everyone in attendance two free tickets to the gun show!

The two combatants touched hands and began the match with a bang. Sim came at Sonny like a spider monkey! This instantly showed us that he didn't like being punk'd with that 1/2 oz. cotton ankle band, whether it was intentional or not! He jumped into a flying-armbar, nearly finishing the match right then and there! Sonny calmly and smoothly spun out of it and transitioned into a beautiful rolling kneebar. Sim made like The Fonz and stayed cooler than a Polar Bear's toenail (due to his extensive training with bears) and countered the kneebar by taking Sonny's back. From there he kicked out Sonny' base and went for both hooks, as Sonny spun into him and began to pass his guard with a torreando. He managed to get half way there, before Sim's blender-like butterfly guard managed to juggle Sonny off balance just enough to set up a triangulio*. However, due to Sonny also being a training partner of one Mark Bieri, he was able to avert the attack. (The "triangulio" is a registered trademark of one Mark Bieri.*). Sonny backed out and went to his knees, where he immediately dove into a ninja roll on his knees to a triangle, which I guess is now called the ninja-angle, which got the crowd hootin' and hollarin' for more! Sim defended, but Sonny rolled right past Sim and ended up on top in side control. Sim turtled to prevent the points and the two young samurai carried on with this nonstop submission-to-submission, technique-to-technique jiu-jitsu battle of agility and cat-like quickness until time expired. The crowd cheered wildly during each exchange, which was done with the utmost fluidity and technical genius. The only way to properly illustrate this match in your mind is to watch "Animal Planet" during "Eel Week" and watch two rabid eels go at it! After it was all said and done, this match with all of its excitement and drama, officially went down as a scoreless draw in the books, but a battle of epic proportions in the minds of all those who witnessed it!


UFC fighters, WWE wrestlers, and Hotties Galore!

Some of the notable names in attendance Saturday, who were there signing autographs, taking pictures with fans, supporting the event, and coaching some of the competitors, were UFC stars Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander, Diego Sanchez, Nathan Marquardt, and Mike Whitehead, as well as the WWE's John Cena and Batista. At one point, someone suggested that there should be a special division created for these "spectators", just to see who would prevail in a special Submission Grappling rules tournament. Forrest, who was fresh off his huge UFC win just 7 days prior, seemed game about the idea if it weren't for some fresh stitches he had received courtesy of his monumental win over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

The "Hotty Quota", which is also a must-have at any legitimate sporting event, was also in full effect at the "Quest for the Best" as cougars were running rampant throughout the event. Both UFC ring card girls, Ali Sonoma (who is engaged to Diego Sanchez) and her BFF Arianny Celeste (who went to high school with Ulysses Gomez) were in attendance supporting the event. Also in attendance, was the official OTM girl Rebecca Leigh ( www.rebeccahmodel.com ). After being crowned as the official OTM girl in January, she has fallen in love with the sports of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling. Always a fan of MMA and originally a student of kickboxing, she is now an avid fan of the ground game and was quick to take notes with some of her other model friends during some of the day's Advanced division matches. Some of these Advanced matches that took place, featured the aforementioned Simpson Go and Sonny Nohara in their regular Advanced division, as well as grappling wizards Sean Spangler, Mark Bieri, Joseph Gutierrez, Cameron Diffley, Adrian Ramirez, and Chris Holdsworth. Out of all the action that went down in the individual Advanced weight classes and Advanced Open division, my two personal highlights of the Advanced divisions were from Chris Holdsworth and Mark Bieri. In the semi-finals of the Advanced Men's 149-pound division, Holdsworth (a roommate of Jeff Glover) pulled