Just got back from my grappling competition....

[Hammy]

I know its not strictly MMA but if your interested in one your going to be interested in the other. (Unless your one of those people who will boo unless the fight is standing...)

Unfortunately I got submitted with a guillotine in my first fight, haha, one positive is I was told the guy I fought is an experienced cage fighter, he was a lot stronger than me, I keep meaning to cut but I don't.  Weight sections go -68kg, -73kg, -80kg, -87kg, -98kg, +98kg.  Now most guys cut to be top end of their weight, whereas being inexperienced at this high level I've never needed to cut, but I'm going to better competitions now.  I fight at 75kg but I need to get under 73kg.  Also in my weight was Dave Faulkner from TUF this season, he got submitted in the 2nd round with a rear naked choke.  The winner of it was Lucio Sergos (Youtube him you'll find him fighting Leites).  I've just started going to his class on a saturday so that should bring me on, I probably shouldn't enter the advanced category either because of all the sandbagging (lying about experience), but its personal pride and all that.  In the heavyweights Rob Broughton dominated from what I could see.  Next competition is in four weeks so hopefully I can cut down the weight because weight sections for this are the same.  Second fight (they guarantee the everyone 2 fights), I fought this brazilian guy, dodged a flying armbar early on but got caught with another armbar later, I should be able to upload the videos later, then you can see me making schoolboy errors. 

[Rankin]

Awesome man, well not about you losing but thats a pretty high standard of guys. Did you compete in the less experienced levels before this or straight into advanced?

I'm surprised Dave Faulkner agreed to go into the 2nd round.

[Hammy]

Well its complicated.  See I've trained traditional Jiu-Jitsu for over 10 years.  But I've been doing BJJ on and off for the past few years.  Now here is where it gets more complicated.  My instructor cannot grade me in BJJ, only the head guy can over at Preston (Lagarto), until recently I'd only been over there once or twice.

For the past few years competitions were few and far between, most being quite easy when they did come along, unfortunately my club has never been great at organising stuff so I went online to look myself.  Found this competition and it was at Next Generation MMA Gym in Liverpool.  Went along and they said how much experience do you have, now I thought heck I've done traditional for years and a fair bit of BJJ so just say a few years.

Now advanced is over 12 months, novice under, the divide is that strict.  No middle ground.  I SHOULD of gone into the novice seeing the people in it, they were clearly over 12 months experience and sneaking in (I actually know some of them).  But after that first competition in Feb, I've been to two more run by these people, both in Manchester because its got bigger and I could hardly say, actually I got it wrong I'm a novice after all, plus its personal pride like I said.

Main thing now is more training and working on the cutting, I'm got it set up so I can be at Preston every saturday, I'm down my club wed-fri, gym is going to change from 2 to 4 times a week since im dropping the weight and going for more high reps low weight, plus im on the treadmill 4 days a week and kickboxing's on the friday to.  Main thing this year I said at the start is I want to get experience which I have been doing, you feel better after losing when someone points over and goes, he's an experienced cage fighter 

[D]

Ive known people that let a loss discourage them and quit

or those that let a loss motivate them to get great.

U seem like the latter and that says a lot about your character. Here is a favorite quote of mine


You can't succeed until u fail

Everyone can train and be king **** on top.It is how u respond to failure and adversity that defines u.

I should write this **** down and put it on a T-Shirt eh?

[Rankin]

Ive known people that let a loss discourage them and quit

or those that let a loss motivate them to get great.

U seem like the latter and that says a lot about your character. Here is a favorite quote of mine


You can't succeed until u fail

Everyone can train and be king **** on top.It is how u respond to failure and adversity that defines u.

Which you could pretty much use for GSP and how he responds to a loss.

[Hammy]

Well I'm just sorting the 2 "short" fights on my computer now, I really did **** up haha, just putting some music to it to kill my Dad's commentary then i'll upload it to youtube.  Good news is i'm down to 73.3 kg and 2 and a half weeks off my next comp so i should easily make the weight below this time, wahey!    I may in the future actually upload some fights which show me winning to 

[Hammy]

2 Fights from the other weekend (defeats)

GroundGrappling5 0



And 2 Fights from a few years back (wins!)

A few wins at a grappling competition

[Evolution]

What a cheeky chap that Mongoose is. He kept tapping your head!

[Axl4Life]

What a cheeky chap that Mongoose is. He kept tapping your head!

Aye, don't know what your rules permits but looks like he's trying to set you up for a shoot. (Double leg)


The first video at 1:30, were you went to throw, were you trying a tiatoshi?

[Hammy]

The first video at 1:30, were you went to throw, were you trying a tiatoshi?

As in body drop as in not even close, aye.

[D]

def go down a weight class. those guys are big.

That slappin of your head would have pissed me off

[Hammy]

That slappin of your head would have pissed me off

I'm guessing that was the intention... 

[Ragu]

grappling tournaments are real fun, when i did pan am i met a lot of pro fighters, a lot of ufc guys were competiting, grove, monson, sokodjou, and i met rampage there great guy. also met joe stevenson day before he went to film tuf 2. i got a silver medal there... sorry know this thread isnt bout me, but i love this story

[Hammy]

grappling tournaments are real fun, when i did pan am i met a lot of pro fighters, a lot of ufc guys were competiting, grove, monson, sokodjou, and i met rampage there great guy. also met joe stevenson day before he went to film tuf 2. i got a silver medal there... sorry know this thread isnt bout me, but i love this story

Thats cool, I got to meet Jeff Monson the other year when he did a seminar over here, pretty cool, few hours and there was only about 14 people there.

Also met Bisping a few times as well, he did a seminar at our club just before TUF3 Finale and also showed up to watch a competition at our club.