4 CJJ fighters participated in Mixed Martial Arts fights this weekend at Valhalla IX in Herndon/Sterling VA at the Dulles Sportsplex.
Valhalla IX saw a lot of great fights - and it is clear to me that the fight teams represented are really improving with respect to the caliber of fighter they are producing!
Stan was up first from CJJ. He fought very hard and stuck to a solid game plan - especially in the first round (he was using a guard attack strategy, hunting for a triangle choke.)
However, as the fight went on he took a couple of hard shots to the head which had an impact on his ability to keep a tight guard. He finished as a warrior, but the judges favored his opponent for this one.
Roland was up second. Roland's striking was neutralized by his opponent's wrestling - and once the fight hit the ground it was ground and pound vs pure jiu jitsu. His opponent, having 5 previous fights under his belt, said that Roland's guard was the tightest that he had ever experienced. And it showed as Roland took very little punishment throughout all of his three rounds. The decision came down to the takedowns that put Roland on his back, and so Roland had to take a loss on this one.
Third was Chad. Chad, for his first fight, went against a seasoned competitor with 6 previous fights under his belt. His competitor even took a North Carolina title at his last fight. But Chad went in blazing! He kept his opponent on the fence with his striking and wrestling. Set the tempo for the fight. Had some great takedowns. And neutralized his opponent's superior grappling skills. Chad did get caught in one knee bar attempt, but listened to me and kept his hips in and controlled the head and arm. He clearly won all three rounds for a solid victory for CJJ.
Last up was Tom Meehan. Tom was hungry for this fight. He kept his hunger bottled backstage for hours, but once it was time to warm-up you could see some serious rage from the Serial Killer . Most don't know that Tom seriously hurt his back doing CrossFit Total two weeks ago, and hasn't trained since then. But as a warrior he wanted to take the fight anyway. Frequent visits to Dr. Bills managed the injury and by fight night he was back to ready! He stuck to his game plan perfectly in the first round, but you could see his gas tank going empty towards the end of the second round. By round three his gas tank was totally empty (two weeks off was taking its toll). Though he had such a killer first round, his last round was all defense; the judges scored the fight a draw.
-Jeremy
