NAGA North American Grappling Championship Results

One week after the Submission-Only tournament, Crazy 88 took the long road north for NAGA’s year-end event, the North American Grappling Championships.

Mike Atkin wins his two matches 6-2 and 6-0 to win another Championship belt.  With no more tournaments left in the year, Mike can now rest the pinched nerve he has been ignoring for the past few weeks.

Evan “Oz” Gideon is tested in his first tournament as a Blue Belt.  Oz wins his first Intermediate division match 4-0 and then came out on top with a rear choke after a 4-2 war in the semifinals.  He would lose on a pass in the finals of the No-Gi and the first round of the Blue Belt but it was a phenomenal showing for the 3.5 month “veteran”.

Jon “Devastator” Delbrugge goes through an unfortunate turn of events.  After submitting his first Intermediate-division opponent with a rear naked choke, Devastator hurt his neck in his second match.  Our teammate was rolling for a kneebar as his opponent spun to the back of the turtle and was injured.  It does not seem to be serious but he was pulled out of the Gi competition as a precautionary measure.

CJ “Never Back Down” Melton shined as he unleashed his full repertoire at this tournament.  In his Intermediate division debut, NBD used a No-Gi Brabo choke and an armbar to enter the finals.  The finals were tied 4-4 after OT and unfortunately, our team member came out on the losing end of the judge’s decision.

In the White Belt division, Clarence (as he is sometimes known) armbarred two opponents and then employed a baseball bat choke on his way to the Championship.  In the finals, NBD had two obstacles to overcome – the infamous NAGA referees and his opponent.  After pulling guard, NBD had multiple submission attempts only to be slammed each and everytime by his opponent.  Only after increasingly loud protests from Fred did the referee penalize the perpetrator, giving Never Back Down his second White Belt Gold medal.

As a coach, I am very happy to see how fast our guys have progressed.  It is a true testament to the training environment that Crazy 88 has that these individuals could start training less than 10 months ago and are almost ready to compete at the Advanced division level.  Now we have 2 months to work on technical skills and prepare for 2009!