I'm training to be a cage fighter...

[Steelviper]

So when I'm not chatting online with babes all day, transcribing podcasts, or chasing my toddler around (of which I actually do none, a little, and a lot, respectively), I've been training at Springfield Fight Club in Brazilian Jujitsu for about a month.

Today was the Battle of the Dragons, mostly a karate tournament that happened to also have a grappling competition in it. I competed in both the gi and no-gi divisions for my weight class.

I ended up winning the beginner bantamweight (120-149) gi division, taking out a black belt (in TKD or Karate or some such, definitely not jujitsu) in the process via an arm bar. After that I fought another Springfield Fight club member in an exhibition match since there weren't any other bantamweights at the intermediate level, so I ended up being the sacrificial lamb. I didn't waste too much energy getting triangle choked, I assure you.

I then got schooled in the no-gi division, which was rife with wrestlers. I made a fairly good go at my first opponent... and less so with my second.

Having won a division I qualified for the "overall" championship. I defeated several opponents in succession (since most of them had already gone home by this point in the day), finally getting matched against a guy a weight class higher than me. I held him in my guard for quite a while until he finally passed to half-guard and keylocked (aka Americana) the hell out of my shoulder, causing me to tap. Turns out he's on R&R from Iraq, but he'd had several more months of experience and had actually fought a couple of cage fights before. (I'm not actually interested in the whole cage fighting thing.)

Here's a link with some pics from the event:
Picasa album link

None of the pics of me have me with my gi on, and the pics of me on the mat are the match with the cage fighter. I got to compete 5 times in a day, which I think was only rivaled by the guy with the gigantic belt in the big group shot.

So, that was an experience. I may link to this thread from my wiki user page, since it's easier to work with images in BB code without having to upload them to the wiki (which would be a waste of wiki HD space).

[weedkiller]

Congrats on the competition. It takes a lot of time and dedication to compete. I was in TKD while in college and actually took home a few 1st place sparring trophy's in blackbelt division. Got beat down a few time too though...painfull. I still work out on the heavy bag from time to time, but nothing like back in the day. I look forward to getting my kids involved. I wish there were some other martial arts offered in my small town, but so far, only TKD. Would like to see a mix of karate and wrestling used in a sparring setting.

[Shane]

Nice!