Caged Grappling....

The 13th of December 2014 was the first time I had competed in grappling since mid-2012. Most people know that I am not personally overly interested in competition; I tend to focus my energies into coaching. So following a few bad injuries through 2011 and a change in my work I decided to stay off the competitive mat for a while. However, when my friend Hamish McLaren (the eccentric promotional visionary that he is) started to float the idea of his company All Styles Grappling running a Caged Grappling event with me, I got excited.

Real Excited….

Excited enough to start looking into matchups….

I love a show and I love being able to entertain a crowd, so I started to train and put work into the lead up hype and the walk-out music. The night came and I (who was also the referee) planned out the show side of the night with my opponent (who was also the MC). Our set up worked, the people were entertained and then we got down to the match... I got bashed…

However, I still had a cracking night and believe that everyone who attended loved it. In fact I commented to Hamish (and everyone else who would listen) afterwards that of all the BJJ, Grappling, MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, Karate and Tae Kwon Do events I have worked, competed in, organised, refereed and coached at this was absolutely the most fun.

After the success of the first instalment of Caged Grappling, All Styles Grappling is back with the next show! Picking up where the last event left off, Caged Grappling 2 is taking it up a notch with upgrades to the cage, improved audio and of course an even more stacked card of match ups. Over the next few posts I am going to outline all the match ups on the card and talk about the competitors. I will also be providing a few reflections about the event and what it means to me and the larger community.

Hope you enjoy it.