The fourth installment of the Combat Athletics submission challenge took place at the Aston Pacific Hotel on November 5th and has quickly established itself as arguably the best grappling tournament in Western Canada. The event organizer John Cooper crafted a smoothly run event with a DJ spinning music in the background, The Ultimate Fighter 2 Marathon showing on a large screen TV in the back and a well attended group of athletes on the grappling forefront.

The event took place on three separate mats that all had matches going on simultaneously so I could not see all the matches but the matches that I did see were very spirited and well contested. Notables included Emily Kwok who became the first Combat Athletics women’s tournament champion taking gold in the female open division. Female grappling is growing quickly and just earlier in the year at the 3rd installment of the CASC there was only one competitor so it was good to see the growth of the sport in the female demographic. Kwok who is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt, was impressive taking out her first two matches with relative ease before defeating Liz Posener in the finals to take the gold. Kwok would see more action in the absolute division later on in the evening.

In an interesting twist the promoter became the competitor as WFF Shooto Canada promoter Jason Towns stepped in and competed in the advanced 155 pound division. He won his first bout by points and then met up with Ben Greer in his second match, the same Ben Greer that has competed for him in the WFF 4 times before and was scheduled to be the main event of his tenth event that has since been cancelled. Towns was unable to get any offense going and lost the bout via decision on points to the young up and comer who won on the strength of multiple takedowns, but Towns did take 3rd place after Matt Kuramoto forfeited his match in the 3rd place match-up. Ben Greer who is now training with Marcus Soares went on to defeat his teammate Yoon Heo to take the Advanced Welterweight crown en route to displaying his much improved grappling techniques.

Like most events this grappling tournament was not without its fair share of controversy. In the first round of the Absolute division, Matt Kuramoto was paired with the only female competitor of the division Emily Kwok in the first round based on the two competitors being the lowest weight in the absolutes. When Kuramoto found out who his opponent was, he asked for an opponent change citing a wish to compete against a “bigger” opponent. Kwok who won the womens bracket earlier in the day and has performed well on the jiu jitsu circuit was furious when she found out that Kuramoto did not want to compete against her, in her own words citing “disrespect” but in the end it didn’t matter as Kuramoto repeatedly told her it had nothing to do with disrespect, yet took a refund for his Absolute division enrollment fee instead and withdrew from the tournament. Kuramoto declined public comment with MMARR after the incident. Kwok who is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, went on to face an even bigger male competitor named Andrew Furman in the opening match giving up approximately 30 pounds and lost via armbar. Despite the loss she went over to Furman after the bout and thanked him for taking the match.

In other Absolute division action Gibson Pankration fighter Craig Sloan took on Chris Davis in what was shaping up to be a very competitive bout until Chris Davis stormed out of the mat forfeiting the match and proclaiming that he wanted nothing to do with a “Stalling Match.” Davis felt Sloan was too defensive and stalled repeatedly; he was very upset and as he left he sarcastically bellowed “Congratulations” at Sloan who was now across the mat. Sloan who took the advanced heavyweight tournament, didn’t say much and proceeded to continue on in the tournament eventually meeting Tom Montes in a rematch of the Heavyweight Finals.

This time Montes would get his revenge finishing the fight with a triangle choke midway through the bout and progressed into the finals where he defeated Tim Fisher to claim the top prize of a Samurai Sword presented by John Cooper and took the CASC absolute division for the 3rd time in 4 events. The only time Montes hasn’t won the CASC Absolute division was in event 2 where he didn’t compete, incidentally it was Team Quest fighter Matt Horwich who took the crown that year.

Event promoter John Cooper ran the whole tournament without a hitch and even refereed  many of the main matches on top of his duties as MC, and event coordinator. With the absolutes wrapping up, and with the culmination of the submission grappling event several of the crew stayed behind to watch the Live Finale of TUF 2 which kicked off just as the tournament came to a close. Grappling followed by MMA, it was a great way to finish a great day. –MMARR-

More Photos of this event will be posted in the coming days

The top 3 finishers in all divisions are listed below.

Division 01 – Kids 9 & Under

First:  Nicholas Cesarei (Columbia Martial Arts)
Second: Gurtej Aujla (Columbia Martial Arts)
Third:  Josef Findlay (Columbia Martial Arts)

Divison 02 – Kids 10-12 Years

First:  Dustin Kostiuk (Toshido Fighting Arts)
Second: Brendan Papps (Columbia Martial Arts)
Third:  Michael Szperkowickz (Columbia Martial Arts)

Division 13 – Female Open Division

First:  Emily Kwole (Gracie Barra Vancouver)
Second: Liz Posener (Posener’s Pankration)
Third:  Cassie Trost (Charile’s Combat Club)

Division 22 – Amateur Lightweight 141-155lbs

First:  Terry Sanghera (Creative Fighters Guild)  
Second: Brody Anderson (West Coast BJJ) 
Third:  Shawn Albrecht (West Coast BJJ)

Division 23 – Amateur Light Middleweight 156-170lbs

First:  Kevin Watson (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)
Second: Curt Gallegos (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)
Third:  Justin Sutton (Aiki Jiu Jitsu)

Division 24 – Amateur Middleweight (171-185lbs)

First:  Robert Velek (Fortress Fight Team)
Second: Michael Leary (NW Jiu Jitsu Club)
Third:  Jake Ivan (Aiki Martial Arts)

Division 26 – Amateur Heavyweight (206+)

First:  Jason Williamson (Aiki Jiu Jitsu)
Second: Tufala Wilson (Universal MMA)
Third:  Robert Whalen (Viper Pit)

Divison 32 – Advanced Lightweights (141-155lbs)

First:  Ben Greer (Soares Jiu Jitsu))
Second: Yoon Heo (Soares Jiu Jitsu)
Third:  Jason Towns (Toshido Fighting Arts)

Division 33 – Advanced Light Middleweight (156-170lbs)

First:  Todd Smith (Carlson Gracie/Soares Jou Jitsu)
Second: Sean Ryan (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)
Third:  Dirk Odendaal (Gibson Pankration)

Division 34 – Advanced Middleweights (171-185lbs)

First:  Spencer Olsen (Gracie Barra Seattle)
Second: Tim Fisher (Marcelo Alonzo)
Third:  Ivan Kanesic (Soares Jiu Jitsu)

Division 35 – Advanced Light Heavyweights (186-205lbs)

First:  Christopher Davis (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)
Second: Geoff Thorner (White Rock Combat Club)
Third:  Brent Brasure (Gracie Barra Seattle)

Division 36 – Advanced Heavyweights (206lbs +)

First:  Craig Sloan (Gibson Pankration)
Second: Tom Montes (Soares Jiu Jitsu)
Third:  Harbir Basi (Creative Fighters Guild)

Division 40 – ABSOLUTE Division – Any weight, Any skill

First:  Tom Montes (Soares Jiu Jitsu)
Seconds: Tim Fisher (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)
Third:  Steve Rine (Marcelo Alonzo BJJ)