Our Boxing team got things going this weekend at the VAMAA Inter-club at Ultimate Muay Thai in St Albans with four members of the team participating. Linnea led things for the team on fight 2 of the card, going up against a technical opponent. After two rounds, the match ended in a draw. Congratulations to Linnea on her debut in the ring! Great seeing you get in there.
Ben, Avinash and Pin also all had bouts on the day and put on a good display of skill. We’re proud of the team for being great representatives for the gym and conducting themselves calmly with composure in the ring! Well done to you all.
Meanwhile on the west coast coaches Livia, Lachlan Giles and Connor Evans took to the mats at the Australian Wrestling Nationals in Western Australia. Liv took out the gold medal respectively in her weight division, showing her prowess and dominating by technical superiority. We are proud to report that in her exhibition matches she also walked away from both matches with wins!
Lachlan Giles battled his way onto the podium, in a series of epic matches to take the Bronze medal in his division. Wrestling Coach Connor Evans also stormed into his division, taking home yet another National Championship and adding to his already sterling record. You can check out some highlights from the day on Connor’s Facebook page here:
Little bit of wrestling from the nationals yesterday.#firemans #freestylewrestling #australianwrestling #uww #92kg #tokyo2020
Posted by Connor Evans Freestyle Wrestler on Saturday, 6 October 2018
Sunday saw our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team head to compete at Grappling Industries. There was a great representation from all three of our gyms participating on the day and we would like to thank everyone who came down to support the team! As always, we are proud of everyone who competed and challenged themselves on the day! Congratulations to you all on your medals and the culmination of all your hard work.
We’d like to highlight a couple of stand out performances from the day, like Vanessa Natoli who took to the mats after a 2 month break with a rib injury (having been back on the mats less than a month) to take on some fierce ladies in her division. Showing her determination to stand and work her top and take down game, saw Vanessa take the silver in her division in the gi with fellow Absolute teammate Sophia taking the gold. Sophia also then went on to dominate in the no-gi division bagging yet another Gold.
Natalie Hobbs also fought her way through 4 matches on the day, scoring over 10 points in 3 of them! Well done to Natalie who takes away an end result of 2-2. Liv Zago also took on some tough competition in the gi and no-gi, walking away with Gold in no-gi and gi division with Suzy Ferri taking the Silver. It was great to also see Juliette Brillet taking home a silver medal in the her gi division, displaying great skill in some amazing battles, coming back from being down on points and submitting her opponents. Then in the no-gi she battled her way to take the Bronze. Congratulations ladies and thanks for representing us on the mats over the weekend!
It wasn’t just the ladies performing for the team, with Vince Phan from Absolute MMA Melbourne CBD taking out bronze in gi and gold in no-gi, in a double medal affair. Joseph Schwef of Absolute MMA St Kilda took out a full rainbow, with three medals on the day (competing in both gi and no-gi), taking home a gold, silver and bronze!
Last but not least from Grappling Industries were our amazing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu prodigies! Veneta won 2 silvers in gi and Aaron won a silver and a gold in gi as well. Great job kids! It’s amazing to see your progression and we could not be prouder of you. Shout out to Coach Mikael Yahaya for always looking out for our prodigies, and for having two epic throw downs of his own. We’re sure there’s plenty of results we’ve missed, and we would love to hear about them. Please share your results with us on social media by tagging the gym, or hashtagging #iamabsolutemma on Instagram! Congratulations again to you all.
Overseas in the USA, Las Vegas, Coach Craig Jones was a force to be reckoned with at Quintet Grappling 3. In a team grappling format Craig (or Kreg as some would call him) was part of team Polaris. In the semi-finals Craig defeated 10th Planet standouts Richie Martinez and Adam Sachnoff by submission. In the finals Craig defeated Antoine Jaoude via submission but finally succumbed to Gordon Ryan representing team Alpha Male. All in all a great effort with 3 submissions in a very exciting format of grappling!
In Asia, our Absolute MMA Thailand Muay Thai team stepped up! First stepping into the ring was our guest from Canada, Alana DeLisle.. Alana got some great shots in, prioritizing her punches against an opponent who utilized higher scoring techniques in their bout, with the fight ending in a loss for Alana via points. A close, tough match for Alana- well done on getting in there!
Sebastian Johannsson from Sweden had his first fight with Absolute MMA Thailand, in a big win in round 2 via KO! This was a beautiful straight right hand from Sebastian, congratulations on your win! Helen Harper, our guest from England was up next against a young fighter from Krabi. Great stamina from Helen who went the distance, tiring out her opponent to win on points in a close match.
Alexander Welin, our fight team member from Sweden closed up for the team in an exciting back and forth fight. This was an absolute war and an absolute elbow fest! Both fighters sustained significant cuts after two rounds, with Welin changing up tactics to win via KO in the third round with his boxing skills. Heavy hands! We’ll be excited to see what comes next for Welin- congratulations!
Photos: Quintet, Absolute MMA Thailand, Priya Johal, Livia Gluchowska Joseph Schwef and Vanessa Natoli.
Compiled by Emilie Yap, Richard Lattemagi and Apryl Eppinger