Absolute MMA boxing champion Antonia Konstantopoulou set the tone for the weekend on Friday the 7th of December, winning the semi-finals of the 2018 Elite Men and Women’s Boxing Championships (Nationals) in a 5:0 decision! Antonia showed great boxing technique, ring craft, ring control, defense and offence in her semifinal bout. Qualifying for the Women’s Bantamweight (51-54 kg) finals the next day, Antonia was matched against opponent Sacha Ryan-Dryden from Queensland.
Not to be stopped, Antonia continued her winning streak with a 5:0 decision victory in the final, emerging as the new Australian Bantamweight Champion! Antonia has been dedicated to her craft this year, just returning from an overseas training camp in Greece. We are so proud of what she’s achieved! We’d also like to extend congratulations to the whole Boxing Victoria Team for continuing to have the highest amount of medals won as a state, winning 12 medals across 16 weight divisions!
The highly anticipated Polaris Professional 8 rolled around, with Coach Lachlan Giles up first for the middleweight title against opponent Mansher Khera. This was a great fight, we got to see a lot of Lachlan’s guard work, with plenty of back and forth happening, Mansher putting lots of pressure on. Lachlan was strategically trying to attack the legs, and at one point got a good entry on a leg entanglement, but wasn’t able to convert it. In light of Mansher’s forward pressure and pressure passing, the judges granted Mansher the win via unanimous decision.
Up next for the team was Coach Craig Jones much looked forward to rematch with Keenan Cornelius to determine the light-heavyweight championship. We got to see a new side of Craig’s competition game with Craig pushing forward and utilizing his wrestling and pressure passing. His wrestling and heavy top game got him the win via split decision from the judges. Congratulation to Craig on a hard fought victory against one of the best in the world!
The Absolute MMA Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition team traveled all the way up to Kazakhstan to compete in the ADCC trials this weekend. Even though ADCC officials elected to not give out the invites due to low attendance, we had a couple of great performances from the team with James Walters coming 4th, and black belt Ben Hodgkinson taking away the sole ticket to ADCC by winning 6 fights with 6 submissions and not a single point scored against him!
It’s been a hard weekend for the team, with plenty of lows and highs, but I think we can all agree that one of the greatest things to come out of Kazakhstan is this photo of Coach Mikael Yahaya.
Cooper Burnham, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt training under Thiago Stefanutti traveled overseas to Texas in the USA for NAGA (North American Grappling Association). Having just finished his last year of high school, Cooper finishes off a big year with an outstanding result, winning Gold in his two divisions (no-gi expert division and his purple belt gi division)! After battling illness up to the comp, and a stressful couple of days with lost luggage and training gear, Cooper has proven his resolve is greater than the circumstances. Congratulations on a great year Cooper, and to everyone else- keep an eye out for this athlete who is heading over to No-Gi Worlds to join the rest of our Absolute MMA team!
Coach Livia Gluchowska unfortunately had to pull out of EBI 18 in the female straw weight tournament due to injury, with teammate Chisaki Akiyama, purple belt, stepping in on short notice (four days!) to replace her. Drawing multiple world champion black belt Pati Fontes (Checkmat) as her opponent in the first round, Chi put up an admirable fight, displaying good guard work, however eventually Pati took her back and finished it via RNC. This will be a great learning experience for Chi and will prepare her for fighting in the higher competitive levels of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where we know she will be in the future!
Written by Emilie Yap
Photos: Polaris Professional, Antonia Konstantopoulou, Thiago Stefanutti, Lachlan Giles, Ben Hodgkinson and Young Nghiem