The Hungarian Team Kiraly won the mixed team fight challenge (with Chelsey Nash of Canada in the mix)

For the North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA), the Quebec Open provides the true international aspect to the world tour. Held in Quebec City, Canada the weekend of April 27-28, 2011, the tournament was a pleasurable mix of familiar and foreign for those who traveled from the United States or other countries to attend the event. And for the Canadians who were there in droves, it was a chance to experience martial arts from a new perspective. The host, Clermont Poulin, strives so hard to put on the best event possible that he has a knot in his stomach starting a few days ahead of the event and lasting until the lights come up to signal the end of the finals. His attentiveness and worry pays off for those in attendance and who get the chance to experience his night time finals that boast an audience of nearly 6000 people.

Americans were able to shine at the Quebec Open this year during the day time eliminations and the night show. But Team Kiraly of Hungary decided to make the trip and the group had some grand moments as well. The American competitor who had a consistent showing at the event was Vincent Scarduzio. He was able to get on stage for both men’s forms and weapons. In creative weapons, he had a very memorable performance when he nearly impaled the center judge with his vodoo child move with his bo. The judge was visibly terrified but also impressed as Scarduzio was given the highest scores for the division.

Zsolt Moradi of Hungary also had a great weekend although he didn’t do as well as hoped in his individual point sparring division. Moradi was stopped short of the win by Samuel Gagnon of Canada. In team fights, Hungary fell to Team All Stars led by Raymond Daniels and the fight between Daniels and Moradi was impressive. It was Moradi’s kicks and calmness in the ring that were impressive. Claire Cocozza of Canada also had a wonderful weekend. After taking some time off from competition following giving birth to three children, Cocozza is back in 2012 and she proved it by winning the overall women’s sparring grand championship with a last minute kick to score on Chelsey Nash.

Dallas Liu left nothing to chance in the night show as he won over his challengers for the 13 & under weapons grands. Mackensi Emory dropped a kama during a difficult pass to disqualify herself in the 14-17 weapons overall championships. She was followed by Jackson Rudolph with an unusual drop of the bo. Leaving only Tyler Titus remaining for the win with his traditional performance. Titus looked strong and we predict he will likely be seen again on stage this year.

Men’s forms was an eclectic mix of soft style, traditional and extreme. Considering how much the Canadians love to party, the crowd was highly appreciative of Austin Jorgensen’s drunken soft style performance. Jarrett Leiker and Drew Derrick Bisbee provided the traditional flavor. The extreme divisions during the day were dominated by Micah Karns and Vincent Scarduzio and they faced off on the stage during the finals. Karns received three 10s in a row to take the title for the evening and his second grand championship of the year. Vincent Scarduzio was back for the men’s weapons grand championships. Karns eliminated himself during the day time by dropping his weapon. When the sound manager for the event was unable to play Scarduzio’s music for his weapons routine, Scarduzio decided to perform without music. He had the crowd with him and was looking poised to win when a small bobble took him out of the running. Kyle Montagna, on the other hand, performed a strong and nearly flawless traditional bo routine that put him on the winner’s podium for the event.

Scarduzio didn’t go home empty handed, however, as he and Jessica Goldman won the synchronized team competition with their routine set to the tune “Rockin’ Robin”.

 Cheyenne Titus of Team Amerikick has suddenly exploded onto the scene in women’s forms and weapons, an area normally dominated by Becca Ross and Caitlin Dechelle. Titus defeated Ross in women’s Japanese forms during the day time eliminations and faced Ross on stage. This time Ross went all extreme and that performance left nothing to chance as Ross took the women’s forms grand championship title.

Danny Etkin decided he wanted on stage in the 13 and under forms divisions and he defeated Dallas Liu in the run offs to do it. Liu still faced Etkin on stage as the boys traditional representative. Liu was spurred on by the encouraging remarks from his teammate Raymond Daniels in the front row. Kaelyn Whaley was the winner of all the girls forms run offs (both extreme and traditional) and she chose a traditional form on stage for the evening. Etkin decided to take it all the way by winning the overall title to the delight of the crowd.

We don’t get to see a lot of Ross Kohnstam on stage which is a shame because he is pretty entertaining. He got his chance in front of a huge and appreciative crowd this evening. His poor challenger Mackensi Emory was having the worst night ever as her music started to skip and wouldn’t correct itself. She ended up stopping in the middle of her performance and bowing out. Amanda Chen looked pretty serious on stage as she faced the judges for her traditional routine. Chen was followed by another traditional performance – this one by Brendan Rasinski. Rasinski’s strong traditional was the favorite of the judges and Rasinski walked out with the title.

The Quebec Open is known for a loud and appreciative crowd at the night show and tonight was no exception. The crowd was especially appreciative of the handicapable competition where little yellow belt Annabelle Proulx got up from her chair and performed her martial arts. She received almost all perfect 10s from the judges, the award and a standing ovation from nearly 6000 spectators.

With growing support in Canada for the NASKA circuit, a special NASKA competition for weapons was offered during the finals. In the junior competition, Charles Olivier Dube and Alexandre Goyette tied for the junior title while Eric Tremblay was the winner for the adults with his sword routine. Goyette was on stage again in the team demo competition as his team, coached by Tremblay, performed a demo to showcase their winning performance from the Friday eliminations. Sport Action team of Canada is actually one that deserves mention as the members are becoming recognized and growing stronger each season.

The special team fighting challenge for the night finals included four mixed teams from Team Straight Up, Team Kiraly of Hungary, Team All Stars and Team Full Circle Canada. The set up was two men and one woman with the team with best score after three rounds advancing to the final round. Adding a woman into the mix made the teams scramble to pick up the best fighters to represent the team. Team Straight Up used its own Shannel Trappier while Kiraly added on Chelsey Nash. Round one was the women. If there is one thing that losing a grand championship will do, it make Nash fight about a million times harder if she gets another chance. Nash dominated Trappier with a 7 point spread win and final score of 8-1. Straight Up also brought the lone Venezuelan onto its team – Victor Suarez. Suarez held his own against Laszlo Gombos of Hungary but Zsolt Moradi of Hungary flexed his long legs and ax kicks on Julio Lugo to advance Hungary into the final round.

The next match-up pitted Team All Stars’ Robbie Lavoie, Raymond Daniels and Chenoa Cassidy Matthews against Full Circle Canada’s Samuel Gagnon, Jason Grenier and Claire Cocozza. Cocozza had just won the women’s sparring grand championship and liked the thrill of winning. She defeated Matthews 6-2 to put Full Circle in a good position to open the round. Gagnon helped to open the lead further with a narrow 5-4 win over Lavoie. As the anchor, Daniels had a 5 point deficit to make up and was facing Jason “the Sleeper” Grenier. Grenier is a smart fighter and played it perfectly, using the ring and time to hold onto his lead and score whenever Daniels started to pull ahead. The match ended in a 6-6 tie and Team Full Circle advanced into the final round.

 Nash got a chance for a rematch against Cocozza in the final competition of the evening. The two went scoreless for their entire first round fight as they stared each other down and dared the other to make the first move. None of their exchanges ended in any point. Samuel Gagnon was next against Kiraly’s Laszlo Gombos. Gagnon was on the board first with a blitz and Gombos soon responded with his own point and then added 3 more to give his team a 4-1 lead going into the final round between Jason Grenier and Zsolt Moradi. Moradi quickly picked Grenier apart and pushed side kicks that were too much for Grenier to handle. The final score of the match was 6-1 and Hungary took home the glory for the evening.

The Irish Open sparked many discussions comparing the European and North American fighters. With Hungarians, Germans, Venezuelans, Canadians, and Americans thrown in the ring together at Quebec Open it assured that the debate will continue with the answer to who is best being determined in the ring.

Aidan Considine wins an overall youth grand championship at the 2012 Ocean State Grand Nationals

Tournaments in New England are unique because the area is a blend of old school karate and new innovation. The 2012 Ocean State Grand Nationals offered this unique combination at its 32nd Annual event held April 13-15, 2012 in Warwick, Rhode Island hosted by promoters Don and Christine Rodrigues. With 2012 being the Chinese Year of the Dragon, the theme at the event was all about dragons with celebrity guests Don “the Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia “Dragon Lady” Rothrock and Shannon Lee, the daughter of Bruce Lee, the ultimate martial arts dragon.

The New England area is a hotbed of traditionalists and there was an air of appreciation for the martial arts celebrities and masters at the event evidenced by the standing ovations at the finals when names were announced that many of the attendees under 25 probably did not recognize. The vendors tables were also a picture of old and new with some tables selling traditional items while others were offering the most modern and extreme gear such at the Hyper booth with tricking videos and t-shirts. The martial arts community in the area and the local KRANE league assured that the event was run efficiently, started on time and ended promptly as well. With the celebrity backdrop and the usual unpredictability of sport karate, it was a good platform for this North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA) world rated event.

The first thing noticed were some team changes. Ross Levine, disclosed that he left Team Full Circle to be team-less, at least at the national level. Now representing his instructor Jadi Tention, Levine did not participate in team sparring after years of playing a key role on all teams he has participated in. In addition Nicole Pelland, another former Full Circle player, displayed her new Team Paul Mitchell uniform and joined teammate Chelsey Nash in women’s team sparring at the event. Pelland and Nash would face Full Circle in the finals for women’s teams.

The women’s sparring divisions were the best seen in awhile with local New England talent and Canadians joining the USA mix. Local competitor Katy Casey of GTS won the super light division with some hard hits that may have left marks on her opponents. Verona Soliman of Canada defeated Nicole Pelland by one point to advance in the middleweight competition and Chelsey Nash was the lightweight winner. When the dust settled, Nash and Soliman headed to the stage for the grand championship match. In that grand championship match, it was a shock to Nash as time was called and Soliman was up 3-2 after she scored a 2 point side kick. Soliman brought home the win to her team from Quebec and her fiance, Jason Grenier of Team Full Circle.

In the women’s team sparring match-up between Full Circle and Paul Mitchell in the finals, Melanie Ortiz of Full Circle coaxed Pelland in and used the proximity to score with her hands to get a 9-5 lead for Full Circle after the first round of fighting. Nash had a chance for a rematch against Soliman after her loss in the grand championships but this time Nash was starting with a 4 point deficit. Like a woman possessed, Nash was focused and determined to end the match with a win. She used her speed and patience to break Soliman down and get past Soliman’s dominant left leg to tie up the score and then begin a scoring drive that would give her team the lead and the win with a final 15-11 score.

Men’s teams were a wild house. There were six teams with two teams sporting two different line-ups; Team Full Circle and Team Next Level. Without Levine, Full Circle’s main line-up (Black) consisted of Hamed Firouzi, Jason Grenier and Cass Sigmon with their second team (Gold) consisting of Justin Ortiz, Dylan Suarez, Samuel Gagnon and Tico Vilda. Full Circle Black eliminated Team Straight Up in an early round and Team Full Circle Gold eliminated the first group of Next Level fighters.

Full Circle’s coach Mike Conroy is known for verbally sparring for every last point for his players and he did not disappoint tonight. In the match between Cass Sigmon and Lawrence Wray (Full Circle Black versus Next Level), there was a dispute as to whether the scorekeepers had the correct score. After fifteen minutes of arguing, Conroy managed to have one point shaved off Wray’s score and the match ended 8-4. The next dispute ended in fisticuffs as Hamed Firouzi faced the anchor of Next Level, veteran Jessie Wray. Wray kept the score even initially and then Firouzi’s speed allowed him to pull ahead in points. In the final exchange, it appeared that Wray slipped and Firouzi threw a punch that landed to the head of Wray and may have appeared to be intentional. The result – bench clearing and disputes. In the end, Full Circle advanced and only Team Paul Mitchell stood in the way of both Full Circle teams making it to the final round. Full Circle Gold did their coaches proud in an exciting fight against Team Paul Mitchell. The final fight between Tico Vilda of Full Circle and Alex Lane of Paul Mitchell was memorable with both landing great kicks and hand techniques. In the end, Full Circle Gold slipped by with a 2 point lead to advance to the finals where Full Circle Black was declared the winner by default.

By far the most exciting forms and weapons competitors at the event were under four feet tall. The 13 and under boys and girls were out of control. Dallas Liu got a hat trick with three grand championship wins during the day time eliminations but it wasn’t easy as his competition was outstanding. Danny Etkin, Jake Presley, Carson Crawford and Aidan Considine were also on the stage through most of these challenges and it was like a SportMartialArts.com 1-2 Watch showcase with each one trying to top the others. It was in the 13 & under boys creative/musical/extreme forms grand championship that Liu was unable to close the door as Considine tied with Etkin and Considine was declared the winner after the tie breaker.

For the girls, Lady Jade Miles has gone from being good to great in competition and was the winner for nearly all of the 13 & under girls grand championships. It was Considine, however, who took his opportunity all the way to the finish line with an overall win on stage in the finals for his first overall NASKA world forms grand championship. Liu’s three grand championships during the day did not go unrewarded as he was the 13 and under weapons overall grand championship during the finals.

Austin Crain is ready to move into the adult divisions and it is just that pesky thing called a birth year that is preventing it. He was strong in the 14-17 forms grand championships on stage but another pesky thing – this time in the form of Samantha Smith prevented him from getting the title as the clean landings and strong hands of Smith propelled her into the winner’s circle. In the 14-17 overall weapons competition, Shahin Jahan-vash was declared the definite winner with his traditional double sword routine.

After a few years of excitement hiatus, the boys 16-17 point sparring divisions are heating up again with some talent coming up in the ranks. The competitors nearly took out the scorekeepers’ table in the semi-finals rounds which is always a good sign if you are looking for excitement. Shahin Jahan-vash and Chris Gargiulo ended up facing each other in the final round after Gargiulo smashed a prior opponent with some sweet side kicks and round kicks. In this round, the two hit like men and put on a show and it was Gargiulo who came out the winner.

Not having a team didn’t seem to make a difference to Ross Levine as he ran through his heavyweight division, first taking out Greg Betlach of Team Paul Mitchell and then defeating former teammate Jason Grenier for the heavyweight grand championship. In the next ring over, Alex Lane was doing the same in middleweight competition, ending with the middleweight grand championship title. In the 30 and over division, Jason Bourelly of Team All Stars tore through all competition to make it to the stage and in the lightweights, Hamed Firouzi of Team Full Circle was the lightweight grand champion winner. This set up a finals with four men from four different teams.

Levine and Lane were first in the semi-finals on stage with Levine catching a side kick from Lane but still winning the match with a 4-2 score. The Bourelly and Firouzi match was all speed, legs and bounce as the two worked to measure the other’s timing and techniques. The two exchanged points back and forth and ended with Firouzi up 4-3 at the buzzer setting up a Firouzi versus Levine final round.

In the championship match, the smaller Firouzi was measured and paced as he tried to figure out the best way to attack Levine. Levine was on the board first with a point and Firouzi later tied up the match with a reverse punch. Levine scored a back fist and a quick defensive side kick to pull ahead 4-1 when time was called to give Levine the title for the evening.

Adult weapons and forms was all Team Paul Mitchell in the night show with some smatterings of others. Caitlin Dechelle was dominate for the women with two grand championships and went undefeated the whole weekend. In men’s forms and weapons, the real combat began. Matt Emig and teammate Austin Jorgenson tied in the weapons grand championship. Marc Canonizado did an awesome extreme routine but he was disqualified because he was limited to only a creative performance with no tricks. In the end it was Emig’s extreme nunchuck routine that would defeat Jorgenson’s drunken sword routine. In men’s forms, Emig and Canonizado were back but they faced tough competition from Jarrett Leiker’s traditional routine which garnered two 10s from the judges. Calculators were clicking as the scorekeepers added and re-added to determine who would be declared the victor. In the end, it was Emig again with a second grand championship title.

Although the finals were complete, more competition was scheduled at Ocean State Grand Nationals for Sunday with the under belt competition. The Chinese dragon is said to bring protection, a fitting trait for a sport based on self-defense and an event like the Ocean State Grand Nationals where the promoters work hard to protect the tradition of the sport but are open and welcoming to the new aspects.

Leon Jefferson makes the Golden Gates his house with the men's sparring grand championship title.

It was new location for the best sport martial arts tournament on the bay – the Golden Gate Internationals – as it was hosted at the convenient Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, a stone’s throw away from the airport. The event was held March 23-24, 2012. With competitors from the USA, Honduras, Mexico and Canada the tournament definitely qualified as an international event.  Promoters Jordan and Felipa Pallen opened the event by taking to the stage and giving a warm welcome to the crowd. Jordan seized the opportunity to put his rapping skills on display to the crowd’s delight.  Shortly after MC Jordan P entertained the crowd, the tournament floor exploded with competition.

Team Proper, led by Junior Salientes, was fully represented, ready to go and hungry for the Friday night continuous and team fighting events.  The boys’ team sparring was where Team Proper first succeeded, winning its opening match against Team Alchemy to advance to the night time show.  Of worthy note was the battle between Team ASK and Team Pallen that went to overtime with each team tied at 26.  It was Team ASK (Arceo) that scored the final point to advance to fight Team Proper on stage.

In men’s teams sparring, Team Proper brought Patrick Salientes, Alex Arceo, and Leon Jefferson to battle Team Fire & Ice.  Salientes and Arceo garnered a 15-8 lead before the final match where a fired up Leon Jefferson closed the door for a 26-11 victory.  After scoring the first blitz Jefferson announced “This is MY House!” to the crowd.  Going forward we will refer to Jefferson as Leon “My House” Jefferson, which actually is a little foreshadowing for the tournament.  Straight Up also fielded a team to take on Team Kick Start.  Kyle Richards and Joshua May of Straight Up gave the team a 7-6 lead into the final round where Justus Lawrence showed off his kicking and blitzing skills to carry Straight Up to a 15-10 victory.  They would go on to face Team Proper at the night time show.  Team Kick Start and Team Proper also fielded teams for the mixed team sparring division (18+ M, 18+ F, 35+ M).  The story of these team fights was Gerrica Trias who propelled Team Proper to a win with a 9-2 opening round.

On the Friday night stage many of the forms division got it cranking by blasting dubstep and showcasing some high flying tricks.  Sage and Colby Northcutt showed that they’re still the competitors to beat by winning many of their divisions.  The most notable highlight of the night took place when youth competitor Ashley Morris performed her kama routine.  In the midst of spinning her kamas one of them took aim at the top of her skull.  Despite the accident, Morris continued her form and immediately got some medical attention for the wound on the top of her head.  Later on that night I was happy to see Ashley doing just fine laughing and goofing around in the elevator.  Look for her heroic video to be posted soon!

The Saturday afternoon competition brought in some huge crowds for divisions such as Jiu Jitsu, Stick Fighting, Flag Sparring, and Point Kickboxing.  Dozens of junior competitors showed off their arm bar and take down skills and the crowd exploded with cheers as competitors slugged it out in the point kickboxing matches.

The men’s 45+ men’s point sparring division was a thrill to watch as it appeared that whomever could fight without injuring himself would win the division. Two fighters blow hamstrings in their fights amongst several other smaller injuries.  Mark Lawrence was able to keep it together to win the division for the heavyweights.

The men’s middle weight division was the stage for many entertaining fights starting with Jason Holmes drawing a tough first round fight against Justus Lawrence.  The two went point for point until Lawrence was able to prevail with a one point lead as time expired.  It didn’t get any easier for Lawrence as he fought Alex Arceo next.  Arceo’s quickness and agility were the key to keeping up with Lawrence to force an overtime. After several exchanges, Arceo finally got the winning point to move on and he would eventually win the division.  He would then go on to face on team mate Leon “My House” Jefferson in a somewhat lighthearted yet competitive fight that went back and forth until Leon took a lead and held on to move on to the night time show.

“Yarr Matey!!”  “Shiver me timbers!”  “Prepare to be boarded!” You can always expect a creative and rather crazy theme for the Golden Gate

Promoters Jordan and Felipa Pallen went all-out Pirate for the tournament theme.

Internationals.  Yup, Jordan and Felipa Pallen went all out Pirate for the night time show wearing Jack Sparrow outfits right down to an eye patch.  Gold coins, treasure chests, and tasty pirate treats littered the night time show.  A choreographed pirate form and a few motivational words from Captain Jordan set the stage for a very unique night time show.

Chance Maxwell got the night time show fired up with a fast moving routine to the Skrillex remix of Cinema, unfortunately Chance had to redo the form after missing one of his tricks towards the end of the routine.  His sister, Jordan Maxwell took the Junior Choreographed Musical Form Grand title after a routine a tightly choreographed form to “I Feel so Close to You Right Now.”  It was so well choreographed that one of the judges was compelled to give 3 points (out of a possible 2) for the choreo score.  In the adult Contemporary Forms Grand championships, Darrell Lewis got some serious air time and a couple of 10s from the judges to take the title.

Team Proper was at it again in the men’s team fighting finale taking on Straight Up.  Round one saw a back and forth tied match between Kyle Richards of Straight Up and Alex Arceo of Team Proper.  It was Leon “My House” Jefferson of Proper who fought fast and furious against Joshua May to give Team Proper a nice lead into the final match where Justus Lawrence would have to make a come back against Bryan Young of Proper. It looked like it might be possible for Lawrence after Young suffered a knee injury early in the fight.  However, after eventually getting back up Young was able to fend off the kicks of Lawrence and even score a couple back fists to clinch the title for Team Proper.

Next up Team Proper attempted to make it two in a row against Team ASK in the boys’ team fighting championship match.  In the first two fights Team Proper steadily built a 7-1 lead and looked confident going into the final match.  That’s when John “Jet” Manuel of ASK had seen enough and delivered far reaching and quick blitzes over and over again.  Manuel was in an absolute zone, outscored his opponent 14 -2, and carried his team to a 15-9 victory.

Jordan Maxwell got down to business again to get a 2^nd grand, this time in the Junior Choreographed Musical Weapons division.  In the Adult Contemporary Weapons division ,a strong routine from Taylor Lynch earned a couple of 10s for the title.

In the next fighting divisions, Captain Jordan Pallen in full pirate garb took the stage to coach son Jordan Ortiz-Pallen (JR) against Luis Forastieri for a Junior Fighting title.  JR was calm, cool and collected despite an excited and amped up pirate coach behind him. JR built up a 3 point lead with little time left.  Amazingly, Luis tied the match up in the final seconds by landing a cart wheel kick to send the match to overtime.   JR was able to overcome the final exchange in regulation and earn the final point to bring a big win to Team Pallen and the Captain.

Brandon Aquino showed off his intensity and then his big smile after winning the Junior Japanese Forms Grand.  Jordan Ortiz-Pallen was back and exhausted after working hard to get the Junior Kajukenbo grand championship title. Next up Brandon Bertsch entered the ring in the Adult Traditional Forms and Weapons Grand Championships with thunderous stomps to the floor.  An extremely intense, focused and hard hitting routine earned Bertsch the title with a perfect score as he received 10s from all five judges.

The final competition of the evening would be the men’s overall sparring championships.  Julio Castro showed off his experience and skill to move past Karl Bettencourt and face Leon “My House” Jefferson in the finale as Bryan Young was forced to bow out due to the knee injury he suffered in team fighting.  Jefferson was very emotional and extremely fired up as he quickly got off to a 4-0 lead before Castro wisely called a time out to rethink his strategy.  It clearly paid off as Castro rallied to to tie the match and take a lead late into the fight.  With a one point lead Castro attempted to kill the match with a cartwheel kick, but Jefferson was on to him and landed a ground technique to tie the match and send it to overtime.  Castro landed a close side kick in overtime but only got two judges’ calls.  Jefferson pounced on the opportunity and scored the final point in a close clash.  Overcome with emotion Jefferson dropped to his knees in his victory.  

Not to be out done, Captain Jordan brought the tournament to close in the best possible way – with a drawing for cool prizes!  The Pallen’s had a drawing for dozens of great things including iPods, a Kindle Fire, and an iPad amongst many other fantastic prizes.  A fitting end as treasure, and then more fun times, were captured by competitors and fans alike.

Raymond Daniels, Promoter Roy Baker and Luisa Gullotti

The 2012 Irish Open is the pinnacle of fighting and is, actually, the largest fighting tournament in the world. Nearly 2500 competitors attended this pre-registration-only event, the event’s highest number of entries in its 15 years, with a mere 175 entering the forms and weapons divisions. The rest were there for one thing; to fight and, more importantly, to win. Held March 2-4, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland, the event started with dramatic team fighting and ended with intense, hard-hitting point fighting.

At the center of it all was fighter Raymond Daniels of the United States. Daniels capped off a near-perfect weekend by winning the coveted men’s open weight grand championship title and cash award. He also won his individual weight category and went undefeated the entire weekend. His triumphs in his individual divisions made up for his team’s loss in the 4 man, 1 woman team fighting division where his Team All Stars were eliminated in the final round by Team Kiraly of Hungary when Hungary won the first three rounds of the best of five match up. As the anchor, Daniels did not even fight in the match-up against Hungary.

Team Kiraly brought its own impressive display of talent from its young group of fighters. The Hungarian group matched up well with fighters from all countries. Richard Veres of Hungary was especially impressive with his speed in the ring. He defeated Team All Stars’ Jason Tankson to give his Hungarian team the team fighting victory on Friday evening. Veres also eliminated Team Full Circle’s Hamed Firouzi in an exciting elimination round in the -69 kg eliminations on Saturday. In the open weight competition, Veres nearly made it to the final four but was defeated in a hard hitting match with Robbie McMennamy of Ireland as McMennary advanced to face another Hungarian in the semi-finals, Zsolt Moradi. Moradi was one of two of Team Kiraly fighters to make it into the final four of the open weight division on Sunday. He was joined by teammate Krisztian Jaroszkievicz after Jaroszkievicz elimated Jason Tankson in his bracket to advance.

In the women’s competition, Italy’s Luisa Gullotti had an Irish Open to remember as she defeated Team Paul Mitchell’s Chelsey Nash of Canada to win the women’s open weight grand championship division. Although Nash was highly disappointed after the loss to Gullotti, Nash had nothing to be ashamed of as she brought home two individual weight category titles from the prior evening. In the -65 kg division, Nash paced herself in her fight against Charlie Maddock of England and finished with a 5-3 victory for her first title. Nash was back again in the -60 kg division against Ireland’s Caradh Donovan. This was a closer match that came down to the wire with Nash holding on for a 16-15 win and her second title of the night.

Gullotti’s success at the event was not limited to her open weight grand championship win. Gullotti also won an individual weight class title in the women’s -55 kg division as she defeated Rachel House by a 10 point spread. Gullotti and Nash’s wins were the highlights of an enormous turn out for women fighters. The appeal of the Irish Open brings more women fighters to one place for head-to-head competition than any other event in the world.

Although forms and weapons are not as popular in Europe as in the United States and Canada, the Irish Open offered traditional forms and musical forms and weapons divisions for youth and adults. With the event sanctioned by the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO), the WAKO rules applied. The rules limit the number of gymnastics moves and weapons releases that a competitor can incorporate into a routine. The WAKO rules also require a performance to last at least one minute after the competitor introduces himself or herself to the judges.

In the junior forms and weapons competitions, USA competitors Dallas Liu, Amanda and Jacob Pinto did well with Liu winning his musical forms division and Pinto winning both musical forms and weapons. Liu and Chen each won their traditional forms divisions as well. Paige Cerson of England also won her forms division. Her routine included swing-through gainers and clean hand techniques as she helps with bringing the UK to the forefront in the acrobatic martial arts arena.

Liu fell pray to the weapons release rule and lost points for his infraction. The length of performance rule was the bain of Micah Karns’ existence as Karns discovered that the speed and fluidity of both his forms and weapons routines did not amount to a complete sixty seconds in either. Not making the time limit resulted in each judge giving a full point deduction to Karns, leaving Karns as a finalist in each division. Karns did win first place in the traditional forms division and ended the musical competition by being thronged with excited fans, most of them female, that wanted to be photographed with him.

The UK and Italy stood out in the men’s musical forms and weapons competition with Luke Scott and Phil Campbell of the UK and Stefano Scandola of Italy making their mark. Scott won first place inmusical weapons and Scandola won second in weapons. Campbell took first place in musical forms with Scott in second. Scott has trained with Americans Jarrett Leiker and Matt Emig and throughout the past few years competing in the UK and on the WKA circuit, Scott is becoming a formidable forms and weapons competitor. He plans to attend the Amerikick Internationals and US Open in 2012 to test himself against USA competition. Italian Scandola represents Team AIKI and has competed on the WKA circuit and traveled to the USA for competitions. He is very competitive in the traditional divisions and is had a clean musical weapons routine at the Irish Open. Campbell, along with junior Cerson, represent the new Team ProRank UK.

Over 160 competitors from the United States and Canada crossed the ocean to attend the tournament and only a few ended up making it into the winner’s circle. The rules of the Irish Open are different, allowing front hand body punches, deducting points for rules infractions and allowing points to be awarded to both competitors at the same time. The new rules were troublesome to many of the non-Europeans and resulted in disappointing finishes. Despite this, a few emerged from the fray. As mentioned, Chelsey Nash and Raymond Daniels won individual weight divisions and Daniels won the open weight grand championship.

Cass Sigmon of Team Full Circle faced the younger brother of Michael Page, Kaylon Page, in the +94 kg title fight. Sigmon has been training hard for this opportunity, putting in hours of bag work and cardio to prepare. In his fight he was first on the board and up 5-0 after the first round of fighting. In the second round, Sigmon picked Page apart and managed a 12-1 routing that ended the match early due to the 10-point spread rule making Sigmon the champion.

In the closest match of the Saturday night finals, Jason “the Sleeper” Grenier of Team Paul Mitchell faced Paulo Niceforo of Italy for the title. Grenier’s unorthodox techniques pushed him to an 8-5 lead after the first round but Niceforo started his comeback in round two by taking a 14-11 lead with only 40 seconds left. Grenier worked in some kicks to bring the score to a 16-16 tie with Niceforo being awarded a point at the buzzer for a hand technique to give Niceforo the 17-16 win.

Team Full Circle started out at the Irish Open being eliminated in the team sparring division by Team Top Ten Blitz Brothers, a team made up of some of Europe’s most talented fighters. The six fighters from Europe that made up the team were Drew Neal of the UK, Morten Spissoy of Norway, Robbie McMennamy of Ireland, Dimitri Gaulis of Switzerland, Ina Grindheim of Norway and Gregorio di Leo of Italy. After defeating Team Full Circle, the European mix was eliminated in team competition by Team All Stars. In the other bracket, Team Kiraly defeated Team Paul Mitchell after Paul Mitchell took on and narrowly defeated Italy’s Bestfighter team. As mentioned, Team Kiraly ultimately went on to defeat Team All Stars and take the team fighting title.

Despite not having the team win, Team Full Circle brought home two firsts for North America with Cass Sigmon’s win and Ross Levine’s strong fight against Drew Neal in the -94 kg weight title. Levine was ahead 7-5 after the first round and in the second round showed his ability to adapt to the European style by scoring with a front hand back fist to the body. Neal was down by 1 point in the second round when he injured his knee with over a minute remaining. Neal’s injury was so severe that he could not continue and had to bow out of the match. Grenier added a second place for Team Full Circle and Samuel Gagnon of Canada took in another second after facing Robbie McMennamy of Ireland in the -79 kg weight title match. McMennamy was up 6-2 after the first round with Gagnon and held on to his lead throughout the fight to bring victory to the host country.

Neal and McMennamy were not the only fighters from the Top Ten Blitz Brother’s team with a name that deserves mention. Gregorio di Leo of Italy did a fine job at the event. He won his -74 kg weight title in an exciting fight with Ireland’s Mark McDermott. di Leo was up 8-6 after the first round and used his timing and strategy to score points on his opponent. di Leo ran into a head kick towards the end of the second round but McDermott fell down after the technique so it was not scored. In the end, di Leo finished with a victory. di Leo also did well in the open weight division, nearly making it into the semi-finals but falling to Zsolt Moradi in the final match in his bracket.

“If you consider yourself a fighter, one of your goals should be to win at the Irish Open,” stated Raymond Daniels – the nine-time open weight grand champion winner of the event. With over 2500 competitors, the 2012 Irish Open is the largest open martial arts event in Europe and has become the largest fighting event in the world. Winning at the event is a true accomplishment and requires tenacity, dedication and training – the traits of a true martial artist and Irish Open fighter.

Matt Emig, Marc Canonizado and Micah Karns faced off in an extreme battle in men's divisions.

Compete Nationals stands out as the first 6A level World Event in the (North American Sport Karate Association) NASKA tour as well as the only West Coast event in the upper echelon of NASKA tournaments. This year, Compete Nationals was celebrating its 25th anniversary and promoters Mohamad and Amanada Jahan-vash were excited to see an increase in pre-registrations for the event as they geared up to host three days of non-stop competition. The event took place in Ontario, California, just outside of Los Angeles the weekend of February 24-26, 2012. With so many top competitors moving to the Los Angeles area to get involved in the Hollywood scene, Compete Nationals always attracts many former sport karate superstars who now live in the area. The tournament also brings out competitors from all around California looking to test their might in the ring.

After his grand championship win at the AKA Grand Nationals a month earlier, young Micah Karns was looking to finally have a chance to go head-to-head with Matt Emig and Marc Canonizado in the men’s extreme weapons and forms competition. He got his chance Friday night in the men’s extreme forms competition. The hype from January win preceded him as Emig and Canonizado were ready and determined to assure everyone that they cannot be easily defeated. Karns was spectacular in his extreme performance but Emig and Canonizado were through the roof, especially Emig who brought new flare and intensity to his performance. In the end, the three M’s would take the top spots in the division with Emig in first, Canonizado next and Karns in third. 

A fourth M intervened in the extreme battle when Mickey Lee won the men’s musical form division with his soft style performance. Lee defeated Emig, Karns and Canonizado with his efforts and made the playing field in the men’s competition even broader. However, when it came down to the finals and the overall grand championship, it was Emig that would win the overall title for men’s forms. His routine on stage was simply amazing and earned six perfect 10s from the seven judges. Emig nearly made it a double grand championship evening with his wild nunchucks performance that had the crowd going crazy – until a drop that took him out of the running. Canonizado introduced a weapons routine and reverted back to kamas after a using a sword since 2009. His new routine was like a musical crescendo which started with basic kama moves and ending with complex finger spins, rolls and releases. However it was new Team Paul Mitchell member Austin Jorgenson who took the title with his impressive drunken sword routine.

While the men were jostling for status, some new pick-ups by Team All Stars solidified the team as the new all-around team to beat. All Stars picked up Dallas Liu, who is dominating in the 11 and under boys divisions for forms and weapons and Jacob Pinto, now in the 14-15 boys divisions.  Liu and Pinto managed to win their creative/extreme/musical grand championships in both weapons and forms and then went to the night time finals to continue to dominate by each winning two overall titles apiece – weapons and forms.

Team All Stars also managed to make the tournament a sparring showcase as well. Jack Felton had the toughest time getting a win in his division as he faced Team Full Circle’s Justin Ortiz in the men’s lightweight division. Ortiz was up by 5 points at one point and Felton came back to win the fight 6-5. Felton then went on to defeat teammate Kreus Lay for the lightweight men’s  title and went to the stage. Joining Felton on stage were his teammates Jason Tankson, the 30 and over men’s sparring grand champion and Raymond Daniels, the men’s heavyweight champion. Alex Lane, representing Team Paul Mitchell was the lone non-All Star on stage for the men.

In the finals, Felton dodged Tankson crazy kicks to win his semi-final match and advance to the final round. Alex Lane got pumped up by coach Damon Gilbert to prepare to face Raymond Daniels in the other semi-finals match. Daniels scored first and Lane was able to block the next few assaults. However, Daniels managed to time his attacks properly and ended up winning the fight with a 6-1 score setting up a Felton versus Daniels fight for the title. Despite being on the same team, losing to Daniels is the last thing that Felton wants to do when the opportunity arises to fight him in real competition. Felton and Daniels train together at times so if anyone knows how to fight Daniels, it is Felton. Felton got a point or two ahead throughout the match with Daniels catching up and tying the score to assure that Felton could not get too far ahead. In the end, Daniels got up by 2 and kept the lead to win the match, the title and the money.

In addition to sending three of four competitors to the stage for the men’s overall sparring grands, Team All Stars went all the way to the top in men’s team sparring. The threesome of Felton, Tankson and Daniels first defeated Team Proper to advance. Proper gave All Stars a good challenge with the match being tied going into the third round. Bryan Young worked hard to defeat his rival Raymond Daniels but Daniels managed to best Young by a few points to move his team forward. All Stars had no problems eliminating Team Straight Up in the next round. And in round three, All Stars faced Team Paul Mitchell in a rather heated match. In the end, it was Team All Stars with the men’s sparring title. Noticeably absent from the event were Team Full Circle and Team Victory. Victory had just won team sparring at the AKA Grand Nationals and Team Full Circle was the top sparring team in NASKA in 2011. Expect to see Team Full Circle and Team All Stars in full force and possibly going head-to-head at the upcoming Irish Open.

There were many other performances worth highlighting from this year’s Competes. In the youth divisions, Kylie Chock of California was able to win two youth traditional titles in the 13 and under girls competition. She also got on stage for the first time – twice. Jennifer Espina returned to women’s weapons competition for the first time in quite awhile. She won the women’s non-bladed traditional weapons competition and challenged the dominant women’s forms and weapons competitor Caitlin Dechelle in the finals. Dechelle cannot go unmentioned as she won the women’s forms grand championship, women’s weapons grand championship and the synchronized teams title (with her partner Marc Canonizado).

Jacob Pinto may have won the two grand championship titles for 14-17 year olds on stage, but he needs to watch out for Mackensie Emory, the 14-15 girls challenger. Emory won all of her creative, extreme and musical divisions for 14-15 girls and her routines have developed to a new level. Emory was near-flawless in her extreme weapons routine and started with a corkscrew that got the crowd’s attention and ended with a thumb spin followed by a webster to the splits that made them go wild.

Although traditional performances don’t seem to get the crowd excited like a few good tricks, Shahin Jahan-vash’s traditional double-sword routine was entertaining and engaging with strong strikes and intensity. Dayna Huor dominated the girls traditional competition so don’t count her out as well. The biggest controversy at the event came from the traditional divisions as a protest was lodged due to a move in Kyle Montagna’s traditional weapons routine that involved a jump and spin. The protest questioned whether the move was “the essence of traditional” which is required by the NASKA rules for the division.

In women’s overall sparring, Tara Van Deusen made an appearance and made it to stage to face Marissa Mayer for the women’s sparring grand championship. Mayer’s legs were something to be reckoned with as she scored twice on an unsuspecting Van Deusen before Van Deusen could get on the board. Mayer continued with her success with kicks and ended the match with the win.

Appearances by Luke Broadlick, Steve Terada, Mike Chat and the Power Rangers kept the audience excited throughout the day time eliminations and finals as the Compete Nationals 25th year went off without a hitch and was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful, the competition exciting and the event well-fun.

George Thompson gave it his all on the competition floor at Virginia's Best

By Katie Thompson

For the first time in nearly seven years, Edwin Alejandro’s Virginia’s Best Challenge returned to the sport karate tournament circuit on January 28, 2012. Alejandro’s EWO Team worked hard this year to promote the return of one of Virginia’s premier karate events and the results were phenomenal. If you don’t believe me….just ask the Lynchburg City Fire Marshall who showed up because the parking lot had overflowed into the streets and the all important fire lanes around James River Day School. Once he got the streets cleared the Fire Marshall made his way into the packed gymnasium and promptly pronounced the crowd in excess of the maximum occupancy. Luckily for everyone in attendance, he worked with the organizers to make sure the event continued. A true testament to the professionalism and class of Alejandro and his crew, they packed the house for their return to competition!!

This year’s Virginia’s Best Challenge was sanctioned by SKIL, All Star Sport Karate Series, and Southeast Karate Alliance (SKA) and drew outstanding competitors from as far away as Mexico! In attendance were many past, present, and future World Champions. The day started strong with a wonderful obstacle course for the Little Dragons and also featured multiple first timers divisions to help introduce a whole new set of stars to the sport karate family.

After a day of intense martial arts competition, the Grand Championship rounds got under way to crown seven forms/weapons underbelt champions, three blackbelt forms/weapons champions, a blackbelt men’s sparring champion, a team sparring champion, and perhaps the most entertaining of all…the tricks contest to crown the best in both weapons and non-weapons tricks!

The future of sport karate in the southeast was on full display in the junior underbelt grand championship rounds as competitors left it all on the mat for the honor of taking home the coveted Samurai Trophy. With outstanding nunchuk forms from Jordaine Holley in the 10-under novice division and Jared Schrum in the 10-under advanced division, Corky Sikes’ Team Strikeforce took home two grand championships to go with a whole pile of divisional 1st place trophies. Claiming two more grand championships were a couple of Jeff Doss protegees in Hunter Mayo with a contemporary bo staff routine in the 11-17 intermediate championship and Aaron Bailey with a contemporary form in the 11-17 advanced championship. Claiming the 10-under intermediate championship was Chidera Dimkpa who trains under Larry Dillingham with a very strong traditional form, and the 11-17 novice championship went to Austin Prebula from Carrie Goldbeck’s Team Fury for his blazing kama display.

Representing his host school, Michael Johnson of Team EWO had a great day on the floor taking home not only five 1st place divisional wins, but also the adult underbelt grand championship.

Not to be outdone by his sister’s win in the underbelt grands, Yuzochi Dimkpa also representing Larry Dillingham earned the second Samurai Trophy for the Dimkpa family in the 11-under black grands with another strong traditional form. In the 12-17 blackbelt grand championship it was another traditional form that won out as Indiana Davis took home yet another trophy for his collection. In the adult blackbelt grands it was none other than Jeff “Sushi” Doss, fresh off of his 2011 NBL Traditional Grand Championship, taking home the title of Virginia’s Best forms grand champion for 2012 to the delight of the hometown crowd!

The finale of the men’s blackbelt sparring grand championship came down to a closely contested match between Charlie Davidson and Ewell Carter, but in the end the size and reach advantage proved to much to overcome as Charlie walked way with the title of Virginia’s Best Point Fighter for 2012. After a brief rest during the trick contests, Charlie returned to action, teaming up with Gina Thornton and Sean Elliot of Team MASMAL in the team sparring finale to take on a trio of AFKA representatives. In a dominating performance the team of Charlie, Gina, and Sean proved too much for the AFKA team to overcome and claimed the title of Virginia’s Best Team for 2012.

The highly anticipated tricks contest featured a bo staff duel between long time friends Audrey Fitzgerald and Chris Urcinola. The back and forth contest featured lots of action, but in the end Audrey walked away with the win and more importantly….bragging rights over Chris!! In the non-weapons portion of the tricks contest a couple of high flying blackbelts, Tim Wegert and Ewell Carter, lined up with a couple of EWO underbelts, Micheal Johnson and little 6 year old George Thompson. Despite their best efforts, the lesser experienced EWO duo just couldn’t match the experience of Tim and Ewell. In the end, the close contest went to Tim Wegert of AFKA.

The past few years have seen an increase in the level and quality of Sport Karate competition in the Old Dominion state and the 2012 edition of the Virginia’s Best Challenge will only add to this revival. Sport karate is once again alive and well in the state of Virginia, and the future is looking very bright indeed.

Dallas Lui steps back to perform his winning routine.

2012 opened with the AKA Grand Nationals in Chicago, Illinois to start the North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA) season. The talk of the event was Micah Karns who moved into the adult divisions this year. After dominating in the 14-17 divisions for the latter part of 2011, Karns opened up the new year with a grand champion win in men’s forms at this January 14-15, 2012 event. Noticably absent from the event were Paul Mitchell greats Marc Canonizado and Matt Emig – as neither made the trip to the cold of Illinois.  Karns is expected to meet up with one or both of them the weekend of February 24-26, 2012 at the Compete Nationals.  SportMartialArts.com will be on hand to cover the challenge in full!

Jarrett Leiker is expected to be a strong contender in adult forms and weapons in 2012 as well. Leiker was 2011’s Warrior Cup winner and walked away with 5 first places this year. Leiker won the traditional challenge for the second time in a row, but he wasn’t able to defeat Karns for the Warrior Cup challenge. An obviously agitated Leiker accepted the defeat but is likely to make 2012 a year of hot competition in the men’s forms and weapons divisions.

It has been awhile since Mike Welch of Wisconsin has taken the stage since he moved into the 30 and over divisions. Welch made it to the adult Warrior Cup weapons finals only to drop in the first section of his form; however, his great Wisconsin work ethic shined on as he finished a very impressive form. It is unusual to see Welch anywhere but at midwest events so we may not see him again until the Diamond Nationals in October.

For the kids, Dallas Liu certainly rose to the occasion in the weapons department. Liu threw more tricks in his bo form than usual and won the thirteen and under weapons division. Liu almost went all the way, but it was Jackson Rudolph who beat him for the Warrior Cup. Rudolph has moved up to the 14-17 year old divisions this year and is expected to fare quite well. Becca Ross headed back to Florida with a Warrior Cup for her fast and creative bo form in the women’s division. Ross hit harder than ever and stuck a clean voodoo child to top off the form. Her greatest rival, Caitlin Dechelle, was not at the event and the two are expected to go another year trying to best each other.

In fighting, Ross Levine was the men’s overall sparring and Warrior Cup winner and Morgan Plowden of Michigan kept Full Circle from a fighting sweep by defeating Nicole Pelland of Full Circle to win the women’s sparring grand championship. Chelsey Nash, arguably the top woman fighter in 2011, refused to attend the event in a gender equity protest due to no Warrior Cup being awarded to the women’s fighting grand champion.

Team Victory (made up of Richard Plowden, Jr, Justin Jones and Troy Binns) surprised the dominate Team Full Circle Gold (Ross Levine, Jason Grenier and Hamed Firouzi) with a one point victory in men’s team sparring during the daytime eliminations making Team Victory the current team to beat in 2012! Expect to see some major battles at the upcoming 2012 Compete Nationals with expectations of Team Paul Mitchell, possibly Team All Stars and a number of outstanding local California teams joining the fray.

Brandon Bertsch in the adult traditional competition.

The Grand Finale Super Show at the Super Grands allows competitors to receive numerous awards and watch the new world champions  squaring off against one another for overall titles.  After the new world championship rings are dispersed, the select few champions storm the stage and compete for the honor to be named World Grand Champion and to receive the distinguished red NBL belt.  The first division of the evening was the Junior Contemporary Forms World Grand Championship.  Sage Northcutt bowed out of the division, leaving Mikelle Smedley of Team Pinnacle, Seth Boyette of Team Strike Force and Dallas Liu – a new member of Team All Stars – to vie for the title.  Although Smedley and Liu were incredibly good, it would be Georgia native Boyette who was awarded the title.

The next competition was the Adult Traditional Forms World Grand Championship.  Jeff Doss (Korean), Jay Brandt (Soft Traditional), Daniella Barrientos (Japanese) and Brandon Bertsch (Traditional Weapons) competed for the coveted red belt.  After every competitor performed, Doss, Barrientos and Bertsch somehow ended in a three-way tie.  Due to NBL rules, they had to run their forms once again.  After the second performance, the three still were tied.  Finally, the judges decided to point to the competitor they felt was the most deserving.  The judges felt that Jeff Doss of Virginia would go home with the crown.

After more award placements were given out, the Junior Traditional Forms World Grand Championship was contested.  Emily Hemmerling, Renee Torres and Andrea Tyrell faced the tough task of defeating Bay Area born Andryanne Angat.  Angat’s clean Korean kicks and transitions were much too great for the other competitors to overcome, leaving her as the Grand Champion.

Women’s Sparring World Grand Championship competition was next on stage. First in the Flyweight versus Featherweight division, Joslynn Espinosa faced off against Proper teammate Gerrica Trias.  Espinosa disposed of her teammate, qualifying her for the final fight.  In the Lightweight versus Middleweight contest, Colbey Northcutt automatically qualified after a Regina Thompson bow out.  The final fight was then set between Espinosa and Northcutt, meaning another Proper versus All Star clash – a common theme throughout the week.   Espinosa was unable to overcome the massive reach advantage held by Northcutt and Northcutt took a win for All Stars.

The last forms division of the evening was the Adult Contemporary Forms World Grand Championship.  Darren Cox faced off against Ghandi Lewis and Jeff Doss.  All three competitors performed well, but it would take a double back tuck for Ghandi to lay claim to the overall grand.

Finally it was time for the Men’s overall point sparring grand.  In the Flyweight versus Featherweight clash between Kris Lay and LeAutry Bruner, the speed on the stage was for all to display.  Bruner was able to oust Lay and move on to the semi finals. In the Lightweight/Light Middleweight matchup, two-time overall winner Willie Hicks faced “Nawlins” born Ryan George.  Hicks caught a stiff shot above the eye and was medically unable to continue, allowing George to move on.  Jamal Albini faced Leon Jefferson (another All Star versus Proper matchup) in the Middleweight/Light Heavyweight matchup.  Albini danced with speed around the ring but Jefferson’s aggressiveness in the ring allowed him to win the match.  Finally in the Heavyweight/Super Heavyweight matchup, Raymond Daniels defeated Bryan Young in a matchup of rivals.

In the Lightweight Semi-Finals, George defeated Bruner to advance to the World Grand Championship.  In the Heavyweight Semi-Finals, Raymond Daniels barely survived a strong side kick to the jaw by Leon Jefferson to take the win.  The finals were set between Ryan George and Raymond Daniels.  George couldn’t overtake Daniels, making Daniels the overall Grand Champion, thus officially ending the 2011 NBL Super Grands.  Till next year!

Joshua Durbin opens his routine in the finals of the 2011 NBL Supergrands

The last official grand finale of the Super Grands was filled with adults, vying for the right to be called World Champion.  The first event of this evening was the Hard Choreographed Musical Forms division, contested by Jeff Doss and Ghandi Lewis.  A slight stumble by Doss allowed Ghandi to capture his first individual title in a few years.  Next was time for the Senior Contemporary Forms division, featuring everyone’s favorite leprechaun Andrew Cabilan facing Edwin Alejandro.  Cabilan was unable to defeat Alejandro and Alejandro took home his first win after years away from competition.  Anja Greenhalgh and Colbey Northcutt faced off for the Women’s Creative title.  Northcutt would continue her dominance in the adult female divisions begun earlier in the year.  Next in the Chinese division, Philadelphia native Hector Cruz fell to Jay Brandt while Marco Aguilar pulled off an astonishing victory over Colbey Northcutt in the Kenpo division.  Damian Marquez managed an upset win over Mike Spizzuco in the Male Japanese Division while Spizzuco-trained Colbey Northcutt was defeated by Daniela Barrientos for the female title.  As for the elder competitors, Andrew Cabilan defeated Hugo Mendoza for the senior title and newcomer Bobby Cannon defeated veteran Bill Jenkins in the executive 45+ division with Jenkins competing with a torn muscle.

Next on the bill was continuous sparring, starting with the female Featherweight division.  Gerrica Trias handily defeated July Robles en route to her second title of the Grands.  Colbey Northcutt won her title due to a bow out in the Lightweight category making it a clean sweep with her sparring divisions.  Hugo Mendoza defeated Curtis McNeil in the men’s Middleweight division while Canadian Mike Levy won the Light Heavyweight title.  Jonathan Garcia won the Heavyweight division by dispatching opponent Corey Anderson.  Finally, James Davidson bowed out to brother Charlie Davidson allowing him to take home the title.

Then the focus of the evening switched back to forms.  Josh Durbin battled Ghandi Lewis for the Hard Creative Forms title.  Lewis’s attempt at a double back tuck proved futile as Durbin’s flawless routine netted him the victory.  Deon Beatty won the 35+ female Musical Forms division, while Jeff Doss avenged his previous loss by defeating Ghandi Lewis for the Hard Open Musical Forms division.  Doss would go on to have back to back wins as in the next division he defeated Bear Loebe for the Korean title.  Colbey Northcutt took the stage again this time defeating Momah Chatman for the female Korean title.

After the forms divisions were completed, the rest of the fighting divisions were held.  Troy Whaley defeated Martin Amba to lay claim to the 45+ Lightweight division.  Tyrone Ward pulled out a win over David Coppock in the 45+ Heavyweight division.  Finally in incredible fashion, Andres Garcia overcame a big deficit to defeat Ryan George.  That great fight ended what was a great Super Grands.  The final competition would be contested later…in the Grand Championship finale!

Michele Simms kicks her way to a win in Grand Finale 4

The fourth finale was all juniors and the young guns were excited to show off what they could do.  The first division up was 11 and under Hard Choreographed Musical Forms.  Zach Gaona of Team International faced off against Hayden Smith of Team Strike Force for the honor of becoming champion.  Gaona came away with the close victory over Smith for the title.  In the 12-14 Girls Hard Creative Forms division, wildcard Michelle Simms made it all the way to the finale against McKenna Jalley.  After nearly a year off from competition, Simms would claim her second career world title.  Next, Seth Boyette would make his fourth appearance on stage; this time against Alex White.  After a major stumble by White, the door was wide open for Boyette to take home the win.  After a couple of amazing tricks, Boyette laid claim to arguably being the best youth contemporary competitor on the circuit.  Good friends Jordan Maxwell and Karina Hipolito challenged each other next in the 17 and under Female Hard Choreographed Forms division.  Maxwell would fall, like many others, to the incredible flexibility and kicks of Hipolito, making her champion.  The next competition was for the 9 and under Male Creative Forms world title.  Hunter Orlowski faced off against Dallas Liu for the right to be crowned champion.  Liu’s combination of clean strikes and Matt Emig –esque tricks allowed him to take home the victory.  Next, Davis Teston and Sage Northcutt faced off for the 12-14 Hard Creative Forms title.  With straight 9.99’s, Northcutt closed in on his goal of 40 world titles.

The first division on tap for continuous sparring was the 12-14 Featherweight Continuous Sparring division.  Dhaire Patello faced off against Amanda Chen, but almost as entertaining was watching coaches Laco Villanueva and Raymond Daniels.  With a near 25 point margin, Chen took home her second title of the tournament.  Next was the female 12-14 Lightweight Sparring division.  Meghan Hamilton and Karina Perea faced off in what could only be described as a sanctioned brawl.  In the end, Perea would walk away with the win by a mere four points.  In the 15-17 division, Courtney Leal faced off against Ashlee Grant.  Grant’s ring prowess led her to yet another sparring world title.  Next in the 11 and under flyweight division, Evan Brown took on Jordyn Deal.  Deal’s furious and wild kicks scored her enough points to net the win.  Dominic Rubalcava forced a second fight and notched the world title victory over Robert Najera for the 11 and under lightweight division.  Next was the 11 and under middleweight division.  Herbert Rodas faced Wilhen Jorge for the title in this one, and Jorge didn’t disappoint, winning the title as he did in his point division a few nights back.  Then in the 11 and heavyweight division, Tyler Doan took home his second title of the week.

Forms took the stage yet again.  Trevor Logan and Sage Northcutt battled for the 12-14 choreographed title.  Northcutt’s new routine was able to oust Logan from the competition.  Next, Julia Moreci defeated Mara Hipolito for the 15-17 Female Creative Forms Division title.  Sean McNeil had the tall task of facing Seth Boyette for the 15-17 Choreographed Musical Forms world title and was unable to stop Boyette, who won yet again.  Boyette’s teammate Hayden Smith was able to repeat his success by winning the 11 and under creative world title.  Andrea Tyrell and Karina Hipolito renewed their rivalry for the 11 and under female Hard Creative title.  Hipolito would take home the win this time however, splitting the series with Tyrell 1-1.  The last contemporary division was the 17 and under open musical forms competition.  Corky Sikes-trained Davis Teston faced the most well-built fourteen year old known to man – Sage Northcutt.  With a near perfect score of 49.99, Northcutt would take home the title.  Then the last traditional divisions for the juniors were contested.  Adrianne Angat defeated Pinnacle’s Sofia Yubero in the 11 and under Korean division.  Sage Northcutt maintained dominance in his form competitions with a win over Jacob Cleary in the 12-14 division. However, it should be noted that Cleary made his way to the stage a multitude of times this year – his first official year as a black belt at the Supergrands.  First time Super Grands participant Jake Haromszeki defeated Eli Alexander to take the 15-17 Korean crown, making him the third Team United member to take home a first world title.  Then the rest of the continuous fighting divisions were contested.  Bobby Seronio, III won due to a David Martinez bow out.  Finally in the 12-14 Heavyweight division, Alejandro Landa received a controversial and questionable win over Sage Northcutt.