Merry Christmas!

As we suffer once again under the Arctic conditions, here's my favourite photo to help warm you up, as we get ready to shiver through Christmas at the weekend! Can you spot the jiu jitsu??

Tatami Fightwear's new commercial!

Here's the lastest commercial featuring some of Tatami's sponsored athletes; I was told the filming was shot in a freezing warehouse and everyone worked hard to keep warm in the cold!

Jim Mc Sherry - faixa azul!

Massive congrats to my main man Jim Mc Sherry on being promoted to blue belt from Victor Estima at the weekend! Really pleased to see Jim getting to grips with the BJJ game and coming through the grades, in a weekend packed full of promotions throughout the UK, must be the festive spirit shining through!

Jeremy Arel - faix preta!!

A HUGE well done to my good friend, Jeremy Arel, aka the Gerbil on being promoted to black belt at the weekend by Gordo; in addition, Mad Jack Mc Gee was promoted to brown belt, so a huge well done to you both guys, onwards and upwards!

New ring and cage!!

We now have a brand spanking new boxing ring and a spankingly shiny new 18 foot competition cage at the club!! MMA classes start back again on Monday and Wednesday after the BJJ classes and we start building up the MMA fight team as of now and hit the comps in 2011 with a bang!



Regular interclubs will be held at the club covering BJJ, MMA and No Gi, as well as seminars with leading BJJ and MMA fighters and coaches throughout the year.

To say I am excited is an understatement.

We can now hit the new year with a set up to rival that of any MMA gym in the UK and I will be dipping into my contacts book to bring the best people around to the gym. The facilities are there for all Combat Base members and all my friends from the BJJ and MMA community worldwide.

Let the fun begin!!

A weekend of refereeing!

Rounded off an action packed, adventure filled 2010, by way of reffing a brace of grappling comps at the weekend; Saturday saw me at the UMA's final end of year grapplefest, no gi style and as always, was very impressed by the standard of the competitors, who improve year after year. Congrats to Ste Littler from Ng Gar Tien Combat Base who bagged a silver medal and to Warringtom MMA warriors Phil Manyon and Steve Withnell who walked off with bronze medals.
Props to Graham Batin and Keith Dooley from http://www.empirefightshop.com/ for sponsoring the event.



Fight of the day on my mat was between Bebbington BJJ and RGA Bucks, an action packed fight that saw the RGA Bucks way up on points, dominating the fight, who found himself tapping out with one second on the clock! That's BJJ guys!!

Bebbington BJJ took the team trophy and will be returning next year to defend their silverware and let's hope Leicester SHoot return next year and make a challenge for the cup and bragging rights.

After the UMA event, I travelled down to Hereford and stayed overnight at Dave Coles's, in readiment for the Hereford Open V, which was a white belt only event; there was a healthy number of juniors competing and super talented they are, all fighting their hearts out.



Had a great day on the mats refereeing some great matches, these guys really gave it 100% and fought hard throughout the day; Greg 'Creely' Creel's brother made an impressive show of himself , winning his division and special mention goes to SBG South West duo of Gareth Millar and Paul Johnson, who travelled up from Plymouth and competed at the UMA event, with Gareth taking gold and Paul the bronze, before heading to Hereford and walking away with silver medals apiece. Now that's dedication!


And so an action packed 2010 comes to an end; with 2011 already bursting at the seams with gi and no gi comps, it looks like another busy year for the Fighting Photographer, both as a referee and a competitor!

New Strength and Conditiong Class!

Four new pairs of kettle bells are now safely in the gym, so it's time to run a new S+C class at the club, starting next Thursday from 6pm til 7pm. Other equipment includes a climbing rope, sledge hammer, tractor tyre, swiss balls, medicine balls, kick pads, Thai shields, plus plenty of drills to make the sweat flow in rivers!

300 style training commences!