RENEGADE MMA

      A very hot and humid July has come and gone. Hopefully August won't be quite so hot! It can make training very difficult to get through at times. Nonetheless, we had great training and very good competition results this month.

      Ben Syers fought on the evolution MMA July Bash fight card. Ben fought a very strong opponent, Jamie Hadzima, but was able to secure a Guillotine choke in the 2nd round and win by submission. It was great to see Ben get his first victory and we are all very proud of him! Ben is scheduled to fight again in Atlantic City on September 11th. We hope some of you can come out and join us for the fight. MMA, gambling, fun!!!

       On July 17th Team Renegade members made their way to Fishkill, NY for the NY State Grappling Champioships. Long time Team Renegade member Luis Mendoza stole the show winning 1st place in the heavyweight division, Luis weighs 200lbs but went up against some real monsters weighing over 270 lbs! He won the heavweight division submitting all of his opponents. He also won 3rd in masters. Way to go Little Luis! Competing in the Teens Division, Matt Dixon won 2nd place. It was Matt's first grappling competition and is just 14 years old and has a lot of potential. Coach Jeremy Piaser won 1st place in the advanced division. James Daly competed for the first time, his opponent quickly pulled guard and threw on a triangle choke. James defended well but eventually lost his match on points. Jesse Divers won his first match from his guard with a very smooth Kimura to Guillotine combination, exactly how we do it in practice! Awesome! Danny Kuhlmann won 2nd place in his division, winning both of his matches with Keylocks. Danny also displayed his excellent wrestling ability. Taylor Costantino with less than 1 year of total grappling entered the intermediate division. Taylor showed a lot of heart vs a very experienced wrestler, and had many submission attempts but could not secure the win. Steve Brumberg competed for the first time and had some very good matches. All in all it was a very good day for the team!

Here are the individual hours each team member trained:

Only actual training hours were calculated. Talking after training is not credited as training time!

Taylor Costantino            62.5 Hours

Ben Syers                         49 Hours

Jesse Divers                    22 Hours

Tim Fowler                      17.5 Hours

Jerome Reyes                17 Hours

Steve Brumberg             13.5 Hours

Rich Romano                 12 Hours

James Daly                      9 Hours

Tim Hickey                       9 Hours

Rob Robinson                5 Hours

Jeff Houck                       4.5 Hours

Joe Peralta                     4 Hours

Kevin Crean                   2 Hours

Danny Kuhlmann           2 Hours

Steve Zangrillo                0 Hours

Pan Yamniyom               0 Hours

     Some of the team members were injured or on vacation for part of the month. Pan Yamniyom was away in Thailand training, Jeff Houck was away for Marine Core training, and several others were also away. The team members training the most are clearly gaining the most skill and are on target to fight within the next year. Some team members just need to make more of an effort to consistently make training or risk being cut from the team.

     Upcoming events for the team include grappling at the Strong Island Grappling Challenge August 22nd, Ben Syers fights September 11th in Atlantic City, and Tim Fowler is competing at the Army Combatives Tournament the first weekend in October. I am looking forward to the next 2 months of training and competitions. See you on the Mat!