In December of 2008 I traveled to Lucerne, Switzerland for the first FILA Grappling World Championships. FILA is the official World Wide governing body for Olympic wrestling. FILA put on their first official World Championship in which I won a SILVER MEDAL in the 125 KG division!
I defeated Bulgaria and France with Rear Naked Chokes, defeated Canada by a narrow 1-0 decision and lost a 5-1 decision to U.S. team mate Jeff Monson. It was a very exciting tournament! I felt that I performed very well!
There were 26 or 28 countries that participated. Our United States team won the team championships in both No-Gi and Gi divisions. It was an honor and a great blessing to have been able to compete and experience such a large scale and prestigious event!
The weekend before I also earned my Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Jeff Kunze in the Machado system. Jeff earned his black belt from Rigan Machado.
You can also see my finals match against Jeff Monson, at my friend and U.S. team mate Ricky Lundell's World Championships blog. http://2008filaworlds.blogspot.com/
