FOR THE ANTIGO TIMES

Taking place Saturday, July 31^st, Grappling Industries put on a huge event with 923 registrants. Unified Martial Arts sent two area grapplers to compete, both of whom brought home gold medals.

Recent high school graduate Gideon Sass made his first venture into competing as an adult. Competing in the Adult Gi 155-pound white belt bracket, Sass was able to use his superior wrestling advantage to come out on top of the 12-man bracket.

Sass’s first match was against Ethan Zache of Rodrigo Vaghi Headquarters. Sass was able to use his wrestling and top control to take the decision victory.

Up next was Michael Vazquez of Team Curran. In a repeat of his first match, Sass was able to once again earn the takedown, and Vazquez was unable to escape or submit from the bottom, earning a 2-0 victory for Sass.

In his third match, Sass matched up with Taylor Erdman of Team Curran. Erdman was not able to learn from his teammate’s mistakes, allowing Sass to snatch a single leg and convert it to a takedown. Sass was able to pass guard into side control, and attempted multiple submissions in route to his 5-0 victory.

The fourth match for Sass was against Jordan Sturgis of Rodrigo Vaghi Headquarters. For the second time in the tournament, Sass was matched up with a teammate of someone he had beaten earlier. In this match, Sass was able to use the previous few months of Greco training to hit a beautiful duck under and finished the takedown with an impressive belly to back suplex for the takedown. From here Sass was able to lock up the far side arm in side control, and finished with a submission victory via Americana for his ticket to the finals.

In the finals, Sass met Jackson Moeller of Iron Works Training Center. The gold medal match included a lot of action, with Sass and Moeller each being able to prevent takedowns with impressive scrambles for the beginning of the match. Eventually, Sass was able to convert a takedown and pass guard, earning the gold medal with a 3-0 decision victory.

Also competing on Saturday was Jason Hohensee, who finished the day with 6 victories, while dropping a pair of matches to Eric Schafer.

Hohensee’s day started in the Absolute No Gi bracket, with a match up against 9-time UFC veteran, and 3 stripe black belt Eric ‘Red’ Schafer of Red Schafer MMA. After Schafer pulled guard, Hohensee attempted a variety of guard passes, unfortunately to no avail. Schafer was able to hit a half guard sweep to top position, and won the match 2-0. Schafer would go on to win the bracket with a pair of additional victories.

Competing as a purple belt for the first time, Hohensee’s next bracket was the Absolute Gi Purple belt bracket. Hohensee first faced Dylan Peterson of Silverback Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Hohensee was able to secure the takedown, pass to side control, and use heavy top pressure to set up a victory via kimura for the submission victory at 2:38.

This advanced Hohensee to the finals, where he faced Travis Henn of Imperial Training Center. After a lot of hand fighting and grip positioning, Hohensee was able to secure a snapdown for the takedown, and then controlled top position for the rest of the match for the 2-0 victory and a gold medal in this division.

Hohensee then competed in the Gi adult purple belt -230 bracket. Up first was a rematch with Travis Henn of Imperial Training Center. This time Hohensee was able to counter a judo throw attempt into side control, and then was able to secure a papercut strangle for the submission victory at 3:49.

Hohensee’s second match in the bracket was against Daniel Ortiz of Team Haanpaa. Hohensee was once against able to secure a takedown to side control for the initial 2-0 lead. Hohensee was then able to take the back with hooks in, earning a 6-0 lead. After Ortiz was able to scramble to his back, Hohensee was able to use side control to set up another papercutter strangle, earning the submission victory at 3:27. This victory earned Hohensee his second gold medal of the day.

In his final bracket of the day, Hohensee competed in the no gi adult advanced 230-pound bracket. In the first round, Hohensee faced Charles Brown, a brown belt from Rodrigo Vaghi Headquarters. Brown was able to secure the first points off of a combination double leg / body lock at the beginning of the match, giving Brown a 2-0 lead.

Hohensee was then able to scramble back to his feet, use an under hook to get to a body lock, and then secure a takedown. Hohensee then added a guard pass to take a 5-2 lead, before Brown was able to regain full guard with 30 seconds remaining. Hohensee was able to defend the position, and earned the 5-2 victory.

Match 2 was a rematch with Eric Schafer. This time Schafer was able to secure an arm lock submission at 58 seconds off of a scramble from a front headlock position.

In Hohensee’s third match of the bracket, he faced Ryan Sample of Highland Fight Systems. Hohensee was able to pass guard for the initial points of the match, and after Sample was able to reguard, Hohensee passed guard again for a 6-0 lead. From here Hohensee was able to set up a strangle from side control, winning the match and the silver medal at 2:49.

Up next for Unified Martial Arts are a trio of MMA fights in the upcoming months, with Daniel Sokolowski returning to the cage, Jeremy Landowski looking to improve off his initial MMA victory in June, and Joey Ahern making his MMA debut.