To say this past weekend was big for Ivey League would be an understatement that’s for sure. We had students fighting in both MMA and Boxing events as well as competing in Grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ).
All in all we went 3-0 in fights and snagged numerous medals at the NAGA Tournament in NJ. Definitely one of our more successful weekends, and as a coach I couldn’t be prouder.
I’ll start off talking about those who took to the grappling mats at the NAGA. We sent a small team of 5 youth students and produced the following results:
Michael Garlington – Double Gold
Mackenzie Epps – Double Silver
Fin Moreno – Gold, Silver
Jacob Miller – DNP
CC Fowler – Double Silver
Everyone did great and this is only the start of bigger and better things to come. Outstanding Wrestler “OW” award goes to the hardest working kid I know, Michael “Mouth” Garlington.
Mouth won all his matches with relative ease. In fact, he made it look so easy that one of the fathers accused Mouth of sandbagging and being too skilled for the other kids competing.
I find this funny for a number of different reasons but mainly because Mouth won the highest skill division the event had to offer! God what a sore loser that dad was, I’m guessing the poor guy just needs a hug lol.
Next up for the kids team will be the Ivey League In-House Tournament on December 3rd. Stay tuned for results on that.
14 year old standout Magnus Benz took to the ring in his ongoing quest for Boxing superstardom and came back with a hard fought “W”.
Thanks to the outstanding tutelage provided by Coach Nick Kisner, Magnus has improved each time he steps into the ring and it definitely showed on Saturday night.
Using a pressure style and lots of good, solid defensive tactics, Magnus overwhelmed his opponent and dominated the fight. Congrats to Magnus, Nick and the always supportive dad, Mr. Frank Benz on a nice victory!
Brothers from other mothers Danny Mahoney and Joe Huggins trained their tails off for their MMA fights and when the bell rang there was little doubt they’d do well.
Joe ended up kicking off the entire event as fight #1. Round 1 started off a bit shaky I do admit, with Joe getting picked up and slammed to the canvas pretty hard.
Thankfully Joe’s BJJ training paid off as he was able to control the fight from his back and took little to no damage from his opponent. The round ended with Joe going for an armbar from his guard against the cage.
Round 2 was a very different story. After his opponent missed a few punches, Joe closed the distance and secured a single leg takedown off the cage wall.
Once on top Joe got the mount and rained down heavy punches, forcing his opponent to roll belly down, exposing his neck which Joe took full advantage of and was able to finsh the fight using using the old standby, the Rear Naked Choke. Congrats Joe AKA Huggy Bear!
Danny Mahoney was up at Fight 7 and as it turned out, facing a very game opponent from my hometown of Philadelphia. It ended up being a very exciting fight, with lots of back and forth exchanges both on the feet and on the mat.
Danny used good footwork and head movement to avoid a bunch of attacks like overhand rights and head kicks. Danny did his best work in rounds 1 and 2, using some really slick transitions to score takedowns off the cage.
The fight ended up going all three round and In the end Danny’s experience definitely showed, earning him a unanimous decision victory. I really have to give Danny’s opponent a lot of credit cause this kid came to fight and showed no fear at all.
This was a great weekend for Ivey League and the results show that. Thanks so much to not only those who fought their hearts out but also to our many great students and fans who made the drive and supported us.
I’m very lucky to be surrounded by so many great people here at Ivey League. This is how a team is supposed to look and act. You guys seriously rock!
–Coach Danny
P.S. See below for fight pics. Huge thanks to Coaches Brandon Davis, Scott Keller, Dave Miller, Chrissy Smith, Nick Kisner, and Paul Greenhill.
