23 Jun

HAFA ADAI,

Among other things…Congratulations to the promoters, fighters, and staff of Pacific Xtreme Combat 24 who, with almost 200,000estimated television viewers, were able to produce a very successful event with their major step into the Philippines as KelvinFitial secured the PXC Heavyweight Belt in his rematch against the at-the-time reigning champion Roque Martinez.

CukiAlvarez and Jason Tarkong of TrenchTech Purebred Saipan visited Palau this week to conduct an introduction to Mixed Martial Arts seminar in with Palau Mixed Martial Arts.

And eyes are on the PurpleBelt Open and BrownBelt Open divisions of this Saturday’s MarianasOpen at the PhoenixCenter, Guam’s signature event in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Submission grappling competition.

Support Your local wrestler! The Guam Grappling Organization is hosting a Wine tasting and food paring @ Meskla on June 29 . 6-9pm. $50.00 donation goes to Team Guam Wrestlers for 2011 World Championships from September 12-18th i Istanbul , Turkey .

And an overdue and sincere congratulations goes to theUniversalAlliance’s Christiana Cruz for securing a silver medal in the Womens’s Feather Weight Division in the IBJJF Jiujitsu World Championships  on June 2nd in California.

We have seen many different extending facets of our island’scombat sports . From our long-time traveling competitors in TaeKwon Do, to our islander’s off island ventures in KyokushinKarate, our wrestler’s trek’s into the Olympics and our island’s many successful stories for boxing at the SouthP acificGames .

We’ve seen the growing sophistication of our industry as We’ve watched total fighting sport evolve from NoHoldsBarred fighting to MixedMartial Arts Competition. We’ve watched local fighter athletes conduct everything from fundraising carwashes to full-blown sold out events at our islands biggest venues.

We watch admiringly as our islander’s venture overseas to faraway and exotic lands such as Russia, Brazil, AbuDhabi, and Thailand to name a few. And we’ve sat just as astoundly as we’ve seen elite athletes and world celebrities visit Guam repeatedly from just-as-faraway places .

We’ve witnessed a growing interest in hand to hand combat sports from our armed forces and we’ve watched our island soldiers succeed and advance time and time again in the relatively recently formed MACP programs and tournmanents abroad

All of these things and all these different corners, nooks, and crannies are in the cultivation of our island’s very supportive audience yet one topic of serious interest and development that seems to often escape much-deserved attention is our women in combat sports.

Women in combat sports is definitely not a new thing. Thinking of women in local  martial arts, its easy to remember TaeKwonDo’s familiar name in EleanorMinor, personally I can remember being thrown around effortlessly by Aikido’s Minegishi Sensei of Guam AikiKai, we watched Sera Chargualaf technically dismantle a much larger opponent in Guam’s first female MMA bout in Fury3:Round2, and our island continues to cheer for the Guam Amateur Wrestling Federation’s Olympic veteran and ever-hopeful Maria Dunn.

It seemed that before, we only had brief instances and only the occasional training and very-temporary partners with women in martial arts training, with women in combat sports competition. But today that isn’t the story.

What’s amazing is that in the martial arts evolution of our local women in skill is in their ability to remain as feminine, and in some ways remind us of the art in martial arts. Even without the testosterone you’d think is necessary in fight sport Their growing formidability offers testament to the assets of precision in timing, technique, and strategy—things nowadays often overshadowed by the more aggressive physical qualities of stamina, endurance, and explosiveness often displayed by the super-athletes that our modernized combat sports have been reflecting today.

Aflague, Cabaccang, Cruz,Dunn, ,Gandaoli, Roberto ,Velez, Wong—how many times have we seen these names in competition? How many more times will we see them? How many more names will we be given reason to remember? Female athletes who are helping to pave teh way for more women atheltes and ambassadors in the art of Brazilian Jiujitsu. They are making the sacrifices and crossing the miles to illustrate a serious pursuit of combat sports success and martial arts reward. These are the names that have offered us in women not mere sideshows or experiments in sport and entertainment—but for the sincere and formidable windows into the non-discriminating passion and road that comes with martial arts training and/or in sport and in just as much as for men—for the love of the game.

There is much to be applauded for the leaps that our women are making in training and for the bounds that they are making in competitiion. In awe of things we might want to offer a photo, in support of things, we might want to offer a hand, but in light of everything they’ve been doing and in confidence of their contribution to our martial arts and martial sports identity—what some of us might have reluctantly missed out on before, and what we may happily offer them now and ongoing…is respect.

Looking forward to watching the women’s division at the Marianas Open.

You go girl.

Thanks for dropping by.