I think I’m going to be sick…

Last night I went to Dinner with my buddy Flickado, who got back into Thailand earlier in the day after traveling 20+ hours from the States.  We stopped off at “mommas” in Kata *the lady that “momma’s”–on Soi Tiger was actually named after–before she left to open her own restaurant* with his sister and her son.  Dinner was excellent–but after we finished eating “lil’ man” started feeling a bit sick, and “tossed his cookies” at the dinner table.

….He just finished 3rd grade, and while he is here  in Thailand is going to be training in my MMA class.   Seeing him get sick, and talking about MMA–reminded me of one of my grappling matches.

A lil’ over 3 years ago… I was competing at the Southeast Asian Grappling Games in Bangkok Thailand against Nicolai Holt..AKA “THE GEEZA”.  The tournament was in Bangkok–and as part of the rules deducted a point if you “pulled guard”.  The match–being reffed by BTT Black Belt Pedro Lott (now teaching in Abu Dhabi) was stopped after I vomited on “Geeza’s” head, leading 1-0 in points.  He put me in a precarious position later named “The Jackpot” because of the end result.  Squeezing his thighs together with his hands the “Geeza” was able to generate pressure against my spine–utilizing the body lock– it forced me to vomit.

I didn’t tap in the match–and truthfully was nowhere near “submitting”–but rather than cleaning up the mess–and restarting the bout…Pedro Lott called the match, declaring “Gezza” the winner, because of the result of the body lock.

I was upset/disappointing when it initially happened.  Geeza, now a brown belt under Marc Laimon is an older grappler who travels the world competing–and video taping matches. Within days he had put up the video on youtube and sent out a mass email to hundreds of grappler’s showing his “win” (over 30,000 youtube views on that video now).  I honestly felt like the match was bogus–and thought he got the gimme’ win by a poor decision to call the bout.  A few months later…I got my rematch–beating him on points in a bout where he spent the majority of the time stalling in an effort to “not be submitted”.  Looking back on the experience now…I can laugh because it was funny…but at the time…I was furious :)