This is a common issue among all combat sports. Haters come in many forms, but all cause the same problem. They slow down the growth of the sport. They do harm to their own career, as well as others. That in itself makes the act of hating crazy to me. We will get into the “how” they are hurting themselves a little later on. For now, lets just start off will a simple visual example.

Looking at both of these pictures, right it away who would you rather be? The guy loving life, drinking champagne? Or the miserable guy eating his banana? What’s funny is, there are haters reading this as we speak, looking at the picture of the happy guy, hating on him!!

 

 

What if I told you, you could be the happy guy with a few things that cost you nothing! Persistence, Hard Work, Dedication, and a GOOD ATTITUDE can take you so far. The path won’t always be easy. In fact, the righteous path is almost always a constant battle. To get to that point where you can celebrate comes from the Grind to get there. Not to mention once you get to your destination, you have to maintain the Grind to hold your position. Lets be honest, when you’re hating, you don’t really hate that person. You hate that they point out your lack of dedication to achieving your goals. Seeing them work hard and get what they wants hits you hard because you’re not where you want to be. There’s no short cuts. If you truly want something bad enough, you have to fight for it. You have to prove to the universe you deserve it. Don’t let your doubts hold you back, instead of hating on the pioneers that braved the path before you, be inspired by them.

 

Ok, now that we got through the uncomfortable stuff, lets take a deep breath and start fresh right now. Remember every second on this Earth is another chance to make the right decision.

Participation is key!

 

As I said before, this pertains to all combat sports. As I’m directly involved with Muay Thai and Kickboxing, I’ll point out some ways we can help our community. First and foremost, we got the hate thing covered, that will help a lot. When you see fighters posting things, re-post them, be a supporter. Recently a female fighter named Jessica Ng from New York ran a campaign to help herself get to the IFMA World Championships in Malaysia. I don’t know Jessica, but she is a part of our community, so I donated. Nothing huge, but every little bit helps. She was able to pull it together and make her trip happen. That story will be passed around, people will hear that strangers pitched in to help this young woman achieve a dream. How powerful is that?? In my opinion this is a big part of what Martial Arts is about. The sports of Muay Thai and Kickboxing are quickly becoming more popular. It’s our duty to our community that as they do, the light shed on them shows people who we are.

Step 2 | Participation

 

Support your fighters!! Your teammates need you at their fights. At the end of the day, there is a strong business aspect to all of this. Don’t hate on that either. Every dollar spent is an investment in yourself! If your teammate has a fight, and shows up with 30 people cheering for them, they get the boost from their team. The promoter makes money and is able to continue to run shows!! When those shows continue to run, the fighters are able to make more money. As that money rises the possibility is more realistic to actually make a living as a fighter. There is a lot more to it, but thats for another blog. Simply put, your support is an investment in your future.

 

On the grand stage, we have to pull together and support Lion Fight, and Glory. Both of these organizations are working hard to push Mauy Thai and Kickboxing to the forefront of Combat Sports, but they can’t do it on their own. Lion Fight has based their shows out of Las Vegas until now. They will make their East Coast debut on May 23rd. Its absolutely vital we make sure this show sells out. For Lion Fight, and for ourselves. Glory will run its first Pay Per View on June 21st. So far they have run all their shows free on Spike TV. Initially a lot of people were “hating”. I can’t stress how important this event is. Keep in mind how many MMA organizations have come and gone. Glory has been paying these fighters big money to win their tournaments. To be able to maintain the ability to do that, and run these incredible shows they have to make money. The only way for them to do that is with our support. On the flip side, if this PPV is a success, more fighters will be able to make more money. If your dream is to one day fight for Glory, or Coach a fighter in Glory, you have to PARTICIPATE! Invest in your future. Support your sport!

 

 

 

Coach Jason Farrell

Owner Of Level Up Boxing & Fitness

Owner of Urban Ninja Clothing

 

This year’s WKA National Tournament was one of the largest turnouts in the History of the event. 

With over 500 registered fighters competing to be crowned one of North Americas best fighters. The event offers many different forms of Combat Sports. MMA, BJJ, Modified Rules Muay Thai, Full Rules Muay Thai, and new this year, Glory Rules Kickboxing. With the popularity of the Lion Fight Promotion Muay Thai events in Las Vegas, and the Glory World Series Kickboxing shows from all over the World, Muay Thai and Kickboxing are climbing their way to the top of Combat Sports. For a long time Strikers would have to compete in MMA to have hope of making a career of fighting. With Lion Fight and Glory getting exposure through Television, a quiet revolution has begun. With each passing day the momentum grows, the excitement increases, and the need for talented and marketable stars has been created. the WKA National tournament has been, and will remain one of the best platforms to do just that.

This year is Level Up’s first run at WKA’s. 

We would be taking Nick Rossman who would be making his Amatuer Fighting Debut in the 125lbs Glory Rules Novice Division. Jared Tipton who has been an Undefeated win streak since his first in only loss. Jared would be fighting in the 125lbs Open Glory Rules Division. Luther Smith would be competing in the 209lbs Open Glory Rules Division. Also last years 165lbs Novice K1 Champion Patrick Rivera would be making his run at the 167lbs Open Glory Rules Title.

 

First challenge of the tournament is the weigh ins. 

With 500 plus fighters, and 3 scales, you can imagine this is a long process. Add to the fact all these fighters have cut weight to make their respective weight classes, and you have a fight before the fight. All 4 fighters made weight and began their rehydration process.

Nick Rossman was faced with a 4 man bracket. 

Drawing his first opponent from the Weapons 9 gym out of New Jersey. After getting warmed up, and reporting to the ring, we would find out from the officials that Nick’s opponent had been TKO’d while competing in another division, and was forced to withdraw from their bout. Nick would advance to the finals to face a competitor from another strong gym out of Kentucky, Real Fighters. Unfortunately The Real Fighters weren’t able to stay at the tournament until its conclusion. We were bummed for Nick, he would be crowned the 125lbs Novice Glory Rules Champion by default. He put in the work and time, and showed up ready to fight. Thats all we can ask. Nick has a fight schedule on the Blaze Muay Thai show in Winchester April 19th. We are excited him to get his chance to battle.

Patrick Rivera who stormed his way through the bracket last year would also face a 4 man bracket. 

Drawing Last years National, and World Champion in the first round, we knew this was the fight to win to get to the title. Rounds One and Two went as expected. Pat would pepper his opponent with crisp punch combinations, mixing in well placed leg kicks to put an exclamation point on his work. In the Third Round, Pat’s opponent switched tackets realizing he was losing on the scorecards. His attack would focus on the clinch. The first clinch exchange, he would use a technique known as “turning” that swung Pat into the ropes, which is illegal in Glory rules. Immediately after the turn, he landed a hard knee to Pat, that forced him to take a knee. Pat came back from the 8 count and would rock his adversary with hard shots, forcing another Clinch tie up. Pat defending his body patiently waited for the Ref to break the Clinch, which although stated in the rules as only a Five second technique would be allowed for 11 seconds. When the ref broke the action Pat was given another Standing 8 count at the protests of Patricks Coach Jason Farrell. In the end Rivera would drop a decision, which shouldn’t have been mathematical possible. It was hard to see Patrick lose this way on more of a technicality than actual loss. He will be back stronger than ever, and is schedule to fight for a title April 19th alongside his teammate Nick.

Luther Smith drew a 3 man Bracket to begin.

The bracket was scheduled to go off in a Round Robin format. Luther would fight Karl Roberson of Killer B CSA. The loser of their fight would fight the odd man to determine who moved on to fight in the finals. Here is the video of Luther’s first fight. This was a back and forth fight. We felt that the 8 count Luther caught in Round One should have been rules a slip, nevertheless Smith brought home the W.

Luther wouldn’t fight again til much later in the day.

During the day a 4th man was added to the bracket. We would wait to see how that fight went and to find out who Luther would face in the Final. Luther was called to the announcers table, when we got there we found out that one of the other fighters had pulled out. So only one man was left who hadn’t fought yet. We are still unsure how this guy ended up in Luther’s bracket as he weighed in at 300lbs. Where Luther was supposed to be in a 209lbs bracket. On our team if we have a chance to fight for it we always accept. Which is exactly what Luther did. Here is the video of his final fight to be crowned the 2014 209lbs Open Glory Rules Champion and earn his slot on Team USA which will head to Tuscany Italy in the Fall for the World Championship.

Jared Tipton has been on a undefeated win streak since his first fight back in 2011 where he dropped a controversial Split Decision.

Jared has a relentless style which we have dubbed as going “Full Jurt”. In typical fashion, Jared would channel his inner Ramon Dekkers, and look to overwhelm his opponents from Bell to Bell. In his first fight Jared drew a game fighter from the always talented Daddis Fight Camps.

 

Jared would draw Nathan Boisvert of Capital MMA in his final fight.

Nathan is another very active fighter from the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area. These two were bound to meet eventually. What better place and time than the Finals of the 125lbs Open Glory Rules Division. Watch here to see how Jared Brought Home his New Belt and earned his position on Team USA, and his chance to bring home a World Title.

 

We are very proud of all our fighters. They all put in the hard work to get where they are, and showed up ready to fight whoever was put in front of them. We look forward to them getting back to action right away in April.

 

Level Up would also like to mention that Ben Lipov also brought home a National Title in the 154lbs Open Glory Rules Division. Coach Jason trained Ben for 6 years, before leaving to open Level Up. Ben has since begun training at another extremely talented gym, Towson Thai Boxing. TTB s run by Henry Smith who trains UFC Fighter Donald ‘Cowboy”  Cerrone, and has a stable of up and coming Kickboxing and Muay Thai stars. We were all very happy to see Ben win his title.

 

As usual The Level Up Fight Team is busy as ever. Here are the net few events we have coming up through the rest of March and April.

 

Up next we have the biggest tournament of the year!! The WKA National Championship! We have 4 fighters competing. Luther Smith will be fighting in the 201lbs Open Division. Patrick Rivera who won last years Novice 165lbs division will be fighting in the 160lbs Open Division. Jared Tipton will be fighting in the 125lbs Open Division. Also we have Nick Rossman making his Amatuer debut in the 125lbs Novice Division. 

 

 

 

Also on the night of March 22nd there will be an all Pro Show featuring some of the U.S.’s best Kickboxers facing off against European Kickboxers. This is a can’t miss event with some of Glory’s rising stars. Also the main event will see UFC star Pat Berry making his return to Kickboxing!!

 

 

April 19th our Kickboxers will be back in Action with the Revolution Fight Series new All Muay Thai and Glory Rules Kickboxing Format. 

 

 

April 26th Luther Smith will be back to Boxing with Jeter Promotions out in VA. Stay tuned for the address

 

 

 

We are working on getting the smokers ste up in April as well. We will keep you posted on the date. Thanks for all the support!!