This weekend the Level Up Boxing and Fitness Fight Team would be back in action at CSC 37. CSC, short for Combat Sports Challenge, is a long running promotion out of Richmond VA. Run by the World Kickboxing Association’s President Brian Crenshaw, the event would see its 37th fight card over the weekend. We had a stacked fight card totaling 17 fights and 3 Titles on the line. CSC would not disappoint. Every match up promised action and better yet, delivered on that promise. CSC would also pave the way for “Glory Rules” contested combat. WKA recently partnered with Glory the world’s premier Kickboxing organization to sanction their events here in the states. CSC now becomes a pathway for fighters to reach the pinnacle of Kickboxing organizations. Much like it has in the past with preparing fighters to compete in the UFC, K1, and Thailand.
Two members from the Level Up Fight Team would represent their Gym and even the state of Maryland in this International event that would draw participants from some of the top gyms in the U.S. as well as Canada. First up from Level Up would be Will Anderson. Will has been training for close to a year now. What he lacks in experience he makes up for in enthusiasm. Will is a model student at the gym. He up at 4:30am to go to his job as an electrician and comes immediately to Level Up to train for 3-4 hours a day after work. Will went on to lose by technical knockout in the first round. This loss really put the emphasis on “technical” as Will would fall victim to the 3 knockdown rule established under “Glory Rules”. Although never truly hurt in the fight, Will would learn a valuable lesson in this loss that he will apply to his upcoming competitions. We as a team are extremely proud of him and look forward to getting Will back into the ring in September.
Up second for the night was Jared “The Diamond” Tipton. Jared is coming off a win in his first Boxing match 3 weeks ago and looked to apply his new found knowledge of the Sweet Science to work in his Kickboxing. Jared would face Daniel Nelson of The Richmond Combat Sports Center. Their fight was a back and forth barn burner. Jared was the aggressor with non stop hand combinations while Daniel maintained great composure and worked the clinch. These two athletes kept a furious pace that seemed impossible to last all three rounds, but to the crowds delight the action and pace continued from bell to bell. You could cut through the tension in the air with a knife as the judges score cards were read. After three incredible rounds, Tipton’s hand would be raised. Winning a hard fought split decision the two judges had Jared winning all three rounds with scores of 30-27, while the other judge had Nelson winning two rounds to 1 with a score of 29-28. Needless to say mutual respect was earned from each competitor. Daniel was gracious enough to pose along side Jared for the post fight picture.
This event would serve as an introduction of Level Up to the Kickboxing world. Although the results were mixed, the gyms reputation was well presented. We can not express enough how grateful we are to Brian Crenshaw for having our team on this card. We are excited to be back on future Combat Sports Challenge cards. Level Up would also like to thank all the friends, family, and teammates for coming out to support. We had over 30 people in attendance for the event. Some drove from as far away as Kentucky and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Your continued support means more than you can imagine to Jared, Will, and Coach Jason.
