3 WKA Nation Titles Claimed By Level Up

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.