RONIN ATHLETICS athlete, Erik Ryerson, won 1st Place in the purple belt, master, rooster weight division at the inaugural 2009 IBJJF New York International Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship on Saturday, April 18th!

A number of Team RONIN ATHLETICS athletes came out to CCNY to support Erik (our sole competitor at this event) and the day went perfectly!

The event itself was top-notch, had some incredible matches, and the IBJJF absolutely put on a great competition for gi competitors. Team RONIN ATHLETICS is definitely looking forward to future IBJJF events in NYC!

Congrats, Erik!

We just received an email from Leigh Malcolmson (“Australian Leigh”), who’s been training with RONIN ATHLETICS off-and-on for the better part of last year.

Leigh has spent the last two months training at Tiger Muay Thai and MMA gym in Phuket, Thailand, and we’re very happy to announce that he’s just won his first fight via 2nd round KO!!!

Here is an except of his email with the video link:

hey christian!!!

just had my first fight on the 2nd Jan in phuket. been training hard since the start of nov working my way through the class levels to the advanced ring where i had a smoker fight a few weeks ago with shin pads against one of the trainers, a bangkok champion, then started private lessons with him up until my fight. here is the video mate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKAzj1LjguU

pretty crazy experience man, really nervous, the stadium was pretty ghetto, gettin wraped up and massaged next to your opponent, no change rooms, the crowd all staring at you deciding if they bet on you, felt a bit like a gladiator!!! ha. i was really happy with the result, its how i wanted to end the fight, and stoked that my opponent wasent a taxi driver, like some of my mates have faught, which makes them want to have another fight because they didnt feel that it was a real opponent.the promoter and trainers asked me 5 mins after the fight if i wanted to fight again in 2 weeks, but i only have until the 22nd left here and i dont want to feel pressured into a fight, just enjoy the moment and not having rotraining for a fight, im heading back to new york at the end of the month and i want to fight there too. im really keen to get back on the mats too, ive done only a couple of mma classes here because i was mainly focusing on muay thai, but i intend to concerntrate more on bjj when i get back to nyc.

Congratulations, Leigh!!!

I would just like to extend my thanks to Demian Maia for the great seminar he put on this weekend (11/29/08) at the Peloton BJJ Academy in Rochester, NY. I was fortunate enough to also have had some private training time with Demian, who is currently undefeated in MMA, coming off a dominating first round Rear Naked Choke victory over tough UFC veteran, Nate “The Rock” Quarry. Demian is every bit as a good of a coach and teacher, as he is an athlete. We trained both Gi and No-Gi, stressing the importance of both and building solid progressions on fundamental positions.

I would also like to thank Paul Ferranti, Josh, and the entire Peloton BJJ team for their hospitality, and I look forward to training with them again in the near future. If you are ever in the Rochester area definitely check them out at www.peloton-bjj.com.

For more information on Demian Maia, go to: www.demianmaia.com

Cheers!

As always Team Ronin Athletics made a great showing at this small, but well-run tournament in Williamstown, NJ. However, even more impressive this time around was that it was only a very small team (4 guys) making the trip down to compete.

here are the quick results:

Matt Weber – first place Gi White belt Welterweight
Matt Weber – second place No-Gi Intermediate Welterweight
Chris Dolan – second place No-Gi Intermediate Flyweight
Christian Montes – third place Gi Purple Belt Welterweight
Christian Montes – third place No-Gi Advanced Welterweight

Jon Maresco – also competed in Gi White Belt Middleweight, where he had 5 matches going 3-2 for the day, however since it was a huge division, even with 3 consecutive and hard-fought wins, he did not end up medaling this time around.

pics and video coming soon …

Team Ronin Athletics had another great showing at the local grappling tournament. This time around it was the NAGC (North American Grappling Championship) @ Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey
November 8, 2008

Quick Results:

Liz Milizio – 1st place – Women’s beginner No-Gi flyweight
Zak Koonce – 1st place – Men’s Master’s Intermediate No-Gi Lightweight

Justin Choi – 2nd place – Men’s Novice No-Gi Flyweight
Adrian Czmielewski – 2nd place – Men’s Beginner No-Gi Middleweight
Mike Letang – 2nd place – Men’s Intermediate No-Gi Featherweight

Samir Mrabet – 3rd place – Men’s Blue Belt Gi Lightweight
Liz Milizio – 3rd place – Women’s white belt flyweight

also major props to: Dave Aakhus, George Stafford, and James Han … even though they didn’t place this time around, they all came in, put it on the line, had tough matches and will most definitely be back.

More pictures and Video coming soon …

I would like to congratulate all the guys from Team Ronin Athletics who competed last weekend, April 5th and 6th, at the NAGA Worlds tournament in Newark, New Jersey. We had a couple a lot of first time-ers and some of our more experienced athletes compete, notably …

Roger Dardis and Josh Bonacci both going 2-1 in Middleweight and Cruiserweight Intermediate divisions, respectively.

James Han and Zak Koonce both going 1-1 in Beginner Heavyweight and Intermediate Welterweight, respectively.

Everyone did great and learned a lot. this past NAGA was actually one of the better run events they’ve had in quite some time, so thank you to Kipp and whole NAGA crew as well.

A special nod goes out to:

Chris Froelich
– 1st place in Master’s Intermediate LightHeavyweight
– 2nd place in Men’s Intermendiate LightHeavyweight

Sidney Negron
– 1st Place in Teen’s No-Gi Beginner
– 1st Place in Teen’s Gi White Belt

Awesome job, guys!!