Continuous Sparring Titles

Junior Super Fly Continuous Sparring (N-90)
Surprisingly for a second year in a row this youngest of the continuous sparring division went through the Grand Finale without a single penalty point being awarded. In a division chucked full of Mexican, Guatemalan and USA players Jose Paiz of Guatemala and Robert Natera of the USA rose to the top. Both sported losses going into the Grand Finale, Paiz to Natera and Natera to fourth place Arturo Armendariz. In the end Paiz beat Natera 94 to 63. Paiz is a member of Schumann International under Salvador Schumann while Natera is from Team Alchemy coached by Laco Villanueva of El Paso, Texas. Dominic Rubalcava, also of Team Alchemy, took third olace.

Junior Fly Continuous Sparring (N-91)
Both Finale opponents had a lot riding on the results of this division as both were continuous sparring world champions last year. Chance Maxwell was victor of this division in 2008 and super fly in 2007. His Alchemy teammate, Jesse Martinez, was champion of super fly in 2008. Going to the Finale Maxwell sport a perfect 6-0 record while Martinez had taken a loss to Maxwell only after scoring nine wins in a row. But Finale competition would favor the heavier more experienced Maxwell as Martinez fell 82 to 53 in the first match. Both train with Laco Villanueva in El Paso, Texas.

Junior Feather Continuous Sparring (N-92)
Maybe we should separate the boys from the girls at an earlier age... to protect the boys from those malicious girls. Females dominated the feather weight division. With Andrea Tyrrell of Toronto, Canada left in third place, Dallas Stockdale and Bernardette Escalada both of El Paso, Texas went at it for the title. Different coaches and two rival schools from the same city would make this one of the matches to watch in Finale 3. Stockdale had one loss to fourth place Shaun Northcutt while Escalada reigned with five victories going in the Finale. However despite her underdog status Stockdale trounced Escalada 78 to 53 forcing another match. With the title on the line the match was non stop action and ended in a rarely seen tie. Continuous ties revert to a sudden death point sparring match where Stockdale took the initiative to strike and score first giving her the world title. She is coached by Hugo Juarez and Escalada by Laco Villanueva.

Junior Light Continuous Sparring (N-93)
Diego Marroquin of Guatemala took a stab at this division last year losing the title by a mere five points to Bradley Norris. With Norris moving up two weight classes this year Marroquin was looking at clear sailing. Breezing through the eliminations with no losses his challenger wound up to be Canadian Reno Fernandez who trains with Trevor Nash of Team United. While you can never underestimate a Nash product, Marroquin kept Fernandes at bay 123 to 85 to give him his incredible fourth title of the Games. He is trained by Edgar Cordova of Schumann’s Cordova in Guatemala. Third place was Bobby Seronio of Team Proper in California.

Junior Light Middle Continuous Sparring (N-94)
Whatever Javier Esteban ate for breakfast the morning of Grand Finale 3 he had better emulate next year. Losing to Joshua Dorazio in the eliminations he faced Dorazio again in the Grand Finale 3 for the world title. He not only gained revenge on Dorazio once, but twice, scoring each time with over ten points to spare and giving him his first title as a rookie at the Grands. He trains under Jacob Tapia and the Top Team, in Mexico City, Mexico. Dorazio is a member of Bill Violas Team Kumite in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Third place was won by Francisco Lara of the Kickstart Team in Houston, Texas.

Junior Middle Continuous Sparring (N-95)
Anyone who keeps tabs on the point karate circuit would probably have heard of nearly all the players in the middle weight continuous divisions. Standouts such as Bradley Norris, Sage Northcutt, Gene Middleton, Scot Bowman, James Gilbeaux, Joaquin de la Rosa and Zack Elliott to name a few, all of which were stacked up in the top eight. Unfortunately for everyone involved a seeding foul-up presented a major dilemma that held everything up and forced an arbitration to restart some of the matches. So many inaccuracies happened that in the end with permission from the NBL, the Arbitrator ran the division off as two separate world title divisions with two separated Finale matches to choose the two world champions. In the first division, Zack Elliott of Team United fame got a second life taking it to the top. In the Finale he topped Mexico’s best, Joaquin de la Rosa twice in rowdy matches to win his first world title. In the second division de la Rosa once again was fielded this time against Gene Middleton. The finale here was 122 to 115 with de la Rosa declared the winner. Third places went to Scot Bowman of Family Karate in Canada and Sage Northcutt of Katy, Texas.

Junior Light Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-96)
The Latin American countries love continuous sparring and that was more than evident in this division. With players from Ireland, Honduras and the USA it was Guatemala and Mexico that held the top three positions. Left in third place was Jose Barillas of Schumann’s International Team. Mexico Fielded the top two; Jorge Morales and Abraham Atala. Atala had a loss to the much dejected Billy Leader, who because of injury, had to bow out of competition. In the Finale a close brutal race occurred where penalty points made all the difference. Morales topped Atala in the end by a tight 151 to 144 score with a total of 30 penalty points scored. Morales is a student of Zen Martial Arts under Jonathan Garcia and Atala is under Hugo Mendoza of the Retarious school.

Junior Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-97)
Throw Canada in the mix and this division had about the same international spirit as the prior division. This time Guatemala, USA and Mexico took the top three positions with Jose Rivera of Vista Hermosa, Mexico taking third place. For Finale play, two year reigning champion Juan Pablo Santiago of the famed Schumann Team was back again with a perfect eliminations record. His challenger was Dominic Leader of Team Kumite of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who took his only loss from Santiago in the eliminations. Unlike his brothers riotous division their Finale expose had only three penalty points between them as Santiago won his third in a row 124 to 100 for the title.

Junior Super Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-98)
I don’t have a clue why, but Leon Jefferson bowed out of Finale play in this division. He had won all his eliminations fights until he ran into Cass Sigmon where he dropped 95 to 67 in that last eliminations round. Sigmon sported a perfect record and wound-up winning his first title in NBLsinc e being a bald headed little tyke in 2003. He sports a Full Circle uniform and lives in Sherrills Ford, North Carolina. Leon Jefferson is part of Kingi’s Kajukenbo in southern California. Rene Torres of Zen Martial Arts in Mexico was third.

Junior Girls’ Feather Continuous Sparring (N-99)
After her bow-out last year, Stephanie Rosales was back to win the title this year topping six matches in a row leaving her to fight Andrea Manzo for the title in the Finale. Manzo had one loss to third place Ximena Cuellar of Schumann’s Guatemala school. In the Finale a reserved fight with few penalties left Rosales with the win 58 to 44 bringing one more title back to El Paso, Texas and one more feather in the Team Alchemy hat. Manzo represents Schumann Mexico under Marco Aguilar.

Junior Girl’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-100)
Ashlee Grant and Ali Viola both have histories of winning continuous sparring titles sparring back two years or more. Viola lost to Grant by 10 points in their only eliminations match together, but that was not an indication of the fight destined for the Finale as Viola bounced back in their first match-up on stage 116 to 103 with a bunch of penalty points thrown in. In the final match Viola struck again 128 to 119 to come back and continue to claim the world title in this division. She represents Team Kumite from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Grant as a product of Thomas Bowman inVan Nuys California. Mia Kelly of Florida representing Team Full Circle, was third.

Junior Girl’s Middle Continuous Sparring (N-101)
Colbey Northcutt just keeps piling on the wins. Continuous sparring was the fourth of a whopping five world title wins for her at the Super Grands. After winning the eliminations and giving Meghan Hamilton a loss she walloped her again in the Finale 122 to 83 for her third win over the years in continuous sparring. She represents Team Schumann and lives in Katy, Texas. Hamilton trains at New World Karate under Mike Scaperato in Eastlake, Ohio. Courtney Leal of Placentia, California was third.

Men’s Feather Continuous Sparring (N-102)
It was Guatemala vs. Mexico for much of this division. In the end two of Salvador Schumann’s students were all that was remained in this Latin American battle. Jose Paz and Luis Carlos Paz each took an eliminations loss before cementing a seed for the Grand Finale. With two players knowing each other well only a single penalty point was awarded during the Finale where Jose Paz commanded the match and won 73 to 54. They both reside in Guatemala City and are members of Schumann’s International Team. Enrique Rodrigo from Mexico City representing LSK was third.

Men’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-103)
Brian Schwartz won continuous sparring 6 times, 5 times consecutively and 3 times consecutively in the same division. With Andres Garcia’s win in this division last year he encroached upon Schwartz’ all time records trying his record of winning 3 times consecutively in the same division. A win this year in this division would have him break that record and tie the record of winning five times consecutively as well. Garcia was up for the challenge. Unscathed in the eliminations his Finale opponent was the worthy Cody Diesbourg of John Marshall’s Dragon Fire Team. Andres already gave him a loss in the eliminations and made it two in a row with a 107 to 96 Finale score. Garcia complained to me sometime after the Games that the fighters are all different each year. I told him maybe he should stop winning and maybe the same ones would come back each year. That wasn’t the answer he was looking for. He hails for Salvador Schumann’s team in Guatemala. Diesbourg is from London, Ontario. Richard Mendez of California was third.

Men’s Light Middle Continuous Sparring (N-104)
Like younger brother Juan Pablo, Jose Santiago was entering the Super Grands with two years prior crowning in his respective division. With a win by Jose the Salvador Schumann Team would have an unprecedented three consecutive wins in three divisions by the same players for three years. A record that would likely never be broken. Santiago found his biggest challenge in teammate Alex Gonzalez whose only loss was to Jason Holmes in the eliminations. On stage the pair gave no free shots as both were determined to win, but in the end Santiago reigned supreme again 76 to 68. They are both students of Salvador Schumann in Guatemala City. Victor Medina of Isaac de la Barrera’s DBB School in Mexico took third.

Men’s Middle Continuous Sparring (N-105)
Team Straight-up didn’t have many members in attendance, but who they did have were stright up good. As an NBL rookie, Chance Turner of Austin, Texas represented Greenhaugh’s Straight-up Team. His biggest challenge in the eliminations was Full Circle’s Samuel Gagnon. Seeding left the pair with three consecutive matches against each other with each refusing to give in. After the first loss by Turner he rebounded twice to leave Quebec’s Gagnon with third place. His challenger for the Finale would be number one seeded Hugo Mendoza whom he’d already beat once in the eliminations. With one loss apiece a single match would produce the world champion. By a 79 to 77 score where penalty points amounting to 21 determined the winner, Turner walked off victorious. Mendoza is a member of Team ProK in Mexico.

Men’s Light Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-106)
A fighting bear... sounds like a college mascot. But he’s for real not to be made fun of. And we all thought he could only do forms! Bear Loebe gave loses to both Christo Flores and Mario Beker leaving them in second and third respectively after he topped Flores 86 to 64 one final time in the Grand Finale. This was a Houston, Texas affair as all three hail from the lone star state and Team Kickstart.

Men’s Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-107)
On again, off again... James Decore shows up when he feels like it, usually when the Grands are near to his native Ohio home. He’s won continuous sparring titles in 2003, 2005 and 2006 and was back once again in Buffalo to show the world he still owns the Great Lakes. Walter Luna of Honduras had a different idea however. As runner-up in heavyweight in 2007, Luna wanted to become the first Honduran to win a title and wouldn’t give in without a fight. Decore however gave him an elimination loss to put himself one step ahead in the Finale. In the Finale Decore once again prevailed 86 to 64 to win his fourth title. Will Schneider of Elite Martial Arts in Kentucky was third.

Men’s Super Heavy Continuous Sparring (N-108)
After eliminating everyone else in the division, the brothers Davidson claimed champion and runner-up in the heaviest continuous sparring division. Neither Charlie or James took a loss until James bowed out to his older brother when they were the only two left. It was the same scenario in the Finale as Charlie claimed his first continuous title. Both players defeated Edgar Jimenez of Mexico leaving him in third place. The Davidsons represent Team Schumann and live in Huntsville, Texas.

Women’s Feather Continuous Sparring (N-109)
It was Canada vs. the USA as Kristen McCord and Lauren Ferguson donned the Grand Finale stage to determine the women’s featherweight continuous sparring division. Ferguson had already given McCord an eliminations loss and was looking for her first continuous title after already garnering a forms and point sparring title at the Games. She didn’t disappoint herself, handily topping McCord with the highest score of the Games 151 to 111. She is a member of Team FX and Xtreme Martial Arts in Martinsville, Virginia. McCord is from Bruce Shavers Martial Arts Canada in Port Burwell.

Women’s Light Continuous Sparring (N-110)
Tracey Farnes of Colorado couldn’t win this division, but gave both third place Maria Schumann of Guatemala and Finale bound Natalie King of Texas losses to contribute to their difficulty to win the division as well. King found two year champion Tracey Martinez as her opponent for the title. And what seemed as a shoe-in performance for Martinez was anything but. Continuous players seem to take penalty points for granted. While both players only scored 6 penalty points each, every one scored by King contributed to her heartbreaking 127 to 126 loss leaving Martinez with her third consecutive continuous win. Martinez is trained by Bryan Young and is a GOP Team member, King is a Kickstart Team member from Texas.