9 & Under Point Sparring (N-63)
Gabriel Rodas wild carded his first Super Grands. Winning seven matches in a row he encountered a stumbling block with Cole Buter taking a disappointing 4 to 3 loss in his last eliminations match. Buter, as a number one seed, qualified for the Grand Finale against Rodas and again defeated him by a single point in the Grand Finale to win his first world title at 10 years old. Butler hails from Championship Karate in Colorado, Rodas is from Dumlao’s Martial Arts in Rodeo, California. Rachael Young of Trevor Nash fame took third with both her losses from Rodas.

10 to 11 Point Sparring (N-64)
It was all or nothing for the last two players in the Grand Finale for the 10 to 11 year old world title as both Joshua Romero of Langley Martial Arts in Texas, USA and Andres Zelaya of Porres’ Kenpo Karate in Guatemala City, Guatemala each had a prior loss. One match would decide the champion. Both had good seeding and only had to win five matches to make the stage, Romeo with a single loss to fourth place Colin Navickas and Zelaya with a loss to Romero. Romero was Zelaya’s brickwall a second time as he topped him 5 to 0 to win his first world title in the Grand Finale. With eight elimination wins, Seth Boyette of Corky Sikes’ Team Strike Force took third. And for honorable mention unseeded Nick Cassell took nine wins before succumbing to Boyette to leave himself in eleventh place.

12 to 13 Point Sparring (N-65)
Frankie Fernandez met his match at this year’s Super Grands with the likes of Juan Pablo Santiago. In an 8 to 7 match Fernandez barely slid past the Guatemalan in the eliminations only to met again on stage to determine the world victor. It was die-hard for Santiago as he rebound to defeat Fernandez by a single point evening the losses to one each in the Finale. With a final match the score see-sawed, but finally left Fernandez a single point winner in the end, 7 to 6. This was Fernandez’ third year victory in a row. Fernandez hails from Rick Lee’s Spartanburg Martial Arts in South Carolina and Santiago from Schumann’s Martial Arts. James Gilbeaux of California took third.

14 to 15 Point Sparring (N-66)
Jason Albini of Dumlaos’ Martial Arts in California and Benjamin Ferguson of Xtreme Martial Arts in Virginia discovered that they were each others biggest rivals as each took a loss from the other in the eliminations. Winner take all in a single match would be determined in the Grand Finale where an evenly matched fight was evident for most of the round until it appeared that Ferguson gave in loosing 13 to 6. Ferguson has one more year in this division while Albini moves into 16-17 next year. Last year’s runner-up in 12-13, Andre Parrott from Langley Martial Arts, took third with his two losses from each of the two champions.

16 to 17 Point Sparring (N-67)
Both undefeated in the eliminations, Casey Williamson and James Davidson had to have a final eliminations match so that one would have a loss going into the Grand Finale for the title match-up. Williamson smoked Davidson 12 to 2 reassuring himself going into the Grand Finale. In the Finale play Davidson fought back intensely, but the final score of 7 to 4 left Williamson claiming victory. The last time Williamson won the world title was back in 2001 in the 10-11 year old division. He is a product of Marty Knight Karate in South Carolina and is a member of Team GOP. James Davidson hails from Huntsville, Texas and trains under D.E. Chambers. His brother Charlie Davidson took third. Honorable mention has to be made here of Korey Kuppe of Michigan who, as an unseeded player, lost his first match, won 12 and lost again to take only fifteenth place.

Girls’ 11 to 12 Point Sparring (N-68)
With her number one seeding, Ashlee Grant from California need only fight three times in the eliminations and won each match to qualify for the Grand Finale. Her opponent, also from California, would be Marissa Rodas. Entering unseeded she won eleven of her twelve fights to become Grant’s challenger for the world title. As the 10-11 year old 2006 champion, Grant was the favorite to win but she only narrowly took the title with her first bout 6 to 5. She trains with Thomas Bowman and Rodas with Sean Dumlao. Rojas took her only loss from Dakota Blanton of Virginia who took third place with both her losses to Rojas.

Girls’ 13 to 14 Point Sparring (N-69)
Despite Colbey Northcutt’s four number one national seeds her chances at winning the title were nearly cut short as she lost an eliminations fight to last year’s champion of this division, Melissa Steckham. Steckham exhibited a perfect eliminations’ record as the two paired off for the final rounds in the Grand Finale. Northcutt would have to win two in a row and got off to a good start trouncing Steckham 7 to 2 in the first match. A final match left everything on the line where last year’s 11-12 year old champion Northcutt, edged the reigning champion with a 5 to 3 score. Colbey Northcutt trains with Alchemy Karate in Texas while Steckham trains with United family Martial Arts in Hamilton, Canada. Ali Viola of Pittsburgh, with nine eliminations wins, took third place.

Girls’ 15 to 17 Point Sparring (N-70)
Well there was bound to be a showdown eventually and it might just as well have been at the Super Grands. Two years ago Marissa Mayer topped Chelsey Nash in the 13 to14 year old division. Last year Mayer won the title against Lauren Ferguson with Nash trailing in third. With Ferguson moving to adult this year that basically left the two rivals to battle out the title again. After several wins apiece they faced off for one last match before he Grand Finale with Mayer topping Nash with a convincing 7 to 3 victory. Nash was down but not out as she returned in the Finale to crush Mayer 6 to 1 leaving one final match to determine bragging rights. The last match left Nash a two point victor and a point sparring title that she hasn’t owned since 2004. With Mayer vowing one more year in NBL junior divisions, will she win it back? Stay tuned! Mayer represents Team Straight-up and GOP and Nash with Team United. Shavaun Langley of Texas took third.

Men’s Fly Point Sparring (N-71)
Two nineteen year old Latino players weighing in at exactly 125 pounds each, found themselves pitted against each other for the flyweight title. Andres Maza of Guatemala and Enrique Rodrigo of Mexico won all their eliminations divisions until they had to fight each other where Maza lay victim 4 to 2 to Rodrigo. Maza would have to go to the Grand Finale as the underdog and now win two matches to Rodrigo only having to win one. In one of those exciting comeback stories of the Super Grands he did just that. With the closest of scores 7 to 5 and 6 to 5 Maza won his first world title. He trains under Salvador Schumann and Rodrigo under Luis Jimenez. Michael Holstein under Chip Wright of Team CKD took third with his two loses to the two winners.

Men’s Feather Point Sparring (N-72)
For some unexplainable reason the featherweight division was the smallest men’s division this year as opposed to being the largest many years ago. Never-the-less several top fighters were on hand to lay claim for the gold. With the best seed, Troy Whaley drew a lot of byes, but drew a blank when Joe Fife keep him scoreless for his only loss in the eliminations. Fife continued his winning ways in the Grand Finale topping Whaley once again 8 to 3 to win his first NBL title. Fife hails from Winter Park, Florida and is a member of Team Straight-up. Whaley, last year’s flyweight champion, is from Las Vegas, Nevada and represents Team DDX. Michael Field of Team United in Canada took third.

Men’s Light Point Sparring (N-73)
Willie Hicks exhibited a little revenge this year defeating three year reigning champion Shane Baker twice in the eliminations, leaving him in third and advancing along with Andres Garcia of Guatemala to the Grand Finale. This division had been rough and tumble during the eliminations where Hicks already had one loss to Garcia as did Garcia to fourth place Sean Dumlao. So the final match was do or die with an intense match-up between Hicks, as a Bay Area’s Best Team representative, and Garcia representing the best from Guatemala. Narrowly 6 to 5 Hicks pulled off the victory which he continued through the run-offs for the new overall Grand until the last match against the super heavyweight, Trevor Nash. Hicks calls Detroit, Michigan home and trains with Richard Plowden. Andres trains with Salvador Schumann.

Men’s Light Middle Point Sparring (N-74)
Joshua Pittman of California and Jason Holmes, formerally from the same, gave each other 4 to 3 losses before mounting the Grand Finale stage for this years light middleweight world title. Consistent with their eliminations play, the evenly talented players again keep the scoring close as Pittman finally succumbed to Holmes with a final 6 to 4 giving Holmes his second year victory. Holmes trains under Cecil Peoples and has represented GOP for eternity. Pittman trains under Ernest Frohm. Marco Aguilar of Cuautla, Mexico took third after loses to Pittman and Julio Castro.

Men’s Middle Point Sparring (N-75)
In a tough division with the likes of many well known players and NBL world champions including Roark Hodson, Erick Schumann, Chris Dasalla, Zack Burns, Elijah Quenzel, Marty Maye, Oscar Barrientos, CJ Corbin and Joshua May, it would wind up to be two other veterans with long NBL histories, mostly as juniors, that won the top honors. While Californians Matthew Okada or Brandon Hastings never did reach the Grand Finale in point sparring as juniors they were both hot tickets this year as adults. Okada with a clean slate in the eliminations and Hastings with a single loss by one point to third place victor, Joshua May, also of California. The Finale belonged to Okada as a previously injured Hastings went down to a 10 to 5 defeat. Okada represents Team DDX and Hastings runs a Steve Amaro Unison school.

Men’s Light Heavy Point Sparring (N-76)
Interesting enough the two finale contenders, Wade Taylor and Daniel Marshall both took an eliminations loss from Jonathan Garcia of Mexico, who was last year’s 16 to 17 year old champion. Unfortunately for Garcia he likewise took a loss from both of the finalists to leave him in third place in his first adult year. With one loss apiece, a single do or die in the Grand Finale was in store. Neither of these players are new to the stage where Taylor was the defending champion and Marshall was the victor both prior years. 10 to 7 Taylor defeated Marshall for his second year victory. He represents Team DDX and trains under Jordan Pallen. Marshall represents Team B.O.S.S. and trains with Jeremy Elliott in Niagara Falls, Canada.

Men’s Heavy Point Sparring (N-77)
Travis Plowden, representing the Bay Area’s Best Team with eternal coach Mike Dobashi, bested nearly everyone in the division on his way to the Grand Finale with no eliminations loses. In a rare if not unique occurrence, defending champion Ryan Gonzalez, did not win a single eliminations match by points. With excellent seeding his amount of eliminations matches was kept to a minimum. He won two with byes, one with a bow-out and lost a fourth match to Plowden. But in the Grand Finale for all the marbles Gonzalez rebounded topping Plowden twice, 9 to 8 and 11 to 5, keeping his title intact. He’s the third winner in men’s 18+ fighting to represent the DDX Team and he hails from San Francisco. Plowden lives in Detroit, Michigan and was the 2002 world champion. Last year’s runner-up, Ryan Freeman of Team B.O.S.S., was third.

Men’s Super Heavy Point Sparring (N-78)
Reining champion Brandon Bertsch, fought his was to the top again this year taking a single loss to 2003-2005 heavyweight champion, Trevor Nash. Nash, in typical form, entered unseeded and won a whopping fourteen matches in a row having to defeat every player in the division but two and scoring a whopping total of 127 points with only 36 points against him. Bertsch scored the most against him in the eliminations, but made it easy for Nash in the Grand Finale as he had to bow out for medical reasons. Nash continued on through the new overall grand only topping Wade Taylor by a single point and Willie Hicks by two to win the new NBL red metallic belt and $200 prize money.

Women’s Fly Point Sparring (N-79)
Kenzie Yadao of Troy Whaley’s KSDI in Las Vegas. Nevada had a clean slate in the eliminations defeating both her Grand Finale challenger, Dawn Kabela and third place Sara Escriba of Guatemala. The Grand Finale challenge didn’t take place however as Kabela bowed out leaving Yadao with her first NBL world title.

Women’s Feather Point Sparring (N-80)
Two year reigning champion, Gina Thornton, had a new challenger this year, but not a new face as she shares the same home state of Virginia with newly turned adult competitor, Lauren Ferguson. Ferguson was runner-up junior last year but couldn’t seem to get into gear in the Grand Finale as an adult, losing to Thornton 6 to 0. Thornton, another highly touted DDX team member, continued on in the new overall Grand only being stopped by a single point by Regena Thompson. Thornton lives in Roanoke and trains at Superkicks under Sean Elliott. Ferguson claims Team FX under Ron and Sharon Ferguson. Michelle Fuentes of Mexico was third.

Women’s Light Point Sparring (N-81)
Ashley Davies was on a roll in sparring as well as forms this year winning five matches in a row in the eliminations until falling prey to reigning champion Jessica Covarrubias. The pair of Californians were then on tap to face off again in the Grand Finale for the title where the veteran experience of Covarrubias got the best of Davies 14 to 12. Davies trains under Brandon Hastings and Covarrubias under Charlie Zarza. Jessica Varma, also of California, took third place.

Women’s Middle Point Sparring (N-82)
Die hard, or actually not at all, Regena Thompson was back for her fifteenth Super Grands, 22 sparring titles in all. This NBL icon is an NBL history all by herself. After walloping all her eliminations challengers, she left Colorado’s Kris Pilgrim with a single loss to face her again in the Finale for the title, defeating her again with a 9 to 3 score, Thompson then topped Jessica Covarrubias 7 to 4 and finally Gina Thornton by a slim 8 to 7 to win the new NBL overall world title and red metallic belt. She represents Team GOP and as always, Robles Karate from Galveston, Texas. Third place in middleweight was Shawna Cowan from Young’s Kajukenbo in South Carolina.

Senior Light Point Sparring (N-83)
With former world championship wins in creative and traditional forms and continuous sparring, Mauricio Valenzuela was looking for a point sparring title to round out his resume. He won all his eliminations matches including giving Jimmy Sherman his only loss, 5 to 4. Proceeding to the stage the pair pulled off the highest scoring match of the Grand Finale, but to Valenzuela’s disappointment he was left on the lower end of the 11 to 10 match. With a final match to determine a victor an increasingly tired Valenzuela and more determined Sherman left Sherman as a 12 to 4 first year world title champion. Valenzuela hails from Guatemala and Sherman from South Carolina. Joey Shiflett, also from South Carolina, took third.

Senior Middle Point Sparring (N-84)
Dave Maddock of the British Maddocks in England took a loss from both Marty Maye and Paul Mendoza to leave himself with a third place showing at his first Super Grands. Both Maye and Mendoza would head to the Grand Finale for the title, each with a loss suffered at the hands of Maddock. In a 6 to 4 match, Mendoza topped the reigning champion to win his first world title. Mendoza represents Dynamic Martial Arts from California and Maye is a DDX Team member from Oregon.

Senior Heavy Point Sparring (N-85)
Digging through the archives we can find Jose Pacheco as NBL world champion fighter in 1993 through 1995. There’s a lot that can be said for someone like him or Mauricio Valenzuela who can comeback 10 years after the fact and still be in the world title contention, let along win. In the largest senior sparring division, Pacheco topped all his eliminations rivals with Elvis Paulino remaining as his opponent for the Grand Finale. Paulino’s only loss was to third place Chris Eugenio of Las Vegas. In an 11 to 5 score Pacheco took his fourth NBL point sparring world title back to California with him. He represents Ocean’s Eleven Karate Team. Paulino is from Team Dynamic in Ontario, Canada. Definite honorable mention has to go to unseeded Corey Waiters who won 10 out of 12 matches including ousting last year’s champion Van Frasier, to rest in sixth place.

Senior Super Heavy Point Sparring (N-86)
This was supposed to be David Coppock’s year... at least he intended it to be. With a clean sweep of the eliminations he was well on his way to winning his first well deserved title. All that was left was to top his opponent once out of two tries in the Grand Finale. Sylvester Youngblood already had one loss and would have to win two to stop Coppock. He indeed did win the first mach 5 to 3, but was losing the second match when this 202 pounder decided to attempt a jump spin for three points surprising both himself, his opponent and the audience as he scored with seconds remaining putting him ahead to win 11 to 8. As the newest member of Team B.O.S.S., Youngblood also played a dual role as the downtime entertainment, dancing on stage to the background music waiting for the medic to check out his opponent. He is from California and Coppock from Colorado. Marcal Lazenby of Atlanta, Georgia was third.

Senior Women’s All Weights Point Sparring (N-87)
We keep hearing from Kris Pilgrim that she’s going to retire, but she keeps coming back for more abuse. As the 2005 title holder she topped the eliminations with no losses. Her opponent in the Finale would be Renee Slapnicker who took her only loss from Pilgrim. For this year’s title Pilgrim topped her once more 13 to 7 for the 2007 gold medal. Pilgrim trains under Mark Baier in Colorado and Slapnicker under Jerry Roberts in Ohio. Both represent the Five Knuckle Bullet Team. Rhonda Jennings of South Carolina took third.

Senior Men’s 45+ Light Point Sparring (N-88)
Joey Shiflett has won an NBL title the last two years in a row, juggling titles between 35+ and 45+. This year he lost the 35+ but wound up in the 45+ Grand Finale against Stephen Langley of Texas. He already topped Langley once in the eliminations but lost his first match in the Finale to him, 4 to 3. But Shiflett came alive again in the final match to whip him 7 to 1. Shiflett hails from Columbia, South Carolina.

Senior Men’s 45+ Heavy Point Sparring (N-89)
Try as he might, California’s Shannon Apple took losses from both Ronnie Ferguson and Bill Hunter on their quest for the Grand Finale stage. Unscathed, Hunter won six matches while Ferguson’s one blemish came from a loss to Hunter. In the lowest scoring adult match in the Grand Finale Hunter thwarted off Ferguson 4 to 2 to win what he claimed to be his retirement title. Hunter resides in British Columbia, Canada and Ferguson in Martinsville, Virginia.