Lion's Den Academy

Geo Wins at Brace 25

admin — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:50:24 +0000

Geo took a fight with less than 48 hrs notice to fight on Brace 25 last night and came away with a very dominant win. From the outset Geo was dominating on the feet landing some good combos and hurting his opponent enough to not want to stand with Geo and forced his opponent to shoot in for the takedown. On the ground, Geo kept safe and closing out the first round trying to set up a submission off his back.

The second round started with Geo threatening his opponent with his hands again only to then change things up and take his opponent to the ground himself, improving position and then eventually getting the rear naked choke sub.

Congratulations to Geo who has shown improvement after each fight and also showing his versatility controlling the fight where he wanted it to go. And of course showing the heart of a lion taking the fight on such short notice.

End of 2013 BJJ Belt Promotions

admin — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:06:56 +0000

Congratulations to Mal, Adrian and Kian on being awarded their BJJ Black Belts on Monday. Luke was extra proud as these were the first black belts he has awarded since getting his long overdue second degree from John Will back in September. That brings the Lion’s Den total to SIX black belts at the gym now.

Moey El Chami also received his Blue belt on the night. More new belts with to Josh Payne and Señor Michael Grant on receiving their Purple belts last night as well. And also congratulations on all the other students who received stripes towards their next belt. It has been a great year of training and we all look forward to more promotions in the coming new year.

BJJ Pan Pacific Championships

admin — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 03:41:25 +0000

Congratulations to Astein, Kian and Nate who went down to Melbourne to compete at the BJJ Pan Pacific Championships. This is the biggest BJJ comp of the year and all boys were very competitive and did well in their matches. Kian got the Silver in the 67kg division and Nate got Bronze in the 85kg division.

John Will Seminar

admin — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 05:18:44 +0000

Last weekend we had the privilege and joy of having John Will visit again for another seminar. John did an amazing seminar on headarm chokes and everyone in the class from beginners to advanced was able to grasp it all. On behalf of everyone at the gym we would like to thank John for his time and look forward to the next one.

New BJJ Black Belts

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:11:35 +0000

John Will held a BJJ seminar on Sunday and ran an excellent session on X-guard entries and sweeps. However, at the start of the session he awarded Mark Christie and Michael Belos with their BJJ Black Belts. Both students have been training under Luke Pezzutti for quite some time now all the way back to the early beginnings of BJJ at the gym. This grading is well deserved and a big congratulations to them both. With the addition of these two new black belts at the gym, the quality of training will only go up all around.

Also, John Will also awarded Luke with his first degree on his black belt. Having been awarded his black belt more than 5 years ago, this is definitely long overdue as John had mentioned. Another big congratulations to Luke.

Adam Sarkis wins at PWP 5

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 06:57:11 +0000

Adam Sarkis represented the team last Friday the 14th of Sep at PWP 5. Adam was first up on the card and left a huge statement dominating his opponent with great striking and vicious knees and good top control with some damaging ground and pound. Congratulations to Adam on the win, which is a testament to his hard work in training.

Luke Shakespeare Wins his Second MMA Fight

admin — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:33:52 +0000

Young Luke Shakespeare had his second MMA fight as an amateur on the JNI show and won via rear naked choke in less than a minute. Luke dominated the fight after taking his opponent to the ground after the initial bell and continued to ground and pound his opponent until he finished with a rear naked choke. Congratulations to young Luke who has invested a lot of time and work into his training and this outcome is the result of all his hard work.

New Brown Belts

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:29:15 +0000

Congratulations to Adrian, Kian and Mal for receiving their brown belts. All three all well deserved of their new ranks for the countless hours they have put on the mat both learning and improving themselves as well as helping all the other students’ learning as well.

BJJ Promotions

admin — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:48:30 +0000

A big congratulations to Astein Grant who received his well deserved purple belt yesterday. All the hard work and constant hours at training has paid off for Astein who is a great role model for dedication. A special mention also to Anthony Chiu who also received his Blue belt earlier in the month.

Doing us proud at CFC 18

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:37:03 +0000

Four of the guys fought last Friday night at CFC 18 in front of a packed venue. Adam Sarkis was laying some brutal ground and pound on his opponent before a small mistake caused him to get swept into a bad position where his opponent’s strikes caused the ref to stop the fight. Unfortunate result for Adam, but he’ll definitely bounce back from this. Mo Kandeel was up against a tough opponent from Roots and unfortunately lost via rear naked choke.

Up next was Kian Pham who showed a lot of maturity in his fight to convincingly beat his opponent. Striking and landing some good blows from his feet while his opponent was on his back forced his opponent to desperately shoot at Kian’s legs where he latched onto a tight arm in guillotine choke from half guard which forced his opponent to tap.

Last up for the team was Josh Payne who started off slow but came home very strong in the latter half of the first round dropping his opponent with a big straight right punch down the middle. Josh got on top of his opponent to continue with some ground and pound, however his opponent was literally saved by the bell. Josh unfortunately received an elbow above his eye which cut him and affected his vision. The doctor had a look at his eye during the round break and for safety reasons called the fight off which was very unfortunate as Josh’s opponent looked very tired and was going to be in a bit of trouble come second round.

A tough and valiant effort by all the boys on the night. It’s always challenging to step up for a fight so the boys did everyone proud regardless of the results.