Maurice Greene wins the FCE Heavyweight Title

Last night Saturday June 18, Serafin BJJ's own Maurice "The Pirate" Greene returned to the Fight Card Entertainment cage to fight for the promotion's heavyweight title.  Maurice fought a 5 round war with a very tough and ready opponent in Sammie Sabbah.  After 5 rounds of back and forth action Maurice was a awarded a 48-47 unanimous decision to become the new Fight Card Entertainment Heavyweight Champion.  Big congrats to Maurice.

Jack McVicker Seminar June 26

Jack McVicker will be in Evanston for a seminar at Serafin BJJ on Sunday June 26.  As most of you should know Jack is my BJJ coach, one of the best competitors, and one of the best teachers in the world of BJJ.  Jack has numerous medal from the Pan Ams, European Open, World Masters and Seniors, and No-Gi world championships.  He has also produced dozens of medalists national and world level.  The seminar is tentatively scheduled for a noon start and will run till 3pm.  Please contact me to register for the seminar.  Don't miss the opportunity to train with on of the world's best.

Serafin BJJ at C3

On Saturday May 21, Corral Martial Arts hosted C3 in Hammond, IN.  Serafin BJJ brought 7 competitors and brought home 4 golds, 1 silver, and 3 bronze medals.  I couldn't be prouder of all the competitors especially the first timers.

Megaton Seminar

On Saturday May 7, Megaton Dias was back in Champaign teaching another great seminar for Team McVicker.  Like usual Megaton showed a bunch of cutting edge techniques, provided some key details to a variety of techniques, and shared some insight on concepts and strategy. 

After the seminar some of Serafin BJJ's own students had the honor of being promoted by Megaton and Jack McVicker. 

Adam Colen was awarded his blue belt

Chris Gustafson was awarded his purple belt

Finally one of my good friends and training partners Kyle Watson, head BJJ coach at the Hit Squad was awarded his black belt, below Kyle in his new black belt with the other Team McVicker black belts.

Good Luck To Kyle Watson at UFC 129

Good luck to Team McVicker's own Kyle Watson fighting on the under card of this weekends' UFC 129 in Canada.  Kyle will be fighting in front of 55,000 fans, the biggest crowd in UFC history.  Make sure you watch his fight on Facebook Saturday night before the pay-per-view.

New Blue Belts

Finally have a picture with both of our new blue belts Matt Bain and Will Klodd.  Congrats again for all the hard work.

Team McVicker at 2011 Pan Ams

Team McVicker did exceptionally well at this years Pan Ams bringing home 5 gold, 3 silver, and 4 bronze medals as a team.  The performance was highlighted by Jack McVicker winning gold in the senior 1 black belt division, Jimmy Salamanca taking bronze in his black belt debut, and Chris Howe winning gold in the brown belt senior 2 open class.  Great job guys.

Spring Training Camp

The Team McVicker Spring Camp was a great experience as usual.  Two 4 hour sessions filled with technique by Jack McVicker, Brad Peplow, Kyle Watson, and myself were followed with round after round of hard rolling.  My students and I all got tons of good training in and picked up some new tricks.  Can't wait for the fall camp.

New Blue Belts in Evanston

This weekend at Team McVicker Spring Camp Matt Bain was promoted to blue belt in BJJ by Jack McVicker and myself.  On Monday night I also promoted Will Klodd to blue belt in BJJ.  Both guys have shown great improvement and great dedication in the last year.  I'm proud to have you guys as my students.  Pictured below Matt Bain being promoted, pic of Will's promotion will be up soon.

                                                                   

Class on Saturday March 19 is Canceled.

Due to the Team McVicker Team Training Camp class this Saturday March 19 will be canceled.   Mats will be open if guys want to come in and train but there will be no formal instruction. 

Andre Galvao Seminar

This past Sunday Feb. 27, a few members of Serafin BJJ had a chance to attend a seminar by BJJ world champion Andre Galvao.  The seminar was fantastic.  Andre showed a lot of interesting moves dealing with stopping open guard passes, defeating the deep half guard.  I can honestly say after 12 years of BJJ at most seminars I learn a slightly different variation of a move I have seen before or a new grip to slightly alter a technique, but at this seminar just about everything Andre showed was new to me.  Lots of cool little tricks and new moves to expand my game.  If you have the chance I highly recommend attending a Galvao seminar.

Congrats to Serafin BJJ's own Maurice Greene

Last night at Joe's on Weed Street, Maurice "The Pirate" Greene won his MMA match in impressive fashion.  Maurice showed strong footwork, and knees from the clinch, before stopping the fight with a flurry of strikes on the ground 1:22 into the second round.  Maurice looked great in the cage especially for a 6'7" heavyweight.

More Mat Space

After surviving the snow storm Serafin BJJ has some great news.  We are expanding our current mat space at Ultimate Fitness Evanston by about 250 square feet.  The extra mats will be coming in this week and we will be rearranging the gym equipment to make space ASAP.  The extra space will allow more space for take down work and generally alleviate any crowding issues.  Look for our bigger mat space next week.

European Open Results

Jack McVicker brought home two gold medals at the European Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Portugal this weekend.  He won the senior 1 lightweight and absolute black belt divisions.  In the senior 3 black belt division Megaton Dias brought home two gold medals as well going up in weight to win the middleweight and absolute divisions.  Congrats to both Jack and Megaton representing the team on the world BJJ scene.

Ginastica Class Starts Saturday

This Saturday January 8 we will be starting our Ginastica Natural for BJJ class at UltFit.  The class will be at 10am and will run for a half hour up to the beginning of our 10:30am gi class.  Ginastica is a great warm up for BJJ, that will help develop the flexibility and strength needed for BJJ. The class will be taught by our own Phil Carlson, who is one of Alvaro Romano first certified instructors in the US.