Page 40 - JPGS Magazine

GRAPPLING

I am a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fighter and a grappler. On October 22nd,
I competed in the Al-Ain Kid’s International Jiu-jitsu Competition

in the UAE. To put it simply, this was one of the hardest things
I’ve done as a fighter. From the four-hour daily training sessions

to the fights themselves, nothing about this was easy.

After waiting for about four hours, anxious and nervous to compete, I finally get called
by a referee to start my first fight. As I’m approaching the fighting area, I feel a light tug

on my arm. I turned to see my coach with an extremely nervous look on his face. He
looked me in the eye and said “Rida, the entire team has been eliminated from the

tournament. Everyone lost. You’re all that’s left. Don’t mess this up.” Next thing I know,
the referee is dragging me back to the fighting area. About a minute later, I’m on the

mats and facing my opponent. As a result of the nervousness, I put on a conservative
fight and end up winning by advantages.

About ten minutes later I get called to my next fight. At this point I’m feeling a lot more
confident due to my previous win. This fight did not go completely as planned as about a

minute in I found myself stuck in a leg lock. My opponent tried to break my leg.
Eventually I escaped, recovered a winning position and won the fight.

Finally, and unexpectedly, I made it to the finals. I knew this fight
was going to be the hardest one yet because I got a chance to see

my opponent destroying his competition. I was nervous. The fight
began and was pretty even for the first two minutes. After that,

my opponent caught me in an arm bar and was a split second away
from dislocating my shoulder. Luckily I managed to escape. My
opponent was later awarded two points, and then three more. This

puts the score at five to zero. There was a minute left and I was
desperate to score some points, I managed to score two but then a

maneuver gone wrong ended up with me accidentally smashing
my now injured leg into the scoreboard (which was a TV). This

happened when there was three seconds left on the timer. The
referee stood us up and started the fight again with three seconds

on the clock. In those three seconds I scored two more points by
taking my opponent down. This put the score at five to four, for
him. I ended up losing by one point, which was not bad at all. I

placed second overall in my division.

RIDA KHALIFA