#grapplefest

Spider-Mop - http://mmauk.net/2019/06/10/spider-mop/

Spider-Mop

Scottish Martial Arts Centre Jiu-Jitsu coach Craig ‘Mop’ McIntosh isn’t overly known in the UK grappling circuit, however, this is only a fatal error on behalf of the UK BJJ community. Known for his slick attacking heavy style and rapidness of submission finishes he is dangerous in any position, reminiscent of the offensive submission game of El Cucuy, he really is a non-stop threat. Having had some small roles in organisations like Polaris and GrappleFest it looks as if his skills are starting to catch the attention of some of the top grappling promoters in the UK.

On the local circuit competition show Scottish Grappling Invitational he has managed to go 4-0 under the organisation, collecting gold along the way. Prior to his full commitment to grappling he had a successful MMA career, finding 10 submission victories along the way under the tutelage of Higher Level MMA head coach James Doolan. What makes the grappling career of ‘Mop’ very interesting is his success at the high-level grapplers that he has come across, going 4-2 against black belt competition, when he himself was just very recently promoted to Brown Belt, with his teammate Calum Murrie becoming the first ever 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu black belt in Scotland. With his performances on recent shows proving that he can compete amongst the very best grapplers the UK but has also the shown that he can compete at a World, when he did this against Lachlan Giles prospect Izaak Michell, ‘Mop‘ is certainly cementing his place as one of the very best grapplers in the country.

  Accomplishments

BJJ Brown Belt from Rio Grappling Club 10th Planet Brown Belt NAGA Expert Champion 75kg x2  Master 1 NAGA Purple belt Champion Master 1 Scottish Grappling Invitational 80kg Champ West of Scotland Absolute Elite Champ Adult Battle in the Glen Champion (66kg) Headhunters Grand Prix Champion (70kg)

Ffionomenal - http://mmauk.net/2019/04/01/ffionomenal/

Ffionomenal

BJJ in the UK has certainly developed at a fast rate. One just needs to listen to The Raspberry Ape podcast with the host Daniel Strauss and his UK BJJ Pioneer guests to understand just how difficult it was to train the grappling art in this country. As affiliations and small seminars happened in the UK so did the development of talent. It went from the stages of having Blue belts coaching the classes to now there being a few black belts in every city. From classes being like that not too long ago to have some of the talents in the country that we have now such as Daniel Strauss, Ashley Williams, Ross Nicholls, Sam Cook and the Welsh grappling sensation Ffion Davies.

Ffion Davies originally trained Judo and had success at it but eventually transitioned to MMA winning 3 amateur fights and 1 professional fight, unsurprisingly winning all four fights by first round submission. Originally training at the Chris Rees Academy in Swansea she made the transition and started training under Darragh O’Conaill at East Coast BJJ in Dublin. Whilst training here she was able to achieve many high achievements in BJJ such as the IBJJF World NoGi at Brown belt and found herself promoted to Black belt in November of 2018, since then she has gone on to win the IBJJF World NoGi Championships at Black Belt. Recently competing on Polaris, she ran through Gezary Matuda, a solid Black Belt in her own right in under 5 minutes. How does one follow up on this? Davies won the Pan Americans this month. ADCC European Trials was also won by her, simply put she is dominating her competition and appears to be a legitimate threat to win ADCC Gold this year in a very solid bracket.