Duncan Hewer has won his second comp in 2 weeks, this time he took out the Machado Nationals. Then Brad Hendra, 10 Days after recieving his Blue Belt, also won his division at the Machado Natioanls. Both guys train and compete BJJ out of Geoff Grants GSW, Lockdown is very lucky to have this assocition with GSW.

One of Lockdown’s longest serving members won the Auckland invitational BJJ comp. Duncan H won all five of his matches, he used his wrestling to secure the takedown then got top position and stayed there using his BJJ skills to get the win.

Great stuff Duncan.

Scott Lyons and Brad Hendra won their fights in Auckland.

Scott started of striking in his fight, he managed to land a right to drop his opponent. From there Scott used his top position on the ground to unleash some nasty ground and pound. His opponent put up some valiant defence but once Scott got to mount and rained down some heavy shots the ref stopped the fight at 2:41 to give Scott the TKO win.

Brad took his opponent to the ground right away and started landing punches from guard this is how most of the first round went, until Brad went for a heel hook and gave his opponent a chance to stand up. Once on his feet his opponent ran away as he didn’t want any part of Brad on the ground. However Brad got hold of him slammed him to the ground and was looking good. Brad’s opponent managed to throw up a triangle which Brad slammed his way out of, with a few punches in the head for good measure. Second round Brad got the takedown and got to side control, where BJJ expert Tony Eduardo was giving his advice to Brad - this was obviously very succesful as Brad transitioned to a guilotine choke and finished the fight.

Great results for both boys and they sent out a big statement at a big show in Auckland.

Pete Parata won his debut fight on Saturday night. He was up against an opponent who was having his 4th fight, this was a big ask for Pete. In the first round Pete got taken down and tied up his opponent causing a stand up, Pete then got the take down and landed in guard, his opponent went in to survival mode and just tried to hang on until the end of the round. Round two and Pete went in for a beautiful double leg take down, sadly they ended in the ropes and the fight was re-started on their feet, so Pete did the take down againand this time landed in the centre of the ring. I must add that both double legs got some serious air and nice slams. Again his opponent held on tight to try and survive, although Pete did land some shots. Pete was on his back for a little of this round and in an attempt to push his opponent away with his feet, he pushed his opponent high on his neck with his foot as there was no malice in it his opponent got a recovery time, but no harm was done. Thrid and final round both fighters where a little tired Pete fought of some guilotine attempts then half way through the round he got a beautiful single leg take down (again picked his opponent up above his head to slam him) this time he landed in side control and finished off the round with a great position and some good ground and pound.

Pete won all three rounds on three judges cards – great result.

Lockdown has a busy start to 09 we have 5 people training for fights.

Pete Parata is fighting in Porirua on the 21st February.

Leamy Tato is fighting Pride and UFC Heavyweight Soa “The Hulk” Palelei in Australia on the 28th February.

Scott Lyons and Brad Hendra are traveling up to Auckland on the 7th March.

Peter Aberdeen is training at Lockdown for his fight against Sam ‘Striker’ Brown in Auckland on the 7th March.

We are going for a perfect 5-0 start to the year.

Leamy Tato, NZMMA Heavy Weight Champ, won a 4 man compeition in Christchurch. In his first fight Leamy was up a gainst one of NZ’s most experienced fighters in Hiriwa Te-Rangi. Using his superior speed Leamy won the fight on points. Next up for Leamy was Matt “No Tap” Toa, Leamy dominated this fight and finished it in the third round via ground and pound. You will be able to see Leamy fight in Wellington early 2009.

Lockdown’s head coach, Gareth Lewis, has returned from training in the USA. Gareth trained at Xtreme Couture, which is home to UFC, TUF and IFL fighters. On any given day there would be 5 world champions working around the gym. Gareth got to train with the pro’s, this included live wrestling drills against Randy Couture, sparring with Ray Sefo and working with a heap of great fighters. Gareth learnt so much while he was there and he is looking forward to showing Lockdown MMA all the new tricks.

Lockdown MMA’s head coach, Gareth Lewis, is going to Las Vegas to train at Xtreme Couture. This is the home of 5 x UFC champ Randy Couture. Gareth has a trail with the pro team and if he makes it he will be training with Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Heath Hearing, Forrest Griffen, Tyson Griffen among others. There is so much talent at this gym that Gareth is looking forward to seeing how the top guys train as well as picking up some new techniques from them.

We have an English pro fighter training with us, he is preparing for his upcoming title fight.  He is very skilled in wrestling and BJJ so Jonny, the ground coach, is loving it and they are having some good battles on the ground.

Confirmed for 19th July at the Redden Fight Club.