Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Coach

Gareth has been training martial arts for most of his life. He started out training in Goju-Ryu karate where he obtained the rank of black belt. During this time Gareth also competed in sport karate tournaments where he won numerous North Island and National titles. In this regard he was selected to represent New Zealand at the 1997 Oceania Games.

From there Gareth went on to train in kickboxing where he developed his skills as a fighter. He had a number of fights with all wins coming by way of knock out, earning him the name “Lights Out Lewis”. In just his third fight Gareth fought a former South Pacific Champ who was vastly more experienced having had over 20 fights. Gareth won the fight by KO in the second round. This trend continued with Gareth fighting either more experienced or heavier opponents, even giving away 25kg. In this fifth fight Gareth won the NZ super cruiser weight title. Gareth managed to defend the title in a number of fights and kept hold of it before he made the move to MMA.

Gareth has trained with the best in the business, he went to Las Vegas to train with the greats. On this trip he did wrestling drills and sparring with UFC legend Randy Couture, did one on one training with K1 legend Ray Sefo and also did some BJJ with current world champion Robert Drysdale. Including training with these guys he also trained with a number of UFC and IFL fighters (too many to mention). Gareth is also a BJJ purple belt and trains in Freestyle Wrestling.

As the head MMA Coach Gareth will use his knowledge, of training two MMA NZ Champions, to teach you how to combine the striking, wrestling and BJJ, creating a true mixed martial artist. He will work with you to develop a fight style to best suit your strengths.

Nick has been wrestling most of his life, apart from taking a break from the mat for a few years before returning to  competition in 2009. Nick is the current NZ Freestyle Wrestling Champion and was selected in the New Zealand senior team to contest the 2009 Commonwealth Wrestling champs in India, at which he qualified for the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010

In 2010 Nick competed and trained at various international competitions in the UK, Spain, Samoa, Australia, USA and Russia including competing at the World wrestling championships in Moscow.

At the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games Nick was New Zealand’s, most successful wrestler., despite a tough draw  and having the eventual gold and bronze medal winners  to wrestle Nick placed a creditable 5th.

Gareth trains with Nick and uses those skills to help Lockdown MMA improve their wrestling, and takedown skills.

Geoff Grant

Grappling Adviser

Geoff is Gareths Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach and head coach at Wellington’s most successful BJJ school, GSW Martial Arts. Geoff assists Gareth with his ground game so that he can pass on expert knowledge to all Lockdown students. Many of the senior Lockdown crew are also high ranked BJJ students at GSW.

Geoff opened GSW in 2000 and was awarded his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt in 2007 after training for 13 years.  GSW has grown in size and stregnth over the past 10 years to be one of the countries biggest and best BJJ training places. In GSW’s 10th year the club hosted seminars by some of the BJJ worlds best practitioners, including,

• John Will, one of the worlds best Martial Arts instructors, John travels the world teaching Martial Arts to 100s of Martial Arts and BJJ clubs, police and military personnel and he is our head coach. John visited GSW 3 times in 2010
• Richard Norton, Action Movie star and Multiple Black Belt holder. Richard is a BJJ 4th Dan with over 40 years in the Martial Arts and Action Movie business. GSW Hosted Richard 2 times in 2010
• Rigan Machado, one of the worlds most recognised BJJ instructors and pioneers, acknowledged as one of the first people to bring BJJ to America
• Robert Drysdale, 6 time World BJJ Champion, one of the current top BJJ Competitors in the World, The Ultimate Fighter assistant coach and ADCC Super Fight Winner 2007

Interaction with these people, coupled with a strong club ethic, means that GSW and by assiociation, Lockdown, keep at the cutting edge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Duncan Hewer – BJJ Blue Belt, Multiple BJJ tournament wins.

Jason Solomon – BJJ Blue Belt, TKD Black Belt, Trained in Catch Wrestling, Multiple MMA fights.

Scott Lyons – BJJ Purple Belt, Has wins in both BJJ and MMA.

Brad Hendra - BJJ Blue Belt, fought MMA in Thailand and NZ. BJJ Tournament winner.