Shane “Pika-Boo” Alvarez won a pair of gold medals in the Art of War 7 No-Gi Grappling & Submission Challenge held last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.
Although there were a lot of impressive performances in the weekend competition, Alvarez's gold medal wins in the featherweight and lightweight divisions left him the most decorated mixed martial artist in the bunch.
Alvarez went through Scotty Eclavea in the featherweight division that had 14 entries and then survived Trench Tech teammate Vince “The Clinch” Masga and six others in the lightweight category. Robert Alvarez and Trench Tech's Fasi “Quick Draw” Jesse received the featherweight and lightweight bronzes, respectively.
Other top winners in Art of War 7 were Marianas Elite's Kelvin “The Big Hit” Fitial, Trench Tech's Ning Cepeda, Jesse, and Masga, and Guam's Nathan Chase.
Fitial reestablished his dominance in the heavyweight division by taking out Trench Tech's Mylo Lassiter with a rear-naked choke submission in their gold medal bout.
Fans have been waiting to see the pair cross paths and though Fitial proved victorious somewhat with ease in what was a brief confrontation, the fight may have served as an appetizer to Trench Warz 16: Fire Power! scheduled for Dec. 14.
Mafnas earned the heavyweight bronze prize over teammate Ning Cepeda. Seven fighters joined the heavyweight class.
Cepeda missed the podium against his bigger opponents, but went on to hoist the middleweight gold over Darren Robinson with a choke submission in the final minute of the round. MAPC's Eric Gatemen came away with the middleweight bronze after going through Barrigada Submission Center's John Aguon of Guam. Eight competitors joined the middleweight division.
Jesse tapped out Rey Kim in overtime to win the welterweight gold medal, while Gracie Barra's Kimo Lizama of Guam defeated Trench Tech Donivan Mendiola for the bronze prize. The division had seven fighters.
Masga also got his paws on the gold after winning the bantamweight class over Spike 22-veteran Kenji Okiyama of Guam and eight other contenders.
Chase of Guam-BSC fared very well in his AOW debut and swept a threesome of flyweights, including silver medalist Joe Duenas and Trench Tech bronze medalist Josh “Chaos” Duenas. Chase also stepped up and silenced naysayers with a win over Tavita Lueta for the bantamweight bronze.
Trench Tech Purebred Promotions organized last weekend's Art of War 7, which was sponsored by Monster Energy, Pepsi, and Docomo Pacific.
Trench Tech's next event will be the Rites of Passage 13: Destiny scheduled for Sept. 28. Call 483-4MMA (4662) for more information.
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