{"id":374716,"date":"2022-08-23T06:02:01","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T20:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=374716"},"modified":"2022-08-23T06:02:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T20:02:01","slug":"cuki-mma-can-make-the-easy-transition-to-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cuki-mma-can-make-the-easy-transition-to-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuki: MMA can make the \u2018easy transition\u2019 to wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_374693\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-374693\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Trench-Tech-pixwb-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Trench-Tech-pixwb-1.jpg\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-374693\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frank \u201cThe Crank\u201d Camacho, bottom, tries to get out of a choke hold by Brandon Vera in this file photo taken during one of their training sessions in Guam. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trench Tech Gym founder Justis \u201cCuki Alvarez said the islands\u2019 mixed martial arts practitioners can easily transition to wrestling if ever the sport is included in future editions of the Pacific Games, Mini Games, or Micronesian Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be a pretty easy transition because we have always trained the basics in wrestling at our gym,\u201d he told<em> Saipan Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The retired MMA fighter nicknamed \u201cThe Cockroach\u201d and \u201cThe Janitor\u201d also said that aside from suiting up, local MMA practitioners are also willing to serve in other capacities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would love to coach and compete and represent the CNMI in wrestling again\u2026I believe the last time CNMI had a wrestling team was way back in 2006, where Frank Camacho took gold, Jose Quan took silver, and I took bronze in our respective divisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2006 Micronesian Games on Saipan, the host CNMI won five of the 42 medals at stake in the wrestling competition.<\/p>\n<p>Palau topped the standings with a 4-1-1 gold-silver-bronze medal haul with Olympian Elgin Loren Elwais ruling the 60kg divisions of the Greco-Roman and freestyle events. Mixed martial arts veteran Frank \u201cThe Crank\u201d Camacho won the lone gold medal for the CNMI when he topped the freestyle\u2019s 84-kg division, while Jose Quan settled for the silver behind Palau\u2019s Francis Gibbons in freestyle\u2019s 66-kg weight class. John Lizama (55 kg Greco-Roman and freestyle) and Cuki Alvarez (74 kg freestyle) clinched bronze medals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trench Tech Gym founder Justis \u201cCuki Alvarez said the islands\u2019 mixed martial arts practitioners can&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":374692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}