YES I AM BJJ EUROPEAN CHAMPION AGAIN. For the 3rd time I won the BJJ European Championship, first time as a white belt, then blue, then bronze as a brown and NOW GOLD as a BROWN BELT.
IT WAS MY HARDEST COMPETITION BY FAR!
It has been a hard, tensed and painful journey to make it to the top of Europe. This journey started in November 2015 when I received my brown belt. It was an honor to become brown belt after only 5 years of BJJ practice.
Nevertheless precocity comes with a price, lack of knowledge and experience.
As a newly become brown belt I wanted and needed to work the extra hours to make up for my lack of knowledge and experience.
THIS IS NOT THE WORST, the worst for me was that I had to LOSE IN ORDER TO GROW, TO LEARN.
Why to LOSE? Very simple, if I kept doing BJJ the way I did till now my evolution would eventually have stopped. I needed to get out of my comfort zone and learn the basics, the fundamentals and add new skills.
WHEN YOU GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE, YOU FAIL AND A LOT.
I HAVE LOST MORE FIGHTS IN 2 years as a brown belt than I did in my 5 previous years.
I CAME THIS YEAR TO THE BJJ EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP UNDER PRESSURE!
My record previous to the competition was 5 losses as a brown belt for 2 victories and now I can SAY IT, only one guy was BETTER THAN ME. SO I WAS FRUSTRATED, REALLY FRUSTRATED!
Today before the Competition I COULDNT SEE MYSELF LOOSING...IT WOULD HAVE SHATTERED MY SELF CONFIDENCE. I WORK HARD, I HAVE FAITH (I am Muslim) BUT I WORK HARD. I AM UP AT 4am MONDAY TO FRIDAY TO PRACTICE ON MY CRAFT.
My BJJ is getting better and I still have a lot to work on, BUT MY CONDITIONING IS TOP. As a matter of fact I won the Championship because I was the FITTEST GUY OUT THERE.
Apart from my first fight that I could have lost, as it was draw and a referee decision in my favor that sent me through the following round.
The next 3 fights followed the same scenario, hard fights till we reached the 3 minutes cap, beyond the 3 minutes, I smashed all my opponents.
I won the 1/4 final 7-0, the semi final 18-2 and the final 9-0, and to my delight I had to FIGHT REALLY HARD AS IN THESE THREE FIGHTS I escaped various submission attempts from my opponents.
After winning the gold medal in my weight category (under 88.3kg) I decided to fight in Absolute. Absolute means all the athletes who made the podium in my age group category from 60kg to hundred plus kilos.
My opponent weighed 121kg...36kg more than me... I lost that one lol...
GUYS MY MESSAGE TO YOU IS DREAM BIG, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER GIVE IN. TO BE SUCCESFUL IS HARD, IT IS NOT A STRAIGHT PATH, THERE ARE FEW UPS AND MANY, MANY DOWNS.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT POSITIVE PEOPLE AND ABOVE ALL WORK HARD!
HARD WORK, WORKS!
Me with a gold Medal, courtesy of my son Milo. He drew this before the tournament I kept the drawing as my iPad wallpaper and could see it everyday and make sure I keep my promise if bringing the gold home.