My name is Matt Kaiser I am 28years old, and I am a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and 10th planet jiu jitsu.

 I think one of the things that makes me unique is how often I study other styles of grappling. I am constantly training with grapplers outside of jiu jitsu such as Catch Wrestlers, Sambo practitioners, MMA athletes, Judoka, and more. I think this has given me a well rounded defensive strategy and a varied offensive game as well.

 I have competed in a very high level of sport grappling being a x10 Island Champion, Western Canadian Absolute runner up, Submission ACE champion, and attending 2 Eddie Bravo Invitationals.

 I had heard of Combat Wrestling and seen videos coming out of Japan online, however I had no idea what the rules were and how points were scored. To me that didn’t really matter, because I was most interested in the submission finishes and intensity of the athletes.

 I became aware of the Canadian Trials after I saw the US Team selected. I knew it was something I wanted to be apart of, because I love my country and wanted to show everyone that Canada houses some of the best grapplers in the world. The trials were on the opposite end of the country and I was recovering from a broken Hyoid (throat), but nothing was going to stop me and I trained my hardest to make the team. Luckily I won my matches quickly by submission and was crowned the winner of the trial’s 74kg division. It was an amazing feeling, and even better that my parents were there to see it.

 The time between the National Trials and the World Championship was roughly 3 months. Immediately I took a break for the first few weeks to try and allow some time for my throat to heal and recover from the hard training from the National tournament. Once I felt better I resumed hard training and worked my wrestling harder than I had ever done before. I would read results online of how the other trials had gone, and tried to look up every fighter from my division and studied how they moved and what their go to techniques were.

The 3 months really flew by and the week before the World Championships I received a really bad injury again and was convinced I wouldn’t be able to make the trip. I was really stressed out because I wanted Canada to look strong, but didn’t know if I could still be that representative. Luckily I have a very strong supportive team who convinced me to believe in myself, and I made the trip to Bulgaria.

 Understanding that everyone was a National Trials champion, and watching video on several potential opponents, I knew the quality of grapplers was going to be very high on competition day. I was caught off guard in the warm up area however, once I saw how well conditioned all the athletes were. Some of the athlete’s warm ups seemed to be twice as hard as my workouts, it was unbelievable. Once the competition started I was able to tap into the mentality that I needed to become a champion, and when my hand was raised at the end, it was one of the greatest moments of my life. Throughout my training as a grappler I have made a lot of sacrifices to my health and my relationships with friends and family, and to win the World Championship in Combat Wrestling, it means the world to me.

 I think after this years World Championship it’s pretty clear that Combat Wrestling is here to stay. It was a very successful event with many great matches. I have proved that Canada has some of the best Combat Wrestlers in the world and the future I believe will be no different. Expect to see Canada as a dominant country on the world stage, with an even stronger team ready for next year.