Yet another Combat Athlete MMA student wins at NAGA!

Rich Finaldi here once again for Combat Athlete MMA NAGA has seen yet another first place victory from our school Combat Athlete MMA . Gennaro Fusella a white belt has won 1st place in the GI and NO-GI competitions at the NAGA World Championships in Morristown, N.J. this past Saturday April 14 . The very unique thing that our school is producing is that 1st time BJJ tourney participants that are at the white belt level are winning the GI and NO-GI categories, the last person to do it was Jon Bloom in 2011 at the NAGA World Championsips who took 1st in the NO-GI and 3rd in the GI  competitions. Jon I am proud to say is a blue belt now under Sensei Paul “Opie” Fahey.

Gennaro Fusella at  NAGA!

I have been training with Gennaro for about a year now. He has a very good wrestling pedigree, and he’s now making the transition into MMA, he’s an animal on the mats with a killer instinct for BJJ. Winning his 1st ever BJJ tournament in the GI and NO-GI categories is a great way to start! Gennaro is at a 200+ weight and strong like a bull. He is really adopting his technique and experience in becoming a solid Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner.  At the NAGA World Championships his first match was won by getting the double leg take down to side control, he transitioned to mount where he used superior positioning and constant submission attacks to force his opponent to go belly down enabling Gennero to lock in the rear naked choke. Gennaro’s second match was the finals match and is was very exciting. He was facing the explosive and talented Malachi Boykin from Ground Control BJJ in Maryland.  In the match Gennaro secured a knee tap take down into his opponents guard from there the was a scramble where Gennaro was trying to pass and his opponent was turtling to defend. They both end up standing and Gennaro eventually secured the double leg take down that led to him passing his oppnents guard to end up in side control,  Gennaro  then popped up to knee on belly to show that he had solid control. There were many attempts to escape by Gennaro’s opponent but he eventually secured the mount position. There was more back and forth scrambling that actually resulted in Gennaro’s opponent attaining some points but Gennaro won with a very good point spread. The score was around 10 to 2. Gennaro won the NAGA heavy weight No Gi World Championship (beginner division)

Fusella wins NAGA GI also!

In the GI event Gennaro secured a take down in to the his opponents guard from there there was a scramble for position that eventually ended with them standing up again. Then Gennaro hit a beautiful hip throw (Sensei Paul and Gennaro were planning on hitting that before the match). This led to Gennaro having side control then eventually he was able to secure the mount. His opponent eventually escaped into scramble but the time ended with Gennaro in his opponents guard with a score of 8 to 0.  Gennaro wins the match.

For the final match Gennaro’s opponent was smart to pull guard (Sensei Paul had told Gennero that his opponent would do this before the match started, so the plan was to not let his opponent close his guard and then pass) but Gennaro did not allow his opponent close his guard and was able to pass to side control. Being a skilled BJJ guy, Gennaro’s opponent was able to recover to the closed guard. Gennaro made a couple of attempts to pass guard and was able to pass to side control again. Gennaro then secured the mount position and the match ended with Fusella searching for a submission. Gennaro won the finals and the score was 10 to 0. He also won the GI division without getting a point scored on him and he is the NAGA Heavy weight Gi World Champion (white belt division )! To say the least Gennaro Fusella has a gotten off to a great head start in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Below is a video clip of Gennaro getting that hip throw in the GI competition! The sound is not working correctly on this video

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