Cody “Judo” gets his first time in the Cage
Cody Gabelman “Judo” as he is known on the New Richmond wrestling team stepped into the cage for the first time in a Submission Grappling exhibition match against Dennis Swift Jr. at the Ring of Rage 5 event. It was agreed upon that the boys would do (3) 2 minute rounds of submission grappling no strikes allowed even if one of the boys tapped out we wanted to let them have all 3 rounds. The 1st round was really exciting as both boys put on a display of jiu-jitsu reversals sweeps and takedowns. Cody sunk a rear naked choke in the end of the first round but Dennis was able to hold on till the bell. In the second round “judo” came out and hit a beautiful double leg slam and went right for the back sinking the RNC and forcing Swift to tap. Third Round swift comes out and hits a nice takedown and pulls guard to sink in the guilotine, but Cody was able to defend and secured sidemount control. Swift quickly escapes sidemount and Cody pulls butterfly guard and hits a nice sweep to regain mount till the final bell. I was a little bit nervous for Cody when he stepped into the cage for the first time not really for his skills I knew his skills were in tact he’s been doing jiu-jitsu since he was 3, I was more worried he’d get some kinda crazy injury that I would have to tell Coach Shinkle about since he was to wrestle in districts the following weekend and I promised Coach he wouldn’t get hurt but all in all I was proud of both boys their sportsmanship before and after the fight was far superior then some of the MMA Adults I’Ve seen. If you long time G-Force Fans remember his is how Chris got his start. Cody is set to go again sometime late summer against the winner of the next teen event at Ring of Rage. I think it’s great that the promotors let these boys have a match under the big lights and crowds of an MMA event it lets them get one step closer to learning to be a good fighter Special Thanks to Dennis Swift and Crew at Ring of Rage and Coach Shinkle from New Richmond for letting us pull this off during wrestling season.
