Kelly Anundson is declared World Grappling Champion!
Article from our contributor: Todd “Jake” Jacobson, Jake at Ringside
White Rock Gym is very proud to announce that Kelly Anundson, has recently led Team USA to victory at the World Grappling Championships in Fort Lauderdale. At this World Champion Tournament, Anundson captured two different World Champion belts.
Fighting seven matches over the course of the tournament from December 11th – 13th in the No-Gi style, he was declared the World Champion in both the Open and 120 Kg (264 lb) weight classes. Fighters from all over the world competed in this World Championship grappling tournament, which was also televised. The USA team won the tournament and was declared the world champion Grappling team. According to Anundson some of the strongest teams besides the USA team were the teams from Serbia, Brazil, Canada, and France. Other teams represented were Austria, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa as well as many others. There were men as well as women competitors competing at this World Championship Tournament.
In garnering his World Championships, Anundson fought in the No-Gi style of grappling. According to Anundson, the No-Gi style is the style that is closest to MMA fighting and the one that MMA fans would most likely enjoy watching the most. In No-Gi style, the fighters do not wear belts as opposed to the Gi style where the fighters do wear belts. In grappling, unlike in MMA, striking is not allowed. At the Florida tournament the matches consisted of one five minute round. MMA bouts, in contrast, consist of three rounds. Anundson commented that in a grappling fight since it is so short, it is total-all-out fighting from start to finish. Anundson said that his toughest fight was in the Open championship – a division without a weight limit where some of the fighters at the tournament weighed as much as 380 pounds – against Mario Rinaldi, also of Team USA who fights out of Florida. Anundson won this bout in an overtime decision.
Anundson, who is quickly becoming a local sports hero to MMA fans in the Palmetto state, is well known locally for his crushing victory in Columbia on November 24th over Tyrone Jackson with submission in the 2nd round. As all who witnessed this event will testify, Anundson simply obliterated Jackson in that bout. Anundson says that he can beat his opponents in either the grappling style or the MMA style and says that he considers himself to be championship caliber in both. I’m sure local fight fans who witnessed his explosive victory over Jackson will agree with this statement Anundson, a very confident as well as explosive fighter, had predicted an early submission in interviews before the Jackson fight.
In preparation for the World Championship grappling tournament, Anundson trained at the American Top Team Martial Arts facility in Coconut Creek, Florida (Americantopteam.com). The American Top Team is well known as one of the top MMA training programs not just in the United States, but in the world. The facility consists of a state of the art 20,000 square foot martial arts facility that is home to some of the top MMA fighters in the world. Just to name a few of the outstanding MMA fighters who train out of this gym are Thiago Alves, Kimbo Slice, Thiago Silva, and Mike Brown. Anundson is a highly dedicated athlete and skipped the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Columbia to continue his training in Florida and will also skip Christmas holiday with his family in Columbia as well. Currently, he is training as part of Thiago Silva’s training team in Silva’s preparation for his next bout against Richard Evans.
Anundson learned his ferocious ground game as an amateur wrestler. He is a graduate of Newberry College where he attended on a full-ride athletic scholarship as a wrestler. Anundson says he was one of the first wrestlers to be recruited to Newberry when they kicked off their wrestling program. Newberry is a Division II school with an outstanding wrestling program. Anundson points out that Newberry has beaten most of the Division I wrestling teams in North and South Carolina and mentioned Duke, NC State, the Citadel, and Gardener Webb as Division I schools whose wrestling teams have fallen to Newberry. His record at Newberry was 87 – 33 and he qualified for the NCAA tournament three times and earned All-American status in 2008. He won the NCAA Division II East Region at 197 pounds in 2008.
Anundson indicated that he will return to Columbia in early January where he will continue to train out of White Rock Gym here. Local fight fans will likely next have a chance to see him fight in a fight card to be held in Columbia probably in late January. To learn more about Anundson you can visit the Newberry College athletics website where there is a profile on him – he is a volunteer wrestling coach there. You can also go to Youtube.com where there are several video interviews of him including one that was done at the White Rock Boxing Gym.
See you at the fights!
Todd “Jake” Jacobson
Jake at Ringside
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