When NAGA (North American Grappling Association) came to town last month I had the opportunity to interview President and founder Kipp Kollar. NAGA has been in existence for twelve years. Before that Kipp ran point Karate tournaments. That all changed when he attended a Gracie grappling seminar. Kipp added a grappling division to his shows. Every year the grappling division would grow two fold. Eventually the grappling got so enormous the point fighting was eliminated.

How big did grappling get, you ask? Well, before grappling was the flavor of the month or should I say decade, Kipp had a very lucrative sales job in New York. Running martial arts tournaments was just a part time job. Tournaments got so big it was too much for Kipp to handle on a part time basis. Kipp quit his sales job and dedicated himself full time in running tournaments.

Kipp is quite a busy man. Last year he did twenty-seven shows and this year he will be doing thirty. Kipp has around two hundred and fifty shows under his belt. Considering that the judges have full time jobs Kipp tries to limit his shows to three a month.

On the subject of judges, what I find appealing about NAGA is their judging personnel. Other tournament organizations have judges that are representing schools that are competing. NAGA has independent judges. I’ve heard comments in the past from many spectators and fighters that the reason that the opponent won was because the judges were representing the same school as the fighter. Kipp credits the judging to Naga’s success.

“That’s why we’re so successful. We don’t have American Top Team referees or FFA referees. People know it’s going to be just, fair, and unbiased”.

One of Kipp’s biggest memories from NAGA is having a three year old and a sixty year old man compete.

“The youngest competing and the oldest competing is what it’s all about. This sport is for everyone”.

Kipp has other projects going on as well. He has two mixed martial arts events. Mass Destruction, which is held in Massachusetts and Reality Fighting, which is held all over the country. Kipp’s future plans are to have bigger grappling tournaments, hold tournaments in different countries, and bring reality fighting to South Florida.

The North American Grappling Association held another jammed packed tournament Saturday, October 20^th at the Dr. Krop High School in Miami. All competitors were treated to two Super Fights. The first Super Fight started at 10:00am featured Vagner Rocha vs Enrique Coco. This match went the distance, but Rocha was able to outscore Coco in points giving him the victory. The second Super Fight which was held at 1:00pm featured Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs Carmello Morrero. This match had the same result as the first one. Going the distance Babalu was able to top Morrero in points for the victory. The winners of the Super Fights as well as the expert divisions were given UFC type belts which were very snazzy. All other divisions were given fancy swords.

Christopher Clark Wins at NAGA

Among the winners of the tournament, Christopher Clark won in the kids beginners division. In the teens heavyweight advance Gi, Matt Kirby came out on top. Armando Herrera continued his winning streak in the teens advance Gi /No Gi. Jessica Aguilar had a good day as she came out on top in the Expert Gi women division. She also won a belt in the Expert/Super Fight. Let’s not forget the extraordinary Sarah Neyra who won in the teens advanced GI/No Gi. Naga officials offered Sarah an opportunity to compete in the Women division. Like a true warrior, Sarah accepted and took first place in the Women Advance flyweight with Gi, and came in second in no Gi. As she was preparing for the match I asked her father, Mr. Neyra, how proud he was of Sarah.

Sarah Neyra Takes the Sword

He said “Honestly I’m a little nervous. I didn’t know Sarah was competing in the women division. I looked at her competitors and saw how much older they looked. I told my wife how strange that was and that’s when she told me Sarah was competing with the women”.

Jessica Aguilar Wins

Sarah was not the only Neyra to come out on top at the tournament. Her thirteen year old brother Daniel was the winner of the Boys Kids Advance Gi/No Gi. Feel free to view all the results of the tournament at Naga’s official website www.nagafighter.com

Armando Wins Again

Overall, it was a good tournament. Every time Naga comes to town there is an increase in competitors and spectators. As I left at 9:00 there were still on going matches. Naga officials had the weigh-ins a day before the tournament to help it run smoothly. Kipp Kollar, President of Naga announced that they would be returning in March to West Palm Beach. It will be a bigger venue which means more matches can take place at one time.