Craig Ewers Academy team member Mason ‘the Dragon’ Jones becomes the latest Welshman to join the ranks of the UFC roster.
After securing both the Cage Warriors lightweight & welterweight world titles; a call up from the world’s leading MMA promotion seemed a formality; with the Dragon expected to make his debut in early 2021.
Photo Instagram @dollyclew
Cage Warriors 116; Mason Jones took his Professional record to 10-0 with a dominant 1st round stoppage of Adam Proctor to add the Welterweight belt to his Lightweight title & became only the third fighter to hold two World Championship belts consecutively in the Cage Warriors promotion.
Photo Instagram @dollyclew
With Europe rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic & the severity of the situation in London; CW 113 event was moved from the capital to Manchester.
With changes of location & opponent, the only thing that seemed certain was Mason Jones confidence & will to win; standing in opposition was the experienced Irish opponent Joe McColgan (6-1-2).
Mason bringing his trade mark forward pressure; ended the fight with a viscous knee in the clinch, to claim the vacant Cage Warriors Lightweight belt & his first World Championship.
Newport, South Wales, was the location for the latest edition of the Polaris Professional Jiu Jitsu event headlined by former UFC Champion Luke Rockhold.
Earlier in the card, Craig Ewers was taking on Liam Cann (Scramble Academy Leeds) in a 170lb match-up; both competitors were coming into the event following wins on their previous Polaris matches, Cann over UFC veteran Chris Fishgold at Polaris 11 & Ewers over Luiz Finnochio at Polaris 10.
Ewers was able to control both the pace & the positional play of the contest & secured a unanimous decision.
In front of a capacity crowd at Cardiff’s Viola arena; Craig Ewers Academy team member Mason Jones took his Pro MMA record to 8-0 with a dominant performance over Finnish opponent Aleksi Mantykivi (15-5).
Mantykivi was expected to provide a stern test for the Dragon; however Jones pushed the pace from the outset & dominated all areas of the fight to earn a unanimous decision & increase the pressure for a title shot in 2020.
Photo Credits: Insta @dollyclew
Polaris Pro 10 | Bournemouth | 25th May 2019
Craig Ewers wins via Submission (armlock) vs Luiz Finnochio
Fighting Films Judo Open | 26th May 2019
3rd Place – Brooke Hiscocks
Samurai Judo Interclub | 25th May 2019
2nd Place - Millie Mcgeown
3rd Place - Ruby Foster
3rd Place - Cerys Palmer
3rd Place - Taliesan Bevan
3rd Place - Ieuan Bevan
EJU Junior European Cup Lithuania | 11-12th May 2019
3rd Place – Jasmine Hacker-Jones (52kg)
Cage Warriors MMA 104 (Cardiff) – 27th April 2019
Pro Lightweight Bout: Mason Jones wins unanimous decision vs Donovan Desmae (Belgium)
White Collar MMA (Cardiff) – 27th April 2019
Amateur Lightweight Bout: Zaneta Dudzinska wins 1st round armbar.
Grappling Industries (Manchester) – 27th April 2019
Female/Adult/120lbs/Purple/Gi – Georgia Doe – 2nd Place
Female/Adult/120lbs/Advanced/NoGi – Georgia Doe -2nd Place
Male/Master/185lbs/Advanced/NoGi – Jamie Tungate – 3rd Place
Newport Judo Interclub – 27th April 2019
U12 Boys - Kayden Griffiths – 2nd Place
NAGA Grappling (Birmingham) – 13th April 2019
Male/Master/Expert/Middleweight/NoGi – Craig Ewers – 1st Place
Male/Adult/Beginner/Lightweight/NoGi – Ryan Collins – 2nd Place
Male/Children/Expert/NoGi – Lucas Biggs – 2nd Place
Male/Adult/Beginner/Absolute/Gi – Ryan Collins – 3rd Place
Male/Adult/Beginner/Lightweight/Gi – Ryan Collins – 3rd Place
Male/Children/Expert/Gi - Lucas Biggs – 3rd Place
EGH Judo Open (Pontypridd) – 13th April 2019
Female/u16/57kg – Cerys Palmer – 1st Place
Female/u16/o70kg – Isabelle Foster 1st Place
Female/u16/63kg – Ruby Foster – 3rd Place
Grappling Industries (Dublin) – 7th April 2019
Male/Adult/Advanced/NoGi/185lbs/NoGi – Josh Hudson 1st Place
Male/Master/Advanced/Absolute/NoGi – Jamie Tungate 1st Place
Male/Adult/Intermediate/170lbs/NoGi – Farhan Khan – 1st Place
Male/Master/Black Belt/170lbs/Gi – Craig Ewers – 2nd Place
Male/Adult/Purple Belt/185lbs/Gi – Josh Hudson – 2nd Place
Male/Master/Advanced/170lbs/NoGi – Craig Ewers – 2nd Place
Male/Master/Advanced/185lbs/NoGi – Jamie Tungate – 2nd Place
GRIP Grappling VI: Welsh Open Gi & NoGi 2/3rd March 2019
Academy Standings: 1st Place Craig Ewers Academy
Amazing performance across the board with a total of 24 Golds, 13 Silver & 9 Bronze to take 1st place on the academy standings!
Bristol Open 2019 – 31st March 2019
Male/Master/White/Middleweight – Ben Miles -1st Place
Male/Master/Blue/Heavyweight – Dave Saif – 2nd Place
Male/Master/Blue/Absolute – Dave Saif – 3rd Place
Female/Adult/Purple/Light Feather – Georgia Doe – 3rd Place
Female/Adult/Purple/Absolute – Georgia Doe – 2nd Place
BJJ All Stars Europeans – 23rd March 2019
Male/Adult/Beginner/Lightweight/NoGi - Ryan Collins – 3rd Place
Samurai Judo Club Open – 23rd March 2019
Ieuan Bevan – 1st Place
Taliesan Bevan – 3rd Place
Newport Open BJJ – Saturday 2nd February 2019
Male/Adult/Purple - Josh Hudson 1st Place
Female/Adult/Blue-Jasmine Jones – 1st Place
Male/Adult/Blue – Ieuan Mackenzie – 3rd Place
Male/Teen/Yellow-Lucas Biggs 1st Place
Female/Adult/White- Zaneta Dudzisnka – 1st Place
Male/Teens/White – Rhys Bowley 1st Place
Male/Master/White – Ben Miles – 1st Place
Male/Master/White/- Joseph Pearson – 3rd Place
Grappling Industries (London) – 13th January 2019
Female/Adult/Intermediate/135lbs/NoGi – Georgia Doe – 1st Place
Female/Adult/Absolute/NoGi – Georgia Doe – 2nd Place
Male/Master/Absolute/NoGi – Jamie Tungate – 3rd Place
GRIP Grappling V (Cardiff) - 9th December 2018
Academy Standings: Craig Ewers Academy - 1st Place
Male Adult Advanced 77kg - Joshua Hudson - 1st Place
Male Adult Advanced 88kg - Jamie Tungate - 1st Place
Female Adult Intermediate 55kg - Georgia Doe - 1st Place
Male Adult Beginner 66kg - Ryan Collins - 1st Place
Male Adult Advanced 66kg - James Kedra - 2nd Place
Male Adult Intermediate 77kg - Farhan Khan - 2nd Place
Male Master Intermediate 88kg - Geoff Harp - 2nd Place
Male Adult Beginner 88kg - Chukwuma Iwuajoku - 2nd Place
Female Adult Beginner 60kg - Zaneta Dudzinska - 2nd Place
Boys Beginner 28kg - Osian Meese 2nd Place
Male Adult Intermediate 99kg - Ken Harris - 3rd Place
Female Adult Absolute - Georgia Doe - 3rd Place
Male Master Intermediate 77kg - Gareth Meese - 3rd Place
Male Master Intermediate 88kg - Dave Saif - 3rd Place
Girls Beginner 50kg - Amima Basit - 3rd Place
ADCC UK British Open (Manchester) - 1st December 2018
Men’s Pro 76.9kg - Craig Ewers - 2nd Place
Welsh Championships Judo (Carmarthen) - 24th November 2018
Pre-Cadet Girls 52kg - Cerys Palmer - 2nd Place
Pre-Cadet Girls 57kg - Ruby Foster - 2nd Place
Cadet Girls o70kg - Isabelle Foster - 2nd Place
NAGA Europe Grappling Championship (Amsterdam) - 17th November 2018
Men’s NoGi Expert Heavy - Tom Rumens - 3rd Place
MMA
Mason Jones: Continues his rapid rise in the Cage Warriors lightweight rankings with victories over Konman Deh (France) at Cage Warriors 95 & Kacper Formela (Poland) at Cage Warriors 97 taking his record to 6-0 as a professional.
Josh Hudson: Selected to represent Wales at the IMMAF World Championships in Bahrain 10-18 November 2018. Josh will also compete for the vacant BUDO Fighting championships Welterweight belt in Swansea 3rd November; also in action Ieuan Mackenzie & James Kedra.
BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU
NAGA Grappling Ireland: 1st September 2018
1st Place Craig Ewers (Adult/Expert/No-Gi)
1st Place Ieuan Mackenzie (Juvenile/Intermediate/No-Gi)
2nd Place Josh Hudson (Adult/Purple-Belt/Gi)
3rd Place Jamie Tungate (Masters/Expert/No-Gi)
3rd Place Ieuan Mackenzie (Adult/Intermediate/No-Gi)
Welsh Open No-Gi: Sunday 30th September 2018
11 Gold, 7 Silver & 3 Bronze to take 1st place on the team medal total!
1st Place: Iman Basit (Junior-1/Grey-White/32kg)
1st Place: Amima Basit (Teen-1/White/44kg)
1st Place: Aaron Palmer (Juvenile-1/White/58kg)
1st Place: Rhys Bowley (Teen2/Grey-White/48kg)
1st Place: Ieuan Mackenzie (Juvenile/Blue/63kg)
1st Place: Farhan Khan (Adult/White/Middle)
1st Place: Chuckwuma Iwuajoku (Adult/White/Middle-Heavy)
1st Place: Josh Hudson (Adult/Purple/Middle)
1st Place: Ben Miles (Masters/Middle/White)
1st Place: Dom Bury (Masters/Purple/Middle-Heavy)
1st Place: Jason Yean (Masters/Purple/Super-Heavy)
2nd Place: Yasmin Harris (Junior-2/Yellow/36kg)
2nd Place: Jake Annette (Juvenile-1/White/73kg)
2nd Place: Ellis Lewis (Juvenile-1/Blue/63kg)
2nd Place: Keith Westall (Adult/White/Middle)
2nd Place: Ieuan Mackenzie (Adult/Blue/Feather)
2nd Place: James Kedra (Adult/Purple/Lightweight)
2nd Place: Jamie Tungate (Masters/Brown/Middle-Heavy)
3rd Place: Ellis Lewis (Adult/Blue/Light-Feather)
3rd Place: Ken Harris (Adult/Blue/Ultra-Heavyweight)
3rd Place: Dave Saif (Masters/Blue/Middle-Heavy)
Cheltenham Open: 6th October 2018
1st Place: Ben Miles (Masters/Middle/White)
2nd Place: Zaneta Dudzinska (Adult/White/Middle)
2nd Place: Yasmin Harris (Children’s/Grey)
JUDO
Welsh Open: Saturday 20th October 2018
1st Place: Jasmine Hacker-Jones (u21/52kg)
1st Place: Jasmine Hacker-Jones (Senior/52kg)
EGH Open: Saturday 6th October 2018
2nd Place: Isabelle Foster (Heavyweight/u16)
Saturday the 7th July & the LC2 arena in Swansea; was the location for the latest BUDO FC Wales event.
Making his amateur MMA debut at just 17 years of age; Ieuan Mackenzie put on a strong display of grappling against his more experienced opponent; earning a unanimous decision from the BUDO FC judges.
Ieuan will be back in MMA action on November's BUDO card; where we hope to have a few more academy members also making their MMA debut's.
Saturday 7th July 2018; the academy had seven players compete at the annual South Wales Schools Judo Championships; congratulations to the following members who medalled on the day.
1st Place: Riley Rees, Kayden Griffiths & Leah Dunne
2nd Place: Kian Mclaren & Ruby Foster
3rd Place: Tiago Arandjelovic & Byron Palmer
The academy judo squad are working towards the Welsh National Championships in November which will decide the Welsh Team selections for 2018.
The IMMAF is the leading amateur governing body for the Sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA); between the 18-23rd June the best amateur MMA athletes descended upon Bucharest, Romania for the annual IMMAF European Championships.
Representing GBR in the welterweight category was Josh Hudson. In the round of 1/16 Josh put on a dominant performance stopping his Austrian opponent Aladdin Bosankic via TKO early in the second round.
In the round of 1/8 Josh faced Bozhidar Ivanov (Bulgaria); a measured performance saw Josh dominate all three rounds & a judge's decision to advance into the Semi-Finals.
In the semi-final Josh faced Isakov Issa (Belgium), the number 2 seeded athlete in the draw; in a tough contest Josh struggled to overcome the strong wrestling of the Belgium; & had to settle for a 3rd place finish.
A great first IMMAF outing for Josh; who qualifies with his medal to the World Championships in Bahrain in November; congratulations from everyone at the Academy!
16th June 2018 & the Sport Wales National Centre, Cardiff was the venue for the fifth edition of the CEA Interclub.
With 23 clubs & around 130 Judoka in attendance, this was the biggest interclub to date.
We managed to top the medal table against some very strong opposition; with four gold medals (Matthew Hern, Ben Miles, Isabelle Foster, Riley Rees) six silver medals (Daniel Sadler, Kayden Griffiths, Osian Meese, Kody Travers, Alfie Parker, Cerys Palmer) & ten bronze medals (Thomas Duggan, Travis Hern, Ruby Foster, George Coates, Tiago Arandjelovic, Byron Palmer, Leah Dunn, Morgan Lennon, Dave Saif, Tommy Andrews).
Congratulations to all that competed for the team; the next edition of the event will be in September!
Full results of the fifth edition available at the following link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NkypBkbj2XVRBNj9DAj-ZKhhNpwoV5vp/view?usp=sharing
25th March 2018 & the National Dojo in Cardiff played host to the IV edition of the Craig Ewers Academy Judo Interclub.
With 14 local clubs in attendance & divisions ranging from u8 'Dragons' through to Kyu grade Veterans; there was some great Judo on display.
The next edition will be on June 17th again at the National Dojo in Cardiff. Full results from our March event, can be found at the following link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qrC92Zwk21DMfj6tQ4GfGzBwORUOElzZ/view?usp=sharing
February see's the introduction of a new timetable & added children's classes at the Cardiff venue!
Sessions will start week beginning 5th February.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Age 5 - 12) Tuesday & Thursday 17:30-18:30 (Coach Eoghan O'Flanagan)
Judo (Age 5 - 12) 14:00-15:00 (Coach Craig Ewers)
This is in addition to the successful children's programme already in place at Newport MMA.
Judo (Age 5 - 12) Thursday 17:30-18:30 & Saturday 10:00-11:00