Long before there was a Gracie Barra gym in every British city, there was a much cruder grappling art rooted deeply in the North of England. Catch Wrestling has suffered a noted decrease in popularity in Britain since the integration of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but one man is hoping to change that. Chris Crossan, a former pupil of the world famous Snake Pit gym in Wigan, Lancashire put on Britain’s first Legit Pro Wrestling tournament last weekend and it may very well have acted as a catalyst to usher in a new age of British submission wrestling.
Crossan’s 8-man tournament went down at the Billingham Synthonia Club in Stockton-On-Tees and featured a wealth of British grappling talent, including some recent European BJJ champions. But, one man really emerged as a potential future star, the eventual winner, 19 year old Amin Nazer. Dagestan born Nazer moved to England at the age 7. Over the last few years he has emerged as a serious grappling talent managing to earn a purple belt in BJJ, train Catch firstly at the Snake Pit and more recently at Bram’s gym in Stockton. Nazer has also amassed an undefeated amateur MMA record.
The opening round saw Nazer pin his opponent Joe Kawalski and move on to dominating 340lb behemoth Phil Clegg, a purple belt under Braulio Estima and a two-time European champion. In the final round, Nazer faced the Alex Cook, who Nazer also beat with relative ease.
In an interview with GazetteLive.co.uk Crossan spoke of his admiration at Nazer’s ever improving skills:
“Amin has got so much ability and potential it’s frightening, the way he man-handled Phil Clegg in the semi-finals was really something to behold, and for our first event I was very happy with it.”
After a strong debut event, Crossan announced plans for another tournament in October which is set to include noted American grappler Travis Newaza who recently competed at “Road to Metamoris” and will be looking to take Nazer’s belt.