Overall we had a great tournament. No matter where you go you will always have some questionable refs. Even some of Joe Hursts guys got robbed by a Joe Hurst ref. So there were definetly no favorites. The bottom line is no one wants to ref because of fear of making a bad call. In my opinion anyone with the balls to ref deserves credit for even being out there. As far as parking Gumby is 100% correct every bit of it went to our charity c-van which is for battered women and we really appreciate eveyone that wasn't cheap and helped this organiztion. It really is a good cause. I would personally like to thank Gumby for coming down and taping the event he is a real cool guy. As far as comparing it to last year, it blew last year away. Last year we didn't get out until 2 a.m. this year we were done by 8-8:30 w/ 250 competitors. Last year there were no medals this year we had that straightened out also.As for the competitors I have never met a better crowd of guys and girls,most everyone was respectful and everyone I had the privelige of talking to seemed really cool. I was glad to see the great turn out of 250 competitors even though Relson Gracie boycotted this event. He told Joe in Ohio he was going to boycott it but, I never thought he was really that sorry of a person to go through with it. We only saw two of his guys compared to about 80 last year. Hopefully for him what goes around will come around, but the truth of it all is that it really doesn't matter because all of the true warriors showed up anyway. In short I would like to thank everyone that came out to support the Budweiser Jiu Jitsu World Cup, from every team big and small. You guys are what makes this sport great. Train Hard and I will see you all soon!!!
Respectively, Aaron Helfenberger (Statue)
ttt for a great event!!
Hey Aaron
Just wanted to add my 2 cents.I fought last year and this year.This Time I fought Scott Zeman in a exhibition fight.I know he is a Joe Hurst student yet the refs should no favoritism towards him or me.As for the event I thought it was the best run event I have been to In a while.I think Joe Hurst and his staff put alot of time and effort in making this a better event.Last year every body who had something bad to say did.I can only hope this year people will come foward and let every one know how they thought the event was run.As for the refs I did not notice any complaints.Well look foward to fighting next year at the Bud World Cup.
Alex Franks
Who were the 2 Relson fighters?
"Who were the 2 Relson fighters?"
uh oh. Looks like somebody's in trouble.
uh oh, looks like politics rears its ugly head. police are out on patrol.
Hye Statue Why dont you change name of link to Bud World Cup and what people thought about event this time
Alex thanks a lot for your comments. It was great to have you come and fight and it was a pleasure to meet you. I really like to meet guys that are respectful as yourself and give credit where credit is do. You and Scott had a really close fight.Joe and I really did spend a lot of time on making this year better than last and we couldn't have done it without the help of all of our volunteers. I was thinking about changing the link Alex but you know it is funny the way things work. When you do something that is not so good like last years tournament you here about it forever from everybody, but when you do something good like this year you only get a few responses from good guys like yourself. We appreciate everyone that has posted positive things about the event it's good to know that there are a few people that will tell you the good as well as the bad.We will continue to make this event better and better each year. As long as I am working with Joe I will make sure of it. Last year he was involved with some pretty shady characters but we decided not to dwell on that, instead we just tried to make things better. As far as naming the 2 Relson fighters I refuse to do that because I love the fact that they decided to come even though he told them not to. That really shows great character on their part and shows that they really only want to better their jiu jitsu as well as the sport. I wish more people would follow in their footsteps. His students should feel they can come compete with us without worrying about what he has to say about it. How I feel about the whole boycotting thing is well put in the Scwarzenegger Gracie update! thread by gracieinfo. Thanks again to all of the warriors that came to compete at the Bud World Cup especially those that go against the grain.