ARCHIVED NEWS - AUGUST 2015

SUNDAY 9TH JULY 2017

19 USKA Fighters took to the ring today in 20 bouts at the BKA BLCC event in Burton-On-Trent.

The Fight Factory team of Nikita Raubiska, Ehsaan Mahmood, Mia Stokes, Jemimma Mahmood, Kian Beech, Harvey Adlam, Charlie Stokes, Laylaa Mahmood, Hammad Shand, Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie, Lennon Fortey, Shakeel Hussain, Sami Kelly, Connor Aston, Lucy Kingswheatley, Haatim Shand, Khuzaimah Douglas and Lauran Lang, it has to be said had some hit and miss performances throughout the day conceding 4 defeats which coaches Kelly and Quinn feel three of those could have been avoided if the correct preparation in the gym before hand had been taken care of.

The saying 'If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail' definitely could have been relevant to a few of our fighters today.

Always moving forward and never looking back we move on to the next one now at the Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham on 13th August where improvements will have to be made for the team if we are serious about picking up medals at the World Championships later in the year.

SUNDAY 18TH JUNE 2018

16 USKA Fighters climbed through the ropes in +30 conditions at the Community Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham on Sunday at the BLCC Back in Brum 10 ring light continuous kickboxing event.

Despite it being Fathers day and the hottest day of the year so far there was a great turn out with over 55 bouts on display and some real talent on show with clubs from all around the country.
USKA's 16 fighters including Nikita Raubiska, Ehsan Mahmood, Suraiya Sultana, Jemmima Mahmood, Jovan Basra, Kian Beech, Layyah Kelly, Charlie Stokes, Charlie Pearce, Eisha Basra, Sami Kelly, Connor Aston, Lucy Kings-Wheatley, Tia Fortey, Lauran Lang and Barry White took part in 22 bouts only conceding three decisions on the day making it a good haul for the team and one that coaches Kelly and Quinn where more than happy with.

We set our minds now towards the next BLCC event at the Burton Kickboxing Academy on 9th July hwere we have the chance to do it all again.
Well done team!!!

SATURDAY 17TH JUNE 2017

Another USKA club grading is in the history books today after 40 brave candidates braved the hot USKA Fight Factory gym in the 4 hour practical examination.

All the hard work over the last 12 weeks payed off with everyone getting through their prescribed level and it has to be said a really high standard across the board.

The grading culminated in Sami Kelly and Connor Aston taking their Purple Belts and turning in the performances of the day picking up the highest marks of the grading with Sami earning himself a 94% A- mark and Connor earning himself a 97% A mark. This was after a two hour pre-grading class as well meaning they were sweating it out for over 6 hours on the mats.

Passes well earned for the USKA crew across the board today and I'm a happy coach being able to hand out everyone their new belts.

Pictured are Sami and Connor showing of their new belts in the USKA ring.
Osu!

SUNDAY 11TH JUNE 2017

Mixed results for team USKA at the second leg of the Lordswood Tri-Series in Birmingham yesterday but it has to be said that we probably for the most part got what we deserved.

The 11 fighter team consisting of Harvey Adlam, Charlie Stokes, Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie, Sami Kelly, Lennon Fortey, Lucy Kings-wheatley, Connor Aston-McGuinness, Tiaa Louisee Fortey, Lauran Kaytè Lang and Barry White competed on the mats and the ring throughout the day leaving the competition with a tally of 8 Golds, 10 Silvers and 4 Bronze positions.

A couple of great performances, a few good performances but for the most part the sense that we could have done much better if our preparation had been better.

You can't just turn up to these competitions with next to no sparring in the build up and expect to be competitive against fighters who are probably sparring 4 to 5 times a week.

Complacency is a terrible thing and I hate to admit it but some of team USKA were guilty of that yesterday and it was very apparent to all.

You know me guys, I keep it real and tell you how it is... You can't get a full time wage working a part time job.

Major improvements will need to be made regarding to commitment to your game if you intend to have success at the World Championships later in the year.

On an even more important note we would like to wish Charlie Pearce a quick and full recovery after he lost his footing in the ring and had to be stretchered to hospital when he landed awkwardly.

I have been informed by his father Kevin that thankfully nothing is broken and there will be no lasting damaged but he is stiff and bruised this morning. Get well soon Champ... Osu!

SATURDAY 20TH MAY 2017

15 New USKA Little Ninja's walked away happy following their grading examination today at the USKA Fight Factory where they were put through their paces for 1hr and 15 minutes.
The Grading examination included a Relay circuit, Padwork, Basic technique and and exercise blast to finish where each and every Grader showed what they were capable of under pressure with family and friends in attendance to cheer them on.
Coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn were very happy with the Ninja's performances at the grading and both commented on how well the group as a whole were progressing.
Big thank you to all the helpers that turned up to hold pads and all the spectators of family and friends that really got behind our Little Ninja's as they were doing their thing.

The successful Graders were as follows...

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELTS

Ariyan Chudasama

Zakariya Ahmed

Ayann Ali

Keon McNamara

Adyan Ali

Sami Arshad

Isa Khan

Malika Suliman

LITTLE NINJA'S WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

Ryan Hulance

Isaac Haris

Nikita Raubiska

Dean Fahd

LITTLE NINJA'S YELLOW BELT

Adam Mohammed

LITTLE NINJA'S ORANGE BELT

Maddison Quinn

LITTLE NINJA'S GREEN BELT

Zain Amer

SUNDAY 14TH MAY 2017

14 USKA Fighters were in action at the Eclipse BLCC Event in Wolverhampton on Sunday in 17 contests under the guidance and watchful eye of coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn.
A predominantly novice squad consisting off... Ehsaan Mahmood, Jemmima Mahmood, Jovan Basra, Hammaad Shand, Charlie Pearce, Laylaa Mahmood, Lennon Fortey, Eisha Basra, Sami Kelly, Shakeel Hussain, Connor Aston-McGuinness, Lucy Kings-wheatley, Haatim Shand and Khuzaimah Douglas were matched in some tough 50/50 contests that they came through with flying colours listening to their corners keeping a clean sheet on the day conceding no loses and only 1 draw.
Coaches Kelly and Quinn were very happy with the teams work and were extremely happy to see the drills that we have tirelessly been working on in the gym come to fruition in competition.
On to the next one now on 18th June at Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham. Well done Team USKA!

SUNDAY 16TH APRIL 2017

13 New grades were added into the Ultimate Sport Kickboxing Associations role of honour today when members of the USKA Female Division attempted and passed their first grading examination of the year.
The ladies classes under the instruction of 2 weight British Champion Ruqayyah Griffith has flourished and gone from strength to strength over the last year and she was thrilled with her students success with 100% pass rate and steady grades across the board.
Our successful graders today were... Hannah Aslam, Niamh Sweeney, Ruqayyah Aslam, Maryam Asad, Rumlah Yaqub, Sumayyah Bibi and Rabia Khan in their Red Belt grades, Safiyah Khan, Nicola Hadrami and Rehanna Ali in their White Belt grades and Nusaiba Khan, Asrath Ahmed and Salma Bibi in their Yellow Belt grades.
Congratulations to all our successful graders and to coach Griffith on another job well done.

If you know of any prospective Female friends or family who would like to join in on Ruqayyah's classes please feel free to tell them to pop in and try out a class on Sunday's between 11am - 12 Osu!

FRIDAY 14TH APRIL 2016

The third in a series of USKA Fighter Focus video's profiling some of the talent from the USKA Fight Factory gym in Birmingham.
In this episode we feature 15 year old Aryan 'King Of Sting' Singh who has been training since the age of four and has amassed an amazing 11 World titles in his time within the sport.
Aryan who is also a Black belt in Tae Kwon Do is a very versatile Martial Artist holding World Titles in the ring on the mats and in traditional forms.
This insight gives us a closer look at the personality behind the fighter and his thoughts on his chosen sport.

ICO JOINT SQUAD TRAINING SESSION FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017

SATURDAY 29TH APRIL 2017

3:00 - 6:00 PM

PORTWAY LIFESTYLE CENTRE,

NEWBURY LANE,

OLDBURY,

SANDWELL,

B69 1HE.

In preparation for the ICO World Championships in Birmingham UK and the Unified World Championships in Tuscany Italy in October this year the ICO will hold it's first Joint Squad training session on Saturday 29th April at the Portway Lifestyle Centre, Newbury Lane, Oldbury, Sandwell, B69 1HE between 3-6pm.
During this session selections will begin to fill slots for this years squad for both Championships.

All medal winners at the ICO British Championships will get first refusal on their positions with all remaining slots going up for grabs through our series of squad training sessions.
Please note that squad training sessions are compulsory for all squad members and failure to attend will jeopardise your position in this years team.

The ICO Coaching team look forward to seeing you all there on this first step to World Championship glory... Osu!

ICO JOINT SQUAD TRAINING FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE

SUNDAY 9TH APRIL 2017

The latest USKA Road trip brought the USKA team to the Burton Kickboxing Academy on Sunday 9th April for a very special BLCC event.
On Monday 13th March the UK Martial Arts community sadly lost one of their own when young Scott Marsden from Sheffield tragically passed away following an English Title Kickboxing fight.
The talented 14 year old athlete excelled in his sport winning titles at all levels of competition proving the toughest of tests to anyone who stood before him.
The BLCC honoured Scott with an excellent event in his name and memory with all the funds raised on the day going towards the Marsden family.
No money could ever come close to easing the Marsden's family's pain or sadness at this difficult time but we hope this show of the support from the BLCC family will somehow give them strength knowing that Scott has touched so many people in so many ways.

The day raised a staggering £1,525 and was sent to Scott's just giving page the following day.
For Team USKA the following fighters turned up and once again turned in some good performances...
Ibrahim Yaqub, Hazrat Khan, Laylaa Mahmood, Haatim Shand, Charlie Pearce, Aman Kiani, Sami Kelly, Connor Aston, Ehsaan Mahmood, Jemmima Mahmood, Mia Stokes, Layyah Kelly, Ruqayya Griffith, Sumayya Griffith, Solomon Khan, Lucy Kingswheatley, Khuzaimah Douglas and Lauran Lang.

Thank you to everyone for your show of support for this truly great cause.
The team will be back in action at the next BLCC in Wolverhampton at the Eclipse Kickboxing gym on Sunday 14th May.

If anyone would like to donate privately to Scott's just giving page please follow the following link...

SCOTT MARSDEN JUST GIVING DONATION PAGE

SUNDAY 26TH MARCH 2017

Well that was some British Championships!
The North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham was the venue for the ICO British Championships on Sunday 26th March where fighters turned up in droves from all over the country in pursuit of British Championship medals and also qualification positions in ICO Team England which will compete at the ICO World Championships in Birmingham, England and also the Unified World Championships in

Tuscany, Italy in October this year.
An USKA Team of 20 fighters including Ehsan Mahmood, Jemmima Mahmood, Yayha Kiani, Azmat Yaqub, Harvey Adlam (Jointly fighting out of React gym), Sulayman Khan, Omar Farooq, Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie, Aman Kiani, Sami Kelly, Lucy Kingswheatley, Connor Aston, Shakeel Hussain, Aryan Singh, Khuzaymah Douglas, Ruqayya Griffith, Lauran Lang, Barry White and Amer Kayani donned gloves and gumshields to take to the ring and mats and rose to the occasion once again bringing home some great results amidst some extremely tough competition.
At the end of day our tally from our 20 fighters was 38 medals including 18 Gold's , 6 Silver's and 14 Bronzes with every single member of our contingent qualifying for Team England should they wish to take up their slots and the opportunity to compete at this years World Championships.
Coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn were very happy indeed with the teams performances today and are excited at the prospect of having a large contingent from USKA representing ICO Team England at this years World Championships.
A big thank you must also go out to all the spectators that turned up to support our fighters and cheer them on today which I'm sure inspired them even further to give their all and push them through to get the wins they were after.
Roll on October!!!

SATURDAY 18TH MARCH 2017

50+ USKA Students took to the mats today at the USKA Fight Factory for the fist Novice / Intermediate grading of the year.
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not shy at failing or down grading people who don't make the grade but on this occasion I'm pleased to say that I didn't have to worry with great results across the board.
We had no fails today with strong pass grades and even more impressively most people improved on there results from their last time out showing that we are moving in the right direction with the standard at

the Fight Factory.

Our star graders today with A- pass marks were... Rico Mann, Isa Minhas and Rumaysa Jabeen in their Red Belts grades and an A- pass for Hashim Malik in his Orange Belt grade.
Congratulations to all our students on a great days results... Osu!

SUNDAY 12TH MARCH 2017

A predominantly novice squad of 16 USKA fighters attended the BLCC event in Burton on Sunday with many of our contingent taking to the ring for the first time.

In 18 contests the team only conceded 3 defeats but more importantly than that the performances were good across the board.

Coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn spotted lots that the team can take back to the gym to improve on for next time out and were happy with the teams performances throughout the day.

Big congratulations to our team consisting of... Ehsaan Mahmood (7) , Mustafa Kiani (8) Jemmima Mahmood (9), Jovan Basra (9), Yahya Kiani (11), Danyal Zahoor (11), Laylaa Mahmood (12), Omar Farooq (12),

Charlie Pearce (12), Derelle McKenzie (12), Shakeel Hussain (13), Eisha Basra (13), Connor Aston (14),

Solomon Khan (15), Aryan Singh (15) and Khuzaimah Douglas (16) and a big thank you to all our loyal spectators who turned up to cheer our fighters in the ring.

The next BLCC date is Sunday 9th April for anyone who is interested in competing and representing the USKA Fight Team.

1ST MARCH 2017

The second in a series of USKA Fighter Focus video's profiling some of the talent from the USKA Fight Factory gym in Birmingham.
In this episode we feature Ra'ees 'Cool And Calm' Kiani who is 14 years old and has been training and fighting since the age of 8.

Ra'ees in his career so far has impressively picked up 3 Area titles, 8 English titles, 6 British titles, 2 European titles and 2 Unified World titles which undoubtedly makes him one of the best young fighters at his age and weight in the country.

Here in this short video we get to hear from Ra'ees on what makes him tic inside and outside the sport of Kickboxing.

SATURDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2017

15 young USKA students passed through the ranks in their latest Little Ninja's Grading on Saturday performing excellently in front of family and friends in an intense 75 minute grading examination.

Our Graders some as young as 4 years old shone like stars and looked brilliant throughout the Relays, Basics, Padwork and circuit elements of their grading's.

To the delight of all the spectators in attendance all our Little Ninja's passed with flying colours and were awarded their new belts and certificates in our grading presentation at the end.

Big thank you to all our helpers who helped to hold pads for the grading and congratulations to all of our Little Ninja's with their brand new belts.

RYAN HULANCE - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

NIKITA RAUBISKA - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

ISAAC HARIS - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

ZAYAN HUSSAIN - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

DEAN FAHD - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

HANA IQBAL - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

MADEEHA MAJID - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

ISMAIL AYUB - LITTLE NINJAS RED BELT

ZAIDAAN SPINX - LITTLE NINJAS WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

ADAM MOHAMMED - LITTLE NINJAS WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

NYLAH TAYLOR JOHNSON - LITTLE NINJAS WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

AISHA KEELING - LITTLE NINJAS WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

AYYUB KEELING - LITTLE NINJAS YELLOW BELT

MADDISON QUINN - LITTLE NINJAS YELLOW BELT

ZAIN AMER - LITTLE NINJAS ORANGE BELT

SUNDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2017

21 USKA Students competed in 24 bouts at the BLCC Aero-Kick Back in Brum IX Event in Birmingham on Sunday against some of the finest talent from the BLCC Circuit.

We took gambles matching our fighters hard on this event with the majority of our fighters giving away either age, weight or experience as somewhat of an experiment.
All the fighters were exclusively looked after in the corner by coaches Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn and Amer 'The Hammer' Kayani with Chief Instructor Neil Kelly taking a backseat and watching from the sidelines.

After 24 bouts and after some truly incredible performances we only dropped 3 decisions and 1 draw showing once again why we are considered one of the premier clubs in the UK.
Win, Lose or draw coach Quinn and Kayani were very happy with the USKA fighters performances and they have already made notes on some coaching points that we will collectively be working on before our next outings to improve our overall game.

In other news we had our Wonder Kid Aryan Singh take part in the WFMC British Championships at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham where he picked up 2 -50kg British titles in the Points and Light Continuous divisions.

Congratulations to all our fighters that were in action and all the spectators that turned out to support them in their fights. Osu!

SUNDAY 5TH FEBRUARY 2017

11 USKA Fighters including Charlie Stokes , Harvey Adlam (Fighting jointly out of React Kickboxing), Derelle McKenzie, Sami Kelly, Lucy Kingswheatley, Connor Aston, Aryan Singh, Khuzaymah Douglas, Lauran Lang, Ruqayya Griffith and Laxman Swally took to the ring and the mats at the Lordswood Combat Tri-Series event 1 in Chelmsley Wood on Sunday competing for points and places in this years prestigious Lordswood league.

After a long days competition the 11 fighters took an impressive 14 medals including 8 Golds, 4 Silvers and 2 Bronze to the delight of coaches Sean Quinn and Neil Kelly.

To put a downer on the day USKA star Charlie Stokes unluckily broke a bone in his foot kicking his Welsh opponent in the face 10 seconds into the bout in his mat continuous Semi Final. Fighting through the pain and after winning the contest he had to withdraw from the competition on medical advice. He had earlier in the day shown his dominance in the ring dominating two weight classes sweeping aside the competition showing skill and class beyond his years.

We all wish Charlie a full and speedy recovery from his injury and look forward in seeing him back in the gym doing what he does best very soon.

Well done to all our competitors showing once again that USKA is a force to be reckoned with on the open tournament circuit.

SATURDAY 4TH FEBRUARY 2017

A trio of USKA Fighters alongside coach Sean Quinn travelled to the WKA British Ring Sports Championships in Rotherham on Saturday to a packed competition at the DVC Sports Centre.

In action were -30kg fighter Charlie Stokes, -45kg fighter Charlie Pearce and -50kg fighter Aryan Singh.

After a tough days competition against some of the best competitors in the UK the lads brought home 4 British title belts, 2 silver medals and a bronze medal.

Star of the day Charlie Stokes shone in his Full Contact, Light Continuous and Boxing divisions winning all three in superb style earning him one of the top fighter of the day statuses. Aryan Singh won his Light Continuous category and picked up a silver in the Boxing division and Charlie Pearce won a Silver medal in his Light Continuous and a Bronze medal in his boxing divisions.
Not a bad days work for the team and we back at USKA are very proud and appreciative of their efforts. Well done lads.

SUNDAY 29TH JANUARY 2017

Our new timetable kicks in on Monday with the addition of some exciting sessions that will cater for everyone throughout the week.

With each session now owning the whole floor instead of having two sessions on at one time this will give us more space making it more practical and create a better atmosphere on each and every session.

Our Hall of Fame trainer Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn heads up two new exciting Fighters sessions on a Monday between 8-9pm and a Wednesday between 7-8pm covering all aspects of the ring fighting,this class will be suitable for all levels from complete novice through to seasoned champion and is sure to be popular.

Let's support Sean especially on this first week to get these classes started with a bang!

WEDNESDAY 18TH JANUARY 2017

The first in a series of USKA Fighter Focus video's profiling some of the talent from the

USKA Fight Factory gym in Birmingham.
In this episode we feature Charlie 'Steamroller' Stokes who already at the tender age of

11 years old is a 4 times World Champion.
Charlie has been training since the age of 5 and is one of the most dedicated and hard working

fighters at the gym.
This is highlighted by his fight record having not lost a ring fight for the last 4 years.
Here in this short video we get to hear from Charlie on his thoughts about his chosen sport.

The USKA Fight Factory closed up it's year on Sunday 18th December with it's annual USKA Superman Competition Grand Final and Student presentation awards for 2016.

The day was well attended with a great atmosphere throughout.
Well done to each and every competitor that took part in the Superman Competition and a special congratulations to all our ever so deserving presentation award winners.

Our Superman Results Were as follows...

6 Years and Under

1st Place: Kasim Imtiaz

2nd Place: Usaiyd Bashir

3rd Place: Maxwell Harper

7-9 Years Old

1st Place: Jemimma Mahmood

2nd Place: Kian Beech

3rd Place: Eshaan Mahmood

10-11 Years Old

1st Place: Charlie Stokes

2nd Place: Maria Mahmood

3rd Place: Omar Farooq

Yearly review

Another year closes for USKA and it was quite an eventful one moving to our new and improved premises where our numbers have gone through the roof but where we have still managed to maintain the quality that we have been renowned for in our 20 year history.

We have had healthy grading's this year in regard to numbers with Little Ninja's, Ladies and general gradings delivering high pass rates showing the technical side of the gym is still as strong as ever.

Fight wise we have had a remarkable year.

Fighting almost every weekend up and down the country we have amassed the following title haul...

6 Midland Titles, 36 English Titles, 25 British Titles, 6 Five Nations Titles, 8 Inter / Continental Titles and 14 World Titles with 11 of them being Unified World Titles from the biggest competition in the Sport.

Other clubs at this time of year might be able to brag about a few Gold and Silver medals where as we proudly show off 95 bonafide Titles across all of the most prestigious governing bodies of the sport and a 96% win rate across the board from our least to most experienced competitor. The results speak for themselves and this is why we are considered to be one of if not the most successful competitive clubs in the United Kingdom right now.

On now to our individual awards starting with an....

Instructors Award

This award goes to a young lady who has taken our ladies classes and built them through hard work and commitment into some of the best attended and popular classes here at the Fight Factory.

With her confident approach to teaching and also a very pleasant personality and people skills meaning she is very approachable the classes have grown and maintained numbers throughout the year and have seen two very successful gradings completed with 100% pass rate showing that the ladies are equally as serious about what they are trying to achieve here as any of the other USKA Students.

Under this girls leadership I see a very big year ahead for our Ladies Division and am proud to present this award to the one and only....

MISS RUQAYYA GRIFFITH

Onto the student awards now...

Our Student awards this year have been chosen by myself and Sean with close consideration given over the last 12 months to students who we feel are truly working to their potential.

Many boxes have to be ticked for someone to receive one of these and they do not always go to the obvious stars or established members of the club or exclusively to the fight team who already have been rewarded with the medals, trophies and belts that they have won at their competitions.

We have gone back and forth with our decisions and have taken the awards from many different areas of the club, Little Ninja's, Novices, Intermediates, Advanced and lastly our fighters.

It is very hard for a student to remain consistently focused over a 12 month period and sometimes we see people having spells of really good training but not quite managing to keep it up over the year.

Another factor we take into consideration if what you give back to the club in terms of support and encouragement of others to help people below you grow.

Which brings us now to our first student award....

Student Award 1

The first student award today goes to one of our Little Ninja's who at only 5 years old has shown

really good potential since his time with us. He is consistent in his training attending the little ninja's classes and has taken 3 Little Ninja's gradings passing all with flying colours.

He has also supported the Superman events throughout the year showing support for the club and you can see his enthusiasm and effort beam through his face from start to finish of his class.

His manners and etiquette are second to none making him a pleasure to teach and I predict big things for him in the future if he keeps up the good work into 2017.

Our first award goes to...

ZAIN AMER

Student Award 2

Our next award goes to a young man who has not been with us for that long but I have seen serious potential in him from his very first class at USKA.

His technique is very crisp and polished and this is down to his consistent hard work and effort on every class that he attends.

He has supported our Superman events and gave established Superman competitors a run for their money meaning he is on their tales and planning to take over.

Two good grading results now sees him as a White Belt and I am excited to see where he will be this time next year if he keeps up the hard work he has shown so far.

This award goes to...

QASIM HASAN

Student Award 3

Our next award goes to one of our established fighters who has really turned a corner this year finding his form in the ring and as a result had a tremendous year of competition.

After taking some noticeable wins on the circuit over named fighters and capturing the ICO English title in March, the WUMA British Title in July and the WKU Midland Championships in September this lad was offered an ISKA British Full Contact title fight away from home in Blackburn in October against a very good home fighter which he won by unanimous decision.

Shortly after that he travelled to the Unified World Championships in Italy in November where he picked up not one but two World titles in the ring and on the mats.

On a high after the World Championships he then was crowned the BLCC English Champion in a tough fight in Burton in November before finishing the year strong being crowned the Lordswood Grand Champion in the ring in December amassing more points than his opposition over the Tri-Series of competitions throughout the year.

The sacrifice this lad and his family make making the trip from Stoke to Birmingham three times a week is amazing and with his drive and desire he can only go on to bigger and better things in the future to build on his successes from this year.

An amazing year for an amazing fighter.

This award goes to...

KIAN 'BAD BOY' BEECH

Student Award 4

Our next award goes to one of our newly graded Red Belts who has gone from strength to strength on the back of a year of hard work and consistent training.

This student who was one of our star little ninjas has moved onto the beginners classes and kiddies sparring classes and is just getting better and better all the time down to her hard work, effort and concentration on each and every class she attends.

These are great qualities in someone as young as 7 years of age.

You get the sense that she prioritises her kickboxing and would be hear every night if you let her.

She has attended and done well at all the USKA Superman events showing she is every bit as competitive as her bigger brother...

This award goes to...

MIA STOKES

Student Award 5

Our next award goes to one of our Yellow belt students who since joining us has got both me and Sean super excited at his potential both from a technical perspective aceing his three belts so far and now showing like he could be a champion of the future too showing super potential in his sparring.

A talent like his is rare and if harnessed correctly and coupled with continued hard work and commitment it could lead to great things.

Watch this space for this guy.

This award goes to...

HASHIM MALIK

Student Award 6

Our next award goes to one of our advanced Senior grade students who this year has shown a marked improvement and commitment in their training.

In previous years I felt we had reached a plateau with a sense that confidence was an issue with them progressing and moving forward.

This year however I have seen glimpses of confidence and although there still is room for improvement in this department I think we are now on track to make these improvements with a little bit of belief.

I would really like to see her build on her good work this year in 2017.

This award goes to...

SUMAYYA GRIFFITH

Student Award 7

Our next award goes to one of our most consistent, committed and passionate students.

In just over a year of training they have barely missed a technical class and have moved on to sparring sessions too showing a willingness to fully embrace the USKA Kickboxing style.

Much like myself there is no way would I call this person a natural but that makes no difference, meaning that things have to be achieved the hard way but with hard work and dedication they will get achieved nevertheless.

Passing her three gradings with good marks and showing lots of health benefits for her training regime I am very proud to award to...

TASNEEM IBRAHIM

Student Award 8

Our next award goes to a young fighter who truly has had a remarkable year of competition.

Some fighters go their whole careers attempting to win a World Title, this warrior has managed to smash the record books and bring 7 World titles with 4 of them being Unified World Titles to USKA this year.

He is a true martial artist competing in all rule sets, points, Light Continuous, Ring Continuous, Full Contact, Tae Kwon Do, Forms, you name it, this kid can do it, and this kid can win it!

Aside from competing he has also had a great year of USKA gradings passing four USKA belts all with straight A top honours.

Add to that he has shown his support at the USKA Superman events and is a team player when it comes to passing on his knowledge to the younger or less experienced members of the gym.

This lad I can 100% say that he has undoubtedly fulfilled his potential and I am very happy to

present this award to...

ARYAN 'KING OF STING' SINGH

Student Award 9

(Children's Runner Up for Student of the year)

Our next award is the Children's Runner up for student of the year.

This award goes to a young gentleman who has shown many layers to his training this year.

First off he is really consistent, He very rarely misses a night at the gym and when he is there he is there in body and mind.

With that consistency we have then got his work ethic which is extremely high, he pushes himself to his limit and strives to be better on every session he attends.

He has graded well with top marks throughout the year and supports everything that the club is involved in showing that he understands the importance of being a team player.

Week in week out he comes to the Little Ninjas classes to help coach the younger students of the gym and is proving to be a great role model to them.
Finally this lad has shown great resolve putting a few disappointing losses behind him in the ring to bounce back stronger and start to build up a winning record.

He is 10 times better than he was this time last year and I wouldn't be surprised if he is 10 times better again this time next year.

That would put him in line for the big trophy.

Runner up for Children's Student of the year is...

CONNOR ASTON

Student Award 10

(Adult Runner Up for Student of the year)

Runner up for Adult student of the year goes to a lad that has shown amazing growth in the short time he has been back training at the USKA Fight Factory.

Many moons ago this lad was brought to me by his dad to train on our little ninjas classes and after attending for a while he moved on to do other things.

He always kept USKA in his heart though and after jumping in for a few rounds of body shots sparring on our 100 rounds for charity event last year he decided to come back home and join

back up with us full time.

Since then he has been all in passing two grades with top marks, sparring on a regular basis and even entering a few BLCC's and performing well against more experienced opposition.

He has a great appetite for hard work and has a lovely temperament which makes it a

pleasure to teach him.

This lad I feel definitely has a big part to play in USKA's future and it gives me great pleasure to present this award for Runner Up Adult student of the year to...

KHUZAYMAH DOUGLAS

Kids Student of the year Award 2016

On to the first big one now with the Children's Student of the year award.

When it comes to Student of the year they must tick all the boxes.

Train often, train hard, stay focused, show support to the club and help to bring on others beneath them in age or grade.

This awardee has done all of these things in abundance.

This lad originally was a slow burner with us not really fulfilling his potential for his first few years with us but really started to turn a corner in his training about 2 years ago and since then

he has been unstoppable.

He trains with an intensity and passion that most Pro World Champions would be proud of and has reaped the rewards for the last two years in competition proving that he is the best fighter at his age and weight in the World. In 2015 this lad went to Germany to the ICO World Championships and became a two times World Champion under 25kg's.

That lit a fire in him that and continued to burn this year dominating and winning...

A WKU Midlands title, BLCC English and British title belts, a WKA 5 Nations title belt, a WMO British title,

a WKU British title belt, a WRSA International title belt, a WKA English title belt, two WKA Mat English titles, A Lordswood Grand Championship and most impressively 2 Unified World titles from the biggest Championship in the sport in Italy making him a four times World Champion at only 11 years of age.

He has also won every Superman competition he has entered this year refusing to lose at anything he does.

Outside of competing he has recently Graded successfully to Purple belt with top marks and helps on every little ninjas class coaching and inspiring the youngest members of our club to be just like him.

Probably one of if not the easiest decision I have ever had to make for Student of the year...

CHARLIE 'STEAMROLLER' STOKES

Adult Student of the year Award 2015

Onto the Adult Student of the year Award now and this award goes to one of if not the most dedicated member of the USKA gym.

There is an old saying that 'If you are persistent you will get it, but if you are consistent you will keep it'

Consistency has lead to this student slowly but surely working through the grades to become one of the most competent members of the gym in terms of her technical knowledge.

This student is also a giver, happy to help others to improve themselves and become better kickboxers and I can rely on her to help out with Ninjas or Gradings or class cover at just the sending of a message.

She has had a brilliant year teaching her USKA Ladies division classes which have gone from strength to strength with her students turning in equally as good grades as the main gyms students.

These results are done to one thing... attention to detail and excellent tuition.

We also seen a few BLCC outings for her too this year performing really well showing that she is happy to practice what she preaches too.

Working around a heavy University schedule to still find time to religiously hit the gym 6 times a week she is a great example to others to show that if you really want it you will find the time to get it done.

I give you, USKA's adult student of the year for 2015...

MISS RUQAYYA GRIFFITH

Ok, on to an award now that is probably the most deserving one as it is every year.

USKA Coaches Award

This coaches award goes to a man who as a gym we quite frankly could not be anywhere near as successful as if he wasn't part of the team.

Year in year out Coach Quinn gives his heart, soul and precious time to the fighters of the gym to make sure they are 100% ready mentally and physically every single time they go into battle.

He works with them during the session and then overtime outside of the sessions to give them the very best chance of victory when Fight Night comes around.

Outside of the Fighters his passion lies with our Little Ninjas the youngest members of the gym.
His patience with these young kickboxers has to be seen to be believed and he gives each and every one of them his undivided attention when he is working with them.

Separate to his coaching at the gym he remains my right hand man and rock when it comes to running the gym always there to help whenever we hit a rocky patch.

Over the years Sean has been instrumental in bringing back literally hundreds of title belts both amateur and professional to the USKA gym.

It only dawned on me a few weeks ago that Sean himself despite having a great fight record of his own never held a title belt of his own and more than anyone deserved one.

that today is going to change.

Can I ask the members of this year's Team ICO England World Championship squad to come and present this award to the one and only...

MR SEAN 'THE MIGHTY' QUINN

USKA Scholarship 2015

Our final award of this year's presentation is our prestigious USKA Scholarship award.

The scholarship award which is now into it's 8th year basically pays all costs relating to one students martial arts development over a full year including Training fee's, membership fee's, licence fee's, grading fee's, equipment sponsorship and competition entry fee's in a package that can be worth well over £1000 pounds.

With such a massive award at stake myself and Sean assess and deliberate throughout the year to see who we feel is most worthy of such an incredible opportunity.

Over the last 12 months we have gone back and forth between many of the active students at the gym taking many things into consideration and finally we both unanimously have come to a decision.

This year's USKA Scholarship is awarded to...

KHUZAYMAH DOUGLAS

45 Students of the USKA Fight Factory turned up after a 12 week training camp to attempt their Grading examination on Saturday 10th December..

It was a particularly large grading with it being the last one of the year with a record number of 23 novices attempting their first belts.

After four hours on the mats we had a few fails a few scrapes and a few outstanding performances with the successful walking away with their new coloured belts.

For the candidates who came up short not attaining the grades they had hoped for it is back to the drawing board making the adjustments needed to next time get it right. Without failure there is no sweetness in success because there is no understanding of it.

The following students were our star graders of the day...

Mia Stokes... 91% A- Red Belt

Abass Mahmood... 93% A- Red Belt

Khuzaymah Douglas... 91% A- White Belt

Hashim Malik...95% A- Yellow Belt

Aryan Singh... 97% A Orange Belt

Charlie Stokes... 95% A- Purple Belt

The next club grading is scheduled for Saturday 18th March.

SUNDAY 4TH DECEMBER 2016

A team of 12 USKA fighters attended the last BLCC Kickboxing competition of the year at the Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham on Sunday and participated in 15 Bouts of Light Continuous Kickboxing.
With a smaller turn out than normal with it being close to Christmas there was a smaller pool of fighters to be matched with meaning some of our fighters were matched hard giving away age, weight or experience in their contests.
All took a step up and performed extremely well losing only two bouts throughout the day but most importantly ALL our fighters kickboxed to their potential making coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn proud.

This competition closed the BLCC season for this year with the next one scheduled for 12th February 2017 back at the same venue.

Well done team!

On the 18th December at the USKA Fight Factory we will have our end of year Superman Competition and Student Presentation awards for 2016.
On that day after the trophy presentation of the last Superman event we will Crown our League leaders with our awesome Superman Grand Championship trophies based on our top 5 scorers across the previous 6 events.

Following that we will be handing out many student presentation awards to students who we feel have excelled in certain areas of their training throughout the year culminating in the presentation of our prestigious Student of the year awards for best junior and best adult.

Finally we will be announcing the winner of this years USKA Scholarship award that will see one worthy students fees for the whole year covered by our sponsor. This will include membership fees, licence fees, session fees, grading fees, tournament entry fees, clothing and equipment, a scholarship worth well over £1000 pound.

So there's loads up for grabs on 18th and you may well have been considered for one of these awards but... You've got to be in it to win it and you will only receive an award if you are there to collect it on the day.

The days events have been scheduled between 1pm - 5pm. The cost to take part will be £10 per person which will go to cover the cost of the trophies on the day. Names must be registered with payments no later than Thursday 15th December. Spectators are welcome to come and watch the event free of charge.

SUNDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2016

Another small squad of five USKA fighters competed today at the WKU English Championships at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham under the watchful eye of Coach Sean Quinn.

Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie, Lucy Kingswheatley, Aryan Singh and Lauran Lang entered 7 Divisions between them and brought home an impressive 5 English title belts, 1 Silver medal and 1 Bronze medal.

It has been non stop for the fight team this year and they never fail to impress and bring home the results.

Congratulations to all our warriors that were in action.

SUNDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2016

Big Congratulations to our latest batch of female graders who performed excellently today under the close scrutiny of Chief Instructor Neil Kelly at their grading examination.
We had 5 successful students pass their Red Belt grading (First Grade) and 4 moving on to their White Belt (Second Grade).

The standard was extremely good across the board but a special mention to star grader Nusaiba Khan on her straight A White Belt pass.

Congratulations also to Instructor Ruqayya Griffith who is doing great things and a fantastic job with the USKA Female Division.

We couldn't ask for a better instructor who is bringing our female students on brilliantly.

WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER 2016

USKA student Kian 'Bad Boy' Beech has been recognised for his commitment to kickboxing by the Stoke-on-Trent City of sport 2016 committee as part of the talented athlete programme.

He was invited to a panel meeting made up of Olympic Paralympic gold medalists, the council, local sporting personalities and the local news papers from all around Stoke.

The meeting at Staffordshire University on the 20th October was to meet Kian and interview him to see where his goals and ambitions lay within his chosen sport.

The panel was made up of 10 people and Kian was asked why he and his parents felt like he needed to train in Birmingham rather than Stoke and about the belts and medals that he had already won within the sport of kickboxing as part of USKA.

Kian informed them of his ICO English and British titles and the ISKA British title belt that he had won a week earlier in Blackburn against a very talented home town opponent.

The panel were really impressed with the confidence and the humble nature of 9 year old Kian and they said that his parents should be really proud of him with the way he conducted himself throughout.

When asked why he travelled to Birmingham to train he did not hold back saying that to be the best you have to train with the best and he and his parents considered USKA to be the very best at what they do and that they did not feel that they could get that level of tuition in his home town of Stoke.

When asked about his future plans he confidently said that he would be aiming for Gold at the Unified World Championships in Italy later that month (which subsequently he has returned with two Gold medals from the mats and the ring) and then to continue to test himself against the very best opposition at his age and weight in the country to continue to improve as a fighter and a martial artist.

Thinking even further ahead Kian said that when he was old enough he would like to open an USKA gym in Stoke to pass on what he had learned to the next generation and create future Champions.

After the meeting Kian's parents received an Email from the head of the Stoke-on-Trent City of sport 2016 Geoff Beale to say that he had been accepted and that they would like to offer him sponsorship under the TA (Talented Athlete) scheme and that he would be a young ambassador for the scheme.

This is a great achievement from someone so young and is a testament to all the hard work and commitment that Kian has shown in his sporting career so far.

We are all very proud of him and feel he has a very bright future ahead of him within the sport.

SUNDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2016

A small squad of four fighters travelled to the WKA Mat Sports English Open Championships in Rotherham on Sunday 19th November.

Charlie Stokes, Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie and Ra'ees Kiani performed to their usual excellent standard in both mat light continuous and boxing divisions and brought home a very respectful 5 English titles and 1 Silver medal from 6 categories.

Coach Sean Quinn and Amer Kayani were happy with their fighters performances across the board and the invaluable experience that was gained from the regular competition for our lads.

Well done to all our boys that were in action representing the gym.

SATURDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 2016

Another 14 Little Ninja's earned their new ranks today at the USKA Little Ninja's grading.

The Grading put them through their paces starting with a high intensity relay circuit leading onto basic technique, padwork and finished off with an exercise circuit making sure their fitness and conditioning were up to scratch.

They all passed with flying colours showing to their family and friends in attendance how hard that they had been working on their Little Ninja's classes in preparation for today's assessment.

Well done to all our successful graders. Wear your belts with pride as you have worked hard to earn them.

Nylah Taylor Johnson - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Adam Mohammed - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Emaan Butt - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Rian Chauhan - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Mohammed Rayhaan - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Eesa Ibn-Yusuf Krupski - Little Ninja's Red Belt

Maddison Quinn - Little Ninja's White / Yellow Stripe Belt

Maxwell Harper - Little Ninja's White / Yellow Stripe Belt

Rayyan Farooq - Little Ninja's White / Yellow Stripe Belt

Rocky Kelly - Little Ninja's White / Yellow Stripe Belt

Zain Amer - Little Ninja's Yellow Belt

Kareema Baras - Little Ninja's Orange Belt

Kaiyan Khan - Little Ninja's Orange Belt

Usaiyd Bashir - Little Ninja's Green Belt

MONDAY 15TH NOVEMBER 2016

Team USKA as part of ICO Team England have not long returned from the Unified World Kickboxing Championships in Tuscany Italy where a team of 7 fighters managed pulled of an amazing tally of 19 medals, 11 Golds, 6 Silvers and 2 Bronzes. The most we have ever had as a club from a World Championship event.

The level of competition in Italy was very high and is considered within the sport the one to win with so many governing bodies sanctioning and involved in it.

The USKA Fighters performed excellently on both the mats and the ring light continuous categories.

Here is a short highlight reel of our time in Italy including fighters... Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Aryan Singh, Lauran Lang, George Powell and USKA Instructor and ICO Team England National coach Neil Kelly.

Here is a fighting clip highlight reel of our team in action out in Italy...

SATURDAY 12TH NOVEMBER 2016

The USKA boys did it again bringing home three victories and three shiny new title belts to the USKA Fight Factory on Saturday night at the Ring Rage World Championship Kickboxing event at the National Brewery Centre in Burton On Trent.
First up Kian 'Bad Boy' Beech claimed a Majority decision win in a close and sometimes scrappy affair against Cruz Moreton Hamilton from the T6 Terriers Gym in Stoke On Trent to lift the -25kg BLCC English title belt.
Next we had Charlie 'Steamroller' Stokes turn in a flawless victory winning a Unanimous decision against Rayan Ravjani from the Rav Boyz Kickboxing gym in Luton to claim the -30kg BLCC British title belt.
Finally we seen Ra'ees 'Cool and Calm' Kiani put friendship aside for 5 x 2 minute rounds against ASBBA gym's Lennon Fortey to claim the BLCC -45kg British title in dominant fashion by Unanimous decision.
Great results for the USKA boys that had many people complimenting them on their style of fighting and their performances on a really good card of kickboxing.
Thank you to all the travelling USKA support that cheered our boys to victory, to Chris Squirrell and the BKA team at Ring Rage for their hospitality and most importantly well done to our awesome trio of fighters who never fail to deliver and that did us all proud!

TUESDAY 8TH NOVEMBER 2016

Three USKA fighters will fight in title fights this Saturday at the National Brewery Centre in Burton-On-Trent at the Ring Rage World Championship Kickboxing event.

As part of an amazing line up of fights 9 year old Kian 'Bad Boy' Beech will go head to head with fellow Stokie Cruz Moreton Harrison from the T6 Terriers gym to contest the -25kg BLCC English title over 5 X 1 1/2 Minute rounds.

Charlie 'Steamroller' Stokes takes on the strong and capable Rayan Ravjani from the Rav Boyz gym in Luton for the -30kg BLCC British title over 5 X 2 Minute rounds.

To complete the USKA line up Ra'ees 'Cool And Calm' Kiani takes on a fighter on the rise in Lennon Fortey from the ASBBA gym for the -45kg BLCC British title over 5 X 2 Minute rounds.

All three fights are well matched and are sure to be closely contested affairs.

If anyone would like to go and support or lads in action tickets are still available from the USKA gym priced at £25 each.

Good luck to all our boys in action... Let's go let's get em!

SUNDAY 6TH NOVEMBER 2016

10 Fighters from the USKA Fight Factory took to the mats and ring at the Lordswood Tri-Series Grand Final on Sunday 6th November and once again performed impeccably to bringing home the spoils of victory.

The Tri-Series is a Grand Slam tournament that sees it's Grand champions crowned after three event when it's top competitors amass the most points based on their results in each individual competition.

We ended the day with a grand total of nine 1st places, four 2nd places and two 3rd places positions.
Along with the individual days total we also had nine Grand champions crowned which Considering the majority of the USKA team had only attended two of the three events previously was an amazing achievement.

A happy coach Kelly and coach Quinn were over the moon with the teams success feeling that they had performed to their potential.
Congratulations to all our fighters that were in action.

TUESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2016

The Unified World Championships 2016 in Italy is now in the history books and what a great competition and trip for ICO Team England and it's USKA contingent it turned out to be.

We had been there as a team two times before in 2013 and 2014 and although they had been enjoyable and successful trips they had not gone without their problems and hitches due to the organisation of the Italians.

This one was awesome, hotel was great, No problems with the food, transfers although tiring were on time and the level and standard of competition at the Unified's was for the most part of the highest order which usually makes or breaks a tournament.

I'll start off with the USKA fighters contingent of the ICO England squad with a quick word or two about their performances....
9 year old Kian 'Bad Boy' Beech competed in three divisions, we had a bad start with him dropping a decision in the Mat -25kg Continuous in a bout he clearly won that could well of upset his focus for the rest of the competition. Instead it motivated him and drove him to turn in career best performances winning the Ring Continuous -25kg division and stepping up a weight and winning the Mat Continuous -31kg division and 2 Golds and his first World titles. He earned himself a few fans in Italy and for me any many others the accolade of best junior English fighter of the tournament.

The ever improving Charlie 'Steamroller' Stokes also competed in 2 divisions winning the -30kg with ease steamrolling his way through his opposition and stepped up to the -32kg in the Mat Continuous when his natural weight of -27kg division was not contested.
Charlie turned in a flawless victory against a very talented Scottish opponent in the final showing that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

For the second year running Charlie has become a two division World Champion in the ring and on the mats and it is very hard to see this kid losing anytime soon against anyone his age and weight.

Derelle McKenzie fought in 4 divisions, two in his own weight class and two in the weight class above. In his -52kg Mat Continuous division he dominated his opponents with his flamboyant and effective fighting style to lift Gold. Equally as effective in his Ring Continuous -55kg division Derelle showed he had the heart to mix it up as well as the silky skills on the outside to pick up his second Gold of his tournament. In the weight classes above Derelle came up short in the final of the Mat -56kg and the Ring +55kg division to the same opponent when giving away age and weight proved to be a bridge to far despite putting in a valiant effort on route to picking up 2 silver medals.

Our cross discipline wonder kid Aryan 'The King Of Sting' Singh competed in a monster 6 divisions and performed out of his skin in each and every one of them showing exactly why he is one of the most versatile competitors in British martial arts right now.

Awesome performances against exceptional opponents in the mat continuous -47kg, Ring continuous -50kg, points -47kg, Tae Kwon Do -47kg seen him pick up 4 Gold medals and World titles.

He missed out in the final of the Tae Kwon Do forms division having to settle for Silver when suspect scoring had everyone scratching their heads against an Hungarian opponent who himself looked surprised at the decision.
In his last category in usual Aryan style he helped out stepping up two weight classes in the -57kg Tae Kwon Do division to make up numbers and still managed to pick up a Bronze medal.

An amazing haul of medals from Aryan to add to his three World Golds from the WFMC World Championships last month. This kid is unstoppable.

Next up we had George Powell who was scheduled to fight in 3 divisions but unfortunately only had the opportunity to compete in 1.
In the Ring Continuous -75kg category despite turning in a faultless victory in his semi final match he up badly dislocated his thumb and broke his trapezium in his hand.

Showing bravery above and beyond the call of duty George insisted that he wanted the opportunity to finish the division and against my better judgement I allowed him to jump back in one handed to face a strong opponent in the final.

A torrid first round of pressure from his opponent that had me on the verge of pulling George out but he told me as he came back to the corner that he would 'Get him for me' in round two lol
George went out and did exactly that keeping his opponent at range and on the end of long technique for large parts of the round closing the gap on the score cards between the two. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough and we had to settle for Silver but given the circumstances I have nothing but respect for this young warriors bravery and heart that has shown he has the minerals to go all the way in this sport in the future.
George underwent surgery in Italy to put the thumb back in place and will have the hand reassessed in a few weeks here to see if further surgery is required. We all wish him a full and speedy recovery so that we can see him back in the gym doing what he does best very soon.

Lauran Lang was next up for us and was competing in 3 divisions. In her Ring Continuous -55kg she lost out in the semi final against the eventual winner who was a extremely good and experienced fighter from Wales picking up a Bronze in the category.

Stepping up a weight to the -57kg Lauran made the final where she lost a decision in the closest of fights. It was a disappointing result for us but a good performance from Lauran which softened the blow somewhat.

In her last division Lauran fought in the -55kg Mat Continuous category where she turned in the best performances of her competition beating excellent opponents on route to the final where she again would meet the same opponent from Wales that she fought in the ring. It was a much closer fight this time and although we missed out on the decision again we were very happy with the performance with Lauran having her fair share of success in the bout.

Two Silvers and a Bronze for Lauran this year which she can feel very proud of.

Last for USKA was yours truly competing in the Ring Continuous +85kg Masters division and the -94kg Mat Continuous Veterans division. In the Ring Continuous division which was ironically the largest contested categories in the ring I faced the tallest opponent I have ever fought in my whole career the 7ft 1 man mountain Jiri Janda from the Czech Republic which was interesting to say the least. Finding a way around his long limbs and getting the win I moved on the my semi final match up where my opponent Elsan Abdul Ramimov was a no show moving me on to the final to meet Steffen Jungsled from Denmark who had shown to have a great engine and work rate in his preliminary match ups.

In a good final between us two I was awarded the victory and the Gold medal in performances that I was ultimately very happy with.

In the -94kg Mat Veterans Continuous division things however did not go to plan when I dropped a decision to a good Scottish fighter. I felt in control, I landed more shots, I made him miss more but two of the three judges seen him the winner. Those two judges were Scottish by the way :-/
I was told by everyone (like really / everyone) after the contest that it was poor decision and after watching it back I agree.
I have to accept it though and like I always tell my students... Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose, Sometimes you win when you really lose and Sometimes you lose when you really win and I think this was the case in this instance.
Hey ho though, life goes on and those who know know.
This was always going to be my last competition and I thank everyone that has supported and helped me over the years. Thanks also to someone who puts up with all my B.S. while training for all these fights Mrs Ailbhe Beirne.

The gloves are hung up now and I can get back to what I do best which is coaching people and helping them achieve their goals and ambitions.

The 7 USKA Fighters finished the tournament with an amazing medal tally of 19 medals of which 11 were Gold, 6 were Silver and 2 were Bronze.

An amazing haul from a small club in Tyseley and one we are extreamely proud of.

Big up and thanks to the USKA supporters, Bal Singh, Gemma Beech, Mikey Stokes, Shaun Powell and my Broski Blacka McKenzie who made the trip with us, it was a pleasure spending the week in your company. The USKA family has never been stronger.

We would also like to give a special mention and thank you to a man who helped us all get ready for the championships with hours and hours of training before hand, the amazing Mr Sean Quinn.
As for the rest of ICO Team England... You were awesome. It was a smaller squad but a stronger squad and you all performed out of your skins. I emotionally invested in each and every one of you from the points to the continuous to the K-1 to the Full Contact to the forms to the MMA and am so proud of all our Lions in action and what you achieved over there..

The Assassins crew were amazing. You guys showed that you are the future. You have come so far in such a short amount of time and Lewis Pears has done great things with you. Keep on keeping on lads. You were incredible.

Connor George showed exactly why he is being talked about in such high regard with impressive performances in his K-1 and MMA divisions. Lovely kid too with a bright future ahead of him.

My man Muhidin AbuBakar turned in the single best performance of the competition in his K-1 final against the North American champion who he had lost a decision to in his full contact division earlier in the week.
Amazing performance Bro and great listening and application of the instructions given to you in the corner by your corner men to get the job done in fine style. Big respect and a true example of team work at it's very best.

Shout out to my Aero-Kick homies Rudy and Mia Robinson in their gutsy performances in their first ever International competition. You did yourself, Colin, Aero-Kick and Team England proud and it was a pleasure sharing the week with you guys.

The ICO officials and staff were second to none....
Paul Newman worked none stop refereeing the Continuous Ring and did a fantastic job under a lot of pressure.

Judges Tyrone Power Snr and Mark Hook earned their stripes judging literally hundreds of fights in Ring Continuous, Full Contact and K-1.

My fellow coaches Lewis Pears, Tyrone Power and Rueben Charlesworth I could quite simply not have been without this week. You all were amazing and have to take the credit and share the success of each and every fighters success who found a way to win under your leadership last week.

I'd like to also thank Ty and Lewis who personally cornered me in the ring and on the mats and did a sterling job with the right advise at the right time. It was a honour having you guys there in my last ever fights.

Thank you to the big boss with the little legs Jason Charlesworth ;-) who in Andy's absence this year helped along side our other officers to sail the ICO ship to success and thank you so much for your touching tribute on the coach at the end of the last day mate. I appreciate it, I really do.

A special mention to Mr Kyle Prophit who was the unsung hero of this trip behind the scenes making sure everything was ran efficiently and effectively again in Andy's absence but showing his same attention to detail that makes team ICO England so different from the opposition. Big respect Kyle, you are a star.

Finally a big big big thank you to our commander and chief Mr Andrew Hennessy and his wife Fiona Hennessy who makes all of this possible for us year in and year out with all the behind the scenes work they do to get us suited and booted and to get us there and back safely.
Andrews attention to detail so that we can have a great trip creates lots of stress for him for very little reward. I salute you Sir and thank you once again on behalf of myself and the rest of ICO Team England for all you do for us. Osu!

MONDAY 24TH OCTOBER 2016

In the early hours of Tuesday night / Wednesday morning 7 members of the USKA Fight Factory will fly out to Carrara, Italy to take part in the Unified World Kickboxing Championships 2016 as part of ICO Team England.

The contingent of coach Neil Kelly, George Powell, Lauran Lang, Aryan Singh, Derelle McKenzie, Charlie Stokes and Kian Beech will injuries and circumstances permitting take part in a monster 24 different divisions.

USKA has got a great track record at the Unified's bringing back plenty of medals from it's small squads in 2013 and 2014 and the hopes are high that they can replicate that success this year bringing back even more World medals after completing a tough and lengthy training camp over the last 7 months.
We at USKA wish all our fighters the very best of success over in Italy and look forward to your safe return next week rattling with medals.

SUNDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2016

USKA proudly boasts 3 new World Titles this week courtesy of Aryan 'King Of Sting' Singh who brought home three Gold medals from the WFMC World Championships in Manchester on Saturday and Sunday. Aryan who is also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do won the Korean Forms section, The Mat Light Continuous 13-17years -50kg division and the 13-17years -50kg Points division.

Aryan sets his sights now on the Unified World Championships in Italy at the end of the month where he travels as part of ICO Team England where he hopes to replicate his success and bring home a record amount of World Titles all in the same year.
Congratulations Aryan, all of USKA are exceptionally proud of you.

SUNDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2016

The 5th USKA Superman competition of the 2016 season and first one in the new gym went well on Sunday 16th October with just under 30 competitors taking part looking for points and trophies over the 10 event fitness based competition.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and there was a great atmosphere with some really closely contested categories.

We have one event left that will double up as our end of year presentation on Sunday 17th December. This will also be the day that our top five position Grand Championship Champions will be crowned.

Our winners for today were as follows...

6 Years and Under

1st Place: Nathaniel Curtis

2nd Place: Usaiyd Bashir

3rd Place: Millie Crook

7 - 9 Years

1st Place: Jemmima Mahmood

2nd Place: Layyah Kelly

3rd Place: Ehsaan Mahmood

10 - 12 Years

1st Place: Charlie Stokes

2nd Place: Aman Kiani

3rd Place: Laylaa Mahmood

13 - 14 Years

1st Place: Ra'ees Kiani

2nd Place: Connor Aston

3rd Place: Sami Kelly

SUNDAY 9TH OCTOBER 2016

A 12 strong team of USKA Fighters took to the ring today to compete in 15 contests at the Aero-Kick BLCC turning in some great performances and looking very impressive doing it.
The team that consisting of Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Omar Farooq, Sami Kelly, Connor Aston, Hamza Farooq, Lucy Kingswheatley, Aryan Singh, Khuzaymah Douglas, Lauran Lang and Ruqayya Griffith kept a clean sheet with no loses making coach Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn happy with not only the results but the nature of the performances as well.
Many thanks to all our cheering spectators that came to support which always spurs the fighters on to perform at their best.

SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2016

The second of two USKA Fight teams were out on Saturday 1st October this time at the Audley Sports and Leisure Centre in Blackburn with two important Full Contact bouts for our lads with a debut bout for George Powell and a -25kg British title fight for Kian Beech.
Kian would be taking on WKA English Champion Tyree Holden who was from the Kokoro home team in Blackburn over 5 rounds of full contact kickboxing and the crowd were treated to non stop action with both fighters not giving an inch or taking a backward step over the full distance.
The amazing skills on display from two combatants of such a young age was incredible. Tyree started the stronger in round 1 and 2 but Kian firmly found his feet by mid way through the second round and was edging the action on kicks and work rate over the distance finishing much the stronger of the two showing true class.
On the sound of the final bell a worthy new champion was crowned by unanimous decision to our boy Kian to the delight of the travelling USKA support.

George Powell gave away age, weight and Full Contact experience taking on another home Kokoro fighter in Jay Fletchman ain a match made at 76kg.

After a back and forth battle with both fighters trading it out it was the kicking ability from the USKA man that made the difference on the judges scorecards with George being awarded a unanimous points win over the three rounds.
Thank you to Cornermen Sean Quinn, Amer Kayani and Neil Kelly for a composed and controlled corner and to Phil Richards who also made the trip down to offer George and Kian some great advice before they went into battle.
Also a big thank you to all the spectators who cheered our lads to victory away from home in the lions den.

SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2016

The latest USKA Grading went well on Saturday 10th September with 24 new grades from Red to Green belt awarded and for the first time in a long time 100% pass rate with everyone making the grade and earning their new belts.
We had 3 straight A passes from Hashim Malik (White Belt), Rhys Jennings (White Belt) and Aryan Singh (Yellow Belt) and two A- passes for Khuzaymah Douglas (Red Belt) and Connor Aston (Green Belt).

This would also be the last grading at the old Morcom Road gym with the next Grading scheduled for 10th December at the new Warwick Road gym.

Congratulations to all our successful graders!

SUNDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2016

On the 4th September 6 Fighters from the USKA Fight Factory took to the mats at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham to do battle at the WKU Midlands Open Championship.

After good performances across the board we seen Gold medal wins for Kian Beech in the -25kg Division, Charlie Stokes in the -30kg Division, Ra'ees Kiani in the -45kg Division, Aryan Singh in the -50kg Division and Derelle McKenzie in the +50kg Division.
Lauran Lang picked up Silver in the ladies -55kg losing out to a very experienced fighter by the thinnest of margins and Charlie Pearce lost out is the first round of the competition having to step up two weight divisions when his own and the one above wasn't contested.

Well done to all our fighters showing once again that they are a force to be reckoned with on the open circuit.

SUNDAY 21ST AUGUST 2016

A quieter than usual USKA Superman competition due to the summer holidays still had competitors in attendance fighting tooth and nail for points and positions on Sunday 21st August. This was the forth leg of our six scheduled events and was equally as good as the previous three despite the smaller turn out.

The next event will be on Sunday 16th October with entries needing to be registered before Thursday 13th October.

We had four divisions this time and our top three positions in each were as follows.

6 YEARS OLD'S AND UNDER

1ST PLACE: USAIYD BASHIR

2ND PLACE: MILLIE CROOK

3RD PLACE: MAXWELL HARPER

7-9 YEARS OLD

1ST PLACE: JEMIMMA MAHMOOD

2ND PLACE: EHSAAN MAHMOOD

3RD PLACE: MIA STOKES

10-12 YEARS OLD

1ST PLACE: CHARLIE STOKES

2ND PLACE: YOOSHAH YAQUB

3RD PLACE: MARIA MAHMOOD

13-15 YEARS OLD

1ST PLACE: ARYAN SINGH

2ND PLACE: CONNOR ASTON

3RD PLACE: SAMI KELLY

SUNDAY 14TH AUGUST 2016

It was BLCC time for the 10 fighter USKA Team at the BLCC BKA event at the BKA Kickboxing Academy in Burton on Trent on Sunday 14th August.

Good performances across the board seen USKA once again keep a clean sheet against some very good opposition throughout 14 contests.

Congratulations to team members Kian Beech, Charlie Pearce, Derelle McKenzie, Connor Aston, Ra'ees Kiani, Aryan Singh, Lauran Lang, Ruqayya Griffith, George Powell and Amer Kayani on some great fights and a big thank you to all the supporting spectators that turned up to cheer our fighters to victory.

The next BLCC event is once again back in Burton On Trent on 11th September where once again the USKA team will be back out in full force.

SATURDAY 13TH AUGUST 2016

10 new Little Ninjas were enrolled into the records of the USKA grading roll of honour on Saturday 13th September at the latest Little Ninjas grading examination at the USKA Fight Factory.

In a very tough assessment lasting over a hour we had 5 new Red Belt (First Grade) passes in Talhah Ali-Khan, Maddison Quinn, Adam Ali-Khan, Rayyan Farooq and Rumaysah Ali Khan, 2 new White / Yellow stripe Belt (Second Grade) passes in Zain Amer and Oliver Hargreaves and 3 new Orange Belt (Forth Grade) passes in Eissa Ahmed, Usaiyd Bashir and Callum Cade. The Orange Belts were also the first ever Little Ninjas to pass these Grades since the Little Ninjas gradings were introduced one year ago.

Congratulations to all our new belt holders and be sure to wear your belts with pride to show all the other Little Ninjas how well you have done.

MONDAY 1ST AUGUST 2016

Our friend and USKA student Hamzah Rattigan to raise money for the Little Princess Trust Children's Cancer charity is planning on shaving off his trade mark hair and I think we should support him in whatever way we can by as many of us as possible making a donation to his cause.

Cancer as we know is such a terrible disease and even more so when it affects Children.

His pledge... £500 and all his hair comes off, £750 and his moustache comes off too, £1000 and he goes full baby bald, beard and all! :-)

DONATE HERE

The Little Princess Trust is a non-profit charity organisation who will use his hair and all donations to help improve the quality of life for children with cancer.

PLEASE SUPPORT AND GET BEHIND OUR BOY!

SUNDAY 17TH JULY 2016

Great day today at the BLCC Back In Brum VI event at the Aero-Kick Comminuty gym in Birmingham for team USKA for the 13 Fighters who were in action over 17 action packed bouts.

Among the 13 fighters we had 5 making their debuts and every single fighter without exception put in great performances showing heart, desire and determination doing themselves and the USKA Fight Factory proud.

We finished the day with a more than respectable 9 Wins, 3 Loses and 1 Draw with 4 Demonstration bouts with all our loses very close indeed that could have went either way.
Coaches Kelly and Quinn were once again extremely happy with the USKA teams performances and look forward to the next BLCC outing at the BKA gym in Burton on 14th August.

THURSDAY 7TH JULY 2016

With another Ramadan over it is now a great time to set new goals and start working towards them.
The USKA Fight Factory can help you with these goals whatever they may be.
Are you one of our old students looking for the perfect time for your USKA comeback?

Are you one of our current members who wants to knuckle down and earn those grades or make a name for yourself on the tournament circuit?

Or are you a perspective new member looking to find out what all the fuss is about and join our winning team?
Don't leave it any longer... Set new goals... Be Brave... And be all you can be!

SUNDAY 19TH JULY 2016

Sunday 19th seen a split USKA squad of fighters take part in two competitions across the Midlands.

The first squad of five fighters including Derelle McKenzie, Connor Aston, Lucy Kingswheatley, Keatan Mahi and Lauran Lang travelled with coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn to the Suggy's Gym in Newark to Dean Sugden's BLCC event and the second team consisting of Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Charlie Pearce and Ra'ees Kiani alongside Coach Amer Kayani travelled to Perdiswell Leisure Centre in Worcester to take part in the W.U.M.A Battle of Britain event.

At the BLCC we kept a clean slate picked up four hard fought wins and 2 draws with some career best performances included in them.

In Worcester we had an equally successful day picking up 3 Gold medals and 1 Bronze medal.

The hard work keeps paying off with our fighters in action most weekend and the club this year from top to bottom boasting an mighty and amazing 93% win rate.

A big well done to all our fighters who were in action.

SUNDAY 12TH JUNE 2016

A small team of four hit the Kwon Grand Slam final on Sunday at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham.
This would be the third and final tournament in the Kwon Tri-Series and would see the league leaders crowned Grand Champion.
With previous points in the league Ra'ees Kiani was in with a shot of the Grand Championship belt as he took to the mats with team mates Lucy Kingswheatley, Aman Kiani and Charlie Stokes.

Charlie Stokes continued his winning streak taking Gold in his division, Aman unfortunately lost in the 1st round of his category and Lucy battled her way to a Bronze medal in a tough category. A determined Ra'ess won his category and with that was crowned a worthy Grand Champion in his age and weight class.

So two Golds and a Bronze from four fighters and a Grand Championship belt. Not bad for a days work.
Once again coaches Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn and Amer 'The Hammer' Kayani looked after our boys and girl and were happy again with their efforts rounding up a good weekend of competition.

SATURDAY 11TH JUNE 2016

Another day... Another competition for the USKA team today at the WRSA International Championships in Walsall with the crew putting in some good performances under the watchful eye of coaches Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn and Amer 'The Hammer' Kayani. The nine man team consisting of Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Aman Kiani, Ra'ees Kiani, Lucy Kingswheatley, Aryan Singh, Keatan Mahi and Lauran Lang performed well coming back with 6 New Champions and International belt holders and 2 Silver medals.

The fights won were won in style and the fights lost were in closely contested bouts leaving Coach Quinn and Kiani very happy indeed. Well done once again to all our fighters who week in week out represent the Fight Factory on the Fight circuit.

SUNDAY 5TH JUNE 2016

The USKA Fight Team were out again on Sunday at the second leg of the Lordswood Tri-Series and once again they delivered some spectacular performances across the Ring Continuous and Mat Continuous divisions to the delight of Coach Kelly and coach Quinn.

12 fighters including Kian Beech (Boys Under 11yrs -25kg), Charlie Stokes (Boys Under 11yrs -30kg),

Charlie Pearce (Boys Under 11yrs +40kg), Derelle Mckenzie (Boys Under 11yrs +40kg),

Aman Kiani (Boys 12-15yrs -40kg), Ra'ees Kiani (Boys 12-15yrs -45kg), Connor Aston (Boys -5ft 2"),

Aryan Singh (Boys 12-15yrs -45kg), Lucy Kingswheatley (Girls 12-15yrs +50kg)

Keatan Mahi (Boys 12-15yrs -55kg), Lauran Lang (Ladies -60kg), Amer Kayani (Mens Vets +75kg) brought back in total 18 medals including 15 Golds and 5 Silvers putting them all in very good position to lift the grand champions trophies if they can turn in a good performance at the last leg of the Tri-Series on 6th November.

Well done to all our fighters and thank you to our supporters who were there to cheer them to victory.

SATURDAY 4TH JUNE 2016

Another successful novice grading today at the USKA Fight Factory with 40 new belts handed out to to successful graders following a rigorous three and a half hour grading.

At USKA our gradings are very real and it is never a certainty that the candidates are going to pass which puts an onus on preparing correctly and training hard to get ready for them.

The old saying of 'If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail' springs to mind and this was certainly the case today with only a few falling short of the bar and reaching the prescribed pass mark.

For the successful they move forward to potentially work towards their next grading in September. To the ones that fell short it is now all about regrouping and showing character to bounce back and correct the mistakes to become better martial artists.

Our star graders were Haatim Shand passing his Red Belt and Aryan Singh passing his White Belt with straight A Distinctions.

Congratulations to our new belt holders who will be presented with their certificates and signed licence books on their next class in the week.

SUNDAY 29TH MAY 2016

The Third USKA Superman competition of the 2016 season on 29th May seen many new competitors take part as well as all our regulars to see what all the fuss is about across 10 strenuous events in the hot May sun.

Cheered on by family and friends all the competitors turned in some great performances earning their trophies and league points in what was again a really enjoyable day.

The top three positions in each division on the day are as follows

6yrs and under

1st Place: Ehsaan Mahmood

2nd Place: Eissa Ahmed

3rd Place: Usaiyd Bashir

SUNDAY 15TH MAY 2016

USKA rounded up a busy weekend today at the Burton BLCC event at the BKA Kickboxing gym with 7 of our fighters taking part in 9 bouts.

All performed excellently with the most impressive listening and response times from all our fighters to the corners instructions that we have seen in a long time.

Super happy with the way the junior fight team is developing at the moment and it's down to the week in week out grind that is forging such great performances.

No losses from the Super Seven Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle Mckenzie, Charlie Pearce, Ahron Ali, Lucy Kingswheatley and Aryan Singh and more importantly of course two smiley faces from coaches Kelly and Quinn :-) :-)

SATURDAY 14TH MAY 2016

Yet another USKA Champion was crowned on Saturday at the Venue banqueting suite in Dudley when Ra'ess 'Kool and Kalm' Kiani made his full contact debut against the heavier, older and more experienced Arsen Burkevics of the Black Country Combat Kickboxing gym in Dudley to contest the

WRSA -43kg Midland Area title.

Team USKA had accepted the fight for Ra'ees on a weeks notice when Arsen's original opponent had pulled out and with Ra'ees always ticking over in the gym at a good level of fitness he was happy to accept the challenge and seize the opportunity with both hands.

Another factor for this fight would be that the fight would be held in a cage and not a ring. This is something that an USKA fighter has never done before but a fight is a fight and we figured that if Ra'ees footwork was good enough it shouldn't not pose too many problems for him.
After a confident Cage walk from both fighters the fight started fast and furious with Ra'ess using his height and reach advantage well and hitting his opponent at range. It was clear to see that Arsen was a big hitter and a very good kicker but Raee's was neutralising his work by getting off first with his shots and getting back out of the way with good footwork and defence.

The second round was a little closer with Arsen pressing more but Ra'ees was answering every exchange with good boxing and hard straight leg round kicks to the body.
From the third round onwards Ra'ees really hit his stride and started to pull away on the scorecards with dominant boxing and punctuation of combinations with the eye catching round kicks to the body and head.
Arsen to his credit was taking everything well and the tough resilient Dudley lad was firing back and trying hard despite shipping heavy shots throughout the round.
The fight finished with both fighters showing each other plenty of respect which was great to see in

two fighters so young.
The decision was in no doubt and all three judges found the USKA fighter a deserving and

unanimous points winner.

Outweighed, outaged, outexperienced doesent mean a thing when you have the heart of a lion and we are all extremely proud of Ra'ees for stepping up to the plate and turning in a great performance to lift this title belt.

When an USKA fighter steps in the ring we step in ready.

This is the importance of training hard in the gym to fight easier in the ring.

SATURDAY 14TH MAY 2016

The latest USKA Little Ninjas grading was held today with twelve of our youngest students being put through their paces in front of their family and friends to earn their next belts.

The hour long grading incorporated a high intensity assault course style circuit, Shadow Boxing format basic technique, Pad work combinations and then finally finishing off with an circuit of exercises.

All our grading candidates performed excellently and passed with flying colours to the delight of their proud parents, family and friends.

Well done to everyone who graded and be sure to wear your hard earned belts with pride.

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- MUHAMMAD YUNUS

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- MUHAMMAD IBRAHEEM

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- ZAIN AMER

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- ZAIDAAN SPINX

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- AISHA KEELING

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- ZAIN DIN

LITTLE NINJA'S RED BELT --- RUQAYYAH KEELING

LITTLE NINJA'S WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT --- AYYUB KEELING

LITTLE NINJA'S YELLOW BELT --- KAIYAN KHAN

LITTLE NINJA'S YELLOW BELT --- KAREEMAH BARAS

LITTLE NINJA'S YELLOW BELT --- CALLUM CADE

LITTLE NINJA'S YELLOW BELT --- EISSA AHMED

SATURDAY 7TH MAY 2016

On Wednesday we accepted a late notice fight for USKA fighter Lauran Lang against home fighter Samantha Shaw on the Eclipse Kickboxing's promoted Resurrection Kickboxing show in Wolverhampton on Saturday.
It's not always ideal taking fights at short notice but sometimes being brave and stepping up to the plate shows what a fighter is all about and when Lauran was asked if she fancied the job she was more than up for the challenge and accepted the fight straight away.
A confident Lauran coped brilliantly with fight day nerves and turned in a great performance over three rounds of full contact kickboxing to win a deserved unanimous points decision in a great fight.

Mega proud of Lauran and she showed that when she has the right head on she is a handful for anyone.

SUNDAY 1ST MAY 2016

It was tournament time again for team USKA on Sunday when 8 of it's members attended the WKU British Championships at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham under the watchful and experienced eyes of coaches Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn and Amer 'The Hammer' Kayani.

In a long but enjoyable day the team consisting of Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Ahron Ali, Ra'ees Kiani, Lucy Kingswheatley, Aryan Singh, Lauran Lang and Abdul Rehman performed well in the ring and on the mats to bring back an impressive medal tally of 7 Golds (WKU British Titles), 6 Silvers and 1 Bronze.

No easy fights for the team today which is the way we like it and coaches Quinn and Kayani were very happy indeed with all of our fighters performances.
Congratulations to all our team on yet another successful set of results.

SATURDAY 30TH APRIL 2016

After a very intense first Team England squad training session on Saturday 30th April at the USKA Fight Factory 13 members of USKA Kickboxing gym were offered positions in the 2016 World Championship squad that will travel to the ICO World Championships in France in October should they wish to accept and claim their slots.

This if they all accept will be the biggest ever contingent of USKA fighters at a World Championships in the clubs history.

In age order... Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Aman Kiani, Ahron Ali, Lucy Kingswheatley, Ra'ees Kiani, Keatan Mahi, Aryan Singh, Lauran Lang, George Powell, Kashif Ali and Amer Kayani all qualified.

Exciting times ahead for ICO / USKA Team England and we would like to congratulate them all on this fantastic achievement.

16TH APRIL 2016

So he did it again.'The USKA Assassin' Ahron Ali rose to the challenge today of stepping in at a weeks notice as a replacement to challenge home Impact fighter Macauley 'Macca' Morris for the ICO -35kg English Full Contact title at the Mini Impact Kickboxing show in Middlesbrough.

Ahron's confidence was high following his BLCC English Title win last week and was excited at the proposition of at 12 years old being the youngest ever USKA fighter to contest a Full Contact contest and possibly pick up a title belt in the process.

In a bout that was being touted as a 50/50 even contest Morris was also very confident of victory himself coming to the ring as an IKF Southern Area Champion.

Ahron unfazed with being the away fighter made a confident start landing hard rear leg round kicks to body and head that seemed to be unsettling Morris. Ahron clearly looked to be the stronger of the two boys and looked to take control of the contest holding the centre of the ring and get his boxing going landing hard straights to Macauley's head.

After a great first round Ahron went from strength to strength in round two targeting the body looking to break the lad from Middlesbrough down.

It looked like Macauley was starting to unravel and nearing the end on the second round a body kick sent Morris to the canvas prompting the referee to step in and administer a count.

The bell signalled the end of the second but the Impact fighters corner compassionately knew their fighter was beat and called the referee over to pull Macauley from the contest leaving Ahron the victor and new ICO English Champion.

So two English titles and two great performances from Ahron in as many weeks has elevated him as being one of the best -35kg fighters in the country. His hard work in the gym is being rewarded with some great results in the ring and with a talent rarely seen in a fighter of such a young age it is safe to say that the world is at his feet with massive thing expected from him in the future given the opportunities.

10TH APRIL 2016

Busy day for USKA today at the BLCC Back in Brum V event at Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham with 20 fighters in the ring contesting 23 contests. Among them we had Charlie Stokes making the 1st defence of his BLCC -30kg English title and Ahron Ali making a last minute step up in weight to challenge for the BLCC -40kg English title.

We had fighters taking part in their very first contests and once again USKA as a team shone and turned out some very good performances.

In Charlie Stokes's -30kg English title defence he was pushed to the limit against a very strong and game Rayan Ali Ravjani from Rav Boyz gym in Luton winning a majority decision with two judges liking Charlie's movement and kick rate above Rayan's aggression and boxing and one judge scoring the bout even. The final score cards read 48/47 49/49 48/47. The decision wasn't well received by the Rav Boyz camp who had felt like they had dominated the contest which I'm sure will mean a rematch between these two warriors somewhere down the line.For now however Charlie remains the BLCC English title belt holder and is taking steps closer to his goal of becoming the BLCC British Champion.

In the scheduled -35kg English title fight Ahron Ali's opponent Mikhail Ali Ravjani also from Rav Boyz gym in Luton failed to make weight scaling 38.4kg against Ahron's 33.8kg leaving almost 5kg between them. With this weight dilemma the brave but difficult choice was made by the team USKA coaches to step up and challenge for the -40kg English title instead that luckily was vacant.

Ahron turned in a career best performance boxing exactly to instruction and put on a master class against his heavier talented opponent to win a deserving unanimous decision with score card totals of 49/45, 49/46 and 49/47 respectively.

Under the most difficult of circumstances Ahron had prevailed and fully deserves the accolade and glory of the English title belt.

Outside of Ahron's win coaches Neil and Sean's stand out performance of the day came from Lucy Kingswheatley winning two bouts with excellent technique and variety leaving many people in the venue talking about the crazy potential she has.

So another competition ends with an USKA tally of 20 Fighters, 23 Bouts, 2 Losses and it's back to the gym to prepare for the next one.

Congratulations to all the fighters that were in action and thank you to all the USKA supporters that turned up to cheer our fighters on.

7TH APRIL 2016

Two USKA Fighters climb into the ring on Sunday at the BLCC Aero-Kick Back in Brum IV event where they will both contest BLCC English titles.
Charlie 'Steamroller' Stokes makes the first defence of his -30kg title which he won impressively at short notice in November last year taking on now the WFC and WOMAA Junior British Champion Rayan Ali Ravjani from the Rav Boyz Kickboxing gym in Luton.

Rayan and Charlie have both built up impressive victories on the circuit and this bout is sure to be great clash of styles and a contender for fight of the day no doubt.

BLCC Midland Champion Ahron 'The Assassin' Ali makes the step up in class challenging Mikhail Ali Ravjani also from the Rav Boys Kickboxing Gym in Luton for the Vacant -35kg title.
Mikhail is the fighter of the moment and is on a roll holding WKA, ISKA, IKF and WOMAA Junior British titles amazingly winning two of those on one weekend recently and will not be phased with his latest challenge.

Both Ahron and Charlie are up against it this time but have trained exceptionally hard and are confident of victories.

Along with our two title contenders USKA also has 17 other fighters in action in non title bouts.

If you would like to come and support our fighters entry fee to the event for spectators is £6.00 and the action kicks off at 11:30am on Sunday morning.

The event will be held at Community Aero-Kick Gym, Bissell Street, Highgate, Birmingham, B5 7HP.

Good luck to all our fighters that are competing.

SUNDAY 3RD APRIL 2016

Congratulations to all our USKA Female Division Ladies who graded today and passed their belts with flying colours.
Also have to say a big congratulations to Instructor Ruqayya Griffith who got the ladies ready for their gradings and is proving herself as being a really good instructor. I couldn't be happier with how our female division is shaping up.
If any other girls or ladies would like to join in all the fun our female only classes are on every Sunday between 11am-12pm at the USKA Fight Factory

SUNDAY 20TH MARCH 2016

USKA exceeded expectation and brought home another impressive haul of medals on Sunday from the ICO English Championships proving once again to be a force to be reckoned with at National level competition.

12 fighters took to the ring and the mats across three separate disciplines including Ring Continuous, Mat Continuous and for the first time K-1 Continuous showing that the USKA style translates well across the board with success in all.

The final medal count rested at 19 Golds, 5 Silvers and 2 Bronze with all our fighters qualifying for the ICO World Championships in France in October should they wish to go.

Well done to all the fighters in action today on some great performances. Osu!

SUNDAY 13TH MARCH 2016

Clean sweep of wins for the 12 strong Team of USKA kickboxers at the BKA BLCC event in Burton-On-Trent today with good performances throughout.

Unfortunately opponent pull outs left Ahron Ali and Hamza Farooq without matches but the remaining USKA contingent of Sulayman Khan, Kian Beech, Charlie Stokes, Derelle McKenzie, Sami Kelly, Connor Aston, Hanzla Salim, Ismail Khan, Tom Rudge and Lauran Lang fought their socks off and represented USKA to the fullest under the instruction of coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn to complete another really good day of competition.

The team looks forward now to next weeks ICO English Championships which doubles up as a World Championship qualifying event where we hope to win some medals and get our boys and girls into ICO Team England to represent their countries at the World Championships in France in October.

SATURDAY 12TH MARCH 2016

USKA Gradings... Realer than Real Deal Holyfield!

Well than concludes another 7 1/2 hour grading (8 1/2 hours if you include the 1 hour warm up class before it) at the USKA Fight Factory where 40 graders were put through their paces in pursuit of their next belts.
Commiserations to those who came up short this time (yes, I know, shock horror, we actually fail people at USKA if they don't reach a prescribed level) but it's now time to go back to the drawing board, regroup and come back stronger showing that this process is going to help you become the champion you know you can be.
Congratulations to all the successful graders especially Connor Aston, Aryan Singh and Hanzla Salim with their straight A passes and our four successful Junior Black Belt graders Ra'ees Kiani, Keatan Mahi, Harun Khan and Amer Kayani who will probably not be able to walk for a week but at least they'll be able to swag out their limps with their new belts around their waists :-)
Days like this remind everyone why USKA have only produced 4 Black Belts in over 20 years.
You want easy 'pay yo money, get your gimme' belts I can give you the address of many clubs locally that cater for that kind of student.
You want to keep it real , no false sense of security, know you've earned and deserve your belt... You know where to come!

TUESDAY 8TH MARCH 2016

With the USKA junior fight team really shining competitively at the moment and lots of new talent coming through we are excited to announce yet another fight class totally dedicated to our youngest warriors.
The all levels class starting on the Tuesday 15th March at 7pm will be held by MAI Hall of Fame coach Sean Quinn in the fight area of the gym otherwise know as 'The Mighty' Quinn's House of Pain.

The class will cover all aspect of fight training including, fitness, shadow boxing, padwork, bagwork, technical drills and sparring developing our future champions and getting them ready for competitions.

The class is sure to be very popular and busy and for this reason we will be running a first come first served policy with a maximum of 24 juniors being catered for on the class so be sure to get in quick.

In addition to this class junior fight classes are also available on...

Monday - 7-8pm

Tuesday - 7-8pm

Thursday - 6-7pm

Friday - 7-8pm

Saturday - 12-1pm

SUNDAY 28TH FEBRUARY 2016

USKA were at two competitions on Sunday with an eight man team consisting of Aman Kiani, Ahron Ali, Sami Kelly, Aryan Singh, Tom Rudge, Solomon Khan, Lauran Lang and George Powell travelling to the Stoke BLCC Competition at the Black Cobra Kickboxing gym and Amer Kayani attending the Unified WOMAA / WKS European Open Championships at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham.

The BLCC Team performed excellently conceding only 1 split decision all day to a World class fighter that we genuinely thought we had done enough to win and Amer at the Europeans picked up a Bronze medal losing again conversationally to the eventual winner in the semi finals.

Yet again great results from team USKA but more importantly great performances showing growth and improvement across the board at the same time spotting even more room for improvement in the future in pursuit of becoming complete fighters.

Next up for us will be the Burton BLCC competition on 13th March followed by the ICO English Championships and World Championship qualifiers on 20th March.

THURSDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2016

USKA's Aryan 'King of Sting' Singh headed off to the BBC WM Radio station studio on Thursday 18th February and gave a great interview to hosts Sunny and Shay about his martial arts life and what makes him tic.

He gave a great insight in to where his martial arts journey began at Walsall Black Belt Academy with Neil Williamson at the tender age of 4 and how he with Neil's blessing moved on to USKA full time in 2015 to continue his competitive fighting career.
He also put host Sunny through his paces and showed him some kickboxing basics in a short video blog at the end of the interview.

Well done Aryan, great work champ!

TUESDAY 23RD FEBRUARY 2016

Lightweight Rio Olympic Boxing hopeful and former USKA Kickboxing champion Chantelle Cameron is currently boxing in Bulgaria at the Strandja boxing tournament.
She is through the first stage of the competition and faces the world number 3 tomorrow in what looks to be a really tough fight.
A strong performance at this championships brings her one step closer to her goal of representing Great Britain at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the summer.
This of course would be massive for Chantelle and we at USKA wish her the very best of luck in her fulfilling her dream.
We are currently helping Chantelle with funding so she can give her preparation 100% and give herself the very best chance of getting selected and bringing home the gold.
I would appreciate if all my martial arts friends could share the following link and make a small donation that will go a long way to help Chantelle reach her target.
Many thanks in advance and good luck Channy. You go girl!

CLICK ON CHANTELLE'S PICTURE BELOW TO SHOW SUPPORT AND MAKE A DONATION...

MONDAY 22ND FEBRUARY 2016

Here is some footage from the USKA Little Ninjas grading on Saturday (20th February 2016).
Even with our youngest students we don't just give away belts at the USKA Fight Factory.
Our candidates had to go through a grueling relay circuit that can take up to two minutes of high intensity exercise, Show a good understanding and execution of basic kickboxing technique, show application of those techniques on the pads and then finish with another exercise circuit.
So pleased with all the results on the day and am very happy knowing that USKA's future in the safe hands of these little ninja warriors.

SUNDAY 21ST FEBRUARY 2016

Another day and another two tournaments for Team USKA attending the WMO British Championships in Rugby and the WFMC British Championships in West Bromwich.

In West Bromwich the Lone Ranger Aryan 'King Of Sting' Singh picked up a Silver in the Boys under 5ft 4 Points winning 4 out of 5 fights and went to sudden death in the final against a member of the Top Ten GB team and shone light a star in the Boys under 5ft 4 Light Continuous picking up Gold.

At the WMO British Championships we had equally impressive results with 5 Golds and 2 Silvers from 7 of our fighters in action.

Charlie Stokes picked up Gold in the -30kg division, Ahron Ali picked up Silver in the -35kg division, Ra'ees Kiani picked up Silver in the -45kg division, Keatan Mahi picked up Gold in the -55kg division, Lauran Lang picked up Gold in the Ladies -55kg division, Abdul Rehman picked up Gold in the -85kg Veterans division and last but by no means least Team Captain Amer Kayani picked up Gold in the -85kg Masters division.

A haul today of 6 Golds and 3 Silvers from 8 fighters which is very impressive indeed.

The results are speaking for themselves and it shows emphatically that all the hard work and commitment in the gym is paying off.

Big shout out to coaches Sean Quinn and USKA open tournament co-ordinator Amer Kayani who without their support USKA's attendance in these events would not be possible.

So that wraps up a busy weekend for USKA with 10 s$uccessful Little Ninjas graders, three British Championships resulting in 7 new USKA British Champions and 8 British Championship Silver medallists.

Next stop for us is the Black Cobra BLCC event in Stoke next Sunday where 10 of our fighters will be back in action in the ring.

SATURDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2016

USKA Silver Streak at the WAKO British Championships 2016

On Saturday 7 USKA Fighters took to the Light Continuous mats at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Birmingham at the WAKO British Championships.

The USKA fighting style in previous years had not really translated to the WAKO rules often with us falling victim to what we would consider to be bad decisions or on the receiving end of undue warnings and disqualifications for excess power.
We felt this year however that with us being on the open circuit more that we knew more what to expect and we were able to adapt better to the WAKO rule set leaving us with a good day of competition

From our 7 fighters we brought back a haul of 5 Silver medals losing out to close decisions in the finals and 1 Gold Medal and WAKO British title.

The full results were as follows...

Amer Kayani... -84kg Gold Medal

Aryan Singh... -47kg Silver Medal

Lucy Kingswheatley... -55kg Silver Medal

Ra'ees Kiani... -42kg Silver Medal

Ahron Ali... -37kg Silver Medal

Charlie Stokes... -28kg Silver Medal

Well done to all our fighters and good luck to all our fighters in action at the WMO Championships tomorrow in Rugby.

SATURDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2016

USKA LITTLE NINJAS GRADING

10 USKA Little Ninja's successfully passed their grading examination today with flying colours earning new belts in front of their family and friends.
Liam Connaire and Oliver Hargreaves passed their first Little Ninjas Red Belt, Kasim Imtiaz, Tanya Imtiaz, Sahil Imtiaz, Eissa Ahmed, Kareemah Baras, Arooj Shoaib and Callum Cade passd their

Little Ninjas White Belt / Yellow Stripe and Usaiyd Bashir passed his Little NinjasYellow Belt.

They all completed a tough relay circuit, performed grading techniques, executed Pad work combinations and finished with an exercise circuit to earn their new belts.

Each and every Little Ninja did themselves extremely proud and thoroughly deserved a grading pass. Well done guys and girls!

SUNDAY 14TH FEBRUARY 2016

A great start to the USKA Superman 2016 season with event 1 running without hitch on 14th February with over 40 competitors battling it out over 10 tough events for points and prizes.
We had many first timers take part in this event and they did themselves proud despite not really knowing what to expect throughout the gruelling three hour competition.

As always a great day was had by all with great sportsmanship shown throughout with everyone cheering each other on throughout the day. The final results are as follows...

6 Years and Under

1st Place: Ehsaan Mahmood

2nd Place: Mia Stokes

3rd Place: Oliver Hargreaves

7-8 Year Olds

1st Place: Jemima Mahmood

2nd Place: Zain Din

3rd Place: Zain Baras

9-10 Year Olds

1st Place: Charlie Stokes

2nd Place: Sulayman Khan

3rd Place: Maria Mahmood

12-13 Year Olds

1st Place: Ra'ees Kiani

2nd Place: Ahron Ali

3rd Place: Aman Kiani

14-17 Year Olds

1st Place: Sabrena Gallagher

2nd Place: Solomon Khan

3rd Place: Aryan Singh

SUNDAY 7TH FEBRUARY 2016

11 USKA Fighters took to the Ring and mats today at the packed first leg of the Lordswood Combat Tri-Series in Birmingham and did not disappoint in their performances making their mark on the day with some impressive showings.

The team consisting of Connor Aston, Hamza Farooq, Ahron Ali, Aman Kiani, Derelle McKenzie, Ra'ees Kiani, Aryan Singh, Keatan Mahi, Lauran Lang, George Powell and Amer Kayani,once again made coaches Neil Kelly and Sean Quinn extremely proud

From 11 fighters we managed a grand total of 10 Gold medals, 6 Silver medals and 2 Bronze medals across three different disciplines.

The results were as follows....

Connor Aston - Silver on Mat Continuous.

Derelle McKenzie - Gold in Ring Continuous- Gold on Mat Continuous

Ahron Ali - Gold in Ring Continuous- Gold on Mat Continuous

Hamza Farooq - Silver in Ring Continuous (Losing to our own Ahron Ali)

Ra'ess Kiani - Silver in Ring Continuous (Losing to our own Aryan Singh)

Keatan Mahi - Gold in Ring Continuous

Aryan Singh - Gold in Ring Continuous- Bronze on Mat Continuous - Bronze in Points

Lauran Lang - Silver in Ring Continuous - Silver on Mat Continuous

George Powell - Gold in Ring Continuous - Gold on Mat Continuous - Gold in Points

Amer Kayani - Gold in Ring Continuous- Silver on Mat Continuous

We as a team would like to thank Antonio Santorelli and Marc Thompson for a great tournament and very much look forward to the second leg that will be held in June.

On to the next one team USKA, You've had a cracking start to the year!

SATURDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 2016

8 USKA Fighters alongside coaches Sean Quinn and Amer Kayani travelled to Rotherham to the WKA 5 Nations Ringsports Open on Saturday 6th February seeking new opposition, stern tests and of course 5 Nation Championship belts and titles.

The USKA Fighters in action were... Charlie Stokes -30kg, Hamza Farooq -35kg, Ahron Ali -35kg, Aman Kiani -40kg, Ra'ees Kiani -45kg, Aryan Singh -50kg, Keatan Mahi -55kg and Qasim Beg in a demonstration bout with two times Amateur World Champion Keenan Dixon..

Amidst tough competition the boys fought with grit and determination to pick up the following results in the Ring and on the mat.

Charlie Stokes - WKA -30kg 5 Nations Ring Continuous Champion.

Hamza Farooq - 35kg - Mat Silver Medallist (Losing to our own Ahron Ali in the Mat Final)

Ahron Ali - WKA -35kg 5 Nations Ring Continuous Champion, WKA -35kg 5 Nations Mat Continuous Champion.

Aryan Singh - WKA -50kg 5 Nations Ring Continuous Champion, WKA -50kg 5 Nations Mat Continuous Champion.

Keatan Mahi - WKA -55kg 5 Nations Ring Continuous Champion

So from 7 competitive fighters we brought home 6 WKA 5 Nation title belts and a Silver medal. Not a bad haul and performances that both Sean and Amer were happy with as we hopefully look forward to more success at the Lordswood Combat Tri-Series Leg 1 one tomorrow.

SUNDAY 31ST JANUARY 2016

Awesome performances by the USKA crew yesterday at the Aero-Kick BLCC Back in Brum IV event in Birmingham
I had intentionally deep ended some of our more experienced fighters in the matching with some of them giving away age, weight and experience and a few of them going in against opponents who had already beaten them in the past in pursuit of valuable experience.
We in total took part in 26 fights losing only 5 but the important thing for myself and Sean was that whether we won or lost that we turned out some great performances and have loads to work on when we go back to the gym.
Onwards on upwards guys and on to the next one! Osu!

SUNDAY 20TH DECEMBER 2015

USKA Kickboxing had a great end to the year with it's Superman Grand Championships and annual Student presentation awards at the USKA Fight Factory on Sunday 20th December. This would also be the final event of the superman league where we would see 5 grand champions crowned.

The competition was as always tightly contested with everyone going all out for points and prizes in great spirit.

The results and winners of the presentation awards are as follows...

UNDER 6 YEARS OLD

1ST: EHSAAN MAHMOOD

2ND: OLIVER HARGREAVES

3RD: MIA STOKES

7-9 YEARS OLD

1ST: JEMIMA MAHMOOD

2ND: IBRAHIM IQBAL

3RD: ADAM ALI

10-12 YEARS OLD

1ST: CONNOR ASTON

2ND: SAMI KELLY

3RD: OMAR FAROOQ

11-12 YEARS OLD ELITE

1ST: AHRON ALI

2ND: CHARLIE STOKES

3RD: AMAN KIANI

LADIES

1ST: RUQAYYA GRIFFITH

2ND: LUCY KINGSWHEATLEY

3RD: SABRENA GALLAGHER

13 YEARS - MEN

1ST: KEATAN MAHI

2ND: RA'EES KIANI

3RD: ARYAN SINGH

USKA SUPERMAN GRAND CHAMPIONS

KEATAN MAHI

JEMIMA MAHMOOD

EHSAAN MAHMOOD

AHRON ALI

CHARLIE STOKES

Moving on to the first presentation award of the day now and one that is probably the most deserving one as it is every year.

Our Coaches Award

The one thing a gym can absolutely not have success without is good coaches. We are blessed here at USKA to have one of the best in the business. Not only one that has the knowledge to get the best out of each and every one of our fighting team but also one that is tireless and selfless in his time for them that gives our fighters a distinct advantage every time they climb through those ropes or onto the mats to compete.

As well as coaching duties this man works behind the scenes and helps and supports me running the club way and beyond the call of duty.

His sessions are innovative and he is always bringing new drills into practice down to the fact that he is always learning and growing as a coach.

I give you the on the only...

MR SEAN 'THE MIGHTY' QUINN

I'd also like to ask our ICO World Championship team of Harun Khan, Lauran Lang, Ahron Ali and Charlie Stokes to present Sean with a signed Ricky Hatton glove as a gift from everyone at the USKA gym as a sign of our gratitude for all his hard worlk.

Onto the student awards now...

In previous years to be eligible for a student award you would need to have ticked most if not all the boxes in terms of attendance of sessions on a regular basis of Both technical and practical classes, consistent effort while you are on those classes, Support in clubs activities like Superman competition and showing progression throughout the year as a martial artist.

We have felt this year for the first time ever that consistency has wavered with the majority of our students with members struggling to maintain full commitment over the 12 months instead having spells of really good training but not quite managing to keep it up over the year.

With this in mind we have changed the criteria this year to mainly one thing

'PEOPLE WHO ARE 'FULFILLING THEIR POTENTIAL'

People who have shown growth and are better today than they were 6 months ago or this time last year.

Which brings us on to our first student award...

Student Award 1

The first student award today goes to one of our newer members that has show really good potential since his time with us. He is consistent in his training most weeks attending all the little ninja's classes and now the beginners technical classes on a Saturday morning which he is showing a really good understanding of even at such a young age of 6.

He never has an off night and is very consistent in his effort on each and every class.

His manners and etiquette is second to none making him a pleasure to teach and I predict big things for him in the future if he keeps up the good work into 2016.

Our first award goes to...

EISSA AHMED

Student Award 2

Our next award goes to a young man who has not been with us for that long but who has World class written all over him and he proves that every time he jumps on the mats or climbs through the ropes into the ring.

After signing up and joining USKA full time earlier in the year this young man has had a fantastic fighting year winning pretty much everything he has entered from multiple British and English titles to his BLCC English title fight win in November on the Ring Rage event in Burton-On-Trent.

I'm very much looking forward to next year with this young warrior for more of the same and even heard a little rumour that he is also considering moving through the USKA syllabus and picking up his Kickboxing grades too.

This award goes to the one the only...

ARYAN 'KING OF STING' SINGH

Student Award 3

Our next award goes to one of our fighters and advanced grades who once again has turned in another good year both in the gym, on the mats and in the ring.

Consistently picking up results in competition this young man this year has brought back to the club a BLCC English title an ICO British title and a WTKA European title to add to the two Unified World Championship Gold medals from last year.

His training and focus is consistent and I have seen real improvement in his game throughout 2015.

This award goes to...

RA'EES 'COOL AND CALM' KIANI

Student Award 4

Our next award goes to one of our intermediate grades who has gone from strength to strength on the back of a year of hard and consistent training.

Much like myself I wouldn't say this kid is a natural but he has shown that hard work pays off always putting in 100% in his stretching, technical work, pad work and sparring producing good grading results and now starting to find his form in the ring too.

I see a lot of passion in this kid and I'm very proud to present this award to my boy...

SAMI KELLY

Student Award 6

Our next award goes to one of our advanced senior grades who has had a pretty torrid year working through injuries but has still managed to pick up a 2 ICO British titles a WAKO British title and WTKA European title. Outside of competition he has remained a very supporting member of the club coaching and helping to bring out the very best in the junior fight team.

In September and October this guy took cover of the beginners classes at the gym allowing me the time to train with Sean on the fight classes that equipped me to win three World titles in Germany. This is something that could not have been done with this guys help and is something I am very grateful for.

This award goes to USKA's old guard...

AMER KAYANI

Student Award 7

Our next award goes to one of our fighters who has stepped his training up this year and has seen the fruits of his labour pay off in competition having a great deal of success.

In June winning the ICO British title, In July picking up his first title belt winning the BLCC Midland title, In October travelling to the ICO World Championships in Germany picking up a Silver and a Bronze medal and in November winning two WKU English titles to round up a great year for this young man

This lad has a natural talent and the scary thing is I don't think we have seen half of what this guy will have to offer in the future.

He has been consistent in the gym this year and is a worthy winner of this award...

AHRON ALI

Student Award 8

Our next award goes to another young fighter in the gym who also has come on leaps and bounds this year finally realising some of the potential that he has had for a long time.

In previous years we seen him in the gym all the time but not really absorbing instruction to make him the best he could be. This year he cut back his hours in the gym but improved his focus.

After a slow start to the year he kicked into gear and finished with a bang winning the ICO British title in June, Amazingly winning two World titles at the ICO World Championships in Germany at short notice in October then lifted his first title belt winning the BLCC English title in November.

He is genuinely now better than he has ever been and I'm excited to think that if he brings this same attitude to 2016 and steps back up his attendance he will go on to even better things next year.

This award goes to...

CHARLIE 'STEAM ROLLER' STOKES

Student Award 9

(Children's Runner Up for Student of the year)

Our next award is the Children's Runner up for student of the year.

This award goes to a young man who shows real enthusiasm and energy in everything he does within his kickboxing training.

He trains every day possible, always gives 100% and takes part in everything the club is involved in, gradings, competitions, events and superman events, this kid is part of it all.

After aceing his first three Gradings with 3 A's I am predicting a really bright future for this lad if he stays focused and as passionate about the sport as he is at the moment.

Runner up for Children's Student of the year is...

CONNOR ASTON

Student Award 10

(Adult Runner Up for Student of the year)

Runner up for Adult student of the year goes someone who has kept plugging away at their training week in and week out throughout the year and has shown steady improvement through consistency and commitment to their sport.

As well as being a model student herself at the start of the year this young lady started a ladies only class at the gym starting her journey as an instructor and passing on her knowledge to the young ladies in the area who wanted to learn the sport in an all female environment.

This is building up slowly but surely and she is doing a great job.

Hopefully more grades and more competitions on the horizon for her next year.

Runner up for Adult's Student of the year...

RUQAYYA GRIFFITH

Kids Student of the year Award 2015

On to the first big one now with the Children's Student of the year award.

This is an award that people have to invest a full year of hard training in to get anywhere near.

This student has done just that upping his game by attending the gym 6 times a week and putting in good effort and focus while he is there.

He has also stepped up competing and in June this year won his first title taking Gold at the ICO British Championships. He has had some good results at BLCC competitions and finished the year capturing the WKU English title in November setting himself up nicely for a great year of competition in 2016.

Outside of competition he also is consistent on his technical classes working hard to master his syllabus technique and also helps out coaching on all the little ninja's classes proving that he is a team player and willing to help and bring on the younger members of the club. This has played a major part in me making the decision to award USKA Children's student of the year for 2015 to...

HAMZA FAROOQ

Adult Student of the year Award 2015

Onto the Adult Student of the year Award now and we move onto a student who is a testament and an prime example of when hard work pays off.

This student is not a natural, this student has to work for what they get and this student has as many bad days in the gym as they have good days.

What makes this student different to others though is that they don't get discouraged, they don't allow the hard times to hold them back and most importantly that they never ever give up.
Among numerous tournament successes throughout the year noticeable stand out results have been Two Silver medals at the ICO British Championships in June, two WKU English title wins in November but the biggest achievement by a long shot was this young lady regaining her World title for the second year running in Germany at the ICO World Championships in October despite having a really heavy year of studying and revising for exams that she had to fit her training around.

I give you, for the second year running USKA's adult student of the year for 2015...

MISS LAURAN LANG

USKA Scholarship 2015

Our final award of this year's presentation is our prestigious USKA Scholarship award.

The scholarship award which is now into it's 7th year basically pays all costs relating to one students martial arts development over a full year including Training fee's, membership fee's, licence fee's, grading fee's, equipment sponsorship and competition entry fee's in a package that can be worth well over £1000 pounds.

With such a massive award at stake myself and Sean assess and deliberate throughout the year to see who we feel is most worthy of such an incredible opportunity.

Over the last 12 months we have gone back and forth between many of the active students at the gym taking many things into consideration and finally we both unanimously have come to a decision.

This year's USKA Scholarship is awarded to...

CONNOR ASTON

12TH DECEMBER 2015

The last grading at the USKA Fight Factory for 2015 is now in the bank. With 17 successful graders moving on to their next belts.

Congratulations to the successful graders and commiserations to anyone who failed to reach the mark this time around.

A failed grading at USKA does not mean the end of the World it just means it's time to go back to the drawing board, regroup and address the mistakes and shortcomings that seen you not quite make the grade this time to come back stronger and smash it next time around.

Our star grader was Connor Aston who passed his yellow belt grade with a superb 97 / A Grade. Well done Connor.

11TH DECEMBER 2015

Just under a week to go to register for the last USKA Superman competition on the year where everyone will receive a trophy for their efforts.

Straight after the Superman competition trophy presentation we will be having our annual student presentation awards with the following awards going out...

5 Superman Grand Championship Trophies.

10 Student Award Cups.

2 Student of the year Trophies.

1 USKA Scholarship award

(This will be awarded to one deserving student who will have their whole year paid for, Subs, Memberships fees, Licence fees, Equipment, Uniforms, Grading fees, tournament entry fees... Everything)... It could be you!

To win it... You have to be in it!

We would appreciate all our members support and attendance on our last day at the gym for 2015.

Entry fee's of £10 per person must be in no later than Thursday 17th December. Osu!

8TH DECEMBER 2015

It seems like only yesterday but next year USKA Kickboxing will be 20 years old.

After 11 years in the sport and after teaching for ECKA, Aero-Kick and Sparky's Kickboxing it was time for me to go it alone and be the captain of my own ship with USKA in 2006.

It has been a great 20 years and I have had the privilege to work with some amazing fighters with us winning everything there was to win in four separate disciplines from Area, English, British, Commonwealth, European and World titles in Mat Light Continuous, Ring Continuous, Amateur Full Contact and Professional Full Contact. I am exceptionally proud to be able to say that and it validates all our hard work collectively as a club over two decades.

I thank each and every fighter that has ever stepped on the mat or through the ropes in USKA colours to represent my gym and hope you were as proud of USKA as USKA and I were of you.

To celebrate and commemorate 20 years in the game I decided to put together a Knockout highlight reel featuring some of USKA's finest KO's, Knockdowns and standing counts. Unfortunately a lot of footage has gone missing over the last 20 years so I apologise in advance to anyone that isn't featured.

That said there are some absolute crackers in this compilation featuring nearly 260 clips and starring over 40 of USKA's finest.

Please enjoy and share and here's to the next 20 years Inshallah!

6TH DECEMBER 2015

The last BLCC of the year at the BKA Kickboxing Academy in Burton-On-Trent seen a predominantly novice USKA squad take to the ring after the more experienced members of the fight team failed to get matched.

Up against more experienced opposition Connor Aston and Omar Farooq made their débuts and although both performing excellently came up short on the score cards losing on points but doing themselves and their team very proud in the process.

The first fight is always the most difficult and they can both be very happy with themselves stepping in against such good opposition first time out.

Sami Kelly and Hamza Farooq performed excellently in demonstration contests and Tom Rudge in two demonstrations showing improvement and great listening skills from the corner.

That's our last competition from the year in the books now and we look forward to a busy year competing in 2016 with the first BLCC already scheduled for January 31st at Aero-Kick gym in Birmingham.

29TH NOVEMBER 2015

A team of 5 USKA fighters took part in the WKU English Championships at the North Solihull Sports Centre in Chelmsley Wood in Birmingham on Sunday and performed excellently under the watchful eye of coaches Sean Quinn and Amer Kayani.

Conceding only one fight in 21 contests on the day the team walked away with 11 new National titles.

Hamza Farooq took gold in the -30kg mat light Continuous division and went out in the Semi Final of the Ring continuous -35kg division picking up a bronze after having to step up a weight.

Ahron Ali captured Gold in both the -35kg mat light continuous and -35kg Ring continuous divisions.

Ra'ees Kiani won Gold in both the -40kg mat light continuous and -40kg Ring continuous divisions.

Aryan Singh cleaned up winning Gold in the -45kg points division, Gold in the -50kg mat light continuous and Gold in the -45kg Ring continuous divisions. Not happy with his three fighting titles he also took Gold in the ITF forms sections and Silver in the Open Tae Kwon Do forms sections.

Lauran Lang also had a successful day winning Gold in the Ladies -55kg light continuous and Gold in the Ladies open weight Ring Continuous division.

The open tournament circuit will be a regular fixture for the USKA Fighting squad next year and if these results are anything to go by we can expect some very exciting times ahead. Well done team USKA!!!

8TH NOVEMBER 2015

USKA took three wins out of three on Saturday night at the Ring Rage Resurrection event in Burton-On-Trent at the Ritz Banqueting suite and earned three new BLCC titles in the process.

First up we seen Charlie 'Steam Roller' Stokes take on an unbeaten home fighter Aiman Shaid from the BKA Kickboxing gym for the BLCC -30kg English title.

Charlie and Aiman had fought previously to a draw earlier on in the year in a great fight so we knew we were due for more of the same when they met again.

Charlie turned in a master class over the five rounds and scored a majority decision although it has to be said we thought from the corner that it was pretty conclusive. Great win for young Charlie who after the World Championships continues his terrific roll of success.

Aiman is a talented young fighter and one to watch out for the future, credit to him for playing his part in a great fight.

Next up was Ra'ees ' Cool and Calm' Kiani taking on Jack Binns from the Assassins Kickboxing gym in East Sussex for the BLCC -40kg English title.

Ra'ees showed control and composure over the five round distance mixing in some great variety in his work to claim a Unanimous decision on the cards.

Credit to Jack who was in the fight from start to finish but Ra'ees on this occasion was one step ahead throughout.

Finally we had Aryan 'King Of Sting' Singh taking on Kyle Russon from the Eclipse gym in Wolverhampton for the BLCC -45kg English title.

This was Aryan's first title fight opportunity and first fight over the five round distance and he coped with it tremendously to lift a well earned and deserved unanimous decision on the cards.

Kyle Russon is a very good and respectful young fighter and will no doubt go on to achieve big things within the sport with his skill and attitude.

Thank you to Chris Squirrell at BKA for showcasing the USKA lads and for affording them the opportunities to fight for titles on such a great show.

6TH NOVEMBER 2015

All three of our boys made weight easily and are good to go in their English title fights tomorrow evening in Burton on the Ring Rage Resurrection event.

First up we will see Charlie Stokes fight the unbeaten Aiman Shaid for the under 30kg title. Next we have Ra'ees Kiani take on Jack Binns for the -40kg title and finally we have Aryan Singh fighting Kyle Russon for the -45kg title.

I can say hand on heart that all three USKA boys are better than they have ever been before and have put in great training camps over the last 5 weeks that will see them at their very best tomorrow in Burton.

They feature as part of an awesome line up of fights on Ring Rage Resurrection that features 2 European Title Fights, 1 British Title Fight, 2 English Title Fights and 2 International England Vs France clashes.

Tickets are still available if you would like to come down and support the terrific trio.

Good luck guys, go and do what you do best... Osu!

1ST NOVEMBER 2015

The 5th USKA Superman competition of the 2015 league went well on Sunday with plenty of new competitors taking part and lots of movement on the leader board making things very interesting with only one event to go in this years league.

As always the categories were fiercely contested but all with great sportsmanship with everyone cheering each other on throughout the 10 strenuous events.

Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you to all the supporters and helpers who made the day a great one.

The last event and grand championship will be held on Sunday 20th December alongside our annual student presentation awards.

The days results and league table after five events is as follows...

31ST OCTOBER 2015

If Raees Kiani Vs Jack Binns and Aryan Singh Vs Kyle Russon for BLCC English titles weren't enough for the USKA fans on next weeks Ring Rage Resurrection event in Burton we now have another English title to add to that with Charlie Stokes challenging for the BLCC -30kg title taking on the unbeaten and very talented Aiman Shaid from the Burton Kickboxing Academy.

Aiman was due to fight Combat Academy's Mareks Stromanis but due to a pull out from Mareks the search was on for a suitable replacement.

Charlie is fresh off a double World title win in Germany last week and although this will be a step up in weight for Charlie he is fit and ready and more than up for the challenge.

What adds more fuel to the fire for this one is that both fighters have met before with the fight ending in a draw showing how well they are matched.

All three fights are 50/50 pick em fights and will 100% be great battles as part of an awesome line up of fights on Ring Rage Resurrection that features 2 European Title Fghts, 1 British Title Fight, 2 English Title Fights and 2 International England Vs France clashes.

Tickets are £25 and are available from the USKA gym now!

All support will be greatly appreciated so let's get behind our boys to Bring Back Those Belts!!!

27TH OCTOBER 2015

After a day of rest and returning to the UK after the ICO World Championships in Stuttgart Germany I have finally had the time to sit down at my computer and post my reflections on the trip and the USKA fighters performances over there.

These trips are always mentally hard and physically demanding and the first thing that struck me was not a single moan or groan from any of the USKA fighters or supporters showing that we have the mental fortitude of champions to deal with anything that is thrown at us.

Charlie Stokes was amazing in the -25kg division in the Ring and on the mats taking Gold in both and turning out some career best performances. What makes this even more impressive is that he only signed up to go on the trip two days before we left. We have turned a corner with this little Champion and I'm expecting some massive things from him in the future.

Ahron Ali fought to Silver in the Ring and Bronze on the mats in some really tough fights. Ahron was giving away weight and age in this division but you couldn't tell as he fought with heart and determination to earn both his medals. We have only seen half of what this young warrior is capable of and if he keeps on improving at the rate he has been he we no doubt be a World Champion before too long.

Lauran Lang as well as signing up for her own Cadet divisions also entered the Ladies divisions in the Ring and on the mats. First up for her was the Ladies -55kg mat division where she fought out of her skin showing brilliant skill and tenacity to capture Gold against tough French and German opposition. Unfortunately for Lauran though she took an elbow to the nose that afterwards needed hospital attention. After a nights rest she decided that she would continue with her other categories even though her nose was extremely tender.

In her Ladies -55kg ring division she was again fighting brilliantly but took a shot to the already damaged nose that resulted in an uncontrollable flow of blood.

I was unable to stop the blood flow in the corner and had to take the decision to pull her out of a fight that we felt she was winning. These things happen and Lauran on this occasion had to settle for Bronze. Ironically, due to the injury Lauran didn't even get the chance to compete in the two Cadet categories that she was there for in the first place.

Harun Khan had a tough time in the Cadets and Adults -80kg divisions in the ring having to fight tooth and nail to progress through the first stages of the tournament only to fight fresh opponents in the finals. Not only was he up against the fatigue of fighting already he also had to deal with talented operators in the final and came up short having to settle for two Silver medals.

On day two on the mats in the Cadets division he wouldn't be denied though and although being unlucky once again having to fight before he came up against a fresh opponent this time he took care of business and punched and kicked his opponent to a standstill to have his hand raised in victory to capture the Gold.

I had +85kg Veteran and Masters divisions back to back on the mats on day one of the competition and despite weighing in at just over 86kg felt confident enough that my speed would see me through. I felt defensively I was on point but slightly off on my timing offensively making the fights probably a little bit closer than they should have been. That said each fight in the two divisions were won unanimously and I was happy enough with my performances and two Gold medals.

On day two I competed in the Ring Masters +85kg division turning in what I felt was a much better balanced performance against Russian opposition in the final to Unanimously lift the Gold.

The icing on the cake was being awarded the 'Best of the Best Fighter of the tournament' award the next day at the medal ceremony which was totally unexpected and very humbling.

After being really ill at last years unified World Championships I felt somewhat redeemed this year and on reflection am very happy with what I have achieved after a long and gruelling training camp.

As well as the fighters our two travelling supporters Mikey Stokes and Chezney Ali were amazing. It was great to spend time with you guys and appreciate all your efforts and support over there. The USKA force and bond is strong.

Thanks you to the ICO big boss Andrew Hennessy his wife Fiona Hennessy and all the ICO team of officials, officers and coaching team that helped to make the tournament such a success and held it together around all the madness that these International competitions bring.

Thank you to all the USKA crew back at the USKA Fight Factory who helped us prepare in the build up and share our success in victory as quite simply we couldn't have done it without you. This of course is headed by my main man himself Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn who tirelessly gives up his time and effort to make sure that each and every USKA fighter is fully equipped for battle come fight time. Big respect Sean.

Thank you to my wifey Alva and my family for the endless support that allows me to continue to chase these crazy dreams into my ripe old age.

Just want to finish off by dedicating my wins to all my family and friends that I have lost over previous years that are always in my prayers. This might be the last time I ever have the chance to compete so thought it fitting to dedicate the wins in their names. Osu...

Brother Azmat Yaqub

Friend Shaham Ali

Auntie Goretti Dunne

Cousin Gerard Connolly

Uncle Pat Losty

Friend Simon Price

Friend Nigel Troman

Friend Angela Studdards

Friend Jonathan Kelly

Friend Omar Rizwan

Friend Colin Harten

Friend Kevin Hickey

Friend Michael Murray

Friend Anthony McDonald

21ST OCTOBER 2015

A last minute addition to ICO team England travelling to the ICO World Championships in Stuttgart Germany on Thursday will be USKA's mighty atom Charlie Stokes competing in the Boys -25kg division.

Charlie has stepped up his training in the last month and was delighted to be asked to attend the Championships, a chance and opportunity which he jumped at.

We wish Charlie and all the USKA competitors the very best of luck over in Germany and look forward to the possibility of bringing some World Championship medals back to the USKA Fight Factory.

20TH OCTOBER 2015

Well another training camp is over now and it's been a pretty good one to be fair.

Compared to last years World Championship Preparation, the knees are in relatively good shape and have been throughout the whole camp, No throat infection (so far at least) and no stomach bug. so I'm happy like a room without a roof as they say :-)

It's no secret that it gets harder as you get older and things that were so easy back in the day now become a struggle. The aches and pains the morning after training are potent and the only time they truly subside are when you are actually in the gym swooping leather and doing your thing.

I am ready and it's nice to say that because with readiness comes no excuses and no regrets.

Id like to say a massive thank you to all my training partners that have hit me and be hit by me over the last 12 weeks or so and also a massive thank you to USKA coach Sean 'The Mighty' Quinn for the pad work and training at the Fight Factory.

Over the last couple of years I have filmed some of my training as a coaching aid so I could watch it back and assess what I was doing right and wrong and make adjustments for my next session. I've compiled some of the footage here in a highlight reel of some of the best bits.

It's been emotional, time now to cash in on all the hard work... Osu!

17TH OCTOBER 2015

13 hard working and excited Little Ninja's were happy today on successfully completing their

USKA Little Ninja's grading.

This was our second ever Little Ninja's grading with 11 students taking their first LN Red Belt and 2 moving on to their second grade of LN White / Yellow Stripe Belt.

All worked exceptionally hard showing fitness, basic technique and pad work over their hour long grading performing excellently under the pressure of having their parents and family's watching from the sidelines.

A big congratulations to everyone who took part.

LITTLE NINJA RED BELTS

MAXWELL HARPER

ASGHAR HUSSAIN

EISSA AHMED

KAREEMAH BARAS

AYYUB KEELING

KASIM IMTIAZ

SAHIL IMTIAZ

TANYA IMTIAZ

AROOJ SHOAIB

ADAM ALI

LITTLE NINJA WHITE / YELLOW STRIPE BELT

KAIYAN KHAN

USAIYD BASHIR

16TH OCTOBER 2015

Alongside Ra'ess Kiani's BLCC -40kg English title challenge against Jack Binns on the Ring Rage Resurrection in Burton On Trent on Saturday 7th November we are pleased to also announce now that we have a second USKA fighter in action on the show.

USKA new signing Aryan Singh will take on Eclipse Kickboxing's Kyle Russon for the English -45kg title

over 5 x 1 1/2 minute rounds.

Aryan is flying high since joining USKA taking four Gold medals at the ICO British Championships in June and he takes on an extremely talented fighter in Kyle Russon who is trained by World Champions Kyle Williams and Fran Zucalla in Wolverhampton.

This show just looks to be getting better and better and is one not to be missed.

For tickets to support Aryan and Ra'ees please contact the USKA gym.

8TH OCTOBER 2015

Four fighters from USKA will travel to Stuttgart Germany on 22nd October to fight in the ICO World Championships.

Going for World Honours and representing ICO Team England will be Ahron Ali in the boys -35kg division, Lauran Lang in the Female cadets -55kg division, Harun Khan in the Male Cadets -80kg division and USKA Chief Instructor Neil Kelly in the Mens Masters +85kg division.

They are all training exceptionally hard for the challenge ahead and are excited about the prospect of bringing back some World medals to the USKA Fight Factory.

We all from USKA wish them a safe journey and return and the very best of success at the Championships.

3RD OCTOBER 2015

On the 7th November at the Ring Rage Resurrection event in Burton On Trent USKA's own Ra'ees Kiani will challenge for the -40kg BLCC English Title over 5 rounds against the highly regarded prospect Jack Binns from the Assassins gym in East Sussex.

Ra'ess is the former -35kg BLCC Midland Area Champion and 2 times Unified World Champion and is excited about the prospect of adding the BLCC English Title belt to his growing collection. On paper though this will be a tough fight for Ra'ees who will be up against a much talked about fighter who will be doing everything in his power to take the title back to East Sussex.

This is sure to be a great hotly contested clash and part of an awesome line up of fights on Ring Rage Resurrection that features 2 European Title Fghts, 1 British Title Fight, 2 English Title Fights and 2 International England Vs France clashes.

Tickets are £25 and will be available from the USKA gym shortly.

Let's get behind our boy to Bring Back The Belt!!!

22ND SEPTEMBER 2015

100 Rounds Appreciation Evening 2015

Following on from the charity sparring event on Saturday 5th September at Sparkhill Park, we will be holding an appreciation evening in recognition of the hard work that everyone put in to making the event a success.

Details are as follows:

100 Rounds 2015 Appreciation Evening:

*Awards for the junior fundraisers.
*Medals for the 'Hardcore 100' and certificates for all participants.
*Light entertainment.
* A grand total figure how much money was raised and where that money will be spent.

Date: Saturday 17th October.

Time: 7pm sharp.
Venue: Imrans Restaurant, Ladypool Road, Birmingham.

Cost: £10 per head. 3 course meal.

Event sponsors, Local dignataries and businesses have been invited and it promises to be great a little networking event too. If you would like to attend then please contact Rizwan Mustafa on 07473103783 with the number of seats you would like to reserve.

19TH SEPTEMBER 2015

At USKA we have the philosophy to not rush our way through the grades believing that every level of our system should be mastered before moving onto the next level.

Due to Ramadan and then the Summer holidays back to back we had a smaller than normal contingent of Grading candidates for our September grading but I am glad to say that those that did attempt their belts came prepared and turned out a very strong grading performance.

We had 100% pass rate across our 11 participants and two star graders

in Sami Kelly with 92% (A- Grade / Orange Belt) and

Connor Aston with an extremely rare 100% (A Grade / White Belt).

Congratulations to all the successful Graders on moving onto your new coloured belts and having your hard work recognised. Osu!

5TH SEPTEMBER 2015

On Saturday 5th September at Sparkhill park in Birmingham 146 participants took park in the 100 round Fight The Famine charity body shot boxing event organised by USKA Kickboxing and the Global Rahman Foundation.

Participants secured sponsorships in an attempt to feed the needy families in Syria and Palestine by delivering food parcels containing essantials for a full month.
There were clothes stalls, food, refreshments, kids games, bouncy castles and special guests in attendance and it turned out to be a really well attended and fun day for all the families and friends that turned up to support.

It was great to see so many different ages, genders, creed, colour and religions working together in complete unity for the common cause of humanity and the atmosphere and vibe of togetherness was amazing.

We will not have a final total of what we raised until the deadline for sponsor money ends in another month but all indications point towards a really successful day.

It is not too late to donate if you haven't already to make a difference in so many peoples lives.

Please click the following link and give generously...

ONLINE DONATIONS

3RD SEPTEMBER 2015

On Thursday 3rd September USKA's ICO Professional Super Lightweight Champion of the World Qasim 'The Dream' Beg was invited to the inaugural Pakistani Media Awards at Birmingham's Badshah Palace Conference and Banquetting Hall after being nominated for an award.

Launched to recognise the growing talent among the Pakistani community within media, entertainment and sport, the evening was a glitzy affair of celebrities and prominent members of the media community.

The announcement for the best Kickboxer award was made by 4 times World Champion Kash 'The Flash' Gill and the winner was non other that USKA's golden boy Qasim.

With so many incredible talents from the Pakistani community, the first ever Pakistani Music and Media Awards was a great success. Congratulations to all of the winners especially our own Qasim The Dream!

25TH AUGUST 2015

On Monday 24th August USKA Chief Instructor Neil Kelly and Global Rahmah Foundation Representative and Fight The Famine event organiser Rizwan Mustafa travelled to the Islam Channel in London to feature live on their 'Living the Life' sofa discussion show to promote their forthcoming 100 rounds of boxing sparring event on 5th September 2015 in Sparkhill Park, Birmingham.
They were made very welcome by all the staff at the Islam Channel and especially

Living The Life hosts Joseph Hayat and Basit Khan.
On 5th September at Sparkhill park in Birmingham we will attempt to complete 100 rounds of body shot boxing sparring for charity. Participants will secure sponsorships to feed the needy families in Palestine and Syria by delivering food parcels. There will also clothes stalls, food, refreshments, kids games and much more. So join us for fun day out for the family.
Every time you turn on the news or pick up a paper all you see is doom and gloom and sadness, this is your chance to do something positive and really make a difference to peoples lives.
We are looking for participants, sponsors and volunteers for the day.
The sense of achievement on completion of this kind of event is unreal, get involved and be part of a great day.
To Participate and request entry and sponsorship forms please contact

Neil Kelly on 07976 703 781 or neilflex1@aol.com.
To volunteer on the day, Support or sponsor the event please contact Rizwan on 07473 103 783.
You can also make online donations at the following link...
www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/grf

24TH AUGUST 2015

Sunday 23rd August seen yet another well attended and successful USKA Superman event take place at the USKA Fight Factory with lots of new competitors experiencing the Superman experience for the very first time.
The 10 event competition was as testing as ever with everyone performing excellently and giving their all for the prizes and league points up fro grabs on the day.

The next scheduled Superman event will be held on Sunday 1st November.

The Results from Sunday and the League Table standings after 4 events are as follows...

6 YRS AND UNDER

1ST PLACE: EHSAAN MAHMOOD

2ND PLACE: MIA STOKES

3RD PLACE: OLIVER HARGREAVES

7-8 YRS

1ST PLACE: JEMIMMA MAHMOOD

2ND PLACE: IBRAHIM IQBAL

3RD PLACE: ARWAA

9-10 YRS

1ST PLACE: CHARLIE STOKES

2ND PLACE: MAUW MAUW

3RD PLACE: MARIA MAHMOOD

11-12 YRS

1ST PLACE: AHRON ALI

2ND PLACE: RA'EES KIANI

3RD PLACE: ARIF SHAH

13-15 YRS

1ST PLACE: KEATAN MAHI

2ND PLACE: SABRENA GALLAGHER

3RD PLACE: ARYAN SINGH

10TH AUGUST 2015

On 5th September at Sparkhill park in Birmingham we will attempt to complete 100 rounds of body shot boxing for charity.

Participants will secure sponsorships to feed the needy families in Palestine and Syria by delivering food parcels.
There will also clothes stalls, food, refreshments, kids games and much more. So join us for fun day out for the family.

Every time you turn on the news or pick up a paper all you see is doom and gloom and sadness, this is your chance to do something positive and really make a difference to peoples lives.

We are looking for participants, sponsors and volunteers for the day.

The sense of achievement on completion of this kind of event is unreal, get involved and be part of a great day.
To Participate and request entry and sponsorship forms please contact Neil Kelly on 07976 703 781 or neilflex1@aol.com.

To volunteer on the day, Support or sponsor the event please contact Rizwan on 07473 103 783.

You can also make online donations at the following link...

ONLINE DONATIONS

FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE

SATURDAY 1ST AUGUST 2015

The inaugural USKA Little Ninjas grading went superbly today at the USKA Fight Factory with 7 new Ninja's being awarded there Little Ninjas Red belts following their 50 minute grading examination. The grading started with a testing fitness endurance relay followed by basic shadow boxing technique and then onto Kickboxing padwork, finishing with an exercise circuit to close the show.

All 7 Little Ninjas passed with flying colours coping exceptionally well of performing in front of their parents for the first time.

A big congratulations to the first ever Little Ninja Red Belts

Callum Cade, Kaiyan Khan, Usaiyd Bashir, Ismaeel Qasim, Zakariyah Fiaz, Haris Fiaz and Rocky Kelly.

Our Next Little Ninjas Grading has been pencilled in for Saturday 17th October where I'm sure we will have many more of our younger members shining like the stars they are. Well done all.

SATURDAY 1ST AUGUST 2015

An intricate cog in the complex USKA wheel is Neil’s right hand man Sean ‘The Mighty’ Quinn. Sean who first joined USKA as a student in 2002 after earning his black belt at the PKA (Professional Karate Association) and then later moving on to become not only one of USKA’s but one of the country’s finest coaches and cornermen. Sean himself built an impressive fight record losing only 1 light continuous bout and 1 full contact bout in well over 20 contests, but his forte lay in his ability to bring the best out of fighters. His eye for perfection and attention to detail has seen him play a major part in producing some of the finest fighters in not only the country but the World. His week in, week out, day to day involvement with the fighters get them in tip top condition to fight and represent USKA to the fullest at the highest of levels.

Sean as a man is absolutely selfless with his time, effort and commitment that he gives to the members of USKA. Whether it be a fighter taking part in his first amateur light continuous contest or a fighter who is contesting the professional championship of the world.

Sean continues to this day putting the fighters through their paces at the USKA Fight Factory and continues himself to improve as a coach all the time believing that knowledge is power so that he can pass on that knowledge to the fighters in his charge.

In May 2015 for Sean's coaching achievements he was inducted into the MAI Martial Arts Hall of Fame receiving a highly regarded Gold award, this is an achievement he was very proud of and it is an achievement bestowed on only a few within the Martial Arts fraternity.

He is without doubt USKA's unsung hero and largely responsible for each and every USKA fighters success over the last 10 years and is very well known for his famous 'One More Round' Mantra.

Here is a short feature looking at Sean from Fighter to Martial Arts Hall Of Fame coach.