Fight League Atlantic: Submission Kumite 1, and the state of Combat Sports in Canada

Combat Sports Journal
Oct 23, 2020
3 min read

This Saturday evening, Fight League Atlantic will host their first submission only event inside their cage. As far as I know, this is just the second Combat Sporting event of any kind to take place in Canada dating back to the beginning of he Covid-19 shutdowns in March.

Fight League Atlantic will be live this Saturday with their event known as Submission Kumite 1. This event will be a 16 man submission grappling tournament, taking place in their competition cage. The winner of this tournament will take home the Championship Ring, and a one year supply of Envisage Sport Pre Workout Coffee.

Canadian Combat Sports in the Time of Covid-19:

Yes that is right, here in Canada we have not been able to host Combat Sporting events. As Combat Sports fans, we have been more blessed than Max Holloway to have the UFC return as the first sports league after the initial shutdowns, with just two month off. Canadians have been lucky enough to have two "bubbles" to produce NHL events, as well as other sports leagues including the NBA and MLB. Here in Canada, our combat sports athletes have had very few chances to compete, as there have been no major or even regional MMA events, and very few, if any other combat sports events. With foreign travelers still banned from entering Canada, and a mandatory blanket 14 day quarantine for anybody entering the country, it is next to impossible to plan an level of MMA event that might include non-Canadians. Since we have still been unable to hold MMA events here in Canada dating back to March, this has left many up and coming Canadian fighters forced to travel to places such as the United States in order to compete. A perfect example of this is the number 1 ranked Canadian bantamweight fighter (outside of the UFC, Bellator, or other major promotion), and headliner of the first ever Fight League Atlantic MMA event, Jesse "The Big Cat" Arnett as he travels to Florida next week for a short notice MMA bout. I'm very happy for Fight League Atlantic to be able to provide this opportunity for some of their local fighters in the Atlantic region of Canada be able to compete. Hopefully, soon enough, Fight League Atlantic (and the rest of Canada) will be able to hold MMA events.

Fight League Atlantic: Submission Kumite 1:

This Saturday evening, Fight League Atlantic will host their event, Submission Kumite 1. As mentioned above, it will be a 16 man submission grappling tournament featuring some great grapplers and MMA fighters from the Atlantic region of Canada. This is a great opportunity for these local combat sports athletes to have a chance to compete close to home. Good on Fight League Atlantic for being able to pull this off! There will also be three submission only matches taking place in between rounds of the tournament matches. One big name in the tournament that UFC fans might recognize is four fight UFC veteran Chris "The Greek Assassin" Kelades. The winner of the tournament will take home the FLA Championship ring (pictured below), as well as a one year supply of Envisage Sport Pre Workout Coffee. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me!

FLA: Submission Kumite Championship Ring

This event will start at 5:30 PM Eastern time (or 6:30 Atlantic time for those watching locally. This is conveniently timed as the UFC 254: Khabib vs Gaethje pay per view starts at 2 PM. Meaning combat sports fans can watch the full UFC event with a headliner likely to produce some great MMA grappling, and then head over to Fight League Atlantic to watch pure submission grappling right after the UFC. Saturday will be a great day for Combat Sports fans! The tournament bracket is posted below: