Something I feel you guys will be happy to hear is that I am the Heavyweight Combatives Champion of my batallion. :)

The tournament was submission wrestling pretty much. No striking. We were barefoot in our ACU's, which are pretty much camo gi's. It was a 480 man tournament, with 96 in the Heavyweight class (245+ lbs). I was the lightest, weighing in at 195. I had shown great potential in the combatives classes leading up to the tournament, and we needed another heavyweight, so I told Drill Sergeant I would accept the challenge. I had 6 matches total, going undefeated and winning the tournament. Here's my record:

1st round – Dickey vs. Gordon (6'6", 260lbs) - Dickey by way of armbar from the guard in round two

2nd round – Dickey vs. Baltazar (6'3", 240lbs) – Dickey by way of bent arm bar/americana from the mount in round one

3rd round – Dickey vs. Emershaw (6'4", 255lbs) – Dickey by way of guillotine choke from the guard in round one

Quarterfinals - Dickey vs. McCoy (6'0", 225lbs) – Dickey by way of heel hook in round three

Semifinals - Dickey vs Givens (6'1", 250lbs) – Dickey by way of straight armbar from side control in round one

Finals - Dickey vs Nolan (6'4", 265lbs) – Dickey by way of rear naked choke in round two

It was an unofficial tournament, just something thrown together to give meaning to our combatives classes (which were real basic, elementary stuff.) I actually proved to the drill sergeants that I knew what I was doing when we learned something new in class, then was given permission to go help teach some of the other trainees.

In round one, I had pulled a beautiful double leg takedown on Gordon (a big guy from Miami with a really bad attitude) and came down in his half guard, and quickly passed to mount. He ended up just grabbing my head and squeezing, which busted cartilage in my ear and gave me slight cauliflower ear (again), and gashed it open pretty badly. The match was stopped because I was bleeding all over. I was up by points and in mount when it happened, so they said I won that round. I was cleaned up and went back into it. I hip tossed the big guy when he charged me and missed my post to stop my momentum, and ended up rolling and catching him in my guard. He was quite angry by now, because Goliath was losing to David, and reeled back and took a huge downward swing at my face. I slipped to the side, but his thumb drug across my forehead and cut my head open. However, because there was all that force behind his hand, it ended up smashing into the mat where my head used to be. I timed it well and, when it made contact with the mat, I already had his wrist and was pulling up for the armbar. I sunk it in and basically just tried to break his arm. I won't lie. It started to crackle and pop, and the drill sergeants stopped it for saftey and declared me winner. Gordon took another swing at me (with his other arm) as we were getting up, then was escorted off to the corner where he preceded to throw a temper tantrum the rest of the tournament.

Because of my injuries, the drill sergeants were going to disqualify me. I talked my way back into the tournament, saying I would tape up my cuts and that I'll be just fine. They really liked my motivation and never-quit attitude. I went on winning like I listed above. I had some pretty sweet throws and shots. Wish they would've filmed it so I could post it on here.

The best part about the tournament (besides the free Modern Army Combatives T-shirt for winning) was that, since I was so much smaller than everyone I was pitted against, I was laughed at every match. Every single time I stepped in there, it was David vs. Goliath, and every single time Goliath ended up lying on the mat while David stood victorious. It felt great to prove that finesse beats power and heart and knowledge beat strength and size.