New SBGi Portland blues & Camp preparation:

We had three new blue belt promotions this week at the Portland headquarters. Congrats to Mike and Tim pictured below from day class.

And also Chris from ICC, who received his blue after a grueling Friday night iron man session. There won’t be any sandbagged white belts when the Annual Spring Camp rolls around in a couple weeks in Portland.

Chris ironmans the Friday night class.

The newly re-modeled Gym is ready to receive what looks to be it’s biggest crowd ever. With people from around the world already pre-registered. Teaching at this Years Camp will be: BJJ black belts Karl Tanswell, Eric Hemphill, Chris Haueter, Steve Whittier and Matt Thornton, SBGi boxing Coach Brian Walsh, and SBGi Coaches Travis Davison, Lily Pagle and Cody Houston.

See you there!

SBGi's female athletes rocking the competition:

On Feb 23rd (sat) Lisa Higo won the European title belt by way of 2nd round TKO against a very tough and game Dutch opponent. Lisa is the latest in a long line of awesome SBG female athletes, and I'm sure she's got a great future ahead of her in MMA.

Karl with Lisa.

A few weeks earlier the very talented MMA athlete Aisling (Ash) Daly received her purple belt from Matt Thornton, while Matt was on tour in Ireland. You can check out her fight against Nadia Van Der Wal at www.sbgireland.com under 'videos'.

From Matt: "Aisling has a very technical and solid BJJ game, and I am very proud to add her to the list of SBGi purple belts."

Matt completes Ireland & Sweden tour:

This February Matt spent a little over two weeks touring all over Ireland, and finishing up at the SBGi Sweden locations. Matt did 12 separate workshops and seminars including three separate locations in Dublin, as well as Galway and Belfast.

From there Matt went to Norrköping for a weekend seminar that included SBGi Coaches & BJJ black belts John Kavanagh, and Karl Tanswell. Matt finished off the tour at SBGi Stockholm, before flying back home to Portland.

Karl, Matt & Kavanagh

It was a real pleasure to have old SBGi friends Pritt from Estonia, and Vic from Sweden. . .both of whom have lived for several Months in Portland in order to train in Years past.

John, Karl & Vic.

Matt with Pritt from SBGi Estonia, and Karl. Pritt was a welcome member of the Portland SBGi family for several Months when he visited us here in Oregon to train.

Matt finished off the tour at SBGi Stockholm, before flying back home to Portland.

Matt teaching in Norrköping.

From Matt: “This was a great tour and there are a lot of people to thank for helping put it together. But special thanks goes to John Kavanagh and Daniel Bäckefelt for their help, and also Karl Tanswell for helping out in Sweden. I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I will leave it at that. But I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again soon. I had a really good trip.And I am consistently impressed by the real technical quality of all the SBGi family members around the globe!”

Matt & Travis complete SBGi NY City seminar!

Matt was once again in NYC at SBGi NY for a weekend seminar.

Matt recently underwent major knee surgery (ACL), so he took along with him SBGi Coach Travis Davison. Travis taught some great sections, and rolled with everyone at the event. Much thanks to Christian Montes for once again hosting a really fun event. It was good to see the talent on the mat, as well as some old friends like Paul Myatovich, who made the commute from Jersey to attend the event.

Travis seen center here.