Today was the 2nd most overdue black belt promotion that I know! Alex Serdyukov was an original Apex team member and got his brown belt the day I got my purple belt — December 13, 2006. Almost 11 years ago! He was a champion in the WEC back in 2005 and has beaten my ass MANY times during the Apex days, lol. He was promoted by another Apex original — Jason Bukich. I could not be happier about him finally being promoted and being yet another black belt that came from Apex!

Today was the Subfighter No Gi Summer Challenge tournament. We didn't have any students competing this time around, so I got to go just to enjoy myself, hang out with friends and cheer for competitors from the other Subfighter gyms.

Last night was another CXF show. This time at the Burbank Marriott Convention Center instead of the usual venue at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City. We had both Gabriel Green and Josh Jones fighting. Josh's fight was also a first round match in the King of Cali 8-man lightweight tournament. Another bonus on top of that was that Josh's fight in the first round was for the CXF interim lightweight championship.

So 6 days ago we had the CXF that Josh Jones' fight was cancelled due to his opponent getting injured. Well where one door closes, another one opened and Josh got in a replacement spot for a fight at the Combate Americas show in Ventura the very next Friday that had Emilio Chavez as the main event for the card.

Onto the CXF MMA show at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City after the Jiu Jitsu tournament earlier in the day. We had Gabriel Green and Marlen Magee fighting. Josh Jones was supposed to be on the card as well, but his opponent pulled out due to injury on the Tuesday before the fight.