Three local Kickboxers are getting ready to compete on Team USA Kickboxing for the WAKO World Championships of Kickboxing. After a dominating performance in Las Vegas, Nevada at the WAKO North American Championship, These 3 Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) Kickboxers from Greubels Mixed Martial Arts in Augusta, Ga. Have over 100 combined fights, all have competed and done well in these Championships but none have taken home the highest honor of Gold yet. Chris Richardson (28, Augusta, Ga), Adam Poore (26, Aiken , Sc) and Nathan Key (26, Augusta, Ga) are the Competitors striving to claim the top spots among the best kickboxers in the world.
Christopher Bernard Richardson was born June 26, 1987. He is an amateur kick boxer, born on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, fighting out of Augusta Georgia. His current record is 16 wins and 6 losses. Bernard’s next competition is the WAKO World Championship taking place in Dublin Ireland on the 21st of November. The 5’11” fighter began training kickboxing in 2008. What began as personal challenge evolved into a passion. Bernard turned his natural athleticism into a precise and explosive martial arts prowess, winning seven titles in the past seven years. The talented fighter has since added Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) (blue belt), Boxing, Muay Thai, and Judo (yellow belt) to his arsenal. Preparation for the upcoming tournament includes practice five days a week, four hours a day, hitting strength training, cardio, technique and sparring. Bernard participated in this tournament in 2013 and lost a tough fight on points after all three rounds to a team France fighter, who subsequently was unable to continue the tournament. This time around Bernard hopes to win the gold medal by staying active with his strikes and kicks and keeping the pressure on his opponents.
Adam Poore is the top welterweight kickboxer in the United States. He is ranked #1 in the US branch of WAKO (world association of kickboxing organizations). He has won the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) North American championship twice, as well as the International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) World Classic three times. Through hard work and determination Adam has earned a spot on the US team, and will be competing in the WAKO World championships in Belgrade, Serbia on the 23rd of October this month. Adam started training in Tae Kwon Do at age nine, earning his black belt by age fifteen. He competed across the United States and believes that this early competition experience has helped him greatly in his kickboxing career. After earning his black belt Adam became disenchanted with Tae Kwon Do and stopped training. He said “I stopped training because I wanted to be ‘normal’. The competition was getting harder and I wasn’t getting the respect I thought I had earned. Kids would do the karate kid stance when they saw me at school, it was ridiculous. That was all Bull***t though, some people make fun of what they don’t have out of jealousy. Its better to stand out, even if its hard.” Without martial arts Adam ballooned up to two hundred and fifty pounds. At age twenty he wanted to get back into martial arts, he discovered Greubels MMA and saw that their kickboxing program had incredible credentials. Adam then decided to become a champion kickboxer. Training alone, he lost over eighty pounds until he felt his body was ready for the rigors of intense fight training. After signing up at Greubels, he trained for about a year until his first real match. Since that time he has had thirty seven fights and hopes to go professional in the upcoming year. Adam is currently a trainer at Greubels MMA and hopes to help people accomplish their goals through Martial Arts. He is thankful for the help he has gotten along the way and enjoys helping others and watching them improve. Adam is determined to represent his country to the best of his ability and bring home a medal back from Serbia.
Nathan Key was born and raised mostly in Augusta Ga. He attended Westside and Lakeside high school class of 2007. His martial arts journey began his junior year of high school and a year later was in Croatia fighting in the junior kickboxing World Champions to which he earned the silver medal in a very tough fight against Russia. He continued fighting through college racking up around 60 total fights to this day, he mainly does kickboxing but has competed in cage fights or Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), boxing, and Jiu Jitsu. When asked about his goals he says “my goal is to go as far as I can in martial arts and fight the best in the world. Win, lose, or draw I just want to improve and test myself.” He is also attending the full contact Kickboxing World championship in Dublin Ireland. This will be his 5th time fighting in these World Championships, coming away with 2 silvers and a top 8 and he is currently ranked #3 in the world in the -75kg weight class. After this his dream and plan is to fight in as many professional kickboxing shows as possible as he makes his name in the World of mixed martial arts, with the ultimate 5 year goal of being the Champion of the heavily coveted UFC’s Lightweight Title.
Current Tae Kwon Do black belt and former 5 time world champion in the International Martial Arts Council (IMAC) Dustin Yoe had this to say “this is the best martial arts gym I have trained at in the past 7 years. The coaches are the best that I have worked with. The quality can be seen when you have 3 fighters each competing at the world championships on Team USA.”
All 3 of these fighters have a passion for martial arts and are in pursuit of fulfilling their dreams everyday. Be sure to follow these fighters on social media as they journey to their world championships representing WAKO Team USA, or if you are interesting in joining the team and training with these guys, please contact Greubels MMA, 2917 Riverwest Dr, Augusta, GA 30907. (706) 737-0911.
For more online information visit this link http://greubelsmma.com/
If someone would like to be a sponsor of the CSRA members of team USA, there are plenty of company and personal sponsorships packages available to help them out and get your companies name out there.
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