CANMORE – For a guy who’s about to get into a fight, Travis Erlam’s calm, confident and made it clear what he wants to do.
“I’m going to take him out. I’m either going to make him submit from strikes, or choke him out, 100 per cent,” Erlam said.
The head instructor of Bow Valley Jiu Jitsu (BVJJ) makes his combat jiu-jitsu debut at Rumble In The Cage (RITC) 62, Saturday (Oct. 19) in Lethbridge, where he’ll face Calgary’s Sebastian Lopez of Wiley BJJ in a 195-pound catchweight bout.
The card will be streamed on pay-per-view and is being shown at Canmore’s Sheepdog Brewing at 7 p.m.
Canmore’s Adam Zekry, also from BVJJ, debuts in amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) on the card. He fights Calgary’s John Moore at 185 pounds.
The RITC card features professional and amateur MMA and combat jiu-jitsu bouts. The rules for combat jiu-jitsu are similar to jiu-jitsu except there are no gis and open hand strikes are legal when one or both fighters are on the ground. The bout is one 10-minute round and will be declared a draw if there is no verbal submission or tap out.
“[Submitting an opponent is] the goal of any jiu-jitsu match and now this one just has strikes … I think it’s just my style encapsulated into just givin’ ‘er and go after that submission,” said Erlam, 33, a purple belt.
“I think the way I can promote [combat jiu-jitsu] and show it can be an exciting and motivating factor that we can get it to be something extraordinary in Alberta, or within western Canada even.”
RITC promoter Lee Mein asked Erlam if he was interested in doing the hybrid bout. Mein was impressed by Erlam’s drive to constantly pressure opponents and look for submissions at jiu-jitsu tournaments and wanted an exciting fighter to compete for Canada’s longest running MMA promotion.
“I’m so stoked, I get goose bumps thinking about it every time,” Erlam said. “The weird thing is, I don’t even get nervous before fights, I just get into a zone and I implement my game plan and I’m looking forward to choking someone out on pay-per-view.”
Erlam’s opponent, Lopez, has some experience in combat jiu-jitsu. Last November, Lopez fought to a draw at RITC 60, but the local ace isn’t fazed by the little bit of bout time.
“Let’s throw it out there, I’m either going to rear-naked choke or heel hook him – maybe a triangle choke if he gives it to me,” Erlam said.
“The process in my mind is it’s just an another challenge to overcome, I’ve never dealt with strikes on the ground before, so it’s fun finding out what I can and can’t do. To me it’s just a problem solving experiment to see how it goes and represent the club and represent the Bow Valley … (we’re a) small club in a small community, but we breed big results, so I’m excited.”
BVJJ champ wins Absolute title belt
Budding Bow Valley Jiu Jitsu star, Carter Haines, tapped his way to absolute victory at the Submission Ace Championship on Saturday (Oct. 12) in Blackfalds.
Haines, 24, won gold in his blue belt division before stepping up to the open weight Absolute category, where the prized title belt was on the line in the biggest submission only tournament in western Canada.
The blue belt was able to tap out his final opponent with a heel hook in the dying seconds of the match.
