Whoosh. A body flies through the air and crashes onto the mat. Ethan Nguyen scrambles to get on top of his opponent, who desperately uses his arms to shove him away.
A smile forms on Nguyen’s face. “Perfect.” In one swift motion, he hugs his adversary’s right arm and spins, catching the arm between his legs and falling to his back. With his opponent’s elbow as a fulcrum over his thigh, Nguyen pulls their upper arm to the floor while bridging his hips to the sky, threatening to break the arm.
Tap. Tap. Tap. In a panic, the competitor taps Nguyen multiple times, indicating that the submission was applied successfully. Nguyen releases his hold and helps his foe to his feet. They fist bump each other, and do it all over again — this is submission grappling.
A NEW OPPORTUNITY
“When I was a kid, I started in Japanese jiu jitsu, which is the original grappling sport, and did judo on the side with it,” Nguyen said. “I got my brown belt, did wrestling in high school, wrestled all through four years and made it to [the California state championships].”
In wrestling and judo, there’s little opportunity for athletes to pursue a career in the sports — the only clear path is fighting for a spot on the Olympic teams, which are very limited. However, a new organization called ONE Championship is shaking up the world of martial arts.
ONE, an Asia-based combat sports league, hosts a variety of martial arts events: mixed martial arts, kickboxing, Muay Thai (a Thai form of kickboxing) and submission grappling. The organization hosted its first event in the United States last year, and this year, they plan to make a larger push in the country.
“When we made our historic U.S. debut with ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video, I was blown away by the support received from our fans in the U.S.,” ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong said in a news release. “I’m excited to once again showcase our World Champions on American soil. To our fans that haven’t seen a live ONE event, I promise you an experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”
In 2021, a Nielsen Report stated that ONE Championship “ranked top five in viewership and engagement among all major global sports properties.” Amidst this growing popularity, traditional martial artists, like Nguyen, now have an alternative path to pursue their sport at a higher level.
One of Nguyen's teammates, Eric Choi, began submission grappling three years ago. Since he started the sport, he's seen more and more people join his gym. Choi believes organizations like ONE have played a big role in this trend.
"With time, more and more people are realizing that this is a legitimate sport," Choi said. "As we see it become mainstream, more people will start to be able to make a living and more people will just have the opportunity to start this really fun hobby."
With a strong desire to pursue a career in the world of martial arts, Nguyen became the head wrestling coach at his alma mater, Sunny Hills High School. Mario Leon, a high school freshman on the Sunny Hills wrestling team, said Nguyen’s experience in traditional martial arts gave his athletes a competitive edge.
“He did demonstrate this move on me called the imanari roll while we were going in a match,” Leon said. “I think it was great because it's not a move that's usually used in wrestling. It's more of a jiu jitsu or judo move. So I think it was just great how he was able to incorporate that into a match.”
But Nguyen didn’t want to just teach — he wanted to compete.
“When I was coaching, I kind of saw my kids compete and I felt that fire just burned more,” Nguyen said. “I just wanted more action happening. When I'm doing combat sports, I just want to feel like I'm battling it out with somebody out there, it is great … Why should I rely on having another partner when I could just compete and go out there myself?”
Breaking Tradition
Adam Alexander, one of Nguyen's training partners, recently competed in a traditional gi competition. The following photos are from that event. (Photos by Tyler Pak)
Dominique Worsley, who’s been coaching and competing in grappling events for thirteen years, said he believed that historically, boring traditional, point-based competitions have prevented the sport from becoming mainstream.
“This sort of action in gi competition, especially high level black belt world champion tournaments can oftentimes be very boring,” Worsley said.
“The gi allows you to hold grips and stall. These guys kind of developed a style of jiu jitsu where it’s two really great black belts in the game and they're just stalling.
"They're both so good they can't do anything on either one. They're both being really, careful and cautious, so there's no submissions happening.
"And then all of a sudden at the end, a guy gets a sweep at the last 30 seconds and then he wins, and it's a world championship.
"Nobody in jiu jitsu really finds that exciting … for the general masses, it's just boring.”
Although Nguyen doesn't plan on competing in the traditional gi, he said that his background in traditional martial arts has helped him stand out as a competitor in submission grappling.
“I believe it just makes me more flexible in my techniques because I started with Japanese jiu jitsu and judo,” Nguyen said. “It sort of made me a perfectionist because when I was a kid, if my hand was not in the right place or I didn't hold something properly, or if I didn't put my foot somewhere, then it could cost me — or I’d just get yelled at, basically. But as I grew older, I understood why they were pushing so much on that. Because if I can do all these things at a high level, I will never be put in a spot where I'll be in a dangerous position.”
At the end of February, Nguyen left his job as wrestling coach at Sunny Hills in order to dedicate more time towards competition training, much to the dismay of his wrestlers.
“Ethan was a good coach,” Leon said. “He pushed me a lot. But he was a good coach. And he is leaving. And I am a little bit sad.”
fighting Stereotypes
Video by Tyler Pak
As he continues to compete, Nguyen hopes that he can combat the narrative that Asian Americans aren’t capable of succeeding in combat sports.
“As an Asian American we’re very much pushed on schooling over fighting and all these other sports,” Nguyen said. “The top UFC fighters have at least some support in pursuing their career as a fighter … With ONE becoming so much bigger. I'm very proud about it. I think it's great that it's changing the narrative. But I think we need a purely Asian American to win ONE or the UFC and show that, like, we can do it. Because right now it's showing foreign talent from other countries. And so people are thinking, Asians in the East can do it, but what about back in the West? Can they do it? So we'll find out.”
Raymond Tsang, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, whose research focuses heavily on the intersection between martial arts and culture, said historically, Asians have used martial arts to combat negative stereotypes, harmful narratives and other injustices.
“Asian Americans got many problems in their everyday lives,” Tsang said. “Just a few years ago, we had COVID, and people were saying ‘Kung Flu’ … When [Asian Americans] take up this kind of sport, it can help empower themselves because they take part of that tradition — a cultural history of rebellion.”
While Nguyen is making his transition from wrestling coach to professional athlete, he’s earning money by making instructional videos on various martial arts techniques. Though he’s not sure if he will become a world champion, he is excited to see that the sport he loves is evolving.
“I think it’s very important for us to change the game,” Nguyen said. “Right now, to me, the game is boring. Everybody just likes to stay on their back and defend, but we need stand up — bad. I want to see people get picked up and slammed; I want to see people get thrown across the cage, like it’s more fun, and I think it’s more entertaining that way.”