‘Car-Jitsu’ takes the spotlight during Northern Combat Invitational’s doubleheader

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The peace region’s grappling promotion, Northern Combat Invitational (NCI) proved in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), anything can happen…even fights inside a car.

Car-Jitsu, a variation of BJJ, took place over the intermission of the NCI 19 on Saturday, May 19th. The match-up was contested between Marcel Rains of Fort Nelson BJJ and DJ Tattrie of Mahood Jiujitsu and MMA out of Grande Prairie.

True to its name, the grappling took place in the back of a two-seat Hyundai sports car, with seat belts and buckles in legal use. The match-up started with both contestants buckled into the back seat beside one another.

After an early guillotine choke attempt was thwarted, Tattrie took the contest by ankle lock at 1:44 of the six-minute match.

In his fourth car-jitsu match during NCI events, Rains dropped his first contest. He told Energeticcity.ca what is key to a win inside a vehicle’s doors. 

“If you can keep their seatbelt on, that’s a big advantage,” said Rains. “Whoever gets theirs off first has a lot more movement. This time around, I ended up getting pushed into the front seat and my foot was left in the back seat.”

“It was a back-and-forth match. I had a few good moments.  There was a turning point when he was able to push me into the front seat, which was unfamiliar territory for me, and he was able to capitalize very quickly.”

Joyous in victory, Tattrie said the key to victory was focusing on small joints, like ankles, necks, wrists and shoulders.

“[There is] not a whole lot you can do in a car,” said Tattrie. “So, you have to focus on keeping things small. [Rains] was sitting there choking me with the seat belt,  and I noticed his back was towards the opening. My feet were on his hips, so I just gave him a little push to the front seat, and his ankles were hanging out towards me. So I just grabbed one.”

Inside the confines of the Royal Canadian Legion hall, Ollie Studer of Dawson Creek MMA waged battle against Northern Combat Club’s Marc Scheafer in the main event of the evening.

Schaefer held onto his NCI cruiserweight title with a submission victory.  Nightly bonuses went to Ken Cannon and Ali Mehrassa for Fight of the Night, Randy Mahon for Submission of the Night, and Stephen Faherty, who gave up over 100 pounds to opponent Steve Smith, took home the night’s top performance.

Preceding the night’s NCI 19 was NCI 18 – an all-children’s event – which took place over the lunch hour on Saturday, May 9th. 

Promoter Clint Parker spoke about the importance of giving kids their own chance to shine under event lights.

“I always have my adult show. I get so many parents who question me about the kids,” said Parker. “We do one just for kids, so they could rock it and show what they got.”

“I was blown away [with] the kids’ scrambles and submissions. The kids were unreal.”

Parker described Car-Jitsu as “awesome to watch.”

“Marcel and DJ put on an absolutely crazy fight,” said Parker. “The horn went off at one point and there was a guy in the front seat.”

Although details need to be finalized, Parker told Energeticcity.ca NCI will return with another card later this summer, in late August.

NCI 18 and 19 took place on Saturday, May 9th.