For 32 years Jessie Benavidez and his family have hosted the Battle of Texas. Back in 1978 when the first Battle of Texas was produced the world was a different place. Many of these Texas Karate tournaments have been the longest running events in the country and some of the most famous champions have started out competing in them. Cindy and Jessie Benavidez have been around the Texas and national karate scene, competing and running tournaments, since the early 1970’s.
Their tournament has always drawn large crowds from all over the place. This years Galveston March 6th event was attended by over 400 competitors and a large group of spectators and family members.
When I mentioned that there were people from all over I meant it. An example of this is Ghassan Maghames, an 8 time Lebanese national champion. Who now resides in the US and teaches a variety of martial arts. Ghassan and his students compete in the Texas AOK karate circuit. This guy is a classic example of the high caliber competitors we get here in Texas. Other competitors who frequent the Battle of Texas are NBL, NASKA, WUKO, UMAHOF and USKA champions.
An awesome assortment of current and upcoming talent from all over Texas and Louisiana were in attendance. All first place winners received a full size samurai swords. At 9 AM the musical forms and weapons divisions or specialty divisions, as they are referred to in Texas, started off at 9AM. Sebastian Pedroza took out his competition in the 11 and under black belt specialty division for his win. Then David Tate managed to pull out a victory in a monster sized 12 to 17 years old specialty/weapons division.
In the Adult black belt weapons and specialty divisions Eric Cantu and Johnnie Murphy were having a good day. Eric Cantu beat Chris Taylor, Karen Schroeder, Tim Gregory, Justin Jordan, Alfredo Bustamonte, Angel Montiel and Charles Shedd for his win in Black Belt traditional kata and an equally large group in Black belt specialty kata. Johnnie Murphy, as I like to refer to myself, won the 35 plus specialty, 45 plus kata and a large 18 plus weapons division. Winning weapons with a strong samurai sword weapons kata. By the way, Mike Hill actually ran Kata and looked good, getting second in 45 plus black belt kata.
Another up and coming champion, Alfredo Bustamonte, won the soft and 18 plus men’s black belt open kata divisions. Martha Garcia won over Ashley Wood in the 18 plus black belt women’s kata and Sheryl Quick was the women’s executive black belt kata champion. Courtney Allen was victorious over Joshua Repond for his victory in the black belt self defense. Mike Polomo was the men’s 35 plus executive old black belt Kata champion.
Jersan Kannady won the 12 to 17 years old black belt weapons which turned out to be another large Battle of Texas kata division. Ronny Zapata was first in the 11 and under black belt weapons division. Junior open hand kata black belt kata champions were up after the adults and weapons. Blair Benton was the 10 to 11 years old champion, David Tate won a massive junior black belt division in the 12 to 13 years old boys group. Brian O’Grady was first in the 16 to 17 years old kata division. Several other junior boys and girls black belt divisions were ran with Samantha Gutierez and many other AOK champions vying their samurai sword. I must apologize for missing some divisions and not being able to give out all the names of the under black belt champions and other divisional winners .
Under black belt and junior black belt point sparring divisions were up next. In a massive 8 to 9 year old advanced/black belt division, Ronny Zapata emerged the champion, good job Ronny. Blair Benton had a repeat performance in the winners circle with his victory in 10 to 11 years old black belt junior point sparring. In another showdown Robert Anthony beat Carter Gillum for the final match in a 12 to 13 junior boys black belt division that took forever to run due to its massive size.
In another heated competition, Jersan Kannady defeated Brian O’Grady for the boys 16 to 17 black belt point sparring championship.
Daniel Polomo defeated Melody Clay in the final match of another big junior black belt division for her win in the girls 14 to 17 years old point sparring. All the Junior black belt boys and girls divisions were concluded. The under black belt under black belt adult and junior divisions were also concluded with many of these groups going on to the grand championships and gaining valuable experience for there career in the martial arts.
Adult black belt point sparring was last up. Matthew Tyler won his first place sword in the men’s light weight division. Cody Garza and Garret Lee were the final two fighters in the black belt means middle weight division. After one of the best fights of the tournament Cody emerged the 2010 men’s middle weight champion. Men’s heavy weight point sparring came down to a final match between Mike Garcia and Tim Gregory. This was an exciting match by two big guys. As time ran out Tim Gregory vindicated himself for his loss against Mike Garcia at Fred Simons Spindletop tournament the previous month in Beaumont.
Women’s black belt point sparring pitted current reigning champions against each other. Martha Garcia won another division for her second win at the tournament by her victory in women’s fly weight point sparring. Ashley wood won the women’s light weight point sparring and Karen Schroeder fought hard for her victories in the women’s executive division. The women’s point sparring point grand championship ended up between Martha Garcia and Karen Schroeder. These women were great, fighting as well as any of the men’s matches. Martha Garcia ended up winning the women’s point sparring grand championship.
Men’s executive point sparring was up last. Toney Mosley was pumping that leg at light speed and following up with fast back fists in his win for the men’s executive light weight division. Vernon Walker had his hands full with Daniel Perez and found himself being overcome by Daniels well executed side kicks and over hand reverse punches. Daniel was the men’s heavy weight executive point sparring champion. Mike Hill won in the largest 45 plus point sparring division I have seen since the Greg Beavers NASKA tournament in January 2010.
The men’s point sparring grand championships was held last. In the final match. Tony Mosley was able to overcome the much younger Cody Garcia for the 2010 Point Sparring grand championship. This finalized another Battle of Texas. Jessie Benavidez, Cindy Benavidez, Wayne Nugyen and all the Texas AOK people made this tournament a success. It ended on time and was ran efficiently by Al Garza.
