Trench Tech Purebred Saipan promotes 2

Trench Tech Purebred Saipan owner and instructor Justis “Cuki” Alvarez poses with Jarrod Muña, left, and Alverick Alvarez during the latter two’s promotion ceremony. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Trench Tech Purebred Saipan recently held a belt promotion ceremony at their BJJ Academy in the Mihaville Estates.

Promoted were 14-year-old Jarrod Muña in the adolescent category (12-15 years old) and Alverick Alvarez for the adult category. 

Trench Tech owner and BJJ instructor Justis “Cuki” Alvarez said because Muña is under the age of 16, technically he doesn’t qualify for the adult blue belt rank, so as an adolescent, he gets his green belt.

“Jarrod has been consistently training at Trench Tech for over a year and has shown much improvement in his technique and especially his understanding of the technique and how it is most efficiently and effectively used. He continues to improve each month and once he turns 16, he automatically becomes a blue belt,” he said.

Alvarez’s son, 33-year-old Alverick, meanwhile, has been promoted to brown belt.

“Alverick of course has been training for over 15 years in both MMA and BJJ and has significantly improved in his skillset. He has been a purple belt for over three years and continues to improve in both his technique and application of the technique in live sparring and rolling,” said the elder Alvarez.

Muña welcomed the promotion and thanked Alvarez for guiding him to reach his mixed martial arts goals.

“I feel deeply honored to have been promoted to the rank of green belt in BBJ. I also feel very happy that my work from last year has shown progress and that my coaches and professor have acknowledged my progression as well.”

The Kagman High School freshman said his journey in MMA and BJJ is in no way finished and is actually just beginning. 

“What this promotion means to me is that I have managed to accomplish a smaller goal of mine, but my journey is just getting started. I will have to keep putting in the hard work to achieve more. The people I’m dedicating this to are my family and friends for supporting me and the Trench Tech Gym for the awesome training they have been granting me the past year.”

Alverick, for his part, said getting his brown belt was such a huge surprise.

“I definitely didn’t expect it and always felt like I wasn’t ready for it but it is definitely an honor. Doing BJJ is such a great journey and getting promoted is always exciting.”

Asked to whom he’s dedicating his brown belt promotion to, the 33-year-old Docomo Pacific staff said he’s dedicating it to the usual suspects. 

“It definitely has to go out to the whole Trench Tech Purebred Saipan team and of course my family as always,” said Alverick, who has been consistently training in BJJ since 2014.