Twin wins for ‘The Crank’

Frank “The Crank” Camacho battles Roman “The Sonic Boom” Alvarez in the heavyweight class finale in the Art of War 11: Submission Grappling/BJJ Tournament held last Saturday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Frank “The Crank” Camacho made the most out of his short trip to Saipan after ruling two weight classes in last Saturday’s Art of War 11: Submission Grappling/BJJ Tournament held at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The Guam-based Camacho topped the middleweight and heavyweight divisions after defeating Shane “Pikaboo” Alvarez and Roman “Sonic Boom” in the finals, respectively.

In the middleweight gold medal match, Camacho was up on points, 7-3, going into the last two minutes of the five-minute bout and managed to finish off Shane with a triangle. Camacho, who stayed on the island just over the weekend, moved into the title bout after Roman tapped out in their semis fight with the former employing a head-and-arm lock on the latter in the closing seconds of their Final Four tiff. The eventual gold medalist was also way ahead on points, 12-0, before Roman surrendered. Shane, in the other semis pairing, won on points against Stanley Iakopo, 8-2.

The gold medal win was Camacho’s third, as he earlier prevailed in his opening match against Phil David, who tapped out (head-and-arm lock) at the 2:43 mark of the one-sided bout. Had David survived, he would have still lost, as Camacho was winning on points, 11-0.

In the other preliminary results in the middleweight category, Shane coasted to a 10-0 victory over Peter Mendiola, while Roman also shut down Vince Masga, 4-0. Masga took the bronze medal although he and Roman failed to score a single point in their consolation bout and rematch as the former got the nod from referee and BJJ black belt Mike Ulloa of Spike 22.

In the heavyweight class finale, Camacho stopped Roman on a rear-naked choke early in the match. The two-time gold medalist had a slight edge on Roman, 2-0, before he pulled the plug on his foe.

Camacho set up a gold medal bout against Roman in the heavyweight division after the former clobbered Lil John Aguon in the semis, 24-0. Roman also prevailed on points against Trench Tech president Cuki Alvarez in the other Final Four pairing, 14-0. Cuki settled for the bronze medal following his 7-2 victory over Aguon in the consolation match.

Four other fighters entered the heavyweight class with one of the division’s favorites—Kelvin “The Big Hit” Fitial—pushed to the exit door early after bowing to Aguon, 0-11. Josh Castro also registered for the division and got a free pass to the next round after a no show from Anthony Rivera. Cuki had a similar victory via forfeit over Nate Untalan and then the Trench Tech head booted out Castro with his 3-0 triumph to arrange a semis showdown against Roman.

Meanwhile, five other weight classes were featured in AOW 11 and results will be reported on Saipan Tribune later this week.