Submission 1000 Challenge II: Daniel Strauss

Regular readers of this site will no doubt be very familiar with Daniel as I have featured him on several occasions. For good reason too! Earlier this year, Daniel won the first Submission 1000 Challenge at the Lockdown Fighting Championships and grabbed a cool £1,000 prize money. He's back to defend his title and win an even cooler £2,000! Here are his thoughts on the previous event and his plans for the forthcoming elite eight man grappling in a cage tournament...

Q: Dude, congratulations on winning the title - how does it feel to be the winner of the very first Lockdown FC - Submission 1000 Event?

DS: It feels fantastic. I entered as a mere purple belt among a bunch of very high level brown and black belts. Although I had an awesome amount of support from my friends and team, on paper I was never expected to win. So to beat the odds and win is an indescribable feeling.

Q: I think you impressed everyone with wins over black belt Marcos Nardini, MMA and wrestler John Maguire and brown belt Kenny Baker - did you surprise yourself?

DS: Of course not. If you don't believe you can beat your opponent then you might as well not even step into the cage. It also goes to show that the belt only serves to keep your gi together ;).

Q: You won £1,000 as the prize, how quickly did you spend that money? Go on admit it, you went on a massive three day bender and blew the lot didn't you?

DS: I wont lie. I may have spent a large amount in a week or so of erm.... celebrating? The two grand will be harder to spend so quickly tho ;)

Q: What are your thoughts on the new line-up who want to take your crown away?

DS: The new line up is fantastic!! A bunch of extremely high level grapplers with a huge amount of exciting potential match ups. And EVERYONE wants my crown!!! hahahahaha.

Q: Who among the new line-up for the second Submission 1000 event do you particularly fancy matching up with?

DS: I'm ready to layeth the smackdown.

Q: Can we expect to see more of the now infamous wrestling mask and cape?

DS: Arhhhh. I can't give anything away. You may see the cape and mask. But you MIGHT see something better. You'll just have to come and see ;D.

Q: What the hell is all this Raspberry Ape thing I keep hearing about?

DS: I am the Raspberry Ape! And only the coolest people wear the Raspberry Ape Scramble T shirt that may or may not be coming out very soon !!!! (Wear it or I'll respect you less)

Q: The prize this time is a cool £2,000 - what would you do with that money?

DS: This time I'd like to put it back into my jiu jitsu. Perhaps putting it towards a training camp or competition abroad. I will try and keep my celebratory partying budgeted and minimised.

Q: Dude, good luck, I think we all look forward to seeing you fight again.

DS: Thank you Seymour. I can't wait to throw down with such high level fighters and put on a show for everyone out there.


TICKETS FOR THE LOCKDOWN FC AND SUBMISSION 1000 TOURNAMENT ARE AVAILABLE NOW. Visit www.lockdownfc.com
 (click the store link and then events/tickets link)

:)