No Holds Barred: Denny Lenormand, Combat Wrestling World Champion

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with grappler Denny Lenormand.

Based in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, he represented the U.S. at the inaugural combat wrestling world championship held by the International Federation of Combat Wrestling (FICW) August 22 at the Spartak Stadium in Varna, Bulgaria. At that event, he won a gold medal in the 68 kg division, winning both of his matches by ankle lock submission.

We spoke with Denny Lenormand by phone Thursday.

His first match was against Matthew Camilleri of Malta.

"Recently I've sustained a knee injury, so I wanted to get in there and just get in and get out before I was able to, so I wasn't able to be submitted by just standing there. My knee was hurting really bad," he said.

"So I went in. I did something called a victor roll. It's something I learned from my coach, Reilly Bodycomb. It's a roll where you flip underneath the guy. And then I latched onto his ankle, and I ankle locked him."

In the finals, he faced Ryota Kodama of Japan.

In that match, he said, "He ended up sitting down on me, and then I ended up grabbing another ankle lock and finishing that as well."

We also discussed the rules of combat wrestling which allow high velocity throws and limit ground time according to the discretion of the referees, why combat wrestling can become a popular spectator sport, his background in break dancing and how this helped him become a grappler, his recovery from his knee injury, the grappling and wrestling scene in the New Orleans area, his training and work at NOLA BJJ, and much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com