A Huntsville resident is taking on the world in Mexico next week.
Jeff Allen, 33, is an eight-year veteran of Judo and travels south this coming Monday.
He will be representing both his Huntsville dojo and Canda at the 10th World Judo Championships in Cancun.
Amid a heightened taste for mixed martial arts that fans have been flocking to in recent years, Judo is a more simple and pure form of fighting. The word Judo, translated into English means ‘gentle way‘, however, it is anything but.
“The objective of the game is you wear a Gi and you go in and try to throw the opponent with as much force to the ground as you can to score a point,” Allen explains. There is a point system and if at the end of the fight you have more points than your opponent you win. The other way to victory is pinning getting the other fighter into a choke hold so they tap out.
Allen, 33, joined the Huntsville Judo club with his son as something they could do together. Lucas, age 13, will join his dad at the tournament. According to his dad, Lucas brings a lot to the table in terms of support adjacent to the mat.
“He’s always yelling at me, ever since he was seven years old,” Allen says with a chuckle. “Don’t do that dad, do this!”
Allen will be fighting in the 100 plus kilo weight class. It is essentially an open class, which means he can face some true physical monsters weighing many more pounds and sporting a lot more height.
“I fought a guy, he was six-foot-seven and 360 pounds and also the guy I beat for the bronze medal, was over 400 pounds, six-foot-three from Spain, just a giant of a human,” recalls Allen.
He takes on these huge opponents willingly, though it is not for any financial gain, but rather representing his club and country. Allen pays all his own expenses. He gets some local business support, but it is very much a passion for the sport that drives him.
“I don’t do it for the pay cheque,” says Allen, who owns a small engine repair business. “It’s like any sport I guess, you do it for the glory!”
If you would like to follow Jeff’s progress at the tournament you can click here.