ON Sunday the Australian Sambo Association held its national competition in Sydney.
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Highlands fighter Jesse Mauger competed in the under 90kg and won. Sambo is a Russian form of grappling.
Mauger is now the national champion and will travel with the Australian team to Pittsburg, Russia in October to compete in the World Championships.
There were a number of competitions leading up to Sunday's event which Mauger could not take part in.
He turned up on Sunday and won is fight to be crowned the national champion.
Mauger said it was "a lot more technical" than some of his other fights this year.
The Australian team will hold a number of training camps between now and October and Mauger will also have to do some training of his own.
Mauger does a range of martial arts including Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, kick boxing, boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Muay Thai.
He has represented Australia in Judo and Sambo and said his goal was now to make a name for himself in MMA.
Mauger has fought in four professional fights in his career and won them all along with a number of amateur fights. This year he will try out for the Australian version of UFC and said he hoped he would make the cut.
"I've got a lot more training to do.
He was also the national champion in Sambo in 2011. He has his next cage fighter in Canberra on August 31 on Storm Damage.
Mauger thanked Terry Riches who runs Highlands MMA for his support.
"I couldn't get there without Terry."
