Cullinan youngster brings home bronze and gold medals from MMA Tournament
Alexander Grobler, Grobler showed off his fierce fighting skills and walked away with bronze and gold medals.
Alexander Grobler, an 18-year-old fighter from Cullinan, emerged victorious in the 2023 Martial Arts South Africa (Massa) tournament held on March 18.
He had challenging sparring rounds with UFC fighters where full contact sparring was in play, but it was in the heavy weight category where Grobler showed off his fierce fighting skills and walked away with bronze and gold medals.
He has already established a trophy cabinet in the junior categories, and has progressed with lightning speed from junior to senior competitions.
Grobler has been a South African national champion since the age of 12, and has won numerous other accolades, including silver medals at the African continent and Massa games, and silver and bronze medals at the Arnold Classic in 2018 and 2019.
Grobler’s dedication to Taekwon-Do began 10 years ago, and he has already achieved the distinction of being the youngest adult black belt (first degree) in the history of the South African Taekwon-Do Federation, graded at age 16.
He has also won several trophies for his outstanding performance, including the Best Tiger Male, Best Junior Male, and courtesy trophies.
Grobler, who is an assistant instructor (Boosabum) attributes much of his success to his inspirational instructor and coach, Manie Naude (Sabum), and to his own discipline and dedication.
From a young age he got up at 03:00 to practice before going to school at Hoërskool Erasmus. He believes that his vision of the future stretches further than that of the average individual his age.
Grobler said that when he first began with Taekwon-Do he did not expect the art to be so much fun and so challenging.
He quickly learnt that this was an art of dedication and he is eager to always learn more and he strives to do his best.
He is currently in matric and studying online for university. His future plans are to compete at the Arnold Classic and SA Championship this year.
He is also working on his second book and plans to relocate to the Western Cape.
Grobler acknowledges that perfection is unattainable, but he is eager to continue learning and striving to do his best.
He is grateful for the support of his sponsorships, and is determined to continue representing Cullinan and South Africa with distinction in the world of mixed martial arts.
