by Dave Delgado

Guam - John Tuck is now a world champion after coming home from the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup with a gold medal in the Open Weight Division, along with a title belt and a silver medal for his division. John also came home with the World Pro's Best Submission Award in his division.

The belt that Tuck won was one of three given out in the whole tournament and was made by the same company that makes the belts for the UFC. Tuck was one of the few medalists to receive two medals at the tournament. Tuck told KUAM Sports, "My toughest opponent was in the Open Weight Division. I believe his father is Mario Haish off of Gracie Barra he is one of the old school Gracie Barra leaders and black belts from their team. His name is Daniel Haish and what made the fight tough was I made some mistakes in the beginning that caused me to be behind in points and I had to catch back up.

"It was just a very tough fight because I had 5 seconds left and the points that I need to do was either to submit the guy or pull something out from behind and I didn't want to make any errors because I had 5 seconds left. So I just grabbed him and threw him in the air and secured a take down in that last second, so that was pretty much the toughest fight that I had in the whole tournament."

In the finals of the Open Weight Light John faced Mohammed Al Qubaisi and won the fight by points. John had numerous people to thank back here at home who helped him out along his way. He said, "I would like to thank Frank and Christina Zuniga from Empire Realty and Couture Hair Salon and also Ray Martinez from Calvo's Insurance and Joe Dimilanta from Lohas Chiropractor for helping me stay healthy and my bones fixed and checked. Also I would like to thank the Department of Chamorro Affairs. Auntie Jenny, Tony Sgro for helping me out, Ray Tenorio, Jerry Calvo, Ready Fight Gear with Marcus Olivera.

"I would also like to thank Brant and Dina McCreadie. Everyone who helped out with the fundraisers and car washes, my training partners in GTT who were present there with me in Abu Dhabi to witness this thing and those who were there in heart. I would like to thank my family and my friends, my coach John Calvo, my second parents Franklin Cruz and Loretta Cruz and my mother and father. And I would like to thank last but not least the most important one God because he is the one that put me on this earth to do what I do best."