Praise and Grumble

Stoke-On-Trent is home to Ross 'The Gladiator' Pointon, one of Britain’s top Mixed Martial Artists.
He likes his home town so much that his Gladiator Gym is there, in Burslem, and he promotes cage-fighting events there too (see link in the top right hand corner of this page).

Ross Pointon - the story

Ross is a former San Shou British Champion (san shou is a modern hand to hand combat discipline) and holds a black belt in karate.

In January of 2005 he competed in the prestigious ADCC submission wrestling European trials in Finland. Ross tested himself against Europe’s top grapplers, including Holland’s Alistair Overeem, who has since become one of the most coveted fighters in the sport .
But then, Ross's combative spirit inspired him to compete in Mixed Martial Arts, as he looked for a fresh challenge in the sporting domain.

UK Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion

Pointon quickly progressed through the domestic fight scene and become the UK Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion in November 2004 after defeating Francis Carmont in the opening round, when the referee stepped in to stop proceedings.

After capturing the title Ross set himself the unenviable task of dropping two weight classes to compete as a middleweight, with casting for season three of 'The Ultimate Fighter', an American reality TV show, forefront in his mind.
'The Gladiator' lost an unprecedented 15kg through a strict dieting regime, intensive training and guidance from British MMA organisation Cagewarriors.

'The Ultimate Fighter'

American reality TV show 'The Ultimate Fighter' is a TV show centred around Mixed Martial Arts, in which sixteen fighters - eight middleweights and eight light-heavyweights compete in order to earn two six-figure contracts with the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship', America’s leading MMA organization.

Two men and a cage (R - Ross)

Ross, who was then 28 years old, competed in the middleweight division in 2006, on the third instalment of show. He was hand picked for the reality show, the first non-American fighters on the programme, after impressing UFC President Dana White at an open-casting call in London.

He went on to compete for the 'Cage Rage' British Welterweight title in 2008.

Cage-fighting

Despite reaching such dizzy heights, Ross still wants to promote his home town.
On February 28th 2009, the first cage-fighting event staged in Stoke on Trent took place under the Gladiator banner. Hear more from Ross, and his hopes for the event in our special report. Click below to hear it...

Afetr that came 'Night of The Gladiators II' - in which he moved to a really big venue, the Victoria Hall in Hanley - in July 2009.

What is Mixed Martial Arts?

Mixed Martial Arts combines jujitsu, wrestling, kickboxing, boxing and muay thai to form a definitive combat sport.Ross himself teaches Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, vale tudo and submission grappling.