Ren Bradley going from strength to strength with combat sports exploits

Eight-year-old Ren has continued his dominance across all combat sports in this first quarter of the year and carried on where he left off in 2024 with his younger brother Rivir starting to follow in his footsteps.

He started the new year by competing in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Empire Winter Open held at Barnsley Metrodome where he would take part in both the Gi and no Gi divisions and where he would face tough competition.

He made it to the final in both sections and faced an opponent from Next Generation MMA Liverpool, the home of famous UFC fighter Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett and one of the best gyms in the UK for both adult and kids competitors, in both finals.Ren was victorious after winning all his fights previously in the competition and triumphed in both finals to take double gold medals across both disciplines for the seventh time already in his career.

Being crowned the Empire Winter Open Gi and no Gi champion took his tally to 23 and 24 gold medals, extending his impressive streak that started back in January, 2024.

His team at AVT Leeds would also be crowned the best no Gi team champions of the event, this all the more impressive as they had one of the smallest teams and volume of competitors.

Next up for Ren in February was the annual BJJ Gamefight UK event, a competition that the youngster had won two years in a row.

He had just turned eight the day before and likes to step up age and weight divisions to make things more of a challenge. He had often competed in the 8-9 divisions as a seven-year-old but this time Ren stepped up not just in a higher weight division but also to compete with the 10-11-year-olds.

While the size disadvantage was clear to see, Ren submitted every opponent on route to the final where he would face an 11-year-old that again he would tap out.

Not only was this in itself impressive, Ren did it using a variety of different submissions with an Americana submission in the quarter-finals, a 12 second rear naked choke in the semis and a Kimura submission in the final to win his 25th gold medal in row.

In doing so he cemented his dominance in this competition, winning it three years in a row and in an age group three years above and a higher weight division and all via submission as well as claiming his 27th gold of his career.

His little brother Rivir also competed for his very first time in this BJJ competition, making his BJJ debut supported by Ren, and also stepped up in age and weight, winning every match by submission to claim his first gold medal of his career.

Proud father Marc continued his son's success story: “Ren was offered a BJJ Superfight on a big event and show called Submission Series, Young Subs 2, which was a PPV event against a tough opponent again from Next Generation MMA Gym in Liverpool.

“The polls gave Ren a 79 per cent chance of losing as again, he would step up to fight an older and heavier opponent in a six-minute, submission only match. But Ren took less than one-and-a-half minutes to submit him via a Kimura and win the match, claiming his 26th gold in row and shocking a lot of people in the process.

“Adding further to this, Ren travelled to Liverpool to compete in this show and in front of his opponents' home crowd and wasn't phased in the slightest.

“Ren was then due to fight in his third MMA fight of his career on BMF at Barnsley Metrodome, but his scheduled opponent pulled out.

“But the following week, he had another fight scheduled on Raw, another MMA PPV event and promotion in Liverpool where he would again be matched up against another fighter from Next Generation, a hot prospect.

“He gave Ren his toughest fight to date, but in the end he got the finish inside the cage, tapping his opponent out with a lovely armbar submission mid way through round number three to go 3-0 in his MMA career.

“That should have been that but then another fighter had an opponent pull out and this opponent was devastated as according to the promoters and commentators, they had spent months trying to get him an opponent as apparently no-one wanted to fight him due to his power and reputation.

“He was nicknamed "the tank" for this reason so several of the fighters who had already competed were asked if they would step up to fight him and only one said yes, Ren, of course, not worried about the reputation or the fact that his opponent was over one stone heavier than him so soon after his first fight was over.

“Ren was heading back into the cage for his second fight of the show and naturally this was an incredibly tough fight, but after 3 hard rounds, Ren got the win via a unanimous decision to go 2-0 on the day and 4-0 in his career - and blowing everyone in attendance away for so many reasons.”

Marc added: “That wouldn't be the end of this exciting weekend, though, as the following day, Ren had his 3rd Muay Thai fight of his career scheduled in Birmingham, again against a bigger and older opponent from Italy but one that Ren would beat, getting a fourth round TKO with his opponent's corner throwing in the towel.

“This moved Ren to 3-0 in his Muay Thai career and 3-0 in one weekend alone, which is not commonplace in this game.”

Ren would then be given the opportunity to complete again in his second BJJ superfight on the Submission Series PPV event, Young Subs 3 and was given the honour of opening the show.

An opponent was flown in from Ireland and everyone was anticipating an explosive match, but Ren caught his opponent early, ending the match via a Kimura after just 30 seconds of a six-minute scheduled match to claim his 27th gold medal in a row and 29th of his career.

The week after Ren went on to compete on the WBC in association with Great Britain Muay Thai show and in his fourth Muay Thai fight of his career he took on another older and more experienced opponent and again dominated over all three rounds to get another unanimous decision win.

It took him to 4-0 in his Muay Thai career, matching his MMA record of 4-0 and 8-0 across both disciplines as well as his 2-0 in his BJJ superfights.

Earlier this year Ren was also named as AVT's top competitor of the year for 2024.

He and his younger brother Rivir also competed again this month at All Stars Pro in York where they entered five divisions and won five gold medals between them, winning every match via submission with a combined match time of just two minutes, 51 seconds, averaging 50 seconds a gold medal.