He's only seven years old but you wouldn't want to mess with Zach Loewen.
The young Kaiten Mixed Martial Arts Academy member traveled to Edmonton last weekend for the Mind Body Soul tournament and returned to Prince George with two silver medals.
Loewen fought for gold in the No-Gi and Muay Thai kickboxing divisions and came out second-best in each match, which will no doubt leave him hungry for more.
"He's an awesome little guy," said Kaiten instructor Karm Manhas, "He's been doing it for three years and he just loves martial arts."
"He always has questions and takes it seriously and he's always focused."
It was Loewen's second career tournament. He made his debut last summer at the Tiger Balm International tournament in Vancouver, where he also won two silver medals.
Two other Kaiten fighters climbed the medal podium in Edmonton.
Twenty-year-old Noah Goerz was a silver medalist in the blue/purple belt advanced division in the 185-pound No-Gi category and used his skills in Brazilian jiu jitsu to win bronze in that competition.
Tate Rawling, 21, was also a bronze medalist in the blue/purple belt 170-pound No-Gi division.
"Tate has been doing multiple trips back and forth to Montreal for training at Tristar, Georges St-Pierre's academy," said Manhas. "He met a world champion in jiu jitsu down there (Ryan Hall) and made friends with him and has been training with him down in Virginia.
"We don't have the competition here or the level of guys. I have a really good amateur team and can show them all the really solid basics but they need 10 or 20 guys who are dedicated to really immerse themselves."
Two weeks ago at the Summer Classic submission tournament in Blackfalds, Alta., north of Red Deer, Kaiten athletes Brad Hill (advanced) and C.J. Strongheart (intermediate) opened the round-robin event with silver medals.
Hill, 34, went on to win the absolute open weight class event, judged the best competitor on the mat, and earned himself a belt for a submission ace.
"We don't have any black belts here and Brad was able to win that," said Manhas. "In Edmonton or Vancouver you have such an opportunity to train and go to competitions all the time or they just have open mats at their gym and you grow so fast.
"Prince George people are tough and we do really good at competitions. For years we've had really good showings."
Kaiten offers classes for under-15 kids after school on weekdays and teaches MMA skills to the adults in the evenings at the gym at 185 Dominion St.
