Joey Gilbert shocked a lot of people when, he seemingly came out of nowhere and took 3rd at the most prestigious grappling event in the world, the Abu Dhabi World Submission Wrestling Championships. Gilbert is somewhat of a celebrity among Illinois wrestling fans. Gilbert has a Dan Gable-like past, winning the state wrestling championships all four years in high school, holding onto the record for the most consecutive wins for a high school wrestler in the state of Illinois and only losing once in his high school wrestling career. I guess a guy with a background like that, it is not surprising that he would take up the submission grappling game like a fish to water. Gilbert has also fought in the surrounding area and is looking for a chance to test his skills against the best. I caught up with Gilbert in Chicago, Illinois on November 4, 2000.

FCF: I'm standing here with Joey Gilbert at the Ironheart Crown. You surprised everyone at Abu Dhabi by taking 3rd there?
Joey Gilbert: Yeah, I took 3rd at 65kilos [under 65kg or 143lbs.]. I lost to Soca [Alexandre Carneiro] in the semi's. But I beat Pequeno [Alexandre Franca] in the quarter finals. Then I beat Anthony Hamlet for 3rd. It was a good experience.

FCF: Is that your style? Have you always been training in submissions?
JG: Yeah, you know, I'm more of a submission wrestler now. That's my style. First we started off straight Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, then we moved toward the Japanese style. We're a lot more open. We basically combine wrestling with submissions, that's our style [Joey and brother, Dan].

FCF: How long have you guys been working on submissions?
JG: A little over three years.

FCF: This training seems in line with Abu Dhabi. Was this just for Abu Dhabi?
JG: Well, I fought in Shooto not too long ago, and now I'm getting ready for a match in Evansville, Indiana in HooknShoot against a Japanese fighter. It's a straight submission match. I'm trying that right now. I'm always training, so I'm ready for Abu Dhabi, but I don't know if I'm back yet. I have to wait on that.

FCF: How did you get into Abu Dhabi? Did you win a qualifier?
JG: No, they just got me in. Miguel [Iturrate of HooknShoot] got me in. They didn't have a qualifier for my weight class last year. The way I got into Abu Dhabi was I was an alternate, alternate [second alternate]. I didn't even have a fight and wasn't in the tournament yet. A guy didn't make weight, but I didn't know that yet, so I was heading out to the bars at like 12 o'clock at night. I didn't know that I was in until the next day.

FCF: Everyone knows that you're a wrestler. Why don't you tell us about your wrestling background and any other styles that you have trained in?
JG: Well, I started wrestling when I was 10 years old. I was a four time high school state champ. I am a two time All American. I placed in the US Open in freestyle. The only other martial arts I do right now, is kickboxing, submission wrestling, and Jiu-Jitsu, that's my background right there.

FCF: Someone told me that you had the best high school wrestling record in Illinois history?
JG: Yeah, I only lost one match in high school. There was this other guy named Joe Williams, he tied the same record, he only lost once too. But I had the most wins in a row ever.

FCF: Who do you study under for your submissions?
JG: Me and my brother, actually. We study off tapes from the Inoue's [Enson & Egan] to Sakuraba. We teach ourselves, we watch fights and anything we can get. We watch Mario Sperry's tapes, we steal everything from fights or try to make up our own stuff. For our boxing, our coach is Roberto Ramirez. He's fighting tonight [at the Ironheart Crown 2000]. That's where we learn our stand up from.

FCF: How did you get involved with fighting in NHB?
JG: I was living in Oklahoma at the time and had a friend who fought in the Showdown in Texas. [Michael] Castellano has a show here [in Chicago] called the Chicago Challenge, I had a friend who fought in it before, so he got me a match there. I fought my first match here. It was a straight Gi match. See, I used to do a lot of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu before I started to fight. And then from that I fought in local fights.

FCF: When you say straight BJJ matches, was that submission only because the Chicago Challenge starts off with strikes standing up and is grappling only on the ground?
JG: Back then, I just did straight Jiu-Jitsu matches with the points, at first.

FCF: How many fights have you had?
JG: I've had six fights. I'm 5-1 in fights and a lot of matches in submissions. I don't really count that.

FCF: You have that HooknShoot fight coming up, anything else scheduled?
JG: Nope, that's it. I'm looking for more stuff, but it's hard because we are on our own, you know. I'm always willing to fight in shows, but it's kind of hard, you need to know somebody. It doesn't matter how good you are. So we're looking for some fights and some contacts.

FCF: Your brother, Dan, just fought in Shooto. Was that his first fight in Shooto?
JG: Yeah, that was his first fight in Shooto. He just fought once there.

FCF: How much experience does you brother have?
JG: He fought mostly in Chicago and in Texas. He fought [Frank] Trigg. It was pretty good. He threw Trigg down, but Trigg got up. What happened was, Trigg got Danny in the corner and he kneed Danny in the head. They were on the ground and you're not supposed to knee on the ground. Danny could have forfeited and won the match, but he went out there all dazed and fought the match. We didn't know anything about fighting back then. We were just doing it for the hell of it. We trained with a guy for one week on submissions. He did pretty good, he beat two guys and then fought Trigg in the finals [of a USWF event]. We didn't know who Trigg was at the time. We didn't know that he was one of the best lightweight fighters in the world. That's happened a lot to my brother. He fought a lot of tough fighters that we had no idea who they were. But now he's coming around because we're learning this stuff.

FCF: How many fights has he had?
JG: He's had about seven or eight fights.

FCF: What weight do you guys fight at?
JG: I fight from about 145-155lbs. He fights at about 170lbs and under. We cut weight to fight.

FCF: What do you normally walk around at?
JG: I usually walk around at 160lbs and he normally walks around at 180lbs.

FCF: So you guys are just training on your own, you don't have a school?
JG: We have a school. It's a Chicago kickboxing and submission wrestling school, that's where we train. The guy who fought at the Ironheart Crown, Roberto Ramirez runs the school. Me and my brother teach the submissions, he teaches the stand up.

FCF: Do you have any students fighting?
JG: Yeah, we got another fighter Jay Bach. He fights in HooknShoot a lot. We have Jimmy Dukowski, who used to fight out of our school. He's a pretty good local fighter. He's beat Travis Fulton in under a minute back in the early days. We've got some strong guys, but it's kind of dying down right now, a lot of our guys are getting older and don't want to be fighting anymore. It's hard because we keep fighting in local shows, but don't go anywhere. We fight a lot of tough guys, but we don't know anyone, so it's hard to get into good shows. So they lose because they lose their ambition. They didn't want to keep fighting in the same show over and over again and get no money for it. It's a tough sport, people don't realize that.

FCF: Where do you guys want to head or what organization do you want to fight for?
JG: I would like to get into Super Brawl, King of the Cage, and the UFC would be alright. I'd like to get another shot at Shooto. I kind of messed up in my last match. That's about the only three shows that I'm interested in. I also fight in HooknShoot. Those are the main ones. I would also like to get back in to Abu Dhabi. I was supposed to fight [Rumina] Sato in Super Brawl.

FCF: The event where Rumina fought Yves Edwards?
JG: Yeah, the one he fought Edwards. I was supposed to fight him. Sato is tough as hell. I don't care who I fight. I'm getting old. I'm 30 years old. I'm mostly looking to fight tough guys and see how I stand. I'm always ready to fight.

FCF: Are you still talking with T. Jay [Thompson] about fighting at in Future Brawl?
JG: Yeah, he's been great. I hope that everything will work out and I will fight in Hawaii. That's the reason why I fight, to travel. The farther the fight, the easier it is for me to take the fight. I would take it for less money, if I get to go to a great place. That's the one thing I love about this sport, there's no money in it, but you get to travel.

FCF: Do you have any fights scheduled?
JG: No, my brother is working with the Shooto organization. Those guys are the only one that gave us a break, so he wants to stay true to Shooto. There are a couple of guys that they want us to fight. I can't say who they are yet, until things are signed.

FCF: Anything else you want to add?
JG: No, not really. The Inoue's have been good to us. When we fight in Japan, we represent Purebred Jiu-Jitsu and I represent Grappling Unlimited. Those guys have been good to us. They were the first to give us our breaks in big fights, so I'd like to thank those guys. They know their stuff. We've looked up to them since the Royce Alger fight [with Enson]. When you think of wrestling, you think of Royce Alger and when you see this guy take him out, you start believing in Jiu-Jitsu. We believe in submissions.

FCF: Thank you.
JG: Thanks.