LOS ANGELES — Adult performer, ex-Marine and Advanced No-Gi pro Will Pounder is seeking sponsors for himself and his team in the first-ever submission grappling event produced by Kinektic, an exciting new team-format grappling organization. UFC Fight Pass, the world’s leading digital subscription service for combat sports, will stream the tournament live from the Anaheim Business Expo Center on Friday, August 16, at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.

Kinektic’s inaugural event will feature four competing teams, each comprising five world-class grapplers, in a tournament consisting of semifinals and a championship final. The four team captains are UFC veteran and MMA media personality Chael Sonnen; world-class grappler Craig Jones; UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith; and former UFC welterweight, mixed martial artist and boxer Chris ‘Lights Out’ Lytle.

Will Pounder, 32, will do battle on Lytle’s team, alongside legendary fighters Ricco Rodriguez(third degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu; current BKFC Bare Knuckle fighting Champion; former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Mundials World Champion, ADCC World Champion, and King of the Cage World Heavyweight Champion; veteran of PRIDE Fighting Championships, EliteXC, International Fight League, BAMMA, World Extreme Cagefighting, and Bellator); Joe ‘Diesel’ Riggs (brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu; former WEC Middleweight Champion; veteran of UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, M-1 Global, King of the Cage, and ProElite); and Mansher ‘Munch’ Khera (black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu; former IBJJF World No-Gi Champion, ADCC USA-EC Trials Champion,  IBJJF New York Spring Open Champion, IBJJF New York No-Gi Spring Open Champion).

The August 16^th tournament consists of bouts with eight-minute time limits. Losers of the semifinal matches are eliminated; draws result in the elimination of both athletes; and the first team with five members eliminated will be out of the competition.  The surviving team will be declared the winner.

A feature unique to Kinektic Grappling is that the order in which athletes compete is not predetermined. There are thirty seconds between each bout and each team captain will be responsible for strategically deciding which team member will participate next. All members of each team must compete at least once.

“The rules for this tournament are really interesting,” said team coach and tactician Just Dave (better known to the world of X as a veteran director and shooter), himself a 5th Degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (black belt since 2000). “It’s submission only. Wrestling with no punches; chokes and joint locks only.”

“Chris Lytle brought Ricco in, and Ricco brought me in,” said Dave. “He asked if I knew any really good No-Gi grapplers. He said, ‘You trained me and I know you’ve trained a bunch of studs over the years.’ That’s when I brought Will in.”

Just Dave started studying Brazilian jiu-jitsu back in 1991 (for reference, the first UFC was held in 1993!), and taught No-Gi to the first generation MMA guys.

Yet, he remarks, “I’ve never seen anyone learn like Will. He’s a tactician and he learns on the ground. He can learn in a conversation and be able to apply those techniques and defenses immediately. Not over a period of months; immediately.”

“And he can finish a fight in two minutes.”

Pounder served in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years, from 2007 – 2012, and competed on weekends. He taught the All-Marine Grappling Team, ran the All-Marine Competition Team at Camp Pendleton, and started the jiu-jitsu club in Miramar in 2008.

“In those jiu-jitsu days I was known as a black belt killer,” said Pounder, “submitting black belts, which is extremely rare.”

After appearing on the TV series A Grunt’s Life, Pounder joined the adult industry in 2017, and met Just Dave in January of this year. He remembers that the director brushed him off at first: “Dave thought I was hitting him up for work, but I was hitting him up because I kinda wanted to choke him out [laughs].”

Later, at an industry event, Dave caught that Will was an ex-Marine. “Anyone who serves his country gets my time,” Dave said, and the two began hitting the gym.

Since bringing Will Pounder onto the star-studded team, Dave has been putting Will in front of the top grappling and jiu-jitsu guys in Southern California to get him ready.

They have been training non-stop at The Academy of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Chatsworth. The Academy’s Ben Nathanson, a 1st Degree Black Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and 2x NABJJ World Champion, is helping coach and build the team strategy.

A unique event and a unique sponsorship opportunity

Will Pounder and Just Dave are looking for sponsors — including adult studios, novelty companies, and others who are looking to reach a new audience of consumers with their exceptional brands via the Kinektic tournament on UFC Fight Pass.

“We want to bring the technique, fierce competitiveness, and star power of the world’s best grappling talent to the masses,” said UFC^® Hall of Famer Urijah Faber who co-founded Kinektic with Las Vegas entrepreneur Keith Veltre, and award-winning combat sports announcer Sean Wheelock, “and UFC FIGHT PASS is allowing us to do exactly that by showcasing our event to their subscribers.”

To discuss sponsorship opportunities, contact Just Dave at JustDavexxx@gmail.com.

For more information about the event, please visit: UFC FightPass ( https://www.ufc.tv )

Twitter: @UFCFightPass

For more information on The Academy of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu visit its official website.