A Labour MP described as ‘hard as nails’ was forced to tap out in his brutal jiu-jitsu fight against an MMA professional.
Will Stone, a former soldier and newly elected Swindon North MP, was made to submit after four minutes and 37 seconds, almost halfway through the 10-minute bout against veteran fighter Matt Inman at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls in south London.
Both men had agreed to donate their purses from this evening’s event to The Kelly Foundation, a mental health charity in Mr Stone’s constituency.
The fight was part of an event organised by Polaris, Europe’s longest-running professional grappling promotion, which approached Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former soldier Mr Stone after he was elected.
After leaving the Army, Mr Stone ran a martial arts gym and was a regular competitor on the national grappling circuit before entering politics.
Before Saturday’s fight, he told the PA news agency: ‘I did the trials for Polaris twice and didn’t quite make the cut, but after I became the first ever Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt MP, they reached out to me.
‘It’s an amazing opportunity to elevate the sport so I had to take it.’
After the announcement of the fight, his fellow Labour MP Mike Tapp posted on X, formelt known as Twitter, that Mr Stone was ‘one of the nicest guys in politics…and hard as nails’.
Mr Stone explained his martial arts background in his maiden speech in the Commons in September.
He told MPs: ‘When I left the Army, I had offers to teach Brazilian jiu-jitsu across the world, from Abu Dhabi to Arizona, but I picked Swindon.
‘I am often asked, ”Why did you choose Swindon?”, but it is an easy answer for me: I love Swindon. I love my hometown. It is a wonderful town built on industry and is full of passion and hope. Our history is a proud history of reinvention.’
Brazilian jiujitsu, or BJJ, is a martial art that’s gaining high-profile celebrity fans including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Movie director Guy Ritchie is also a black belt. Former US President Barack Obama has a blue belt, and Peaky Blinders star Tom Hardy has won competitions in Wolverhampton and Milton Keynes.
It is an offshoot of Japanese jiujitsu that became a sport in its own right, and a key component of MMA fighting.
BJJ teaches students how to control their opponent. The aim is to create a submission hold (a joint lock or a stranglehold, for example) in an attempt to get a ‘tap’ (a signal that your opponent cannot escape and concedes).
Practitioners wear reinforced heavy cotton suits — known as Gis — designed to withstand the strong grappling, falls and rolls, and, similar to Japanese jiu-jitsu, competitors wear belts to signify rank which also range from white to black.
