Chris Newman
Born and raised in London, Chris Newman was one of the very first students to walk through the doors of Fightzone, shortly after the gym opened, joining Marco Canha’s jiu-jitsu program in January 2013 - a course that, today, is widely regarded as one of the top producers of grappling excellence in Europe.
Closely followed by his coach, Chris quickly made waves in jiu-jitsu’s local competitive circuit, earning his blue belt later that year (2013). Newman would go on to conquer the British National Champion title in 2015 and in 2018, the latter a particularly memorable performance for the FZ London grappler as he won 4 gold medals (in the featherweight and open weight [no weight limit] in the gi and no-gi divisions). These solid performances led Chris to aim higher and shift his focus towards the international scene.
With continued success, Marco Canha’s talented student went on to conquer Europe’s toughest tournament, the IBJJF European Open (gi), on two occasions - 2018 and 2019 - as well as the federation’s No-Gi European Open in 2019 before earning his black belt on November 2019 from coach Marco.