KINGSTON, Ontario — “He’s one of the best Catch Wrestlers I know, you’d be doing yourself a disservice to miss any opportunity to train with him,” said former catch wrestling coach Jason Chinnick.

Those are words that can be frequently heard around the Kington area about Grizzly Gym founder Mike Martelle, one of the pioneering catch wrestlers in Canada. Coming from a freestyle wrestling background with the Queen’s University wrestling team. In 2003, he reached out to Submission Arts Wrestling, SAW, and began training and competing in Japan in SAW from 2004 onwards.

Mike Martelle also spent time training with the Canadian Catch Wrestling legend Kris Latskevich in Montreal Quebec whenever he could, though Latskevich has since withdrawn from the community. Kris Latskevich was trained by Eddy Wiecz Carpentier, a French-Canadian Catch Wrestling icon. Latskevich is well known across Canada and the USA for his sophisticated technical approach to Catch Wrestling as well as his phenomenal YouTube channel and DVDs which continues to serve as a database of techniques for Catch Wrestlers across the world.

Mike Martelle has competed in grappling at every level from local competitions to SAW tournaments in Japan and even in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club, ADCC, in 2009 when it was held in Barcelona, Spain. He continues to be a powerful force on the mat in the heavyweight division as well as in strongman competitions in Ontario.

“Mike Martelle was one of the early tryouts for the Lion’s Den and went through their whole program,” said former Canadian Catch Wrestling Jason Crawford.

This was one of the most grueling tryouts for the time as the Lion’s Den was the home of Ken Shamrock, another infamous Catch Wrestler trained in Japan through Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling, a pioneer organization of Japanese Mixed Martial Arts where other famous pioneers like Bas Rutten and Masakatsu Funaki learned their arts.

Martelle opened his own gym, Grizzly Gym in 2002, originally focusing on Muay Thai and Chinese Martial Arts like Northern Shaolin and Tai Chi. He remains one of the top-rated Muay Thai coaches in Canada and has a professional Muay Thai record of 5-0 with one no contest. He also holds a 15-2 record in mixed martial arts and has competed in combat sambo on numerous occasions. Mike Martelle implements SAW with Greco-Roman, folk and freestyle wrestling techniques with his devastating Muay Thai skills for a well-rounded style that has proven very dominant in both local and international level competitions.

Of local interest, Mike Martelle was a major force in Western Canadian Catch Wrestling as he began teaching seminars at Grizzly Gym West and Burnaby Catch Wrestling from 2007 until around 2017 when Jason Crawford retired and the early 2010’s when Jason Chinnick moved to Ontario to help his father with his new school there. Burnaby Catch Wrestling served as an early hub with Jason Crawford and continues to operate as an open mat group. Crawford was trained by several coaches including Matt Furey who trained with Dan Gable at Iowa University and Bruce Baumgartner at Edinboro University as well as spending some time with Karl Istaz-Gotch and Lou Thesz at seminars during this period. Furey eventually moved to Florida to train with Karl Istaz-Gotch on a more full-time basis. Burnaby Catch Wrestling club also had wrestling legend Dick Cardinal out for seminars after being founded in the early 2000’s.

Mike Martelle trained with Jason Crawford and Jason Chinnick, two well-known Catch Wrestling coaches from that time in Vancouver and in Victoria, British Columbia. Crawford retired in 2016 and Chinnick moved to Ontario to help run his father’s Kenpo gym around 2009. Just about every Catch Wrestler in the area has spent time training with Mike Martelle or with students that he trained like Jason Boyd from Victoria, British Columbia or at the Comox House of Kenpo. Though these schools no longer offer Catch Wrestling programs as of the late 2010’s their legacy continues to be felt in the local grappling community through their former students.

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