At first, Brent Fryia wrestled with the prospect of competing in this year’s Canadian National Grappling Championships in Ottawa.
The Steel City MMA owner and coach was in the process of renovating a new gym space for his business, leaving him with little time to train. His ankle had been bothering him, and the psoriatic arthritis in his foot was flaring up.
Fryia ended up going to the July 6 event after all — and now, he has yet another gold medal to show for his perseverance: The former Superior Heights English teacher beat two other grapplers en route to a first-place finish in the 77-kilogram weight class in the veterans division, reserved for wrestlers 35 to 45 years old, as well as his second consecutive gold medal finish at the event.
“I just figured I had to walk the walk that I tell all the students at the gym — when you commit to something, you need to follow through and honour those commitments,” Fryia said. “Things are never going to be perfect, so you got to go do the best you can with what you’ve got, basically.”
In his final bout of the tournament, Fryia made Bruce Miano of Toronto’s OpenMat MMA tap out with a kneebar in just 34 seconds.
“He had me in some trouble early on — right away, right off the bat,” he said. “I don’t want to say I was lucky to get the submission, but I’m definitely happy to have ended it relatively quickly,”
Fryia is now mulling over the idea of taking his skills to the Veterans World Championships in Kazakhstan later this year after earning a silver medal during last year’s event, which was held in Loutraki, Greece in October 2023.
He says one of the reasons he’d like to participate in this year’s Veterans World Championships is the fact that he’s made friends with some of the guys on the Kazakhstan national team. “They’ve been in contact with me, asking if I’m coming,” said Fryia. “They want to show me around their hometown if I compete. So, there’s a little extra incentive to go.”
But perhaps there’s a deeper reason Fryia could end up competing this year: He came up short against Ukraine’s Maks Zhuravlov in the gold medal round during last year’s tournament — a match that Fryia lost after it ended in a 3-3 tie. “I lost on the tie-breaking criteria,” Fryia said. “So, it was kind of a bittersweet, heartbreaking way to lose. There was some confusion in the scoring in the last minute or so.”
Overall, Fryia was happy with his showing at last year’s world championships. “But I do feel like I have a bit of unfinished business,” he said.
Fryia credits the people who train with him at Steel City MMA — many of whom are significantly younger — with keeping his competitive drive alive after more than three decades of taking grapplers to the mat.
“Just being on the mats and competing is kind of second nature to me. I enjoy it. When I have an event coming up, it gives me purpose and something to aim for,” said Fryia. “Having something to shoot for keeps me moving, basically.”