I have not been around here much, but this particular case has inspired me to post here specifically because my name came up...
OK, on June 21, 2012 I was contacted by Rey Rodriguez, chief instructor of Dominion MMA Academy in Helotes, Texas (though he did not identify himself as such when he first wrote to me - I discovered that with some net fu). His e-mail stated the following:
Sir,
Have you ever had a student by the name of Cory Marcera train at your school? I started training with Mr. Marcera several months ago and he said that he had trained at your school and that he was actually trained by Ivan from the Sambo 70 academy. He has never shown me any credentials or documents to support this.
Thank you
Rey
"Ivan at Sambo 70"...LOL! How about Wand at the Shaolin Temple? LOL
Anyway, Cory Marcera, as it turned out claimed I was his sambo coach and he had trained under me at my gym (false) among other things (like he trained under Reilly Bodycomb and a Sensei Soto in NYC). He apparently taught out of Dominion Martial Arts though he was not listed on their website...only their facebook page (he has since been removed). They did have some horrible videos of him teaching.
http://www.samboacademy.com/
http://www.facebook.com/SamboAcademy
Through the course of the e-mail and subsequent phone discussion I had with Rey Rodriguez, I learned that Marcera was their ONLY link to sambo and that no other coach there has trained sambo prior.
They had built their whole operation around sambo in terms of marketing, yet their class schedule only offered one combat sambo class. Here are some of the original web pages dated 6/21/12:
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After discussion with Rodriguez, he agreed to remove sambo from his bio (as his only "teacher" was Marcera) on the instructor page, as well as take references to sambo off their site and redesign it. None of the instructors on the page had detailed bios, only styles listed. I encouraged them to come to our Texas open this past August and meet the local sambo community if they really wanted to start getting involved in sambo in Texas. He said they were already planning on coming.
That same day Rodriguez made good, in part, by changing his bio and removing sambo from it:
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While the site still claimed to be a sambo club in the immediate days after this all went down, Rodriguez assured me he would update it, but it would take time to redesign.
At the time, my opinion was that If Dominion was duped by this guy who claimed to be my student, there is no reason to hold it against the entire club. They just needed to make things right and change their website to reflect that they are clearly not a sambo club. But, I still had some questions lingering and a weird feeling about the whole event.
While researching this Marcera guy, I discovered that he was originally from NY, but not NYC. He was from Rochester. He apparently affiliated himself with Phil Porter (oh boy!) and started a club:
http://www.wwmaa.org/memberlist/usmaclubs/ny.htm
Comar Martial Arts Academy
Mr. Cory J. Marcera
43 Harold Ave., Rochester, NY 14623
E-mail: marcerac@aol.com
A bit more investigation revealed this business listing for his club:
http://mma.isport.com/mixed-martial-...academy-992858
And it looks like he bought himself a rank registry here to seal it all up nice and tight:
http://www.combatmartialarts.com/RankRegistry.html
Cory J. Marcera, Registration#0013678 Rank: 2nd Degree Black Belt and Instructor of Aiki Jujitsu
Lastly, while researching his "school", I discovered that it was actually his old house, which was foreclosed on:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/43...30914645_zpid/
http://classifieds.dolanmedia.com/rc...px?adid=366397
http://radaris.com/p/Cory/Marcera/
According to Rodriguez, Marcera had been in Texas for about 18 months (in June). He apparently vanished once confronted about his lies.
So all is good, right?
Wrong.
So, just yesterday after a friend from Texas told me they were still pushing sambo, I visited their website (which is still www.samboacademy.com) and facebook:
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Here is the whole sambo page:
http://www.dominionma.com/?page_id=194
They actually link a vid of Kurinnoy (the Reilly Bodycomb originally posted and edited) as well as this vid...to try and gain some credibility:
http://youtu.be/RcZcpAtY6pI
Rodriguez has put sambo BACK in his bio!
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They have increased their sambo classes from 1 to 6!
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This bit here really gets me. They say they are no longer related with Sambo and Aiki-Jitsu instructor Marcera...as if he was ever legit! They way they write it, and link it to their sambo page makes it seem as if they had a legit sambo history!
![]()
Their current Facebook page (which is still www.facebook.com/SamboAcademy):
![]()
Interestingly, if you look at the timeline of the facebook pics, they started hanging a Russian flag in the school at the end of July AFTER Rodriguez said they would not promote sambo.
If you want some laughs, check their Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dominionmartialarts
So, bottom line is that these guys are full of **** and I wanted it on record here. Rodriguez is an extra rare piece of **** liar.
OK, on June 21, 2012 I was contacted by Rey Rodriguez, chief instructor of Dominion MMA Academy in Helotes, Texas (though he did not identify himself as such when he first wrote to me - I discovered that with some net fu). His e-mail stated the following:
Quote:
Sir,
Have you ever had a student by the name of Cory Marcera train at your school? I started training with Mr. Marcera several months ago and he said that he had trained at your school and that he was actually trained by Ivan from the Sambo 70 academy. He has never shown me any credentials or documents to support this.
Thank you
Rey
Anyway, Cory Marcera, as it turned out claimed I was his sambo coach and he had trained under me at my gym (false) among other things (like he trained under Reilly Bodycomb and a Sensei Soto in NYC). He apparently taught out of Dominion Martial Arts though he was not listed on their website...only their facebook page (he has since been removed). They did have some horrible videos of him teaching.
http://www.samboacademy.com/
http://www.facebook.com/SamboAcademy
Through the course of the e-mail and subsequent phone discussion I had with Rey Rodriguez, I learned that Marcera was their ONLY link to sambo and that no other coach there has trained sambo prior.
They had built their whole operation around sambo in terms of marketing, yet their class schedule only offered one combat sambo class. Here are some of the original web pages dated 6/21/12:
After discussion with Rodriguez, he agreed to remove sambo from his bio (as his only "teacher" was Marcera) on the instructor page, as well as take references to sambo off their site and redesign it. None of the instructors on the page had detailed bios, only styles listed. I encouraged them to come to our Texas open this past August and meet the local sambo community if they really wanted to start getting involved in sambo in Texas. He said they were already planning on coming.
That same day Rodriguez made good, in part, by changing his bio and removing sambo from it:
While the site still claimed to be a sambo club in the immediate days after this all went down, Rodriguez assured me he would update it, but it would take time to redesign.
At the time, my opinion was that If Dominion was duped by this guy who claimed to be my student, there is no reason to hold it against the entire club. They just needed to make things right and change their website to reflect that they are clearly not a sambo club. But, I still had some questions lingering and a weird feeling about the whole event.
While researching this Marcera guy, I discovered that he was originally from NY, but not NYC. He was from Rochester. He apparently affiliated himself with Phil Porter (oh boy!) and started a club:
http://www.wwmaa.org/memberlist/usmaclubs/ny.htm
Quote:
Comar Martial Arts Academy
Mr. Cory J. Marcera
43 Harold Ave., Rochester, NY 14623
E-mail: marcerac@aol.com
http://mma.isport.com/mixed-martial-...academy-992858
And it looks like he bought himself a rank registry here to seal it all up nice and tight:
http://www.combatmartialarts.com/RankRegistry.html
Quote:
Cory J. Marcera, Registration#0013678 Rank: 2nd Degree Black Belt and Instructor of Aiki Jujitsu
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/43...30914645_zpid/
http://classifieds.dolanmedia.com/rc...px?adid=366397
http://radaris.com/p/Cory/Marcera/
According to Rodriguez, Marcera had been in Texas for about 18 months (in June). He apparently vanished once confronted about his lies.
So all is good, right?
Wrong.
So, just yesterday after a friend from Texas told me they were still pushing sambo, I visited their website (which is still www.samboacademy.com) and facebook:
Here is the whole sambo page:
http://www.dominionma.com/?page_id=194
They actually link a vid of Kurinnoy (the Reilly Bodycomb originally posted and edited) as well as this vid...to try and gain some credibility:
http://youtu.be/RcZcpAtY6pI
Rodriguez has put sambo BACK in his bio!
They have increased their sambo classes from 1 to 6!
This bit here really gets me. They say they are no longer related with Sambo and Aiki-Jitsu instructor Marcera...as if he was ever legit! They way they write it, and link it to their sambo page makes it seem as if they had a legit sambo history!
Their current Facebook page (which is still www.facebook.com/SamboAcademy):
Interestingly, if you look at the timeline of the facebook pics, they started hanging a Russian flag in the school at the end of July AFTER Rodriguez said they would not promote sambo.
If you want some laughs, check their Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dominionmartialarts
So, bottom line is that these guys are full of **** and I wanted it on record here. Rodriguez is an extra rare piece of **** liar.