Josh Morgan, Amateur Heavy Weight Champion out of the Battlefield Fight League (BFL)
Josh Morgan is a Red Seal Boilermaker out of Lodge 359 in British Columbia and an Amateur Heavy Weight Champion out of the Battlefield Fight League (BFL). On July 15, 2018 Josh stepped into the cage to fight an opponent who was heavier by 13 pounds and took the belt for his first fight in the BFL Amateur Heavy Weight Division.
Morgan normally fights in the “205er class”, but it appears other fighters in that class were not ready, willing or able to fight him. The BFL asked him if he wanted to move up to the heavy weights for his next fight and he agreed, fighting in his “walking around weight” at 218. Josh and his coaches knew two things about the step up – the fighters hit harder and they slow down sooner in the cage.
Josh met his much bigger rival in the middle of the cage to begin the contest. As the fight moved from the 1st round to the 3rd round, he was able to move the bigger fighter up against the cage and grind him using his speed. By the end of the second round the rival was tired and beaten up, he stood on his knees with his hands on his hips wondering why he agreed to fight such a skilled champion like Josh. In the third round, Josh was able to finish off the other fighter using a “rear naked choke”. As the belt was put on Josh by the BFL commissioner, the undefeated champ told him he was ready to fight again.
Josh after the fight with his Chilliwack Jiujitsu & MMA Coaches, Jason Williamson, Steve Gilkes & Sean O’Halloran
A couple of the comments on social media by his fanbase include “no amount of punches took him down, well deserved” and “Great fight, Josh dominated it, you could tell the moment the other fighter gassed out at the end of the second, everyone knew Josh was taking the title at that point.”
Josh started in the trade in 2007 after meeting some Boilermakers at the Howe Sound Pulp Mill on the Sunshine Coast of BC while doing an asbestos removal job. Four weeks later, he was at BCIT taking the Boilermaker Foundation class. In 2012 he successfully wrote the Red Seal exam and achieved his Journeymen status. Josh is married and has a son.
Josh was a body builder at one time, but at 250 lbs, he says “that was not the ideal weight for me to work in the trade. I was looking at getting into something different, tried wrestling, but after a while my coaches suggested I try MMA and have not looked back.” Today Josh is training hard for his next fight and hopefully it will be a pro fight.