Francisco “Turtle” Estrada pictured with his family (l-r) Rafael Estrada, Jose “Froggy” Estrada, and Norma Ramos, right after he won the Championship at the Westlake Hyatt.

Championship Belt

One of the benefits of writing articles for the Fillmore Gazette is that I have the opportunity to meet and learn about some very interesting people, doing sometimes incredible things, who live right here in Fillmore! I had just that opportunity the other day when I met with Francisco “Turtle” Estrada! Francisco prefers to be called Turtle and I do call him Turtle for this article.

Turtle fights under the name of Francisco “Turtle” Estrada and fights with and trains in Oxnard at the West Coast Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai Center. The West Coast Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai Center, under the management of Coach Brian Espinoza, offers training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai (kick boxing), Boxing, Woman's Self Defense and Fitness. Francisco is the son of Rafael Estrada and Norma Ramos of Fillmore. Francisco has one brother, Jose “Frog” Estrada 20 yrs of Fillmore.

Turtle is 21 years old and recently received the Combat Fight League's Championship Belt the result of his winning the inaugural Combat Fight League amateur Mixed Martial Arts event competition on December 2, 2010 against Jon “The Gladiator” Gorton at the “Havoc at the Hyatt” Westlake Hyatt in Thousand Oaks. Both fighters were pretty evenly matched going into the fight; Turtle's record was 3-wins and 0-losses and The Gladiator's was 3-wins and 1-loss. From the Combat Fight League's rendition of the fight on their website: “It took Frank "Turtle" Estrada 1:07 of the first round to win the first ever Combat Fight League Championship. In the main event Estrada survived a series of punches and knees from Jon Gorton before finishing "The Gladiator" with a guillotine submission! The raucous Estrada supporters exploded once referee Cecil Peoples indicated the fight was over!” If you would like to watch the title fight that Turtle earned his belt you can view it on You Tube; Francisco “Turtle” Estrada vs Jon “The Gladiator” Gorton. I did and was totally impressed to watch the Turtle take on and beat the head taller opponent into submission!

Turtle brought to the interview his belt and the many other awards and medals he has won while at FHS and since his involvement in MMA over the past three years. I must admit from all the years I watched the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Wrestling with my son Phillip I have always wanted to see one of these “Championship Belts” up close! I wasn't disappointed when Turtle showed me and then let me check out the belt. It was massive and had the weight of what I always hoped those “Championship Belts” would have! Very impressive and worthy of a champion!

The Combat Fight League (CFL) is a Mixed Martial Art’s organization based out of Oxnard. With the growing popularity of MMA, unlicensed or “smoker” events have turned up all over the country. These events are not only illegal but are also dangerous for both serious fighters and fans. Working directly with the California Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Organization (CAMO), CFL’s goal is to provide a safe and exciting experience with highly competitive and well matched fights that will feature local, regional and national MMA talent.

Another of Combat Fight League's goals is to bring an exciting arrangement of bouts, vendors and entertainment. The collaboration of West Coast Jiu Jitsu and Dojo Fightgear will recruit amateurs throughout California and personally select the best of the best. The Combat Fight League will invite amateur fighters looking to start or build on their records, provide them much needed cage experience and at the same time they will qualify for a chance to capture the respected Championship Belt of their weight division.

“Cage Experience”? Yes that is what they said! For those of you who have witnessed one of these events the combatants are inside of a tall cage, no smaller than 18' by 18' and no larger than 32' by 32'! The fight area is ringed with a fence tall enough to prevent the combatants from being thrown into the spectator area, or allowing for the combatant to break through the fence. The cage allows for none of the chances that a WWF Wrestler has to be thrown out of the ring, or the opportunity to escape from their opponent!

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full contact sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques and skills, from a mixture of martial arts and non-martial arts traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of both striking as well as grappling technique, both while standing and on the ground. The combatants wear groin protection, a mouthpiece and gauze bandages of very specific length and thicknesses on their hands. A glove is worn over the bandages weighing no more than four ounces. Fighters do not wear shoes and fight barefooted.

Each non-championship match shall be three rounds of three minutes each and championship matches are three rounds of five minutes each. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be traced back to various mixed style contests that took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900's. The name “mixed martial arts” was coined by Rick Blume, president and CEO of Battlecade, in 1995.

Turtle told me he had some early mentors starting at Fillmore High School (FHS). Turtle is a 2007 Fillmore High School graduate. While at FHS Turtle participated all four years in wrestling under Coach Bob Calderon and football holding the guard position under line Coach Joe Woods. Both coaches nurtured Turtle's competitive spirit and playing for and with a team!

While playing football Turtle weighed 210 pounds on a 5'6 1/2” frame. It was during football that he was tagged with the name of Turtle due to his size and because his football pads would rise up over his head when he was on the line in the crouched position. When he would come out of the couch his head would reappear which to his teammates would give him the appearance of a turtle coming out of his shell and they started to refer to him as Turtle!

While playing football a friend encouraged Turtle to join the wrestling team as a way to compliment his football training and to lose weight. As a wrestler Turtle started wrestling at 210 pounds. And by the end of the year he was wrestling in the 189 lb weight class! With the weight loss attributed to wrestling and the surprising fact that he liked wrestling he became more involved in the training. Because of his wrestling skills and obvious talent he earned the “Most Valuable Player” award in 2005 for wrestling. Turtle went on to wrestle at Moorpark College for one season under Coach Evan Jackson until the program was discontinued in that first year of college wrestling.

Turtle was soon encouraged by San Cayetano Elementary School 5th Grade teacher Rory Maus and Santa Paula High School Art teacher Michael Torres to start working out with them at the Perce's Kenpo Karate Studio in Fillmore and this led him to become involved in kick boxing and his eventual relationship with the West Coast Jiu Jujitsu and Muay Thai Center. At the West Coast Jiu Jujitsu and Muay Thai Center Turtle began training daily with coaches Brian Espinoza in Jiu Jujitsu and boxing, Alfredo Lemus in Muay Thai (kick boxing), and Ed Ratliff his MMA coach who puts it all together for him to compete in CFL MMA competitions. On April 14, 2007 he won his first MMA Championship title at the Santa Clarita Studios in Valencia.

Mentor Rory Maus said, “I remember he was by far one of the hardest working students I've ever worked with. He brought an extreme dedication to the martial arts and MMA specifically. Though he worked very hard he was also polite and had a positive attitude towards learning. It's been a pleasure working with him and I know he will continue to achieve whatever goals he sets his sights on.”

Mentor Michael Torres told me, “I've known Francisco since he was at Fillmore Middle School. I watched him wrestle all four years of his Fillmore High School career and ironically coached against him while I was coaching wrestling at Santa Paula High School. After he graduated from FHS, we happened to both be competing at a Preparation event at David Dunn's Sidekicks Academy in Canyon Country. (Preparation is amateur MMA that disallows strikes to the head.) He was there without a coach and only 17 years old, so I ended up informally coaching him through his debut matches that day; he won all if his bouts. He was basically a wrestler at that point with no formal boxing, kickboxing or submission wrestling training. I helped Francisco with his martial arts skills in the next few years specifically his stand up defense and striking and his submission wrestling skills as he entered a variety of Preparation tournaments. I coached him to a gold medal in the 145 lb. Pankration Division at the Grappling X Tournament in San Bernardino, CA on June 13th 2009. I continue to help him and coach him when we get the chance to work together. I am extremely proud of his efforts and wish him continued success.” Coach Torres seems to validate Turtle's desire to be a strong competitor in MMA competitions for a very long time.

Turtle told me that it is the discipline of the sport and that he can go “one-on-one” with another person representing himself and what he can do that he likes the MMA. Also the young man I saw in front of me for this article was not the 210 pound football player, or the 189 pound wrestler that he was when he graduated in 2007 from FHS! He was now a seasoned MMA competitor competing in the 145.1 to 155 pound class! Turtle hopes to be fighting as a professional in a year! To get there Turtle will have to continue to build his fight resume and experience level by training daily. Turtle will have to fight four more fights before he can become a professional. He is thankful that his brother Jose “Frog” has entered MMA as a sport because Frog is his training and sparring partner. Since his training will be focused on defending his Champion Belt he he told me he will have to train twice as hard to retain his belt. Turtle expects to defend his belt in early 2011 in a Title Defense Fight. Whoever is selected to be his challenger in the Title Defense Fight Turtle expects to win and then the belt will be his to keep!

Not only do I think Turtle has a great future in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) , but I found him to be a very nice young man and great mentor for his younger brother Jose and his nephew Joseph Ramos. Both are now entering into Mixed Martial Arts because of Turtle's influence. Jose's first Combat Fight League MMA contest will be on February 18, 2011. Turtle is very grounded for a young man who can compete the way he does in MMA. He has a natural ease about him, posses a genuine smile and Turtle's enthusiasm for the sport is contagious. He is not the kind of person involved in this sport for the wrong reasons!

I know those of us in Fillmore wish our hometown MMA Champion well in the Title Defense Fight match up in early 2011. I enjoyed meeting Turtle and know with his determination and love for Mixed Martial Arts that he will meet his goals of retaining his belt and entering the professional arena in one year as he has plans to do. Because of what the sport has done for Turtle I believe those who know Turtle will have learned a greater respect and appreciation for the sport of MMA. I know I have.