AN ALLOA gym owner aims to become world number one after qualifying for the world grappling championships in Kazakhstan.

Craig McIntosh travelled down south to compete in the tournament’s UK qualifiers and was delighted to make the cut.

True to the name of his gym, the Submission Factory, he said: “I went down to Manchester and managed to win all of my matches by submission.

“It’s a great chance to go out and become world champion. There’s a lot of great high-level guys in the team, so I’m sure it’ll be fun going out there to represent Great Britain and obviously Scotland.

“I love tournaments because you’re not specifically training for anybody, you’re just training to be the best that you can be. You’ve no idea who you’re getting or what you’re getting.

“You need to be adaptable, but I’ve been grappling for 15 years now pretty obsessively, so I’m quite happy to engage in all positions.”

The news comes shortly after Mr McIntosh travelled to Finland to compete in a professional MMA bout.

He went on: “I took a fight a few months ago and the guy pulled out on the week of the event. They were unable to find me a replacement, so I’d done a full fight camp for nothing.

"Well not for nothing because I did get fitter and better out of it, but I was like ‘man I really could do with a fight’.

“I just kept ticking over and I was offered a fight in Finland against a Finn opponent, so I went across and kept in shape for that one. The fight was actually very enjoyable. It ended in a draw, but I’d like to fight the guy again in Scotland.”

One welcome difference between the worlds of grappling and MMA was described by Mr McIntosh, who said: “I’m competing in my age category (over 36) which is something that I don’t always do because in professional MMA you don’t really get a choice."

Mr McIntosh is keen to talk about the wider success of his Alloa team. He said: “The gym’s been smashing it.

"It’s been about three and a half years since we opened the facility and we’ve been going from strength to strength ever since.

"It’s just growing and getting better all the time, to the point that we now have some kids that have come through our programmes who are unbelievable.

“There was a competition in Stirling where we had eight people competing and all eight were able to win against height level opponents from all over the UK and even Europe.

"That was a very cool moment. Some were up against people who have beat them in the past and they were able to turn it around and get the win.”

(Image: Craig McIntosh)

One member, Gary Priestly even managed to win a professional MMA fight aged 40.

Mr McIntosh added: “Gary’s fight was tremendous. I feel like I lose a few years off my life when he competes because we’ve been friends for so long and I know how much it means to him.

"To be 40 and pushing yourself to the level when you can go the 15 minutes in an MMA fight is pretty crazy, but he works really hard, and he really fought his heart out to get the win.”