A recent visit from Equipe Elite’s Founder Moroccan BJJ black belt Hicham Hakam had its fair share of benefits to all the Equipe Elite Lebanon members at Shogun Gym.
In his visit, instructor Hakam quickly settled in to give a two day seminar (Both for Gi and No Gi BJJ practitioners) at Al Riyadeh Club Beirut. This was Hakam’s first international seminar as he portrayed some skills and tips along with some good laughs with the team. Mhammad Karaki along with the presense of Hakam took this opportunity to grant deserving members their blue belts, making it the first belt promotion at Equipe Elite ebanon and a happy graduation day everybody was excited about!
Some impressive BJJ showdowns from both, Magaly Kochkarian who recently won the Lebanese BJJ championship and Roy Dakroub who has been around the block for a while, prompted Hakam to promote both Shogun Gym fighters, especially with Magaly on the road to compete in the International Brazillian Jujitsu Federation-IBJJF in Las Vegas this summer. A well timed visit from the head instructor of the team surely effected the players on many different levels.
Mhamad Karaki, the head instructor of Equipe Elite Lebanon and the current Desert Force light heavyweight champion who is a purple belt under Hicham Hakam, had more than a few sessions of private, intensive training with the black belt in preparation of a possible title defense at Desert Force. Karaki has been out of opponents and fights at 93 KG ever since he won the title last December (2013), but more than ready to portray his always developing BJJ ground game. Hopefully, we will see him defend his title soon and get a glimpse of the quality of work he shows as a result of training under instructor Hakam as he did in all his previous fights.
