For a bloke whose sport of choice involves grappling with an opponent and forcing them to submit, Jonas Grace sure is nice.
It is hard to imagine the mild-mannered 21-year-old putting someone in an arm bar, but he does. And he is very good at it but also very modest.
Grace shrinks away from referring to himself as the Otago jiu jitsu champion or the New Zealand No GI intermediate super heavyweight champion.
He has the medals to prove it but played down his achievements.
''I wouldn't go around saying I'm the Otago champ or the national champ,'' he said.
''Technically I've got an Otago title, but in these competitions it really depends who turns up. There could be a dude in Otago who is better than me but didn't turn up. So I wouldn't say I'm the Otago champ, I'd say I won the Otago champs.''
Grace, who is 1.95m tall and competes in the under-97kg class, competed at the New Zealand Fitness Expo tournament in Auckland earlier this month and returned with two gold medals.
''I had six matches - three matches each day - so it was hard but it felt good to win,'' he said.
His first bout ended up being decided by a tie-breaker. In jiu jitsu that means each fighter has a turn on each other's back.
Whichever fighter escapes the quickest or secures the fastest submission wins.
It is jiu jitsu's version of a penalty shootout and a complete lottery, Grace said.
Grace managed to wriggle out from underneath in 55 seconds and then ''squeezed and held on'' to his opponent for long enough to get the win.
''It is silly but when it gets to that point, someone has to win,'' he said.
Grace took up karate when he was 16 but discovered jiu jitsu two years later and prefers the discipline of grappling.
His next assignment is the Australian Championships in Adelaide next month, where he expects the level of competition to be much stronger.
The ultimate prize in the sport is to be invited to compete and win at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Championships (ADCC).
''That would be the best you could possibly do. It is like if you were an amateur boxer you would want to go to the Olympics, well, ADCC is the top grappling competition in the world. But I just have to build myself up through the competitions and see where I end up.''
Whether he gets to Abu Dhabi or not, he is just enjoying the sport.
