Rocket Scientist Defends His Belt at PGF World 6

Starting April 21st, the Rocket Scientist, David “Quadzilla” Evers will defend his Professional Grappling Federation Belt as PGF World 6 kicks off. Every season, an unknown grappler, often a blue or purple belt, becomes the season standout. Evers served that role in PGF Season 3. A purple belt at the time, he took people’s legs home, earning a spot in the finale tournament. At the finale tournament, he shocked everyone, submitting all his opponents on his way to winning the PGF Season 3, 170lb title – and earning his brown belt as part of it. Now that Evers is returning to defend his title, let’s take a closer look at Quadzilla.

The first thing PGF fans noticed about Evers was his physique. At the Combine, he knocked out 98 pushups in one minute with no signs of slowing down. He caught the eye of PGF Commentator and now Pre-show Personality, Matt Skaff who predicted great things from Evers. While he is one of the shorter competitors, he makes up for his lack of stature with ridiculous muscles. Quickly Evers received the nickname Quadzilla due to the results of his training cardio on the assault bike. Evers presents a puzzle to his opponents with shorter levers, but increased strength compared to other opponents. But Quadzilla isn’t just a muscle head, the man has a 20lb brain (real recognizes real). While many competitors complained about the grind that is the PGF regular season, Evers continued to work his day job – at NASA (yes, that NASA). Evers would work on his rocket scientist projects by day and quickly change over after leaving work to break people’s ankles. Being an aerospace engineer, Evers brings an analytical, systems-based approach to all his training (conditioning and jiu jitsu). He optimizes his time at the gym and on the mats.

Despite just finishing the regular season in sixth place, Evers turned it on for the PGF Season Finale Tourament. He avenged his Decatur Qualifier second place finish by taking out Jeovany Ortiz. Next, Evers finished a very promising Kevin Beuhring, who is also a PGF World 6 competitor. Finally, Evers faced off against multi-season PGF Veteran Handsome Kevin Sherrill and submitted him to earn the title of PGF Season 3 Champion. Almost immediately after winning the match, Evers’ coach awarded him his brown belt.

From top left clockwise: Kevin Beuhring works a body lock against David Evers in the PGF Finale. Evers exalts in joy after winning the PGF and earning his brown belt. Evers and Handsome Kevin Sherrill face off, preparing to begin the final match of the season. Photos Courtesy of Walo Jay.

But it’s been two years since PGF Season 3, where has David “Quadzilla” Evers been? Well, Evers tried relocating his extended family to Hunstville, but was rebuffed. So, he decided to move to the Dallas Fort Worth Area. No longer a rocket scientist for NASA, he’s moved on to Lockheed Martin where he works as part of their advanced research team – Skunkworks. Skunkworks is the team that made the SR-71 Blackbird, stealth bomber, stealth jet, etc. So don’t ask Evers about his work, because it’s probably classified. He’s continued training, working more on his wrestling and top-position game. He trains and coaches at Flux MMA in Fort Worth, Texas. Just recently, Evers was awarded his black belt from Mushin Jiu Jitsu Academy Head Instructor and Ricardo Almeida third-degree blackbelt Bobby Williams Jr, who had also awarded him his purple belt.

As the defending PGF 170lb champion, naturally it made sense to invite Evers to PGF World 6. And the PGF Insiders made it official during their interview with him back in January. At the time, the public – heck even the PGF Insiders really only knew PGF World 6 was going to be in Las Vegas and it was going be BIG. Even with the uncertainty, Evers didn’t hesitate to sign up. Since then, he’s been untiringly preparing for this season. He’s been refining his game, adding where there were gaps and sharpening his main weapons.

Since Evers’ interview, Brandon Mccaghren (the Commissioner) has revealed much to the public. Even with the high caliber of opponents Evers knows he will be facing, he is unflinching. He says “I think all of the competitors that have been announced take it a bit more serious than I do; however, that may work to my advantage. The hours I *do* spend on the mats have to be more dialed in. As an engineer, I simply see this as a system in which it has to be as efficient and effective as possible. It’s created an incredibly strict regimen where I work 10+ hours a day, then go train for a couple hours. There’s the possibility that my methodology is flawed and I fail… But that’s always a possibility. Take SpaceX (SX) for example. They can run all the finite element analysis, which is a math model-based method to check if the primary and secondary structures on the rockets will survive the loads. Instead, SX commits to actually taking their rocket engines onto apparatuses and running them through various tests to see if their structures actually break. After ten years of training, I like to believe I have enough data to formulate a viable plan for each of the competitors…” This engineer is ready to execute some plans on his competitors.

As a jiu jitsu practitioner and fan, Evers is very excited to be on any of the PGF World 6 teams and their legendary coaches. Like every other competitor interviewed, Evers acknowledged Roger Gracie as the GOAT of jiu jitsu competitors. He said he was 100% certain Roger would be able to impact his game, even in the short timeframe of a week. Asked about Eddie Bravo, Evers geeked out a bit, saying it would be “INSANITY.” Evers credits a lot of his momentum as an up and coming jiu jitsu competitor to subscribing to Mastering the System and learning the 10th Planet flows. He said in his old school matches, you’d see him throwing up the rubber guard and playing lockdown. Evers had great things to say about all the coaches but acknowledged it’s not the competitor that picks the coaches, it’s the coaches that pick the competitor. And all the competitors can’t go wrong with any of these amazing coaches.

Finally, Evers knows one of the reasons the PGF vets are in this season is for the storyline. But he wants to make sure everyone knows the PGF vets aren’t just coming to say they were there. In his interview with the PGF Insiders, he said “I’m not taking any offense to it, but you want to see us against the best. Our intention is to beat the best. We can beat these big name guys that are coming out to this competition. That’s our intent. It’s not just see, ‘oh he has a good storyline and we know it from PGF.’ The intent is to be real contenders, to become the champion. …The [new] PGF competitors that show up…we’re there to f*** them up. We’re there to show up and show out!” And the other competitors would be making a big mistake to underestimate PGF Season 3 Champion David “Quadzilla” Evers. As he said, he’s coming into PGF World 6 intending to win.