If you could gauge who a person was based purely off of their name, what do you think of when you hear Zac Crush? Having started jiu jitsu after making the move to Saigon, Zac was one of those guys that it didn’t take long for me to start hearing about. Though thriving, the grappling community in Saigon is still relatively small which means that everyone pretty much knows everyone else, and when you’re one of the bigger fish, your reputation travels faster than most. I finally got the chance to roll with Zac roughly two years after I first started training, and his name, by all counts, was fitting. He quite literally crushed me during that six-minute round which, by the end, had me panting and left with mixed feelings: I thought I’d gotten decently okay at jiu jitsu by then but anytime those thoughts bubble up you’re in for a rude awakening at the hands of someone like Zac. Having said that, what I didn’t expect was what happened after the round. A handshake, a good job, man that didn’t feel in any way patronising, followed by a brief conversation where I asked him where he was from and how long he’d been training for: the questions I used to always ask anyone who beat me up so effortlessly. That short chat and knowledge of how Zac was trying to build Vietnam’s grappling scene would serve as the inspiration for the longer talk we’d have almost a year later, but I suppose, in some ways, the seed had been planted ever since I first heard his name.
Zac was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia. The town was the type of place everyone knew everyone else’s name. The type of place with mountains, creeks with clear streams, and a beauty that most people never get to see when they drive by on their way to a bigger city. It was here Zac was raised, the oldest of three sons to two parents with strong, Christian values. One of his earliest memories is helping his Dad chop wood when he was four and looking back now, it seemed as if he was always trying to become stronger and better in any way he could. Having said that, it wouldn’t be for a long time until he felt comfortable in his own skin. The reality was, he’d been a scared kid growing up. He lacked confidence and never really felt accepted by his peers, which resulted in a sense of alienation and loneliness. This hung over him like a dark cloud for most of his school life. However, in ninth grade, everything changed.
The summer after ninth grade, Zac went down to North Carolina as part of a Church group trip. They stayed in a convention center and before long an impromptu wrestling match was underway between Zac and a scrawny kid about his age. Zac got crushed. As he put it, losing to the smaller, weaker guy was such a humiliating, defeating experience to an already insecure teenage boy that rather than slinking off into the shadows, he immediately asked, “How did you do that?”. The boy replied that he’d been wrestling for a year on the high school wrestling team and that was that. Vowing to never let something similar happen to him again, Zac decided to take up the sport. Little did he know that it would permanently alter the course of his life.
Zac became a new person thanks to wrestling. Although he made the varsity team his first year, he lost most of his first matches. This never discouraged him. He was developing resilience, confidence, and an unshakeable determination thanks to the fact that with wrestling, there’s no such thing as cutting corners. You get what you put in. Given that he started the summer leading up to tenth grade, he knew he couldn’t beat kids who’d been wrestling since they were five using pure technique. However, Zac believes there’s three components to wrestling: technique, cardio, and mindset. He promised himself he’d outperform others in the latter two areas, and once he made that promise, he never broke it. Aside from chopping wood like he’d done since he was a child, he started running ten kilometres every morning before school. Day by day, he was transforming himself. On top of that, being on the wrestling team gave him not just his first taste of brotherhood, but a place where he was truly accepted. It was tough—mentally and physically—but he pushed through. He won three matches and lost nineteen in his first year. In his second, he won twenty-five and lost six. In his senior year of high school, he didn’t lose a single match in the regular season, winning twenty-five with only three of his opponents ever scoring on him. It was amazing how much changed in the span of a few years. Wrestling became more than just a love. It was something that was as much a part of his identity as his name. Thanks to wrestling, Zac finally saw a way to move forward with his life, and the next biggest leap he’d make would be leaving his home of Clifton Forge.
College wasn’t really something Zac had been too concerned with. So much so that when most of his peers had already committed to a college, Zac was still wondering whether he should take the SATs. However, with wrestling came the opportunity to get into a school where he could be a part of their wrestling program. He saw wrestling as his ticket out of Clifton Forge and as it happened, luck was on his side. His mum had been taking videos of his wrestling matches for a while now and through a mutual connection, she was able to get it to the assistant coach of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) who ended up making a highlight reel video for Zac. Before you knew it, Zac was a Division 1 wrestler, on the same team as guys he’d been looking up to since he started. Though he felt a healthy dose of imposter syndrome, he tried his best in the ultra-competitive environment and wrestled for one year before deciding to focus on academics. Though his college wrestling experience was short-lived, it continued to push Zac forward in new directions. It wasn’t long before he realised that so long as he put his mind to it, he could do well in his studies. This mindset shift resulted in pursuing a career in Military Intelligence upon graduating from VMI. So began a period of adventure. He visited all fifty states, thirty-five different countries, and even ended up getting married. In 2016 he found himself working at a tech company in California. He’d come a long way from the boy who’d grown up in Clifton Forge.
Zac’s first visit to Vietnam came while he was in California. He had friends from Virginia living in Hanoi and he took a flight over which would end up impacting his life as much as his first wrestling match all those years back. He loved every part of the country and its culture, and so upon returning to the States he decided to sell his house and bought a one-way ticket back to Hanoi. He lived it up while he was there but in 2019, moved down to Mui Ne for a slower, more tropical lifestyle. Of course, Covid had other plans. Zac decided he wanted to be home during this time and so he returned to Clifton Forge to be with his parents. Though happy to be back in the States with his parents, he’d been bit by the Vietnam bug and thoughts of the country would never leave him. However, there would be a space of three years before he made it back. He spent time in the Dominican Republic and Colombia in between, where, as he put it, all he wanted to do was ride a motorbike, do jiu jitsu, and lounge on the beach. It was a nice time but what he really wanted was to live in Vietnam. Once Covid restrictions were lifted, he flew to Saigon and not once did he look back.
Zac credits a few individuals with kickstarting his life in Saigon. Among the names was Cory, head coach of Over/Under Submission Grappling. They hit it off from the moment they met and Zac stated how appreciative he was of the fact that Cory let him teach morning wrestling classes at O/U, as well as put him in touch with a number of other mainstays in Vietnam’s grappling scene. Besides Cory, Alex from Team Shark Saigon, who he credits with his unwavering effort at improving the spaces where grapplers can practice (as someone who trains at Team Shark, this is something I can personally attest to). Once he met people like Cory and Alex, Zac hit the ground running. He made it a point to compete as much as possible in an effort to meet as many people that were involved in the grappling scene in Saigon and Southeast Asia at large. It was during this non-stop bouncing from gym to gym and competition to competition that an idea started taking shape. He’d noticed that though he was meeting tons of individuals with incredible stories, their stories were, by and large, unknown. Knowing how much value they could have for others, Zac figured if no one else was going to tell these stories, why not him? He thought of starting a podcast but there was only one problem. He was scared of speaking on camera.
As I listened to Zac’s story, the more I got the sense that the upwards trajectory of his life had a lot to do with the fact that ever since he started wrestling, he’d learnt how to better face his fears. After all, how could the boy who once lacked confidence and felt alienated from his peers grow up to become someone who visited all fifty states, travelled to thirty-five different countries, and at some point along his journey found himself living in so radically different a place from his home of Clifton Forge as Saigon, Vietnam? When this idea began to take shape about sharing the stories of people he met through grappling on a podcast, he knew it was what he should do but it was difficult to escape the gnawing sense of fear that had tormented him as a child. It’s funny, you grow up convinced you’ve outgrown those feelings only to realise they were there all along. Dormant. Waiting for their moment to strike. And so though he wanted to do a podcast, he second-guessed himself. It wouldn’t be long before all of that changed.
Zac’s feelings started to change ever since he was made an MC for a grappling tournament at Vivo City in 2023. He was put in this position by Lucky, someone he used to grapple with and a major influence in the grappling scene. He partnered with a young Vietnamese girl for the role but when it came time to actually make their speeches, Zac decided to scrap what was planned and go off the cuff. It was then he realised how much he actually enjoyed being on the mic, and when the tournament ended people came up to him and thanked him for organising the whole thing even though he had no part in actually putting the tournament together. He had an epiphany. If you’re the one taking the initiative to be talking in front of the crowds and the cameras, you’re naturally going to be put into a position where you become a voice in that realm. His fear of being on camera all but disappeared. The Saigon Saga Podcast (now called the Vietnam Grappling Podcast) was born.
Teaming up with his friend Adam, Zac started interviewing and releasing podcasts with all manner of grapplers, gym owners, and anyone else involved in the mixed martial arts scene in Vietnam. From there, things started to really snowball. During these conversations, the topic was often brought up about how though the grappling scene in Saigon was skyrocketing, it was still lacking in a substantial amount of competitions to really give athletes a chance to test their skills against one another. With the idea of giving grapplers more opportunity to compete, Saigon Superfights began. Alongside professional jiu jitsu athlete Rob Degle, mainstays in Saigon’s grappling scene such as Paul Virgen, Liam Reskenov, and Coach Pato from Arkain Grappling helped to organise the inaugural event. Essentially, the concept was to make an event that wasn’t like the standard long, boring, and pay-to-participate jiu jitsu tournament. This meant creating something short, sweet, and where the winners received prize money. But that wasn’t all. Saigon Superfights went above and beyond by creating a spectacle out of the event. This meant fights took place inside Dragon MMA’s boxing ring, with commentators providing play-by plays while the whole thing was live streamed. Over one hundred people showed up and they were even able to crowdfund the trip of the winner of the 66kg bracket, Vi, to an even bigger tournament: ADCC Malaysia. From their first event, Saigon Superfights has only grown. Sponsorships have made it possible to put on bigger and better shows which means more competitors and even higher stakes. Having said that, it’s not come without its challenges. Zac has taken on the role of organiser, MC, matchmaker, and even competitor at past events, which means that there’s a lot of moving parts he has to juggle by himself. However, that’s not to say he’s ever slowed down. Saigon Superfights V is taking place on November 9th of this year and partnering with the boxing promotion Saigon Fight Factory, the next event is primed to be another success.
If podcasting and running a grappling tournament weren’t enough, Zac’s also been involved with one of Vietnam’s premier MMA organisations, Gods of Martial Arts (GMA). The opportunity presented itself as a result of the position he’d paved for himself as one of the voices in Vietnam’s MMA scene. All the time and effort spent podcasting eventually brought him face to face with co-founder of GMA, head of Liên Phong MMA, and all round Renaissance man, Johnny Trí Nguyễn. Zac interviewed him post Lion Championship 16 during which he received word of the start of the new promotion. From there, the two kept in touch. First, Zac was hired as a wrestling coach for Liên Phong. After that he was invited to a GMA event and needless to say, was blown away by its environment, music, and production value. Starting from GMA 02, Zac volunteered as an interviewer. Given his knowledge of the grappling and MMA scene in Southeast Asia and the numerous connections he’d built through Saigon Superfights and the Vietnam Grappling Podcast, it wasn’t long before Zac was also made GMA’s Head of International Fighter Relations. The roles, from then on, piled up. Zac became GMA’s resident English podcast host as well as their English commentator for live events. There were times when he thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it all but in true Zac fashion, he’s pushed through. In the same way he developed self-esteem by facing his fears and wrestling all those many years ago, he’s also put himself in the position he’s in now by facing his fear of getting in front of the camera.
Today, Zac continues to use his platform to build out the grappling and MMA scene in Southeast Asia. Ultimately, however, he’s got his sights set on the world. In regards to GMA, what started as a promotion with only Vietnamese fighters has quickly developed into one that hosts combatants from around Southeast Asia. Currently they’ve got fighters from Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand also joining but in the near future they plan on including a total of eleven countries from the region. This is all in an effort to make GMA the standalone MMA organisation for fighters not only in Southeast Asia but eventually, around the world. Zac has the same idea for his own productions, Saigon Superfights and the Vietnam Grappling Podcast. The aim is to garner enough international exposure to the grappling scene in Vietnam that it becomes the epicenter for events in the region, leading to bigger and better shows that will only serve to boost the competitiveness of grappling in this part of the globe. Beyond that, Zac is even working in tandem with Aidan from District 0 to create a platform to further unify Southeast Asia’s martial arts community. All in all, Zac shows no signs of slowing down. The boy from Clifton Forge has come a long way and who’s to say how far he’ll end up going? Having known of Zac for some time now and actually gotten to know him a little more recently, one thing’s for certain: no matter what challenges present themselves next, he’ll be up for the task. After all, that’s all Zac’s ever done. He’s faced his fears.
- Check out Zac’s website
- Follow Zac on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram
- All Gods of Martial Arts photos are credited to Duc Anh Tran & the Gods of Martial Arts Organisation
