Family affair for the Browns

Nathaniel Brown, 33, and his nine-year-old son Ishmael have been conquering all-comers across the country.

Nathaniel first took up the sport four years ago following spells competing in MMA and boxing. Soon after discovering his own love for the sport, he began to train Ishmael to do the same.

“It was mainly training for mixed martial arts, but I fell in love with wrestling,” said Nathaniel.

“I started training Ishmael and he picked it up really quickly, since then we haven’t looked back.”

Ishmael has wasted little time making his mark as he enjoyed a golden streak, sweeping aside his rivals.

“I think since he started wrestling he has one bronze and two silvers., the rest are gold! He won the English national title, the English open. He’s been brilliant,” said Nathaniel.

Both father and son have amassed a staggering amount of titles between them and they have been able to travel the country together and invariably come home with the goods.

“I think we are the only dad and son team that both enter events. We’ve had the Aspull Open, where we both placed, and the Derbyshire Open, where Ishmael got silver and I got gold,” added Nathaniel.

Nathaniel was on the cusp of representing Team England at last year’s Gold Coast, Commonwealth Games but his dream was cruelly ended due to injury.

However, he still flew out to Australia as a valued member of the team.

“Ishmael was so proud and it was great to show him that these things can happen,” said Nathaniel. “ I’ve already got my eyes on the next Commonwealth games, being in Birmingham it would be such a dream to represent England there.”

The duo train at the Wolverhampton Wrestling Club under the tutelage of coach Bal Singh and hopes are extremely high for the younger part of this wrestling tag team.

“Bal, who has trained the Wales national team has told us he is convinced Ishmael will be a champion,” said Nathaniel.

“We will keep on entering him into national championships but we have to start looking further a field now.

“We will start entering him into international championships because he wipes the floor with people at his weight in this country. Birmingham will obviously come too soon for Ishmael but in eight years time, we know he will be competing for England on the world stage. He’s that good.”