PEKIN, IL — The Greater Midwest Submission League announced Thursday that the main event of its June 21 invitational will be what organizers are calling “the most historic legacy superfight our region has ever seen”: a grappling match between Gary Hoeflich, 53, of Pekin, Illinois, and Marco DeBlasio, 50, of Gilbert, Arizona.
Both men last competed in organized jiu-jitsu in 1997.
Netflix was founded that year.
Trent Boesel, the GMSL’s founder and self-described “combat sports producer,” says the match has been two years in the making. “Gary and Marco were absolute monsters in the regional scene,” he said. “People forget how dominant they were.” When asked how many people actually remembered them, Boesel said he remembered them.
He was, at the time, eight years old.
Hoeflich’s competitive career peaked at the 1997 NAGA Cincinnati Open, where he went 3-1 in the adult gi blue belt heavyweight division. He won three matches on points, lost the final by armbar, and remembers it as “a thing where the guy got my arm.” He confirms it happened fast.
After Cincinnati, Hoeflich stopped competing because his then-girlfriend had scheduling concerns. He moved three times, got married, got divorced, worked dispatch for a trucking company in Tazewell County, and trained off and on for about eighteen months in the early 2000s before a knee issue ended that. He came back to jiu-jitsu in January after his son-in-law invited him to a trial class at a gym in a church annex in East Peoria. He is currently an unlisted white belt at an academy with no formal belt program.
“My cardio’s not there yet,” Hoeflich said, “but the knowledge is still in there.” He tapped his temple twice. When told the GMSL press release described him as “a dominant force” and “a pillar of regional grappling,” he was quiet for a moment. “That was Trent’s word,” he said. “Trent’s a good guy.”
DeBlasio’s last competitive appearance was the Southwest Regional Submission Series in Tempe, Arizona, also in 1997. He was 21. He went 1-1 in the no-gi intermediate division, winning his first match by verbal tap and losing the second when, as he put it, “the guy started doing something I didn’t recognize and I didn’t want to get hurt.”
He has not been back since.
DeBlasio spent the past decade managing a tile and flooring store in Gilbert. He rejoined a gym fourteen months ago and describes his current game as “mostly defensive.” His preparation for June 21 has involved three weeks of drilling with a training partner — also a white belt — and watching instructional content he acknowledges he has not drilled. He is also dealing with a hip situation he describes as minor, though he has not been cleared to drive long distances.
Gilbert to Pekin is approximately 1,700 miles.
Boesel’s promotional material frames the matchup as “28 Years In The Making,” rendered in 47-point Canva font over a split photo of both men standing in separate gyms. The photos were taken in March. Hoeflich and DeBlasio had not met before Boesel introduced them on a video call that same month.
The GMSL’s promotional video, posted to Instagram (@gmsljiu_jitsu, 84 followers), runs four minutes and eleven seconds. It is Boesel talking to camera in front of a punching bag, explaining the backstory. He begins with “So basically what happened was,” loses the thread, starts over twice, and reaches the relevant information around the three-minute mark. The background music is a Pixabay instrumental titled “Epic Corporate Motivation.”
Asked what “legacy” meant in the context of two competitors who hadn’t set foot at a tournament in 29 years, Boesel did not pause.
“Gary and Marco are pillars,” he said. “The grappling community deserves this.”
Eleven tickets had been sold as of Thursday. Three were purchased by Hoeflich’s son-in-law. Four were purchased by DeBlasio’s coworkers at the tile store, who asked for a group discount and were told there wasn’t one. One was purchased by a man who confirmed by text that he thought it was a different event but planned to attend anyway.
The remaining three were sold to what Boesel describes as “serious fans of the sport.” He has not elaborated.
The June 21 event will be held at VFW Post 2778 on Park Avenue in Pekin. The mat area seats approximately 40 people. Both athletes have been advised to bring their own water.
The superfight is scheduled after a no-gi open bracket, a youth division, and a fifteen-minute heel hook demonstration by Boesel’s blue belt instructor. Rules are submission-only. There is no backup plan in the event that neither man submits the other.
Boesel was asked what he expected to happen. He said it would be explosive. Both of them, he clarified, were explosive.
The VFW has a full bar. Boesel notes this is “a nice touch.”
Tickets are $22 general admission. Parking is free.