Gregorio "Noy Goyong" Ceniza once tilled a large tract of land in Mandaue City, in the central province of Cebu. He chose to farm the land rather than go to school, unlike his siblings who were able to finish their education. He is known only to do two things: he plowed his field with his carabao, and practiced and taught the deadly and devious art of Arnis Diablo, now known as Baraw Sugbo.
In the heart of his property, near his house run a small suba or river. It is at this soft riverbed, that Noy Goyong practiced and taught ground fighting with the knife. Using the soft riverbed, just like we use practice mats in ground fighting today, Noy Goyong would demonstrate take downs, grappling, and disarms against the blade on the ground, which has always been a realistic progression of a knife fight.
The river is now very polluted and the Ceniza family no longer owns the property on which the river flows, but the same skills and techniques of knife fighting lives on in the teachings of Gregorio Ceniza's second son, Eduardo "Boy" Ceniza.
Author
Topic: Ground Knife Fighting in Baraw Sugbo (Read 278 times)