My name is Grand Master Vince Palumbo, I was born on the 4th of November in 1965, and I grew up in the beautiful city of Adelaide, which is in the 'Festival State' of South Australia. 

I began my combat arts training at the age of  8, starting out in boxing and gymnastics, then by the time that I was 10, I had made up my mind to go and start learning basic Judo/Jujitsu. Later on, when I turned 15 years of age, I then started training in the Freestyle Karate style, and I achieved the Black Belt by my 18th birthday, this was after 3 years of hard training.

At 21, I started competing in the combat sports fighting arena, and since my first full-contact fight, I have won many titles in the different combat sport disciplines that I've fought in now.

I've had over 200 full-contact fights in the arena, and I'm very keen to keep up the fighting in competitions until I reach 50 years of age, and this would make a great achievement for me.
Also my fine list of martial arts achievements over the last thirty years are notable as well!

I was inducted into the Blitz Martial Arts Magazine Hall of Fame awards in 2003, and I won the very notable award as the "Best Freestyle Martial Arts Instructor in Australia." that year.

I was named 'Best Amateur Boxer in South Australia ' for 1994, 1998, 1999 and 2000, and I was voted 'Boxing competitor with the most fights!' for those years of my competition fights.

Below is a list to name a few of my titles and achievements as a competitor:

* South Australian Full Contact Karate Champion
* South Australian, Australian and World Champion in Full Contact Stickfighting.
* South Australian Submission Grappling Champion
* South Australian and Australian Shootboxing Champion
* South Australian, South Pacific and World IKBBF Pro-Boxing Champion
* Australian Full-Contact Kung Fu Champion
* Australian Toughman Title
* South Australian Amateur Boxing Champion

I have then gone on to win the South Australian Middleweight Pro-Boxing Title in 2002, then I won the IKBBF Title as South Pacific Middleweight Pro-Boxing Champion in 2003, and I fought for the vacant IKBBF Pro-Boxing Middleweight World Boxing Title in 2004, with this title fight being one of my really toughest fights too, because it went for the 10x3 minute rounds of pain and fatigue, actually I just won that fight by a knock-out in the final 10th round.

I'm Chief Instructor of the International Combative Martial Arts Academy, which is located at 96a Grange Road in Welland of South Australia 5007, the gym was established in 1990. 

I am a long time student of Supreme Grandmaster Cacoy Canete 12th Degree Black Belt of Cebu City in the Philippines, he's been my Filipino Martial Arts Intsructor for over 20 years, and in this time that I have trained with the great GM Canete, I've also attained these ranks- 

9th Degree Black Belt in Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima
8th Degree Black Belt in Cacoy Pangamot Jujitsu
8th Degree Black Belt in Arjukanpo Combat Karate
6th Degree Black Belt in Combat Aikijitsu
6th Degree Black Belt in Korean Karate

I have also cultivated quite a bit of an acting career as well, because I have appeared in two very exciting martial art movies called - 'FINAL COMBAT' Directed by Menahem Golan, and the other movie is called 'CONFESSIONS OF A PIT FIGHTER' Directed by Art Comacho.

The most significant teacher to me would have to be Supreme Grandmaster Cacoy Canete of Cebu City, he's founder of CACOY DOCE PARES ESKRIMA WORLD FEDERATION,  and he has many affiliate clubs in from all over the world that are training in his style rite now.

I first met the awesome GM Ciriaco 'Cacoy' Canete over twenty years ago, and at the time I was already a 3rd Dan in the Freestyle Karate when we were introduced to each other by my instructor of the Doce Pares Eskrima/Tang Soo Do Karate in Alice Springs of Australia, and his name is Master Martin Gardiner, and it was because of this pioneer of martial arts in the 'Outback' of Australia, that I was able to meet Grand Master Cacoy Canete while he was conducting a Doce Pares Eskrima seminar at the Alice Springs Martial Arts Club, in 1988. 

Because of the lessons that I've received from Supreme Grand Master Cacoy Canete,  I've won 2 World Titles at the 2005 Los Angeles World Stickfighting Championships, and then a further 3 World Titles at the 2006 Cebu World Stickfighting Championships, and then at the Jakarta 2007 World Stickfighting Championships, I won- 9 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals, and 2 Bronze Medals, plus I was named as 'GRAND CHAMPION' for the tournament there.  

After the tournament I was promoted to the '9th Degree Black Belt and Grand Master' rank!

Supreme Grand Master Ciriaco 'Cacoy' Canete has been a wonderful teacher to me over the many years, because he has taught me so much about the martial art of ESKRIMA, and FILIPINO MARTIAL ARTS, so I shall continue to teach his own Filipino Stickfighting style of CACOY DOCE PARES ESKRIMA, until the day I die, this is a promise that I make to him!

#source: www.grandmastervincentpalumbo.com