Last year, when Cameron Davis, the owner of Davis Martial Arts, asked his class to write their 2025 gym goals on a poster, David Stanfield wrote down four goals, and he remembers them all.
“I’m a person that when I set goals like that, I really put in the work, and I feel like I trained hard all year and committed to the competitions,” he said.
No. 1: Place first, second, or third eight times in his competitions.
Standfield placed nine times. No. 2: Rank twice in martial arts. Stanfield did that, too. No. 3: Defeat his coach Mike five times.
“I actually didn’t achieve that goal, but I put Mike to sleep, which to me was more fulfilling than beating him five times,” he said, laughing.
No. 4: Become the season champion at the Jiu-Jitsu World League by the end of the year.
Stanfield remembers his classmates laughing at the last goal because it just seemed so impossible to achieve.
They aren’t laughing any more. Throughout the year, Stanfield rose through the ranks by performing consistently well in his matches, earning him points.
He accumulated enough points by the end of the year to become the season champion.
The tournaments draw in about 2,000 people from all over the U.S. and internationally, Stanfield said, to compete in different brackets based on weight, class and age.
Two years into his martial arts training, Stanfield was able to achieve this goal in his first year of competing and at the age of 48.
“It’s very fulfilling when you get to the end of the year and look back on it and say, ‘Yeah, I was able to do those things,’ especially the season championship, which was considered the most difficult.”
For Stanfield, martial arts isn’t just a sport or a hobby; it’s become a part of his way of life to do better for himself.
The death of his father was a turning point in his life.
“He was 67, and I just don’t consider that very old to lose a parent, so it kind of got my attention,” Stanfield said.
Then, when Stanfield got COVID in 2021, he knew it was time to take his health seriously by turning grief into motivation.
“I … was in the hospital and, just wasn’t in the greatest shape of my life,” he said. “… The doctors were like, being a little overweight or out of shape and things, when you get something like COVID, can really impact you. … That all kind of motivated me to do something to get in better shape.”
Browsing on Facebook, Stanfield stumbled upon Davis Martial Arts and decided to try it out, and it quickly became a great outlet for Stanfield that also aided in his weight loss journey.
“I immediately tried that out and just fell in love with it, and that’s all I’ve done since then,” he said. “… All the guys and ladies there that I trained with have become like family, and it’s just been something I have really grabbed onto, and it’s helped me get in shape.”
Stanfield has a new goal for 2026.
“My goal is to compete in the actual professional league, which is the IBJJF- International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation,” he said. “And they have only one tournament in Dallas for the whole year, and it’s called the Dallas Open. And their tournaments are worldwide, whereas the league that I was just in … are only in the United States.”
Stanfield will have his first tournament in March, and if he qualifies, he will compete in Las Vegas in September.
Right now, he said, he’s focusing on one goal at a time.
He has defied the odds and encourages those interested in martial arts or jujitsu to not let age or gender stop them from trying it out.
“You gain something that you can enjoy, but you also gain a lot of friends that become almost like family,” Stanfield said.
David Stanfield, right, is named a 2025 Season Champion at the Jiu-Jitsu World League. Photo Courtesy of David Stanfield
