8 year old claims world martial arts title

Published 12:37 pm Monday, December 29, 2025

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Dominic Graham stared down a daunting task and didn’t blink when he competed in the 15th World Martial Arts Games. The 8-year-old kid from Mocksville not only lived to tell the tale, he did better than anyone could have possibly imagined.
The Games were held in Oslo, Norway from Nov. 6-10.
Graham was forced to compete in the 10-under intermediate division. (The other two divisions were advanced and black belt.) The results were mind-boggling. He captured the gold medal in the Japanese/Okinawa Forms.
“He was kind of taking a butter knife to a gun fight,” said Travis Hinson, who has coached martial arts at the Davie Recreation Department for eight years. “He’s a beginner and you have to compete intermediate there; they don’t have a beginner division. He did outstanding, he really did. He won a gold medal, and if you win gold, you are a world champion. How many kids have a world championship ring of any kind? Not many.”
After going nuclear in the Japanese/Okinawa Forms, Graham took the silver medal in Japanese/Okinawa Weapons. For good measure, he earned the bronze medal in fighting. He was among 13 kids on Team USA North Carolina, and 19 different countries were represented in Norway.
“He’s just an athlete,” Hinson said. “He’s never played baseball, but I guarantee you if you gave me two months to work with him, he wouldn’t just be good, he would be a stud. Dominic has only been doing it a couple years, maybe. He’s a smart kid; he keeps his grades up. And we stress grades over anything else. In other words, if you’ve got a big test tomorrow and you need to study, don’t come to karate. Dominic is a fantastic little man – real smart in school. As a matter of fact, he might be one of the top in his class.”