{"id":36661,"date":"2025-08-07T13:05:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36661"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:05:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:05:25","slug":"auroras-aaron-khaykin-selected-to-participate-in-sports-illustrated-youth-athlete-of-the-year-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-aaron-khaykin-selected-to-participate-in-sports-illustrated-youth-athlete-of-the-year-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s Aaron Khaykin selected to participate in Sports Illustrated Youth Athlete of the Year contest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MMA and Medical School aspirant Aaron Khaykin has made it through the selection process of the Sports Illustrated Youth Athlete of the Year contest and is seeking the support of Aurora\u2019s residents for the next phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grade 11 Aurora High School Honor Roll student explained the criteria for the venerable magazine\u2019s youth athlete and charity promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe submitted an application including my accomplishments, with videos, photos and social media references. Sports Illustrated reached out and told me I was selected to participate in the competition, which involves reaching out to the community to get votes. The votes can be made one of two ways: the public can vote for free every 24 hours through my profile page by verifying through Facebook. People can make multi-votes by making a donation through my profile page, with the donated funds going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research and the Why Not You Foundation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The link to Khaykin\u2019s profile page, in order to support the local athlete\u2019s candidacy for Sports Illustrated Youth Athlete of the Year, is https:\/\/athleteoftheyear.org\/2025\/aaron-0ab4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 15-year-old\u2019s accomplishments in the MMA ring and high school wrestling mat are numerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our conversation at Tim Hortons at John West Way and Wellington, Aaron\u2019s father, Eugene Khaykin, offered a backgrounder to his son\u2019s athletic specialties and recent successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAaron\u2019s primary sports are Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Freestyle Wrestling. He competes at regional, provincial, and national level ADCC events and won golds in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal as well as a Bronze in Niagara in Jiu Jitsu tournaments. In wrestling, he competes for Aurora High School. This was his first year wrestling at the high school level– winning gold at the YRAA\u2019s and earning a spot to compete at OFSAA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his golden success on the high school wrestling mat, Aaron Khaykin described the satisfaction of rebounding from a serious shoulder injury and making an impressive debut at the Canadian Fight League\u2019s MMA championships this Summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was coming off a strained rotator cuff and partial tear of my deltoid and had to take a complete month off training. It was a slow process to rebuild and restore my power. I made a smooth transition back and felt confident that I was strong enough to fight in the opening event against Emran Hashmi. We were both making our first appearances. It was a great win. I dominated him fully on the floor and got a submission in under a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaykin\u2019s swift triumph in the Amateur Youth MMA fight in Stoney Creek has spurred him to pursue his goal to \u201cbecome a professional MMA fighter. The problem is that it\u2019s hard to make it big and earn money in MMA so my backup plan is to go to Medical School. I\u2019d like to attend McMaster University and specialize in orthopedic medicine to treat sports injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve his lofty post-secondary aspirations, Khaykin\u2019s goals as a student-athlete complement his regimen at multiple facilities where he works out six days a week, three-to-four hours a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy parents insist that my marks have to be above 80, that I stay on the Honor Roll, and that I do well in my high school sports. I\u2019m going to try Volleyball and Soccer in the Fall when I get back to school and wrestle for Aurora High School in the Winter.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaykin transferred from Richmond Hill High School, which did not have a wrestling program, to attend Aurora High School in September 2024 to avail himself of the quality wrestling coaching and program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gives credit to two coaches who have made a difference for him: \u201cAdrian Wooley is a community coach and helped get the wrestling team going with two of our sponsor teachers. The team is now in its third year thanks to them. My United Grappling Club Coach Ergys Sigeta is also a community coach for our high school team. He\u2019s a former professional MMA fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eugene Khaykin credits an array of coaches and training facilities for contributing to his son\u2019s athletic success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAaron trains at multiple gyms six days a week. He has Sundays off\u2014his only break in the week. For Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling, he trains at the United Grappling Club under Domenic Passero, who is a multi-degree black belt, and Ergys Sigeta who was a professional MMA fighter. For his boxing and Muay Thai, he trains at Grant\u2019s Boxing and MMA. For his sparring practice, he goes to Aegis MMA in Oakville, a well-established professional MMA training facility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Khaykin\u2019s dedication to his craft is just one of many reasons why residents of Aurora should support this Honor Roll student-athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The articulate, engaging teenager suggested a few others as our chat wound down at Tim\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a local athlete and getting support from your hometown is part of this selection process. I hope to win more medals for my High School this season and I\u2019d especially like to get us more medals for the Varsity wrestling team after winning gold at the YRAA\u2019s at Stephen Lewis High School.  Everyone can vote for free through Facebook, but there are also opportunities to donate to charities such as the V Foundation for Cancer Research and the Why Not You Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MMA and Medical School aspirant Aaron Khaykin has made it through the selection process of the Sports Illustrated Youth Athlete of the Year contest and is seeking the support of Aurora\u2019s residents for the next phase. The Grade 11 Aurora High School Honor Roll student explained the criteria for the venerable magazine\u2019s youth athlete and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-08-07-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9xj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 11:12:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36663,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36661\/revisions\/36663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}