What’s going on in the world of BJJ?
We’ve got you covered for all your BJJ-related news and happenings in this version of our monthly recap (September 2021).
IBJJF Pan (Gi) Championship (1-5 September 2021)
We know, we know, you’re probably more interested in no-gi grappling results than what happened in the latest gi tournament. But stick with us – the 2021 IBJJF Pan Championships did not disappoint. Here are a few highlights from the tournament:
- Fellipe Andrew ran through both the superheavyweight (100kg) and the absolute weight classes to take double gold. With 7 matches in total, Andrew only conceded points in one of those matches – to Gustavo Batista in the finals of his weight class. In case anyone had forgotten, Fellipe Andrew reminded the grappling world of his submission-oriented style and his dominant, methodical approach in the gi.
- The other big story of the day was Yara Soares’ open class win. Recently making the move to Dream Art, Soares battled through an injury in all four of her matches, ultimately earning two submissions, one win via decision and one win via advantages. She took out Sarah Rice, Nathalie Ribeiro, Bianca Basilio, and Ana Carolina Vieira to earn herself the open-class title.
Here are the lists of gold medalists from the female and male black belt divisions
Female Black Belt Division Winners
- 58KG: Lavinia Barbosa (Checkmat)
- 64KG: Anna Rodrigues (Dream Art)
- 70KG: Bianca Basílio (Almeida Jiu Jitsu)
- 76KG: Nathalie Ribeiro (Checkmat)
- 82KG: Luiza Monteiro (Atos)
- 88KG: Ana Carolina Vieira (Aviv Jiu Jitsu)
- Open Class: Yara Soares (Dream Art)
Male Black Belt Division Winners
- 58KG: Livio Ribeiro (Ares)
- 64KG: Diego Pato Oliveira (Cicero Costha)
- 70KG: Jamil Hill-Taylor (Team Lloyd Irvin)
- 76KG: Johnatha Alves (Art of Jiu Jitsu)
- 82KG: Tainan Dalpra (Art of Jiu Jitsu)
- 88KG: André Porfirio (Fight Sports)
- 94KG: Gustavo Batista (Atos)
- 100KG: Fellipe Andrew (Alliance)
- +100KG: Victor Hugo (Six Blades)
- Open Class: Fellipe Andrew (Alliance)
F2W – September Events
One of the most prolific and well-run professional grappling organizations, Fight 2 Win Pro, hosted another three stellar shows in September. Here are the results from those events.
F2W 183 (10 September 2021) saw MMA veteran and legend Baret Yoshida defeat Bernardo Pitel via submission to earn the submission of the night honors. The rest of the main card was full of high-level black belt matchups – F2W 183 was stacked!
Here are the full results from the black belt portion of the main card.
- Baret Yoshida def. Bernardo Pitel (anaconda choke; Submission of the Night)
- Michael Liera Jr. def. Jackson Nagai (decision)
- Josh Hinger def. Corey Guitard (decision)
- Gabriel Almeida def. Dom Bell (decision)
- Fellipe Andrew def. Fellipe Trovo (choke; Fight of the Night)
- Lucas Pinheiro def. Carlos Oliveira (choke)
- Jacob Lee def. Sean Joseph (kneebar)
- Melissa Cueto def. Joy Pendell (armbar)
- David Reed def. Miles Lukas (decision)
- Ziro Ramirez def. Talal Alrasheed (choke)
- Piter Frank def. Richard Lopez (armbar)
- Tim Mendoza def. Chris Richey (armbar)
- Takahito Yoshioka def. Andre pontes (decision)
- Antonio Zuazo def. Adam Bradley (decision)
- Paul Woo def. Gabriel Bergami (decision)
- Rafael Nogueira da Gama def. Orlando Coronel (decision)
- Steve Hargett def. Johnny Souza (decision)
- Sophia Nordeno def. Nikki Sullivan (split decision; Fight of the Night)
- Christopher Hargett def. Zimitro Perez (decision)
- Anthony Harris def. Adam Mazin (decision)
- Tyler Naijar def. Michael Salazar (decision)
- Geoff Real def. Jason Cook (decision)
F2W 184 (18 September 2021) saw Dustin Akbari take out Hugo Marques via split decision in the main event. In the co-main event, Frank Correia defeated Clint Treadway – also via split decision.
Here are the full results from the black belt portion of the main card.
- Dustin Akbari def. Hugo Marques (split decision)
- Frank Correia def. Clint Treadway (split decision)
- Joey Mckay def. Chad Bingham (decision)
- Kaisar Saulebayev def. Jack Montgomery (armbar)
- Ryan Jennerjohn def. Dan Dykeman (split decision)
- Antione Gibson def. Frankie Dimartino (heel hook)
F2W 185 (24 September 2021) saw two-time ADCC champ Yuri Simoes defeat the two-time IBJJF Pans double-gold medalist (2020, 2021) Fellipe Andrew in a close, back-and-forth match, which saw the two competitors battle it out on the feet with aggressive wrestling and on the ground with great guard work and a handful of leg lock attempts.
Here are the full results from the black belt portion of the main card.
- Yuri Simoes def. Fellipe Andrew (decision; Fight of the Night)
- Fillipe Matos def. Gerson Taitingfong Atoigue (decision)
- Charles Johnson def. Joe Marchie (RNC; Submission of the Night)
- Jeff Macatangay def. Hoc Do (decision)
Check out Fight 2 Win on Instagram for more news about upcoming events.
FloGrappling WNO Championship 2021 (25-26 September)
FloGrappling and their Who’s Number One (WNO) series of events have taken the professional grappling world by storm. And so it was tremendously exciting, but not surprising, when Flo announced the WNO Championship to take place in late September of 2021.
5 divisions in total. 40 athletes. Four sessions across two days. Tens of thousands of dollars in prize money on the line. The hype was very, very well deserved.
There is a lot to talk about, but one of the biggest stories from the weekend came when Gabriel Sousa submitted multiple-time world champion Mikey Musumeci via north-south choke in the opening round of the 155lbs division. Sousa would go on to defeat young AOJ star Cole Abate to earn his place in the finals, where he would lose a hard-fought match to Kade Ruotolo via D’arce choke.
Other shocking results included Cole Abate’s win over veteran Geo Martinez, Orlando Sanchez’s DQ in his match with Tex Johnson, Jacob Couch’s heel hook win over Roberto Jimenez, and Tim Sprigg’s heel hook victory over Kaynan Duarte to win the heavyweight title, among others.
Here is an overview of the rest of the results from the epic weekend that saw 5 new WNO Champions crowned.
Women’s 115lbs
1st place: Mayssa Bastos
2nd place: Grace Gundrum
3rd place: Tammi Musumeci
Quarter-finals
- Mayssa Bastos def. Alex Nguyen (decision)
- Tammi Musumeci def. Amanda Alequin (decision)
- Grace Gundrum def. Danielle Kelly (decision)
- Jessa Khan def. Jessica Crane (inside heel hook)
Semi-finals
- Mayssa Bastos def. Tammi Musumeci (decision)
- Grace Gundrum def. Jessa Khan (twister)
Third Place
- Tammi Musumeci def. Amanda Alequin (decision)
Finals
- Mayssa Bastos def. Grace Gundrum (decision)
Women’s Heavyweight
1st place: Rafaela Guedes
2nd place: Kendall Reusing
3rd place: Elisabeth Clay
Quarter-finals
- Amanda Leve def. Gabrielle Garcia (decision)
- Rafaela Guedes def. Elisabeth Clay (decision)
- Ana Carolina Vieira def. Amanda Lowen (katagatame)
- Kendall Reusing def. Erin Harpe (decision)
Semi-finals
- Kendall Reusing def. Ana Carolina Vieira (decision)
- Rafaela Guedes def. Amanda Leve (decision)
Third Place
- Elisabeth Clay def. Erin Harpe (decision)
Finals
- Rafaela Guedes def. Kendall Reusing (guillotine)
Men’s 155lbs
1st place: Kade Ruotolo
2nd place: Gabriel Sousa
3rd place: Diego Pato Oliveira
Quarter-finals
- Gabriel Sousa def. Mikey Musumeci (north-south choke)
- Josh Cisneros def. Damien Anderson (armbar)
- Cole Abate def. Geo Martinez (decision)
- Kade Ruotolo def. Diego Pato Oliveira (D’arce choke)
Semi-finals
- Gabriel Sousa def. Cole Abate (decision)
- Kade Ruotolo def. Josh Cisneros (injury)
Third Place
- Diego Pato Oliveira def. Josh Cisneros (RNC)
Finals
- Kade Ruotolo def. Gabriel Sousa (D’arce choke)
Men’s 185lbs
1st place: Tye Ruotolo
2nd place: Mica Galvao
3rd place: Jacob Crouch
Quarter-finals
- Tye Ruotolo def. Johnny Tama (D’arce choke)
- Dante Leon def. Jon Blank (decision)
- Jacob Couch def. Roberto Jimenez (inside heel hook)
- Mica Galvao def. William Tackett (decision)
Semi-finals
- Mica Galvao def. Jacob Couch (armbar)
- Tye Ruotolo def. Dante Leon (guillotine)
Third Place
- Jacob Couch def. William Tackett (split decision)
Finals
- Tye Ruotolo def. Mica Galvao (split decision)
Men’s Heavyweight
1st place: Tim Spriggs
2nd place: Kaynan Duarte
3rd place: Rida Haisam
Quarter-finals
- Kaynan Duarte def. Kyle Boehm (decision)
- Mason Fowler def. Giancarlo Bodoni (decision)
- Tex Johsnon def. Orlando Sanchez (DQ)
- Tim Spriggs def. Rida Haisam (inside heel hook)
Semi-finals
- Tim Spriggs def. Tex Johnson (decision)
- Kaynan Duarte def. Giancarlo Bodoni (decision)
Third Place
- Rida Haisam def. Giancarlo Bodoni (decision)
Finals
- Tim Spriggs def. Kaynan Duarte (heel hook)
While this was a phenomenal 2-day event, the brackets were full of late replacements, which was surely disappointing to many fans looking forward to certain athletes compete. However, this may be more of an issue with the high-level professional grappling circuit at the moment: how can we keep athletes injury-free so that they can compete more often and so that the brackets for big competitions don’t fluctuate as much?
Moreover, this was one of the first times we’ve seen repechage rounds used in a professional grappling tournament (made popular in wrestling tournaments, repechage rounds have the athletes who lose in the first round to the eventual finalists enter a new bracket for a chance to win third-place). One problem with the repechage rounds for this event was that some athletes were either unwilling or unable (due to injury) to compete after losing their first match, leaving the grapplers who were still standing with a slightly easier path back to the bronze medal match. Either way, this was an innovative addition to a professional jiu-jitsu tournament, and something we’d like to see more of in the future.
Overall, we’re excited for what WNO has coming up, including an event at the end of October, where the women’s 125lb and 135lb championship belts are on the line.
ADCC European, Middle East, African Trials (18 September 2021)
The first ADCC trials for the upcoming ADCC World Championships in 2022 (September 17-18 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States) took place recently in Poland.
5 male athletes would be punching their tickets to the ADCC world championships with wins in their respective divisions. The biggest name to qualify for the big show in 2022 is Oliver Taza, who made two previous appearances at ADCC in 2017 and 2019.
Here is the list of division winners who earned their way into the ADCC championships next year.
- 65.9kg: Ashley Williams
- 76.9kg: Oliver Taza
- 87.9kg Eoghan O’flanagan
- -98.9kg: Perttu Tepponen
- +99kg: Heikki Jussila
With the much-awaited Gordon Ryan vs Andre Galvao main event superfight finally being confirmed by head tournament organizer Mo Jassim, there’s a lot to be excited for as ADCC 2022 approaches!
Grapple in the Temple (24 September 2021)
ADCC champion Matheus Diniz took on up-and-comer David Garmo in the main event of Grapple in the Temple, a professional grappling event hosted by Flo Grappling and the Marcelo Garcia Detroit Association in a Masonic Temple.
In a 10-minute, submission-only match, Diniz ended up submitting Garmo with what seemed to be a von flue choke, or perhaps a shoulder crank.
All in all, this was a great event for the jiu-jitsu scene in the state of Detroit.
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There you have it. Now, you’re all caught up on key events in the BJJ world from September.
Check in next month for a recap of everything that happened in October.
Until then… stay rolling, and protect your neck! (And your legs, and arms, and wrists… you get it).
