A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
Andre Galvao is one of the biggest names in submission grappling and at 38, he’s still at the very top of his game as the reigning ADCC superfight champion. At one point, he even had a promising MMA career that saw him compete for both DREAM and Strikeforce, although he decided to retire to focus on grappling after a savage knockout in his seventh fight at the hands of future UFC World Champion Tyron Woodley.
Now it seems like Galvao is not yet done with his MMA career after all. The BJJ legend announced on social media that he planned to return to the cage over a decade since he last set foot in it, planning on 2021. Coincidentally, the announcement came less than a week after Galvao’s protege, Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barbosa, revealed that he would be making his MMA debut in 2021.
Garry Tonon extends his undefeated MMA record to 6-0
Tonon is undoubtedly one of the most exciting grapplers on the planet and is regularly the center of attention at any tournament he enters. Since taking up MMA in 2018, he’s butchered everyone that ONE FC have put in front of him and racked up a nice 5-0 record with five finishes. This was what led to him being matched against Koyomi Matsushima at ONE FC: Big Bang, not long after Matsushima challenged for the promotion’s title.
The fight would be his biggest challenge yet and was made more difficult by the absence of his head coach, John Danaher, due to travel restrictions in Singapore. After the bold claim that he could defeat Khabib Nurmagomedov in a grappling match, Tonon delivered the goods when push came to shove and cruised to a Unanimous Decision win against Matsushima. The highlight of the night however, was the WWE-style promo he cut after the match:
Fight 2 Win 158 crowns a new welterweight no gi champion
Fight 2 Win regularly deliver on the promise of high-level action and always provide huge value for money in the number of fights they put on at each event. This time, the headline match saw Rafaela Guedes and Elisabeth Clay battle it out over a close match to determine the new Welterweight no gi Champion. Guedes came out victorious in the end, while the co-main event saw Fellipe Trovo win an equally close contest against Matheus Luna.
Further down the card, Samuel Nagai continued his phenomenal run on the F2W stage by remaining unbeaten and earning submission of the night honors against Mauricio Gomez. Before even the black belts took to the stage, the event had already delivered a clip that will go down in BJJ history. Below is the world’s first example of what happens when both competitors attempt an Imanari Roll at the exact same time:
Kade Ruotolo wins Combat Jiu Jitsu Lightweight World Championships
He was the youngest entrant into the Combat Jiu Jitsu World Championships by a country mile. At just seventeen years-old, it’s surprising that it was even legally permissible for the other athletes to slap him in the first place. That being said, it’s not as if he took many shots on the night anyway, as Kade Ruotolo stormed past four elite grapplers to claim the CJJ Lightweight World Championship.
Ruotolo submitted his first opponent, Laird Anderson, with a Kneebar in regulation time before defeating Danny Collazo in EBI overtime. The semi-finals then saw him lock up a tight Guillotine against Jordan Holy to secure the tap in under a minute and book his place in the final against 10th Planet’s PJ Barch. From there it was only a couple of minutes before he surprised Barch with a Buggy Choke immediately after being taken down to earn the title.
Quick Hits
- Hafthor Bjornsson, ‘The Mountain’ on Game of Thrones and previous World’s Strongest Man, recently grappled with a BJJ black belt and used his incredible size to great effect.
- Frank Mir’s daughter, Bella, has her second professional MMA fight lined up less than two months after the seventeen year-old made her successful debut at Ikon FF 2.
- Enson Inoue has been awarded the 5th degree on his black belt by Andre Pederneiras and Wendell Alexander, despite the IBJJF refusing to recognise him as a black belt at all.
- Craig Jones makes his return to Submission Underground at SUG 19 to face Brent Primus, the first match he’s taken for the promotion since losing his title to Mason Fowler at SUG 17.