A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
After the ADCC world championships were delayed until 2022, naturally the next step for the organization was to figure out a way to conduct all of the trials leading up to the finals before the eventual date. With just a little over a year left until the final, they’ve already started to set up the first three trials events for this year with the first round of North American, European, and Asian trials all set in stone.
Now, ADCC have announced that the second edition of those three trials and both editions of the South American trials have tentative locations booked. It’s good news for both fans and competitors alike as not only does it mean the promotion is looking to the 2022 world championships’ date with certainty, but the athletes can now plan their training schedule around their respective trials.
Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio stays on top at F2W 176
Fight 2 Win 176 delivered a night of exciting grappling action even if most of the final fights of the night went to decision. Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio in particular looked to push the pace and put his leglock-heavy game to great use in a rematch against Carlos ‘Bebeto’ Oliveira, who beat him on points at this year’s IBJJF no gi pan-ams. Under the F2W ruleset, traditional point-scoring is not employed and decisions are made based on submission attempts.
This played heavily into Ocasio’s favor as he is always happy to play from the bottom in order to initiate leg-attacks, and that’s essentially how the match played out. Alongside this exciting matchup, F2W veteran Aaron ‘Tex’ Johnson came up short against Gustavo Batista and Samir Chantre defeated Orlando Castille after the time ran out while he the latter was trapped deep in a straight ankle-lock.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Mixed results for Jiu-Jitsu stars at UFC 264
Two high-level BJJ athletes were competing at UFC 264 and although Gilbert Burns and Ryan Hall are incredibly stylistically different, they’re both grapplers first and foremost. Hall was competing on the preliminary card against an incredibly tough unbeaten prospect in Ilia Topuria, while Burns was looking to bounce back from his title-fight loss with a top-contender fight against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thomson.
Hall started to employ his trademark style of point-fighting kicks combined with frequent Imanari rolls, but Topuria anticipated the entries and avoided them with ease. He then launched into vicious ground-and-pound for the finish. Burns utilised his superior wrestling against Wonderboy and managed to grind out a unanimous decision win despite getting rocked late in the final round.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Khabib Nurmagomedov teams up with BJJ Fanatics for first instructional
BJJ Fanatics is without a doubt the leading name in the Jiu-Jitsu instructional market and the organization has since branched out to include Fanatic Wrestling, Dynamic Striking, and Effective Strength & Conditioning as well. They’ve managed to secure the services of some of the biggest names in all of combat sports to release instructionals on their sites and now it appears as though they’ve managed to land one of their biggest deals yet.
The organization revealed this past week that they agreed to film Khabib Nurmagomedov’s first ever instructional release. While they haven’t released the actual topics that the instructional will cover just yet, they’ve already released a clip from it where Khabib explains how to develop the crushing top pressure that he became famous for throughout his undefeated MMA career.
Quick Hits
- Craig Jones has been forced to withdraw from his headline match at the upcoming ‘the Road to ADCC’ event as a result of a broken bone in his hand.
- The return of Nick Diaz to professional MMA is slowly becoming a reality as news broke that a rematch between him and Robbie Lawler is in the works for UFC 266.
- Mica Galvao has become one of the youngest grapplers to ever be promoted to black belt, having received the promotion at the age of 17 and after less than a year at brown belt.
- After an unsuccessful debut PFL season, former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum has now started campaigning for a rematch with Fedor Emilianenko in the Bellator cage.
Technique Corner
Footlock counter to Single-leg X guard
Scarf Choke
Collar and sleeve guard to K-Guard, to Omoplata sweep, to Side control