A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
Devastating news for American grapplers hit us this week as the North American ADCC trials were postponed until at least January 2021. The main factor in the decision was the travel ban preventing any of the promotion’s qualified referees and judges from making it to the event. The head organizer, Mo Jassim, confirmed in a later statement to the public that there was literally only one judge in the entire of the US that he trusted to officiate an ADCC event to his standards.
This news came after the very first trials event was also postponed, when the European, Middle-East and African trials were also pushed back for 2 months. While it’s still too early to tell, Jassim has gone on record quite recently to explain that if the Coronavirus pandemic forces the trials to be delayed by a significant amount of time, it’s very possible that the eventual ADCC World Championships 2021 will also be delayed in order to allow enough time for all qualifying events to take place.
Rodolfo Vieira Pulls Out of UFC Fight Island With a Rib Injury
Rodolfo Vieira is one of the most accomplished BJJ athletes you’ll find in MMA as a five-time IBJJF World Champion and ADCC World Champion. His legend began before he was ever awarded with a black belt, when he earned the nickname “The Black Belt Hunter” by demolishing elite competitors like Braulio Estima while he was still a brown belt. When news broke that the UFC had signed him over a year ago, BJJ fans were absolutely ecstatic.
In that short space of time he’s already racked up two submission finishes by his specialty, the Arm Triangle, most recently at UFC 248. Sadly, those same fans have now been left disappointed as Vieira has been forced to withdraw from his upcoming match on Fight Island against Markus Perez, due to a rib injury sustained in training. He’s since been replaced by another submission specialist, albeit one without the same impressive resume, Dricus Du Plessis.
Samuel Nagai Announces His Arrival at F2W 153
Nagai has been one of the best-kept secrets on the competitive BJJ scene despite his meteoric rise through the colored belts. Despite being only 20 years old, he’s already won multiple IBJJF World Championships and F2W titles before being awarded his black belt just a little over a month ago. It was only a matter of days before he was already representing Checkmat on a massive stage at Subversiv 3, going 3-1 as part of a 3-person team that came third in a huge tournament.
This past weekend was his real coming out party though, when F2W gave him the opportunity to take on one of the leaders of the Berimbolo revolution, Gianni Grippo. He gave an impressive performance on route to a decision victory and no doubt earned the right to take on even bigger challenges as 2020 comes to an end. Elsewhere on F2W 153, both Junny Ocasio and Talita Alencar retained their F2W titles at 135lbs and 125lbs respectively.
BJJ Stars 4 Reveals the Middleweight Grand Prix Lineup
BJJ Stars has finished announcing a blockbuster PPV event scheduled for November 14th which contains seven superfights and a Middleweight Grand Prix. The superfights feature a range of fighters, including Rafael Lovato Jr who steps in as a late-replacement for Romulo Barral, taking on Serginho Moraes. They also have some fantastic female representation as Amanda Monteiro faces Anna Rodrigues and Claudia Do Val meets the legendary Gabi Garcia.
The main attraction features eight elite Middleweights, over half of whom are IBJJF World Champions; Leandro Lo, Otavio De Sousa, Isaque Bahiense, Renato Canuto and Gustavo Batista. The rest of the field is no less impressive, from Marcelo Garcia black belt and ADCC World Champion Matheus Diniz, to GF Team’s incredibly experienced Jaime Canuto and the up-and-coming star from Studio 76, Roberto Jimenez.
Quick Hits
- Sean O’Malley competed alongside John Danaher brown belt, Robert Degle at Grappling Industries Phoenix, eventually losing to him via Heelhook.
- A video surfaced of an unknown man challenging a local gym instructor and getting a beating for his troubles, so Tom DeBlass spoke out against this kind of reaction.
- Craig Jones received a lot of backlash when he publicly said that “nobody cares about gi Jiu-Jitsu” but realistically, he’s not all that wrong.
- A local police chief and BJJ black belt in Florida has started free BJJ lessons to all police officers in the hope that he can help prevent excessive uses of force.
Technique Corner
Defending Knee-On-Belly, to Backside 50/50, to Heelhook
Using a Lapel Grip from Open Guard to Take the Back
Several Options from the Hip-Bump Sweep