A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
BJJ Stars 5 saw Felipe Pena storm to victory in a crowded field of elite grapplers, registering the only submission win of the tournament in the opening round against Luiz Panza. While Pena put on a fantastic display across his three matches, he was always one of the favorites to take home the crown and the real storyline happened on the other side of the bracket, courtesy of Gutemberg Pereira.
Pereira fell just short of the title when he lost to Pena in the final by a two-point margin, but his journey there was full of upsets. He had a tough test in the opening round against two-time IBJJF World Champion Nicholas Meregali but racked up enough advantages to see him through to a semi-final matchup against Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barbosa. He managed to avenge a previous loss to Barbosa by the thinnest of margins as the judges decided the victor.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Caio Terra Believes PED-Usage is at it’s Worst Right Now
Caio Terra has long been a leading figure in the fight against PEDs in BJJ and it seems like even though he’s retired from competition, he hasn’t retired from that. Terra is a 4th degree black belt who enjoyed a straight decade of dominating the lightest weightclasses of the IBJJF no gi World Championships before removing himself from the competition pool to focus on teaching the next generation of the sport.
One of the most famous moments of his career came in a post-match interview after the 2011 IBJJF Pan-Ams, where he spoke candidly about the prevalence of PED-usage in BJJ and how much of a problem he believes it is. Ten years later, he’s still campaigning hard for increased testing in Jiu-Jitsu and he believes that despite his best efforts, the problem has actually gotten worse since he first started speak out about it.
Fight 2 Win and Who’s Number One Announce More February Matchups
Who’s Number One have already filled out a lot of the lineup for their February event, but have now added three more stellar matchups as well. The promotion has added a fantastic women’s matchup between two recently promoted young black belts, AOJ’s Jessa Khan and EBI veteran Danielle Kelly. Alongside this comes news that 10th Planet’s PJ Barch will be taking on Andrew Wiltse while his teammate Geo Martinez faces Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio.
Before that happens however, Fight 2 Win have two events scheduled for which they’ve just announced the main events. F2W 163 will see Kennedy Maciel defending his recently-earned Lightweight title against Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira shortly after Max Gimenis takes on Aaron ‘Tex’ Johnson. F2W 164 then features Vagner Rocha facing Yuri Simoes supported by a match between Dante Leon and Manuel Ribamar.
A Big week for BJJ on the Screen as a Documentary and Film Both Released
This last week has seen two big moments for BJJ in film, starting with the release of Born A Champion, a film centered around a fictional American BJJ black belt getting dragged into an unsanctioned MMA tournament. While the film might be about MMA, the lead actor and co-writer Sean Patrick Flanery is a 3rd degree black belt in BJJ and it features a cameo by Renzo Gracie. Flanery himself described the film as ‘a love letter to Jiu-Jitsu’.
Around the same time, Rayron Gracie released a documentary titled Letters To My Father, which focuses on him coming to terms with the passing of his father, Ryan Gracie, when he was a very young boy. Directed by Allen Alcantara, the short film is named after Rayron’s decision to write letters to his late father throughout his teenage years as if he were keeping him up to date with the developments in his life.
Quick Hits
- Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu issued a statement after an instructor at one of their affiliate gyms left a harassing voicemail including a racial slur for a parent of a former student.
- One of Felipe Pena’s most prolific competitors, Joao Cizenski, was promoted to black belt by the multiple-time IBJJF and ADCC World Champion.
- PFL announced their Lightweight and Featherweight lineups for the 2021 season and have included a number of elite MMA grapplers and black belts in the roster.
- Gordon Ryan issued a bizarre challenge to ATOS’ Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barboza in order to determine which of the two grapplers would be able to better explain an armbar.