A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
Chael Sonnen’s brainchild has gone from strength to strength over the last few years as even bigger names than ever before have graced the Submission Underground cage. For their nineteenth event and the final one of 2020, Sonnen has managed to stack the card with some of the biggest grappling stars in MMA like Rafael Dos Anjos, Fabricio Werdum, Donald Cerrone, and Ryan Bader.
The event will be topped by Mason Fowler defending his SUG title against an Olympic gold medalist Judoka and Japanese MMA star, Satoshi Ishii. There’s still time for the event to add more stars to the lineup as James Gallagher has been eager to answer the challenge to face Sean O’Malley last week. Most recently, Gilbert Burns was challenging Nate Diaz to a $400k challenge match at SUG 19 as well.
The final grappling events of 2020 are taking shape
As we approach the end of the year, a number of major grappling promotions are preparing to put on their final shows until after Christmas and it looks like most are trying to go out with a bang. Set just one day before the aforementioned SUG 19, Third Coast Grappling have announced their fifth event will be headlined by a rare appearance from Mikey Musumeci as he takes on Thiago Macedo.
The Co-Main event will see young star William Tackett take on a huge challenge in Fellipe Andrew and the rest of the card is yet to be announced. Then just a weekend before that is the next edition of Flograppling’s Who’s Number One. This will see Roberto Jimenez take on Dante Leon, and a huge matchup between six-time IBJJF World Champion and undefeated UFC Middleweight Rodolfo Vieira, and Brazilian nightmare Kaynan Duarte.
Tom DeBlass makes his return to professional grappling at Fight 2 Win 157
Fight 2 Win put on another solid show this weekend with their 157th event and it was headlined by Tom DeBlass challenging Chad Fields for the Masters Super-Heavyweight title. It was a relatively close match with neither man really gaining a clear advantage at any point and when it did go to decision, it was Fields who managed to get his hand raised.
Shortly before this, Vagner Rocha put on a great display in the Co-main event as he managed to nullify all of Gabriel Almeida’s leg attacks and threaten him on the counter repeatedly. This was what won him the fight in the end as he hit an inside heelhook late in the match to be awarded the submission of the night. Meanwhile, fight of the night honors went to a fast-paced matchup between Gesias ‘JZ’ Cavalcante and Nick Ronan.
Elisabeth Clay and Oliver Taza promoted to black belt
Oliver Taza became the latest in a string of recent promotions that John Danaher decided to hand out at Renzo Gracie New York as he joined Ethan Crelinsten and the young prodigy Nicky Ryan. Seeing as he was already an IBJJF World Champion at brown belt and has developed his game tremendously over the last few years, this was very well-deserved.
At the same time, another young talent earned the final belt promotion as Elisabeth Clay was awarded her black belt by Samir Chantre and Osvaldo ‘Queixinho’ Moizinho. Clay exploded into the limelight back in 2017 when she won the ADCC West Coast Trials as a fresh-faced 16 year-old blue belt and has gone from strength to strength since then, including recently taking on the female grappler with the best record on the planet, Gabi Garcia.
Quick Hits
- For the first time in over two decades, there will be no IBJJF gi or no gi World Championships this year as both have been cancelled due to the pandemic.
- Carlos Condit was just awarded his 10th Planet purple belt by Nate Harris, after recently getting his first UFC win in over five years against Court McGee.
- Ten-time IBJJF World Champion Bruno Malfacine has just opened up his own gym in Orlando, Florida as a branch of Alliance Jiu-Jitsu.
- Two-time Olympic Champion and PFL Lightweight Champion Kayla Harrison is taking her undefeated MMA record over to Invicta FC to conquer their Featherweight division.