One of the quickest rising grappling competition promoters on the BJJ scene is FIVE Grappling, which is known for their free high quality streams of invite only black belt tournaments. FIVE hosts both gi and no gi competitions, and despite heel hooks being illegal, has much more liberal rule set that doesn’t include advantages or knee reaping rules.
The California 1 event was one of nine qualifiers building towards the FIVE Grappling North American Championships in Miami this November. The black belt openweight divisions attracted a fair amount of talent including Atos converts JT Torres and Keenan Cornelius, Checkmat’s Marcelo Mafra, and former Checkmat prospect turned Caio Terra team member Yuri Simoes.
Keenan Cornelius is one of the Untied States brightest prospects who tore through the lower belt divisions and 2014 will be his first full competition year as a black belt. In the finals of the openweight Cornelius would face Yuri Simoes, who has gym jumped a bit of late but seems to have found a home with Caio Terra. Cornelius would best Simoes on points in the match above.
Included below are their semifinal matches and earlier round action of the two finalists in action.
FIVE Grappling California 1: Keenan Cornelius vs Lance Glynn (Open Gi / BlackBelt / 18+ / SemiFinal) (via FiveGrappling)
FIVE Grappling California 1: Yuri Simoes vs Sergio Rios (Open Gi / BlackBelt / 18+ / SemiFinal) (via FiveGrappling)
FIVE Grappling California 1: Keenan Cornelius vs Stephen Martinez (Open Gi / BlackBelt / 18+) (via FiveGrappling)
About the author
