Grappling Report: Brawl breaks out at ADCC Open, knife allegedly pulled and lifetime bans handed

While the vast majority of the day went off without a hitch and people both in the seats and on the mats no doubt…

By: Alex Lindsey | 8 months ago
Grappling Report: Brawl breaks out at ADCC Open, knife allegedly pulled and lifetime bans handed
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

While the vast majority of the day went off without a hitch and people both in the seats and on the mats no doubt enjoyed their time at the ADCC Open, one specific incident has generated a fair amount of controversy. Unfortunately, a fight broke out during one match between Ty Freeman and Jeferson Guaresi that required several people to break up, including ADCC veteran and Unity head coach Murilo Santana.

Guaresi landed a heavy collar-tie that Freeman reacted incredibly badly to, with Freeman striking Guaresi several times before anyone could reach them to put a stop to the fight. Allegations have been made that Santana pulled out a knife in order to stop the fight and after Freeman was disqualified, both he and Santana were given lifetime bans from the event as a result of their actions during the fight.

For those of you who want to follow ADCC 2022 as it unfolds, live results can be found here.

Andrew Tackett wins the ADCC Open absolute division

As for the actual event itself, the ADCC Open presented a unique opportunity for grapplers who found themselves in the area. This was a tournament where anyone and everyone could enter, with both beginner’s and children’s divisions available as well. Not only was the tournament full of up-and-coming prospects to watch out for in the future like Helena Crevar and Caleb Tackett, but it also had plenty of established competitors too.

There was well over a hundred different divisions with an incredible amount of matches, but most of the attention was on the pro divisions. Featuring a ton of high-level grapplers like Jacob Couch and Estevan Martinez, there was plenty of action all around. The best performance of the day was undoubtedly from Andrew Tackett, who submitted all six of his opponents at 76kg before also winning the absolute division.

Full results for the event can be found here.

Amit Elor becomes youngest American wrestling world champion

Amit Elor made history in stunning fashion at the freestyle wrestling world championships as she became the youngest American to ever win a senior title. She won a gold medal in Belgrade, Serbia after managing to defeat four of the best female wrestlers on the planet in the 72kg division. She outscored her opponents by a total margin of 27-2 and defeated all three of the athletes who reached the podium in 2021.

She registered a close 3-2 victory over the Japanese world champion Masako Furuichi and quickly pinned the bronze medallist, Turkiye’s Buse Tosun, in just 39 seconds. Elor’s most impressive performance came in the final against the silver medallist though, when she secured a technical fall over Kazakhstan’s Zhamila Bakbergenova. In doing so, Elor broke a record that was last set by Kyle Snyder all the way back in 2015.

Leon Edwards gets promoted to BJJ black belt

It’s really been an incredible month for Leon Edwards, and it all started when he became the latest UFC welterweight world champion at UFC 278. He was down on the scorecards when the action started for the fifth round of his rematch with Kamaru Usman but he managed to pull something incredible out of the bag and landed a beautiful head-kick to knock out Usman and win the title in style.

Less than a week after that, Edwards was able to celebrate his 31st birthday as the reigning champion and shortly after returning to training in Birmingham, he had one more moment in store for him. His long-time BJJ coach, Gracie Barra’s Tom Bracher, promoted him to black belt in BJJ with the full support of his own coach and IBJJF no gi world champion Victor Estima.


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Technique Corner

Violin Armbar

Countering the underhook when knee-slice passing

Triangle choke set-up from Collar and sleeve guard


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About the author
Alex Lindsey
Alex Lindsey

Alex has been involved in BJJ and MMA since 2008 and has been writing about both sports since 2019.

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