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Trinity Pun and Cam Mellott impress at Emerald City Invitational 6
First up on this week’s Grappling Report we have the Emerald City Invitational, which put together two great BJJ tournaments for their sixth event, for men and women in the 135lbs division. The women’s tournament had less competitors, but Trinity Pun put on a clinic and submitted all three of her opponents in order to take home the title. Full credit goes to her opponent in the final, Lauren Sears, who was asked to replace a competitor on the same day and still won two out of three matches on the shortest notice imaginable.
The men’s tournament was significantly bigger and there were a few surprises along the way, most notably from Austin Daffron. He managed to defeat one of the favourites to win the tournament, Estevan Martinez, very early on in the bracket. He couldn’t make much further than that though, as he went out in the next round to Andrew DeGraff. In the end it was Cam Mellott who emerged victorious after four gruelling matches that all went to EBI overtime.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Tons of elite grappling at ONE Fight Night 10
ONE Fight Night 10 marked the promotion’s first attempt at staging an event on US soil, and they managed to bring a little bit of everything for the fans. Along with incredible Muay Thai fights and plenty of elite striking on display in MMA fights throughout the night, there were also a pair of grappling matches on the card. Tye Ruotolo and Reinier de Ridder went up first in a tough and grinding match that Ruotolo ended up winning by the thinnest of margins.
Then one of three title-fights saw Mikey Musumeci defend his title in impressive fashion against reigning IBJJF no gi world champion Osamah Almarwai. Musumeci was relentless in attacking the legs and although Almarwai showed impeccable defence, he was never really able to mount any offence himself. Musumeci switched tactics late in the match and took Almarwai’s back, sinking in the rear-naked choke and finishing the fight.
Full results for the event can be found here.
ADCC veterans put on a show at SOGI Pro: Cinco De Mayo
Keith Krikorian was taking on a huge challenge at SOGI Pro: Cinco De Mayo as he was stepping up in weight to challenge the promotion’s welterweight champion, Kenta Iwamoto. Both men are fantastic grapplers in their own right and they both competed at ADCC 2022 after winning their invite to the event in an edition of the ADCC trials. Iwamoto had already competed at ADCC before at 66kg but had since bulked up and was competing at 77kg this time around.
Krikorian on the other hand has always been a lighter competitor and he entered 66kg at ADCC 2022, where he has traditionally competed most of the time. Moving up to welterweight and against a talented competitor like Iwamoto was always going to be hard, but the match took absolutely everything out of both men. After ten minutes of constant back-and-forth action and three rounds of EBI overtime, neither man could find the finish and Iwamoto won due to ride-time.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Excellent lineup announced for Grapplefest 16
Grapplefest 16 was just announced for July 1st and one of the UK’s top professional grappling promotions has pulled out all the stops to create a fantastic event. Tenth Planet’s PJ Barch will be putting his under 80kgs title on the line against B-Team’s Jay Rodriguez in the main event, a match you could easily see at the ADCC world championships. The co-main event will then see another ADCC veteran, Adele Fornarino, facing Vanessa English for the vacant under 60kgs title.
Even the non-title matches on the main card will be stacked with elite talent, as Rodriguez’s teammate Damien Anderson takes on Gabriel Sousa shortly before the final two fights. Top European talents Daniel DeGroot and Tommy Yip are booked to meet each other, as are two young up-and-coming stars from opposite sides of the Atlantic; Ellis Younger and Davis Asare. The final match of the main card is between old school UK MMA legend James Thompson and Grapplefest veteran Mark Macqueen.
Quick Hits
- A regional MMA fighter actually bit his opponent’s ear while he had his back in order to sink in a rear-naked choke at Octagon 44.
- One of the oldest members of the Gracie family, 9th degree BJJ black belt Robson Gracie, passed away at the age of 88.
- A Marine veteran put a homeless man in a rear-naked choke on the NYC subway and the resulting death has been ruled a homicide.
- The Jiu-Jitsu circle of life carried on as multiple-time IBJJF no gi world champion Gianni Grippo promoted his first student to black belt, Hunter Phares.
Technique Corner
Controlling from Mount and Armbar set-up
Back-take counter to 50/50
Knee-shield pass
Meme of the Week
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