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Lineup announced for Polaris 25 Absolute Grand Prix
Polaris 25 is fast-approaching and the BJJ promotion has announced all 7 of the competitors invited to compete in the Absolute Grand Prix. The final spot will go to the winner of the Polaris Contenders Tournament beforehand, but they will have some tough opposition waiting for them. Two reigning ADCC world champions are competing at the event, the 88kg champion Giancarlo Bodoni and the 99kg champion Kaynan Duarte.
The other competitors are all ADCC veterans too, as Eoghan O’Flanagan and Izaak Michell competed at 88kg and Owen Livesey competed at 99kg. The two remaining BJJ entrants will be coming in at a weight disadvantage, as Roberto Jimenez competed at 77kg at ADCC 2022 and Fabricio Andrey actually competed at 66kg. There’s the potential for several interesting rematches depending on how the bracket shapes up, but there’ll be plenty of excitement regardless.
Polaris 25 and its Absolute Grand Prix happens on August 26, and will air on UFC Fight Pass.
Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii drops decision at PFL 8
Satoshi Ishii is an Olympic gold medalist Judoka and an MMA legend, but his return to PFL didn’t quite go as planned at PFL 8. After his trumphant Olympic performance in 2008, Ishii immediately turned his focus to MMA and over the years he’s put together a solid career. He first came into PFL for the 2019 season but didn’t return the following year after going 1-2 in the promotion’s cage. After a few years competing on the regional MMA circuit in Japan and Europe, he signed a contract to compete for PFL once again.
It was too late for him to enter the regular PFL season by the time he signed the contract with them, so instead he was booked to compete in a one-off showcase fight against Danilo Marques on the prelims of PFL 8. He lost the first two rounds of that fight pretty cleanly and although he started to come into his own in the final round, it proved to be too little too late as all three judges scored the fight 29-28 in Marques’ favor.
Full results for the event can be found here.
BJJ star Mikey Musumeci faces Shinya Aoki at ONE
Mikey Musumeci is not content with being a dominant world champion in the ONE Championship flyweight division, as he’ll be taking on a bigger opponent at ONE Fight Night 15. Instead of putting his title on the line like he has done in his last three outings, the BJJ star will be facing Shinya Aoki in an openweight match instead. This will be Aoki’s first grappling match in over a year and his first match under any ruleset in 2023.
The last time Aoki competed in grappling was at ONE 157 when he welcomed Tye Ruotolo to the promotion and lost a decision to him. At that point, Musumeci had already won his ONE Championship debut against Masakazu Imanari and he has since gone on to win the first submission grappling title in the promotion’s history. He’s defended his title against Sambo, BJJ, and MMA world champions already, so moving up in weight to face Aoki should be an interesting new challenge.
Team Modolfo win AIGA Champions League quarter final
The second AIGA Champions League quarter final took place and a lot of attention was one particular team, made up of ADCC world champions and incredible BJJ competitors. ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim put together Team Modolfo and they were clear favorites to win the event coming into the weekend with elite grapplers like Giancarlo Bodoni, Dante Leon, and Cole Abate on their side. Although they did finish first, it wasn’t quite as easy as it originally looked on paper.
They cruised through their first two matches and won both of them by 6-1 margins, registering only two losses as a team. The final match proved much more difficult though, as they actually lost 4-3 courtesy of some huge upsets against Luke Griffith and Fabricio Andrey. They still won the league and qualified for the semi final but it was a much closer margin than anticipated. Three teams went 2-1 in team matches so Team Modolfo finished on top by virtue of having the most submission finishes.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Quick Hits
- Luke Rockhold has been booked to compete in a grappling match against Craig Jones at the first Israel Fight Night event.
- Former Bellator flyweight world champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane was promoted to 10th Planet black belt by Richie ‘Boogieman’ Martinez.
- There’s been a last-minute change to the IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix as Kaynan Duarte has been replaced by Paulo Merlin.
- Martial arts legend Dan Inosanto has been promoted to 5th degree BJJ black belt by Jean Jacques Machado at the age of 87.
Technique Corner
The Aoki Lock
Transitioning from Side control to Mount
Penetration step drill
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