Kasai 2 Results & Recap

Canuto did his best stall job for the first 10 minutes. The above is basically about 8 1/2 minutes of the 10 minutes submission only. There was much (I'm not exaggerating) him clapping his hands in Eddie's face, some occasional foot stomps but mainly a lot of walking around and an occasional cartwheel pass. The match might as well have just been 5 minutes of points b/c Canuto made no illusion in the 10 minutes sub only portion he wanted to engage. The crowd grew restless at points with Boos and cat calls and smart remarks. Eddie got deep on a couple leg lock entries (one in the first 10 minutes and one in the 5 min points or sub overtime) with Canuto also being penalized for refusing to engage and circling Eddie as though he thought you can improve position without making physical contact with your opponent for more than a few seconds at a time. For his part, I guess he had some semi deep passing attempts later in the match with Eddie inverting to retain guard, but not at a point was Eddie inverted completely or were his hips and lower back very far off the mat that could've results in a legitimate passing attempt. A frustrating performance to see (though not the likes of Chantre and his run job awhile back). At any rate, it's interesting to see the dynamic of guys negotiating a 10 min sub only period but then literally wasting upwards of 9 minutes of it. I guess it's saving face to face Eddie of sorts instead of avoiding him, but ultimately, when the vast majority of the round looks like the Wonderboy vs Woodley fight with them looking at one another, I'm just confused as to what I'm supposed to think or say after a match like that. Do we call it tactical? Do we blame the athlete? As a spectator and as a promoter, do you penalize athletes who show up to do a match and do very little to even physically engage? I don't know honestly. 

Rosenthal taking the win with an inverted heel hook against Maslany of 10th Planet. There was some jockeying for position with Maslany mainly on his knees and driving a knee in the middle to prevent butterfly hooks and being elevated but on the second clear leg lock entry, Rosenthal kept him trapped, got belly down on the heel hook with the feet trapped, hand fought/pommeled and secured the heel for a precise finish. 

Nicky Ryan fended off some rolling/diving kimura attempts to pull out a decision win. Geo seemed intent to tie up Nicky's legs late in the match and drain time, but a late deep back triangle while fighting the hands as time ran out seemed to sway the judges to Nicky's favor who walked away with a decision win. At times both Nicky and Geo played top and both looked to pass, Nicky looking to standing pass and Geo opting to pass low and on the knees. It's a question of Geo throwing out some rolling/diving kimuras versus a clearly deep/locked position at the end of the match, and a lot of positional changes and reverses with both guys looking to pass throughout. I'm sure both sides of the fence think what they think about the decision.

The grand prix played out with Craig Jones hitting several finishes (after hitting several at Quintet this week in Japan), and Matheus Diniz even getting a submission on his side of the bracket. Boogeyman hit an omoplata/gogoplata to armbar finish against Mota, Dante Leon got heel hooked by Mike Perez, and Calvanese got RNC'd by Leon, amongst other action. This bracket definitely had it's fair of submissions (as opposed to the lightweight bracket they did previously). It was an interesting contrast of styles overall. Craig Jones missed out on the final due to some questionable reffing (also sadly reminiscent of some moments at the first Kasai event) but overall picked up more highlight reel finishes and even a huge hip toss on Dante Leon. Probably leaving a few details out but it was by far the biggest name pro event of the year thus far in Jiu-Jitsu/submission grappling with even AJ Agazarm somehow picking up a submission (hell has really frozen over, I know). TBH, I left before the finals of the grand prix as I figured Diniz would grind out some positional points or passing over Perez and take the top spot. Interested to see if they match him up against Jones as Jones has the Polaris MW belt and as to what the format will be. Diniz did a good bit of hips super far back, head low, diving and hips wildly jumping to pass (worked against Boogeyman's omoplata set-up, and Diniz will prove almost impossible to takedown. Anyhow, it looks like Kasai's next event will be a 170 lb grand prix and hopefully Craig Jones will face off against Diniz in a middleweight belt/title showdown. 

A great night of Jiu-Jitsu to see in person, and proof that we're really in a golden age of seeing grappling events throughout the year.