Grand Prix thoughts:
Craig Jones picked up a 3rd place finish again after a DLR of his leading with the height of the knee control being inadequate leading to a backtake by Duarte then an RNC shortly thereafter.
Duarte's run to the top involved points wins over Blank, Marinho, RNC of Craig Jones (discussed below), then a sweep against Tex followed, a half-hearted toe hold attempt awarded a point, stalling and resetting to ride out the remaining 6 minutes, then a guard pass right at the end.
Tex Johnson must've ignored 5 clear slapping taps by Pena to go belly down on a 50/50 heel hook that may have seriously injured Pena. Pena for his part did not take Tex's leg entanglements seriously and was on his butt not really addressing the position, perhaps assuming he was safe and looking to come up and sweep with about a minute left as he did in 2 previous matches. Pena violently rolled one way, hit the wall, then rolled back the wrong way as Johnson went belly down with a hard bridge into the side of the knee facilitated by the 50/50. Pena for his part didn't C grip at the knee, wedge a foot inside, nor flee in the manner Magalhaes did against Gordon at ACB and paid the price.
Pena did not seem overly enthused in his walk out and I guess now regrets the paycheck he took to take an "L."
Jon Blank, tho' largely undersized for the event picked up a submission win as he oft does coming out of an invert into an armpit/elbow grip armbar. Otherwise,
Valdir Araujo, tho' taking his spot on extremely late notice lost to Pena by only one point in a tightly contested match, and showed a willingness to scramble that will hopefully have him invited back to other Pro events. A guy willing to make transitions rather than coast is always welcome. Duarte and Pena in their wins seemed content to score, then coast. Duarte coasted through his match with Marinho despite facing a purple belt and scoring 2 points early. Marinho stalled out Craig Jones with some hand clapping, Samba style footwork and circling for the better part of 6 minutes.
==== Overal thoughts and reflections:
A solid night of action both on the prelims, main card, & superfights:
I've been exceedingly critical of the reffing at this event, and it was clear based on the refs looking to one another in the awarding of points that the real person deciding the points has been made clear behind the scenes to tighten up the shenanigans in scoring that has occurred at previous events. Whatever, however it gets done, I'm just glad they myriad of scoring inconsistencies have been tightened up at an event with this many people watching in person and at home.
All in all, the reffing was much tighter with only a couple clear mistakes made pending where the ref was standing and perhaps missing a deep kneebar that could've been scored, and a point that could've been awarded to Araujo in his match with Pena.
Jackson had a toe/nail that was bleeding and the TWO doctors matside did not have athletic tape. This led to several stoppages for re-taping in his matches following that point. It's a building full of grapplers, and downstairs in the staging area there had to be enough athletic tape to make a mummy....but anyway.
Leon vs Najmi showed Leon cautious at first to avoid any of the high flying scramble inducing submissions Najmi is known for, then a backtake to a very quick RNC.
Referees thankfully were much quicker to award some penalties this event and the chorus of boos typically heard at Kasai from guys circling and resetting and playing the boundary was prominently less noticeable.
Tinoco scored 2 takedowns in 10 minutes against Romulo, would then not attempt to move forward (which was obv the gameplan) and Romulo frustratingly did not shoot once despite some attempts to body lock and handfight and wrist control. Tinoco started crying I guess due to this extremely high work rate of a win in a 10 minute match marred by basically no other grappling other than pommeling for underhooks and over/under body lock by Romulo which both times led to an ouchigari takedown by Tinoco. I guess it I hadn't played Judo for as long as I have 2 takedowns in 10 minutes would strike me as more impressive.
The undercard produced a good number of finishes even in the purple belt matches. Rey Leon picked up a win with 4 takedowns, showcasing a part of his game unseen in many other matches.
Vilas vs Ferreira in a superfight showed the real meaning of golden score as Vilas scored a kneebar attempt point, then Ferreira looked to escape and score points, but it's "Golden score".....not overtime period man.
Athos Mirando did the usual flailing around side to side, occasional double knee slide and backstep/flop attempts to avoid actually stepping into pass for virtually his entire match with LeClerc and picked up a takedown in golden score to get the win.
Bastos rather quickly swept, passed, got the back, set the body triangle, then worked for the RNC against Fiona Watson.
Stanley Rose showcased solid leg entanglement transitions to pick up a narrow win with a late in the game submission attempt kneebar that got him the win.
