UFC 243 Whitaker vs Adesanya Countdown & BJJ Digest ADCC Recap

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BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest: Gordon Ryan Talks BJJ "Respect," Judo Worlds Newaza, Still No MMA for Buchecha

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest - Kasai Fallout & Results, Gabi Callout, Gordon Predicts Future...

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest: Gordon Ryan Dissects Askren vs Danis, Gabi Garcia Aims for Double Gold, Gilbert Burns RNC Tibau in Combat JiuJitsu...

BJJ World TV - Khabib's Mgr Grappling Challenge, Caio Terra Ducking Jon Calestine, Gordon Enters HW Grand Prix, et al

It's pretty amazing how much combat sports news is pouring in most days now. I remember when it was cool that UFC was finally one event per month and it was a big deal. That shift from a handful a year that you had to order on PPV (couldn't stream illegally) or rent from Blockbuster on VHS, ish was a chore to stay on top of the game. Now, the news just pours in with dedicated coverage to grappling, MMA, Gi JiuJitsu, Submission grappling, et cetera. Fight2Win and others putting on grappling specific events across the country.
Love it.

I'll say this, I know for a fact that Agazarm and some other names have directly and verbatim said no to Calestine. There's a lot of famous guys hiding behind promoters who've offered them matches, they've said no, and they sit around twiddling their thumbs afraid to face anyone who might expose them.

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest - Hinger Invites USADA, IBJJF HW Pro NoGi, Pots Calling Kettles Black

Combat Sports Wrap-Up: 2 Bellator's & a UFC (and Gordon Ryan Pillaging the NoGi Worlds)

Friday:
We got the long awaited Brent Primus vs Chandler rematch and Chandler did his best Chandler which was wade through dangerous strikes to outwrestle and ground and pound forehead on chest old school Mark Kerr/Coleman style Primus in a lopsipded decision.
AJ McKee picked up a quick submission win. Robson Gracie picked up a win in his first fight. Robson I see at Renzo's on the regular, he's always been cool to me, glad to see him fighting and picking up a win.

Saturday:
I was headed home at 1030pm after finishing the UFC on Fox final card/main card. What a gift. Normally, we're one fight into a main card at that time. I headed home just in time to see Neiman in a tough fight with a ton of skills on display take out a very dangerous opponent in Ed Ruth. I see Neiman at Renzo's in passing, and it was a pleasure to see his attacking style of Jiu-Jitsu off his back using a variety of things in the fight. Williams guard/clamp- trapping, leg attack entanglements, armbar reversal to a backtake, Ruth with some phantom tapping, and eventually old school get to mount, force your opponent to turtle, and the RNC. Can't wait to see him face the winner of Rory vs Jon Fitch. Machida picked up a narrow win over Carvalho and looks to challenge for a belt sooner rather than later.

Over in the UFC, Hooker faced the brutal stand-up onslaught of Barboza in a fight that should've been stopped a solid 2 minutes before it was and the man simply slumped down onto both knees in the middle of the cage after repeated heel/spinning back heel hicks to the mid section and torrid punches and punishment. His corner also could've taken a cue from what was happening and seen that no further punishment was necessary and saved him face and further unnecessary abuse.

Iaquinta and Lee put on a real scrap with Lee taking the back twice but not finishing and Iaquinta decisively winning the other 2 rounds and a very close first round between the two of them. The backpedaling of Lee throughout the stand-up portion of the fight likely cost him the nod from the judges in that crucial first round as the 2-5 rounds were decidedly for either guy at 2 and 2.

Rob Font showed that Pettis is in fact NOT a bantamweight with a clear cut unanimous decision with takedowns, ground and pound, a kimura reversal/escape from bottom and about 200 jabs landed. Oliveria used a body lock mat return style takedown to put Miller in trouble early and sink in a RNC putting an emphatic win to his resume over Miller who was the first man to beat him professionally 8 years ago. Wild. 8 years ago, man.

I was getting my haircut by my barber and missed the rest of the prelims and I'll have to go back over them tomorrow at some point after NoGi Worlds wraps late tomorrow evening.

Gordon Ryan savaged a number of opponents (not sure but that 40 something to 0 score prior to armbar finish may be a black belt record) and Team Lloyd Irvin which is always spouting the "no bitchassness" mantra did 2 high profile no shows (Aly and Spriggs). Hmmm. I guess the street only goes one way for them. If Gordon had pulled out "due to injury" last minute and avoided Aly they would have milked it for all it's worth. 

NoGi Worlds 2018 - Thoughts on Brackets & Divisions & 34 Female Black Belt Competitors Total

Sigh. Sport has a long way to go. especially for the women.
The men's divisions aren't even that packed with notable black belt brackets like Feather totally up for grabs.

Black Belt men's picks and anecdotes of familiar faces:
Rooster - Paiva
Light Feather - Joao, Pinheiro, Hashimoto. Joao is the safe bet to take it, but Hashimoto continues to move up and up and improve as he gets more black belt experience. Joao will be the only Miyao competing as his brother got an additional ban of 3 months for violating his previous steroid ban prior to it's ending.
(Bendy Casimir is who I studied Kneebars by (Kneebar King of Leg locks on YouTube!) He had trained with a coach of mine at the time, Sean Spangler who had trained with Bendy in Vegas - who is on my bucket list of guys to get a private from down the road when I hit Vegas at some point) before moving to NYC. Alex Ecklin runs a pair of BJJ schools (with his teammate Van) in Brooklyn which I drop by occasionally. Suraj I met ages ago when I was in Florida for a wedding, we were both purple belts at the time. I see he's now a black belt and I was recently promoted to brown.
Feather - Marangoni or Cobrinha's son on black belt level experience/gamesmanship.
Castelle lost to my friend Rosenthal last week at Onnit. Murdock I worked with for the same grappling tournament company for several years and we fought for the same MMA organization.
Light - Grippo or Iwasaki, but likely Grippo. Without Miyao allowed to compete (as they did at Kasai recently), I see Grippo pretty handily taking this one. Iwasaki will podium though, is my expectation or Domingos.
Middle - is a stacked division, especially in this format with Giles, Perez, Lieira, Coco, Conaill, Canuto, Leon, Silverio. I honestly can't pick this division at all with so many solid, experienced black belts with high level experience and accolades.
Stanley Rosa I know through his coach Doug, who's an OG Renzo black belt, and I've rolled with him a few times at Renzos when he's there dropping in to train. Enrique is the son of an OG Renzo black belt, I've trained with him a few times when he's regularly at Renzo's to train.

Medium Heavy - Tinoco, Diniz, Hinger, Borovic, Gabriel Arges, Kit Dale, and Murilo Santana
- also an impossibly hard division to pick a winner or honestly, even the podium overall. Wow.

Skipping a few divisions I don't watch to get to Gordon Ryan's division of Ultra Heavy:
Gordon Ryan, Dopp, Cyborg, Tex Johnson, Mahamed Aly....

I'm gonna go with Ryan taking the cake, and Cyborg or Aly or Johnson rounding out the podium.

Combat JiuJitsu: Gordon Ryan, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett & Vinny Magalhaes(?)

Eddie Bravo posted it but Vinny’a #questionablehistoryfordays manager says fake news

BJJ Scout's BJJ Digest #85 - Barber Wants Dern, Ryan Wants Werdum, Royce and Son have story time with Ariel

Werdum vs Hulk was an abomination (see the comic book reference?)

Dern I don't think ever fights for the belt. She's too busy looking like she's walking around at my walking weight to fight and make weight again or challenge for a belt down the road.

I'm doing Advanced Adult division this weekend @ Grappling Industries. Anyone in NYC who's there, hit me up. Busy weekend with a Naga and the NY Open & Grappling Industries all in the same weekend and a UFC with Magny vs Ponzinibbio down south of the border et cetera. Darren Elkins returns to action, and Bellator brings a card to us tomorrow night. What a time to be a combat sports fan...

Quintet 3 Team Orders & Brackets Announced

This is basically Avengers Infinity War of Submission Grappling. I'm hard pressed to think of an event of any format with this varied a legion of competitors.
Yo. Can't. Wait.

Gordon Ryan in at Quintet 3

Some burning grappling questions looming on the horizon....

Gordon Ryan's next opponent NoGi in ACB following the points loss to Vinny. The 1 minute of no guard pulling, and round format poses some interesting tactical decision to make. Will be interesting to see how he adjusts to the format and the tactics of heavy, experience black belts looking to score points and win rounds rather than the sub only format and EBI overtime.

IBJJF World's coming up at the end of this month...interesting to see how things shake out with some of the more notable contenders facing one another throughout the year at ACB (and for that matter, what will come of Gi events outside of ACB and a few unsigned black belts of note? 5 Grappling used to put on brackets in various weight classes but ACB has signed most of the available talent to exclusivity outside of open/IBJJF events.....). It's crazy to check the IBJJF calendar and see how many events are going on each and every month....and the growth of NoGi, sub only/ebi format events rounding out the calendar in addition to Polaris, F2Win, and Kasai.....great time to be a grappling fan.

Who will Eddie Cummings face now that he won the Kasai strap from Canuto?

Will Dillon Danis respond to Neiman Gracie's call to fight in Bellator?

Will Lovato fight for the belt in Bellator this year?

Can Mackenzie Dern make weight?

Kasai is holding it's next welterweight tournament after a pro qualifier at it's June 16th tournament in NYC. Interesting to see who they get to fill out the bracket. I attended the last two events in person and saw some great superfights in addition to the brackets they've put on.

ACB 13 - Long Beach - Recap and Reflections You Didn't Ask For

Whilst I'm over here waiting for their NoGi events to pop off, we'll bide time with another Gi centric event packed with ton of world champs and the like. It's still pretty crazy how much of the top tier of male talent is locked up. It came to my attention that not only are there no women signed to their pro events, but they do not have female divisions at all at their open tournaments. I'm all for a private organization doing as they please, but, it's hard for me to laud an organization that doesn't hold women divisions at all. I think the spread of IBJJF divisions for Masters 1-12 or whatever thinly spread divisions of 1-2 people and the resulting participation medals for brackets with one person or 3 or losing a match and placing "third" is whatever....but to hold a tournament in areas that have a dearth of schools, and not host any female talent or divisions.....is problematic for lack of any other way of putting it.

Anyhow, on to the matches:

Frazatto vs Welker
Frazatto sucked Welker into 50/50 and won a boring AF match over three rounds. Le sigh. The return of 50/50 in some recent ACB Gi events bores me to tears.

Farias vs Somalia - eventful match with both guys mixing it up at times. Somalia was a bit outclassed with one round I think Farias running up 26 points in a single round.

Langhi vs Silverio - I felt like Silverio actually won the match. Langhi has a nice thing going where the emphasis is on guys not being able to pass, but aside from a deep sweep attempt in the second round, Langhi was relegated to that and coming up on a single leg he didn't finish with Silverio doing what I felt like was more of the work in forcing passing attempts and a very near back take in the first round.

Mantovani vs Marangoni
Marangoni brought it to Mantovani, with some deep submission attempts. It probably cost him the match in opening up his game, but it made for some tense moments as Mantovani had to fend of what appeared to be some deep subnmissions

Najmi vs Caporal
Najmi as usual had a slack/slow start, but quickly turned up the pressure when he decided to and hit a rare RNC from the back after a reversal to top then Caporal turning to flee. Najmi looked a little flat in losing his ACB title to Ramos, so it was good to see him get back on track

Doederlein vs Tanquinho Mendes
Mendes looked a little flat as well, with Doederlein doing more of the work from bottom and fighting for the sweeps/back takes. Close match, but mainly because Mendes was reactive rather than imposing his will.

Igor Silva vs Jackson Sousa
Sometimes you get flying armbarred.

Panza vs Evangelista
Evangelista was stalling his way to victory but Panza turned it up and got the tap.

Cornelius vs Simoes
Keenan hit an impressive reverse omoplata from attacking the turtle/Simoes who was having trouble dealing with Keenan on top threatening the pass. Impressive dexterity with the legs from Keenan to get the finish.

Cyborg vs Erberth Santos
Didn't watch because I don't find either guy particularly exciting.

Barral vs Sousa
Sousa fell victim to the knee through pass to cross collar choke finished as he advanced to mount. Barral looked as sharp as he has in quite awhile.

Gordon Ryan vs Vinny Magalhaes
Vinny got a guard pass after a single lag takedown, then did a cautious amount of disengaging to avoid points or entries leading to any danger. A lot of Vinny on both knees, waiting for Ryan to extend, and Vinny looking for that as an opportunity to pass.
3rd round has Vinny with his usual incredibly low energy output/JiuJitsu barely being done, mainly disengaging on the feet and unwilling to commit to any discernible moves/techniques minus some clubbing the top of the head collar tie attempts and 2 on 1 wrist control. You'd think he and Evangelista had actually done some training before their matches based on how little actual moving or effort they seemed to put out once the timer was going.

Lo vs Arges - didn't watch because as Lo has gone up in weight, I find his style less and less interesting to watch
Buchecha vs Rocha  - haven't watcched much HW JiuJitsu in the last couple years