Graciemag Gives Keenan Cornelius His Due

I've blogged about him HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE....and.....finally, it has happened.
Graciemag has an article articulating just how much Keenan Cornelius accomplished as a purple belt this year.

"Having overcome Paulo Miyao of Cícero Costha team by a narrow margin, Keenan is now the simultaneous holder of the following gold medals:
Europeans 2012 – weight and absolute
Pan 2012 – weight and absolute
Brazilian Nationals 2012 – weight and absolute
Worlds 2012 – weight and absolute
An unprecedented achievement. May your brown belt be nigh, KC!"

As it is, I'm competing tomorrow, my last competition before knee surgery.
Wish me luck.

- Happy Trainingz!

Otavio Sousa - BJJ Black Belt World Champion

As no surprise, since I've been posting about him since forever ago.
Otavio Sousa, Gracie Barra Black Belt, world champion at every belt (now including black), won the Mundials as a middlweight over Calasans at black belt.

No easy task as Calasans plays the rules/game as well as anyone in all of sport Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Keenan Cornelius: A Year & a Belt in Review

Say what you will about Lloyd Irvin, but his results sure do speak for themselves.

Well. I've posted about him HERE, HERE, and HERE.
I saw him as the next big thing from Team Lloyd Irvin annnnnnnd, drum roll.......he has had quite the year.

And the short of it at this point is, the man, Keenan Cornelius, has won the weight and absolute categories at purple belt at the Euros, the Brasileiros/Brazilian Nationals, The Pan Ams, and the Mundials at weight and absolute.
Not to mention he wont the purple belt at weight at the World Pro.

Amazing. Incredible.
It is simply what it is.
I bet some brown belts have some deep, dark, shameful thoughts right now about the upcoming year of competition.

Shogun vs Vera to replace Thiago Silva & other MMA Oddities

You know the size and skill mismatches of Pride were paid for with every fight ended by knees or stomps to the head of a downed opponent.

In case you hadn't heard, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is no longer fighting Thiago " submits non-human piss for a PED test" Silva.
Instead, Shogun will face Brandon" I was once a heavyweight but haven't done much since hugging Couture for 3 rounds and getting my face cracked in multiple places by Jon Jones" Vera at the UFC on Fox 4 in August.

Oh, and this just in, Josh "everytime I leave the big show of the UFC it's because I get LNP'd by better wrestlers" Neer says this time he's figured out how to beat the boring lay n' pray wrestlers!
He's going to hit them in the face.
I'm not kidding. That's basically what he says in the interview.
Man, those LNP wrestlers will never know this is the NEW plan for them!
Unless they read this post. Damn.

Ian McCall is excited to finally finish/decide that fight with Demetrious Johnson (that guy that Dominic Cruz is just a little bit better at than everything and beat with a broken hand) that they made special rules for so it would have to be decided that night...but then a judging/scoring/adding up fucking numbers with a pencil and paper mistake happaned and they have to fight. again.

This is the world champion elite level of the most effective martial art?

I was going to write a big thing on sport versus self-defense, but I think we on some level as grapplers must acknowledge this leg scissor flying butt scoot to foot grab for 8 minutes is fucking ridiculous. Be a purist. Tell me how I don't get the intricacies of the sport. Whatever. You're just too deep in the dogma of "Jiu-Jitsu is the best evaaaa" to acknowledge the absurd level to which the rules are currently played AT THE MOST ELITE LEVELS of the sport. Period.

Bochecha: En Route to winning weight and absolute from blue to black

In case you didn't know, Bochecha has won the Mundials at every belt from blue to black. At weight and at absolute.

That's all there is to know about that.
 Here's his match over Rodolfo if you haven't seen it. People are calling it the best match of all time. Judge for yourself:

Keenan Cornelius Wins 2012 Mundials at Middleweight

"Middle

FIRST	Keenan Kai-James Cornelius -	Team Lloyd Irvin
SECOND	Diego Mendonça Perseguin -	Núcleo JJ
THIRD	Jonathan Satava -	Alliance Ecuador
THIRD	Arthur Sousa -	The Avengers"