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.

Mackenzie Dern missed weight by 7 lbs

Not the first time she’s missed the weight limit in her career, had several missed pre UFC. Also combined with the supposedly inexplicable being asked to leave the mma lab.....makes you wonder

Polaris 7 feat. welterweight bracket

BJJ Scout BJJ Digest

I'm late to the party on everything, but here we go:

Quick Thoughts on UFC 224

Not super excited about this card. If nothing else I'm just hoping Nunes wins this fight so she can fight Cyborg. Cyborg has invented all kinds of reasons for this fight not to happen (among them Nunes hasn't faced any featherweights - oh wait, neither has Cyborg haha, anyway, I digress...oh yeah, and Cyborg doesn't want to face another Brazilian.....precious child...Brazilian men have been beating one another into CTE and near death for decades....welcome to 2018. Time to put on the big person pants and face the only other legitimate opposition on the horizon.

Nunes vs Pennington
Pennington is coming off of some wins of Miesha Tate (was ready to call it quits awhile ago), Bethe Correira (also not more than mid tier at best), a close decision loss to Holly Holm...but overall just probably belongs in the top 80th percentile of the division, but has won by decision her last 3 fights....and as a result, do I see her taking a decision from Nunes? Not likely, unless Nunes shows up in bad shape and off of a rough weight cut (both possibilities as Nunes has shown some inability to fight consistently over 5 rounds at times as of late. I see Pennington perhaps with some late pushes possibly in rounds 3 and 4 or perhaps 2 and 4 et cetera, but Nunes will stun her at least once or twice and have some rounds handily won and gut out a 3rd round with activity and pressing forward and pick up a decision.

Gastelum vs Jacare
It's easy to discount Jacare after his last two losses because despite being spread apart in his UFC tenure, they were hard to forget, main event style profile losses. That being said, within the UFC Jacare has only lost to current champ Whitaker, title contender Romero, and former champ Rockhold (in Strikeforce). Before that he'd lost by upkick to Mousasi and in his debut lost to a faaaaar more experienced Patino.
Jacare has really only lost to the absolute best in the sport and obliterated most all other comes.
Gastelum for me is hard to read. His wins are a mix of good timing and opportunity. HIs loss to Weidman is the thing that has me doubting the Gastelum train. Gastelum got Bisping in a fight Bisping shouldn't have taken. Gastelum beat Kennedy (who was as it turns out on the cusp of retiring) and beat Hendricks (in a fight Hendricks was in no condition to be fighting). I think this is the real litmus test of Gastelum and I don't think he passes. He has some very good skills inside the octagon, but I think timing and external factors have increased his stock a bit more than they actually should be priced. Gastelum has flashes of speed and movement and danger in his fists as evidenced in the fight with Weidman, and Jacare's standup has seemingly become more robotic over time, perhaps more leaden and predictable somehow, but even so, the question is can Jacare use his predictable big overhand to get to dragging Gastelum down to the mat. Weidman surived an early scare to do just that and Gastelum was a bit too content to fend Weidman's top position off but never really get back to his feet (and Weidman's mat returns kept him there for extended periods)....this is the hardest fight for me to pick on the card because Jacare has really only lost to the very best in MMA, whereas Gastelum is a puffed up welterweight who has some impressive wins but I think are due more to external factors rather than his attributes. I've got to go with Jacare for this one based on strength of resume and having hopefully healed up his shoulder injury for which he had surgery. 

Dern vs Cooper
Dern's being asked to leave the MMA Lab speaks volumes to me. Whether it was a veiled "you only show up when you have a fight and don't really help anyone else get ready" dismissal or a "she's not really been training hard and will get stopped sometime soon" goodbye, only time will tell. Dern's weight misses in the past notwithstanding, she's simply put, a bit fluffy for the division. As of yet, she's not faced anyone with the acumen to keep her at bay, and to her credit, she does come forward swinging with intentions that overwhelm low-mid tier opposition. Is Cooper the one to expose her? I'm frankly putting her odds as between slim and zero. Cooper's 3 losses are by submission. Dern will get her down and will quickly get a highlight real submission, I'm guessing the obvious RNC or armbar.

Belfort vs Machida AKA the "please for the love of God both of you retire regardless of the outcome of this match" portion of the card.

Ramos vs Hein
I had high hopes for Ramos coming into the UFC with his grappling and ADCC pedigree but his vaunted athleticism in those endeavors hasn't always translated into much action in his fights. His atrocious fight with Moraes was a cautious (on both their parts) affair, and he's yet to really show me he has the chops to be more than another dangerous grappler with passable stand-up but a limited gas tank that impedes his ability to drag opponents to the floor when they show any real determination or resiliency in protesting a takedown.

Lineker vs Kelleher
Lineker came within a fight of a shot at the belt but was drubbed by well-timed wrestling by Dillashaw. I've never liked Lineker's overrated brawling/wild swinging style or more specifically his ability to fail to make weight numerous times. For a guy with all this vaunted power, unless a guy stands flat footed in front of him, it makes for boring, sloppy punch-centric bouts in which he either sort of scores by this telegraphed flurries or gets picked off coming in/taken down 2 out of 3 rounds. At any rate, hopefully Kelleher puts him on the deck and Lineker's lack of much of a ground game from bottom gets him out of the upper echelon of the division for the time being. 

UFC 224 Countdown Episode: Nunes vs Pennington, Jacare vs Gastelum

Just hoping Nunes wins so Cyborg has to fight her and face some live bait rather than the continuous feast on women bumped up from lower weight classes and making their UFC debuts.

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