BJJ Heroes 2012 Mundials Divisional Breakdown of Competitors

BJJ Heroes has done a straight forward break down HERE of each division listing: current champion, contenders in the division and their accomplishments that make them contenders.

It's one of the better pre-viewing guides I've seen for next weekend's big event in Long Beach.

There are some incredibly tough brackets out there such as those ruled by 5x world champion Marcelo Garcia and 4x world champion Bruno Malfacine but then we also have the following divisions:

Peso Leve /Light Weight (76kg)

Current Champion
Name		Team	Main Achievements
Gilbert Burns		n/a	World Champion
The Main Contenders
Name	Team		Notes
Michael Langhi	Alliance		Former World Champion
Lucas Lepri	Alliance		Former World Champion
Roberto Satoshi	Bonsai		2012 European & World Pro Cup Champion
Leandro Lo	CiceroCostha		2012 Pan Am & Brazilian National Champion
JT Torres	Lloyd Irvin		Tough Competitor
Vinicius Marinho	GFTeam		Tough Competitor
Italo Lins	GFTeam		Tough Competitor
Davi Ramos	Atos		Tough Competitor
Ed Ramos	Atos		Tough Competitor
Della Monica	Gracie Barra		Former World Medallist

Peso Meio Pesado /Medium Heavy Weight (88kg)

Current Champion
Name		Team	Main Achievements
Sergio Moraes		Atos	World Champion
The Main Contenders
Name	Team		Notes
Kayron Gracie	Gracie Barra		Current Pan American Champion
Nivaldo Oliveira	Checkmat		2012 Absolute Brazilian National Champion
Rodrigo Fajardo	Gracie Barra		2012 European Open Champion
Tarsis Humphreys	Alliance		Former World Champion
Vitor Toledo	Atos		2012 Pan Am & World Pro Silver Medallist
Andre Galvao	Atos		ADCC Champion, World Champion
Romulo Barral	Gracie Barra		Former World Champion

Peso Médio /Middle Weight (82kg)

Current Champion
Name		Team	Main Achievements
Marcelo Garcia		Alliance	5x World Champion (at black belt)
The Main Contenders
Name	Team		Notes
Victor Estima	Gracie Barra		2012 Pan Silver Medallist
Kron Gracie	Gracie Humaita		2011 World Silver Medallist (Leve)
Claudio Calasans	Atos		2012 Pan Am & World Pro Cup Champion
Murilo Santana	Barbosa JJ		Veteran, Current Brazilian Champion
Lucas Leite	Checkmat		Veteran, former world medallist

Keenan Cornelius Makes the List (Undesirable No. 1)

Graciemag, (following something like 20+ comments about the travesty of this list HERE), has briefly mentioned Keenan on their post HERE.

I had earlier posted HERE regarding his clearly deliberate omission from the list.
Before all that, I posted a bit about him here as he was beginning what would become him winning the euro, the pro trials, the pan ams, and then the Brazilian nationals all in less than one year of competition.

"It’s little wonder middleweight purple belt Keenan Kai-James Cornelius has legions of fans on Facebook and comments about him galore here on GRACIEMAG.com. The Lloyd Irvin student is gearing up for an historic achievement in 2012: to win his weight and the open-weight classes at all four of the main IBJJF tournaments on the same year: the Europeans, Pan, Brazilian Nationals and the Worlds. Not long ago Alexander Trans came close to achieving this particular Grand Slam. In 2011, as a brown belt, the Danish CheckMat product only missed out on producing the absolute title at the Brazilian Nationals."

That's something of a retraction I guess. Kind of. Well, maybe not. Oh well.

It is what it is. His performance speaks for itself.

My MMAPlayground picks: Winners & Losers Edition

My mmaplayground results:
I picked 5 of the fights correctly.
I had my suspicions about Hardy following his consecutive losses to Condit and Lytle.
As well I had my suspicions that Brandao might gas and lose if the guy survived the first round, as such Elkins was a live underdog.
Having seen Struve get clipped by Nelson I thought Lavar was worth it on the long shot.
As for Teixera, I picked him, but I thought he might struggle a bit with Octagon jitters. Not the case. He came after Kingsbury and put the hurt-icane on him. straight up.
As for Bigfoot, I saw more in Cain's loss than was probably there, and he decisively put the beatdown on Bigfoot as soon as he caught that kick and ran him down. Impressive beatdown by Cain in that one.
As for Varner, well, no one saw that one coming after he had struggled in smaller shows against lesser known competition. My hat off to him.

Frank Mir		Junior Dos Santos	Junior Dos Santos Fight ends in round 4 KO / TKO	Junior Dos Santos Fight ends in round 2 KO / TKO	7
Jason Miller		CB Dolloway	Jason Miller Fight ends in round 2 Submission / Tapout	CB Dolloway Judge's decision Unanimous/majority decision	0
Dan Hardy		Duane Ludwig	Duane Ludwig Fight ends in round 3 KO / TKO	Dan Hardy Fight ends in round 1 KO / TKO	0
Paul Sass		Jacob Volkman	Paul Sass Fight ends in round 3 Submission / Tapout	Paul Sass Fight ends in round 1 Submission / Tapout	7
Diego Brandao		Darren Elkins	Darren Elkins Judge's decision Split decision	Darren Elkins Judge's decision Unanimous/majority decision +2 points (underdog bonus)	9
Glover Texeira		Kyle Kingsbury	Glover Texeira Judge's decision Split decision	Glover Texeira Fight ends in round 1 Submission / Tapout	5
Daniel Pineda		Mike Thomas Brown	Mike Thomas Brown Fight ends in round 2 Submission / Tapout	Mike Thomas Brown Judge's decision Unanimous/majority decision	5
Cain Velasquez		Antonio Silva	Antonio Silva Fight ends in round 2 KO / TKO	Cain Velasquez Fight ends in round 1 KO / TKO	0
Stipe Miocic		Shane Del Rosario	Shane Del Rosario Fight ends in round 1 KO / TKO	Stipe Miocic Fight ends in round 2 KO / TKO	0
Dave Herman		Roy Nelson	Dave Herman Judge's decision Split decision	Roy Nelson Fight ends in round 1 KO / TKO	0
Edson Barboza		Jamie Varner	Edson Barboza Judge's decision Split decision	Jamie Varner Fight ends in round 1 KO / TKO	0
Stefan Struve		Lavar Johnson	Lavar Johnson Fight ends in round 2 KO / TKO	Stefan Struve Fight ends in round 1 Submission / Tapout	0
					33

Obligatory Arianny Celesta Domestic Violence/Double Standard Post

From over at mmajunkie.com:

All I'm gonna say, is this has happened to a considerable number of MMA fighters, and they've been villified before the details even came out.
She gets arrested, and Dana's like "we're going to support her. bad things happen in people's lives."

what a joke.
i'm gonna jump the gun and just say this: it is much, much, much harder for a woman to get arrested for domestic violence. realistically, cops are far less willing to book a woman on that charge than against a man for similar behavior.

Rodolfo Vieira Gets High (Altitude) for the Mundials & Kayron is Out

From over at Graciemag:

Like most champions reticent to give up their belt/title, and simultaneously aware of the target on their back, Rodolfo Vieira has made a significant change to his Mundials preparations: he's training in the high altitude of Colorado with Amal Easton's camp to add something extra to his trainings.

And in unfortunate news, after making a return following injuries to the podium at the Pans, Kayron Gracie is out of the Mundials with a knee injury.

One week left.....

Anthony Johnson Misses Weight (Volume 14) - Titan Fighting 22

Man. I don't even feel like making a joke.
From over at MMAMania, we find that our good friend Mr. Rumble-Twinkie-Never-Makes-Weight Johnson failed to make weight for Titan Fighting 22 this weekend.

This is so far beyond beating a dead horse that it just...well, it is what it is.
Why anyone signs to fight a guy with this many failed weigh-ins just blows my mind.
Hell, I did a meme about him HERE when he missed weight for Vitor, the biggest fight of his career and then got finished inside of one round.


In other news, I'm back to training twice a day, 4 days a week.
It has been brutal, especially by Wednesday. My body's not used to recovering for the mid-day roll sessions just yet.
After next week (week 2), I should start hitting my stride.

Happy Trainingz!

Rare Carlos Gracie Jr. Sparring Footage

Even this much is more than necessary to elaborate: