Oct 22nd SAVE THE DATE - EBI 13: Lightweights coming in hot

Garry Tonon - multi-time EBI champ as high as 205 lbs, coming off the ADCC

Bill Cooper - personal struggles and a knee injury among others have hurt the overall career of the Paragon prodigy and early American JiuJitsu stalwart. He's had moments of brilliance in various matches but hasn't found consistency. He's got some amazing matches I've seen over the years. 

AJ Agazarm - fresh off of ADCC, a less than crowd pleasing style of grinding head down double under style, we'll see how he does in the overtime rounds as he is notoriously hard to submit. 

Lachlan Giles - out first round at the recent ADCC, we'll see what he does wih the exposure. 

Vagner Rocha - coming off of ADC. As well and medaling, Vagner is patient, has good wrestling and I'm expecting some serious overtime battles to be waged in this event. 

Nathan Orchard - perennial contender in various Onnit Superfight Invitational events. 

Joe Baize - precious EBI competitor with some wins if I recall correctly 

Lucas Valente - no clue

Ross Keeping - who? 

Mac Danzig - former UFC fighter 

Daniel Tavares - not familiar 

Andreas Achniotis Perales - no idea 

Diego Brandao - former UFC fighter most recently jumping out of a cage in Russia and previously pulling off a helicopter armbar in an mma fight as well. 

Issa Able

PJ Barch - Finishers Sub Only winner out here on the east coast, been laying low since then. Recently saw him do a match at the Mat Warriors event in SoCal awhile back. Be interesting to see him step up from the regional level. 

Combat Jiu Jitsu tournament: Richie Boogeyman Martinez, Max Rohskopf, Thiago Moises, Bobby Emmons.

Solid Bellator Card Next Friday: 184 - Dantas vs Caldwell

UFC Meme for the Day

Reflections on the ADCC 2017

I've bagged hard on the ADCC's utter lack of production value and basics like mats that stay in place in the past. Dunno if flograppling is the boost it needed or what, but this event looked like what it was: a high caliber elite level event.

Music selection: Rush began playing as the Nicky Ryan/Agazarm match began. You couldn't have asked for a better 80's style soundtrack to a lot of the matches. I was jamming out to the matches and my teammates showcasing what's going on at RGA. 

Wrestling still matters: no amount of leg locks can completely cancel out the tactics needed to advance round by round, and a last minute/late match takedown (or backtake for that matter) can still be the deciding factor. I was glad to see less 30-40 min finals decided by stalling and non-engagement. There's always going to be the consideration of tweaking a rule set following an event or particularly tight/uneventful finals, but overall, many of the matches were eventful. Perhaps it was the competitors list just lined up the right way this year, or perhaps it was bracketing, but overall I found way more of the matches compelling than I have years previous.

The sport is indeed changing with less and less overlap of Gi centric guys winning (perhaps at times). Bracketing is a big deal and guys who lost first round might not lose first round depending who they face up first. Craig Jones is a guy who turned that notion on its ear. 

Gordon Ryan's performance at 22 years old speaks for itself. I'm not sure for how much longer big name guys can discredit him or say he's not worth facing. He has the target on his back for any nogi grappler out there now that he had that ADCC accolade on his resume. The con drntional excuses to face him just won't hold water anymore. 

Famous JiuJitsu Guys/Women Complain About $$$.....don't show up to do cash events

Hard to put much stock in their complaints when they a dearth of them live nearby and simply don't show up. 

Weekend MMA Round-Up: UFC Japan Friday, Bellator Saturday

Lots of good stuff this weekend. Despite Shogun's unfortunate pullout of the event, OSP will face Okami, Takanori Gomi (yes he still has a job) will face Dong Hyun Kim (once upon a time it looked like he'd fight for the belt), Saki will make his UFC debut after an insane kickboxing career, and given the short list of real contenders, Andrade faces Gadelha because a few wins is all it takes for a title shot in some of the women's divisions. 

Saturday we get some solid Bellator action with Benson Henderson facing Patricky Friere, Roy Nelson punching the clock, and for the 3 minutes it will last, shell shocked Paul Daley facing Lorenz Larkin....and Aaron Pico will try to not get guillotined sub two minutes.

All sarcasm aside, I'm sure the underwhelming rosters will still produce some stoppages as a number of these guys are shopworn or simply prone to getting stopped at those stage in their career. 

Bruno Frazatto & Gilbert Burns Drop Out of ADCC

Damn. 

Oct. 7th - UFC 216 Line-Up Set: Mighty Mouse Not Top Billing

Ouch. 

MacGregor Tweets Regarding GGG/Canelo "Draw"

Heather Hardy gets debuting Pro fighter with 3 amateur fight bkgrd

Gotta love watching someone with double digit pro boxing experience fighting someone with 3 amateur mma bouts to their credit. 

Seeing her struggle to put away her opponent in on the Bellator PPV last time around was a less than auspicious debut for mma pro level but at least she didn't get Aaron Pico'd. Fortunately she fought a woman with literally no wrestling acumen whose main gameplan was to walk forward I guess? 

Spoiler: almost everyone is cheating

ACB BJJ NoGi Grand Prix - Claudio Calasans vs Patrick Gaudio

Frustrating because other than a takedown and some footlock attempts, Gaudio did far less actual y'know...Jiu-Jitsu. Claudio jumped to guard and butterfly several rounds to leg pummel, get underneath and look to isolate the leg but after the first or second frame, Gaudio didn't do much but float on top and clear the leg triangle and disengage to extricate his leg. For all his work to get the...y'know, Jiu-Jitsu going, Gaudio was having none of it minus floating on top and clearing his legs of danger.

NoGi and JiuJitsu is going to have to come up with a solution to be more than a niche sport with the amount of fleeing, passivity, and lack of engagement plaguing some of these events. I fell asleep during that Lightweight 5 Grappling Grand Prix, and minus some guys with whom I train almost everyday at the upcoming ADCC I expect some atrociously boring counter wrestling matches playing out on the feet for 30 minutes plus. 

Spider Brand Putting on Invitational Event

Event: October 21st - 

I had noticed the Spyder patch/brand on several high level guys recently and it looks like their desire for visibility will line the pockets of some professional grapplers. Their event will feature a NoGi match-up between Keenan Cornelius and Dong Hyun Kim and some other match-ups listed below: 

Next Friday's UFC Japan Fight Night LineUp Set

Eddie Bravo Releases Combat JiuJitsu XShips Divisions

Some solid notables on here overall. Anything that's a platform for guys to be treated as professionals, I'll support. 

Jesse Taylor Anti-Doping Flag

Sucks. Guy was a total Cinderella Man story/comeback. I actually rolled with him a few weeks ago in San Diego when I was out there/dropped in at Arena MMA. 

We'll have to wait and see how it shakes out. 

ACB BJJ NoGi Grand Prix - Josh Hinger vs Hugo Marques

ACB BJJ NoGi Grand Prix - Arnaldo Oliveira vs Patrick Gaudio

Sometimes I guess you gotta respect the omoplata.....oops.

UFC Fight Night Countdown This Saturday: Rockhold vs Branch

A guy whom I see regularly at the gym, cross paths with in the locker room and who is always professional and cool to everyone he sees is Mr. Branch. He's returned to the UFC after his initial run, after collecting belts in 2 different weight classes in the WSOF, and picked up a win with a close fight over a top 10 ranked guy in his UFC return/debut. Rockhold for his part has been out of action since losing the strap in a last minute replacement Bisping turned KO then contract dispute and holding out for more money with the UFC from what I've read.

A win for Branch catapults him to a title shot contention and a win for Rockhold puts him back into the mix after a long layoff. 

ACB BJJ NoGi Grand Prix - Josh Hinger Submits Isaque Bahiense

Hinger counters the arm drag inside trip with a head and arm grip, then stays relentless on the control eventually cinching down the control to get the Darce finish without even having to go to mount or trap a leg, his squeeze must be mighty powerful even from there to get the finish like that. 

Mighty Mouse Chose Easier Fight Chasing Legacy: Got Bitten

We finally got a statement of sorts from Ray Borg, he said sorry and had a virus, still no details, and fired his weight cut nutritionist for issuing a statement that his withdrawal wasn't due to the weight cut.....guess it could just be coincidental....I had forgotten that Ray Borg had not only failed to make weight twice previously, but also pulled out of a fight with Ian McCall less than 48 hrs in advance at UFC 203. So much for DJ saying he didn't want TJ because he was afraid the fight would fall through, instead he went with a guy who two weight cut misses and a last minute withdrawal in his UFC run. 

Mighty Mouse Was Worried Dillashaw Wouldn't Make Weight, Ray Borg Withdraws Due to Mystery Virus

I find the mystery illness thing bogus. Weird how with the new weigh-in rules and IV banning all these guys get sick making weight now (*ahem* Nunes, Khabib, et al). 

Lemme sum up this whole affair in a few images:

UFC 215: Inside the Octagon Breakdown with Dan Hardy - Demetrious Johnson vs Borg, Nunes vs Schevchenko

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ACB NoGi 75/85kg Brackets Released

Aaron Pico - let's try this again

Well, after a much hyped debut that ended embarrassingly quickly, they're gonna run it back: he'll face a guy coming off two losses in a row, though against UFC caliber opponents. I appreciate Bellator's importing of wrestling prospects, so we'll see if this reboot does the trick.

UFC 215 Countdown: Demetrious Johnson vs Ray Borg, Schevchenko vs Nunes

Remember Mighty Mouse's Rationale for Avoiding TJ Dillashaw?

Mighty Mouse suggested TJ might not make weight in a weight class he's never fought in previously. I guess that makes sense, minus the fact that Ray Borg has missed weight two times previously. 

Labor Day Weekend News Round-Up- Askren to retire, RDA almost fought Woodley

ADCC Competitor List and Bio's

BJJ Heroes did an impressive breakdown of the available info on all the ADCC competitors for this upcoming year's event (September 23rd).

"

• Go to ADCC 66 kg competitors list
• Go to ADCC 77 kg competitors list
• Go to ADCC 88 kg competitors list
• Go to ADCC 99 kg competitors list
• Go to ADCC +99 kg competitors list
• Go to ADCC Female competitors list"