U.M.A.'s Chief Officer and BJJ Purple Belt Carl Fisher Represents the
U.M.A. for B.J.J. and Reports at the BJJ Capital Challenge Championships
in Amman Jordan
Overview of the black belt final matches:
Braulio Estima was the man of the tournament held at the Emile I. Habbad
Gymnasium in the suburb of Abdoum, a short yet hair raising taxi ride
away from the Grand Hyatt Amman Hotel on Hussein Bin Ali Street, Amman.
Not many people can earn $10, 000 or even $20, 000 in less than an hour,
yet for Gracie Barra team mates Lucio ‘Lagarto’ Rodrigues and Braulio
‘Cacara’ Estima, it was as easy as a walk in the park. Both athletes
were the favourites for their respective divisions and most people had
the smart money on Estima to walk away with the main prize money in the
Absolute division.
Alliance member won his first match via a choke and Braulio takes his
first match with a head/arm triangle submission; in round two Leite
takes a point’s win over Fabricio Werdum and Braulio takes a referee’s
decision, taking both men into the semi finals. Leo Leite takes out
Brasa member Igor Silva with a choke and Estima takes a hard earned
referees decision over Alliance member Gabriel Vella, who was tagged
with the ‘Greatest return to competition’ accolade from Gracie Magazine
for 2008.
This set the standard for the final fight, which had all fighters and
coaches and fans split into two camps, none however giving any fighter a
walkover to take the prize – this was gonna be a war!
The second day of the competition saw both fighters fight in their
respective weight brackets before stepping up for the Absolute;
overnight the gymnasium was transformed into a state of the art sound
and vision spectacular, with fighters competing on a raised platform and
coming onto the fighting arena through an arch way, together with
pyrotechnics and razzamatazz normally seen at NBA matches. One thing for
sure, the mainly Jordanian crowd know how to stir up an incredible
atmosphere, albeit with a little help from the local military band that
was on hand, drums, bagpipes and instruments galore which further added
to the excitement.
After expending energy in earlier fights, both fighters started out
cautiously checking each other out in grip battles and takedown
attempts; at one point Leite attacked the neck of Estima with a forearm
choke, that had the Recife native on the defensive, yet managing to
weather the storm and in the dying seconds, Estima mounted an arm attack
from the closed guard and was in sight of a submission win, when the
whistle blew to end the fight. Braulio had won the match 2-0 by
penalties and was now another $10,000 better off.
In the +99K division, the giant Charles Cachoeira took the first place
with a win over another giant, Alliance member Gabriel Vella in a points
victory leaving Leo Leite to collect third place – a double pay day for
the Alliance member.
Overcoming serious health problems earlier in the year, Lucio ‘Lagarto’
Rodrigues announced his return to form by winning the -99K bracket, with
wins over Tiago Pereira (choke) and proving too much for the knee of
Brasa member Igor Silva, who blew his joint out, defending a guard pass.
Man of the tournament Braulio Estima and fellow team mate Otavio de
Souza took first and second place respectively in the -88K bracket with
an arm bar win for Estima, whilst Estima took a rear choke win over
Edmilson Conceicao in the earlier stages.
In the -77K bracket it was the turn of Alliance members Sergio Moraes
and Michael Langhi to take first and second place with an easy triangle
submission win for Langhi, leaving Berbosa member Adriano Silva to
collect third place.
In the finals of the -70K division Rubens Charles ‘Cobrinha’ wowed the
crowd with a thrilling match of technical excellence with a points win
over Rafael Mendes, securing a 5-2 win with a guard pass near the end of
the time limit.
Last and by no means least, history was created in the shape of the
first ever female black belt finals match ever hosted within the Middle
East, where Kyra Gracie and Caroline DeLazzer (Gracie Sul) took to the
centre stage and showed the men that the ladies can hang out with the
best of ‘em.
In a thrilling edge-of-your-seat match, that saw Kyra looking for the
omoplata submission towards the end of the match, DeLazzer lost the
match by a whisker, losing 4-3 on points in an electrifying fight from
start to finish.
All winners collected their cut glass trophies and collected the spoils
of war from event organiser Zaid Mirza, who left the event $150,000 out
of pocket, yet content in the knowledge of hosting this year’s best BJJ
tournament bar none, in terms of event management and raising the bar
for future large scale BJJ events way way up high.
Results:
Absolute
1 Braulio Estima (Gracie Barra)
2 Leo Leite (Alliance)
3 Gabriel Vella (Alliance)
3 Igor Silva (Brasa)
+99kg
1 Charles Cachoeira (Gracie Sul)
2 Gabriel Vella
3 Leo Leite
-99kg
1 Lucio Rodrigues (Gracie Barra)
2 Igor Silva
3 Francisco Santoro
-88kg
1 Braulio Estima
2 Otavio Souza (Gracie Barra)
3 Tarsis Humphreys (Alliance)
-77kg
1 Michael Langhi (Alliance)
2 Sergio Moraes (Alliance)
3 Adriano Silva (Berbosa)
-70kg
1 Rubens Charles Maciel (Alliance)
2 Rafael Mendes
3 Michel Maia
Female
1 Kyra Gracie (Gracie Barra)
2 Carol DeLazzer (Gracie Sul)
3 Kanako Inaba
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