First of all, let me say this tournament was extremely well organized. All of the divisions ran on time and there were no complaints that I am aware of. Gustavo Dantas really showed once again why he puts on one of the best run tournaments out there.
Saturday, the kids started off the excitement. It was quite the sight to see: 200 children leaving it all on the line. With every tournament I keep getting more and more impressed with how the kids grow and show off their talent. The team title was taken by MMA Lab who always bring a tough group of youngsters to represent. Despite all the young hopefuls the biggest winner of the children was Brett Trivitt from the Lion’s Den, who had luck on his side in winning the raffle for the Nintendo Wii. Not a bad weekend if you ask me: Jiu-Jitsu and a free Wii, you can’t beat that.
Also, on Saturday were all of the blue belt divisions. One of the matches that really sticks out to me is the feather weight final between two Nova Uniao athletes, Jonathan Van Buren (GD Jiu-Jitsu) and Josh Rodriguez (ISMA). This was a very exciting, back and forth match in which Van Buren ended up claiming the victory by reverse armbar that you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qCpe2p56Vk. The big winner of the day though was Alex Centner of (ISMA), who won the ultra heavyweight division and the open weight division. In what was another Nova Uniao final Alex submitted his opponent from the opposite end of the spectrum, the light feather division, Arnold Monterroso. Monterosso fought hard, but Centner proved to be too large and eventually caught a kimura, putting an end to day one.
First thing Sunday morning were the co-main events, the black belt light and heavy open classes. The light open pitted two of the toughest black belts out there against each other in the finals. JT Torres (Lloyd Irvin), who had no easy way to the finals beating the tough Samir Chantre(Gracie Fighter), faced off against an always game Caio Terra(Gracie Fighter). The two fought hard with JT coming out on top via armbar, taking home the ticket to Portugal. In the heavy open division finals we saw a rematch from the AZ State Championships, between Carlos Farias (Traven) and Bruno Bastos (Nova Uniao). Bruno took the victory once again by one advantage point.
Sunday also brought about competition from the white, purple, and brown belts. Although everyone in these divisions put on a great show, I feel the standout of this day was “DJ” Jackson of team Lloyd Irvin. DJ put on a clinic submitting everyone in his weight and taking home the open weight purple belt division. Jackson definitely has a very bright future in Jiu-Jitsu. Also, the same day the third and final ticket to Portugal was raffled off amongst all the winners of each divison, leaving Matt Lowry of Gateway Martial Arts Academy the lucky winner of the weekend. As far as the team tournament goes, team GD Jiu-Jitsu took home the first place trophy with more than twice as many points as any other team at the competition.
I had a good personal experience at this tournament. Seeing as how this was my coach’s tournament, I not only competed, but helped at the tournament. Friday was the easy day helping set up, then Saturday I worked as matt coordinator all day, and finally Sunday I competed and worked again afterwards, then I helped break down the tournament as well. As for competing, I had one match with an always game Blayne Barlow (Relson Gracie) in the purple belt lightweight division. It was a fun match in which I won 10-2 and then I advanced to the finals where I closed out my division with my teammate. You can watch my match here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoYfa_DytUE. I also fought in the open weight where I had one match with a heavyweight from Megaton and lost 2-0. All in all it was a good experience and I hope to see you all at the next one!!
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