MMA-URLS

[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] K-1 and Glory are both bringing top notch 70kg kickboxing tournaments to the world very soon. They've compiled most of the best 70kg fighters from around the world, despite the talent being split down the middle as K-1 and Glory competed for fighters. Familiar faces from the old K-1 MAX days are still here, along with many fighters that are getting their first opportunity in a massive 70kg tournament for a big promotion. As I said before, K-1 and Glory got most of the top 70kg fighters, but I feel that there's a few who were left out, and I'm going to run them down. Click 'Read more' to see eight fighters who I believe are missing from K-1 and Glory's 70kg tournaments. Read More...

Posted in: fighter, tournament, glory, kg, liverkickcom part

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USA Wrestling were unable to make it to the finals of the 2012 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup after a slip against Iran in Round 4 yesterday. A lot was riding on Keith Gavin to defeat opponent Ehsan Amini at 84KG for them to be in with a chance of reaching the finals, but after a spirited effort yesterday it was not to be. The home town crowd in Baku, Azerbaijan are about to go nuts if their team can beat Iran in the finals coming up shortly, but USA was still able to come in third overall as a team by beating old rivals Russia for Bronze. Superstar and Olympic Gold Medal hopeful Jordan Burroughs went undefeated this weekend, and his winning match sealed the deal for USA to medal, while most of his team mates including Jake Varner had mixed results. Here are the results of Team USA's final performance: 55KG Hazwinkel (USA) def Artas (RUS) 7-3, 0-1, 5-2 best two out of three periods.60KG Coleman (USA) def Bagmaev (RUS) 1-0, 0-1, 1-1 tech points 3-166KG Frayer (USA) def Kuzmanaliev (RUS) 3-2, 0-0, 0-0, tech points 5-074KG Burroughs (USA) def Gadzimafomedov (RUS) 5-0, 6-1 two straight periods.84KG Ibragimov (RUS) def Gavin (USA) 4-0, 0-0, 0-0, tech points 5-096KG Akhmedov (RUS) def Varner (USA) 5-0, 3-0, two straight periods.120KG Dlagnev (USA) def Kolomietc (RUS) 1-0, 1-0, two straight periods. Earlier this morning before USA met Russia for third place, USA met Georgia in a dual, winning 6 matches to 1. Related: 2012 FILA World Cup Of Freestyle Wrestling Live Results & Play By Play | The 2012 FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling Preview

Posted in: world, usa, kg, cup, ru

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Fellow BE insomniacs and wrestle-heads, join us tonight at 01:00 AM ET / 10:00 PM PT / 06:00 AM GMT for the results and play by play discussion of the 2012 FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling, live from Baku, Azerbaijan. USA Wrestling have a team ready to continue their winning ways with such standouts as World Champion Jordan Burroughs and Jake Varner. The last major international tournament in Freestyle Wrestling before the London 2012 Summer Olympics, many of the heavy hitters on the global scene are also taking part, and as Mike Riordan points out, this is the most important pre-Olympic test for Team USA, who has not won the World Cup in nearly a decade. Related: 2012 FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling Preview | U.S. Freestyle Wrestling Olympic Trials Preview | Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo Retires From Wrestling The competition pools are as follows: Pool A: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan,and RussiaPoll B: USA, Georgia, Japan, Iran and Turkey The US will be wrestling Japan in the first round. The following initially listed wrestlers will not be participating: USA: 84kg: Jake Herbert, World silver medalist Belarus: 96kg: Ruslan Sheikov, World bronze x3 (NO SHOW) Bulgaria: 55kg: Radislov Velikov, World gold and silver, Olympic bronze (NO SHOW)60kg: Anatolie Guidea, World silver (NO SHOW)66kg: Serafim Barzakov, World gold x2, World silver x2 (NO SHOW) Georgia: 66kg: Otar Tushishvili, World bronze x3, Olympic bronze (NO SHOW)96kg: Giorgi Gogshelidze, World gold, silver and bronze (NO SHOW) Kazakhstan: 74kg: Abdulhakim Shapiev, World bronze (NO SHOW) Grappling Editor KJ Gould and Bloody Elbow Wrestling contributor Coach Mike Riordan will be handling the action throughout the night.

Posted in: world, show, kg, freestyle, bronze

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The sport of wrestling imposes an undeniable influence on mixed martial arts and its premier promotion, the UFC. Interestingly, this influence does not entail the conversion of the world's very best wrestlers into Ultimate Fighters. A medal in freestyle wrestling at a world championships or Olympic games represents the apex of wrestling achievement on this planet, yet, not a single fighter currently active in the UFC has one of these medals on his resume. In contrast, this weekend's FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling features registration from thirty of these medalists. On top of these thirty medalists, dozens of wrestlers will take the mat with wrestling skills outstripping any current inhabitant of the UFC roster. This tournament will be the most important pre-Olympic test for the U.S.A. Olympic freestyle wrestling team. The U.S. has not won the World Cup in nearly a decade. Since then the American team results have been disapointing. In the years where the team has managed to qualify, team success had been limited to a high finish of fourth place. Since 2003, the World Cup has only been held in cities in former Soviet republics and Iran; this is wrestling's heartland and a part of the world where American performance seems to suffer. This year, our wrestlers will hope to buck this trend in Baku, Azerbaijan. After the jump, a look at the recent history, format, participants and results of one of freestyle wrestling's preeminent events, The FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling. Between the Black and Caspian Seea lie the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caucus States of Russian and the northern portions of Iran and Turkey. This land is the epicenter of international freestyle wrestling. The predominantly Islamic people of this often disregarded region dominate world-wide freestyle wrestling on a level vastly out of proportion with their population. The FILA World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling once more returns to these lands as it takes place this weekend in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. Only the top finishing countries from the previous year's World Championships of Wrestling are invited to attend the World Cup. This year's field consists of The U.S.A., Russia, Japan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The U.S. failed to qualify for last year's World Cup after their disastrous performance in the Moscow World Championships of 2010, but after a third place team showing at last year's worlds, they stand poised to make a bid for a high finish in Baku. The competition for team gold will be fierce and will include formidable opposition: Russia, winner of four of the last five World Cups; Iran, who has two reigning world champs in tow and a strong second place finish at last year's world championships and Azerbaijan, the host team with a star-studded lineup. How big a deal is wrestling in Azerbaijan? It is home to the world's largest wrestling practice facility World Cup Organization Wrestling competitions can be divided into two categories: team events and individual events. The NCAA championships and the Olympics are individual events where single wrestlers are bracketed according to weight class and placers are determined on a weight class by weight class basis. Team scores are still usually kept at these events based on a variety of scoring criteria determined by the wrestler's achievements. This format favors top heavy teams with a small core of wrestlers who can place very high in the tournament. The World Cup of Freestyle Wrestling is a team competition and features a dual meet format where every wrestler from each team wrestlers the other from their commensurate weight class. One team's lightest wrestler the other teams lightest, then the next weight and next weight etc. Team scores in dual meets are earned by winning individual matches. The teams in this World Cup will be divided in half into two pools. The teams in each pool will wrestle the other members of their respective pool in a round-robin. The two pool winners will wrestle for gold and the two pool runner-ups will wrestle for bronze. The World Cup also awards individual medals based on wins, losses, and mutual opponents. An individual gold here is not as prestigious as an Olympic or world gold, but it is still a noteworthy achievement. Past world-level medalists competing by country A past problem with the World Cup of wrestling is the quality of team fielded by participant teams. The number one wrestler from every country rarely attends and superstars who could otherwise be wrestling are often absent. A particular offender in this category is Russia who often brings fewer than half of their "A" team members. Impressively, they have had little trouble winning this event in spite of this. Their team this year appears to be shockingly devoid of their second or third tier wrestlers, in fact, my latest source informs me that they will be bringing what appears to be only their fifth string. This means that multiple gold medal winners Viktor Lebedev at 55 kg., Besik Kudukhov at 60 kg, Mavlet Batirov at 66kg, Denis Tsargush and Adam Saitiev at 74kg and Khajimurad Gatsalov at 96kg (Gatsalov is not likely to be Russia's Olympic Rep either) and behemoth heavyweight Beylal Makhov are all absent. Russia's national championship in freestyle looms close on the horizon and I have little doubt that this can be attributed to the dearth of top Russian talent While it remains to be seen whether this Russian team of fifth stringers can manage to defeat their extremely impressive Azerbaijani or Iranian challengers, Russia has such incredible depth that this is a distinct possibility. At the time of publication, it seems that most other attending teams are redolent with their top level talent, a notable exception being Kazakhstan who appears to not have registered their 96kg star, Tigiev. This tournament will bear witness to the presence of a monumental amount of wrestling talent, the following wrestlers, listed country by country, have won a medal at an Olympics or world championship (senior level, many junior level champions are present, but are not listed). These wrestlers are all registered and except for team USA, I have no means of knowing whether or not they will actually show up. USA: 74kg: Jordan Burroughs, World gold medalist 84kg: Jake Herbert, World silver medalist (Initially registered, but not competing) 96kg: Jake Varner. World bronze medalist 120kg: Tervel Dlagnev, World bronze medalist Azerbaijan: 66kg: Jabrayil Hasanov, World bronze x2 84kg: Sharif Sharifov, World gold and bronze 96kg: Khetag Gazumov, World gold and silver, Olympic bronze 120kg: Jamaladdin Magomedov, World bronze Belarus: 74kg: Murad Gaidarov, World silver, Olympic bronze 96kg: Ruslan Sheikov, World bronze x3 120kg: Aleksey Shemarov, World gold Bulgaria: 55kg: Radislov Velikov, World gold and silver, Olympic bronze 60kg: Anatolie Guidea, World silver 66kg: Serafim Barzakov, World gold x2, World silver x2 84kg: Mikhail Ganev, World gold Georgia: 66kg: Otar Tushishvili, World bronze x3, Olympic bronze 84kg: Dato Marsagishvili, World bronze 96kg: Giorgi Gogshelidze, World gold, silver and bronze 120kg: Davit Monsmanashivili, World bronze Iran: 55kg: Hassan Rahimi: World bronze 66kg: Mehdi Taghavi Kermani: World gold x2 74kg: Sadegh Goudarzi: World silver x3 and bronze 96kg: Reza Yazdani: World gold and bronze x2 Japan: 60kg: Kenichi Yumoto: World bronze, Olympic bronze 66kg: Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu: World silver and bronze Kazakhstan: 55kg: Daulet Niyazbekov, World bronze 74kg: Abdulhakim Shapiev, World bronze 120kg: Murid Mutalimov, Olympic bronze Russia: none Turkey: none Results will be posted as they are received. For those of you lucky enough to reside in beautiful Azerbaijan, this tournament will be broadcast on Azerbaijani National Television, AzTv. Mike Riordan is a high school wrestling coach, unsuccessful division one collegiate wrestler, and student of the sport of wrestling. He is a part time contributor to Bloody Elbow on matters of collegiate and Olympic wrestling.

Posted in: world, team, kg, gold, bronze

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A possible future of the competitive Brazilian jiu jitsu world has been shown to us at the 2012 Abu Dhabi World Professional Championships. This vision of the forthcoming is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and it relies upon the benevolence of a single very rich backer, but this could be what the biggest events of the sport look like in a decade. The 2012 World Pro is a gi-based Brazilian jiu jitsu tournament sponsored by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nayhan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, one of the component states of the United Arab Emirates. The tournament was begun roughly three years ago and in terms of competition level, the World Pro rivals the very best tournaments ever held. The cash prizes offered to the winners of the higher belt divisions have a great deal to do with that competitiveness though. The big winner of the 2012 World Pro is undoubtedly Rodolfo Vieira Srour, who had one of the finest years anyone in competitive grappling has ever had in 2011. Rodolfo won the Open Weight division by beating Andre Galvao on points, and his own -100 kg division by armbarring Roberto "Tussa" Alencar. In a gi, it is very, very difficult to beat the young Brazilian right now and nobody currently competing seems to be able to deter Vieira much from taking them down and passing guard. His command of timing, manacle-like hands and very mobile footwork for a big man make him a grappling nightmare to deal with. The Open Weight runner-up, Andre Galvao, may be a name some recognize from his brief time in Strikeforce or as the reigning ADCC open weight champion. Galvao won his -94 kg division handily and managed to beat Xande Ribeiro (perhaps the most decorated grappler alive right now) in the semi-finals of the open weight before losing to Vieira on points. Of the matches I have seen, I would consider this -74 kg finals match the most interesting from a pure sport jiu jitsu standpoint. Satoshi is a new face on the competitive black belt scene who now lives in Japan and combines a very movement-based guard game with a difficult to dislodge top game. Lucas Lepri has won quite a few tournaments over the last few years (including a Mundials title in 2007) and is one of the mainstays of the Alliance machine in Atlanta. The match is very narrowly decided and features some wild guard work from both grapplers. The rest of the results will be below the jump. Men's Brown & Black Belts: -64 kg champion: Thiago Barreto, Points victory over Fernando Vieira -70 kg champion: Samuel Canquerino, Points victory over Isaque Paiva -76 kg champion: Roberto Satoshi, Points victory over Lucas Lepri -82 kg champion: Claudio Calasans, Points victory over Lucas Leite -88 kg champion: Andre Galvao, Collar choke from the back on Vitor Toledo. -94 kg champion: Rodolfo Vieira, Armbarred Roberto "Tussa" Alencar -100 kg champion: Xande Ribeiro, Points victory over Bernardo Faria +100 kg champion: Marcus Buchecha Almeida, Footlocked Antonio Braga Neto Open Weight: Rodolfo Vieira, Points victory over Andre Galvao Women's Purple, Brown & Black Belts: -54 kg champion: Nyjah Easton, Points victory over Samara Reis -60 kg champion: Michelle Nicolini, Footlocked Kyra Gracie -66 kg champion: Luanna Alzuguir, Points victory over Luiza Monteiro -72 kg champion: Fernanda Mazelli, Points victory over Jessica Oliveira +72 kg champion: Gabi Garcia, Points victory over Maria Malyjasiak Open Weight: Gabi Garcia, Points victory over Beatriz Mesquita Most of these names are the familiar names grappling devotees have seen for years. However, Lucas Lepri beating Leandro Lo and Roberto Satoshi passing the guard of Davi Ramos are minor upsets. Satoshi is perhaps the only person here who really came from an outlier gym - although having four other brothers who are black belts helps some considerable amount. In the women's side, Bia Mesquita making it to the finals of the open weight is either an incredible story of a very small, yet insanely talented grappler, a seeding imbalance or some combination of both. The missing notables made a small list, but running them down shows that most either had a good excuse or are now focused on other projects. Marcelo Garcia apparently hurt his collarbone snowboarding and sat out the qualifications process and World Pro. The Mendes brothers competed in the qualifiers, but chose to forgo the World Pro in favor of the Mundials in June. Bruno Malfacine and Cobrinha did the same. Kron Gracie did not qualify for the World Pro, as Zak Maxwell beat him in the San Diego Trials. Gilbert Burns decided to work with Vitor Belfort on the TUF Brazil set and focus on his own MMA development. Sergio Moraes was a contestant on TUF Brazil (No spoilers are to be found here!). Roger Gracie released news of his impending drop to middleweight and then went on a seminar tour out to Singapore and other far-off places. Braulio Estima is also working on his MMA career and is hoping to super-charge things by meeting Nick Diaz in a one-shot grappling match soon. Also, Jordon Schultz has a pretty good look at Galvao vs. Xande in terms of the Leg Weave Pass. The Future of the Sport: One of the problems of sport is the tendency of the big professional leagues to claim a world championship in something that is plainly not. Do Major League Baseball teams play Cuban, Dominican or Puerto Rican teams? In Brazilian jiu jitsu, a world championship has a closer claim to true fact - although the money required to travel to the location of the World Championships, often called the Mundials, may deter some of the less affluent or financially successful grapplers from entering. People from all over the planet enter the Mundials, the Pans and other tournaments and despite the continued dominance of Brazilian athletes, athletes living in or originating from other countries regularly win. The explosion of submission grappling as a global sport means that divisions are deeper than ever. The 2011 Mundials had adult blue belt divisions of over 130 men. Just about anyone who pays the tournament registration fee can compete - and the tournaments get longer and denser as time goes on. A breaking point is starting to be reached in terms of the current big organizations' abilities to handle these numbers of competitors. People in the lower belt levels are regularly getting lost as brackets are reshuffled, the mats are run in a haphazard manner and even the black belts are starting to see strains in officiating and time spent waiting and waiting. Further compounding things is the arbitrary decisions of tournament organizers to award this prize or that victory for reasons not transparent to all. This happens often enough that the BJJ world regularly accuses the referees and organizers of having biases this way or that way and nearly everyone believes them. The obvious solution is to run qualifying tournaments - as the World Pro now does - but that takes a certain level of financial backing that is not yet available to the self-sustaining tournaments. The growing pains either have to be suffered through or a financial backer found. However, the way the World Pro does things with its globe-spanning Trials process combines the best of the freestyle wrestling and judo worlds. A limited amount of grapplers are able to win entrance into the April main tournament and more than one person per country can be entered, so the best of the best truly are able to compete. At the same time, the competition levels are so high that gaining entrance to the World Pro requires that one be training BJJ or other grappling arts as a full time job. Almost all of the competitors in this tournament are poised on a razor's edge between "Boom or Bust". The prize money helps, but only a few can win those medals and only a few will turn those medals and prizes into anything resembling a profitable career. The grappling magazines and sites across the internet were mostly following along thanks to a select few having the wherewithal or the event budgets to attend and the blessings that the organizers were smart enough to sell live streams online. It is still nigh upon impossible for sites to make much money off grappling news alone, so sponsorship remains the domain of clothing/gi companies and whatever other sponsors grapplers can pick up. As those who pay attention to MMA sponsorship can attest, this type of grab-bag sponsorship can work out for some and really trouble others. There really is a "rich get richer" effect, although there is considerably more altruism present in the jiu jitsu world than there is in MMA (probably a function of there being less money at stake). The pros and cons of both approaches are many, although the UAE does seem to be getting around the risk of a single backer by instituting BJJ in school physical education programs, importing skilled instructors and heavily incentivizing local grapplers to train very hard and win big tournaments. The Brazilians and the adopted Westerners or home-grown Westerners still win almost everything though. The head starts they have and the relative affluence of Western nations allow for people to train harder and specialize much more than in the nations where BJJ is still new or the people actually have to work for a living. Final Thoughts: This is one vision of the future. The IBJJF seems firmly determined to hold their course of not paying any prizes to winners and to ban certain techniques now and then. Other grappling competitions with different rules or similar rules now exist, but may never catch on to the degree that the IBJJF did or attract the backers like the ADCC or World Pro have done. Right now, a slow attritionist battle is being fought to determine which tournament model wins out and right now, the IBJJF is losing ground - as it rightly should. The gold standard for grappling tournaments remain the freestyle world championships and Olympic events. So long as the premier events of the Brazilian jiu jitsu competitive world cannot hold a candle to these tournaments, the sport will have no real shot at being an Olympic sport in its own right. Perhaps we will be treated to it as a demo sport when we watch the opening ceremonies of Rio 2016. As a reminder that these BJJ athletes are finally competing for more than pride and prestige, this publicized prize money table shows that Rodolfo Vieira had at least 38k going his way for the double gold medals and possibly more in future earnings will be added to his career. This is one positive about this event and hopefully, Rodolfo takes this boost and flies even higher into the jiu jitsu stratosphere.

Posted in: world, champion, tournament, kg, point

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Just two weeks after Mirko Filipovic battled Ray Sefo in a high profile kickboxing bout, the sport of kickboxing is at it again with another big event "United Glory" based out of Moscow, Russia which features two of the top kickboxers on the planet. The event will be available online with a live stream at GFL TV with a pricetag of $15. It begins this morning at 10 a.m. ET. Former UFC competitor and multiple time K-1 World Grand Prix winner Semmy Schilt returns to action for the first time in over a year. He'll be battling Brice Guidon, a training partner of Jerome Le Banner. Guidon is no worldbeater by any means but he should be a stiff enough test to see where Schilt stands after such a long layoff. Also fighting on the card will be top kickboxer Jerome Le Banner, one of K-1's legends who's been fighting professionally for 19 years now. He'll be battling a resurgent Errol Zimmerman, who's riding a seven fight win streak which includes 5 first round knockouts. The other key kickboxing bout will be a very interesting match between Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinalist Sergei Kharitonov, who holds just a 2-2 professional kickboxing record. His opponent, Mark Miller, was one of the great comeback stories of 2011, returning from open heart surgery to defeat Nikolaj Falin via knockout in the opening seconds. The rest of the card is smattered with a large contingent of smaller scale kickboxing bouts and even a trio of MMA matches which include former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez among others. We'll have the results of United Glory after the jump: Mixed Martial Arts fights 95 kg Ilir Latifi vs Vladimir Gerasimchik65 kg Cesario di Domenico vs Murad Machayev76 kg Anatoly Safranov vs Gasan UmalatovHW Ricco Rodriguez vs Ruslan Magomedov Kickboxing fights 73,9 kg Nieky Holzken vs David Kiria72,5 kg Maxim Vyrovski vs Dzhabar AskerovHW Jamal Ben Sadik vs Vitaly OparinHW Igor Jurkovic vs Zabit Samedov98 kg Ali Cenic vs Sergey MaslobojevHW Sergei Kharitonov vs Mark MillerHW Errol Zimmerman vs Jerome Le BannerHW Sem Schilt vs Brice Guidon

Posted in: fight, vs, kickboxing, kg, gfl tv

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Today’s announcement from It’s Showtime about K-1 contracting some of their top fighters confirms months upon months of rumors and discussion about what would happen with K-1. There has been a behind-the-scenes war of sorts between two factions; Golden Glory and It’s Showtime. Without a doubt both factions are where the power lies within the Kickboxing world right now, with top names working on both sides and there being some crossover when at all possible. A good example of crossover would be Robin van Roosmalen, the It’s Showtime Fast and Furious 70kg MAX 2011 Champion. In a world without K-1, the Fast and Furious tournament was without a shadow of the doubt the biggest tournament for 70kg fighters. Van Roosmalen worked his way through the most prestigious tournament possible while representing Golden Glory. On top of that, Errol Zimmerman and Gokhan Saki appeared on It’s Showtime’s latest card, with the rumor being that both men worked out their own deals in the fall to participate on the card. Both factions have the very best talent in the top weight divisions in the world, making cards featuring both fight camps imperative to see the best competition and best fights in the world. When talks surfaced of both sides looking to become closer to the troubled K-1 over the past six months or so, it was clear that whomever won the race to latch onto K-1 would leave the other one in a predicament. It turns out that Golden Glory lost their bid for K-1, but with the help of investor and partner Total Sports Asia, have been assembling three huge tournaments at Heavyweight, 85kg and 70kg, with a total of $1 million as a prize. Read More...

Posted in: world, showtime, tournament, kg, ’s showtime

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) might only come to town once a year or so, but fortunately for Asian mixed martial arts (MMA) fans big things are happening much closer to home. ONE FC has hit the ground running, booking shows in multiple cities across the continent and today it was announced that Tatsuya Kawajiri, widely regarded as the number two featherweight in the world, was the latest addition to the March 31st card at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The Crusher has an outstanding 30-7 record and has consistently faced the very best fighters in the featherweight division. The identity of his opponent has yet to be announced and there is widespread speculation that unbeaten Filipino Eric Kelly will get the call, although he is in the midst of a managerial dispute which might affect his availability. Two fights have been confirmed for ONE FC 'War of the Lions' with Kevin Belingon taking on Masakazu Imanari in the bantamweight division and lightweights Eduard Folayang and Ole Laursen facing off in a match which was originally scheduled for the main event of ONE FC 1. Both Imanari and Kawajiri have DREAM contracts but are beneficiaries of the 'ONE FC Network' which allows fighters to move freely between selected promotions. Belingon is the current URCC bantamweight belt holder and has beaten some decent opponents such as Justin Cruz, Nam Jin Jo and Richard Lasprilla but will have his work cut out if he wants to improve his perfect professional record to 10-0. Imanari is probably the foremost leg lock specialist in the entire MMA world and while not the most well rounded of fighters only needs the slightest of invitations to slap on a heel hook or knee bar. Belingon has strong Wushu based striking and wrestling skills but will need to showcase some outstanding submission defence if he is to overcome the much more experienced Japanese opponent. Folayang is the most famous mixed martial artist in the Philippines and is legendary for his ability to bounce back from adversity in order to win exciting fights. He defeated A Sol Kwon by decision at ONE FC 1 despite having his nose badly broken in the opening round and earlier this year improved his record to 11-1 after some brutal ground and pound left Brazilian Wadson Teixeira unconscious on the canvass Laursen recently suffered a setback when he was stopped by Felipe Enomoto in the second round of a highly entertaining contest, but having promised the fans this fight last September ONE FC decided to go ahead and stick it on the card for the second show. Evolve MMA is located in Singapore and has rapidly developed a reputation as being the most sophisticated training facility in Asia. As was the case with ONE FC 1, they are likely to have a large contingent of fighters on the March 31st card including BJJ world champion Zorobabel Moreira, who is one of the top lightweight prospects in the world, and another 155 lbs stand out, Hong Kong's Eddie Ng. Another Asian based fighter to be added to the card is BJJ black belt Ray Elbe who is the head of the MMA program at Tiger Muay Thai and an MMA veteran with a 23-11 record. He has only fought intermittently in recent years but is very well known in the region and acquired something of a bad boy reputation when he fought twice for Martial Combat in Singapore in 2010. ONE FC also announced that ESPN Star Sports would begin broadcasting shows as early as March. The two organizations signed a deal which guarantees ONE FC television coverage in 24 Asian countries for the next 10 years. At the opposite end of the mixed martial arts spectrum India's longest running MMA promotion, Full Contact Championship, put on their fifth card in Mumbai on Saturday night. Amongst the notable winners are Sagar Kadu, Sangram Bhakre, Rajinder Singh Meena and Sandeep Yadav who all improved their records to 3-0 and took a step closer to being ready for international competition. FCC 5 Fight Results BOUT 1: (60 kgs) Sagar Kadu vs Perumal Swamy. Winner Sagar Kadu via Submission. BOUT 2: (65kgs) Sangram Slammer Bhakre vs Mukesh Thakur. Winner, Slammer Bhakre via Arm Bar. BOUT 3: (69 kgs) Rajinder Knockout Meena vs Dinesh Shelar. Winner, Rajinder via Standing Guillotine. BOUT 4: (FEMALE BOUT 45kgs) Jeet Toshi vs Pooja Mehra. Winner, Jeet toshi via Unanimous decision. BOUT 5: (72 kgs) Sandeep Power Yadav vs Amjad Khan. Winner, Power Yadav via Knockout. BOUT 6: (75 kgs)Akshey vs Gaurav Pandey : Winner, Gaurav, via Unanimous Decision. BOUT 7: (85kgs) Nitin Gaikwad vs Raju Shirsagar. Winner, Nitin via TKO. BOUT 8: (85 kgs )Alfan Hashmi vs Shibashish Mad Dog Banerjee. Winner, Alfan via Submission. BOUT 9: (WILD CARD BOUT) 65kgs. Aditya Deshpande vs Vinayak More. Winner, Aditya Deshpande via TKO

Posted in: bout, vs, winner, kg, fc

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Although the big time promotions are absent this month, there's still a lot of great action going on around the world. There's a number of strong, quality events taking place that feature some great talent. 2012 is already turning out to be a great year in kickfighting, with or without K-1. With smaller shows showcasing great talent popping up often, we don't have to wait very long to catch some good fights. Click "Read More" to check out the upcoming action for this week. W5 Fighter - Moscow, Russia - February 24 W5 is kicking off 2012 with a new "W5 Fighter" series that will be holding four tournaments using the weight classes of 60kg, 65kg, 70kg and 75kg. With 16 fighters in each weight class, they're holding ten events this year. The first event is on Friday and has 12 fights including six tournament matches. The main event is a really good fight between Alexander Surzkho and Edgar Arutyunyan at 75kg. Russia and Ukraine are producing a lot of good fighters nowadays and Surzkho and Arutyunyan are some of the top fighters they have in that weight category. The fight has all the makings to be action packed. It'll be on Russian TV so videos will definitely get out. Full fight card. Read More...

Posted in: fight, fighter, event, kg, action

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Matt Hume steps in to separate Bob Sapp and Rolles Gracie at the One FC weigh in. Courtesy of www.mmaddict-indonesia.com Bob Sapp and Rolles Gracie almost came to blows at the ONE FC weigh-in last night. Referee Matt Hume had to step in to separate them and CEO / Owner Victor Cui was almost knocked to the ground in the ensuing melee. Sapp continued to eyeball Gracie throughout the photo shoot and weighted in at 145 kg, a little leaner than normal, for a fight he says he has been training hard for and is determined to win. All the other fighters made weight at the first attempt. The event is set to get underway at 7:30 pm local time with the undercard available free of charge and the main card costing just $10. Complete One FC weigh in results are as follows: Main Card: Lightweight (70.3 kgs)Felipe Enomoto vs Ole Laursen70.55 kg 70.8 kgFeatherweight (65.8 kg)Bae Young Kwon vs Honorio Banario66.1 kg 66.25 kgWelterweight (77.1 kg)Rodrigo Ribeiro vs Rustam Khabilov77.35 kg 77.55 kgBantamweight (61.2 kg)Soo Chul Kim vs Gustavo Falciroli61.3 kg 61.3 kgSuper Heavyweight (no limit)Rolles Gracie vs Bob Sapp111.1 kg 141.45 kgUnder Card:Featherweight (65.8 kg)Raymond Tiew vs Victorio Senduk65.75 kg 65.6 kgFlyweight ( 56.7 kg)Alex Silva vs Geje Eustaquio57.05 kg 56.95 kgBantamweight (61.2 kg)Irshaad Sayed vs Jessie Rafols61.3 kg 60.55 kgLightweight (70.3 kg)Peter Davis vs Ngabdi Mulyadi70.15 kg 69.9 kgWelterweight (77.1 kg)Zuli Silawanto vs Agus Nanang77.1 kg 76.45 ONE Fighting Championship, Asia’s largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event, is coming to Jakarta this Saturday night with a ten bout fight card featuring established international stars and some of the region’s best fighters.All of the fighters made weight at the first attempt and are ready to do battle at ONE Fighting Championship ‘Battle of Heroes’ which will be the biggest MMA event in the history of Indonesian MMA. Taking place at the BritAma Arena, proceedings are scheduled to commence at 7:30 pm local time, with all the fights available for live viewing on the internet.Headlining the event will be a lightweight contest between well rounded Japanese fighter Felipe Enomoto and Filipino kickboxing and Muay Thai specialist Ole Laursen, who is currently riding a five fight win streak.Laursen has faced outstanding strikers such as Buakaw Por Pramuk, Masato and Andy Souwer throughout his decorated K-1 career. He believes that despite being out of action for over a year, he still has what it takes to score a devastating knock out over his Japanese opponent.Enomoto has been the much busier fighter recently, and with strong boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills, he will be looking to exploit any ring rust his Filipino counterpart may have. Laursen wants to mark his comeback with a KO and believes his superior striking will make the difference in this fight.The main card also features a super heavyweight contest between 141kg K-1 veteran Bob "The Beast" Sapp and BJJ Champion Rolles Gracie. Although Gracie, from Brazil, is considerably smaller than the enormous American, he has earned a third degree BJJ black belt and will be looking for the sixth submission victory of his career.Sapp has fought in major Japanese promotions such as Pride and Dream, and along with his vast experience, possesses incredible power and strength. It is no surprise that few of his fights make it past the first round. Sapp aims to test Gracie’s chin early on and is promising fight fans a fast and dramatic knock-out finish.Unbeaten URCC Lightweight Champion Honorio Banario will be dropping down from lightweight to featherweight for the first time in his career to take on experienced Korean Bae Young Kwon. In another exciting bout, Cage Fighting Championship Bantamweight Champion Gustavo Falciroli is making his ONE FC debut against Korean prodigy Soo Chul Kim.In a truly international fight affair, two welterweights will collide when Russian Combat Sambo Champion Rustam Khabilov goes up against BJJ Champion Rodrigo Ribeiro.The undercard focuses exclusively on fighters originally from or currently based in Asia. Indonesia’s own hero Victorio "Indra" Senduk, a SEA Games Wushu Silver Medalist, will be taking on Malaysian Raymond Tiew in what promises to be an outstanding stand-up war between two of the region’s top strikers.Jessie Rafols has a reputation for being one of the most exciting and explosive fighters in the talent-rich Philippines, but he will be in for a tough test against South African Muay Thai World Champion and stand out striker Irshaad Sayed.Another world champion on the undercard is Copa do Mundo BJJ World Champion Alex Silva, originally from Brazil. Silva will undoubtedly be facing off against the toughest opponent of his career when he takes on Geje Eustaquio from the Philippines.Malaysian model and actor Peter Davis, believes his unconventional stand-up skills will earn him the knock out of the night honors but his opponent, Indonesian Wrestling Champion Ngabdi Mulyadi, will be looking to take the fight to the ground at the first available opportunity.The opening bout of the night is an all Indonesian affair between two local veterans; Zuli Silawanto and Agus Nanang. They each have over a decade of MMA experience and will be looking to put on an unforgettable display in front of their home fans.The under card is available for viewing free of charge. The main card is available on pay-per-view at just US$9.99. The first fight is scheduled to get underway at 7:30 PM Jakarta time (GMT + 7:00).MMA fans can catch the action online via live streaming on the following websites;http://www.ONEFC.com http://www.facebook.com/ONEFCMMA http://www.UStream.tv/onefc

Posted in: fight, vs, champion, kg, gracie

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Very rarely does it seem like within the span of a week we get major kickboxing news like this, but when it rains it pours and 2012 seems to be the year where Kickboxing has been given the money and investors it needs to grow and truly be the global force that it is. Earlier in the week, we made an announcement about the Glory World Series in March, an event which will host Semmy Schilt, Mark Miller, Errol Zimmerman, Jerome Le Banner, Robin van Roosmalen and more, and now we can announce that Glory is planning on running three huge tournaments this year. The tournaments will begin around May and will take place in three different weight classes; 70kg, 85kg and Heavyweight. The addition of 85kg is one to make a lot of fans happy, as K-1 has been known to ignore weight classes in between 70kg and Heavyweight, but there is a ton of talent worldwide between 70kg and 100kg that tend to go unrecognized due to the K-1 format. In 2012 we do not have to worry about this, as Glory will be running these three huge tournaments. On top of that, the prize money involved is $1 million USD all total, with the 70kg and 85kg tournaments receiving $300k each and Heavyweight for $400k. Read More...

Posted in: tournament, glory, class, kg, kickboxing news

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[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div] Welcome back to the LiverKick.com rankings. These rankings are an attempt to break down the top 10 fighters in three different weight classes - Heavyweight, for fighters above the 85kg limit, Middleweight, for fighters at the 70-72.5kg limit, and Light Heavyweight, for fighters at the 77-84kg limit. Our rankings are based on in-ring accomplishments and recent wins and loses. We hope they reflect where these fighters currently stand, although we recognize that all rankings are inherently subjective. Heavyweight actually saw a lot of movement this time around, which after a rather static year in 2011 was refreshing to see. While it does feel a bit odd to still include Semmy Schilt as #1 in the division due to A) not winning the 2010 World Grand Prix and B) he did not fight in 2011 at all, he is still the measuring stick for success within the division. It is safe to say that as long as Alistair Overeem, the 2010 World Grand Prix winner, is under a contract to the UFC, he will not be kickboxing anytime soon. Check out the Heavyweight Rankings...

Posted in: fighter, heavyweight, ranking, kg, limit

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With UFC 141 in the books be sure to stick with Bloody Elbow as we continue this epic MMA marathon for DREAM New Year! 2011 headlined by Fedor Emelianenko fighting Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii. Shinya Aoki will defend his lightweight title against Satoru Kitaoka and Hiroyuki Takaya defends his featherweight title against Lion Takeshi. Tonight's event is the brain child of Antonio Inoki, the Japanese professional wrestling legend. Airing immediately after UFC 141, join the Bloody Elbow night crew at 1:00 AM ET/11:00 PM PT. The fights will air live on HDNet. Bloody Elbow night crew assemble!!!SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011 DREAM Rules 17. HW: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii DREAM Lightweight Title Fight (5×5 mins) 16. Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka DREAM Featherweight Title Fight (5×5 mins) 15. Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Lion Takeshi IGF Rules 14. Kazushi Sakuraba/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinichi Suzukawa/Atsushi Sawada13. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts12. Jerome Le Banner vs. Tim Sylvia DREAM World Bantamweight Tournament Finals 11. Final: Imanari/Banuelos vs. Fernandes/Marques MIX Rules (1st K-1, 2nd DREAM, Automatic Draw) 10. Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno IGF Rules 9. Josh Barnett vs. Hideki Suzuki Kickboxing Rules 8. 64kg: Yuta Kubo vs. Nils Widlund7. 64kg: Masaaki Noiri vs. Kengo Sonoda DREAM Rules 6. FW: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata5. WW: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan4. Women's 52kg: Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez DREAM World Bantamweight Tournament Finals 3. Semifinal: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques Diniz2. Semifinal: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos1. Reserve: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev

Posted in: title, vs, dream, kg, rule

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There's a bunch of news coming out of the Asian region, so let's dive right in: Renato Sobral (36-10) has signed with ONE FC. The signing was first reported by Damon Martin, saying that the UFC Veteran and former Strikeforce Champ, will be competing on March in Singapore, an event that will be co-promoted by ONE FC and DREAM.BloodyElbow.com reached out and has confirmed the signing with ONE FC officials, stating that 'Babalu' has "global exclusivity" with the promotion. No opponent has been set as of this writing, but stay tuned as we keep you updated on the situation. As we wrote about last week, the popular Filipino, Eduard Folayang will be headlining URCC Cebu 7 on January 13. His opponent has already been confirmed and it will be against Wadson Teixeira, a Muay Thai champ and BJJ Brown belt, who trains with UFC stars Jose Aldo and Diego Nunes in the famed Nova Uniao gym.Teixeira will surely be providing a stiff test in a very interesting battle of styles when he faces off against decorated Wushu star and URCC champion in Folayang.Also, for those who speak Portuguese, here's a video Wadson talking about his URCC bout on the Brazilian News. In other news, Evolve MMA has significantly beefed up their training team. Known for housing several of the very best in the world at Muay Thai, BJJ, and Boxing, Evolve has always held a world champion standard for their coaches. Being in Asia, what has always been tough to come by was a top level wrestler that fit the mold for their champion standards. After a lengthy search, they have finally filled that gap by adding Heath Sims and Jake Butler.Sims is a US Greco-Roman Olympic wrestler who has won numerous titles in wrestling. He is more known in MMA circles for being the long time Team Quest owner, head coach, and training partner of Dan Henderson. While he will still be flying back and forth to coach Hendo on his fights, he will moving to Singapore full-time to head Evolve MMA's wrestling program starting February.Sims will be their new coach and he'll be helping Evolve Founder Chatri Sityodtong with their fight team. One of the new additions on that team is another high caliber wrestler in Jake Butler, who's an NCAA Division 1 wrestler from Princeton University. He will be starting his MMA career, and will be competing at ONE FC. Check out the DREAM NYE Weigh-In Results and bout order after the jump, and don't forget to follow me on twitter -- @antontabuena. Here are the DREAM NYE Weigh-In Results for the mammoth New Year's Eve card in Japan (via NOB): DREAM Rules17. Fedor Emelianenko (106kg) vs. Satoshi Ishii (97.4kg)DREAM Lightweight Championship16. Shinya Aoki (70kg) vs. Satoru Kitaoka (70kg)DREAM Featherweight Championship15. Hiroyuki Takaya (65kg) vs. Lion Takeshi (64.8kg)IGF Rules14. Kazushi Sakuraba / Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinichi Suzukawa / Atsushi Sawada13. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts12. Jerome Le Banner vs. Tim SylviaDREAM Bantamweight Tournament11. Final: Imanari/Banuelos vs. Fernandes/MarquesMixed Rules10. Yuichiro Nagashima (73.5kg) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (73.5kg)IGF Rules9. Josh Barnett vs. Hideki SuzukiDREAM Rules8. Megumi Fujii (52kg) vs. Karla Benitez (52kg)7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (65kg) vs. Kazuyuki Miyata (64.7kg)6. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai (75.8kg) vs. Ryo Chonan (75.5kg)Kickboxing Rules5. Yuta Kubo (63.8kg) vs. Nils Widlund (63.6kg)4. Masaaki Noiri (64kg) vs. Kengo Sonoda (63.5kg)DREAM Bantamweight Tournament3. Semifinal: Bibiano Fernandes (61kg) vs. Rodolfo Marques Diniz (62.2kg)2. Semifinal: Masakazu Imanari (60.8kg) vs. Antonio Banuelos (61kg)1. Reserve: Hideo Tokoro (61kg) vs. Yusup Saadulaev (61.6kg) Here's the HDNet promo for the event:

Posted in: mma, vs, kg, fc, rule

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Hello r/mma, as the title says, I'm pissed off. I was scheduled to fight in my first semi-pro mma fight this Saturday and on Wednesday night my coach calls me to inform me that the event has been cancelled. This is an even that was originally scheduled for the 15th of October but due to logistical reasons the date was changed to the 29th. This would have been my first fight at 65kg but I normally walk about at 75kg. I dropped 10kg for this fight and have been training hard since May and made a lot of sacrifices in order to make 65kg which I have done (twice) now for two different dates which have both been changed/cancelled. The reason this event was cancelled? well because 7 of the 16 fighters participating pulled out. I don't know all of their reasons for pulling out but it better be because of injury. One guy fighting, pulled out because he couldn't get the day off work when he has know or a while that he would be fighting said date. It's just really frustrating that I have put all this effort in to dropping down to 65kg only to find out that the event is not going forward 2 days before the weigh-ins! The one good thing thats come out of this is I now for the first time ever, I have visible abs! (i used to weigh 88kg 3 years ago). Has anyone else who competes in any sport been in this position before? How did you guys deal with it? Anyways, sorry about this but I just need to rant. submitted by makmachismo [link] [3 comments]

Posted in: fight, event, kg, guys deal, abs i

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The Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) tournament for 2011 is officially in the books for the weekend of Sept. 24-25 in Nottingham, England. Andre Galvao capped off an incredible run through the brackets to defeat Pablo Popovitch by toehold, becoming the  ADCC 2011 Absolute World Champion. Former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) contestant Vinny Magalhaes became the ADCC 2011 Heavyweight Champion (+99kg) in a dramatic back-and-forth battle against Fabricio Werdum. Kyra Gracie captured her third ADCC title by submitting Michele Nicolini and Marcelo Garcia defeated Kron Gracie, yet again, in match that was much more competitive than in recent years. Complete ADCC 2011 results from Sept. 25 in Nottingham, England, (via MMA Nation) after the jump. Men's ADCC Absolute Division Final:Andre Galvao def. Pablo Popovitch by toehold. Third place:Alexandre Ribeiro def. Murilo Santana on points, 2-0. Semifinals:Pablo Popovitch def. Alexandre Ribeiro by referee's decision.Andre Galvao def. Murilo Santana by Santana incurring negative points for pulling guard. Quarterfinals:Alexandre Ribeiro def. Gunnar Nelson on points.Murilo Santana def. Vinny Magalhaes by referee's decision.Andre Galvao def. Sergio Moraes on points.Pablo Popovitch def. Victor Estima on points. Round of 16:Andre Galvao def. Shinzo Ansai by technical submission (RNC until asleep) at 5:53.Sergio Moraes def. Antonio Neto by heelhook at 1:03.Murilo Santana def. Marko Helen by armlock at 12:59.Vinny Magalhaes def. Bruno Bastos on points.Alexandre Ribeiro def. Jeff Monson by disqualification.Gunnar Nelson def. Bruno Frazzato on points.Pablo Popovitch def. Janne-Pekka Pietilainen on points.Victor Estima def. Joao Assis on points. Men's 66 kg Division Final:Rafael Mendes def. Rubens Charles due to Charles incurring a negative point for pulling guard. Third place:Jeff Glover def. Robson Moura by guillotine at 8:40. Semifinals:Rafael Mendes def. Robson Moura on points.Rubens Charles def. Jeff Glover on points. Men's 77 kg Division Final:Marcelo Garcia def. Leo Vieira by triangle at 3:52. Third place:Kron Gracie def. Claudio Calasans by guillotine at 16:56. Semifinals:Marcelo Garcia def. Kron Gracie on points.Leo Vieira def. Claudio Calasans on points. Men's 88 kg Division Final:Andre Galvao def. Rousimar Palhares on points. Third place:Pablo Popovitch def. Rafael Lovato Jr. on points. Semifinals:Rousimar Palhares def. Rafael Lovato Jr. by heelhook at 6:12.Andre Galvao def. Pablo Popovitch on points. Men's 99 kg Division Final:Dean Lister def. Joao Assis by leglock at 15:38. Third place:Alexandre Ribeiro def. Antonio Peinado on points (Rodolfo Viera sustained an injury in Lister match and Peinado substituted). Semifinals:Dean Lister def. Rodolfo Viera by heelhook at 1:35.Joao Assis def. Alexandre Ribeiro on points. Men's +99 kg Division Final:Vinny Magalhaes def. Fabricio Werdum on points. Third place:Roberto de Abreau def. Gerardi Rinaldi by kneebar at 0:36. Semifinals:Fabricio Werdum def. Roberto de Abreau on points.Vinny Magalhaes def. Gerardi Rinaldi on points. Women's 60 kg Division Final:Kyra Gracie def. Michelle Nicolini by omoplata at 13:39. Third place:Luana Alzuguir def. Hashi Takayo by kneebar at 4:12. Semifinals:Michelle Nicolini def. Luana Alzuguir by referee's decision.Kyra Gracie def. Hashi Takayo by guillotine. Women's +60 kg Division Final:Gabrielle Garcia def. Hannette Staack on points. Third place:Ida Hanssen def. Penny Thomas by kneebar at 6:11. Semifinals:Gabrielle Garcia def. Penny Thomas by choke at 6:01.Hannette Staack def. Ida Hanssen by heelhook at 9:20. Superfight:Mario Sperry def. Renzo Gracie on points.Braulio Estima def. Jacare de Souza on points.

Posted in: division, place, kg, point, semifinals

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Join me today at 12 p.m. GT / 7 a.m. ET / 4 a.m. PT for the final day of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Grappling Championships. Broadcasting live from the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England, the event can be watched on Pay Per View at Budovideos.com for $29.95 with commentary from 2x Pan Ams Bronze Medalist and ADCC Trials Bronze Medalist Shawn Williams along with Caleb and 'Budo' Jake of Budo Videos. Today we see the semin-finals and finals of the mens and womens tournament categories with a superfight between Mario Sperry and Renzo Gracie to cap the day off. Superfight Mario Sperry vs Renzo Gracie Mens Semi Finals -66kg Rafael Mendes vs Robson MouraRubens 'Cobrinha' Charles vs Jeff Glover -77kg Marcelo Garcia vs Kron GracieClaudio Calasans vs Leo Viera -88kg Rousimar Palhares vs Rafael Lovato JrPablo Popovitch vs Andre Galvao -99kg Xande Ribeiro vs Joao AssisRodolfo Viera vs Dean Lister 99kg+ Fabricio Werdum vs Roberto 'Cyborg' de AbreuVinny Magalhaes vs Janne-Pekka Pietilainen Womens Semi Finals Womens -60kg Luanna Alzuguir vs Michelle NicolinniHashi Takayo vs Kyra Gracie Womens 60kg+ Gabrielle Garcia vs Penny ThomasIda Hansson vs Hannette Staack

Posted in: vs, women, kg, final, budo videos

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Want to watch the 2011 ADCC World Submisison Fighting Championship? The two day event this weekend is taking place at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England and is available exclusively on Pay Per View at Budovideos.com with commentary by 2x IBJJF Pan Ams Bronze Medalist and ADCC Trials Bronze Medalist Shawn Williams along with Caleb and Budo Jake from BudoVideos. The two day event featuring hours of coverage and over a hundred matches costs $30 but order before tomorrow and you can watch at the discounted price of $24.95. Those who order the Pay Per View will be able to watch in High Definition, as well as be able to rewatch the ADCC on demand from Budo Videos when the two day event is over. Just head on over to Budovideos.com to order now. Find out who is competing, and who missed weight and are out of the tournament after the jump. SBNation Coverage of ADCC 2011 Ranyi Yahya missed weight by 9lbs and is out of the competition. He has been replaced by Rafael Dos Santos in the -65.9kg category. Earlier today and according to Braulio Estima's Twitter, UFC veteran Rousimar Palhares had missed weight but has another chance to weigh in to compete in the -87.9kg category. I asked ADCC within the last hour since this post published about Palhares and they have said he is not out. ADCC for the first time has had weigh ins the day before competition, and the day of each competition round (Saturday and Sunday). A schedule for the competition times has yet to be announced. The countdown for Budo Videos coverage suggests a start of 12 p.m. GT / 7 a.m. ET / 4 a.m. PT Superfights: Mario Sperry vs Renzo Gracie Jacare Ronaldo Souza vs Braulio Estima   Tournament competitors: -65.9kg Rafael Mendes Greger Forsel Marko Ramos David Marinakis Tetsu Hadairo Jeff Glover Bruno Frazzato Timo-juhani Hirvikangas Ryan Hall Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles Rani Yahya Baret Yoshida Robson Moura Tom Barlow Justin Rader Jeremy Umphries -76.9kg Jorge Britto Vagner Rocha Davis Hart Sanshiro Nakakura Enricco Coco Murilo Santana Daniel Strauss Marcelo Garcia Leo Vieira JT Torres Kron Gracie Augusto Mendes "Tanquinho" Claudio Calasans Jason Manly Kyle Griffon Vitor Estima Clark Gracie   -87.9kg André Galvão Marko Helen Cameron Rowe Jeon Doo Kwang JJ Holmes Zbigniew Tyszka Pablo Popovitch Rafael Lovato jr Romulo barral Rousimar Palhares Sergio Moraes Paulo Filho Dan Schon David Avellon Gunnar Nelson -98.9kg Xande Ribeiro Kari Peltola Joseph Lee Baize Igor Praporshchikov Animal Anzai James Poupolo Augusto Ferrari Kamil Uminski Rodolfo Viera Joao Assis Dean Lister Radek Turek Antonio Peinado +99kg Fabricio Werdum Janne-Pekka Pietiläinen Mario Rinaldi Mick Wilson Sekine Hideki Gabriel Vella Mateusz Juskowiak Jeff Monson Bruno Bastos Roberto "cyborg" abreu Vinny Magalhaes Geraldi Rinaldi Fereira Jose Junior Alexander Trans Lucio "Lagarto" Rodrigues James Brasco Rodrigo Artilheiro Jarrod Bunch Rodrigo Artilheiro   -60kg Women Luanna Alzuguir Lara Jayne Ng Hashi Takayo Cathilee Albert Michelle Nicolini Sara Svensson Krya Gracie Rosi Sexton +60kg Women Hannette Staack Fiona Muxlow Penny Thomas Talita Nogueira Devi Ahuja Gabi Garcia Cris Cyborg

Posted in: day, adcc, kg, competition, day event

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The DREAM.17 weigh-ins took place earlier this morning in Saitama, Japan. All fighters made weight, however it took Abel Cullum four extra hours to hit his mark after Typhoon Roke delayed his arrival. The weigh-in results: Shinya Aoki (69.8 kg/153.9 lbs) vs. Rob McCullough (69.8 kg/153.9 lbs) Tatsuya Kawajiri (64.9 kg/143.1 lbs) vs. Joachim Hansen (65 kg/143.3 lbs) Caol Uno (64.9 kg/143.1 lbs) vs. Takeshi Inoue (65 kg/143.3 lbs) Kazushi Sakuraba (75.8 kg/167.1 lbs) vs. Yan Cabral (76 kg/167.6 lbs) Satoru Kitaoka (70 kg/154.3 lbs) vs. Willamy Freire (69.4 kg/153 lbs) Kazuhiro Nakamura (83.8 kg/184.7 lbs) vs. Gerald Harris (84 kg/185.2 lbs) Ikuhisa Minowa (87 kg/191.8 lbs) vs. Baru Harn (115 kg/253.5 lbs) Hideo Tokoro (61 kg/134.5 lbs) vs. Antonio Banuelos (61 kg/134.5 lbs) Bibiano Fernandes (60.8 kg/134 lbs) vs. Takafumi Otsuka (60.8 kg/134 lbs) Masakazu Imanari (60.8 kg/134 lbs) vs. Abel Cullum (62.8 kg/138.4 lbs) Yusup Saadulaev (60.8 kg/134 lbs) vs. Rodolfo Marques (61 kg/134.5 lbs) DREAM.17 takes place later tonight at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan and will air live on HDNet at 3am ET. Image via DREAM

Posted in: vs, dream, lb, kg, saitama

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With one exception, all fighters were on weight for DREAM's first event full-scale event of 2011, including DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki and former WEC ace Rob McCullough, who square off in the main event and Tatsuya Kawajiri, who is set to make his featherweight debut. Former King of the Cage champion Abel Cullum, who arrived in Tokyo only last night due to Typhoon Roke, was the sole fighter to miss weight, coming in 4 lbs heavy for his anticipated Bantamweight World GP match up with two-time Deep champion Masakazu Imanari. Although Cullum will have a chance to make the 61 kg/ 134.5 lbs limit, he already appeared badly drawn out at the weigh-ins and was shaking uncontrollably on the scales. Given his condition it seems unlikely that he will be able to make the cut and the bout will likely be changed to a catchweight. The full weigh-in results ahead of DREAM.17, which takes place on Sept. 24 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, are after the break. DREAM.17 Weigh-in Results - Sept. 24 at the Saiatama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Shinya Aoki 69.8 kg/153.9 lbs vs. Rob McCullough 69.8 kg/153.9 lbs Tatsuya Kawajiri 64.9 kg/143.1 lbs vs. Joachim Hansen 65 kg/143.3 lbs Caol Uno 64.9 kg/143.1 lbs vs. Takeshi Inoue 65 kg/143.3 lbs Kazushi Sakuraba 75.8 kg/167.1 lbs vs. Yan Cabral 76 kg/167.6 lbs Satoru Kitaoka 70 kg/154.3 lbs vs. Willamy Freire 69.4 kg/153 lbs Kazuhiro Nakamura 83.8 kg/184.7 lbs vs. Gerald Harris 84 kg/185.2 lbs Ikuhisa Minowa 87 kg/191.8 lbs vs. Baru Harn 115 kg/253.5 lbs Dream Bantamweight World Grand Prix Quarterfinals Hideo Tokoro 61 kg/134.5 lbsvs. Antonio Banuelos 61 kg/134.5 lbs Bibiano Fernandes 60.8 kg/134 lbs vs. Takafumi Otsuka 60.8 kg/134 lbs Masakazu Imanari 60.8 kg/134 lbs vs. Abel Cullum 62.8 kg/138.4 lbs (Over) Yusup Saadulaev 60.8 kg/134 lbs vs. Rodolfo Marques 61 kg/134.5 lbs Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Posted in: vs, dream, lb, cullum, kg

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This weekend (Sept. 24-25, 2011) will be the biennial competition of elite and world class Jiu-Jitsu practitioners hosted by the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC). This year's event will be located in Nottingham, England. For those unfamiliar with the event, ADCC is a no-gi grappling tournament that is usually recognized as the most prestigious of all no-gi tournaments. This is mostly due to the fact that the competitors are always world class (by invite only) grapplers or participants that worked their way through trials after trials to earn their spot.   The purses for this event reward first place competitors $10,000 with second place receiving $5,000 and third place $3,000. Fourth place also receives $1,000. The first place winner of the absolute division receives $40,000, second place $10,000, third place $5,000 and fourth place $1,000. Awards for the tournaments Best Technician, Best Takedown, Fastest Submission and Best Match are worth $1,400 each. Grappling legends have seen their careers birthed here, a "who's who" of the Gracie family have often competed here as well as mixed martial arts notables like Diego Sanchez, Jeff Monson, Fabricio Werdum and Tito Ortiz, just to name a few. Phenoms of the grappling world are also consistently present with the tournament boasting such names as Marcelo Garcia, Braulio Estima, Roger Gracie and the Ribiero brothers. 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu was also born here when Eddie Bravo defeated the legendary Royler Gracie. In this post, I will share with you the competitors of the under 87.9kg and under 99kg weight classes. Their respective weights in pounds are 193 and 218. There are some very high profile names in these weight classes. For more, follow me after the jump.   Under 87.9KG division: Andre Galvao – Brazil Rousimar Palhares – Brazil Sergio Morales – Brazil Romulo Barral – Brazil Paulo Filho – Brazil Kyle Griffin – USA David Avellan – USA Rafael Lovato – USA Pablo Popovitch – USA Marko Helen – Finland Cameron Rowe- Australia Jeon Doo Kwang – Korea Zbigniew Tyszka – Poland Dan Schon – Mexico Gunnar Nelson – Iceland Well maybe we should take a second to absorb the depth of this division. We have a UFC fighter in Palhares, a WEC champ and MMA fighter Paulo Filho, Jiu Jitsu World Champion and MMA fighter Andre Galvao and the newest addition to this weight class former under 76kg champion Popovitch. Not to mention this is the stomping grounds of Braulio Estima. Estima, 2009 ADCC champion will be in a super fight for this tournament paving way for a new champion. The front runner will be Galvao but not by much as this division is ridiculously stacked. Galvao will be a favorite and a must see grappler as he uses physical dexterity and insane strengthtowards victory. His match in 2009 with Chris Weidman was a showcase of how powerful he was being able to out grapple and defeat the powerful wrestler. This year however will boast some very big names. Palhares and Filho will make the jump from MMA to Jiu Jitsu in hopes of finding success in the grappling world. While Palhares is known for his jaw dropping and limb crushing leg locks he is also a very powerful and balanced top grappler. He will look to out muscle opponents the same way Filho will. Filho, while he has shown the glimpse of incredible in MMA, really had his roots started here in Jiu Jitsu. Both of these grapplers may surprise some of the field. The American Popovitch will move up in weight after winning 2009’s under 76kg division. He wont enjoy the same size advantage as he would there but as one of the most accomplished grapplers in the wrestling department he may be able to throw, trip and takedown the competition. I am going with a slight upset in this bracket as I will pick Popovitch to become a two-division champion at ADCC. I believe he will be followed by Galvao and the other top named American Rafael Lovato who has shown brilliance in his grappling career. I think of the two MMA fighters Palhares and Filho, that Palhares will make the best splash possibly even placing third or fourth. His size and power will be disruptive. Under 99kg division: Xande Ribiero – Brazil Augusto Ferrari – Brazil Rodolfo Viera – Brazil Joao Assis – Brazil Antonio Peinado – Brazil Lagarto Rodrigues – Brazil Joseph Lee Baize – USA James Poupolo – USA Dean Lister – USA James Brasco – USA Kari Peltola – Finland Igor Praporshchikov – Australia Kamil Uminski – Poland Anaimal Anzai – Japan This group is probably the least glamorous of the bunch if we are talking about name recognition for fans outside the die hard demographic. But don’t be fooled, there are very dangerous grapplers in the pack. Xande Ribiero returns as the former champion but other then Dean Lister this division has had a complete make over since ADCC’s last outing. Roger Gracie, Vinny Malgahaes and Robert Drysdale have left this division without a clear notable name to cheer for which means anyone watching will have to pick out a new favorite. Mine is Joao Assis, a Brazilian wrecking machine in Jiu Jitsu. He was the first person in over ten years to submit Jeff Monson and he also beat World Champion Alexandre Ribiero. He is slick with sweeps from half guard and is not afraid to roll into leg locks. Rodolfo Viera is another guy to watch out for, he is more of a primarily Gi-practitioner but he will be very well versed heading in as one of more technical guys in this weight class. Antonio Peinado is another strong grappler as well coming from the very strong Alliance camp. Many may recognize Dean Lister in the fray of newcomers, one of the more veteran grapplers in all of ADCC, Lister will have his hands full with a handful of young, up and coming lions. My pick here is Assis, a guy who will win a lesser watched division due to the lack of name recognition. Peinado should also be up there in the finals, tailed by Ribiero who has just as good of chance as any of them to win it all.   With that being said Maniacs, having any underdog picks or favorites to talk about? Tune in for the third installment tomorrow focusing on the over 99kg division as well as the Superfight portion of the tournament. To preview the ADCC 2011 brackets for under 65kg and 76kg click here.

Posted in: division, ndash, brazil, kg, grappler

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This is a guest post by Ben Thapa, part of the Bloody Elbow Grappling Coverage Team As part of the Bloody Elbow and MMA Nation grappling coverage, we bring you this preview of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling Championships (ADCCs). This elite, invitation-only tournament will be held in Nottingham, England on September 24th and 25th, 2011 and can be streamed live from BudoVideos.com. With a hundred or so grapplers competing, the live coverage of the stream will be somewhat fractured and the commentators may assume that viewers tuning in are already familiar with the storylines, favorites and the up-and-coming grapplers looking to make their name. We are here to help those new to the sport of submission grappling to get up to full speed and to provide some talking points for those who already know this stuff. The ADCCs are broken down into weight divisions and an open weight competition (called the Absolute) is held after the divisional champions are decided. The open weight competition is usually a sight to behold as there are many dream match-ups that can and do occur. As part of the ADCCs, a Superfight is generally held between two of the most esteemed grapplers on Earth. This year, there are two Superfights, with Braulio Estima grappling against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Ze Mario Sperry taking on Renzo Gracie in a "Legends" bout of sorts. Both matches are relatively even and are highly anticipated.Below the jump is a breakdown of each division. Feel free to argue or agree with them in the comments. Men's 66 kg / 145 lbs and below. 2009 Champion: Rafael Mendes. Summary: All of the sixteen competitors in the 66 kg/145 lb division are strong, fierce, seasoned competitors with multiple titles, cool video highlights and razor sharp skills. However, it is likely that only a handful will seriously contend for the title. Can anyone beat Rafael Mendes? The Favorites: In the past two years, Rafael Mendes won the European open twice, the 2011 Pan Am championship, a no-gi World Pro championship and the last two Mundials titles in this division. In winning that boatload of titles, Mendes has mostly moved past his stalling reputation and displayed stunning skill in dispatching his divisional competitors. He also performed exceedingly well against much larger grapplers in reaching the finals of the absolute of the no-gi World Pros in Abu Dhabi. To put it lightly, he's on fire and the most likely threat to prevent him from repeating as ADCC champion is Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles - the other half of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's Federer/Nadal-like rivalry. Cobrinha is a legendary competitor in his own right and his flashy open guard and back-taking game has legions of fans worldwide. Cobrinha lost to Rafael in the finals of ADCC 2009 in a thrilling overtime match and has regularly been a semi-finalist or finalist with many tightly disputed matches against Rafael that did not go his way. He has been looking to avenge that string of defeats for a while now. Rani Yahya may be best known from his MMA fights in the WEC and UFC, where he has fought and lost to the top-flight fighters at 145, but be warned that Yahya is the ADCC 2007 champion and was the runner-up to Leo Vieira in 2005. He has serious game and lost to Cobrinha in the semi-finals of the 2009 competition. Yahya will be in the medals picture for sure and may dispatch a fan favorite or two on the way there. The Possibles: Speaking of those beloved by the crowds, Ryan Hall has an enormous fan base and has been steadily improving for some time now. He competed for and won the bronze in ADCC 2009 (due to injuries to Leo Vieira and Rani Yahya). A recent training switch-up brought him in closer contact with Marcelo Garcia and Hall may be ready to push himself firmly into the medals conversation this year. Bruno Frazzato is one of the other Atos kings and may be at a slight size disadvantage in comparison to the others. He will attempt to show that exceedingly sharp skills and excellent scrambling abilities can tip the balance back in his favor. Robson Moura is perhaps the most decorated bantamweight fighter the sport has yet seen and has already had a legendary career at age 33. He too is smaller than the favorites and perhaps more comfortable in a gi; however, it may be possible for him to work some magic on the mats. Seasoned competitors like Jeff Glover and Barret Yoshida may be undersized tough outs as well. Men's 77 kg / 170 lbs and below. 2009 Champion: Pablo Popovitch. Summary: Pablo Popovitch, the ADCC 2009 divisional champion, is moving up to 88 kg. His absence will be noted, but since the 77 kg division is absolutely stacked with elite competitors, thrilling fights are certain to result. Can Marcelo Garcia win it again? The Favorites: Marcelo Garcia won the Mundials championship without a point being scored on him and won the 2007, 2005 and 2003 ADCC championships. He also placed second in a controversial decision to Popovitch in ADCC 2009. If the quietly dominant Garcia lost before the finals, it'd be an upset of truly shocking magnitude - at least according to conventional thinking. Kron Gracie is the son of perhaps the finest grappler to walk the Earth and a fierce, fierce competitor in his own right. The 2009 match-up between Kron and Marcelo was eagerly anticipated and Marcelo finished it with a lightning-quick guillotine. Kron has had a good year, most notably splitting a pair of high-profile matches with Gilbert Burns (the Mundials champion who is now focusing on MMA), and with Rickson Gracie in his corner, he'll be well prepared. Claudio Calasans is an Atos teammate of Rafael Mendes and has fought Marcelo numerous times before, as well as being the winner of World Pro and European titles. Calasans has a strong background in judo and plays a very heavy, pressing game. The Possibles: Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes is a brilliantly skilled fresh face on the competition circuit and has beaten many of the Atos army this year. However, his unusual strength and base at featherweight may be slightly less spectacular in the heavier division of 77 kg. Tanquinho still shuts down the 50/50 guard better than anyone at the lighter weights and could show that his youth and smaller size is little issue at all. Murilo Santana is the ADCC South American Trials winner and had to take out a slew of hungry Brazilians to reach the top of that pedestal. He will present a strong challenge  to the others. Leo Vieira, the 66 kg ADCC 2005 and 2003 champion, is also competing in this division. His super-exciting passing game is certain to be a fixture in the later rounds of this division, although  like Tanquinho, he may be slightly undersized in comparison to larger competitors like Calasans and Victor Estima, Braulio's brother. SBNation ADCC 2011 Coverage Men's 88 kg / 194 lbs and below. 2009 Champion: Braulio Estima. Summary: With Braulio Estima, the 2009 88 kg/194 lb divisional champion, facing Jacare Souza in the Superfight on the last day, this divisional title is also up for grabs. Popovitch and Galvao in the finals? The Favorites: Andre Galvao came in second to Braulio in 2009, third in 2007 and third in the Absolute of that same year. Galvao's astounding athleticism and ability to crack open the guard has allowed him to amass heaps and heaps of titles for years now. I can see Andre spending much time riding turtled-up opponents en route to the finals. Pablo Popovitch is the reigning 77 kg champion and his nearly superhuman strength and crushing top game will likely see him make a deep run in this heavier division as well. It takes a certain kind of magic to beat Pablo and although there are a few who can display it, it'll be tough. It may be iffy for me to put Romulo Barral here as a favorite, but with his long, lanky frame and dynamic guard game, Romulo is usually in the title hunt of every competition he enters. The Possibles: Rafael Lovato Jr. is a world champion and actually beat Rodolfo Vieira, 2011's best grappler, earlier this year. The big Oklahoman is going to have to make zero mistakes and utilize his size to smash opponents into defeat. Sergio Moraes, an Alliance teammate of Marcelo Garcia, is perhaps the most subtle dark horse to win a medal here. He plays within the rules perfectly and manages to escape almost every fight with a victory on points - when he's not finishing in dramatic fashion. Moraes is usually known for winning in gi divisions, but if he can replicate that success in no-gi, he'll be tough to beat. If Rousimar Palhares, the Brazilian tree stump from the UFC, competes, every single competitor in this division will be drilling leglock defenses with particular care. However, I do not rate his ability to get a points victory highly and with the ADCCs being full of truly elite grapplers, he will likely not get a submission every time out. Jimmy Harbison is a recent and dynamic wrestling-based product of the Lloyd Irvin academies and has been a buzzsaw in the World Pro and in the Mundials. He is even better out of the gi and could be another young warrior ready to make his name stand out amongst the talented crowd here. Men's 99 kg / 218 lbs and below. 2009 Champion: Alexandre Ribeiro. Summary: The 99 kg division is probably going to come down to whether the reigning champion Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro can defeat Rodolfo Vieira, the most dominant force in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu over the last year. The Favorites: Xande is known for being somewhat fragile, but but he remains one of the few genuine threats to beat anybody in the world at any time. Xande is one of the few people to beat Roger Gracie in the last few years and was an Absolute runner-up in 2009. Rodolfo Vieira is unstoppable at this point, with numerous titles to his credit. Many fans and commentators were speculating as to how a match between Rodolfo and Roger Gracie would turn out. Unfortunately, that won't happen on this platform this year, but we can hope for the future and see how Xande and Rodolfo fare this year. The Possibles: This in no way denigrates the other competitors, but with Roger Gracie and Robert Drysdale not competing this year, the division isn't as crowded as it could be. It is possible Dean Lister, a former ADCC Absolute champion, or Joao Assis, the 2011 Mundials bronze medalist, could upset either Xande or Rodolfo. Antonio "Batista" Peinado won a bronze in the Super Heavyweight division at the 2011 Mundials and could beat one of the older, more established competitors. Men's +99 kg / 218 lb and above. 2009 Champion: Fabricio Werdum. Summary: The ultra-heavyweight division could be wide open for someone to make a statement. Fabricio Werdum, of Strikeforce notoriety, is the 2009 champion, but I count at least four credible threats to a repeat performance. The Favorites: Werdum is perhaps the best heavyweight grappler in MMA and has always been a strong competitor in the submission grappling world as well. If he competes, he could repeat his 2009 performance very readily. Joao Assis won bronze at the 2011 Mundials this year and has usually been a bit better outside of the gi. Vinicus "Vinny" Magalhaes blew the minds of MMA fans everywhere with his mount/off-set gogoplata in his M-1 fight back in April. Back in 2009, he won two bronzes in the Absolute and the 99 kg division in spectacular fashion. Vinny cannot be counted out in any competition he enters. Lucio "Lagarto" Rodrigues is back in full from his battle with Hodgkin's and given his recent training with Braulio and other BJJ greats, I'm fairly sure he'll be in the medal picture. Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu is perhaps more famous now for his Tornado Guard seminars and DVDs, yet his competition success is absolutely nothing to sneeze at. He too scored a bronze medal in the Mundials this year and could make a run to the top with ease. Bruno Bastos has been around for years and is a tough competitor to beat. He generally plays a slower game than the others and likes to win without taking too many risks. The Possibles: Jeff Monson is another familiar face, but I believe his time as a truly elite competitor may be past him. I may be stretching in my next pick, but I truly believe Alexander Trans (winner of every major title at brown belt for the last year and training at Alliance headquarters) has a shot to make a big statement in his first tournament at this elite level. Speculation on Men's Absolute Nobody ever counts Marcelo Garcia out in any competition, but it is getting harder and harder for the smaller guys to win medals in the absolute. On the flip side, Rafael Mendes made it to the finals of the no-gi World Pro. If he enters, Rafa is probably going to be a nightmare for whoever matches up with him, due to his movement and impeccable timing. However, I predict that size will win the day with Rodolfo matching up against Xande or Vinny Magalhaes. Andre Galvao could enter and surprise some people again - like he did in 2007. Werdum and Lister are previous Absolute medalists. The picture is somewhat fuzzy, since nobody knows exactly who will enter, but Rodolfo is probably an odds-on favorite to win it all right now. Speculation on Superfights Everybody with a brain knew that Royler would probably stomp Eddie Bravo in the re-match that fell through. However, we are still getting a battle of legends in the match between Ze Mario Sperry and Renzo Gracie. Ze Mario will probably enjoy a slight size advantage, but the two are closely matched in their accomplishments, age and reputation. I have a feeling Renzo will take this, as he remains super-active in coaching and grappling with today's MMA and grappling superstars. We can all expect excellent and fluid submission grappling from both legends. In Ronaldo 'Jacare' de Souza vs. Braulio Estima, we are seeing perhaps the single best athlete in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu go up against the reigning two time ADCC champion. Jacare recently suffered a setback in losing his Strikeforce title to Luke Rockhold by a close decision and Braulio missed the Mundials due to an injury. I have a feeling Braulio's brilliant guard game can and will surprise Jacare, but I have knowledgeable friends who are willing to bet on Jacare winning. The match-up is truly worthy of the Superfight title and it could be over in a second with both guys enjoying considerable submission acumen. Women's 60 kg / 132 lbs and below. 2009 Champion: Luana Alzuguir. Summary: With several of the Mundials medalists competing, will Luana Alzuguir win again? The Favorites: Luana Alzuguir is tearing things up in the lightweight divisions of the sport. She won the Mundials title and looks poised to come back from the cracked rib that forced her to sit out the Absolute in that tournament. Michelle Nicolini won gold in the Mundials featherweight division and could give Luana a tough match. The Possibles: Kyra Gracie is perhaps the most recognizable name in women's grappling. Her family name may have something to do with that fame, but she does have considerable skill to back it up. She lost to Nicolini in the finals of the featherweight division and could avenge that defeat. Rosi Sexton is a newly minted brown belt who could make some noise for the British scene. Women's +60 kg / 133 lbs and above. 2009 Champion: Hannette Staack. Summary: Gabrielle Garcia is the most dominant woman grappler on the planet. Conventional wisdom debates who will face her in the finals. The Favorites: Like Alexander Karelin in Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling, Gabi Garcia looms over the field. Although anything can and does happen in sport, if Gabi loses, it would be the upset of the tournament and perhaps of the year. Hannette Staack is a three time ADCC champion and is usually very entertaining to watch. Penny Thomas has been a perennial medal threat in every tournament she enters and came up with a silver and a bronze at Mundials this year. The Possibles: Talita Nogueira upset Penny at Mundials in the divisional finals this year and could repeat that stellar performance. Ida Hansson lost by spectacular flying armbar to Hannette and may have shored up her game and confidence. Speculation on Women's Absolute It depends on who enters, but Gabi Garcia will probably win another gold to add to her collection. Her size is a massive advantage, but her technique is now catching up to the point where she genuinely is becoming a Karelin-like figure.

Posted in: champion, division, year, adcc, kg

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