The 2012 No Gi Worlds continue this Sunday. The purple, brown and black belts are scheduled all day today and it is going to be another marathon of excellent submission grappling today. BudoVideos has the live stream at their website (online.budovideos.com) and the one day pass is $10.95. The stream is excellent, I am fed and we are going live.
To make things easier upon the live bloggers, the brackets for the men's black belt divisions are done below. Multiple matches are going on at once, so updates may be scattered, but they will come along eventually. In between, matches of note will be written upon and general trends discussed.
Matt Lindland's match against his GF Team opponent:
They circle around standing. Matt comes in for a clinch, but gets fended off. His opponent is circling around. Lindland flat out uppercuts his opponent with a push to the head and it drops him to the mats, but Lindland steps out of the guard and they return to the feet. Lindland tosses his opponent to the ground, but doesn't follow up, so it goes back to the feet. Lindland gets an advantage. Another uppercut blow to the mouth from Lindland and his opponent is getting medical attention for blood.
They resume and Lindland gets DQ'd for that. So Lindland is one and done - just like his NCAA career.
For the brown belts in general, I'm seeing a ton of really well executed technique in the beginning rounds with many competitors actually battling for takedowns, rather than going straight to the guard pull.
Keenan swiftly takes the back and locks in a triangle on his first opponent. He locks up a brabo on his next opponent really quickly, but loses it. Scrambles out of the half guard and in the scramble, latches onto a kimura. This kid causes chaos specifically to get his preferred kimura, brabo or back take and choke.
Black belts:
Roosterweight
Semifinals:
Caio Terra vs Levy Silva
Coverage starts in with Ciao and Silva in 50/50 guard. Levy tries for a toe hold, but Ciao looks completely calm, not even trying to defend it. Levy gives up on toe hold and starts working on straight ankle lock. Ciao starts working for a calf slicer and now it is Levy who looks calm and unaffected. Levy again rolls for a toe hold and again Ciao uses the rubber foot defense. Caio drops for straight ankle lock, lets go and scrambles to top position. They restart at center mat in half guard, Caio trying to work his knee out by standing ande knee sliding. Levy again going for a footlock and there is no effect. Caio gets his knee to the ground and threatens mount, Levy tries to get back to half guard and Caio takes the back and is working on a choke. Caio still only has one hook in and Levy trying to slip away, Caio locks in RNC and gets the W. Caio Terra advances.
Raul Gomes Marcello vs Fabio Passos de Alencar
Fabio Passos wins on points. Terra/Passos is the finals.
Light-Feather:
Opening Round:
Laercio Feranandes vs Mark Ramos
Tentative stand-up circling from both for a while. Laercio comes in for a takedown and gets it, but because the referee got lazy, he allows the ref from the other match to be hit from behind by the grapplers, so no points, no advantages. Reset in the middle. More tentative circling. Ramos getting more aggressive, but it's still a very boring pace and match. Fernandes gets on top in the half guard off a scramble. Reset in the middle. Fernandes trying to blast through the guard, but Ramos is defending well. They rest for a moment and grip fight. Back to to the sporadic bursts of guard passing attempts from Laercio and defense from Ramos. This is stupid slow. Still slow and it's mostly Ramos's fault. Fernandes finally stands and breaks free of the 50/50, but he gets sucked back in and goes for a toehold. Ramos goes for a toehold of his own. Time runs out. Ramos wins on points.
Second Round:
Opening Round Winner vs Rafael Freitas
Ramos vs. Freitas
Ramos has quarter guard on top of Freitas and is working some severe shoulder pressure. Arm triangle now and Freitas bucks free and they get back to the feet. After a while, Ramos is on top in the half guard. Not sure how they got there. Flipped elsewhere for matches and after coming back, Ramos is in the driver's seat firmly.
Henrique Rezende Costa vs Gabriel Afonso dos Santos
Some scrambling around sees Gabriel sweep Rezende and the favor gets returned. These two are really evenly matched. After some time, it looks like Rezende has settled into dominance. He's got a great back take and is working a RNC. Rezende wins.
Feather:
Opening Round:
Samir Jose Chantre Dahas vs Brick Welch (go Brick! - T.P. Grant)
Samir advances.
Justin Rader vs Eduardo Ramos da Silva
Rader is stuck in a calf slicer from the back. Rader wins on points.
Samir vs. Rader:
Rader wins on points.
Osvaldo Augusto Moizinho vs Mayko de Arujo Girotto
Girotto advances.
Rubens Charles "Cobrinha" (bye)
Cobinha vs. Mayko Girotto:
Extremely dominant performance from Cobrinha gets him an armbar finish after a few minutes. Nice roll to a back threaten and then a smooth switch over to the armbar from the back. Pops the arm free and gets the win.
Light:
Lucas Lepri vs Dustin Akbari
Not sure what happened to Lepri. Might not have shown up for the tourney.
Marlceo Motta vs JT Torres - JT threatens a back take extremely quickly and although Motta defends, JT is kinda stomping him. After another back take attempt slides off, JT is on the bottom and looking to sweep from butterfly and DLR. JT working for another back take, has the seat belt and both hooks in now. Motta in an armbar now and taps out very quickly. Brilliant work from JT. JT Torres advances.
JT Torres vs. Dustin Akbari
JT being patient in the half guard of Akbari. Slow match at this point after an initial scramble for a takedown that had Akbari landing one out of bounds. JT flipping sides for the pass and it seems to be working better. JT gets past the guard to the left and attacks a kimura on Akbari. JT loses the kimura and switches to side control on the other side. JT is up 12-0 right now. JT seems to have slowed down. He's up comfortably and it looks like Akbari did a leg reap for the DQ victory. JT Torres advances.
Leandro Lo vs Raymond Ayala - Ayala shoots in for a leg, but ends up pulling it into his guard. Lo working from top of half butterfly. Lo nearly gets past, but Ayala puts a knee shield in and Lo stuffs that and starts to flatten Ayala out. Lo now stands in the half butterfly and tries to giant step his way past. Nearly gets it. Lo nearly gets mount after a pass, but gets bucked off and after a scramble, they return to the feet. Ayala shoots in again in a very bad takedown and pulls guard. Lo trying to get past the half butterfly again. Lo decides to switch gears and ends up on bottom for a bit before returning to the top. Lo constantly pressuring and Ayala moving around in response. Ayala turtled up and Lo works a pass to side control. Lo working a keylock, but loses it in a scramble. They return to the middle. Lo on top in the half guard again. Leandro Lo is up 22-0 right now. Lo in mount now. Working a keylock and now a triangle from mount. Loses it in the roll. Lo in the guard. Lo sweeps and takes the back. Now again in the half guard. The commentators say Lo is up 35-0 right now. Lo has 42 points now I think with 30 seconds to go. Leandro Lo advances.
Augusto "Tanquinho" Lopes Mendes vs Zack Maxwell
Tanquinho advanced. Not sure if Maxwell even showed.
Leandro Lo vs. Tanquinho Mendes:
Lo falls to guard. Tanquinho hopping around to work for foot placement he likes. Finds one and goes into the guard, later backs out for a replacement. Again, he's not letting Lo work much. Tanquinho tries to slide over and ends up having to high step his way out of the tricky guard once more. Lo in half guard on his left side and clamped to a leg, but Tanquinho high steps out again. Mendes trying to move the feet before coming in. Lo working a half butterfly and goes upside down for a sweep/armbar. Tanquinho barely avoids the sweep and hops out. Reset in the middle. Mendes comes in again. Lo working DLR back take, but loses it. Lo working DLR again. Shifts to RDLR and Tanquinho keeps the base by hopping out. Lo is trying to come up again and again on Tanquinho's back, but is losing it at the last stages again and again. Tanquinho working a toehold! It's tight! Lo gets free upon the reset. Tanquinho fending off sweep after sweep. Lo and Mendes return to the feet. Lo shoots for a knee tap, but has to pull guard. Mendes working from the half guard. Mendos lands himself in mount during a scramble! Wow! Lo looks like he's given up and time has run out. Tanquinho Mendes moves on.
Middle:
Bill Cooper vs Marcus Vinicius Costa
Marcus Costa wins.
Marcelo Franca Mafra vs Matthew Darcy
Mafra wins.
Clark Gracie vs Nic Nikolalsen
Clark Gracie wins by kimura.
Murilo Silva Ferreira (bye)
Clark Gracie vs. Murilio Ferreira
Clark doing guard work and keeping Murilo's posture broken down. Trying to use his long frame to get overhead sweeps, omoplatas or half butterfly sweeps. Clark hits a very nice kimura half guard sweep into a back take/armlock attempt. Clark is working a kimura from the half guard top of Ferreira. They break apart and Ferreira goes for a flying guillotine, but gets tangled up in Clark's limbs. Clark threatening sweeps, but nothing concrete enough to gain an advantage. Clark wins on points.
DJ Jackson vs Alex Aristides
DJ did the whole pass to the left stuff he always does. Passes and worked a wristlock for the win. DJ Jackson advances.
Jason Manly vs Mauricio Pontaiti
Jason Manly wins by toehold.
Vitor Oliveira vs Denis Pinto
Vitor wins on points.
Thiago Arago de Abrue (bye)
Thiago de Abrue vs. Vitor Oliveira
Thiago dealing with a guillotine applied by Vitor Oliveira and has to tap. Vitor Oliveira won by chest crunching guillotine.
DJ Jackson vs. Jason Manly
DJ gets in top position in the guard. Still doing the slow pass left thing. DJ gets to the half guard and mount, before he gets bucked off by a very powerful upa. Manly back to the feet. DJ shoots in for a single leg and they go out of bounds. Reset in the middle. After a while more, DJ is up 9-0. DJ wins on points.
Clark Gracie vs. Mafra
Clark goes for a kneebar sweep from guard almost right away. It looks in pretty good and Mafra falls to his back to defend. Clark looking to turn out and get into side control. Clark now in the guard of Mafra. Takes a while, but Clark finally opens up the guard. Works a toe hold. Loses control and they return to the feet. Double guard pull. CLark comes up top. Clark goes for a back take and works a kimura successfully.
DJ Jackson vs. Vitor Oliveira
Lotta crappy wrestling. Tied on advantages for a while, then DJ powered for a takedown that landed out of bounds. Advantage to him and the win.
Finals will be Clark Gracie vs. DJ Jackson.
Medium-Heavy
Kleber Oliveira vs Antonio Antonioli
Victor Bomfim vs Ezra Lenon
Bruno Antunes vs Alberto Ramos de Araujo
Pablo Popovitch (bye)
Marco Giudice vs Fillipe Meirelles Bobrick
Ricardo de Souza vs Marcello Salazar Bergo
Luiz Eduardo Rosa Jr vs Daniel Faco
Romulo Barral (bye)
Romulo Barral vs. Somebody
Romulo wins big on points.
Pablo Popovitch vs. Someone - possibly Bruno Antunes
Popovitch on top of open guard as per usual. Grip fighting and Popovitch looking to impose his considerable muscle on Bruno. Cut away for a while because a cut opened up on somebody and didn't get who won - probably Popovitch on points.
Romulo vs. Some Dude
Romulo takes the back and gets the RNC. Easy peasy.
Popovitch vs. Lenon
Popovitch goes to jump into half guard and gets accidentally kneed in the balls. Time out. Popovitch working from the half guard top very methodically. Popovitch wins on points.
Finals - Romulo vs. Popovitch.
Heavy
Bernardo Filho vs Eduardo Telles
Filho from Checkmat has a headlock on Telles for a while, but it doesn't go anywhere. Telles butt scooting in on Filho after getting free and gets shoved away. Telles still getting stuck in headlocks. Tries an arm drag from half guard. Telles working half guard and Filho backs away. Telles seizes a single leg and dumps Filho to the mats! They're out near the edge, so the refere resets them in the same position in the middle. Telles tries to turn this into something, but Filho uses the deep half guard to get out and return to the feet. Telles gets another single leg, but finishes it out of bounds. I think he gets an advantage for that. Telles sprawls on Filho shooting in and works a brabo. It looks kinda tight and he gets it. Eduardo Telles wins.
Roberta Alencar (bye)
Telles vs. Alencar
Alencar has Telles's back threatened when I switch over. Seat belt and one hook in. Now both hooks. Telles gets out and back to guard as Alencar stands. They reset to the middle. Telles stands after a bit. Telles tries to get a single leg, but Tussa shoves him away and Telles sits guard. Tussa comes right in and starts working. Telles stands. They pummel and tie up for a while. Telles sits guard and starts working a half guard. Tussa keeps his base strong and starts to stand. Telles has the single leg ripped away from him. Telles tries another single leg, but no go on it. Telles trying to make something happen with an ineffectual guard game. Alencar off-balancing him again and again before anything gets going. Telles in a headlock and Alencar trying to slowly work around to turtle top. Telles sits back. Looks like Alencar will cruise to a points win here after the back take earlier in the match. Tussa Alencar moves on
Diego Herzog (bye)
Diego Nogueira (bye)
David Avellan vs Herico Hesley
Looks like they banged heads and now Avellan's head is wrapped up. Avellan in top of guard. Herico attacking the left side of Avellan. David finally gets active in trying to get past the guard, but the scrambling doesn't work for a long time. Herico turtles up and Avellan starts working a kimura from the turtle top. Now Helsey gets a deep half position, while still defending the kimura. Back to the turtle. Points win for Avellan.
Nivaldo de Oliveira Lima (bye)
Rafael Lovato Jr (bye)
Maxmillano Freitas (bye)
Lovato Jr. vs. Max Freitas
Standing tusslin'. After a while, Lovato pulls guard. Looks really bored because Freitas is not engaging. Ref pushes Freitas in and Lovato goes to the half guard. Freitas trying to stay balanced while Lovato works the half butterfly. Long bit of stalemate and then Lovato just ABSOLUTELY RIPS a kimura out of nowhere on Freitas. Lovato Jr. moves on.
Lovato Jr. vs. Nivaldo Lima
After a short match, Lovato subs Lima. Mount to arm triangle for the win. Lovato looking extremely dominant here.
Tussa Alencar vs. Diego Herzog
Lotta standing and tying up. Action finally moves to the ground and Tussa is scrambling around while Herzog works leglocks and 50/50 sweeps without being boring about it. Tussa gets a back take attempt off the scramble and now mount. Super exciting after the bore-fest in the standing phase. Diego escapes as Tussa tries to get the back or a triangle. Back to the feet and Diego pulls guard. Back to the feet.
Super Heavy
Antonio Peinado vs Paulo Jardim
Jardim wins on points.
Alberto Villanova vs Xande Ribeiro
Xande by nasty armbar. He was working from a turtle top position and had the arm extended before Villanova even rolled over. The arm briefly bent the wrong way. Yow.
Bernardo Augusto Rocha de vs James Puopolo
Bernardo Faria moves on by points victory.
Joao Assis (bye)
Joao Assis vs. Bernardo Faria
After a while, Assis gets side control and then accepts the shunt back to open guard. Faria working for a gogoplata, but seems stalled out 80% of the way there. After a protracted battle, Assis wins on points.
Xande vs. Jardim
After a while of standing around, Xande pulls half guard. Jardim trying to move around. Xande moves back to closed guard. Xande goes after Jardim's left leg a bit, but it's still closed guard. Xande opens up and appears to be trying to spin upside down. Xande gets the sweep! 2-0 for Xande. Eventually, Xande wins on points as Jardim does not score.
Finals will be Joao Assis vs. Xande Ribeiro
Ultra Heavy
Leonardo Herinque D'avlla vs Andreas Olsen
Roberto Filho (bye)
John Toth vs Luiz Ribeiro
Gustavo Dias (bye)
Lloyd Irvin's first match at Seniors 2 black belt:
Loyd ties up and looks to be setting up an inside leg trip, but they go out of bounds. Lotta out of bounds here, so the referee warns them. Still out of bounds during the jockeying on the feet. Neither guy wants to yield anything and neither is setting up anything super well. Lloyd's got a nice sprawl though. Lloyd finally brings it to the ground with an overhook outside leg trip and ends up in top of half guard. Time lapses. Lloyd wins.
Women
Brown belt - Jessica Penne working from guard, gets her guard nearly passed and turtles up to defend. Her opponent has the back and a RNC set up. Penne trying to turn over as the opponent sets up mount. Penne does a super flexible escape out the back door and has a bodylock on her opponent the wrong way. Penne working a toe hold. Gives it up and goes back to the guard. No idea how to score that beyond the back take. Penne pulls guard again. Working tornado guard, but it fails. Half guard with head controlled for Penne. Scramble and Penne turtles up. Opponent goes for a back take again. It's not quite there. Penne now on top of guard, but is stuck within her opponent's high guard. They edge out of bounds and reset to the middle. Penne has her posture controlled. Time runs out. Penne's opponent wins on points.
Light Feather Semifinals
Nyjah Easton vs Oceane Kathleen
Nyjah gets her guard passed. Oceane appears to be working for a seat belt and back control. Gets it. Working a short choke, but goes back to the seat belt. Now setting for an armbar. Nyjah has to roll over to deal with the armbar. Oceane really pulling on that arm, while Nyjah has her free arm clinched on defending. Oceane has a triangle locked on as well and shifts to a mounted triangle, but Nyjah is not flat. Oceane goes to her back to squeeze the triangle some more and Nyjah looks like she's actually small enough not to be choked. Switch to an armbar, but the arm gets pulled back. Now back to the triangle. Switching back and forth between the triangle and the armbar. Now Nyjah is flat on her back and Oceane is off to the side with a triangle on. Ocean works a kimura on the free arm, but can't torque it enough. Trying to work the triangle even tighter as time runs out. Oceane Kathleen moves on.
Sofia Amarante (bye)
Sofia vs. Nyjah
Nyjah pulls guard. Grip fighting now. Nyjah has a high guard. Sofia pulls free briefly. Nyjah goes to an armbar as Sofia tries to stand. Sofia pulls free and Nyjah goes for a triangle. Sofia squatting to get out, but Nyjah tightens it up further. Sofia pulling out and tries to pass immediately. Nyjah inverts and then goes back right side up. Sofia drags the legs across and moves into the side control. Yow. Nyjah flips out to head to head and Sofia works a front headlock as Nyjah moves to butterfly. Grip fighting from Nyjah's closed guard now. Sofia tries double unders, but Nyjah is shoulder walking around to defend. Now working a high guard/triangle on Sofia. Looks like a rest break for Sofia here. Nyjah trying to make something happen, but nothing is doing. Sofia keeping solid base and tugging out of any threats developing. They edge out of bounds and reset to the middle. Nyjah goes for an armbar, but no arm is there to torque. Sofia keeping control from top of guard. Nyjah working another triangle now. Tries a hip bump. Moves to a high guard/triangle set-up. Another armbar attempt, but it's not close, now to a triangle which is much closer. Sofia still defending and could possibly bust free. Time expires. Sofia wins on points.
Feather Semifinals
Sayaka Shioda vs Ana Vidal
Vidal up on top in half guard. Working a back take, has it and the RNC in too. Shioda defending well, getting her back to the mat. Back to conventional back control. Vidal trying to get mounted, Shioda spins for a foot and toehold. Vidal and Shioda tusslin' for control of the foot and stability. Shioda moves to a triangle after grabbing a hand. Breaks open the triangle and Vidal promptly passes. Shioda working a triangle from bottom side control and it gets busted. Vidal using forearm pressure to ease her path. Vidal has the back control again. RNC, but the angles are slightly off. Shioda should survive this. She does and Vidal switches to an armbar which goes awry and she gets to mount as time expires. Points win for Ana Vidal.
Jennifer Pertina (bye)
Light Semifinals
Beatriz Mesquita vs Cynthia Hales
Thaysa H Ramos da Silva (bye)
Middle Final
Lulza Monteiro Moura da vs Penny Thomas
Medium Heavy
Michelle Nicolini
Heavy Final
Tammy Griego vs Fernanda Almeida