2013 IBJJF World Championships (Review)

The 2013 IBJJF World Championships concluded around 10pm central time Sunday night.  It was an excellent event featuring some incredible matches and upsets.  That being said...my brain is FRIED from watching most of Saturday and Sunday's live stream.  

Academy Results

Adult Male:

1 - Alliance - 94
2 - CheckMat - 53
3 - Atos Jiu-Jitsu - 45 

Adult Female:

1 - Alliance - 74
2 - CheckMat - 45
3 - Gracie Humaita - 32 

Juvenile:

1 - Gracie Elite Team - 65
2 - Gracie Barra - 52
3 - Alliance - 33 

Novice:

1 - Gracie Elite Team - 47
2 - Alliance - 41
3 - Gracie Barra - 34 

*Additional results can be found at: 

https://www.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/PublicResults?CampeonatoId=177&CultureInfo=en-US

Notable moments (Spoilers if you haven't seen the matches. Skip down and watch the matches first.)

• Gui Mendes being knocked out in only the quarterfinals.  He played a dangerously close match and didn't push the pace losing a ref's decision.  
• Tanquinho was impressive.  I picked him to make it to the finals but who would have expected him to beat both Cobrinha AND Rafael Mendes the same day?  Probably the most impressive run in the black belt division in my opinion.
• Caio Terra showed that his win against his nemesis, Bruno Malfacine, at Pan 2013 was not fluke.  He played a very similar game and won the 50/50 battle to claim another World title.
• Leandro Lo showed that he is one of the most dynamic standing guard passers and open guard players of the tournament.  He had only 2 points scored against him in the entire tournament.  
• Paulo Miyao FINALLY beats Keenan Cornelius in the Brown belt Absolute final.  This is an amazing feat considering that he fights at Light Feather.  
• Braulio Estima was very impressive and showed the world that he still is competing at the highest level dazzling with a ridiculous kneebar.  He closed out his weight class and conceded to teammate Romulo Barral.  
• Atos was shut out at black belt in all divisions.  
• Ary Farias had appeared to win the Light Feather final, left the mat area to celebrate, was penalized for doing so which docked him an advantage and caused him to lose the final.  Very unfortunate as the match was one of the best finals during the weekend.
• Lucas Leite was excellent making it to the final at Heavyweight...which is two weight classes above his natural division.  
• Bruno Bastos (Nova Uniao) retired from Worlds competition and gave his black belt to Buchecha after losing to him in the Absolute division.  
• Buchecha proved AGAIN that he is the best pound for pound guy out there.  He was incredibly dominant winning both his weight and the Absolute division.  The Absolute final against Rodolfo Veira wasn't close at all. 

Xande Ribeiro (Match 1)

Caio Terra (Brasa) vs Fabio Passos (Alliance)

Rafa Mendes vs Mayako Borges

Braulio Estima's INSANE kneebar in slo-motion.

Gui Mendes (Atos) vs Daniel Beleza Light Feather Quarterfinal

Rodolfo Veira (GF Team) vs Leo Leite (CheckMat)

Rafael Mendes (Atos) vs Tanquinho (Soul Fighters) Feather Final

Caio Terra (Brasa) vs Bruno Malfacine (Alliance) Rooster Final

Ari Farias (Atos) vs Gabriel Moraes (CheckMat) Light Feather Final

Leandro Lo vs Michael Langhi (Alliance) Light Final

2013 IBJJF Pans (Post Thoughts)

The IBJJF 2013 Pan Championship has come and gone.  This year was bigger than ever spanning over the course of five days.  While the Pan may not be considered the most coveted tournament it seems to be the most attended each year which begs the question..."Why is it NOT the most coveted title?"  There were a few big names missing from the black belt brackets this year as some are heavily focused on other tournaments such as the Abu Dhabi Pro.  Such names as Lovato, Rodolfo, Farias, & Marcelo Garcia just to name a few did not compete this year.  As usual, Budovideos did an excellent job of providing streaming coverage which aerial mat views and selectable mats.  The commentary was top notch as well with the likes of Budo Jake, Shawn Williams, and guests like Kurt Osiander popping in.

In Black Belt action:
Caio Terra defeated Bruno Malficine (points)
Guilherme Mendes defeated Laercio Fernandes (points)
Rafael Mendes defeated Cobrinha (points)
Michael Langhi closed out with teammate Lucas Lepri
Clark Gracie defeated Marcelo Mafra in epic fashion (submission)
Andre Galvao defeated Gustavo Campos
Roberto Alencar "Tussa" defeated Nivaldo Lima (points)
Leo Nogueira defeated Gabriel Vella
Marcus Almeida "Buchecha" defeated Alexander Trans

Open Weight
Marcus Almeida "Buchecha" defeated Andre Galvao (points)

In Brown Belt action:
Joao Miyao took gold in Light Feather
Paulo Miyao took gold defeating Gianni Grippo by choke at Feather
Rafael Henrique Pereira defeated reigning Pan champ AJ Agazarm
Keenan Cornelius took double gold in his weight and the open

Noteworthy:

• Michael Liera Jr (Atos Purple belt) is one to watch as he is becoming very dominant.  He took double gold in his weight and the open.  We will continue to see big things from him.  
• Marcio Andre (Nova Uniao Purple belt) followed up his 2012 Worlds title with a gold at Pan.  He will probably be promoted to brown before the next Worlds tournament.
• Say what you want about the Miyao Bros and Gianni Grippo but their De la Riva/Berimbolo game looked very dominant all day Sunday.  
• Keenan looked as dominant as ever quieting critics that the TLI drama and move to Atos might disrupt his concentration.  
• Rafael Pereira's win over AJ Agazarm at Brown Light came as a big surprise since Rafael's performance in the Brown Belt Kumite was less than stellar.  
• Sean Roberts (Ralph Gracie) got his wish and faced Leandro Lo in the 2nd round of his weight class where he was dominated 43-0 before being submitted by Lo.  You have to give Sean credit for competing at the Pan after receiving his black belt just a week prior.  
• The Great Kurt Osiander took gold in his respective division.
• Cobrinha loses another close final to Rafa Mendes.  I do feel Rafa outworked him at the end of the match getting the decision.  One has to think that Cobrinha will have to truly beat Rafa by points or sub if he is going to get over the hump.  Ref decisions have not been good to him.  
• I was happy to see Caio Terra break out of his funk against Bruno Malficine.  Bruno looked unstoppable on Sunday and Caio executed a brilliant game plan scoring late in the match threatening with a calf slicer at the end.  Caio seemed calm and collected throughout the entire match.  
• Clark Gracie was impressive with his aggressive omoplatas all day.  Good to see him capture gold.  One of the best finals on Sunday.  See the video below.
• I can't say enough good things about Buchecha.  Many people hate watching the bigger guys compete because they can be boring. You never seem to get this with Buchecha.  He moves with the speed and technique of a Lightweight.  The absolute final between him and Galvao was epic.  

Clark Gracie vs Marcelo Mafra (Medium Final)

Buchecha vs Andre Galvao (Open Final)

AJ Agazarm vs Rafael Henrique Pereira (Light Final)

Caio Terra vs Bruno Malficine (Rooster Final)

                          

                                    Paulo Miyao vs Gianni Grippo (Feather Final)

Keenan Cornelius vs J. Miyao (Brown Belt Open Semi-Final)

Black Belt Finals HL's

Academy Results

Novice:

1 - Gracie Barra - 46
2 - Lotus Club Jiu-Jitsu - 34
3 - Gracie Elite Team - 31 

Adult Male:

1 - Alliance - 85
2 - Atos Jiu-Jitsu - 83
3 - Gracie Elite Team - 36 

Adult Female:

1 - Alliance - 43
2 - Gracie Humaita - 31
3 - Atos Jiu-Jitsu - 30 

Juvenile:

1 - Gracie Elite Team - 39
2 - Alliance - 36
3 - Gracie Barra - 19 

Master and Senior:

1 - Gracie Barra - 199
2 - Alliance - 142
3 - Gracie Elite Team - 129 

All results can be found here: https://www.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/PublicResults?

CampeonatoId=162&CultureInfo=en-US

Post Worlds 2012 Hangover

As if we didn't get enough of Worlds (assuming you watched the live stream) Budovideos has released a couple more matches worth watching.  For those of you that didn't watch the stream these are two matches that you don't want to miss.  Xande Ribeiro has had a bit of a resurgence over the last few months.  His win against Andre Galvao at the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials was a BIG ONE.  Although he didn't win in Abu Dhabi it definitely put everyone on notice that Xande is back.
Xande vs Tussa (Worlds 2012)

Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida has been an absolute killer since receiving his black belt.  Last year at the Nogi Worlds he dispatched of most opponents quickly by submission.  Going into the Worlds 2012 Absolute final he was considered the heavy favorite but many were proclaiming Leo Nogueira of Alliance would give him a great match.

Caio Terra vs Brandon Mullins (Worlds 2012 Quarterfinal)

Caio Terra vs Bruno Malficine (Worlds 2012, Final)

Cobrinha vs Rafa Mendes (Worlds 2012, Final)