Last weekend was choke full of BJJ events for me, On the
Saturday I reffed at the De La Riva Cup and the London International Open. As
there was only 1 mat on the Sunday (the rest of the hall being taken up with an
army of mini black belts (Tae Kwon Do competition) I had the rare luxury of
going as a spectator to watch the women, black belts and team events.
Due to a
lack of female competitors in the Feather and Light weight categories , 2
plucky white belts (Annie Kohne & Cassie Alvarez) faced off with 2 blue
belts (Sophie Walters & Nora Levy-Forsythe respectively), though they gave
it their all, the blue belts experience rightly paid off to give them the wins. Despite the lack of female competitors in the other categories it was good to see 4 White belts in the Heavy Category which usually struggles
to find two competitors in the UK .
Women's White Heavy Category (Photo copyright Dave Coles)
In the black belt categories Thiago Monstro went up against
GFT's Ricardo Evangelista with Ricardo taking home the De La Riva Cup in the
Heavy category. In the light weight category I witnessed a very technical back
and forth fight between Gabriel Rainho and Douglas Mayer, with Gabriel coming
out the winner. Max Campos then made short work of Douglas
to go on to face Gabriel in the final. After an exciting but shall we say
tension filled fight between the two, Max Campos walked away with the Light
weight title. I look forward to seeing them both fight again.
Thiago Monstro putting the pressure on Ricardo Evangelista (Photo copyright Meerkatsu)
What sets the Pro Cup apart from other BJJ competitions is
the inclusion of a City team event. Teams consist of 2 blues, 2 purples and 1
brown or black belt who must all currently be living in the city they are
representing. The London Leopards won every match that I saw ( I think I only
missed one or two) to be the team champions. Of particular note was Brown belt
Sam Gibson who submitted the first black belt fairly early on with a mounted
triangle and won a convincing points victory on the 2nd black belt.
Sam Gibson, London Leopards submitting his first opponent in the team event (photo copyright Meerkatsu)
After a weekend of watching BJJ I came home to...... watch
more BJJ in the form of Metamoris II t.b.c......
