Biggest Takeaways from 2020 IBJJF European Championships
Biggest Takeaways from 2020 IBJJF European Championships
The first of the four major IBJJF tournaments has come and gone, Some upsets and some predictable outcomes. Let’s delve into the aftermath of the European Championships and try to predict the rest of the 2020 gi season.
Thalison Soares A Force at Roosterweight
One of the main talking points of the Men’s Roosterweight division is “Little Miyao” Thalison Soares taking out the GOAT of roosterweight, Bruno Malfacine in the quarter finals. Thalison’s ability to stick to his game plan and use of sub attempts to rack up two ads sent Bruno to the stands earlier than just about anyone expected.
This series of events lead us to a finals with perennial roosterweight contender, Tomoyuki Hashimoto and the king killer, Thalison. Both men went to the new meta of the lighter weight categories, almost completely seated and straight to the pull. Hashimoto was steadfast in staying in the bottom position, which soon brought about a reverse triangle. While Thalison did well in defending the submission attempt, he made a small error and opened up just enough for Hashimoto to switch to a triangle.
The Finals DQ
Then the match unceremoniously ends. Thalison had his head buried deep into the triangle but was obviously trying to work out. As he pushed forward, both competitors were on the yellow border of the mat. This is where ring awareness by the referee should come into place, as they could have quickly adjusted the competitors and continued the match, which only had two and a half minutes left. Instead, the referee let Thalison push that extra half of a foot and disqualified him for “fleeing”. This action robbed Hashimoto of the potential submission and puts a “stain” on the record books. This rule should be looked into further.
Woman’s Roosterweight
Moving over to the Women’s side, we had only one match, the finals, of roosterweight between Mayssa Bastos and Serena Gabrielli. While not a very action packed match, Mayssa’s guard was on full display. Switching effortlessly between lapel lasso, de la riva, squid, and a quick attempt of worm guard, Mayssa was hunting for the back. Serena, on the other hand, was quite adept at letting her hips hit the mat and bouncing right back. Almost every sweep and berimbolo attempt was stifled by Serena’s awareness of Mayssa’s deadly guard, but in the end it was a sweep in the dying seconds that secured the UK gold for Mayssa.
Light Feather the Musumeci Factor
The Light-Featherweight division saw a return of the winningest American World Champion, Micheal Musumeci. What the light-featherweight division and the rest of the tournament wasn’t prepared for was his decision to go into the absolute, read about this in an upcoming article or watch our video recap of the event below.
Mikey came into the finals on two submission. Against Francisco Jonas Borges Andrade Mikey came out and looked flat, and that isn’t a knock on him. Later an article was released where he spoke about being injured from the absolute. This of course led to the double guard game and brought a reluctant Musumeci to his feet after a de la riva footlock attempt. Francisco worked his way up to a triangle position that was shrugged off. Mikey assumed his low squat form before trying to work underneath. Once the berimbolo to the back wasn’t an option, Mikey tried to pass for the remainder of the match which ended tied on ads. After the formal hand raise to decide the victor, Musumeci added another title to his already impressive resume.
My biggest take away from the match was his look of disappointment after he won. He was being critical of his own performance, which will only help him get better in the future.
Woman’s light Feather
Light-Featherweight on the women’s side showcased the use of worm guard and the obstinance of Ana Cristina Araujo Rodrigues. What’s even better is that this was a match between “teammates” with Talita Alencar, both being a part of Alliance. This match further shows the importance of evolving your jiu jitsu. Talita was completely stifled by the tandem worm and de la riva guard attacks. Ana eventually grabs an omoplata which cinches the victory by ads but continues to show her understanding and ability to implement a thought out gameplan. Definitely a must watch for the aspiring worm guarders.
Isaac and Featherweight
Moving on to the Featherweight division, we had a finals match between Isaac Doederlein and Leonardo Saggioro. Grips and positioning were the name of the game in this finals match. Isaac got the coveted bottom position after a passivity call on both men thirty seconds into the match.
Isaac starts from full guard and starts working collar and sleeve before moving lasso guard with his free leg on the shoulder/neck area. After Saggioro removes the lasso, Isaac opts for open guard play, which leads to securing an over the back belt grip and hip drag to come up for the sweep. Leonardo starts the process of unbalancing but Doederlein drops his hip and gets underneath before any more damage could be done and immediately starts going for the back.
With his advance to the back shut down, Isaac elects to keep the right hook in and come up into the knee cut position. Leonardo fights off the pass attempt but not before Isaac gets his second advantage for the near pass. Saggioro starts creating space with the reverse de la riva, hips away just enough, and tech ups with Isaac’s leg. As the two competitors battle for control, they end up out of bounds, awarding two points for Saggioro and a penalty for Doederlein. Leonardo, now only being down by an advantage, really turns it on as Isaac pulls guard. Unfortunately for Leonardo, Isaac’s ability to maintain guard even when brought onto his neck and shoulders, shielded him from losing a last second advantage and won him the match by the narrowest of margins.
Divisional Performances
To round out this installment of our European championship coverage, we had a featherweight tussle between Amal Amjahid and Larissa Carvalho. This match was another fight to see who could get to the bottom first. Amal gets there first and Larissa eventually comes uu, nearly passes, and almost gets an armbar in the process. What was a little strange was Larissa was given an advantage but it was removed for an unknown reason.
The competitors are both back to the seated position, only to be called back to their feet and given penalties. The match is then resumed and back to the mats, where Amal briefly takes top position to sit right back down and allow Larissa to then briefly come up and receive two points for a “sweep”. This is where Amal starts to take control. She attacks Larissa’s foot as a way to sweep back and take top position, putting her ahead on the scoreboard by three advantages. Larissa employs the body triangle to stop any real movement from Amal, but this works in Amal’s favor as Larissa can not launch anything fully effective to sweep. In the waning moments of the match, Larissa attempts a triangle and then an armbar but to no avail. The final fifteen seconds on so of the match has Amal defending any hail mary attempts and then raising her arms in victory and Larissa tries to knock over her opponent with three seconds left.
Closing thoughts on the lighter weight divisions at Euros 2020
Moving forward, If Mikey is truly done with roosterweight, The division seem to be headed the way of Hashimoto or Soares moving towards the Pans. I think Bruno has had his time in the spotlight and still and always will be the GOAT of roosterweight, but the younger generation has now taken center stage. As for the women, Mayssa will continue to reign as queen until the World's roll around and she comes up against former Queen, Rikako Yuasa.
Light Featherweight should be the permanent residences of Mr. Musumeci. Granted if he wanted to go up to any weight category, I’m all for it. I can’t see anyone dethroning him at this weight anytime soon. Light Feather for the women is a little harder to call, it’s almost the wild west, with several women vying for the top spot. Ana Cristina seems to be the best gunslinger at the moment and I’ll be keeping a close eye on her to see if she stays on top.
Isaac Doederlein seems to be next in line as the soon to be featherweight kingpin,with recent victories over Miyao, he also positions himself to be the next American World champion. I’m certainly pulling for less Brazilian dominance as that will lead Jiu Jitsu to be a globally recognized sport. Once again, Feather seems to be wide open, with Larissa Carvalho taking out the number one seed, Bia Basilo in the semi-finals. Amal Amjahid had a great showing, as did Larissa, so this will be another interesting division to follow.
Written By: Josh Weinstock