IBJJF Euros 2020 Biggest Takeaways Part 2
The Old Guard Vs the Young Lion
The Lightweight finals brought us up and coming Jonnatas Gracie and perennial contender Vitor Oliveira. Early on in the match we see Gracie get to open guard and use a mix of spider and de la riva, which bears fruit with a beautiful sweep directly into a passing position. This is where a majority of the match takes place, with Jonnatas pressuring forward and Vitor fending of the attempts with various forms of guard. In the dying seconds of the match, Vitor nails a sweep from a single leg x position to come on top and finish out the time. We go to refs decision and Jonnatas takes the victory, I’m wagering that it was for match control and continuously looking to advance postion
Ffion Strikes Again
The women’s Lightweight finals saw the return of last years European champion, Ffion Davies taking on Charlotte von Baumgarten. We start of with double pulls and double penalties. After the two penalties, Ffion comes on top and takes full control of the match. There is not much to say about the match other than it was full positional dominance. Ffion gracefully moved from position to position until she attained the back and finished with a choke with two plus minutes remaining. Stellar performance and a strong showing in the first of four majors.
The Norweigian Nightmare
Middleweight saw the quick back and forth final of Tommy Langaker and Pedro “Paquito” Rahmalo. Both men were totally comfortable with being on bottom but Tommy takes the first trip to the top, which was strangely not awarded an advantage. Tommy then sits back and allows Pedro to come on top, as he wants to berimbolo anyway. These exchanges take place two more times before Pedro is on top looking to pass and Langaker launches once again into the bolo position and grabs a kimura grip to set up a climbing back take. Tommy wastes no time attacking the neck and finishes up the match with time to spare.
Lightning Fast Submission at Women’s Middleweight
Thamara Silva obviously had somewhere important to be in her finals match against Danielle Alvarez. Both women pull guard at the start of the match, with Danielle electing to come up and start the passing process. As Danielle starts to work Thamara’s legs across, she steps up own leg up, which allows Thamara to underhook the leg and roll straight into a kneebar. The angle shown on the video isn’t the best, so it is hard to determine the exact nuances of the finish, but Thamara did just that and won the division in an impressively fast manner.
Ribamar Goes Forward
As we start to get into the bigger weight classes, the Medium-Heavy finals saw Manuel Ribamar versus Bruno Lima. From the get go, Manuel went in one direction, and that was forward. Manuel just came at Bruno with sheer pressure for the first five minutes of the medium heavy tussle. Once the match was returned to the feet, Manuel decided to play from the bottom briefly before executing a picture perfect lapel sweep to continue his march to gold. As the match went on, and the pressure continued on Bruno, Manuel starts to force Bruno up on his side and the turtle position was achieved. A quick back attack, a stretch and a squeeze finished the match. This also revealed that Bruno had seemed to have injured his ribs in this process. An unfortunate end to an otherwise enjoyable match.
Sabatha Does Quick Work at Medium Heavy
Once again, we see that some of the Black Belts in the female division had made plans previous to the finals that were of the utmost importance. Sabatha Dos Santos and new black belt, Maggie Grindatti, met in the finals of medium heavy after both defeating Maria Santos in the preliminary round robin matches. Coming out like she left her keys in the front door, Sabatha hit the ground and went into her game of spider and de la riva guard. Maggie was on her back foot from the jump and was left defending. Sabatha soon took full control and clamped down and quickly finished a triangle. I am very excited to see Sabatha in the future.
The Worm and The Butterfly
In one of my most anticipated match to view, we had Gi Wizard, Keenan Cornelius versus the emerging Adam Wardzinski in the Heavyweight divison. With both men being known for their guard game, I was very interested to see who hit the floor first. My assumption is that Keenan felt the set up to Adam’s guard pull and like the savvy competitor that he is, shot his foot in between Adam’s for a quick Kouchi Gari foot sweep or so it would look like one to grabbed two points from the jump. Adam quickly implemented his patented half butterfly, moved to a sort of cross legged guard and then used the shin to shin to elevate Keenan and follow him over for the sweep.
As Adam came on top, the master of all of the invertebrate guards went in to action, switching from worm to reverse de la worm over into squid guard, eventually handcuffing Wardzinski’s ankle and sweeping to bring the match to a score of four to two, with advantages favoring Keenan. While Keenan searched for a way to pass, Adam was gearing up his butterfly once more, and struck while Keenan was trying to lock in his Platinum Worm pass. The onus was now on Wardzinski to score, but Adam once again was enchanted by the Gi Wizard and nearly had his back taken in the dying seconds of the match.
Barker Bides Her Time for Gold
Laura Barker took on Magdalena Loska in the match for Heavyweight gold. Laura chose to play guard first and had a calm and cool full guard throughout the first few minutes of the match. Magdalena eventually came to her feet, which allowed Laura to underhook Magda’s right leg and complete an omoplata for an ad and two points. Magda continues to fight while still wrapped up in the submission and manages her way back to 50/50 guard and then into closed. As Laura starts to work from the top position, Magda almost mirrors Laura’s attack and starts to climb up into her own omoplata. Unfortunately, this is in the final moments of the match and she had been twice penalized for bringing the leg over and “creating” a leg reap position. Had that not been the case, there was a high possibility for a tie and refs decision that can always go either way.
Gaudio Makes Short Work of Andrew
In what I believe was the fastest match out of any final, Patrick Gaudio overcame Felipe Andrew and his lasso guard in under 55 seconds. Andrew got his go to position and knocked Gaudio over for a brief moment, trying to overcome Patrick for the second time in this tournament. Unbeknownst to Felipe, Patrick form a planned and smoothly rolled through to the same side leg, snagging a kneebar and taking home gold in the Super Heavyweight division.
Flowers and Reusing Closeout Super Heavyweight
What more is there to write about a closeout? Other than this being the only one in the Adult Black Belt division. Jessica was given the nod and Kendall Reusing gave her “teammate” a reprieve before competing in the Absolute finals.
Igor and Goliath
In the finals of Ultra Heavyweight division, Igor Schnieder play small man to the hulking Seif Houmine. This match had the typical old school ultra heavy feel, lots of pushing. Houmine puts himself on the board first with an Ashi Harai that takes Igor out of bounds. What Igor does throughout the match to my surprise is his guard pull directly into an attempted hook sweep. The first big attempt lands both competitors out of bounds. The next major pull leads to Igor coming on top and bowling the man mountain that is Seif Houmine over. I would venture to say that Seif does not play from the bottom all too often, as Igor quickly passes his guard and maintains side control for the remainder of regulated time.
The Absolutes
Much can be said about the absolutes. It’s mainly the heavier weight classes taking top honors, no one small enters them, etc… Well, Mikey Musumechi had something to say about that. He entered into the field and made waves, Taking out the monstrous Seif Houmine and going the full ten minutes with Mahammed Aly, losing only by advantages. In an interview after his finals match, Mikey stated he would be doing the absolute at Pans and probably Brazilian Nationals, which is sure to shake things up in the open weight.
In the female absolute, Ffion Davies absolutely controlled Jessica Flowers from start to literal finish. She worked through every position, made it to the back and after several minutes of attempting to finish, she finishes the choke and becomes double champ of the Europeans.
In the biggest shock of the weekend, Felipe Andrew became the first person at black belt in the gi to submit Keenan Cornelius. Felipe refused to let Keenan get to any position to feel comfortable. After battle Felipe’s lasso guard, Keenan seemed to be positioned to get past the guard, only to fall victim to a tight triangle and finished with an armbar. Myself and several friends began yelling as this scene played out. What a shocking but amazing moment to end a fantastic start to the gi majors.
Moving Forward from Lightweight to the Absolutes
Lightweight was missing many standouts, including Renato Canut, Lucas Lepri, Micheal Langhi and JT Torres. Can Jonnatas stand up to the powerhouses in his division or will the pressure be to overwhelming? Lightweight will be a division to keep your eye on.
As for the women, I believe Ffion will reign supreme. She had a fantastic showing at weight and in the absolutes. Here’s to hoping for double gold all season long for the Welsh warrior.
Middleweight for the men is wide open, with the likes of Langaker, Jaime Canuto, Isaque Bahiense, Marcos Tinoco, and Gabriel Arges to name just a few. Whoever survives the meat grinder of a division will be one tough person. No clear winner but I’m on the edge of my seat waiting to see it unfold.
Middleweight has been Ana “baby” Vieira’s division, that being said, Thamara Silva was out for blood. I still think “baby” takes the division but now we have yet another claimant to the throne.
Medium heavyweight is now the stomping grounds of current World champion, Felipe Pena. Manuel Ribamar, Mateus Diniz, Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa, Gustavo Bautista and many others. Ribamar has a legit shot, but it’s a long, hard road to the top.
Medium Heavy has a fairly deep talent pool for the women. Sabatha being aggressive from the guard can continue to win her a place atop the podium, but she has to be wary of the likes of Luiza Montireo and Andressa Cintra. I think she can take it though
Keenan’s victory at Heavyweight is a good start to his season, but he has former teammate Kaynan Duarte, long time nemesis, Leandro Lo and the always dangerous Adam Wardzinski to handle before he can finally claim that ever elusive Black Belt World title. I, for one, am rooting for him
Laura Barker looked very solid in her divisional claim, but Nathiely De Jesus has a firm grip on this division. I’m looking forward to that clash, as well as match ups between Talita Nogueira and Fernanda Mazzelli.
Patrick Gaudio has a big hill to climb at Super Heavyweight. The blitzkrieg that is Nicolas Meragalii, Mahammed Aly and Luiz Panza would all like words with him. I believe he will drop down to heavyweight and make a deep run there.
Jessica Flowers will soon have to deal with Claudia Doval at Super Heavyweight and I am not going to be the one to bet against that mat monster. Only time will tell the winner of this contentious division.
Ultra Heavyweight is ruled by the winningest person of all of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Marcus “ Buchecha” Almeida. Good luck with that guy barring any freak injury or his retirement from the sport.
As for the opens, “Buchecha” claims another title and my hope is that lightweight Ffion Davies snaps it up, bringing back the times of smaller absolute champions, like Kyra Gracie.
Written By: Josh Weinstock