Third Coast Grappling Kumite 8 Man Bracket Released, Who are the Brown Belts?
The Brown Belts in the $10,000 8 Man Bracket
Third Coast Grappling Kumite 1
In the age of these uncertain times professional Jiu-Jitsu took a hiatus from Mid March 2020 until now. Aside from a very select few events that ran during this time promoters by and large were forced to cancel events, and in the case of Third Coast Grappling they were forced to cancel their 3CG IV event mere days before the event was scheduled to take place, with many athletes already in the city and in route to Houston. In response to the green light from city officials and with best management in mind Third Coast Grappling has announced a return to professional events with a low occupancy edition of Third Coast Grappling, their Kumite Series. The 3CG Kumite 1 looks to showcase some of the best Gi grapplers -180 pounds in a 8 man winner takes all $10,000 dollar event. Below we take a look at the only two Brown Belts announced for this event and why these athletes deserve your attention on June 6th 2020.
Pedro Marinho
Pedro Marinho and William Tackett are the only two Brown Belts that received the invite to the first 3CG Kumite. Marino is a seasoned competitor having participated in the 2019 ADCC World Championships, taking a late replacement slot less than 2 weeks out from the event to fill a vacancy in the -88 kg division. In his first round he would face Matheus Diniz the eventual champion of the -88kg bracket. In the first round of the Absolute class at ADCC 2019 Marinho would face off against Gordon Ryan, the eventual champion of the Absolute division at ADCC 2019. Prior to ADCC 2019 Marinho had won the IBJJF No-Gi pans at Brown Belt in the Absolute, and took silver in his weight class in 2019. He also won the Kasai Pro 205 pound qualifier as a purple belt, No-Gi worlds as a Purple Belt in the Heavy Division, and Third in Absolute in 2018. Marinho has wins at previous 3CG events and on the Fight to Win stage.
After ADCC 2019 Marinho ended the year in spectacular fashion, winning the 2019 IBJJF No-Gi Worlds at Brown Belt in the Heavy weight division defeating fellow Kumite 1 tournament entrant Roberto Jimenez (who is now world ranked at Black Belt) in the finals of the Brown Belt weight class ( Jimenez would be promoted to Black Belt after this match later that day). The two have faced off three times before and given that both grapplers are seeded on the same side of the bracket it is possible that a fourth matchup is in the cards for the pair at the 3CG Kumite 1. A rematch had been announced on 3CG prior to the global shutdown of BJJ events earlier in the year.
Marinho received his Brown Belt from 3* time IBJJF World Championship and ADCC 2017 Absolute champion Felipe Pena at the conclusion of the 2017/2018 IBJJF season.
William Tackett
William Tackett is the second and only other Brown Belt announced for the Kumite 1 enters the bracket with stellar showings in 2019, and 2020 as well. Having taken silver at the ADCC 2019 West Coast Trials, and acting as a a weighed in alternate for the -77 kg division at ADCC 2019. He is the current 165 pound tournament champion for JitzKing. He was the 2019 Third Coast Grappling Championship Purple Belt Qualifier Champion. The current MidWest Finishers Champion, and Current Third Coast Grappling Brown Belt Champion that he won at 3CG 2.
Willam caught lots of attention after he submitted the entire 5 man Israel team at the TMS Jiu-Jitsu Tournament in the Ukraine in late 2019, which was a quintet style event where the winning fighter faced a fresh member of the opposing team after each successful submission. It is extremely rare for a single member of a team to take out an entire team themselves. Something only William Tackett and Lachlan Giles have been able to do in this format. William also made it to the quarter finals of the BJJ Fanatics Openweight GP in late 2019.
With these two stellar Brown Belts having never faced each other this is surely to be an exciting first round matchup. Although Pedro and William are most well known for their No-Gi competition records both grapplers regularly train in the Gi. During an interview with William Tackett with the Grappling Rewind at Kasai Pro 7 in Dallas that you can watch here William stated that he was looking to on high profile matchups in 2020 and this Kumite 1 is certainly an opportunity for that.
This weekend Tackett is scheduled to compete for the Fight to Win Brown Belt Title ahead of his participation in the 3CG Kumite 1. He was previously the F2W Purple Belt champion.
Why Match The Brown Belts Up Round 1?
President and matchmaker for Third Coast Grappling Ryan McGuire when reached for comment said the following about his thought process for having both Brown Belts face off in the opening round.
“William Tackett and Pedro Marinho are two names people will hear a ton by the time this year is up... they're black belts basically without the belt. In No-GI its not too much of a big deal to face people outside of your rank, but in GI I had to do a little finessing as some of these guys aren’t too keen on mixing belts. My solution was then that we'd make them fight each other to see who moves on rather than mix them up with other black belts in the first round. Everyone is onboard, and has been super supportive of the event, and the ideas behind it, and we are excited to show our revamped production, and product to the masses.”
Grappling Rewind Event Coverage
You can listen to our bracket preview on Episode 132 of the Grappling Rewind Podcast, and hear our event recap the Tuesday after the event airs. Below is the Grappling Rewind Podcast video show where the bracket for the Third Coast Grappling Kumite 1 is discussed.
Written By: Maine Miller