5th American National Jiu-Jitsu Championship quick roundup

The FightWorks Podcast chief reporter (yours truly) headed up to Torrance, California today for the 5th American National Jiu-Jitsu Championship.

The tourney was mid-sized. There were four mats total, and most were in use the whole time. There were approximately 28 black belts in attendance (twenty-seven appear on the official list of competitors, and Jeff Glover made his way on to the brackets after the final list was set).

Some of the black belt standout matches of the day:

• Jeff Glover beat Wellington "Megaton" Diaz by an advantage point. Jeff was underneath most of the fight. Marc Laimon was in attendance to coach Jeff in addition to other Cobra Kai characters like purple belt Sonny Nohara.


• Saulo Ribeiro blackbelt Rafael Lovato beat a very game Roberto "Tuça" Camargo. Each had two advantage points going into the closing moments when Lovato was able to take down Tuça with a throw to win 2-0.


• Lloyd Irvin's Mike Fowler beat Rafael Ramos of Gracie Barra 2-0 after spending the majority of the match stuffing Ramos' attempts to pass.


• Knuckleup blackbelt Diego Saraiva, whom you may remember from coverage on The FightWorks Podcast Episode #13 when he faced Xande Ribeiro in the finals of the absolute division, beat an unidentified brown belt but came away with a noticeable limp. The two were matched up as neither had opponents similar in size in their own rank, and Diego apparently won on points but was fighting out of a footlock attempt as the match ended.


• In women's competition, Team Mica black belt Mariana Coelho defeated Luciana Diaz.

We were able to speak with Carlinhos Gracie, the founder of Gracie Barra, and will include our conversation on the next episode of The FightWorks Podcast!