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Thank you to our friends at  The Grapple Club for providing our blog with weekly technique videos. Make sure to write in with any techniques you would like to see or techniques from a certain athlete.

The first-ever “Who’s #1” took place in Costa Mesa, CA this past Saturday. The event was put on by Flograppling as a way to highlight the amazing talent in the lower belts. Featuring super-fight matches between many number one ranked and top three ranked opponents from the ranking charts put on by Flograppling. In addition, the co-main event featured a showdown between the world champion Nicholas Meregali and freshman black belt stand out Victor Hugo. The main event featured the black belt debut of Roberto Jimenez and American ace Keenan Cornelius. Check out below for some of the highlight results of the event.

At blue belt Cole Abate scored a submission victory in his match via flying triangle. Cole is one of many Art of Jiu-Jitsu talents training under the watchful eyes of Rafa and Gui Mendes. Tye Ruotolo took on Johnathan Marques who was the top-ranked purple belt lightweight. Ruotolo walked away with the referee decision, this could shape out to be a fun rivalry for years to come. Micael Galvao showed why he deserved the hype he gets. The 16-year-old phenom was able to battle back after an early scare when his guard was nearly passed and back taken. Finishing with an RNC, Galvao will continue to seek out the toughest matches at purple belt.

 Conor DeAngelis pitched a shutout against his opponent, showing off his well-roundedness with sweeps passes and a dominant mount. Despite a 0-0 score, Andy Muraski and Lucas Protasio put on a tough match for the audience to enjoy. Muraski walked away with the decision but, many in the audience felt it could have gone either way. Jessica Khan elevated her status even more with a nasty toehold finish her match. Yet another Art of Jiu-Jitsu prodigy, this is her first year at brown belt and is already a favorite in any bracket.

At black belt ultra-heavy bad boy Nicholas Meregali took on surging Victor Hugo. Recently Hugo won a No-Gi world title with a nasty kneebar on Cyborg. The match started with Huge electing to pull guard. The pair then found themselves in the 50/50 with Hugo attacking a toehold while Meregali searched for a way to untangle the position. Hugo would score 2 from the 50/50 on a sweep. The pair scrambled to the feet and Meregali took his turn in pulling guard, the next sequence would decide the match as  Meregali swept and forced Hugo to turtle, Hugo snatched a single and defended. He would go on to win, 2-0. Keenan Cornelius was tapped to take on black belt newcomer Roberto Jimenez in his debut. In a thrilling technical match that featured lots of technical guard work, a double leg takedown by Jimenez would be the deciding moment of the match as he would go on to score a 6-4 victory in his debut.

Visit the blog tomorrow for the technique video of the week! Write in to let us know about any topics or events you would like to see covered. Reach us via email at info@fightersmarket.com

Welsh ace Ash Williams shares a neat butterfly guard sweep from the 2 on 1, courtesy of our friends at The Grapple Club.

Accomplishments:

Ash is a IBJJF European Champion (2016), Polaris Lightweight and Bantamweight Champion, Kasai Veteran and EBI Veteran. He has long been considered one of the UK’s top No-gi grapplers. He holds wins over notable grapplers such as, Richard Alacrcon, Ben Eddy, Ethan Crelinsten, Frank Rosenthal, Masakazu Imanari, Rafeal Freitas and Kamil Wilk

Martial Arts Journey:

 Ash began his martial arts journey at age 6 with Japenese Jiu-Jitsu. From there he would go on to try Judo and Kickboxing. At age 15 Ash and his twin brother Joshua were looking to channel their training into a competitive endeavor. Their coached recommended they give BJJ a try. The brothers found their way to the local gym (CRA HQ), after one month of training they jumped into a competition. Ash did not get the success he hoped for but, was hooked to the training and competing lifestyle offered by BJJ. In 2015 after a success coloured belt career Ash was promoted to the rank of Black belt by Chris Rees.

Future Goals:

With an eye already on the 2021 ADCC, Ash has organized a series of training camps to take place in the coming years which will include many of Europe's top lightweight grapplers. In the meantime, Ash will look to keep his crown of double champion in Polaris. He recently captured the Bantamweight title with a nasty arm lock finish of Richard Alacorn.

Continuing a run of strong performances the Fight Sport team leader captured another big title by winning the Heavyweight crown at Kasai Pro 7 last Saturday evening in Dallas, Texas. Looking in top form, Cyborg was able to navigate an eight-man bracket full of some of the best heavyweights in the world. Below is a recap of his matches and other results from the evening.

Heavyweight Tournament:

Round One- Cyborg squared off with seasoned veteran Bruno Bastos. The first half of the match was played on the feet with each grappler working hard to establish an advantage in the hand fight. Cyborg was able to use an opening to shoot a blast double and score the two points. Bruno stuck Cyborg in his half guard, the rest of the match saw him attempting to sweep while Cyborg looked for the pass.

Round Two- Since the announcement of the groupings, everyone had this one circled. Here Cyborg would get a crack at revenge with Nicky Rodriguez. The talented young competitor from the powerhouse “Danaher Death Squad” had defeated Cyborg only a few months ago at ADCC in a tight match with a bit of controversy surrounding it.  The match started with Cyborg quickly jumping to a half guard. The next two minutes saw Nicky circling looking for an opening to jump passed the guard of Cyborg while he searched for a position to sweep from. At the 3:30 mark, Nicky jumped into a knee slice pass almost pinning Cyborg to the mat, Cyborg was able to turtle and scramble his way out from danger while avoiding giving up any points. In the scramble, he was accidentally cut, the action was forced to stop. The match restarted on the feet with some heavy hand fighting until Cyborg once again sat to guard. Neither athlete was able to score points from here and the matched ended in a draw.

Round Three-  Cyborg one via defeat over Vinny Magalhaes due to injury.

Finals-  Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa would be the man to stand across from Cyborg in the final. Hulk had won Group B with wins over Paulo Azambuja (4-0),  Kyle Boehm (4-0) and Joao Rocha (2-0). These two had faced off a few months ago in the finals of the IBJJF Heavyweight Grand Prix with Cyborg picking up the victory. The match started quickly with Cyborg shooting in on a double, Hulk defended and Cyborg switched to his back where he hit a big suplex which brought the audience to their feet. Over the next several minutes Hulk actively tried to use his half guard to make something happen. In the final seconds, he was forced to give his back, the match ended with Cyborg on the back looking to score the RNC finish.

Cyborg adds another title to his collection and shows the Jiu-Jitsu community he is far from done mixing it up with the best in the world even at 39 years old. 

Superfight Results:

Dante Leon scored a big 5 to 4 victory over Renato Canuto

John Combs hit his signature guillotine choke to submit Pedro Rocha

Raquel Canuto uses a RNC to stop Gabi McComb

Undercard Results:

Rafael Formiga wins 5-0 over Rafael Lang 

Kody Steele scores an 8-4 victory over  Camron Couch