Fighter

 Fight 2 Win put on their second show of the year this past Saturday in Sacramento, CA with a mix of purple belt, brown belt, black belt and some awesome super fights at the top of the card. As usual, F2W featured a mix of Gi and No-Gi matchups, let’s take a look a look at some of the top matches from this past weekend.

At brown belt, Heather Woods took a decision victory over Joy Pendall for the F2W Brown Belt Lightweight title. This match was elected as the FOTN.  Fabricio Silva used an armbar to secure the win over Mikey Hothi in a match to determine the Brown Belt Middleweight Champion. Also at Brown belt, Daniel Wuerthner hit a slick omaplata on Ronald Hernandez for the SOTN

In the black belt division, Marcus Boness picked up the decision against Angel Lopez in the black belt FOTN and Jason Butcher used a Triangle Armbar over Richard Flores for the SOTN. Elizabeth Katherine Mitrović defeats Talita Nogueira via split decision. The match started with both looking to establish grip control on the feet. Mitrović then jumped full guard at about two minutes into the match. Nogueira kept her feet and used a strong base to transition into a side smash as Mitrović looked to invert into a Kneebar attack. Nogueira countered and passed the guard. The two went out of bounds and they were reset in the middle. After the reset, Nogueira used a dynamic X pass to land in the side control. Mitrović would recover the 50/50 and the match would expire there. The judges ruled in favor of Mitrović due to the submission attempts.

In the main event, No Gi absolute champion Victor Hugo won a decision over 2019 ADCC silver medalist Nicky Rodriguez. The two represent the new generation at the highest levels of grappling competition, bringing skill and a new type of athleticism. The match started with Hugo pulling guard right from the beginning not wanting to tangle with the explosive takedowns from Rodriguez. Using hand fighting and side to side motion from his knees Rodriguez looked to pass the guard of Hugo who was hunting to lock up his opponent in the closed guard and attack the legs or arms. A majority of the match would take place in Hugo’s closed guard with him attacking and Rodriguez defending. With 30 seconds remaining Roriques fell back on a leg attack which was easily defended by Hugo. All 3 judges scored in favor of Hugo giving him the decision victory.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for our technique of the week. We will also be covering the European Championship live from Lisbon, Portugal this entire week. Don’t miss a moment!

Technique Tuesday is powered by our friends at The Grapple Club, in this week's edition Sebastian Brosche shares one of his favorite submissions.

Who is Sebastian Brosche?

Sebastian is a black belt from Eduardo Rios and founder of Yoga for BJJ. He has competed at major BJJ events around the world for the last decade. He is a mutli-time medalist at the IBJJF World and European Championship among other international accolades Sebastian has also taken his Yoga and BJJ learning across the world to teach classes and seminars to thousands of students.

Starting in Judo at 7 years old, Sebastian quickly fell in love with martial arts and actively trained until at age 23. His next interest was in submission wrestling. He quickly fell in love with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and made that the focus of his martial art pursuits. He received his blue belt in his native Sweden before relocating to Norway. Here Sebastian came under the tutelage of Eduardo Rios, Leader of Frontline. In 2011 after experiencing injury and pain from years of BJJ and Judo Sebastian was introduced to Yoga which, we would actively pursue and go on to found Yoga for BJJ.

 With the tournament season just starting to warm up, we only have one event to look forward to this weekend. Fight 2 Win 134 goes down tonight in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Victorium Sports Complex. With over 40 matches lined up, it will be a night full of some awesome Gi and No Gi matches. Let's take a look at the main matches on the card.

Headlining the card, Former UFC Lightweight Champion Benson “Smooth Henderson” will take on Jiu Jitsu ace Marcio Andre. Henderson holds a 28-8 record in MMA and is currently on a 4 fight win streak. Known for his high pace and well roundness in MMA, he is no stranger to BJJ. Often competing in both GI and No GI events, Henderson has competed at major IBJJF events and the ADCC.  Strong wrestling and extremely difficult to submit make Henderson a difficult match for anyone in the submission only rule set of Fight 2 Win. The 25 year old Andre already holds 5 IBJJF World Championship medals ( 3 Gi and 2 No Gi) winning the No Gi World Championship in 2016. Marcio received his black belt in 2014 and has been at the top of the black belt Feather and Lightweight divisions since. Known for his slick guard and back taking skills this is going to be a clash of styles. This match will be No Gi and take place at 170lbs.

Talita Alencar vs Karen Antunes will be the co main event. This is a Gi match for the F2W 125 Black Belt Gi Title. Alencar is the 2017 IBJJF world champion representing Alliance. A veteran of the lower weight classes, she is known for being an offensive minded Jiu Jitsu player who hunts for the submission. Well rounded wrestling, heavy pressure oriented passing and leglocks are the core of Alencar’s game. Antunes is an IBJJF Gi World Champion (2018), No Gi Champion (2015) and Pan American Champion (2018). Since her promotion to black belt in 2014, Antunes has been one of the top lightweight competitors each year. Expect to see the type of match where neither competitor wants to give an inch.

Also featured on the card, is a 200lb Black Belt Gi match of Jake Watson vs Arnaldo Maidana and a 225lb Black Belt Gi match of Josh Guerra vs Stephen Hall. Looking forward to watching these matches later tonight, make sure you tune in!

In this week’s edition, Black Belt World Champion Talita Alencar breaks down one of her favorite guard passes:

Who is Talita Alencar?

Talita was interested in sports from an early age. Growing up in brazil she took up surfing, skating, swimming, and triathlons at an early age. At age 14 Talita added BJJ as a way to learn how to defend herself and siblings. After receiving the blue belt, Talita moved to Rio where she would train with BJJ legends Theodoro Canal and Julio Cesar Pereira. She would stay training with GFT through the black and achieve many victories and titles with the team. Always dreaming of the California lifestyle, Talita accepted an offer from another BJJ legend Cobrinha to live and train with his team in Los Angeles in 2016.

Grappling Game

Known for her rounded BJJ game. Talita is known to be one of the few high-level competitors at the lighter weights who can pressure pass, takedown and Judo throw her opponents. She truly has complete Jiu-Jitsu, devastating pressure passing paired with dynamic outside passing, Judo throws and a slick single-leg, back attacks from bottom combined with an unorthodox leglock game. Her game has been sharped through the experience of achieving World Championship titles in Gi and No-Gi at the black belt level.

Even though there was no major superfights or tournaments this past weekend, a lot of news is coming out of the BJJ world.  Here is what you missed:

Late Sign Ups for Europeans

With the IBJJF announcing that the competition was nearing full capacity, some big time competitors decided to go for it and added their names to the already stacked divisions. Below are those who joined over the weekend:

-Bruno da Silva Malfacine

-Michael Musumeci Jr. 

-Gianni Paul Grippo 

-Luan de Carvalho Alves

-Bradley Hill 

-Sebastian Brosché 

-Lucas Benévolo Valle 

-Fellipe Andrew Leandro Silva 

-Tanner Wade Rice 

-Amal Amjahid 

This is shaping out to be one of the best European Championships yet and we still have 5 more days of signups!

BJJ Legends to Faceoff in UFC

It was announced that Jiu Jitsu  world champions and longtime UFC fighters Demain Maia and Gilbert “Durinho” Burns will meet in the UFC Octagon on the card in Brasilia this coming March. Burns holds a record of 17-3 in MMA, he is a Gi and No Gi IBJJF  world champion. Maia is coming off a big submission victory over Ben Askren and holds an MMA record of 28-9. Maia was a ADCC champion in 2007.

Levi Jones-Leary to do 12 hour Roll-A-Thon

The Australian BJJ star announced that this upcoming Saturday, January 11th he will personally remain on the mats for the full time. The Roll-A-Thon is to benefit that Rural Fire Service which as been battling the Fires there. The event will be held in Sydney and begin at 8am.

Match Announcement

Edwin Najmi will meet Johnny Tama at Fight 2 Win 136. Tama is coming off a big win at No Gi worlds where he became the first Ecuadorian to win an IBJJF world championship. Najmi is a pupil of Rommulo Barral and has been a major player at lightweight since receiving his black belt in 2016. He won his last outing on the Third Coast Grappling stage. The event will take place on Friday, January 24th in Los Angeles.