Fighter

Tomorrow is day 6 of the IBJJF European Championship in Lisbon, Portugal. The competition is in full swing with the lower belt, juvenile and masters competitors taking to the mats this whole week. As the weekend begins the adult black belt divisions will take place with the most prestigious division, the absolute class kicking things off Saturday morning

Check which begin names have signed up ( there is a lot!!). This is going to be🔥

Black Belt Male Absolute:

Black Belt Female Absolute

This week Ffion Davies shares the details behind her powerfully knee cut pass against the half guard. Add this to your game and let us know how it works for you!

Accomplishments:

If you don’t know who Ffion Davies is yet, you have not been following the BJJ competition circuit closely. With titles such as Black belt IBJJF No-Gi World Champion (2018), IBJFF Pan-American Champion (2019), IBJJF European Champion (2019) Polaris Lightweight Champion, and ADCC European Trials Champion. With wins over the likes of Gezary Matuda, Bianca Basililo, and Emilia Tuukkanen-and all in her FIRST year at black belt, you soon will know her name.

Martial Arts Journey:

Her martial arts journey started at the age of 8 with Judo, competing often and even making the Welsh National Judo team. Ffion would eventually leave Judo and martial arts in her teenage years before deciding to return and focus on MMA in 2013. After successfully winning her first four fights (three amateur and one professional) Ffion decided to focus on her love of competition and training in the gi. With the transition, Ffion went to Ireland to visit East Coast Jiu-Jitsu and train with Riberio brothers black belt Darragh O’Conail. Finding the training to be what she was looking for she decided to settle in Ireland. 

 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!