Copa de Luta-Livre’n’Submission do RJ- Ironies playing! Tuned to the name of this event, you should ask yourself- “-Is Luta-Livre still alive?” Well, this question can’t be answered rightly since the martial art Luta-Livre is totally down in its motherland (Riode Janeiro) and its main representatives are not too worried of putting the Luta-Livre’s name on the top again. The former SHOOTO fighter, Marcio “Cromado” Barbosa, was the main organizer of this submission event held at last 08/20 in Sirio & Libanes gymnasium which had good choir of fighters and audience- mainly, for my surprise in the audience. The crowd filled-out the dependences of the gymnasium to watch balanced matches and others with doubtful quality. When would you think a Gracie member would fight a submission event with a Luta-Livre’s banner? The times are changing and the featured OnTheMat.com Gracie new generation, Neiman, debuted submission at professionals (even he is a juvenile 17 years oldGracie Jiu Jitsu fighter) under 88kgs and his efforts nearly submitted his opponent quickly by an armbar from the guard early. But the difference of weight and the lack of experience of Neiman were primordial to be beaten by 4-0(two guard passages) after 5 short minutes of the match-up: “What experience! I felt the brutal difference of strength (nearly 10kgs), this was my first submission match. I hope to prepare myself properly at next ones” told us a smiling Neiman. Two singles matches came across more ironically then Neiman’s participation at this event, the intention of the organizers where to fit BJJ x Luta-Livre, with Aritano Barbosa and Julian “Jaba” Soares of RFT raising the Luta-Livre’s flag and two competitors of BJJ taking the challenge. However the two combatants of BJJ are former and authentic Luta-Livre ones, showing once again that the fight-sport is a modern one.
The MMA fighter Eduardo Felipe, who faced Barbosa, was representing Team Mangueira – a BTT fighter. Felipe trained under BUDOKAN’s tutelage during long time, and BUDOKAN is the most traditional Luta-Livre team of Brazil. The other BTT representative, Eduardo Simoes, is a former Ruas VT System pupil and after joining himself at Gracie Barra CT, he’s now a BTT’er. The action of these two single-matches had similar stanzas with Barbosa and Soares dominating the actions by double legs and slams over Felipe and Simoes. The victory of Barbosa was a bit softer, when he faced Felipe in a battlefield Felipe isn’t an expert in submissions. Felipe is a good ground’n’pounder at MMA bouts, but when he trade grips against a polished ground-fighter in Barbosa; his attentions on not opening spaces on the ground worked wrongly. He gave more gaps than Barbosa could expect, with two slams and one double-leg during the 7 minutes of the fight- Felipe got outclassed by 6-0 without many chances of reversing the fight. Simoes and Soares performed a balanced and caution contest, within 6 first minutes, neither of them opened their options to dictate the pace. They only limited themselves on sprawl the takedowns’ shoots of each other and stayed like that long and boring time. Soares was a little more determined, and even inaccurate he nearly took Simoes down twice. By his side, Simoes didn’t insert his Darrel Gholar’s teachings and when he hesitated in one of sprawls, it was later and he saw his body be lifted and slammed by Soares, who sized the body-slam more with the heartthan technique. The clock was approaching itself of the 7 minutes and Soares grabbed the Simoes’ hip and place his head at the stomach of Simoes to stall and to guarantee a 2-0 at the score. The tournaments were managed in 5 different divisions for the pros; and Nova Uniao was the biggest winner between the pros. Even when the Nova Uniao star Bruno Bastos lost in the first fight by guard passage to Paulo “Samoa” Nogueira of Gracie Barra at -99kgs. The Japanese, Tomihiro Hasay, and his unorthodox guard-game confused his opponents who insisted on sinking foot and legs locks at the small samurai. At the finals Hasay put the pace on the ground by pulling D’Angelo to the guard. D’Angelo tried several foot locks and Hasay used this attack to nearly take the back of D’Angelo. They scrambled and Hasay tried to take D’Angelo’s backs on standing position, D’Angelo walked out of the mat’s limits and got warning by -1. This was all that Hasay wanted, with an advantage on the score he pulled the guard once again, and put D’Angelo in a safety position until the end. Roni Torres and Akran Diaz of Nova Uniao arrived at the finals of -77kgs and decided to not fight the final, as is the Brazilian culture. However before that, both crumbled their opponents on the road. Diaz subbed RFT’s rising star Felipe Borges by armbar inside thetriangle; while Torres nearly broke the two arms of Johil de Oliveira’s Ricardo Stewart (who showed endurance by not tapping), and in the semi-final swept Carlos Eduardo, who submitted WEF’s and HOOKnSHOOT’s veteran Alexandre Barros by guillotine choke. BTT’s Anderson Novato surprised at taking wrestler Vitor Hugo down easily, scoring 2-0. Hugo seemed to have a problem during last match, because he only tried one take down and anything more. Like reported above, Paulo “Samoa” Nogueira beat Bruno Bastos and didn’t face any other fighter in the same caliber. So his capturing of the first place didn’t face any danger when he defeated Luis Felipe “Limao” by 4-0. Nova Uniao placated the first place again in the heaviest division with Henrique Marcos “Pele” scoring 2 points Braga Neto. They exchanged a lot of grips on the ground, and when Netto finally rolled and took the backs of Pele, the time finished and the points weren’t scored.
Results by teams: 1st – RFT 2nd- Top Brothers 3rd- Nova Uniao 4th- Rio Fight
Finals: -66kgs: Tomihiro Hasay (Nova Uniao) def. D’Angelo (SHOOTO Brazil) by -1. -77kgs: Roni Torres and Akran Diaz of Nova Uniao shared the first place. -88kgs: Anderson Novato (BTT) def. Vitor Hugo (Team Libra) by 2-0. -99kgs: Paulo “Samoa” Nogueira (Gracie Barra) def. Luis Felipe “Limao” (RFT) by 4-0. +99kgs: Henrique Marcos “Pele” (Nova Uniao) def. Braga Neto (Gracie Barra) by 2-0.