Tournament of Championship 9 – Recap with Photos, Videos, and Our Top Highlights from Houston

HOUSTON, TX, January 15, 2012 – The 2012 competition for F2W / WGC tournaments in Texas officially began yesterday to the tune of 478 competitors who came out to compete at Tournament of Championship 9 at the Spring Klein Wrestling Club. Despite several pre-event obstacles, that had them on their heels, Seth Daniels and Brett Boyce put on a brisk-paced event which had everyone done by 4PM on the day.

As for the action on the mats, it was fierce. …A good sign that 2012 will follow a successful last year on the Texas BJJ and Grappling Scene. Team results are forthcoming as it gets released to us but let’s highlight some of the outstanding performances of the day.

Men’s Division Highlights

Shining high at the top of the Absolute Divisions on the day was purple belt Braden Masters (Genesis) in the GI and young Roman Hernandez (Arsenal BJJ) in the No GI division.

Based on everything we saw, Masters had himself one heck of a day starting out with an awesome armbar over Evan Gideon in his GI division and stretching all the way through to his tap of Hernandez in the absolute finale. As for Roman, he spent the first tournament of his 2012 campaign proving himself to be a force to be reckoned with at all ages through his performance. The young man dominated his division with several matches against Darren Willingham before running through both absolute divisions on the way to his 1^st and 2^nd place finishes in the No-GI and GI respectively. Most notable on his run was his triangle choke finish over Patrick Sturgeon, an adult competitor probably 100 lbs. heavier than he is.

As for other top performers, of that there were plenty.

It was good to see Albert Hughes out on the mats in Houston. He performed well and highlighted his trip with a win over Hector Munoz. Also looking good at black / brown belt were Gustavo Carpio, Roger Narvaez, Todd Moore, and Andrew Garza just to name a few.

Many other guys did well. You’ll see them all once the final results come out. For now, check the event photos for highlights of the men that performed well this time around.

Teens / Kids Division Highlights

Speaking of impressive up-and-comers on the TX BJJ Scene, it was certainly showcased through several fun matches throughout the day.

At the teen level, Cain Menn (Paul Thomas BJJ) and Justin Rebolloso (Alvarez BJJ) had themselves one heck of a match with Cain coming out on top in this meeting. Speaking of Justin, he also had himself an impressive win over Matthew Hernandez (Paragon) in a match we’d consider to be one of the best of the day. All three of these names mentioned above should be early contenders for Teen Grappler of the Year in our 2012 TXMMA Awards if their performance on the day is followed up with similar efforts in future tourneys.

Moving on down the line to the kids, we’ll let the results speak for themselves regarding who won out during the day but let’s just say we saw plenty of kids doing work out there in this tourney!

Female Division Highlights

Last but not least, the ladies sure put on a show out at Tournament of Champions 9 despite the fact that many of the state’s ladies were out in San Antonio for the Women’s Grappling Camp with Emily Kwok and Valerie Worthington.

Holding up the flag for the women at this tourney were non-other than Lora Hallock (Paragon) and Danielle Alvarez (Alvarez BJJ) who both won their divisions. Hallock would also win the GI and No GI absolute divisions for a successful first outing of 2012 while Alverez achieved a win over Hallock in divisional action. Speaking of Hallock, she also had 3 fights in the men’s purple belt division, getting 3rd place with 2 wins to only one loss! Definitely the definition of BJJ with technique over strength as the emphasis there in her game.

We saw plenty of other girls competing hard to open up 2012 with Kaitlyn Cain, Sarah Boyd, Stephanie Cantu, Audrey Alvarez, and several others all looking good, just to name a few.

Tournament of Champions 9 – Photo Gallery & Videos

Complete photo galleries for all divisions are already up on the TXMMA Facebook Page! Make sure to “LIKE” us on there as we follow the action on the TXMMA Grappling Scene all year long.

As for videos, we have 60+ matches including all the ones discussed above for your viewing pleasure. Tune in to the Texas Grappling Channel for all of them from Tournament of Championship 9 and many other competitions throughout the state of Texas.

• Men’s GI Division Photos

• Men’s No GI Division Photos

• Female Division Photos

• Kids / Teens Division Photos

• Crowd Shots / Random Shots

Texas Grappling Channel (Videos)

TXMMA Top Matches of the Day

Roman Hernandez vs. Patrick Sturgeon

Danielle Alvarez vs. Lora Hallock

Todd Moore vs. CJ Ortega

Lora Hallock vs. Justin Ordinario

Justin Rebolloso vs. Cain Menn

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About Mike Calimbas

Mike Calimbas is a mainstay within the Texas MMA and Grappling scene and a frequent contributor to TXMMA.com and other publications, online and print, as writer, photographer, and analyst. To contact Mike for any reason, feel free to add him to your network through the Facebook and Twitter links directly below. Also, follow along on Twitter via @TXMMAfeed (#MMA) and @mikecalimbas (everything else)!

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