As part of Scott Templeton’s long-running Southwest War Games fitness convention, this Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and No-Gi Grappling event actually shared venue space with other attractions including a Cross-Fit competition and other martial arts but no doubt took center stage in terms of activity with competitors flying across the mats all day long. Think it of as a min-version and precursor to the 2013 Europa Sports & Fitness Expo coming in Dallas later this summer.

As for this tourney specifically, one thing of note was the absence of promoter Seth Daniels and his wife Lauren Sugihara, who were at home in Denver celebrating the birth of their new baby boy, Jacoby, just a few days prior.

Congrats guys!

At any rate, Brett Boyce, Fadi Khouri, and crew did an outstanding job facilitating the tournament in their absence and all the competitors were in-and-out before 5:30pm.

Now to the action.

Team results aren’t in yet but we did see some outstanding performances on the mats by many teams from around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Some that stick out include Alvarez BJJ, Brazilian Top Team, Team Lutter, and the contingent from Guy Metzger’s Combat Sports led by their heas BJJ instructor Keiser Girao. Again we’re not sure how the team standings shook out but if they competed as an association you’d be hard-pressed to believe that anyone beat out the Nova União contingent led by head instructor Bruno Bastos, who was also present.

As for individual action on the mats, some of the highlights included a thrilling technical matchup between purple belts Cooper Cardinale (Alvarez BJJ) and Clay Hantz (Bruno Bastos Midland). Likewise, another purple belt duel in the No-GI division between Jordan Burton (GB Texas) and Devin Miller (Fitness Fight Factory) was also a fun match to watch.

Of course there were many other great performances put on overall which will be evident once the results are posted but some of the names that stick out to us based on a review of the match videos we were able to curate from the 2013 Torque Open include Jordan Shepler, Alex Russ, Natalia Biasca, Lance Yager, and Justin Rebolloso.

Here’s all our media from this event.

2013 Torque Open – Event Photo Gallery

A large selection of photos from the 2013 Torque Open is available on our TXMMA Facebook Page to LIKE and SHARE with your social media contacts. Likewise, a comprehensive high-resolution photo gallery is available at mikecalimbas.com for anyone that wants to order prints!

Here’s an example slideshow from all the action in the kids and teens divisions at the 2013 Torque Open.

2013 Torque Open – Select Match Videos

Here’s our playlist of select matches from the 2013 Torque Open. View them one-by-one and see more here.

 
The American Grappling Federation came to Houston for the very first time this past Saturday, May 18th and treated those competing to a timely and well-organized event at the 2013 AGF Spring Classic.

When it comes to unique differentiators with the AGF versus other circuits, one thing that sticks out is their hybrid rules. To specify, their GI divisions follow IBJJF guidelines whereas their NO-Gi division is patterned after the Abu Dhabi Combat Club’s rule set. Consider it the “best of both worlds” so to speak but the overarching main goal for them is adherence to competitor schedule and careful organization of match brackets with the main goal of leading a fast-paced event. This time, the event began promptly and saw the last competitors receive their medals before 5:00pm.

Those martial artists who were competing, cornering, and supporting fighters at the previous night’s Cage Combat 14 event (also in Houston) especially appreciated the fast-paced nature of the tournament. Local fighters like Gerzan Chaw and Angel Zamora from Bushi Ban stayed up late and got up early to help their friends and teammates, while others like Ricky Turcios from Gracie Barra North Houston cornered a teammate the previous night and then competed the very next day himself. Overall the support amongst teammates in the Texas Mixed Martial Arts Community is truly inspiring and keeps us coming back for more!

Here are the team results for the 2013 AGF Spring Classic as posted by them on their website immediately following the event.

No Gi Kids

1st place – Team Rivas BJJ

2nd place – Gracie Barra Woodlands

3rd place – BQuick JJ

Gi Kids

1st place – Gracie Barra Woodlands

2nd place – Team Rivas BJJ

3rd place – Elements BJJ

No Gi Adults

1st place – Gracie Barra Woodlands

2nd place – Team Tooke MMA

3rd place – 10th Planet

Gi Adults

1st place – BQuick JJ

2nd place – Gracie Barra Woodlands

3rd place – Texas Punishment Crew

 2013 AGF Spring Classic – Comprehensive Event Photo Gallery

High-resolution event photo galleries are now available on mikecalimbas.com for anyone who wants prints from the event. Here’s a little bit of the action from the kids divisions below!
 

 

2013 AGF Spring Classic – Select Match Videos

Make sure to check out select match videos from the AGF Spring Classic below and make sure to subscribe for more!
 

 

HOUSTON, TX, May 20, 2013 – The Humble Civic Center was the host to a great night of fights courtesy of Garcia Promotion’s Cage Combat 14 this past Friday, May 17th. From beginning to end amateur fighters from all over Texas showed up to fight – leaving their blood, sweat and tears in the cage. Local fighters were especially well represented by most of the major teams in the area including Silverback FC, 4OZ Fight Club, Kingwood MMA, Elite MMA, Bushi Ban, Gracie Barra Champions and many more.

The night kicked off with IVOZ’s Ramiro Ruiz and Silverback’s Mike Ross in a 115 lbs. matchup – a first at that weight here in Houston. Ruiz was mostly dominant throughout the fight, but was caught and dropped with one punch by Ross midway through the first round. Ross failed to capitalize though and Ruiz rallied back for a standing guillotine finish before the first round came to its end.

The first fight would then set the pace for the rest of Cage Combat 14 as an action-packed evening. All-in-all there were nine finishes and only four fights saw the final bell with all of these bouts being entertaining affairs. Like with any MMA event the night was not without some controversy, some felt that the Tyler Flores ‘s first round knockout over Sean Ferguson may have been a bit of an early stoppage, but the referee was most definitely trying to ensure the safety of Ferguson who will no doubt live to fight another day.

As for the highlights of the evening in the main and co-main events, Christian Sutton and Tony Orozco Jr. would leave the event as champions with Sutton taking the middleweight belt from defending champion Trevin Giles while Tony Orozco Jr. did the same at bantamweight, giving opponent Edward Longoria his first loss.

Here our TXMMA Fight Night Awards for Cage Combat 14:

Submission of the Night: John Rodriguez wins with his first round RNC on Santos Hernandez. We chose this one out of all the great submissions because of the devastating effect of Rodriguez’s end game. Hernandez was laid out cold for face-first after valiantly trying to fight off the choke.

KO of the Night: none

Fight of the Night: What the main event lacked in length it more than made up for in intensity. Christian Sutton came for Trevin Giles’ belt and he got it in the end with his signature guillotine before the first bell went off. Giles was heartbroken after the fight because he had trained to defend Sutton’s go-to technique and still could not keep him from having his way. Lots of emotional coming out of this fight. Looking forward to seeing more from both guys in the near future.

Garcia Promotions: Cage Combat 14 – Quick Results

Chris Sutton over Trevin Giles by submission (guillotine), RD1

Tony Orozco Jr. over Edward Longoria by unanimous decision

Manny Lozoya over Eric Charalambous by submission (RNC), RD1

Omar Khosravi over Michael Eaglin by unanimous decision

Randy McCullough over Steven Vera by submission (RNC), RD2

John Rodriguez over Santos Hernandez by TKO, RD 1

Tyler Flores over Sean Jefferson by KO, RD 1

Jay Sader over Jeremy Lieder by unanimous decision

Garvens Brun over Francisco Segura by TKO, RD3

Joe Scott over Joshua Kothman by unanimous decision

John Butler over Tyron Casanova by TKO, RD 1

Miguel Martinez over Max Mungai by TKO, RD 1

Ramiro Ruiz over Mike Ross by submission (guillotine choke), RD2

Cage Combat 14 – Complete Event Photo Gallery

The complete high-resolution gallery is now available on mikecalimbas.com. Check out the slideshow below for a pictorial of all the action from Humble.
 

The IBJJF Mundials tournament is universally recognized as the most prestigious GI tournament in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. With that being said, it’s natural that plenty of grapplers from all around the world make the pilgrimage to the new mecca of BJJ year after year to try and win that coveted gold medal.

The Texas BJJ Community should be sending a sizable contingent of athletes to complete at this year’s 2013 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship event.

Texas-based black belts already registered to compete include: Sue Ausman (Travis Lutter), Bruno Bastos (Nova Uniao), Ulpiano Malachias (GB Westchase), Diego Gamonal Nogueira (BTT), Travis Tooke (Team Tooke), Marcus Antelante (Soul Fighters)< Carlos Diego Ferreira (Team Ferreira), Chris Westfall (Lutter), Jason Soliz (TX3C), Luis Rubalcava (Alliance), and Brandon Mullins (GB Texas).

Of course plenty of Texas grapplers from other ranks will be heading out to the Los Angeles area as well in search for a 2013 World Championship. That includes past international medal winners like Andy Cordova, Justin Rebolloso, Pedro Migliano, and many more.

All in all it should be a great showing for the lone star state and of course we’ll be there to cover it all for our readers.

Here are some shots from last year as a precursor to the event courtesy of Mike Calimbas Photography.

Rewind: 2012 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship

DALLAS, TX, May 10, 2013

To expound on that, IBJJF tournaments are always well-run and organized but grapplers seem to think the talent pool this year at most levels divisionally was much deeper making for plenty of competitive matchups at all levels. It would have been even deeper but the 2013 IBJJF Dallas International Open registration actually reached capacity a day earlier than anticipated so plenty of grapplers missed out on the chance to showcase their skills in Dallas.

Hint: Register early next time.

As for the overall team standings for the 2013 IBJJF Dallas International Open, it comes to no surprise that Nova União won by a comfortable margin at this tournament. The Bruno Bastos-led team boasts a strong presence in DFW with schools like Alvarez BJJ, Team Lutter, and several others all competing under the same banner.

Highlighting their performance individually were blue belts Horlando Monteiro and Jordan Shepler who claimed double gold in the adult and masters divisions respectively. Meanwhile at the higher ranks, team rep Arnold Monterroso took first in his purple light feather division while Abu Dhabi World Pro Absolute Champion Kaue Damasceno added to his accolades with a gold in the brown heavyweight division as well.

2013 IBJJF Dallas Open – Overall Team Standings

1 – Nova União – 243

2 – Gracie Barra – 198

3 – KG BJJ – 127

As for additional individual highlights in the black belt divisions, there are several worth noting:

► Gabriel Vella (Street Sports) won a close and thrilling absolute final over Roberto Cyborg Abreu (Fight Sports) in the men’s adult final while Mackenzie Dern (Gracie Humaita) did the same on the women’s side over Fabiana Borges (Gracie Barra).

► Meanwhile in divisional action, Carlos Diego Ferreira (Team Ferreira) won a stacked middleweight division with Albert Hughes (Fight Sports) and Marcus Antelante (Soul Fighters) coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The opposition in that one also included guys like Leonardo Iturralde (Alliance), Jake Mackenzie (GFTeam), and others so props to all the Texas-based guys for holding down the fort in this one.

► GFTeam’s Ítalo Lins and Denilson Pimenta closed out the feather division while Marra Senki reps Gustavo Carpio and Sergio Marra ran unopposed at light feather. Last but not least was Roberto Abreu winning at Ultra-Heavy over Luis Rubalcava and Gabriel Garcia to close out the action at faixa preta.

Check out the complete results from the 2013 IBJJF Dallas Open here.

2013 IBJJF Dallas International Open Photo Galleries

Here are high-resolution photo galleries for the 2013 IBJJF Dallas Open broken down by belt level via mikecalimbas.com. Order your prints today!

Black Belt | Brown Belt | Purple Belt | Blue and White Belt | Podium Photos

2013 IBJJF Dallas International Open Video Coverage

Good news! In addition to shooting photos of all the action, we managed to scoop a full nine hours and 105 matches worth of footage for our readers as well! Check them out via the playlist below or watch them all individually here. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE for more!

HOUSTON, TX, December 5, 2012

Originally founded in September 2009,  Girls in Gis (“GIG” for short) was created to bring together a community of girls and women who train BJJ and provide a safe, fun environment for training. Since its inception and largely through the efforts of GIG organizer Shama Ko and many others on the scene, the GIG community has grown to put on women-only open mats in cities all across Texas.

Their growth has clearly been evident and as they’ve grown, so too has the women’s BJJ competition scene at tournaments all across the state – which has been absolutely awesome to watch!

GIG’s Ashley Nguyen and Shama Ko

Girls are fierce!

This past Saturday’s GIG anniversary event included 74 girl and women BJJ enthusiasts from all over the state (and a few from beyond) who all showed up a day of fun, rolling, and celebrating friendships old and new.

Girls in Gis founder Ashley Nguyen did a remarkable job organizing the action on the mats. Aside from technique, the group went through some fun games and contests as well. In short, it all looked really awesome and any Texas Female BJJ’ers who weren’t able to make it sadly missed out and should make one of these events soon (they do a women’s open mat almost every month).

Check out a more detailed recap of the Girls in Gis Three-Year Anniversary here and enjoy our photos of the event below!

SAN ANTONIO, TX, November 19, 2012

Teams from all over the Central Texas region and beyond arrived to partake in the event which included 200+ competitors showing up to compete in the event that also featured a brown and black belt superfight tournament which included Hawaii’s own Rhalan Gracie and a pair of top Nova Uniao team prospects in Kaue Damasceno and Herico Hesley. Likewise, the show also played host to the first-ever Texas BJJ women’s black belt superfight with Gracie Barra’s Fabiana Borges taking on Christy Thomas of Relson Gracie BJJ.

Check out the team results below then enjoy the photo gallery and match video from all the top matches at the event.

Gracie Grappling Cup – Team Results

KIDS/TEEN GI:

1^ST – Relson Gracie
2^ND – Ronny Lis
3^RD – Champions Factory & Gracie Barra

KIDS/TEEN NOGI:

1^ST – Ronny Lis & Relson Gracie (Tie)
2^ND – Champions Factory
3^RD – Gracie Barra

ADULT GI:

1^ST – Rodrigo Pinheiro BJJ
2^ND – Relson Gracie
3^RD –  New Braunsfels Training Center

ADULT NOGI:

1^ST – Relson Gracie
2^ND – Spartan Pit / Ferocity MMA (Tie)
3^RD – Rodrigo Pinheiro BJJ

Gracie Grappling Cup – Superfight Photo Gallery

Complete high-resolution gallery of photos from all division available for print at www.mikecalimbas.com

Gracie Grappling Cup – Select Match Videos

HOUSTON, TX, November 15, 2012

As for the particulars, several fighters did come in over their designated weight limits but not enough to alter the card with all fights going on as planned. Among them was main event fighter Robert Drysdale who came in five pounds over for his planned light heavyweight clash with “The Celtic Tiger” Chris Reed – who accepted the fight without a big fuss. It was the same with a few of the other fights but like I said, everything is still going ahead as planned.

Below is the quick card along with all the photos we captured from today’s weigh-in festivities.

Legacy Fighting Championship 15 – Quick Card

Main Card (AXS TV)

205 – Robert Drysdale vs. Chris Reed
155 – Nick Gonzalez vs. Ray Blodget
140 – Saul Elizondo vs. Angel Huerta
185 – Jon Kirk vs. Bubba Bush
135 – Cody Williams vs. Thomas de Almeida
170 – Patrick Hutton vs. Charlie Ontiveros
125 – Marcus Dupar vs. Matt Schnell

Prelims (Untelevised)

170 – Shawn Machado vs. Mike Bronzoulis
125 – Ryan Hollis vs. Will Spidle
135 – Daniel Delgado vs. Domingo Pilarte
135 – Colin Wright vs. Gerzan Chaw
170 – Kaileb Cummins vs. Levi West
155 – Alex Black vs. Mark Garcia

Many Texans showed to compete and win in California as well – including new world champions Kevin and Andy Cordova, Raul Jimenez, Daniel Alvarez, and many many more.

Please enjoy the slideshow of the black belt finals below. For comprehensive photo coverage of the entire event including all divisions, please visit www.mikecalimbas.com.
 

Black Belt Results

Rooster
Caio Terra defeats Fabio Passos by Rear Naked Choke.

Light Feather
Henrique Rezende defeats Rafael Freitas by advantages (4-1)

Feather
Cobrinha defeats Justin Rader by points. (13-0)

Lightweight
Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes defeats JT Torres by penalty (2-2 advantages, -1 for Torres)

Middleweight
DJ Jackson defeats Clark Gracie by points. (5-0)

Medium Heavy
Pablo Popovitch defeats Romulo Barral by points. (3-2)

Heavyweight
Roberto “Tussa” Alencar defeats Rafael Lovato Jr. by Refs Decision. (1-1 advantages)

Super Heavy
Xande Ribiero defeats Joao Assis by Refs Decision. (0 pts – 2 advantages each)

Ultra Heavy
Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu defeats Gustavo Elias by points. (4-0)

Open Weight
Xande Ribiero defeats Leandro Lo by points. (2-0)