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!
 

 

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!

AUSTIN, TX, May 1, 2013

Competing teams including many academies from the Austin (Gracie Humaita, Ronny Lis, Enlightened Warriors, Paragon, Gracie Barra, etc.) and San Antonio (Champions Factory, etc.) area along with other teams such as Chris Brennan’s Next Generation and BQuick Jiu-Jitsu coming from Dallas to as far as Beaumont.

Check out the complete team results from the AGF 2013 Summer Classic below as put out by the American Grappling Federation immediately following the event:

No Gi Kids Team Results

1st – Champions BJJ Factory
2nd – BQuick JJ
3rd – Next Generation

Gi Kids Team Results

1st – BQuick JJ
2nd – Champions BJJ Factory
3rd – Enlightened Warriors

No Gi Adults Team Results

1st – BQuick JJ
2nd – Paragon BJJ Austin
3rd – Gracie Humaita

Gi Adults Team Results

1st – BQuick JJ
2nd – Gracie Barra Round Rock
3rd – Paragon BJJ Austin

As for individual highlights, we’re still waiting on complete results to be posted but the good news is we DO have a ton of photos from the tourney along with a collection o some of the best matches of the day – about 25 in all.

Check them all out below and make sure to follow American Grappling Federation as they return for their next event may 18^th in Houston.

2013 Austin Classic – Select Match Videos

2013 Austin Classic – Comprehensive Photo Galleries

► High-resolution Print Galleries – Kids Divisions / Adult Divisions

► TXMMA Facebook Galleries – Kid Divisions / Adult GI / Adult No-GI / Women’s Divisions / Coaches and Crowd Shots

This Saturday, April 27^th will be a full day in two cities with an event happening both in Austin and in Houston.

For Austin – American Grappling Federation will be coming to town for the very first time with the promotion hosting the 2013 Austin Classic at Farley Middle School in Hutto, TX. The event (AGF’s first-ever in Austin) will feature the $1,000 Team Challenge with additional prizes being awarded by sponsor Wartribe Fight Gear. Early registration has ended but you can still sign up here if you’d like to compete in the ATX.

For Houston – Amy Gonzalez’s new promotion Grappling Games will be hosting their very first event ever the University of St. Thomas Jeraback Center (the same site as the annual IBJJF Houston Open). The 2013 Grappling Games is boasting over $10,000 in cash prizes across a score of different divisions for this one. Early registration is until Wednesday and grapplers wishing to compete can sign up here.

The following weekend will mark a big day for Texas BJJ with the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation bring the 2013 IBJJF Dallas International Open to the TWU – Kitty Magee Arena in Denton on Sunday, May 5th.

As seen on our recap of last year’s event, the 2013 IBJJF Dallas Open should bring in scores of competitors with grapplers headed in from all over the country to come and compete in DFW. Nova União took the team titles in both the kids and adult divisions last year but they should face some stiff competition this time around.

As for individual competitors, registration and still ongoing some notables have already signed up.

Some black belt names already registered include Renato Tavares, Luis Rubalcava, Fabiana Borges, Thaysa Silva, Gabriel Vella, Marcus Antelante and Carlos Diego Ferreira.

The list continues on the lower belts as well with Rehab Muttalib, Hunter Ewald, Pedro Migliano, Cooper Cardinale, Brandon Russell, Travis Orr, and a host of others already registered.

Registration for the 2013 Dallas Open is ongoing until this Saturday. You can find all the necessary info and register to compete at the 2013 Dallas Open here.

As a preview of what to expect at the 2013 IBJJF Dallas Open, here’s some images from last year’s tournament courtesy of Mike Calimbas Photography. If you’d like to book Mike to shoot your experience at the 2013 IBJFJ Dallas, contact him via his Facebook page here.

For a full schedule of upcoming events and tournaments all around Texas, make sure to bookmark our TXMMA Events Calendar.
 

Looking back at the 2012 IBJJF Dallas Open

SAN ANTONIO, TX, April 17, 2013

Managed by Rafael Perez, the Matshark San Antonio Open Pro brought in around 300 competitors from Central Texas and beyond to compete for cash prizes in addition to the well-earned medals you typically see hanging around the winners’ necks.

Highlighting the tournament was a brown/black belt division that featured some of the best from the area – including Marcus Antelante (Soul Fighters), Daniel Pinheiro (RPBJJ), Italo Lins (GFTeam / Champions Factory), Edgardo Venegas (Sangue Novo), Gilbert Jimenez (Team Delima), and several more with money going to the first, second, and third placers in the over-170 and under-170 divisions.

The aforementioned Marcus Antelante and Italo Lins would take first place honors in their respective divisions while other competitors including Matthew Fox, KC Spatz, Mark Lozano, and others would shine in the purple belt and under divisions.

Below are the full team standings from the San Antonio Pro held on April 13^th in San Antonio.

Make sure to check down lower on this post for match videos of all the brown/black belt matches plus a few more!

Adult Team Standings

RPBJJ 1st Place

BTT 2nd Place

Soul Fighters 3rd Place

Kids/Teens Team Standings

Champion’s Factory 1st Place

Ohana Academy 2nd Place

Paragon BJJ 3rd Place

Matshark San Antonio Open Pro 2013 – Event Photos

High-resolution prints and downloads available for purchase on mikecalimbas.com.

MatShark SA Open Pro 2013 – Adult Divisions

MatShark SA Open Pro – Kids / Teens Divisions

MatShark SA Open Pro – Select Match Videos

HOUSTON, TX, April 16, 2013

This year, over 500 competitors should up for what ended up being a long and competitive day of grappling highlighted by an ambitious all-black belt grand prix.

Several top names from around the area and elsewhere in the state showed up to partake in the $1,000 winner-take-all tourney.

The participants included: Jason Soliz (TX3C), Alex Martins (Paragon Dallas), Bruno Alves (GFTeam), Spenser Gilliam (Solis Martial Arts), Chris Westfall (Team Lutter), and Bernardo Pitel (Nova Uniao).

After some hotly contested matches, Alex Martins of Paragon was able to take home the prize money and title of tournament champion over his fellow black belts – continuing a streak of wins as of late for the Dallas-based instructor.

As for the rest of the tourney, it was definitely a full day for everyone with almost 200 competitors missing weight and needing to be re-bracketed on the day of the tournament. Despite the delay, the tourney went on as fast as possible with many grapplers performing well once they got to step on the mats.

We spoke to Elbert Hebron and he has assured us that GPG will take steps to enhance efficiency and make these tournaments run even faster in the future. He also told TXMMA to pass along his thanks to all the grapplers that came out to the event and for their continued support of the long-running GPG events.

Complete individual and team results for the entire tournament can be found on the Grand Prix Grappling website coming soon.

2013 Texas International Grappling Festival Event Photos (Click to enter album)

Adult Divisions

Kids Divisions

2013 Texas International Grappling Festival – Select Match Videos

Click here to see individual matches and make sure to subscribe!

GEORGETOWN, TX, April 4, 2013

All in all 608 total competitors from around the state to vie for the coveted title of state champion and the competition was fierce with team prize money on the line for the squads that could put on the best showing.

In the end Gracie Barra ran away with the $1,500 cash prize with 117 total points. AFC/Solis Martial Arts and Champions Factory came in placing second and third respectively after the dust settled on the full day of action.

As for individual highlights, just some of the absolute winners included Kendrick Chavez (Enlightened Warriors) and Roberto Jimenez (Alliance) winning the teen absolutes while Frisco Deleon (Sub Grappling) and Damon Morgan (Unified Jiu-Jitsu) won the Men’s advanced open divisions. Andera Keller (Genesis) and Paulina Granados (American Revolution) chimed in with wins in the women’s divisions as well.

Complete individual results for the entire tournament can be found here.

TOURNAMENT PHOTOS (Click to enter album)

Men’s GI Divisions

Men’s No GI Divisions

Women’s Divisions

Kids and Teen Divisions

Coaches and Crowd Shots

SELECT MATCH VIDEOS

Click here to see individual matches and make sure to subscribe!
 

Gracie Grappling Cup – San Antonio, TX

Mark Lozano, Daniel Pinheiro, Alex Martins | photo: Mark Lozano

First up, Gracie Grappling Cup returned to San Antonio’s Factory of Champions for the first time since last November. Many of our readers might remember that last event for producing the very-first women’s black belt superfight in Texas and subsequently 2012 sub of the year with Fabiana Borges taking on Christy Thomas. There wasn’t any such women’s match this time around but there were prize money divisions with almost $2,000 in total prize money going around for black and brown belt winners.

In the black belt absolute, Paragon Dallas representative Alex Martins won the $1,000 grand prize over a field that included Daniel Pinheiro (RPBJJ), Jarrod Clontz (SMAA / CFC) and Luis Rubalcava (Alliance). Also in the brown belt division, Kaue Damasceno of Nova Unaio won the brown belt division for the second straight event, taking home the $400 prize over Robert Garza of Elements BJJ in the final.

Overall the event was said to have ran very smoothly with over 200+ competitors from around 30 teams getting a chance to roll and go home by 3:30PM. Overall team standings are below and Gracie Grappling Cup will return for their next event in Waco on July 27^th. We’ll be sure to be at that one so stay tuned for more information as the event near.

Gracie Grappling Cup – Team Standings for March 9, 2013

KIDS TEAM CHAMPIONS

1st – Relson Gracie 42
2nd – Soulfighters Texas 29
3rd – Rony Lis 28
4th – Ohana 25

ADULT TEAM CHAMPIONS

1st – Soulfighters 45
2nd – Texas Powerhouse 31
3rd – Relson Gracie 30
4th – Rodrigo Pinheiro 27

Dungal Submission Grappling Championship – Houston, TX

Team leader Zulfi Ahmed and his Bushi Ban International organization held the 2013 edition of their Dungal Submission Grappling Championship this past weekend also in Southeast Houston (Pasadena). Dating back since the early days (pre-2005), the Dungal No-GI event is one of the oldest-running tournaments in the Houston area and perhaps all of Texas.

This year the big winner taking home the hammer and grand champion honors was Ricky Shivers of Gracie Barra Champions. The big man decided to compete in this fresh off his MMA heavyweight title fight a week prior versus Derrick Lewis and did not disappoint, winning over a field that included 2^nd place Renan Chavez (Zion MMA) and 3^rd place Jason Soliz (TX3CMMA).

We have not received any type of overall team standings from this event but notable gold medal division winners aside from the names above include Gerzan Chaw (Bushi Ban), Andy Cordova (GB Texas), and Terrence Ferguson (GB Katy).

Newbreed Ultimate Challenge – Dallas, TX

Last but not least up for the weekend was the Newbreed Ultimate Challenge and their inaugural Dallas Grappling Championship held this past Saturday, March 9^th at the Sportsplex at Valley View. A new entrant to the Texas tournament scene, David Heller and his Newbreed brand boasted over 350 competitors and 600 total divisions for this past weekend’s event – completed and cleaned up by 6:30PM.

No individual results to report just yet from this one but it does look like Team Alvarez BJJ was the big winner taking home the team titles in both the adult and kids & teen divisions for the event.

We’ll have more news from this event as we hear it. Or just feel free to comment on this post if you feel any individual competitors deserve to be recognized so everyone can share in their accomplishments!

Up Next for TXMMA’s Continued Coverage of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Scene

TXMMA.com and myself (Mike Calimbas Photography) will be busy over the next few weeks (through April) with tournament events scheduled to be covered all over the state and beyond.

► First up will be the 2013 IBJJF Pan-Ams scheduled for March 20^th-24^th at the Bren Event Center in UC Irvine (SoCal). We won’t be there for the entire event but rest assured we will be catching plenty of our Texas purple to black belt competitors in action and reporting back on their international achievements here on TXMMA.com.

► Then on March 30^th we’ll be traveling down to Austin, TX for Fight to Win / World Grappling Circuit’s 4^th annual Texas State Championship event scheduled for East VIew High School in Georgetown, TX. As the longest running “state championship” event, this is the one we’ve historically recognized as hailing that official status for TXMMA so make sure to come out for that one also.

► The following week we’ll be back in Houston Elbert Hebron’s Texas International Grappling Festival - scheduled for North Shore Sr. High School in East Houston. This was one of the best Houston events last year as far as brown / black divisions go so make sure to put this on your radar as well.

The month will conclude for us with two other big events.

► On April 13^th, Rafael Perez and his crew will be hosting the MatShark SA Open Pro at St. Phillip’s College in San Antonio, TX. With over $13.000 in prize money, this should be his largest event yet so it’s quite fitting that we should be there covering this series for the very first time.

► Finally on April 27^th we finish the month off with American Grappling Federation’s 2013 Austin Classic at Farley Middle School in Hutto, TX. They’ll once again be hosting another $1,000 team challenge as they did for their last event as they did at the Winter Classic in DFW this past January so look for this one to be hotly contested as well.

That’s it for TXMMA’s March and April tournament coverage so make sure to catch us at one or more of these events as we continue on with our 2013 TXMMA Tournament Season. For more info on all these events, make sure to bookmark the TXMMA Events Calendar.

As always, make sure to catch all your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu event photos at www.mikecalimbas.com.

See you guys on the mats!