Just wrapped up a great weekend of jiu-jitsu/grappling competition here in Bangkok, Thailand. Near 200 competitors from all over Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia and the USA.
GI RESULTS
http://www.bjj-asia.com/2009/09/fbt-thailand-bjjsub-grappling-open-gi.html
NO-GI RESULTS
http://www.bjj-asia.com/2009/09/fbt-thailand-bjjsub-grappling-open-no.html
Congrats on another great tournament Luke!
Was it bigger than last year's?
Also, good to see Evolve (Gordinho's new home) doing so well!
Awwww.
I really wanted to compete in this event, as did a number of my teammates.
But, the competition date fell right on the Silver week series of national holidays here in Japan - so all tickets to Thailand were gone 2-3 months in advance.
Maybe next year.
Congratulations on a sucessful tournament!
Ray took 2nd in the Nogi? How did that match go? He's got one of the best nogi guards I've ever rolled against.
Hi Guys,
Just want to thank all the competitors/teams that came out to Bangkok this past weekend and made it such an exciting tournament to be a part of. Nearly all the major teams in Southeast Asia were represented with additional teams from the US, Australia, Brazil and Japan in attendance as well. The number of competitors were higher than last year and it was very clear that the level of competition/skill had increased in 1 years time. I wouldn't be surprised to see some new purples and browns crop up in the next year from the ranks.
A new addition to the community and one of the larger teams from outside Thailand, Evolve MMA came through under the leadership of Prof Gordinho. Look for more things to come from this group and BJJ in Singapore.
Tiger Muay Thai's Ray Elbe had two big challengers this past weekend with Aussie, Ross Dallow in the gi and again in the no-gi. Elbe did fair better in the no-gi with a win over VPF purple-belt, Ali Sulit. I believe all matches were decided by points.
While I'm not ready to entertain ideas of next year's tournament, I can promise we will work to make it even better so don't miss out.
Luke
Did I read that right?!?! Ray did the Gi? I would love to see that. I spent 3 months at Tiger and think I saw him put it on once.
He really helped my nogi game out a ton though, showed me some sweet overhook- underhook setups for triangles, armbars, etc.
My first match on Saturday was against Marcus and lost on points. I should wised-up after the first double-leg but didn't pull guard till halfway through the match. I had a great time and hope to get another match with Marcus.
He deserves all the credit since he had nothing but tough opponents in his division + the absolute. He beat out a judo black-belt that probably had 10-15kg weight advantage in the abs.
But yeah, it wasn't until after my match with him that a buddy of mine from PH told me his background, hahaha.
Hey Jack...how's Koh Samui going? Hope you come back and train at tiger again sometime...we've missed yeah.
Yeah...I did the Gi. Prolly not the wises choice. Really haven't put it on in a few months...and Bernueng broke my nose about 10 days ago while sparring. the 8 min matches, and the lack of rolling in the Gi showed.
Nogi...I lost to the same guy...ugh... LOL. But he was strong, he's fighting MMA next weekend in Australia and was in peak condition. With about 10 seconds left he passed my guard and got 3 points. I had a decent heel hook attempt, and thought I was gonna catch him in a triangle from the inverted guard...but it just wasn't my day. Not a great performance on my end...but you live/learn, there was a time when I would have been stoked to earn a silver medal...lol.
Overall great tournament...with very few hiccups. They promoted 3 amateur MMA fights that were held after the Nogi portion, TMT went 3-0 in those with all the fights being good.
Here is my match against Ali Sulit, a Judo National champion from the philippines.
Brawl of the day was surely Ray's fight against the Kreation wrestler/bjj'er, sorry I forget his name. In that match the wrestler kept running Ray out of bounds with takedowns...unfortunately the run out of bounds was toward the crowd barrier and escalator, not towards the middle mat, which definitely led to some drama.
Hey did Michael Grossman really outweigh Marcus Valda by that much? They didn't look that different on the mats, but the scales don't lie. Marcus was a real gentleman after the match, hard to believe a guy that friendly and mellow is a SEA Games gold medalist. I thought pre-Olympics folk would have attitude, but he sure didn't.
Ray if you get out to the States please come train with us at Ralph Gracie Berkeley.
Egbvr,
That was Scott Calver, purple BJJ and BB in Judo. The match was a very competitive close match for sure. Scott is all business on the mats.
I fought both Marcus and Michael and I would have to say Marcus was the heavier of the two. If the scales say differently then I give it up to Marcus for laying on that pressure from the takedowns. I had a blast fighting both guys.
Mr. Scott Calver is a beast.
...Egrbvr I'm planning on swinging by the states Nov-Jan...I'll try to make it up to Ralph's academy during that time :)
Scott is an ass. I look forward to the next time we compete against each other, I wont play so much and will make it a point. I have a bruise on my hip the size of a softball because of his weekend warrior outbreak. He knew we were going off the mats.
Ross Dallow fights tomorrow night in Brisbane, I have another student Cyrus Washington on the same MMA card. Good luck Ross.
Scott is very competitive and a nice guy if you ever met him.
Very good guard pass at the end.
Scott was my training partner for several years when he lived here in Bangkok. Everyone respected him on and off the mats. It sucked to have him move on to Singapore, super cool guy for sure.
Scott was my training partner for several years when he lived here in Bangkok. Everyone respected him on and off the mats. It sucked to have him move on to Singapore, super cool guy for sure.
Maybe it was just the moment in the match.
Water under a bridge...but I still look forward to our next match :)