This weekend, April 24, 2021, Nashville will host the latest Artista Jiu-Jitsu Invitational event, a joy for gi fans who may be saturated by the barrage of no-gi action on offer. The famous Tennessee-based group has graced us with fun events in the past and continues to raise the bar of its tournament promotion, this time featuring a solid Grand Prix style event as well as two highly anticipated superfights under submission-only rules, with the gi.
The matches will be streamed, for free in Artista’s Instagram account (@artistabjj) and in the promotion’s YouTube account.
GRAND PRIX
The tournament line-up is stacked with some of the rising stars of the sport, ranging between the brown and black belt ranks. On the roster are names like Eduardo Roque and Igor Feliz (two of the most promising brown belt prospects in the world), veteran black belts Emilio Hernandez, Bebeto Oliveira, and Leo Silva, as well as the always tough Randall Sanders, Peter Yu, Clay Mayfield.
In a sea of talent, we have two brown belts leading the pack – Eduardo Roque and Igor Feliz – as the tournament’s front-runners, however, the Artista Invitational title is completely up for grabs. All quarterfinals matches are very even and we could easily see any of these athletes making it through to the final on a good day.
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SUPER FIGHTS
As aforementioned, we have two very fun superfights in the making. First with AOJ’s Johnatha Alves face-off with ZR Team’s, Gabriel Sousa. Alves will be coming in with the favoritism here, considering he has never been submitted as a black belt, and this is a submission-only match – also the fact that Johnatha is two weight classes above Sousa. Nevertheless, Sousa is one of the top-ranked competitors in the world, a true “gamer” and a veteran, his chances here should not be underestimated.
Equally fun is the prospect of Tainan Dalpra (also of AOJ) versus Matheus Luna (Checkmat). Two completely different approaches to the game, a style clash that should be great fun for the fans.
Dalpra currently shows one of the crispiest jiu-jitsu in the game and is undefeated at black belt. An athlete who rarely makes mistakes or gives openings to his opponents, every grip has a plan, every move a strategy. Luna is the complete opposite, a grappler who will expose himself for the sake of keeping the pace of the match going, or in pursuit of the submission. Dalpra is the favorite here, but Luna is vastly more talented than his 19-10 record would make him seem.
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