OCTOBER 11, 2024. Yesterday the grappling world had the chance to watch the 8th edition of the UFC Fight Pass, the streaming platform’s professional jiu-jitsu show, based on superfights between the elite of the jiu-jitsu world. It was a night blessed with solid matchmaking by the Fight Pass Invitational staff. Every match produced a solid level of entertainment and plenty of fun exchanges, even for the uninitiated grappling fan.
Among the top matches of the evening was Gabriel Almeida’s clash with South Africa’s Johan Oosthuysen. Almeida was seen as the clear favorite here against the relatively unknown Oosthuysen, but the Creonte Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team founder proved to be a very worthy opponent for the ADCC veteran. Great exchanges by both athletes, with tight submissions, reversals, and guard passes in a tumultuous clash, but, in the end, Gabriel was able to overcome adversity and steal the win in the overtime round.
Maybe less surprising but equally entertaining was the clash between Josh Cisneros of Ares JJ and Gabriel Sousa of Essential JJ. These are two of the most entertaining featherweights in the sport with similar approaches to the game, heavily reliant on obtaining top control, as such, the question here was “Who would get the takedown points?”. After a lot of fun exchanges from a standing position and some ground work, the two grapplers went to the overtime round, where Sousa was able to find the takedown and earn the winning points, despite Cisneros’ very close attempts to get the two points back from the Brazilian.
It would be hard to deny that Renato Canuto’s win over PJ Barch was the match of the night. This one had it all. Beautiful takedowns, scrambles, sweeps, and one of the best submissions of the year in the flying Kani Basani (scissor takedown) entry to the inside heel hook by Canuto.
– Pedro Falcao def. Cristian Guzman via 8×0
– Gabriel Almeida def. Johan Oosthuysen via 3x-1 (minus one)
– Cassia Moura def. Cindy Hung via 6×0
– Gabriel Sousa def. Josh Cisneros via 2×0
– Raquel Canuto def. Gabrielle McComb via RNC
– Dante Leon def. Andy Varela via Guillotine
– Ronaldo Junior def. Isaque Bahiense via Anaconda choke
– Renato Canuto def. PJ Barch via flying inside heel hook
– Nick Rodriguez def. Michael Pixley via RNC
