Copa Podio Jiu Jitsu 2013 Results

This year’s heavyweight edition of the Copa Podio (Podium Cup 2013) was seen with great anticipation. For once, we were expecting to see some of the world’s top jiu jitsu practitioners go at it against the world’s most loved brown belt, Keenan Cornelius. Though those more experienced may of envisioned a grim afternoon for the Lloyd Irvin prospect, much of the starlet’s following were pointing young Cornelius to take the trophy home.  Keenan Cornelius did give a very good impression of himself, being the lightest fighter in the competition and going toe to toe against some tough competition, but after 3 losses and one draw, he left the competition in the group stages.

The dark horse of the competition was Joao Gabriel Rocha from Soul Fighters. Another fighter that has been on fire in the brown belt division, being the world open weight champion in that belt. Joao Gabriel Rocha won against seasoned veterans and almost made it through the groups stage, losing in the last minute of his last fight his chance to be in the semi finals, showing that the brown belt was looking very dark around his waist, this was also the opinion of Joao Gabriel Rocha’s instructors (Tanque, Tanquinho and Formiga) who awarded him the black belt soon after his last fight of the night. Another fighter that did very well in the tournament was Alexandre de Souza, the fighter from Gracie Florianopolis was one of the smallest in the competition, but being used to fight in absolute divisions all his career, Alexandre (also known as “Pop”) made it through to the semi finals on the first group with some cleaver wins over great competition.

Another performance worthy of a mention were the superfights. If Luiza Monteiro and Makenzie Dern put on a great show for the fans, with Dern winning on points, Felipe “Preguica” and Leandro Lo brought the venue to a roar with an absolute jiu jitsu highlight match. The fight was won in the last 8 seconds of the match with Leandro winning the fight with a guard pass. Final score: 3×2. Leandro Lo also defeated Augusto “Tanquinho” on points earlier in the afternoon, in the couples super-fight.

Although the event had some very good fights, Copa Podium’s big blemish was the bad stream that was provided to the viewers. It has come to light that the Copa Podium servers were hacked during the broadcast, this being the main reason for the delay on the broadcast. Copa Podium’s MD Jeferson Maycá has already assured viewers that their service would receive a well deserved upgrade for the next event.

Copa Podio Results / Podium Cup 2013 Results (Heavyweight Tournament)

Group Stages

After the group stage, Alexandre de Souza and Braga Neto advanced to the semi finals of the tournament from the 1st group and Rodolfo Vieira and Leo Nogueira advanced from the second group.

Copa Podio Results / Semi Final (Heavyweight Tournament)

Copa Podio Results / Final (Heavyweight Tournament)

Note: There was no 3rd place fight as Antonio Braga Neto injured himself on the fight with Leo Nogueira and could not compete.