Set for Sunday, March 26th, 2022, in Southampton, England’s Central Hall venue is the 19th edition of the Polaris Invitational, one of jiu-jitsu’s leading professional promotions, and a well-established brand in the grappling world. As per usual, the match-makers at Polaris have done a fantastic job at placing together big matches with relevance at the international level, as well as local duels that are set to bring awareness to the local British jiu-jitsu scene.
Roberto Jimenez X Magid Hage
In the main event, we will see two of the most forward-moving grapplers in the sport battle at the 80-kilogram catchweight. A new(ish) kid on the block, Roberto Jimenez has built his young career by taking people’s backs like nobody’s business. A quick and aggressive style that has gathered the American of Equatorian descent many fans and a very impressive 78% submission ratio. These include submission wins over Kade Ruotolo, Pedro Marinho, Manuel Ribamar, Fellipe Andrew, to name a few.
On the opposite side of the mat will be Magid Hage, who, interestingly, also shares a double nationality (US-BRA). Magid burst into the grappling scene back in 2013 with his submission win over Clark Gracie, the baseball choke that ran the internet. From there Hage went on to beat other big names of the jiu-jitsu world, including Luiz Panza, Johnny Faria, Gianni Grippo, Josh Hinger, and more.
Although successful, Hage slowly gravitated away from the sport in 2018, with sporadic competitive ventures from then on. More recently, Magid started competing more regularly, with very exciting performances at the ADCC Trials, particularly in Brazil where all Hage’s wins came by way of submission… all 7 of them.
Despite Jimenez’s clear favoritism here, ahead of us is a berserker match. Do not expect this one to go the full length.
Well known for her epic and dominant performance over Gabi Garcia last year, Amanda Leve will be challenging another big player here in Kendall Reusing, a no-gi IBJJF World Champion who is also a ferocious takedown artist.
This is an interesting clash where whoever establishes top position will, likely, dictate the tempo of the match. Considering Reusing’s powerful standup and size advantage, Leve might be forced to pull, much as she did against Garcia. Despite Gabi’s tremendous list of accolades, you should expect Reusing to pose a more serious threat to Leve, with Team GB representative’s mobility and pace being leagues ahead of the legendary Alliance player.
– MAGID HAGE X ROBERTO JIMENEZ (80KG)
– AMANDA LEVE X KENDALL REUSING (OPEN WEIGHT)
– JACK SEAR X ASH WILLIAMS (70KG)
– OWEN LIVESEY X FREDDY VOSGRONE (93KG)
– VALENTIN FELS X EOGHAN O’FLANAGAN (86KG)
– MARGOT CICCARELLI X ASHLEY BENDLE (59KG)
– PADDY HOLOHAN X PHIL HARRIS (64KG)
PAUL REDMOND X THOMAS MAGNITIS
CLAUDIO BRUDNY X TOM TOVEY
NATHAN JONES X SHANE CURTIS
LUIZ FINOCCHIO X BEN ROBSON
MICHAEL D’AGUIAR X AKHIL BIST
PETE ROBSON X SHANE PRICE
