DECEMBER 11, 2023, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA. Although the event produced lots of fun matches and was, overall, a memorable show, the word of the day at last night’s UFC Fight Pass Invitational was: Penalties, penalties, and more penalties. The well-known UFC-associated grappling promotion abandoned the (nearly) unanimously disliked EBI ruleset it used in the past 4 events and promised to gear up towards no-gi jiu-jitsu’s most beloved standard, the ADCC.
Although the event adopted many of the ADCC’s rules, which was undoubtedly an improvement over the previous standard, it added its own “flair” to the norms. The biggest change was that the matches would have two periods separated by a 1-minute break, the first round where solely negative points were scored (guard pulls & stalling), and the other where standard scoring was set. So far, so good. Sadly, what put a dent into an otherwise good idea were the passivity penalties awarded by the judges, which were given way too early… Like, way, way too early in some cases. These decisions stole some of the shine away from the solid action taking place on the mats, which was, by all accounts, very good.
All in all, it is hard to highlight a single match as the night’s best as good clashes were plentiful. Nicky Rod’s dominant performance over Yuri Simoes was certainly somewhat of a surprise for some, given how evenly contested their matches had been in previous outings. Rodriguez was able to get advantageous positions from the top, passing the guard of Simoes and mounting him for a lengthy portion of the first half of the match. Despite his performance, Rod nearly lost via penalties (?!) but was only able to turn the score in his favor near the end of the second round via another mount from 1/4 guard.
One of the matches of the evening was that of 17-year-old phenom, Achilles Rocha versus the veteran Andy Varela. The match was very entertaining as neither of these athletes appears to have a reverse gear in their game, a testament to the excellent match-making at play last night. The Scrambles of Varela were incessant, but – as it often happens with this talented competitor – the overuse of his athleticism blurred his path to victory when the dynamics required a more technical approach. Andy was able to get close to a few back takes but opted for more acrobatic maneuvers that ended up costing him key positions in the match against a very game Achilies Rocha who was able to score when it counted.
Nicholas Meregali and Felipe Pena had a very fun clash as well, fairly even up until the second round when Felipe appeared to gas out from Nicholas’ constant pressure. Once that happened, Meregali was able to score a back take from a beautiful scramble and secure the victory via submission. The referees opted to award 7(!) penalties to Pena throughout the match, which – from our vantage point – appeared to be a ludicrous number given how much action took place throughout the bout. This was a clash between two of the very best grapplers in the game with elite defense and counterattacks and it is unrealistic to expect them to be in a gung-ho, frenetic white belt-style match, no offense intended to our beloved white belt community.
– Achilles Rocha def. Andy Varela via 6×1
Full score:
Rocha 6 pts, -0 negative
Varela 0 pts, -1 negative
– Hannah Goldy def. Amanda Mazza via Armlock
(Score at the time of submission: 0x0)
– Aaron Wilson def. Cristian Guzman via Triangle armbar
(Score at the time of submission: Wilson 0 pts, -2 negative X Guzman 0 pts, -1 negative)
– Vagner Rocha def. Victor Silverio via Short choke
(Score at the time of submission: Rocha 4 pts, -0 negative X Silverio 0 pts, -2 negative)
– Elisabeth Clay def. Luiza Monteiro via Inside heel hook
(Score at the time of submission: 0x0)
– Jonnatas Gracie def. Nicky Ryan via points
Full score:
Gracie 4 pts, -5 negative
Ryan 0 pts, -2 negative
– Victor Hugo def. Dan Manasoiu via Americana
(Score at the time of submission: Hugo 4 pts, -1 negative X Manasoiu 0 pts, -4 negative)
– Mason Fowler def. Rida Haisam via Kimura
(Score at the time of submission: 0x0)
– Nick Rodriguez def. Yuri Simoes via points
Full score:
Rodriguez 3 pts, -1 negative
Simoes 0 pts, -2 negative
– Nicholas Meregali def. Felipe Pena via RNC
(Score at the time of submission: Meregali 4 pts, -1 negative X Pena 0 pts, -7 negative)
