FEBRUARY 23, 2019 saw the latest edition of the Eddie Bravo Invitational Combat Jiu-Jitsu event, a ‘sister’ tournament of EBI with a ruleset that combines open-palm strikes with grappling.
The main attraction of the event was the inclusion of two big jiu-jitsu names: The Brazilians Yuri Simões and Beatriz Mesquita, both ADCC champions who were making their debuts under these rules.
In a female featherweight match, 2018 IBJJF World Champion Bia Mesquita faced EBI veteran Kayla Patterson. Beatriz started out aggressive, hitting a sweep single leg takedown and passing to north-south position, constantly looking to attack the arms and the neck of her American opponent. This did seem to be Bia’s tactic, to push for attacks from NS, and in one of those attempts – a transition from kimura to armbar, Mesquita got the tap. A dominant performance from start to finish by the Gracie Humaitá standout.
CTA representative Simões took part of the EBI Combat open weight tournament tonight, where, in the semi-final, his faced a former Checkmat team-mate Stephen Martinez. Maybe due to their previous team connection, none of these grapplers opted to use strikes to impose their games, and instead, a pure grappling match took place. Yuri started very well using his top game and world-class guard passing to impose the tempo of the match and pass Martinez’s guard, but ultimately his decorated resume and strong start weren’t enough to intimidate the California based athlete who came back strong during the 2nd half of the match, threatening Simões with a heavy top game. In the end, it was Simões’ ride-time experience in EBI style overtime that got him through to the final against Jon Blank. Jon who looked outstanding during his own semi-final by defeating the veteran Kevin Casey via heel hook in 25 seconds.
The final of the open weight division saw EBI Combat middleweight champion Jon Blank face Simões. Blank opted to pull guard, being passed almost immediately. Jon recovered well and started trapping Yuri in leg-lock entanglements, a sequence that had the crowd standing and cheering. Yuri escaped and passed again, in trying to recover guard, Blank exposed his own foot, which Simões used to attack a toe hold, transitioning to a tight kneebar in the scramble which got the tap, setting the match at 4:50m.
Out of the bantamweight tournament, Richard Alarcon of One Jiu-Jitsu Academy was the big name to make note. We did not know much about the grapplers involved in this 8 man tournament, but Alarcon will definitely be one that we will keep an eye on in the future. Alarcon’s jiu-jitsu looked sharp, aggressive and fearless as he dominated all 3 of his matches. Full match results inside.
Bantamweight Tournament
Quarter-Finals
– Brandon Moreno def. Ryan Carroll by Darce choke
– Beau Brooks def. Robert Duran by triangle
– Richard Alarcon def. Ben Tapia by Darce choke
– Ray Deleon def. Geoff Real by triangle
SemiFinals
– Brandon Moreno def. Beau Brooks with strikes
– Richard Alarcon def. Ray Deleon by RNC
Final
– Richard Alarcon def. Brandon Moreno by OT (ride-time)
Open Weight Tournament
Semi-Final
– Yuri Simões def. Stephen Martinez via OT (ride-time)
– Jon Blank def. Kevin Casey via heel hook
Final
– Yuri Simões def. Jon Blank by kneebar
Super-Fights
– Nick Maximov def. Bryan Brown by triangle
– Elijah Tagalog def. Chris Nunes by OT
– Hunter Colvin def. Kyle Boehm by triangle armbar
– Beatriz Mesquita def. Kayla Patterson by armbar
