Road to the ADCC final four

The stage is set for Sunday’s semi-finals and finals at the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships in Barcelona. Here’s how Saturday’s brackets played out:

Men’s +99 kg

Two-time ADCC champ and six-time world champ Saulo Ribeiro will meet defending ADCC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum in one semi-final after out-pointing Koji Kanechika (5×2) in the opening round and Romulo Barral (3×0) in the quarter-finals. Werdum’s path included wins over Rogent Lioret (via kimura) and Tomaz Janiszewski (3×0).

The other semi-final pits 2005 ADCC divisional champ Jeff Monson against Roberto Abreu. Monson beat Karol Bedorf and Janne-Pekka Peitilainen to advance while Abreu submitted Tom DeBlass and out-pointed Asa Fuller.

Men’s -98.9 kg

Ribeiro’s younger brother, two-time world champ and defending ADCC divisional champ Xande Ribeiro, easily dominated Ilir Latifi and Radek Turek, the latter by armbar submission, to make it to the semis. He will face Ultimate Fighter 8 alum Vinicius Magalhaes, who make a spectacular run through the first two rounds by leglocking Rodrigo Henriques and catching Marcio “Pe de Pano” Cruz with a spectacular out-of-nowhere flying armbar.

On the other side of the bracket, Glover Teixeira beat Vesa Vuori (6×0) and 2003 ADCC absolute champion Dean Lister to advance against the funnest name to say in the competition, Gerardi Rinaldi. Rinaldi opened the tournament with a win over Yoshiyuki Nakanishi followed by another over the consonant-endowed Tamasz Szczerek.

Men’s -87.9 kg

BJJ world champion and 2007 ADCC absolute bronze medalist Andre Galvao and David Avellan will square off in one semi-final. Galvao dominated Kassim Annan (11×0) and a very game Matt Serra purple belt named Chris Weidman (4×0) while Avellan heel-hooked Trond Saksenvik in the opener and subbed Tarsis Humphreys in the quarter-finals by choking him out from the back crucifix.

Raphael Lovato Jr. beat Tom Lawlor and Bruno Bastos to make it to the semi-finals against Braulio Estima, who choked out Yuji Arai and earned the referee’s decision over James Braco.

BTW, the Gunnar Nelson who lost to Brasco in round one is an Icelandic BJJ fighter and not the Gunnar Nelson who is the son of late actor-singer Ricky Nelson who formed the duo Nelson with his brother Matthew. I had to Google it just to be sure.

Men’s -76.9 kg

Trying to win his fourth straight ADCC division title, Marcelo Garcia submitted Rodney Ellis via guillotine and choked out Rickson Gracie offspring Kron Gracie via a nasty guillotine from the mount in overtime (see video below) to make the semi-finals. He’ll meet Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura, who out-pointed Marcelo Azevedo and Milton Vieira.

The winner of that bout will face the winner of Pablo Popovich versus Gregor Gracie. Popovich beat Don Ortega by rear-naked choke and then subbed highly touted wrestler Ben Askren. Gracie out-pointed Marilo Santana and Leo Santos.

Men’s -65.9 kg

WEC fighter and 2007 ADCC divisional champion Rani Yahya defeated Kohei Yasumi by rear-naked choke and Jeff Glover (7×0) to advance against 2003 and 2005 divisional champ Leo Vieira, who guillotined both David Marinakis and Ryan Hall.

Reuben “Cobrinha” Charles, who tapped Hiroshi Nakamura by reverse armbar and Joel Tudor by rear-naked choke, will meet Rafael Mendes on the other side. Mendes triangled Jayson Patino and anaconda choked Justin Rader.

Women’s -59.9 kg

Hillary Williams beat Megumi Fujii by rear-naked choke to advance against 2007 champ Sayaka Shioda, who had beaten Bianca Andrade.

The other semi-final will see Luanna Alzuguir take on Laurence Cousin. Alzuguir opened with a guillotine win over Ina Steffensen while Cousins beat Ana Michelle Dantas.

Women’s +60 kg

Strikeforce MMA champ Cris “Cyborg” Santos beat Ida Hansson on points in overtime to advance against former ADCC champ Penny Thomas, who beat Shanti Abelha.

Reigning divisional and absolute champion Hanette Staack Quadros armbarred Hitomi Hiraiwa to earn a spot against former Olympic judoka and Greco-Roman wrestler (yes, she was both) Rosangela Conceicao, who earned a ref’s decision over Lana Stefanac.

Men’s Superfight

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza squeaked out a win (2×0) over 2007 ADCC absolute division champ Robert Drysdale despite having taken the bout on just two weeks notice when Roger Gracie backed out due to illness. Sherdog reports that Souza, who will make his Strikeforce debut on November 7’s Fedor Emelianenko-Brett Rogers undercard, was “aggressive from the get-go, succeeding in several takedowns even before the points period had began” and “showed off an array of double-leg takedowns, inside trips, and even a brilliant outside foot sweep that put the Xtreme Couture grappling instructor on his backside.”