Category — BJJ isn't a dirty word

UFC lightweight contender Diego Sanchez is three kinds of crazy. His coach, BJJ great Saulo Ribeiro, is the polar opposite, a soft-spoken gentle man who can also turn you into a pretzel. But Sanchez is right about one thing – Ribeiro wears these stylish eyeglasses that give him an unsuspecting teacherly appearance. But when he takes them off and puts on a gi… it’s like Clark Kent and Superman.

Just a quick Abu Dhabi-related update. Men’s -98.9 kg ADCC sub wrestling champion Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro posted to his Facebook status regarding the injury that forced him to tap during the Absolute Final against Braulio Estima:

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR THE SUPPORT. IS A BLESSING HAVE FRIENDS/FANS LIKE THIS. Wasn’t my shoulder, was a muscle injury Chest/biceps, doctor this week, hopefully was just a stretch. THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN….Now is time for Baby Victoria. OSS

Mat rat Scott Wallace over at Scott On The Net has compiled a bunch of videos of matches from the weekend’s ADCC in Barcelona as well as links to interviews with some of the winners. Below is Pablo Popovitch vs. Marcelo Garcia in the -76.9 kg final.

In the ADCC Men’s Absolute Final, divisional champ Xande Ribeiro suffered an arm injury during an inverted triangle escape and had to tap out to Braulio Estima. Estima, who also claimed the -87.9 kg title over Andre Galvao, is now slated to face Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in an ADCC superfight in 2011. Third place went to Vinny Magalhaes, who defeated Gunnar Nelson 3-0 in overtime.

The Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Wrestling Championships handed out its hardware today with Rafael Mendes, Pablo Popovich, Braulio Estima, Xande Ribeiro and Fabricio Werdum each earning men’s divisional titles while Luanna Alzuguir and Hannette Staack Quadros took home women’s titles.

Men’s -65.9 kg

There is a new name on the world jiu-jitsu stage and it’s Rafael Mendes. Mendes is just 20 years old and has had his black belt for less than a year, but he showed no signs of youth or inexperience en route to capturing the ADCC title.

Mendes earned a 7-4 win in a 30-minute double-overtime over Ruben “Cobrinha” Charles in the final, avenging a loss to Cobrinha at the Mundials earlier this year in the process.

In the third place bout, Ryan Hall defeated Jeff Glover 3-2 after taking his back in the final seconds of the bout. Hall and Glover advanced against each other only after semi-finalists Rani Yahya and Leo Vieira bowed out due to injury following their contests with Charles and Mendes, respectively. Vieira’s loss to Mendes marked only the second time he’d ever been submitted in competition.

Men’s -76.9 kg

Pablo Popovitch upset his arch-rival and three-time defending champ Marcelo Garcia 3-2 after losing to Garcia in the finals in 2005 and 2007. In the division’s third place bout, Gregor Gracie outpointed Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura 10-0.

Men’s -87.9 kg

Braulio Estima earned his first ADCC title with an inverted triangle submission over Andre Galvao. In the third place match-up, David Avellan slapped an Achilles lock on the injured foot of Raphael Lovato Jr. to force a quick tap. Lovato’s injury came in the semi-final loss to Estima.

Men’s -98.9 kg

Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro repeated as divisional champ with a 2-0 win over Gerardi Rinaldi. In the third place bout, Ultimate Fighter vet Vinny Magalhaes subbed Glover Teixeira via armbar from a triangle set-up.

Men’s +99 kg

Defending champ Fabricio Werdum took a 9-0 points win over Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu to earn the title. In the bronze-medal match, 2005 champ Jeff Monson defeated Saulo Ribeiro on points. Afterward, Ribeiro, a six-time BJJ world champion and two-time ADCC champion announced his retirement from competition.

Women’s -59.9 kg

Luanna Alzuguir beat Sayaka Shioda 3-0 to win the division while Hillary Williams dispatched Laurence Cousins 9-0 to take third.

Women’s +60 kg

Hannette Staack Quadros picked up another ADCC belt with a kneebar submission over Penny Thomas. Quadros won the +67-kg title as well as the women’s absolute in 2007. Meanwhile, Strikeforce champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos won on negative points against Rosangela Conceicao in a bout that remained almost entirely on its feet.

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.”

This is a jam-packed weekend. There’s the less-than-inspiring Strikeforce: Challengers card, the K-1 Grand Prix Final 16, and most intersting to me, the once-every-two-years Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

Basically, the two-day ADCC is the no gi Olympics. I’m talking sick jiu-jitsu from start to finish.

Among the participants are Jeff Monson, Fabricio Werdum, Dean Lister, Baret Yoshida, Kron Gracie, Ben Askren, Leo Santos, Andre Galvao, Jeff Curran, Rafael Lavato Jr., Marcelo Garcia, Saulo Ribeiro, Xande Ribeiro, Jeff Glover, Rani Yahya, Tom Lawlor and Cris “Cyborg” Santos. Kyra Gracie and Georges St. Pierre both had to withdraw due to injuries.

The superfight will feature Jacare Souza taking on Robert Drysdale, who was the absolute winner in 2007.

For the complete brackets head on over to ADCCBarcelona.com or ADCombat.com.

Here’s one for the Darwin Awards. A man died while re-enacting some fights from Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 19.

Darenell Jones, 25, fell from a third-story window at a Best Western Inn and Suites in Farmington, New Mexico after downing a few drinks and showing off some MMA moves, according to The Daily Times. Apparently a window gave way when he fell against it.

Ranks up there with the guy who checked his Facebook account mid-burglary and left his account open before he left.

Sounds like a pretty fun way to live life, walking the earth like Caine from Kung Fu, except doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu.