Now that the tournament is over with and I've had some time to reflect, I'm already cooking up some ideas for future BJJ events. I emphasize the word 'ideas' cause nothing is set so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot and share too much at this point. What I would like to elaborate on is what I found inspirational about being in the middle of it all at the Thailand Open which was the sense of a community and a positive one at that. Regardless of what happens on the mat, we're all friends ready to share a beer, train together and add a dozen+ friends to your facebook list when all is done.
The blog is dedicated to you guys/gals so it was great to meet so many of you in person. I feel much more connected to a larger body people that all share this passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
With that said, I encourage everyone to extend that positivity to all the events taking place in Southeast Asia or wherever you happen to represent. We have the ability to set the tone for our scene and from the feedback that I've received from the tournament, I see that as the defining aspect. We want to keep things positive, free of politics and focus on what jiu-jitsu is really about. We will hit a few bumps here and there and there is no tournament without some conflict but we can all work together to keep things civil, about respect and good sportsmanship.
Gi Seminar Monday October 19th, 2009 6-8 pm and roll after! Purebred Jiu Jitsu AcademyHagatna, Guam $125Limited space!!! Dont miss your chance to train with two high level Brazilian jiu jitsu and submission grappling black belt world champions!
Contact 687 1130 or email purebred_guam@hotmail.com for more information.
October 9th, Taiwan's TMC will have 3 SEABJJ fighters on the fight card representing Taiwan BJJ (Demitri Telfair) and Tiger Muay Thai (Andreas Hasselback & Wiktor Svenson).
A lot of new friendships were made at the Thailand Open so it saddens me to hear of the hardships people in Manila, Luzon Island and Rizal are facing with the floods. Our thoughts are with those that have lost loved ones and are dealing with this tragedy. -Luke
(l to r) Tomi Hashimoto, Hiroko Nakano, Peter Isaksson
This last week we had some incredible matches and from that came some well deserved promotions. I'd like to present to you Bangkok's latest purple and blue-belts.
Tomi Hashimoto took his weight just a month back at the 6th Annual Taiwan BJJ tournament and doing the same in the gi this past week at the 2009 FBT Thailand BJJ/Grappling Open. Showing equally well in the no-gi, it was inevitable with such tournament sucess that Tomi would be sporting new colors. At the after-party, Tomi was awarded his purple-belt by Professor Kayoom of Bangkok BJJ. Congratulations Tomi.
Peter Isaksson & Hiroko Nakano are terrors on the mat and I know this from first hand experience. Peter came to Bangkok on holiday and that was probably 6-8 months ago and there doesn't seem to be any sign that he intends on leaving. We're very proud to see Peter's progress not just in his ability on the mat but the metamorphosis to the beast that he is today. He's the first and last person on the mat.
Hiroko came to Bangkok probably well over a year ago at the early open-mat days before Bangkok BJJ opened. She came in to train no-gi and it was my mistake to take this little-lady so lightly. I have not made that mistake since and she did incredibly well this last week against some very technical and tough opponents in the women's division.
All three have tremendous heart and I'm grateful to call them my teammates. Congrats!
ADCC While I wasn't able to watch the ADCC matches this weekend, I did make a point to check the brackets and results at the end of each day. Man, it must have been something cause from the picks that I had to take it, there were some upsets. Below are the results taken from WWW.ADCOMBAT.COM.
Finals
Over 99Kg - Fabricio Werdum vs Roberto Cyborg - werdum by pts 9 (-4) x 0
under 99KG - Xande ribeiro vs Gerardi Rinaldi - Xande by points 2 x 0under 88KG - Braulio Estima vs Andre Galvao - Braulio by submission triangle
under 77KG - Pablo Popovitch vs Marcelo Garcia - Popovitch by points 3(-1) x 2(-1)
under 66KG - Rubens cahrles vs Rafael Mendes - Mendes by pts 7 x 4 2OT
Ladies Over 60KG Penny Thomas vs Hannette Staack - Staack by submission knee-bar
Under 60KG Luana Alzuguir v Sayaka Shioda - Alzuguir by pts 3 x 0
Absolute
Marcelo Garcia v Bruno Bastos - Garcia by submission choke OT
Braulio Estima v Janne Pekka Pietilainen - Brualio by submission arm-lock
Dean Lister v Vinny Magalhaes - Magalhaes by Judges Decision 2OT
Chris Weidman v Antoine Jaoude - Weidman by pts 3 x 0 Ricco Rodrigues v Xande Ribeiro - xande byy submission key-lock
Andre Galvao v Tom de Blass - Galvao by pts 3 x 0
Jeff Monson v Gunnar Nelson - Nelson by pts 3 x 0 2 OT
Roberto abreu v David Avellan - Avelan by Judges decision 2 OT
Quarter Finals
Marcelo Garcia v Braulio Estima - Braulio by sub choke Vinny Magalhaes v Chris Weideman - Magalhaes by sub arm-lock
Xande Ribeiro v Andre Galvao - Xande by pts 3 (-1) x 0
Gunnar Nelson v David Avelan
Semi-finals
Xande Ribeiro vs Gunnar Nelson - Xande by Submission Knee-bar
Braulio Estima v Vinny Magalhaes - Braulio by pts 3 x 0
Finals
Xande Ribeiro v Braulio Estima - Braulio by saubmission arm-bar
LEO VIEIRA VS RYAN HALL
ART OF WAR 14: GROUND ZERO
Wanted to share some more pics from this weekend with our HK correpondent Forrest Akers. I see a lot of BJJ-ASIA and SEABJJ shirt sightings on facebook and such. Please send in more pics of you guys representing in different parts of the world.
WOMEN IN BJJ ARTICLE: I'm really kicking myself for not getting this one down when I should have. Not to say that I don't want to write on the subject but some new stuff is out there that I think you should definitely take time to listen to. The FIGHTWORKSPODCAST has done a two-part series on 'Women's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu' with Emily Kwok, Felica Oh and Val Worthington sharing their thoughts on the subject.
ZEAL FIGHT GEAR: I wanted to take a moment and mention one of our sponsors that did not get the attention it deserved from the tournament last week. Zeal Fight Gear sponsored a number of prizes for our awards ceremony, most notable, the 'most technical fighter' award which was given to Makoto Ogasawara and Leandro Issa for the gi and no-gi respectively. You'll also notice that Gabriel Huang from Zeal Fight Gear participated in the first MMA smoker match. What you may not know is that Gabriel accepted a last minute change to his match from full contact to Pankration rules by request of his opponent/TMT.
It's safe to say that I'm a bit jealous for all my buddies that got to be in Macau this weekend for AOW14. Even so, I enjoyed checking Kowloon BJJ's blog where they've posted some nice pics. I'm sure you'll recognize a number of characters.
Thanks to Andy Wang for rocking the BJJ-ASIA patch on his fight-shorts, main-card.
The highlight of the night was the inverted arm triangle Rolles Gracie used to submit Australia’s Peter Graham in just a few minutes.
Another triangle to catch the crowd’s attention was the USA’s Daniel Madrid’s, who overcame Daijiro Matsui in a lively contest.
Lamentable was the No Contest Braga Neto applied on Rodney Glunder. In the opening moments, Neto body locked his adversary in spectacular fashion. The pressure was such that Glunder was left dangling outside the ring. Alleging accidental injury, he didn’t return to fight and the organization decreed a No Contest.
Andy Wang vs. Atsuhiro Tsuboi - draw Rolles Gracie submitted Peter Graham via arm triangle - R1 Rodney Glunder vs. Antonio Braga Neto - NO CONTEST Wang Sai defeated Lee Yong Jae by KO - R1 Michael Costa vs. Simeon Thoresen - draw Daniel Madrid submitted Daijiro Matsui via inverted triangle - R2
Now that things have wound down a bit I'd like to catch up on some news that I haven't been able to post these past couple of weeks. I'm still writing the recap to our tournament in Bangkok for those that couldn't attend, give me a couple days on that. -Luke
EVOLVE MMA TEAM:Rafael Dos Anjos, a member of the official Evolve Fight Team, secured a unanimous decision victory against Rob Emerson at UFC 103. Gordinho's older brother, Gordo (head of Evolve Brazil), cornered Dos Anjos for the fight.
Here is a detailed play-by-play (Courtesy of Sherdog.com):
Round 1 Dos Anjos, from a southpaw stance, lands a nice leg kick to open the fight. He shoots but Emerson defends well and gets back to the center to the cage. Emerson fighting more of a counter-striking style while dos Anjos is initiating more of the action. Dos Anjos lands a nice left hook to the jaw of Emerson but he shakes it off. Emerson defends another shot by pushing dos Anjos head down and retreating from danger. Dos Anjos is in on a single but Emerson grabs a whizzer trying to stave off the attempt but this time dos Anjos gets it. With only a few seconds left in the round, dos Anjos grounds and pounds to the bell. Sherdog.com scores the round 10-9 for dos Anjos.
Round 2 Dos Anjos kicking to the legs of Emerson, they are starting to take a toll. Emerson finally checks a kick and lands a straight right hand and another. Emerson has found an effective attack and scores with yet another right. Dos Anjos shoots but Emerson defends. Emerson defends another takedown, dos Anjos ducked under a right hand but Emerson sprawled. A big inside leg kick to Emerson’s lead left leg from dos Anjos backs up the Californian. Dos Anjos presses him against the cage as the 10-second warning sounds. Sherdog.com scores the round 10-9 for dos Anjos.
Round 3 After a brief exchange to start the third dos Anjos gets in deep on a shot. Emerson sprawls but he cannot defend and is pulled to the canvas along the cage. Dos Anjos tries to take his back and gets a hook in before attempting a choke that Emerson defends by turning back into him. Emerson gets his guard back but dos Anjos is dropping punches and elbows from the top. Emerson pushes dos Anjos back with his legs and tries to stand but the Brazilian dives back into his guard before passing to half and then side-control. Emerson escapes back to his feet but dos Anjos grabs double underhooks and presses him against the cage. Emerson frees himself from dos Anjos’ clutches but finds himself on the receiving end of yet another brutal inside leg-kick. An exhausted Emerson is throwing single right hands looking for the finish but dos Anjos keeps landing the inside leg-kick to Emerson’s lead leg before circling away. The round comes to a close with Emerson still chasing the elusive dos Anjos. Sherdog.com scores the round 10-9 dos Anjos.
All three official judges score it 30-27 for dos Anjos, who takes the unanimous decision.
TIGER MUAY THAI: ADCC
Tiger Muay Thai would like to congratulate Guest instructor David Avellan who spent 2 months training/teaching out of the Tiger Muay Thai facility earlier this year. David won both of his fight by submission in under 5 minutes, earning his way into the ADCC semifinals.
Pics of Avellan brothers seminar at TMT last year: HERE
HANOI BJJ: The newest addition to the links section is Hanoi BJJ. I've been receiving e-mails on where to train in Vietnam and it hasn't been till recent months have I heard of any gyms offering grappling and such. Hanoi BJJ has two purple-belts teaching there and we hope to hear more activity from the area in the near future.
All week I've been reporting on the tournament but there's still so much left in the tournament season and wanted to take a break to let you guys know what's next on the calendar. I will be giving more time to each event on the blog but this stuff needs to be out so you can plan accordingly.
2009 PHILLIPINES BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU GI & NO-GI INTERNATIONALIt will be two day Gi and No Gi event held in the premier venue at SM Mall of Asia the Worlds third largest Mall. This is the 6th year running for the Philippine Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Open, we expect to have in excess of 250 competitors from within the Philippines and overseas. This event is put together by the Brazlian Jiu Jitsu Federation of the Philippines and recognised by the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation.
3RD MOTORONE CUP KOREA JIU-JITSU OPEN TOURNAMENTHost : John Frankl Jiu Jitsu Venue : Seongdong Gu-min Sports Center (성동구민종합체육센터) http://sports.sdmc.go.kr/Sdcenter/map.asp Sponsors : MOTORONE, O-M.CO.KR Date : Oct. 25, 2009 (9:00 a.m.) Registration Deadline : Oct. 20, 2009 ( 24:00 am )
Greetings to all those helping with the development of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Korea, Asia, and throughout the world! We are pleased to announce the third MOTORONE Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Open. The tournaments will be hosted by John Frankl Jiu Jitsu and sponsored by MOTORONE , O-M.CO.KR , WWW.JIUJITSUKOR.COM This is truly an open tournament. The rules will be Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but all styles are welcome to attend this competition that transcends specific groups or party lines. There will be both gi and no-gi divisions, and our friends from Judo, Wrestling, Hapkido, Catch Wrestling, Sambo, and all other forms of grappling are encouraged to join us.
ROYCE GRACIE SEMINAR SEA TOUR
NAKSUNAKSU 2009 tournament final will be held on Saturday 10th October 2009 at Asawindum stadium (please see map from this linkhttp://www.naksu.biz/images/asawindum_map2.jpg), starting from 1 pm. Total 50 fighters are participating in different styles under MMA rules. You are more than welcome to join this event. Please also share this information for your group just in case they want to come.
Thanks to our friend Narouque, I present to you vids from this weekend. More will come by man was it an exciting weekend of high level matches. Thanks D. -Luke
Thailand Makoto Ogasawara (TWBJJ) vs Ross Dallow (Extreme BJJ, AU)
Makoto Ogasawara (Taiwan BJJ) vs Kiyoyuki Matsui (Alive)
Within the next week or so the BJJAT team will be getting together to review the 'good' and 'what could be better' about this year's Thailand Open. We'd appreciate some constructive feedback from those that attended, both competitors and spectators. Please feel free to post your thoughts on this thread or e-mail me directly atluke@bjj-asia.com.
Just edited the 2nd day's photos from the no-gi portion of the tournament. Again, you're welcome to use these but please credit WWW.BJJ-ASIA.COM when you do. -Luke
All weekend people were thanking me for putting on such a great tournament and of course it makes me happy to be a part of team that has done just that. Not to toot my own horn but I am damn proud of our tournament and all the guys/gals that came together to make it happen.
So this is for the people that you may not know but in my book are the ones that made it a success. Missing from these photos is Khun Niti, Khun Nit, Anjuna, Doe, Kris, Phil, Arm, Amps, Boss, Ilya, Khun Aom, Mitsuru, Omura-san, Taichi, Tomi and Jem.
I think I nearly soiled myself yesterday when I found out that the hard-drive I had stored Saturday's photos in had crashed. I sent out an SOS to all those techy-bjj-guys and I thank you for the help. So by midday today I was able to retrieve all 787 photos and edited them down to 339 of the best pics. Here they are for you enjoyment.
Feel free to use these photos on the condition that you give WWW.BJJ-ASIA.COM credit.
So I got myself retrieval software to get back my lost/trapped photos from Saturday's gi-day. This will take all day and perhaps into the night for the software to work it's magic.
In the meantime I will post the no-gi pics as soon as I can with a write up about the weekend. Thank you guys for coming through on this one and we at BJJAT promise to make next year even better.
Besides having computer problems, my flip-flops were stolen tonight when I stopped by to say hi and check out who had come to the open-mat at Bangkok BJJ. I got to walk home barefoot. Thank you shoe-thief.
My next pair will be pink with unicorns and flowers...or something bedazzled.
Is anyone familiar with Lacie desktop drives? All my photos from Saturday (GI) are stuck on my Lacie drive and I am unable to initialize/mount the drive to my computer. I know it's all in there I just can't get to it now. I'm about to go insane here. I took nearly 1000 photos on Saturday and now I can't share them with you.
Similar problem last year as I uploaded all my pics from the first day, iphoto crashes and I lose the last 300 pics.
If anyone out there has a solution to this and it works, I will send a couple BJJ-ASIA shirts as thank you.
I'm exhausted but can't sleep cause there's still work to be done. Will be updating the blog on all the tournament info over the next couple of days and start putting my life back together. After tonight's open-mat, going to take a jiu-jitsu break and make up for loss family time.
I haven't seen my wife and son for the past week because of work and this tournament so I want to thank them for putting up with M.I.A.-Daddy.
Thanks to all the guys that helped out all weekend. Especially to our new friends from Ralph Gracie Berkeley, Peter Doyle, who came in on holiday and reffed both days and had some very tough decisions to make. Also, Ali Sulit from VPF who came in on some high level matches and did a great job reffing. All the guys that came to compete, win or lose. It's a labor of love, a great thing to see here in Bangkok but I'm oh so grateful that we do this only once a year. My heart couldn't take more than that.
All weekend I received a lot of thanks for putting this together but it's not just me. A lot of people are behind the the success of this event and I believe it's their love for jiu-jitsu and connection to the community that inspires them to give their all. You guys are the best!
To all the refs this weekend, I and the team are so grateful for your help and support. It's a thankless job and far too often take the heat, right or wrong. These guys are here to make sure you're safe, first and foremost and then of course to make it as balanced and fair as possible. We're human, mistakes happen but that's also part of the game. We're a young community with some growing pains to experience but I hope that events like ours help bring everyone's game up on all fronts. Organization, reffing, competition level, etc. Let' keep things positive so that we can all grow together.
These days I'm getting up pretty early whether I like it or not so it's at this hour I find it easier to post and catch up with my e-mails outside of work. I would say the majority of competitors are due to arrive today but I've already met with several teams who stopped by the academy (Bangkok BJJ) to check things out and say hi. One of the great things about events like this one is I get to meet the readers/contributors of BJJ-ASIA, make new friends and catch up with old ones. If we haven't met, feel free to introduce yourself, especially if we've e-mailed since it's always nice to put a face to the name.
WEIGH-INS The BJJAT Team has really pulled through with getting everything together and things will kick off this evening at the weigh-ins. This will be held at Bangkok BJJ which shares the same lot as the Golden Palace Hotel. There is limited space inside and we want to keep things moving so when you're inside, it's all business. We'll be ushering in people 2 at a time and no more than 20 cued for weigh-ins. This will be from 6-8:30pm and will be closing doors by 9pm. The reason for this is the entire team then has to got to the tournament site to setup all the mats, tables, banners, etc.
INFORMATION PAMPHLET We will be providing an information pamphlet to include the following:
*tournament schedule (brackets, awards, events) *bus schedule (2 vans will be making 4 trips within the day to and from Golden Palace Hotel and the tournament space) *maps (for those taking taxi, it's roughly 30 minute ride barring traffic) *contact info
We won't be printing a huge number of these so please share with your teammates and save some trees.
MERCH COUNTER Something I didn't advertise last year is that we will have a merch-counter with a number of cool items you can buy. From new t-shirts, patches and now the BJJ-ASIA kimono. Support the BJJAT and BJJ-ASIA by picking up some gifts to bring back home for your teammates that couldn't make it, heck why not for yourself.
AFTER THE TOURNAMENT: *Sunday night we will be having an after-party at Woodstock Bar (3rd floor). We have a private space just for us and drinks are at 'happy hour' prices.
*Monday night, following the tournament for those sticking around. Bangkok BJJ will be hosting a free open-mat session for all those wanting to train. Doesn't matter what academy/club you're from, just come in with a positive attitude and train/learn/exchange. 7-9pm
Thanks to our sponsors: FBT Sports KMT Travel Budovideos.com BJJ Spirits Fairtex Samitivej Hospital Future Mart Torajiro Elefin Cafe Golden Palace Hotel BJJ-ASIA L.B.G Le Boutillier Group Co., Ltd
Here it is, the final registry for the 2009 FBT Thailand BJJ/Grappling Open this weekend in Bangkok, 09.19-20.2009.We've decided not to split the brackets due to logistical reasons.
Looking forward to an action packed weekend. This Friday at the weigh-ins, we will be making available a pamphlet with the 2-day schedule, bus schedule, directions and contact info. Also, if you're sticking around past Sunday be sure to catch up with us at the after party at Woodstock Bar on Thonglor Soi 13. Bangkok BJJ will be hosting an open-mat Monday night following the tournament, free for all visitors.
Thanks to our sponsors:
FBT Sports
KMT Travel
Budovideos.com
BJJ Spirits
Fairtex
Samitivej Hospital
Future Mart
Torajiro
Elefin Cafe
Golden Palace Hotel
BJJ-ASIA
L.B.G Le Boutillier Group Co., Ltd
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The interest of this blog is to report on and help connect the growing communities of BJJ/grappling/MMA practitioners in Asia, particularly SEA. It is my hope that I can develop this blog to later become a full-website with interviews, reports and calendar of events/competitions.
The success of this site is greatly effected by information volunteered by you, the viewer. Let this site help promote the events and people that otherwise may not have the support or exposure.
Now that the tournament is over with and I've had some time to reflect, I'm already cooking up some ideas for future BJJ events. I emphasize the word 'ideas' cause nothing is set so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot and share too much at this point. What I would like to elaborate on is what I found inspirational about being in the middle of it all at the Thailand Open which was the sense of a community and a positive one at that. Regardless of what happens on the mat, we're all friends ready to share a beer, train together and add a dozen+ friends to your facebook list when all is done.
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