Gutemberg after his win in the absolute. Photo: Erin Herle

The blue and purple belt male adult divisions at the 2014 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship were no joke on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Azusa, CA. Both absolute brackets held multiple fights each for whichever athlete made it to the final.

In the blue belt absolute, Devhonte Johnson was able to earn the gold that he missed in his heavyweight division. The Carvalho BJJ Academy student was not able to capture the win in his final match against Johan Romming and received the silver medal due to a 4-0 points loss. But he was motivated to do well in the open weight and to repeat his achievement at the Pan No-Gi by winning gold in the absolute.

Devhonte submits with an armbar. Photo: Erin Herle

Devhonte had three matches in the open and the toughest were the finals and the semi-final. In the semi-final, Josh Valles’ guard was tough to pass. “Josh has an impassable guard. I tried to take his back and failed and he tried to take my back at the end. It was a back and forth battle,” he says of the semis. In the finals, Australian Tobias Green gave Devhonte a tough match as well. He also went against him in the No-Gi Pans one week prior in weight and absolute. At the Worlds they met twice again. “This was my fourth time fighting him. I swept him twice in the match to win. He’s very strong and resilient and when I fought him in the semis of the weight division luck was on my side when I got out of the darce choke.”

In the purple belt absolute, the Pan No-Gi double gold champion conquered the same feat in Azusa. Gutemberg Pereira of GFTeam won four matches in the super-heavyweight division and also four in the absolute. He had five submissions during the day. His toughest match was the first match of the absolute because of his opponents’ flexibility and he only won by two advantages.

Gutemberg in the absolute. Photo: Erin Herle

The accomplishment meant a lot to him and his path. “When I win it’s gratification for all the obstacles I have to pass day to day–my daily struggles. My biggest inspiration is my mom,” says the 20-year-old.

Raquel going for the choke. Photo: Erin Herle

The females had their own exciting matches going on opposite the males. The blue belt open dwindled down to two medium-heavyweights, a rematch from the medium-heavy final. Raquel Paaluhi of Maui Jiu-Jitsu earned the win in the open weight over Ambar Villagran of Checkmat. Ambar, from Sweden, earned the gold in the division. The podium was shared with Lauren Murphy, the middleweight gold medalist and Crystal Demopoulos a light featherweight who earned silver earlier in the day.

The final of the purple belt female absolute. Photo: Erin Herle

Purple belt females had a war with multiple girls in different weight classes. The final came down to Jessica da Silva Oliveira of Gracie Barra and Heather Raftery of Fight Sports. Jessica took the win and Judith Gomes shared third with Ana Talita de Oliveira Alencar, both featherweights.

See full results here: http://static.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/000313/en-US/Results.pdf

And a full photo gallery of the divisions:

Devhonte Johnson securing a choke. Photo: Erin Herle

The 2014 IBJJF Boston Summer at UMass Athletics was a day for the absolutes. Since the black belts had a good mix of matches in the open due to lack of opponents in their weight divisions, so too did the blue belt and purple belt opens.

A good day for Devhonte

Blue belt Devhonte Johnson of Carvalho BJJ Academy traveled up from New Jersey to compete in the heavyweight division. On his way to the gold he had three matches. His first match was won by submission, his second match was won by points, and in his final, although he was tested, he was able to submit for the gold.

He says, “My toughest match without a doubt was in the finals of my weight class. My opponent was very strong and did a really good job of off-setting my balance in very unorthodox ways and managed to sweep me three times. But I was pretty confident in my game and just weathered the storm. Fortunately I was able to sweep him twice, take him down once and pass his guard and with about 30 seconds left I was able to secure a wrist lock to get the submission.”

For the open weight, he had a total of four matches. And in each one, he never allowed his opponents to secure a point or advantage against him. Three of the matches were won by submission while the final was a score of 10-0 points. “It was a good day,” he says.

Another double-gold for Devon

Devon Delbrugge with a mounted triangle. Photo: Erin Herle

Purple belt Devon Delbrugge of Crazy 88/Team Lloyd Irvin of Baltimore, MD is no stranger to the podium at the IBJJF city opens. In Boston he was able to secure another double-gold with almost all submissions. In his middleweight division there were three matches. His first opponent was finished with a wrist lock from mount. In his second match he submitted with an ankle lock from 50/50 position. The final was finished with a triangle from mount.

In the open weight category, Devon had three matches. His first was a cross choke from mount, his second match went the distance with a score of 12-0 and the final match was completed with a reverse triangle, “Braulio Estima style”.

He explains one of his toughest matches: “So this tournament I felt that I gave up a lot less mistakes than I usually do, so I was able to get to a dominant spot pretty quick. But in my first match of the open, my opponent kept rolling out of bounds with a footlock which got him two points twice in the match. That was probably the toughest because I had to play catch up from a 0-4 start.”

But competing under pressure has never been a problem. “I’ve noticed that I perform way better at bigger tournaments compared to the smaller ones or even how I roll in practice.”

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Check out full photo gallery here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152730791169260.1073741883.142782289259

See the full results here: http://static.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/000295/en-US/Results.pdf