End of year celebration. Photo: Personal archive

GMA member Stephen Roberto of Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam is leading his team to be better every single day.

Over the years they have formed and adapted and evolved to become one of the best teams in Asia, as proven by their individual and team results at the IBJJF Asian Open in Tokyo, Japan every year.

As part of the end of year celebration, as is custom in a lot of the academies, there were belt promotions.

Three new black belts. Photo: Personal archive

Perhaps most significant were the promotions to black belt–all three. The students promoted were Rob Gutierrez, Mark Pangilinan and Joe McDonald.

Stephen says, “They are great defenders of Jiu-Jitsu and long time practitioners. Well deserved and long overdue. They’ve been training for over 12 years together. A super proud moment.”

The Asian BJJ Championship attracted Brazilians and Japanese to the mats in Tokyo. Photo: IBJJF

With athletes from Hawaii, Brazil, the Middle East and several Pacific locations, the IBJJF’s Asian BJJ Championship was held last weekend in Tokyo, Japan.

The absolute black belt champion was a Brazilian national residing in Australia, Nova União representative William Dias. At the age of 22, the Rodrigo Feijão pupil dazzled at the Tokyo Budoh-Kan gymnasium.

Young William, who is also a capoeira professor, bagged the middleweight category as well. His absolute victory came in a final against Vicente Gomes Cavalcanti (Southside MMA). Japan’s Akira Hosokawa (Alive) and Tatsuya Kaneko (Paraestra) made up the rest of the podium.

This was the fifth edition of the Asian BJJ Championship in Tokyo. Check out the results here.

Click here for a display of William’s style.