Augusto “Tanquinho” recovered from injury and won the lightweight absolute. Personal archive photo.

The adrenaline flowed freely last weekend in New York, with the cream of the gentle-art crop there at the Abu Dhabi WPJJC Trials to vie for all-expenses-paid travel to compete at the sumptuous Middle Eastern event. DJ Jackson was the big name to come of the absolute division, having outdone Roberto Cyborg in the final. Now the lightweight absolute went to Augusto Tanquinho, who earned two gold medals on the day for also having won the under-74 kg division.

“I couldn’t compete at the 2012 World Jiu-Jitsu Pro because of an injury, and it saddened me. I really wanted to defend my title in Abu Dhabi this April, but God has his reasons for what he does. Now I’m recovered and ready to go for the title in the Emirates again. Not a lot of people know just how much I went through because of the injury, but now I’m getting a chance to compete again and at a high level—that makes me really happy,” Tanquinho told GRACIEMAG.com.

“Unfortunately there weren’t too many people in the lightweight absolute, so I ended up with only two matches. In the first one I took on Denis Pinto [of Fight Sports team], and he was a warrior to have fought, because he’d just broken his hand. He couldn’t carry on, though, and I went on to the final,” said the Jiu-Jitsu professor at Soul Fighters team.

“In the final I faced Francisco Sinistro [of team Alliance Ecuador], and it was a good match. It was 2-2 on points, 4-1 on advantage points in my favor. I messed up on some adjustments when passing guard plus I missed out on taking the back. I already know what I have to work on when I get back to training, but all in all I had an almost flawless championship. I had six matches in all, played tight and on the attack,” said Tanquinho, who has no intention of taking a break.

“I was out for six months, didn’t even get to train. I’m going to compete at the No-Gi Worlds this weekend, and after that maybe do the IBJJ Pro in December. After that I’ll go to Brazil to teach some seminars—in Belém and Mato Grosso. Everyone’s invited to attend,” he added.

Keenan Cornelius made it to brown belt on fire, beating Roberto Tussa in the under-92kg division. Personal archive photo.

Last weekend marked the latest round of US-based tryouts for the Abu Dhabi WPJJC. This time around it was Flushing, New York’s Queens College gymnasium that got treated to the action. And the gentle art’s new generation provided plenty to talk about, with one of the aces with the biggest buzz, brown belt Keenan Cornelius of team Lloyd Irvin, winning the under-92 kg division and taking bronze in the absolute.

In the semifinal, Cornelius came up against Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu in a riveting encounter where the young up-and-comer more than held his own. Cyborg won the over-92 kg division and was runner-up in the absolute, blocked from taking gold by Keenan’s teammate DJ Jackson.

In the following video, check out how Cyborg dealt with one of Keenan’s most dazzling positions. What about you, what do you make of the young grappling wizard’s style?