Purple belts Rolando Samson and Michael Ledesma. Photo: Erin Herle

The blue belt males opened up the first day of the 2013 No-Gi World Championship on Saturday, Nov. 2 as they do at most tournaments. With ten mats spread throughout the Long Beach Walter Pyramid, main stage the matches unfolded with new divisions added into the mix often. The brackets circulated giving athletes a break in between each match and time for many different shapes, ages and sizes to take on their opponents at the same time.

The blue belt males were as followed:

Rooster: Kitt Canaria – Gracie Barra Northridge
Light-feather: Richard Alarcon – Lotus Club Jiu-Jitsu
Feather: David Mosleh – Open Mat Mixed Martial Arts
Light: Benjamin Silva IV – Brasa Caio Terra
Middle: Anthony Martin – Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu
Medium-heavy: Todd Noel – CheckMat
Heavy: Ekjot Swagh – Open Mat Mixed Martial Arts
Super-heavy: Taylor Kettler – Renato Tavares Association
Ultra-heavy: Johnson Jordan – JCBJJ

Blue belt females:

Light-feather: Kyra Batara – Cobra Kai Jiu Jitsu
Feather: Leilani Esteban – Zenith BJJ
Light: Anicia Van Buren – CheckMat
Middle: Bethany Eash – Team Popovitch
Medium-heavy: Chelsah Lyons – Alliance
Heavy: Tara White – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

Purple belt males:

Rooster: Francis Tejano – Alliance
Light-feather: Louis Bernard-Desrosiers – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
Feather: German Salas – Alliance International
Light: Rolando Samson – Atos Jiu-Jitsu
Middle: Gabriel Arges de Sousa – Gracie Barra
Medium-heavy: Isaque Bahiense Braz – Nova Uniao
Heavy: Pedro Lucas Aguiar Araujo – Gracie Barra
Super-heavy: Max dos Santos Gimenis – GF Team
Ultra-heavy: Jared Lynn Dopp – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu

Purple belt females:

Light-feather: Livia Gluchowska – Maromba Academia International
Feather: Jaqueline de Moraes Amorim – CheckMat
Light: Danielle Renee Alvarez – Nova Uniao
Middle: Amanda Santana – Marcio Cruz Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Medium-heavy: Fiona Louise Muxlow – Brazilian Top Team
Heavy: Maria Malyjasiak – Zenith BJJ

The open class divisions were fought at the end of the day with the athletes giving everything they have left from the long hours of matches. For the blue belts, Caio Terra’s lightweight student Benjamin Silva won the open weight gold to match the gold he earned in his division. A total of nine matches for him, six of them ended in submissions. Since moving to Caio’s gym and being persuaded to move down to the lightweight division from middleweight, his tournament results have skyrocketed. His training partners have become family at GMA Institute of Martial Arts and the advice Caio has given him paid off: “Stick with plan A and don’t worry about plan B until it happens. Go out there and play your game, don’t worry about names and what they’re doing.” The blue belt female division was won by Tara White who trains under GMA member Andre Galvao. She fought Virginia Perez from Cyborg’s GMA Fight Sports.

The open class for the male purple belts lasted the longest with many names in the bracket who could have topped the podium. Narrowing down to the last matches, both small and large competitors were still working towards the goal. In the final, Isaque Bahiense faced Gerard Dany that was decided by points. From the start of the match, Gerard’s large frame was in control of Isaque, nearly taking his back. Isaque defended the second hook avoiding the hooks and was able to escape the dangerous position but was put in the same situation once more. After turning to put his back on the back and end up in bottom half-guard, a good bridge gave him the momentum to come on top, sweeping to earn two points in the last twenty seconds and winning the division. The purple belt females came down to their final with matches that ended in mostly submissions by the eventual winner. Amanda Santana from Marcio Cruz BJJ submitted her way to the gold with an armbar submission in the final to end her day with double gold.

To see the gallery of photos, click here.

To see the filled-in brackets with updated results, click here.