If you are not doing anything this Saturday afternoon, stay home and watch some high-class Jiu-Jitsu.

The Guatemala Open will feature five super-matches starting 2:00PM/5:00PM (PT/ET).

The best of all is that you can watch the fights live for free*.

Here is the card:

João Miyao vs. Geovanny Martinez

Sean Roberts vs. Magid Hage IV

Jon Satava vs. Dan Schon

Osvaldo Queixinho vs. João Miyao

Budo Jake vs. Jeff Glover.

*GRACIEMAG.com is only sharing the link and has no responsibility for the live stream.

See how Sean avoids the leg lasso:

Note that for IBJJF events, this submission is only legal for brown and black belts.

Check it out:

Check out this video highlight of the Los Angeles event:

Black belt Sean Roberts of GMA Ralph Gracie Chino Hills has been driving across the country since the start of the year. The Southern California native has made his way from the east coast and is currently in Arizona set to lead another seminar.

The trip began in Fort Lauderdale, FL at a tournament. On Dec. 29 Sean entered a bracket of eight men and took home the $1000 cash prize before teaching a seminar at the location of the event.

With the opportunity of being in Florida, Sean and his fiance Elizabeth, who also trains, decided to make it an adventure with a Jiu-Jitsu road trip. Teaching seminars and classes helped fund the traveling costs and practitioners all over the country learned from the Ralph Gracie black belt.

You can still catch Sean on his way home to California. He is currently set to teach on Feb. 1 at Nava BJJ in Mesa, AZ. On Feb 2. he will have a seminar in Cottonwood, AZ and the next two days he will teach classes at both Cavalcanti JJ Kingman and Lucero JJ.

Check out the rest of the teaching tour by clicking here and learn more about GMA Ralph Gracie Chino Hills by visiting www.ralphgraciechinohills.com/

Vitor Oliveira, faixa-preta da GFTeam. Foto: Ivan Trindade/ GRACIEMAG

Vitor Henrique Oliveira (GFTeam) é um dos faixas-pretas mais embalados da temporada. Após o bronze no Mundial de Jiu-Jitsu 2013, em junho, na acirradíssima categoria dos médios, o atleta de Teresópolis foi campeão absoluto nos torneios NY Open, Chicago Open e mais recentemente no American Nationals 2013, no último dia 7 de setembro.

Bom raspador, exímio passador e com uma chave de braço afiada, Vitor listou para GRACIEMAG cinco lições que aprendeu no embalo das vitórias.

1. “A competição é a melhor forma de testar efetivamente seu Jiu-Jitsu. Venho de quatros campeonatos seguidos e em todos saí com uma medalha de ouro, o que sinaliza minha evolução”.

2. “Competir ensina muito em cada vitória, mas também na derrota. No Americans Nationals de Jiu-Jitsu lutei lesionado e isso me atrapalhou um pouco no evento. Foi por isso que decidi não lutar no absoluto sem
kimono. Aprendi que tenho de parar de lutar machucado”.

3. “Para vencer no Jiu-Jitsu, a receita é aliar as técnicas treinadas
com o coração de lutador. Confie e caia dentro, sem medo”.

4. “Mantenha sempre uma boa alimentação. Seu corpo tem de estar bem regulado para ser um bom lutador. Faça preparação física, deixe os músculos fortes. Durma bem antes das lutas”.

5. “Lembre-se que o treino na academia não é competição. É a hora de aproveitar e colocar tudo que aprendeu em prática, testar novidades sem ligar para tomar amasso”.

Pan Americans Irvine Venue / Photo by John Cooper

How will the Americans fair at the Pan American Championship this year? How about those who have undergone natural to serious changes within the past year or even the past months, weeks or days? From newly promoted black belts to half-promotions to switching of teams to a loss of training partners, we can only gather that this year will prove a lot.

Mackenzie Dern with her gold medal at the European Championship

Mackenzie Dern fights first year of Pans at black belt

December of 2012 marked the promotion to black belt for daughter of Wellington “Megaton” Dias. Mackenzie Dern has been a favorite in the competition scene for years as her level of dedication and talent has brought her to the top of the podium many times. As a nine-time world champion she has made her mark from juvenile to adult. Having won Pan Ams at both brown belt and purple belt, she is no stranger to this tournament. Her run at black belt so far includes wins over Luiza Monteiro at the Copa Podio and Nyjah Easton at the Europeans who will also be in her division at Pans.

Here is what Mackenzie has to say about her expectations for next week:

“What I think will be different now fighting as a black belt this year is the strategy of the fights. I know my adversaries now at black belt capitalize on mistakes. At the other belts, even though we try to make the least amount of mistakes as possible, when we did make mistakes sometimes you could still win the fight. Black is different. Any mistake, my opponents will take the best of it and it is a bad situation! I also think the pressure is a lot different now as a black belt. We will fight each other so many times throughout the years so I don’t feel the pressure I felt at the other belts! I just have to try my best to not make mistakes and stay one step ahead during the fight. What will be the same is my training and preparation. Of course, to fight against the best in the world you have to train extra hard, but every year I always try to prepare myself the best I can, not thinking about the adversary but about what I need to do to fight my best. Since blue belt and still at black belt I just keep the same preparation and get my self ready for whoever I could fight.

“This title is important to me because it will help me see how my trainings are going for the Worlds. Depending on how I do, I can change and fix the things I need to, to be able and do even better the next tournament. Just to win the Pan Ams at my first year at black belt would be a great feeling and I just hope that I can continue doing well this year!”

Gianni Grippo with new professor, Marcelo Garcia / Photo via Instagram

Gianni Grippo changes teams to Alliance

The first kid to ever train at the Renzo Gracie NYC academy, Gianni Grippo has officially left the team after ten years. The now-twenty-year-old started training Jiu-Jitsu when he was ten years old at the Manhattan academy, taking private lessons under blue belt Magno Gama four days a week. Since there was no kids program at the time, he spent his first three years this way, eventually working his way up the rankings and into the adult classes. By the age of sixteen he had developed into a serious threat, a far cry from his early mascot role he played. On Monday, March 11 Gianni announced his switch to team Alliance as he will now be training at the Marcelo Garcia Academy. He will now be present at the 2013 Pan American Championship fighting under the Alliance banner.

His statement regarding the move:

“I’ve been training at Renzo’s for ten years and since I was ten years old, so the decision to leave was definitely one of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life. But now I’m looking forward to the great opportunities I have at Marcelo’s and in the Alliance family, and I can’t wait to compete with my team at the upcoming Pans.”

Keenan Cornelius training at the Art of Jiu-Jitsu academy with Mendes bros and Miyao brothers before heading to Atos San Diego / Photo via Instagram

Keenan Cornelius gets accustomed to training at Atos

In the beginning of March, Keenan Cornelius made the decision along with other teammates to leave the team at Lloyd Irvin’s and move on. Due to situations that arose within the past months at the camp in Maryland, Keenan decided that the training environment was no longer suitable. On March 1, we broke the news about the switch to Atos along with Keenan’s statement. You can read it here.

At the 2013 IBJJF Boston Winter Open on March 3, only days after announcing he would be moving to Atos under Andre Galvao, Keenan accomplished another double gold. The difference this time was that he had no backing from a team, his Keiko gi had no Lloyd Irvin patches on it, he didn’t throw up the hand gesture that formed the letters “LI” after every win and for once in his Jiu-Jitsu stardom he looked more like a nobody. His matches were mostly quick as usual and despite the present turmoil, his stature remained composed. A day after the tournament he flew to L.A. where he made his way to the San Diego academy before stopping at the Art of Jiu-Jitsu academy in Costa Mesa where the Miyao brothers are currently training.

Will Keenan’s game change with a new set of training partners, new atmosphere and completely different routine? We will see.

Sean Roberts shortly after his brown belt promotion in September of 2010 / Photo via facebook

Sean Roberts set to compete as black belt but still a brown belt

This week Sean Roberts announced that he will be competing at the 2013 Pan Ams as a black belt — the only stipulation is that he still wear his brown belt because he has not been fully promoted. As his first tournament as a black belt, he will no longer be able to compete as a brown belt again thereafter. Knowing this, Ralph Gracie decided to allow him to compete as a black belt, giving him the option over the phone.

The story as told by Sean to GRACIEMAG.com:

“About three weeks before the Pan Americans I received a call from Ralph Gracie. We talked for a little bit and he asked me if I would like to fight the Pan Americans as a brown belt or a black belt. I immediately said black belt because the black belt division has the best fighters and I want to fight the best. After I told him that I would like to fight black belt he told me that I was to still wear my brown belt in the academy which I agreed to. I also told him, ‘if I fight the Pan Americans as a black belt then I can never fight as a brown belt again,’ and he replied, ‘I know.’ He had Eduardo Fraga, the head instructor from his school in Berkeley, sign the documents to declare me a black belt. So I’m a IBJJF black belt but a Ralph Gracie brown belt.

I’m still not quite sure why he is letting me fight as a black belt without promoting me to black belt first. It would have been very disappointing for him to promote me over the phone. I think he is waiting for an upcoming belt ceremony, but really I have no idea.”

Sean will be competing as a black belt but also as a middle weight instead of his usual lightweight.

UPDATE: Sean Roberts received his black belt today, March 12, from his professor Ralph Gracie. Congratulations!

Sean receives his black belt from Ralph Gracie / Photo via facebook

DJ Jackson defeated Gregor Gracie in Boston

DJ Jackson stays on team while others leave

Amidst the situations at Team Lloyd Irvin and the fleeing of team members, DJ Jackson remains with his original team in Camp Springs, Md. The black belt middleweight has kept his loyalty along with black belt Nyjah Easton and newly promoted brown belt Sijara Eubanks. The team has many members who are lesser known but still provide training for the leftover medal chasers. DJ will still be attending the 2013 Pan Ams as a representative of Team Lloyd Irvin as he did in Boston where he won double gold after beating Abmar Barbosa, Gregor Gracie, Rafael Formiga and others.

DJ tells GracieMag.com what his training is like since most of his partners left:

“I train mostly with a purple belt named Greg Howell, Nyjah, Sarj and the teenagers who are coming up. I still train the same routine, the only difference is there are some different people and less JT and Keenan.”

DJ is set for the black belt middleweight division at this year’s Pan Ams where he will have potential matches against names like Clark Gracie, Jake Mackenzie, Otavio Souza, Magid Hage and more.

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Beyond the changes in these Americans present at the Pans, you can make sure that you join in on the success. The changes these athletes have gone through may determine who wins some of the brown and black belt divisions but your division is important for your own legacy. Build it now by signing up TODAY. The deadline is fast approaching, tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Don’t miss registration! Go here to sign up now.

The 2013 Pan American Championship will be held at UC Irvine Brenn Event Center from March 20 to 24.

The location address is: 100 Bren event center Irvine, California 92617 USA

We hope to see you there!

Lower belts wait for their mat assignments at Pan Ams

While the black belts are always the headlining event at the Pan American Championship each year, the colored belts should never be ignored. Often it’s the matches in the lower belts that provide the most action, risk and passion.

Sign up for the 2013 Pan Ams and go ahead, steal the show. Whether you have one year of experience or five, every athlete deserves the opportunity to get on the mat, feel the roar of the Brenn Event Center, be supported by teammates and peers and put Jiu-Jitsu techniques to the test against a viable opponent.

Head over now to the IBJJF website to register today only.

Click here to register now.

The 2013 Pan Ams will be held from Mar 20-24. Be sure to check the pre-schedule to see when you will be competing in order to make your arrangements.

The location is at the UC Irvine Brenn Event Centere 100 Bren Event Center Irvine, California 92617.

Check out some action-packed matches from previous years in the brown and purple belt divisions:

Ben Henderson não sorriu por último no Grapplers Quest, em 2009. Foto: Divulgação

Se no UFC o peso leve Ben Henderson mantém a fama de imbatível, no Jiu-Jitsu muitas vezes a coisa não é tão “fácil” assim.

Em 2009, em luta válida pelo Grapplers Quest, nos EUA, Ben foi surpreendido por Sean Roberts, aluno de Ralph Gracie, aos 20 segundos de combate, no que foi forçado a batucar dentro de um triângulo muito bem aplicado.

Relembre, no vídeo a seguir, o que Sean Roberts aprontou para cima do campeão do UFC, e aprenda a lição: golpe arrochado é capaz de finalizar qualquer um. E viva o Jiu-Jitsu!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aug9VlDY2d8

The BJJ Kumite, a submission-only brown belt tournament to be featured on Team Lloyd Irvin reality show, The Next World Champion / Photo: Youtube

Last month GRACIEMAG.com posed the question: “Who can stop Keenan Cornelius at brown belt?” and an overwhelming amount of responses came in from fans, coaches and even competitors themselves stepping up to claim that title. One of those competitors was Jackson Sousa of Checkmat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The brown belt heavyweight had just won double gold at the Brazilian No-Gi Nationals, a feat that Keenan Cornelius has performed eight times in 2012.

Based on the responses and the actions of Jackson Sousa, Keenan’s coach, Lloyd Irvin, Jr, was prompted to ask the same question on his Facebook page. The only difference between his poll and ours was that it had a proposal along with it — what about holding Gi and No-Gi, submission-only, no-time limit supermatches with Keenan against a brown belt opponent who was voted worthy enough?

The same responses flooded his Facebook status update, however, even more initiative came from Brazilian brown belt world champion Joao Gabriel Rocha of Soul Fighters, who personally messaged Lloyd to ask for the chance to become Keenan’s opponent.

On November 9, Lloyd made the message public as he proposed Joao as the most probable opponent since Jackson Sousa did not have a visa to travel to the States. Lloyd asked for feedback in terms of whether or not the match would be good for both athletes involved, noting it was purely a match between two top brown belts for exposure along with a $5,000 prize. He claimed, “I’m not getting into the tournament business, I have no interest in doing tournaments, this is just something fun I’m willing to do with my own money to give a great opportunity to two killers like Keenan and Joao and take it back to the old school rules.”

That sentiment changed when Joao’s intentions were revealed a day later in a second message to Lloyd, on November 11, as Joao implied that the supermatches were a way to fight a challenge in order to defend his team, whom he felt was targeted in the opinion Lloyd made public regarding IBJJF refs after the final match at No-Gi Worlds between Team Lloyd Irvin black belt JT Torres and Soul Fighters’ Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes.

Sean Roberts of Ralph Gracie Team USA prepares for The BJJ Kumite / Photo: Lloyd Irvin, Jr Facebook

Now retracting the opportunity from Joao, Lloyd sought to create a bigger and better way to act out his initial ambition: ” … I just want to help people that love BJJ reach their dreams, whether they are on my team or not … ,” he explains on hisFacebook page. With the existence of Team Lloyd Irvin’s reality show, The Next World Champion, it is only natural that Lloyd would use the show as a way to further build exposure for BJJ and help land it in the hands of prominent networks by producing a branch-off that will showcase the now submission-only tournament with the best brown belt competitors in the world as voted by the fans, called The BJJ Kumite.

The BJJ Kumite was born through much involvement of members of the Jiu-Jitsu community who follow Lloyd’s requests in finding the best brown belt competitors around the world. Nearly every detail of the show has evolved by the status updates made on the Lloyd Irvin, Jr Facebook fanpage where he seeks suggestions, feedback and information about the athletes and the rules for this submission-only event. For the past two weeks, athletes were voted on and confirmed to attend as a way to offer exposure, recognition and financial support for their dedication and sacrifice to the sport.

The rules are: “This will be like Olympic Training, people from all over the World, from different teams training in the same room together at Team Lloyd Irvin Headquarters to prepare to go to battle. No stalling, no trying to win on advantage, the only way to win is submission. All athletes will be skilled in gi and no gi. They will be in control of the Brackets & the best man that week will win … [and they will] grapple for the opportunity to meet Team Lloyd Irvin’s own superstar Keenan Cornelius in the finals -SUBMISSION ONLY, NO TIME LIMIT, ALL SUBMISSIONS ALLOWED, GI and NOGI.”

Today, the athletes begin to arrive in Camp Springs, Maryland, after making their travel arrangements and producing their own videos to showcase their preparations on the reality show.

The information for the event is as follows:

Place:
Team Lloyd Irvin Headquarters

Dates:
Monday, December 10 through December 16

Prize:
$1000 for each division; one gi and one no gi.
$250 money moves if athletes finish their matches with a pre-determined submission.

Competitor list:
Sean Roberts (RALPH GRACIE – USA)
Thomas Oyarzun (ALLIANCE– SWITZERLAND)
Victor Santos Silverio (GF TEAM – BRAZIL)
Garry Tonon (OCEAN COUNTY BJJ – USA)
Ilke Bulut (ICON BJJ – TURKEY)
Daniel Tsatsos (NOVA UNIAO – CANADA)
AJ Agazarm (GRACIE BARRA – USA)
Eduardo Salazar (BRASA – MEXICO)
Luca Anacoreta (AETEMA JJ – ITALY)
AJ Sousa (AVENGERS – USA)
Darragh O’Conaill (RIBEIRO JJ – IRELAND)

Stay tuned at GRACIEMAG.com for updates on The BJJ Kumite throughout the week!

To see all videos for The Next World Champion and The BJJ Kumite, go here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqT7Wv-2QEl6po1Jp_JgfFR1niwDFju5A

On Saturday, in the adult super heavy brown belt division, James Puopolo, from Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu was the big winner of the day, winning gold in both his weight class and the absolute.

Puopolo, Saulo, and his father. Photos: Deb Blyth

In the adult brown belt absolute, Puopolo had three matches on Saturday. In his first match, he won by submission. “I was able to get a triangle right off the bat,” Puopolo says. In his second match, Puopolo fought Sean Roberts. “He gave me some problems,” he says, “He swept me and tried to submit me. It was 4-4 when I caught him with an armbar and submitted him.” In his third and final match, Puopolo was victorious with a 9-0 win.

On Sunday, he fought Brett Aldrich from Rodrigo Teixeira in his divisional final. Puopolo had two matches in his weight division and he did not mess around. In his first match, he went up against Ricardo Buffara from BJJ Revolution and got him in a triangle choke. In his final match with Aldrich, Puopolo pulled guard and got a deep collar grip in. “I opened my guard, and worked the pass,” he says, “He had a good pass defense. I got around, got into mount, and submitted him with a choke from mount.”

This gave him two gold medals for the weekend. “That was the goal,” he says, “I love these tournaments. They aren’t too big or too small, and I always get good matches.” Puopolo says he loves the American Nationals and won gold at both blue and purple belts as well.

Runez with his teacher Bruno Bastos

In the lightweight, adult brown belt division, Peter Runez of Nova Uniao and Noah Tillis of BJJ Revolution met in the final match, with Runez pulling off the big win. He had three matches and a bye on Sunday.

In his first match, Runez says he fought a “great kid.” Runez says he won the fight 10-0, but “I couldn’t get a submission on him. He was a really tough guy.” In his second match, he won by guillotine and in his third and final match, he faced off with Tillis. Showing true jiu-jitsu sportsmanship, Runez says, “He’s (Tillis) a wrestler. I was lucky to hang on.”

The final match was very aggressive and explosive. Both players tried to take each other down, sometimes ending up out of bounds or beyond the mat borders.

Peter Runez vs. Tillis

Runez says, “He (Tillis) was great. It was a good tournament.” Runez trains at three schools, Peak Performance, Team Lutter, and Octagon, and can next be found at the No-Gi Worlds in November.

In the adult medium weight brown belt finals, Sean Roberts from Ralph Gracie and Tim Peterson from Lotus Club BJJ promised to put on a good show. Roberts was in Peterson’s guard the majority of the match. Peterson swept and mounted Roberts, but Roberts eventually escaped. Peterson ended up taking gold, beating Roberts by points.

Peterson had three matches that day. In the first match he finished his opponent with an arm bar from guard. The second match he tried to take his competitor’s back from the closed guard. “I worked in half-guard then went to a 50/50,” Peterson says, “I swept him and he tried a foot lock, but he made an illegal move and was DQ’d.”

As for the final match with Roberts, Peterson says, “he likes to submit from closed guard. I pulled guard because I wanted to feel him out. I wanted to make the right decisions.” With time running out, Roberts tried a foot lock, but Peterson waited him out and won gold on points. “The experience was great,” Peterson says, “the IBJJF tournaments are so well run, and organized, and the refs are great. It was fun.”

Seraile and Yoshida

In the adult brown belt ultra heavy weight division, Raymond “Kong” Seraile of Undisputed prevailed over 42-year old, former NFL football player Jarrod Bunch of Werdum Combat Club. These, surprisingly agile, 250-pound giants shook the building as they each tried to win the gold medal in their division. They definitely did not spar by using judo grips and pushing each other back and forth. These two were standing up, going for takedowns, and fighting hard from the ground.

They had one match, which Seraile won by points. “I’ve had a match with Jarrod at purple in the 2008 No Gi Worlds,” Seraile says, “I know he’s tough. He’s an ex pro football player. He’s very active. There are not a lot of guys out there competing like that. I knew it would be intense and hard.”

Seraile was happy to fight Bunch at a lower weight. “He was much bigger at the No-Gi Worlds,” he says, “He’s smaller now and it’s gi fighting. I felt like had the advantage. I took what I was given.”

Seraile trains with Baret Yoshida, who’s 135 pounds. This helps him perfect his techniques and requires him to use less strength. “I have to be technical and have finesse,” he says, “That’s where my agility comes from.”

Seraile says it can be frustrating for someone in his weight class because he can train really hard for a tournament and then show up and have no one in his bracket, so he’s happy to have Bunch around to challenge him. “I would like to see how I match up against him this year in the No-Gi Worlds since he beat me last time,” he says. We have a big rematch on the horizon.

In the master’s brown belt division, Scott Carr of Gracie Barra Costa Mesa, was the big winner of the master’s absolute.  In the open, Carr had three matches. In his first fight, he won on points. In his second, he submitted his opponent from half-guard with a straight armbar.

His third and final match was against fellow Gracie Barra competitor, Felipe “the brown brick” Guedes of Gracie Barra Dana Point. Guedes took Carr down, but Carr then locked in the armbar from the guard, submitting him to take gold.

As for his divisional matches, Carr just shrugs his shoulders, “I won and then I lost. I got silver in the final.” So Carr went home with a gold in the absolute and a silver medal in his weight class.

“It’s been a great experience,” Carr says, “All my competitors were excellent. It was nice to have a Gracie Barra final open match. I felt really confident at this tournament. I trained really hard for it.”

As for Felipe Guedes, he had a big day himself. After winning silver on Saturday, he came back to his master’s medium brown belt division and took gold on Sunday.  Guedes had three fights that day. He won the first and second matches by points and the final by Ezekiel choke.

Felipe Guedes and his GB crew

“I was on top trying to pass guard,” Guedes says of his final match, “and I sunk in the Ezekiel from half-guard. Then he recovered full guard, but the choke got tighter and I finished him.”

This is Guedes’s second tournament and first gold medal as a brown belt. “I’m very happy right now,” Guedes says, “Professor Flavio (Almeida) came to coach me in my weight class. He said I was good, but I need to make some improvements to my game. I’m happy to go back to the gym to work on my mistakes now.”