From its beginning in 2011, the IBJJF London International Open has grown each year to become one of the premier events of the European BJJ scene. This was particularly evident this year when the demand was so great that the gi event had to close registration early because the competition was simply filled to capacity with entrants from all over Europe. Competitors from the United Kingdom and Ireland were out in force, but there were entries from Brazil, USA, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Romania to name just a few of the countries whose nationals had travelled to be part of the event.

With a wave of newer European black belts looking to secure qualification points for the Worlds in Long Beach next year as well as test the shark-infested waters of the black belt division, there was a mixture of both established talents and up-and-comers jostling for the places on the medal podium.

In the male light featherweight division, Marcel Oliveira of Frateri Lateri finished British black belt Mark Stephenson with a footlock in less than a minute of their bout and secured the first black belt title of the day.

In the featherweight division, Oxford-based Maximiliano Campos defeated Spaniard Sergio Calderon to claim the gold.

The lightweight division was one of the more competitive of the competition, with Switzerland-based Ilke Bulut defeating the UK’s Oliver Geddes in the final by three advantage points to one. Ilke’s route to the final took him past France’s Douglas Barcellos (by submission) and Brazil’s Italo Lins (by 4-2 on points), whilst Oliver overcame GFTeam’s Gabriel Rainho with a quick footlock.

Within Europe, the rivalries at middleweight are well established and usually tested at every competition within the circuit. This time around, Ireland’s Darragh O’Connaill defeated Italy’s Luca Anacoreta by 2 points to zero. Luca had managed to secure a guard pass towards the end of the match, but Darragh fought hard to prevent the three points and then managed to defend his lead until time expired.

Middle-heavyweight saw three competitors battling it out: France’s Julien Cazier, Poland’s Piotr Wojtkowski and another UK-based Polish fighter, Dominik Debiec. In the first bout, Piotr defeated Dominik by advantages. Dominik in turn defeated Julien to set up a revenge match in the final. Despite his best efforts, Piotr was able to place and keep hooks from the back to earn 4 points, more than enough to take the match and with it the gold medal.

The heavyweight division was won by Johannes Weith, a student of the Ribeiro brothers based in Germany. He defeated Checkmat’s Chico Mendes in the final with a choke from the back, leaving Norway-based Renato Tavares and Switzerland’s Karim Khalifa to collect their bronze medals and round out the division.

Finally, the ultra-heavyweight division saw Antonio Henrique Junior of Roger Gracie Team finish Christophe Levy by submission early in their ten-minute final match.

Italian Roosterweight Andrea Verdemare and British Super-Heavyweight Christopher Bowe were both alone in their divisions, readying themselves instead for the absolute.

Luca Anacoreta didn’t let his disappointment at his result in his division hold him back from putting on an impressive result in the absolute. After several matches, he faced off against Braulio Estima student Christopher Bowe in the openweight final. Christopher had defeated Sergio Calderon with a choke from the back and Renato Tavares on points on his side of the bracket, whilst Luca had defeated Alex Cabanes of Calasans BJJ in his semi-final. Although the fight itself was extremely competitive throughout, Luca eventually took the victory and the absolute title by the slimmest of margins, a referee decision.

Not content to let the male competitors have all the fun, there was plenty of action in the female divisions, too. Multiple-time world champion Luanna Alzuguir of Alliance took on three-time world bronze medallist Shanti Abelha of Checkmat in the middleweight division. Despite Shanti initially displaying a strong top game, an omoplata eventually lead to a sweep that gave Luanna the victory by 2 points to zero.

At featherweight, meanwhile, the first European black belt world champion, Laurence Cousin of France, faced Yasmine Wilson of Roger Gracie London. Even though no points were scored during the course of the ten minute match, Laurence was able to advance and secure the half guard of Yasmine three times to earn the three advantages required to give her the victory and with it the London Open title.

With no one else within her weight class, Victor Estima student Gretchen Zoeller had to content herself by waiting for the absolute division.

Although Luanna decided to sit out of the absolute this time around, the remaining four ladies were still very much in pursuit of the absolute title they wanted. Shanti defeated Yasmine by a single advantage in the first semi-final, whilst Laurence defeated Gretchen. The absolute final came down, then, to Laurence against Shanti, and after ten minutes of hard-fought action, Laurence was the victor and female absolute champion of the London Open.

See the full results here: http://static.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/000315/en-US/Results.pdf

See a full photo album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.978924338789565.1073742063.192240324124641

Braulio Estima wins the open. Photo: Jesper Aggergaard

Text by Oliver Geddes

The IBJJF’s first competition in Copenhagen bore witness to some spectacular black belt gi divisional matches as well as an action-packed absolute, with competitors from across Europe producing some spectacular fights on May 3 of the two-day event.

In the black belt lightweight division, Sweden-based Robson Barbosa of Checkmat defeated France’s Julien Gaillard by points. In the final he defeated the UK’s Oliver Geddes by a takedown to claim gold in a truly international group.

The three-man middleweight division saw Switzerland’s Thomas Oyarzun of Alliance take the top spot. He defeated Nic Ruben Nikolaisen of Frontline Academy, Norway in his first match, but Nic was not finished yet. After defeating Victor Estima student Gareth Neale by points he returned to the final for a second attempt. This time the match was much closer, with Oyarzun securing his second victory and the top spot by a single advantage.

Braulio Estima secured his path to the medium heavyweight final by submitting Maksymilian Wisniewski with a choke from the mount, whilst Alan ‘Finfou’ de Nascimento submitted the Frenchman Julien Cazier to set up the final that everyone present had been waiting for. After around four minutes of testing himself against ‘Finfou’s’ tricky guard, managed to briefly attack the back. As ‘Finfou’ moved to escape, Braulio secured an arm triangle choke from the top position to take the submission victory and the gold medal.

Sadayoshi Kurimori of Impacto BJJ had the longest road of anyone to his gold medal, needing three fights to win his heavyweight division. He defeated Jaroslaw Gajek of Poland by kneebar in his first fight, John Rickel of Street Sports BJJ 4-0 in his second, and the Norway-based Renato Tavares in the final by a margin of 6-0.

The super-heavyweight division pitted Karim Khalifa of Alliance against the Czech Republic’s Michael Bittner in a straight final. Karim secured a kneebar to take the victory and the Copenhagen International Open title.

The final of the absolute division was contested between heavyweight gold medallist Sadayoshi Kurimori and medium heavyweight gold medallist Braulio Estima. Braulio reached the final by submitting both his opponents, Karim Khalifa with a triangle from the mount and Maksymilian Wisniewski with shoulder pressure from the side control position. On the other side, Sadayoshi defeated middleweight gold medallist Thomas Oyarzun with a choke from the back before defeating Braulio’s teammate Gareth Neale 6-0 on points to book his spot in the openweight final. Braulio pulled the guard, swept, and as Sadayoshi was working the guard from the bottom, he was unfortunately struck by a serious bout of cramp in one leg. This unfortunately brought an exciting match to a premature end, and despite Braulio’s protestations that Sadayoshi be allowed time to recover and continue, the rules are clear, and with that disappointing ending, Braulio took the openweight title to add to his divisional one and bring an end to his day of competition without allowing an opponent to see the end of a ten-minute match.

In the female divisions, Copenhagen’s own Shanti Abelha, of Checkmat / Arte Suave triumphed in the black belt middle heavyweight and absolute categories, defeating Gretchen Zoeller of Gracie Barra in her division before repeating the feat in the absolute to close out the day with both the titles she had come for.

To see the full results, click here.

And a photo album, click here.

Klara Tibbling won the purple belt adult female open class. Photo: Pasando Guardia

The females took to the mats at the 2014 IBJJF Rome Open even though their numbers were small. Most categories were not filled and some were not able to fight in their weight classes. But the attendants took up their opportunities for what they were and did what they came to do– compete.

Here is Oliver Geddes’ gathering of the main female results:

Despite traveling all the way to Rome from Denmark, Checkmat’s Shanti Abelha was the only black belt female present, taking her weight and open titles unopposed.

In the women’s brown belt division, the final came down to Poland’s Irena Preiss against Olga Lyashevska of Carlson Gracie Holland. Although both had been the only fighters within their weight classes, they were in Italy to fight and seized their opportunity in the open class. After two fights each, Olga took the gold, defeating Irena by a single guard pass.

Sweden’s Klara Tibbling took gold in the purple belt Female open class, adding that medal to her gold in the female heavyweight category. She defeated middleweight champion Sofia Nordenö to secure the open weight title.

You can check out the full results here.

Both Shanti Abelha and Ida Hansson are active black belt competitors from Denmark who have won and medaled at the most prestigious Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. On March 28-30 you can join with these two pioneers as well as other black belts like Yaz Wilson from GMA RGA Buckinghamshire and MMA fighter Rosi Sexton.

The weekend training camp will be held at Arte Suave in Copenhagen, Denmark. The agenda boasts 5-6 training passes, time for eating, resting and a little sightseeing around Copenhagen.

The camp cost is 100 euros for the weekend which will be reduced by 10% if you’ve attended the camp before and 20% if you attended two or more camp recently. To sign up please email bjjbonanza@gmail.com

Reserve your spot now for a fun-filled weekend of learning experiences from two of Europe’s best females on the mat!

Talita Treta will face Ana Carolina Lebre in the final match of the female black belt absolute set for Sunday. Photo: Erin Herle

The first day of the 2013 No-Gi World Championship on Saturday, Nov. 2 brought the black belts onto the blue and yellow mats in the Long Beach Walter Pyramid. For the females, eight black belts opted in for the absolute division to battle it out for who would go to the final match on Sunday.

Here is how the division played out:

Quarterfinals

Luiza Monteiro defeated Tatiana Nascimento by toehold.

Ana Carolina Lebre defeated Nyjah Easton by 7-0.

Rachel Demara defeated Andresa Correa by rear naked choke.

Talita Treta Nogueira defeated Shanti Abelha by 7-0.

Semifinals

Ana Carolina Lebre defeated Luiza Monteiro by 9-0.

Talita Treta Nogueira defeated Rachel Demara by 8-6.

Tomorrow, the final match will be Ana Carolina Lebre vs. Talita Treta Nogueira.

Check out the photos of the division:

Beatriz de faixa-roxa na final do Mundial 2009. Foto de Regis Chen.

A faixa-marrom Beatriz Mesquita (Gracie Humaitá) embarca para Lisboa amanhã, dia 28, em busca de mais um título inédito em seu extenso currículo.

Tricampeã mundial e bi pan-americana, Bia agora quer conquistar o Campeonato Europeu de Jiu-Jitsu, que acontece de quinta a domingo, em Lisboa, Portugal.

“Vou enfrentar um frio extremo na Europa depois de curtir o sol maravilhoso de Saquarema, mas será por uma boa causa”, diz Bia. “Afinal, vou em busca de mais um título para enriquecer meu currículo. Tenho feito ótimos treinos com a Letícia (Ribeiro), que está no Brasil, e estou me dedicando ao máximo”.

Inscrita no peso médio da marrom/preta, Bia está na categoria mais dura do feminino, e para levar o título (seja do peso ou do absoluto) vai precisar passar por nomes como Shanti Abelha, Cassuza Fornari, Monica Silva e Ida Hansson.

Depois do campeonato, a atleta foi convidada pela professora Letícia Ribeiro para acompanhá-la nos seminários que dará em Portugal, França, Alemanha e Noruega, com volta prevista para 23 de fevereiro – o que vai tirá-la até do carnaval brasileiro.

Acompanhe a trajetória da atleta no site www.beatrizmesquita.com.br .

And you only have until Friday to guarantee your place at this party. Sign up here! Join names like Fabio Gurgel, Tarsis Humphreys, Rafael Mendes, Rodrigo Cavaca, Ricardo Demente, Michael Langhi, Lucas Lepri, Gilbert Burns, Guilherme Mendes, Pablo Silva, Bruno Malfacine, Pedro Bessa, Yan Cabral, Stephen Hall, Helvecio Penna, Ramon Jamur, Ari Farias, Josef Cobra and Marko Helen, as well as Shanti Abelha, Cassuza Fomari and young Mackenzie Dern fighting for gold in the female division.

Even Rickson will be there – Rickson Pontes, a Gracie Barra brown belt.

Pack your bags, don’t forget to take one or two gis and jot down GRACIEMAG.com’s travel tips.

* Shopping: Liberdade Avenue and Augusta Street: shops selling international brands mixes with local commerce.

*Architecture: marvel at the façade of the International Design Hotel, on the corner of Rossio and the beginning of Augusta Road, with a sidewalk of real Portuguese stones.

* In Belem, contemporary art and history: Berardo Museum, Geronimo Monastery .

*Sports: check out the games and visit Luz Stadium, one of the most modern of Europe, and home of Benfica soccer team.

*Presents: leather goods can be found at the old Casa Canada, on the way to Comercio Plaza and the statue of King Jose I. Joias, on Aurea Road, parallel to Augusta.

* Breaking the diet: after the championship, try out some of the secret recipes at Confeitaria Nacional and visit Gambrinus, one of the best breweries in the city, at Figueira Plaza and Largo de São Domingos.