Confira:

Leandro Lo defeats Gregor Gracie in the finals for the trophy. Photo: Gustavo Aragao

The third edition of the Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix held at the Botafogo Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro ran for five hours on Saturday, May 10.

The event featured two special matches, a submission-only no time limit city challenge, one no-gi challenge and a full grand prix with two teams of ten athletes.

To determine the winner of the grand prix, two teams of five competitors each fought one another within their own team in six-minute matches. Whoever gains the most points fights the second place athlete of the other team. Points are determined as such: A win by submission is 4 points, a win by points/advantages is 3 points, a draw is 1 point and a defeat is 0 points.

Here is how the matches went down:

PRELIMINARY MATCHES:

Tanner Rice defeats Alexandre Vieira via armbar after securing 9-0 points.
Lucas Hulk defeats Patrick Gaudio via 2-0 points in a match largely determined by stalling while standing and in 50/50.

CITY CHALLENGE

Abraham Marte of Santo Domingo defeats Ottaviano “La Maquina” of Buenos Aires via cross choke from mount in under five minutes.

NO-GI CHALLENGE

Danny Castillo of USA defeats Haider Rasheed of Jordan via arm triangle choke from mount after securing 8 points to Haider’s 2 points.

YELLOW GROUP

Marcio Andre of Brazil and Gianni Grippo of USA both earn two advantages for a draw.
Victor Silverio of Brazil and Fernando Vieira of Brazil both earn one penalty from stalling for a draw.
Fernando Vieira defeats Marcio Andre via 6-2 points in a sweep battle.
Gilbert Durinho of Brazil defeats Gianni Grippo via armbar submission after 5-0 points from a takedown and guard pass.
Gilbert Durinho defeats Fernando Vieira via 2-0 points from a takedown.
Victor Silverio defeats Marcio Andre via quick submission after a pass straight to the back.
Gilbert Durinho defeats Victor Silverio via 2-0 points from a sweep.
Gianni Grippo and Fernando Vieira both earn two points and two advantages for a draw.
Victor Silverio and Gianni Grippo earn two points for a draw.
Gilbert Durinho defeats Marcio Andre via toehold submission.

POINT TALLIES

1 Gilbert Durinho – 14 points
2 Victor Silverio – 6 points
3 Fernando Vieira – 5 points
4 Gianni Grippo – 3 points
5 Marcio Andre – 1 point

GREEN GROUP

Luca Anacoreta of Italy defeats Simone Franceschini of Italy via 5-0 from sweep and guard pass.
Leandro Lo of Brazil defeats Hamzeh Rasheed of Jordan via armbar after 4-0 points.
Simone Franceschini defeats Hamzeh Rasheed via disqualification by knee reap.
Gregor Gracie of Brazil defeats Luca Anacoreta via 4-2 points, 3-0 advantages.
Gregor Gracie defeats Hamzeh Rasheed via choke from the back.
Leandro Lo defeats Simone Franceschini via cross choke from half guard.
Leandro Lo defeats Gregor Gracie via 8-2 points and 2-0 advantages.
Luca Anacoreta defeats Hamzeh Rasheed via disqualification by fleeing a submission, locked triangle.
Leandro Lo defeats Luca Anacoreta via forfeit due to injury.
Gregor Gracie defeats Simone Franceschini via 4-2 points.

POINT TALLY

1 Leandro Lo – 14 points
2 Gregor Gracie – 10 points
3 Luca Anacoreta – 6 points
4 Simone Franceschini – 3 points
5 Hamzeh Rasheed – 0 points

SEMI-FINALS

Leandro Lo defeats Victor Silverio via 8-0 points with a sweep and two guard passes.
Gregor Gracie defeats Gilbert Durinho via 4-2 with two takedowns over Durinho’s sweep.

THIRD PLACE MATCH

Victor Silverio defeats Gilbert Durinho via advantage with 2-2 advantages and 1-2 penalties.

FINAL

Leandro Lo defeats Gregor Gracie via 5-0 points with a sweep and a guard pass.

On May 10 the third season of the Copa Podio lightweight grand prix will be held in the Botafogo Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro. The names of the ten athletes come from five different countries with the majority right from Brazil. All are black belts, except for Marcio Andre and Hamzeh Rasheed.

The names will be randomly drawn and distributed into two groups: green or yellow. Each athlete will have a six-minute match with every other member of their own team, win or lose. Points will be earned through winning a match by submission, winning a match by points and a draw. No points will be awarded for defeat but win or lose, every athlete will have five matches.

The top two athletes from each group will face each other, the semi-finalist of green vs the finalist of yellow and vice versa. The finals will determine the overall winner of the grand prix.

The list of athletes is as follows:

Leandro Lo – Brazil (2-time black belt world champion)
Fernando Vieira – Brazil (2004 black belt world champion)
Luca Anacoreta – Italy (European champion 2-time brown belt, third black belt)
Victor Silverio – Brazil (Brazilian nationals champion brown belt go and no-gi)
Marcio Andre – Brazil (European champion brown belt, WPJJC champion brown belt)
Gianni Grippo – United States (Pan silver medalist black belt)
Simone Franceschini – Italy (European champion brown belt, third black belt)
Gilbert Durinho Burns – Brazil (2011 black belt world champion)
Hamzeh Rasheed – Jordan (Abu Dhabi Cup open weight champion brown belt)
Gregor Gracie – Brazil (ADCC bronze 2009, MMA 7-4)

City Challenge: Ottaviano “La Maquina” (Buenos Aires) vs. Abraham Marte (Dominican Republic)

No-Gi Challenge: Igor Gracie (Renzo Gracie) vs. Haider Rasheed (Team Mirza, Jordan)

You can purchase the livestream of the event and see the schedule at www.copapodio.com

UPDATE: Here are the chosen groups: