Tim Spriggs mounts his opponent in black belt debut. Photo: Preston Smith

The 2014 IBJJF Atlanta Open on Saturday, August 30 at the Georgia International Convention Center was a day for the browns and blacks of Team Lloyd Irvin. Traveling from Maryland and Florida, there were four stand-outs who made their way to the podium twice each.

Newly promoted black-belts Tim Spriggs and Roberto Torralbas conquered the black belt open and their divisions. Tim came from Crazy 88 in Baltimore to try out his new belt and Roberto from Third Law in Naples.

In the heavyweight division where both black belts entered, they each had one match before closing out. Tim won his match against Nicholas Albin by 14-0 points.

Tim charges for the takedown. Photo: Preston Smith

Tim describes the match: “I pushed the pace from beginning to end. The guy had a good half guard game which forced me to knee cut and pass his guard a few times. This was my toughest match because I hadn’t competed since worlds and the 10 minutes were an adjustment. I was pretty amped up so it caused me to feel less energetic than usual during the match.”

Roberto’s first match was against Paul Elezaj. He won the match 7-0 points. He says he “passed to side, got knee on belly and hit an ankle pick for a 7-0 win. Paul was my hardest match because I had not competed the whole summer due to running a summer camp at the school. I was a bit overexcited to fight at black belt the first time, and my time management was completely off from 8-10 minutes [the difference between brown belt time limit and black belt time limit]. The last two minutes he got a good spider guard and I was starting to get tired. Also Paul is very good and I allowed him to get to a good position he likes to play.”

Tim took the gold in the weight class close-out.

The open weight was a similar situation but Roberto had two matches and Tim had one.

Roberto Torralbas fighting as a new black belt. Photo: Preston Smith

Roberto’s first match in the open was against Greg Walker. “Greg is very athletic and he countered my first two attacks but on the third one I was able to sweep and get to a tight half guard position. There I was able to pass and as time ran out I got a wrist lock right before they blew the whistle. Last match was against Wellington Megaton Dias. That was really good because he is a guy I have always admired for having the grit to compete with the adults and in the absolute division year after year regardless of his age. Now a days a lot of 30+ year olds are happy to be fighting master instead of adult divisions, and I am not in favor of this. He was very technical with his judo gripping so I pulled guard and was able to sweep . He felt very squirmy so I took no chances and proceeded to pass half guard carefully. I was able to pass. He had spent a lot of energy keeping me off and I was able to get the armbar. Greg and Megaton are very good grapplers as well as Paul and I look forward to competing with them.”

Tim’s match was against Walnon Constantino. This is how his match went: “My other match was in the open and it went by a lot quicker than the other. He tried to fake hand shake double leg me. It didn’t work lol. So I stuffed it and threw him then landed in side control. On the restart he tried to start from turtle for some weird reason, but I ended up getting reset in side control after he stopped complaining to the referee and got two penalties. As soon as the referee said go I went right for the bow and arrow and got the finish.”

So far the black belt competition has been a seamless transition for the two. “The big difference with black belts is that it takes me a little bit longer to break them,” says Tim.

Tye works the leg drag. Photo: Preston Smith

The brown belts also had a big day. Admilson Gobi Junior and Tye Ryan Murphy competed in different divisions but closed out the open class. Since there were no opponents for Admilson in the ultra-heavyweight division, he defaulted gold. Tye had matches in the medium-heavyweight division. His first match ended with quickly with a DQ for knee reap and his second match was against Higor Diniz of Alliance where he finished with a bow and arrow choke near the end of the match.

The open weight division was fun for Tye. Here’s his recap: “The open was fun. I fought another alliance guy in the round of 16. He fought very hard. I finished him with an ezekiel from the back. Second round was against a light feather. I went total opposite of competition game and jumped closed guard. Finished with a triangle that I thought was going to kill him. He had heart. In the semis I fought Jeffrey Cummings from Alliance. He was fighting very well in the open and I was pumped. We slapped hands and he did not pull but kept circling and circling so I surprised him and jumped guard. I hip bumped him when he stood for the first advantage and had him in a brabo grip cross choke and inverted arm lock multiple times throughout the match scoring another advantage. He was very tough but had a tough time opening the closed guard. I won the semis match 2-0 in advantages.”

Admilson with the takedown. Photo: Preston Smith

For Admilson, his first match did not show so he advanced to the semis. His one match was against Aaron Tex Johnson of Alliance. The round was determined by points with multiple suplex takedowns.

The gold for the open went to the winner of the coin toss done by Lloyd Irvin.

The coin toss. Photo: Preston Smith

Check out a highlight of Tye Ryan Murphy’s finishes below:

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!

Garry Tonon at The BJJ Kumite / Photo: The Next World Champion Reality Show

The BJJ Kumite from Dec 9-16 gave Garry Tonon an opportunity that few were offered. After rearranging his college finals, securing his place to stay and driving down to Maryland, the brown belt from New Brunswick, NJ had lots going on in his head.

You can read up on his apprehension in the first part of his blog entry here: Inside The BJJ Kumite: Garry Tonon’s Take Part 1

Continue reading below as Garry explains his experience and what he learned while at Team Lloyd Irvin:

…

Also in the contract we were required to train that day with the competitors and Lloyd’s team. Few of us desired for our games to be known so we either played dead or did techniques we would never normally do. I myself haven’t used my leg/foot locks in competition ‘til this tournament so I only attacked with them in an attempt to deceive them all into thinking I was a purely a leg lock guy. After training we were sat down on bleachers and waited close to like a half hour. Everyone was relatively silent; I think this was because we didn’t know each other well at this point. By the second day there were few and far between moments that we were silent. Lloyd walked into the room and explained that Keenan was in the tournament. My immediate posture and expression changed. Now it was a level playing field. Perhaps Lloyd had planned to play fair after all. Then, Lloyd asked us about our accomplishments and decided Luke Costello would have first pick. This all happened so soon, news that Keenan was in it, and that we would be picking opponents. (The format of the tournament was not explained at length to us yet. Like single double elimination etc. the “super bowl” format was not told/ decided until day two)

I think Luke wasn’t immediately sure what to do, I mean there were still so many variables.

He responded, “I guess I’ll pick the smallest one I can see.”

Which ironically happened to be 2nd/3rd biggest competitor in the tournament. We all looked at each other a bit confused. The “smallest guy I can see” joke became a common joke throughout the tournament. As soon as I heard we were going to pick opponents, before Lloyd even said Luke would pick first I knew I was going to try to choose Keenan first. More than any other reason, I came there to beat him. Even if I had thought the tournament was single elimination I would have chosen him first– getting paid to win and getting to fight the other guys was just a bonus. So when I was asked who I was to fight I immediately asked if choosing Keenan was a possibility. (Keep in mind everything was told to us quickly and we really didn’t understand fully what was going on yet). When Lloyd said yes I was ecstatic. I was going to get the first crack at him! Finally everything seemed like it was going to work out okay and I hadn’t come to compete in vain. I left that day full of energy and excitement.

I returned at 9 a.m. and we began warming up. Finally Lloyd came in and clarified the “super bowl” format: every man fighting each other twice, best two records compete for finals. That was the fairest way to do things, and I’m glad Lloyd did so or no one would respect the tournament results. My first match ended quickly by armbar. I wasn’t discouraged. I felt as though I wasn’t really mentally warmed up yet and that I would be better without the gi anyway. The second match with Keenan I was far more proud of. My only regrets are that I didn’t really bother playing much of a guard deeming it a waste of energy in a no time limit match. But that just allowed Keenan to seamlessly move from submission to submission. I had him in a few bad spots but didn’t capitalize. Now I don’t want to say much about the rest of my matches in the tournament until they are released so keep watching, you’ll see. But I will speak some non specifics.

Here’s a little behind the scenes look at my living situation: So I said before I had no desire to live at the jungle and sleep on the floor with a house full of so many people, nor did I want to pay for a hotel so Seph Smith graciously welcomed me into his home. Well this turned out to be a quality decision because I heard the guys complaining that it was tough to get good sleep there. I got like 16 hours of sleep a night and they claimed to get less than six. Now why did I get 16 hours of sleep? Well, I had 18 no time limit matches over a period of four days. Imagine an eight minute match IBJJF tournament. Pretty exhausting huh? Well get this with a maximum of ten minute rest in between each match I did 18 matches NO TIME LIMIT in four days. All I had time for was to eat, compete, ice bath, sleep.

This is a story you won’t get watching the Kumite. Tuesday night I got a call from none other than AJ Agazarm. He had just arrived at the jungle. He also had no intentions of staying at the jungle either and he had soon found out that hotels in the DC area were ridiculously expensive. He asked where I was staying and if he could stay there too. Now AJ in terms of lineage is technically an extended BJJ family member of mine. (Gracie Barra > Renzo Gracie > Ricardo Almeida > Tom DeBlass (Ocean County BJJ)). However we have had a few matches with each other in the past: one at the 2011 Abu Dhabi World Pro Trials, a loss for me, and No-Gi Pan Ams, two wins for me in my weight and absolute. I’ll admit to a bit of tension between the two of us. All things considered though, if I were him I would have wanted him to do the same for me, so I picked him up at the jungle at like 12 a.m. and brought him to Seph’s apartment. It’s also significant to know that Seph was more than gracious in letting us both stay there because he too has competed with both of us before. So, here we are three BJJ competitors that have fought each other before enjoying each other’s company in one apartment. You won’t see that in many other sports. We spent most of our time sleeping watching movies (bloodsport!) and messing with Seph’s cat Tuckee using alaser pointer. I came to find that AJ was a pretty nice guy, he just takes himself very seriously in competition so my first impression of him was skewed. Along with Seph being one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met. Oh, and about the other guys. We were all in close proximity so much at the tournament that we soon realized socializing was inevitable and crucial to our sanity. We were out there with no one else. If we didn’t talk to each other I think we would have gone crazy. By the end we were exchanging techniques and strategy, etc. Usually I try to avoid talking to my competition to stay focused. This was different. The more I talked the more comfortable I felt in my surroundings and I became at ease instead of on edge the whole time.

Time to wrap up some final questions.

My toughest match: I’m not sure I can tell you yet because it may give something away. I will tell you this much, the reason I think it was my toughest match is because this particular competitor has a very similar style to my own.

Would I recommend this experience to others, HELL YES! I would do it over and over again (just not back to back, dear God I needed a break after this). This was one of the most difficult weeks of my life but not only is it doing wonders for my name in the sport, it has made me a better competitor and person. It was a trial of mind, body, and spirit– all of which got stronger because of doing this event. I made friends with people I probably never would have became friends with, I finally got to compete in a high profile tournament, and after everything was said and done Lloyd kept his word about everything. He gave out money for money moves, winning and even a few things we didn’t expect. I will never forget the BJJ Kumite. Now that is a real life experience!

Garry training with UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre at Renzo Gracie Academy NYC / Photo by Erin Herle

Garry Tonon is a brown belt under Tom DeBlass in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was invited to compete in The BJJ Kumite brown belt tournament at Team Lloyd Irvin in Camp Springs, Maryland the week of December 9-16. Here is the first part of the story, direct from Garry, as to how it panned out for him, what he expected and what unfolded for him:

Garry’s Story:
This is all the information I was provided before the start of the Kumite. Keep in mind, this is about one month in advance of the tournament at the earliest. We were sent an email and that email stated that we were to fight in a week long tournament (Dec. 9-16) of submission-only matches against each other in Jiu-Jitsu gi and No-Gi. The winner would receive a $1000 cash prize for each division and a chance to fight Keenan Cornelius for an additional $2500 for each division. We were told to send footage of us training, competing and preparing for the Kumite. We were told we had to pay for our own travel, food, hotel etc. We were welcomed to sleep at the “jungle,” the house Lloyd’s team lives in, but there we would most likely be sleeping on mats. We were told we could have no sponsors, we would be provided gi’s and rash guards (so having sponsors pay for the trip was out of the question).

Here I was one month away from the Kumite with a million thoughts running through my head. My inner monologue sounded like this:

“So, let me get this straight. I’m supposed to pay (in full because we couldn’t wear sponsors’ gear) to travel to Maryland and stay and train with Lloyd’s team and a bunch of people I’m competing against. Then I’m to compete for a solid week against the best in the world with no time limit while Keenan and his teammates get to watch me and pick apart my game for an entire week. This is all for a chance to take on Keenan who has gotten to see my entire game in a million different scenarios throughout the week. Looks like a trap if I’ve ever seen one. Why does lanky zombie-looking Keenan get to sit on a throne above us all? Because he was a dominant purple belt? So what? I mean, he beat me once at a NAGA and based on all his matches he’s clearly very good, but come on. He’s not BJJ royalty, who does he think he is, Renzo Gracie? It sounds like they’re telling me, ‘come to my school, compete at the feet of purple belt King Keenan, and after you’ve had about two dozen submission-only, no time limit matches and he knows everything there is to know about your game, then maybe we will grant you the honor of having a match with him.’ That sounds fair. Not to mention the fact that I’m going to have to reschedule all my finals at Rutgers and take them after I compete. On top of all that I’m supposed to send them a tape of my training! What? It’s as if they weren’t going to have enough of my game to study.”

All those things aside I chose to compete for a few reasons:

A. I was dying to fight Keenan again. The first time we fought I felt I had made two of the same crucial mistakes that cost me the match.

B. I had never gotten a chance to compete in a high profile no time limit tournament and having rarely been submitted in competition I thought is was a great format for me.

C. I knew regardless of the trap it appeared to be, it was an opportunity to compete against the best up-and-comers in the sport and I would never pass that experience up.

D. Finally, I knew more people would recognize my name and my team’s even more so after it was all over, and I owe it to my team to show the world that we are one of the best teams in the sport.

So, I began my preparation and planning. I train no time limit all the time and train multiple times a day so that was no big change. I focused on mainly No-Gi (even though I train in a gi every day and apparently I’m better in competition without it, just take a look at my competitive achievements) I figured that was my best chance at getting to Keenan and beating him.

Now I wanted to try and escape the trap Lloyd had seemed to set as much as possible, so I made arrangements with fellow competitor Seph Smith to stay at his apartment in DC, which is only 20 minutes away from Lloyd’s. I also made arrangements with Ryan Hall from 50/50 BJJ to train at his school for the week. Then, when I sent Lloyd my training video I only included some interviews and one highlight match that included my previous 2012 No-Gi Pan Ams match with AJ Agazarm, ending with a submission in three minutes or so. I didn’t want to give them any of my current game to study so I figured a three minute match would be perfect. Finally I postponed my college class finals, which I had to take one each day after the Kumite.

I left my home on Dec. 9 and traveled into the cryptic, mysterious, ebony-stained haze that surrounded the BJJ Kumite. My first stop was 50/50 BJJ, Ryan Hall was very welcoming. I strategized a bit with Ryan who was and trained with many of his students and then I was off to Seph’s apartment where I would stay for the week. Seph is awesome. He let me stay the whole week free of charge and didn’t ask for a dime, although I bought his cat a few gifts but that story is for later.

The next day I went to Lloyd’s and as I looked outside the school I was amazed at what little was done to make the location known. For someone known as an expert marketer, I expected more signs, ads, etc. As far as I could see, if you didn’t know Lloyd Irvin Academy was there, you would never stumble upon it by accident, that’s for sure. To get inside the school you have to enter two unmarked double doors in the center of the building, and take an elevator/stairs to the third floor. Then, around the corner at the end of the hall is the entrance. Before this point I thought there was a high probability Lloyd had invited all the best brown belts in the world to a random abandoned office building were we would all be killed and never found, as part of an elaborate scheme to weed out Keenan’s competition at brown belt. This is the first point at which I even realized I was in the right place. Immediately I was handed a contract.

So I’m sitting there contract in hand, alone with my thoughts thinking, am I an idiot for coming here? I drove four hours to compete in a tournament where not only was I not guaranteed a chance to fight Keenan, but I’m not even guaranteed the prize originally offered for winning. Regardless I signed; I was eager to fight the best in the world and get a second shot at beating that overgrown vampire.

Stay tuned for how the training and competition panned out for Garry in part two of the article!