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RELENTLESS, the newest grappling promotion in the Philippines, is the first to introduce a round robin style of competition with cash prizes. This means that a competitor will get to face all the other players to determine who the eventual champion is. I am honored to have the three founders of RELENTLESS: Jan Cortez (Brown Belt under Atos), Mara Rafael (Brown Belt under Origins) and Tanya Lim Llana (Purple Belt under Atos).

In this interview, they will talk to us more about how the event promotion came to be, their respective Jiu Jitsu journeys and their vision for the tournament in the future.

BJJ-ASIA:         

First of all, thank you for joining us in this interview – let’s begin by having you introduce yourselves and sharing your respective BJJ journeys to all our readers.

JAN:       

I started BJJ more than a decade ago during my third year in university. I was a gym rat before spending hours and hours in the gym. I thought what’s all this muscle for, if I don’t use it for something. Then one of my friends was watching Gracie videos and wanted to try it out. We rented some mats (it wasn’t even mats for grappling), then tried it out. We had a blast. One day I saw a sign – “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu” classes in the gym. I enrolled and never stopped training BJJ since.

TANYA:

I started Jiu Jitsu at almost 35 years old. During that time, I was going thru many life-changing challenges and needed an outlet to manage my stress and my weight. I needed a lifestyle makeover – exercise, to start eating right and work on my discipline. After my first class, I was hooked. Jiu Jitsu makes me forget about my problems. It challenges my brain to either think 2 steps ahead or actually be present in the moment to get out of sticky situations. I started competing a year later and won my first competition at age 36. Jiu Jitsu gave me a consuming passion to learn and improve, taught me discipline and most importantly, to pick myself up when I fall and get back on the mats.

People ask me if I regret starting my BJJ journey at such an advanced age. No. Never. JiuJitsu brought new meaning and passion into my life at the time I really needed it. I can grow old with this “gentle art”.  Always remember, it’s never too late to try, start, train, lose, learn and win.

MARA:

I started my Jiu Jitsu journey eight and a half years ago. Initially getting into it to learn self defense, I slowly fell in love with the sport aspect of Jiu Jitsu and the rest is history. I started competing early on but only started to find success after I got my blue belt. My competition journey was put to a brief halt after a serious knee injury I incurred in 2015. I was sidelined off the mats for about a year but really only got back into competition last 2018. Jiu Jitsu has become a huge part of my own life as I now teach kids Jiu Jitsu full time. It has been an incredible journey so far and starting up RELENTLESS with Jan and Tanya has only made it even more exciting.

BJJ-ASIA:

Jan, your two partners have shared their experiences in competition – have you tried competing yourself?

JAN:

My history competing wasn’t as consistent. I did a lot of competitions as a white approaching blue then when I got purple, I sort of lost the confidence and fire to compete. It was probably pride or the fear of loss that held me back. This was the time I met Bianca (who eventually became my wife) who pushed me back into competing again. These days I actually have fun competing (I used to dread it before). I still feel like a white belt who has so much to learn in training and in competitions. Now currently a brown belt, I find it is so hard to get a good number of high quality fights in local tournaments. Thus, when this RELENTLESS thing came up. I was really thinking of myself, on how I can get high level fights here, rather than just flying abroad.

BJJ-ASIA:

Let’s talk about RELENTLESS, what is it all about?

TANYA:

Relentless. Unbending. Uncompromising. As a person? A RELENTLESS person never gives up. And that is exactly what the Relentless Jiu Jitsu Invitational League is all about – a showcase of top grapplers in the country (Philippines) who embody being fierce, unmovable and merciless. They will fight with everything they’ve got and more.

JAN:

Most competitions are hosted abroad. There are a number of tournaments locally but none are truly high level, despite the country being home for a lot of top grapplers already. For some reason, top grappler “John” don’t get to fight top grappler “Ryan”. Maybe they joined different tournaments or the other one just fights abroad.

So why not invite top grappler A to fight top grappler B. Heck, let’s not just make it a super fight. Let us make it a round robin tournament where each elite athlete gets to fight all other top elite fighters of his weight division.

MARA:

Our vision is to see the quality of Jiu Jitsu in the Philippines be truly world class by providing an avenue for the nation’s best grapplers to showcase their skills against each other at a local setting. We already have a huge pool of great Jiu Jitsu athletes locally, but often an avid competitor has to travel abroad to get sufficient exposure to high quality fights, particularly for the higher belts. Why can’t we have those great matches happen here?

Hence,  RELENTLESS – Invitational Jiu Jitsu League for the country’s finest.

BJJ-ASIA:

How did you 3 team up and put on this tournament?

MARA:

Initially Jan and I were just messing around with the idea of coming up with our own tournament (really selfishly for ourselves) and it eventually turned into something real after putting our ideas down on paper. We brought Tanya in and shared our ideas with her and that’s when our plans started to come together even more. The 3 of us complement each other and bring something unique to the table which what makes us such a great team. We all have the same vision in being able to contribute to the local Jiu Jitsu community by creating an avenue for high level practitioners to showcase their skills.

TANYA:

Jan, asked if I was interested to help mount a tournament. The way he explained it was really exciting and a first that I’ve heard of in the Philippines. I was definitely interested. Then I met Mara Rafael and everything just clicked into place. I realized we all complemented each other and work really well as a team. We all want to contribute to the growth of local Jiu Jitsu in the Philippines and we hope that is what RELENTLESS will do.

We also had a lot of help from our teammates, friends and we had a lot of support from other teams as well.

BJJ-ASIA:
What have been your challenges in putting up RELENTLESS?

MARA:

Some of the challenges we faced early on were getting the athletes to commit to our idea. Some were skeptical about our initial set up as it hasn’t been done before. We really believed in our vision and we were committed in getting that across to the athletes.

TANYA:

The biggest challenge for me would be handling the logistics of the event. With only 3 people, there has to be a lot of heavy lifting, talking to security guards, pleading with maintenance crews and all that jazz. It was an awesome experience and seeing how the event turned out feels like a good pat on the back.

JAN:

Aside from those mentioned by Tanya and Mara, we were concerned by how the community will perceive this tournament, especially having a spectator fee of Php 200 (4 US Dollars). There have been different setups of competitions before but no one has actually charged a fee to watch a BJJ event. People might be saying – “Why the hell will I pay to watch BJJ?” To be honest, I am still blown off myself when I recall how the fights went and people’s reception towards it. I myself will gladly pay the fee to witness those amazing fights. Mara and Tanya had to often remind me of my “organizer” responsibilities when they catch me zoned out watching the fights.

BJJ-ASIA:

What is your vision for the future of RELENTLESS?

JAN:

We believe BJJ in the Philippines can contend with other countries not just in Asia but in the world. Access to top-level techniques are easily available online so basically you do not need to travel abroad to train with a world champ. However, having the best techniques is not enough, we also need top-level experience. As far as I know, experience is not available online.

Thus, our vision for Relentless is to give grapplers locally the opportunity to experience high level competitions here at home. We want to provide an avenue where our athletes can really test and push themselves in competition as if they’re joining the toughest and most competitive tournaments abroad. It is just a matter of having our best in the same place and in the same time, in a competitive setting – for everyone else to witness.

TANYA:

RELENTLESS 2 should definitely be more kick-ass than the first. We all wish to see more exciting match ups, hopefully a BLACK BELT division (sigh) and NOGI fights to bring the house down. Looking farther than the next competition, our vision is to be the top-of-mind platform where fighters, not only from the Philippines but even globally, can showcase their skills and fight their hearts out and be deemed truly RELENTLESS.

BJJ-ASIA:
Thank you very much for your time, and we wish more success in the upcoming events of RELENTLESS!

www.instagram.com/relentlessjj/

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Saigon

Back in January 2017, I was contacted randomly by one Anthony Luu, the front manager and organizer of the inaugural Saigon Open, asking if I would like to attend. Interest piqued I went about recruiting a handful of team mates to attend and we were soon booking flights bound to Saigon.

The Gentleman Grappler always fashionably late when travelling

With five of us registered, we were soon on a flight bound for Ho chi Minh with a mixture of nervous energy and anticipation of what was to come. After a less than restful evening upon arrival due to Saigon’s noisy bike congestion we headed to the competition venue in District 7 to set up and prepare for the day of competition.

Tour Guide Dom

Luckily for us what made the stay and journey easier was our team mate Dominic himself is Dutch Vietnamese. (Quite the insightful podcaster and I must add that I have learned a lot from the man over the course of our friendship both on and off the mats)

Rocket Fuel

A short car ride to the venue, we register at the reception, collect our competition t-shirts and decide to grab some local coffee to pass the time before our team mate Dom is called to action. If you don’t know how the Vietnamese have their coffee then let me tell you; it’s a thick black coffee brewed to perfection then stirred into a cup with a measure of condensed milk inside.

State of the art mats & equipment

Sceptical of the competition venue, we enter into a warehouse building where the stage was set and much to my surprise it is a state of the art fitness and martial arts facility.

Plenty for those focused solely on strength & conditioning

‘SSC’ is Asia’s largest mixed martial arts and cross training centre in District 7. (Saigon is separated into various districts) SSC offer various disciplines accessible to everybody; Boxing, MMA, Muay-thai, BJJ and Wrestling. If that’s not enough they even have group fitness classes that offer CrossFit, HIIT, core, yoga and strength training. Not to mention a giant swimming pool, health food restaurant, a juice bar, steam and sauna.

It’s amazing to see such a modern facility in a South East Asian country I knew very little about.

They give the people what they need, not what they want

Venue aside the competition was organized well for its first run, one odd factor though was that we were not allowed to film or take pictures of matches, at all. This got rectified post haste on the second day when suggestions were made to the organizers. Their initial justification of this was that they were filming all matches and would distribute the competitors matches at a later date. With HD filming devices and the bandwidth offered in South East Asia I think they realized the futility of such an endeavour.

Arete getting the job done

The event for the Arete Crew consisting of 5 competitors from Bangkok went relatively well the first day in Gi, 3 Gold medals and 2 silver medals.

Tasty medals

With the first day done our first port of call for the evening was a little place Dominic picked out for us called Quán Ăn Vietnam Restaurant. (The Vietnamese literally translates to restaurant)

Day 1 of competition done

Luckily for us all we had to do was shut up and eat as Dominic ordered dish after dish of exquisite Vietnamese food. Hunger sated and no worries over cutting weight having no opponent the next day we headed to the Pasteur Street Brewing Company for some locally produced craft beer.

Danimal BJJ & Arete BJJ

We managed to meet up with the Danimal BJJ crew shortly after arriving at the pub to discuss our thoughts on the first day and comment on the competitions positive and negative points and to ruminate over the next day of no-gi competition to come. 2 beers in and I get a message notification from none other than Anthony and but of course he asked if I would like to compete. Pretty certain I would not make the featherweight limit I told him but he assured me that the bout would be contested at lightweight.

I did what any rational human being surrounded by a cloud of weed smoke in an enclosed space would do, order another pint and accept the bout. At least I wasn’t going to be sitting around for an extended amount of time doing nothing. We all headed back to the Airbnb shortly after this and went to sleep restfully for another long day of competition.

Waiting for the signal

The second day we arrived a little later than the day before and no-gi was well underway. Dom having little to no experience in no-gi had less success than his first day earning himself a bronze medal. Kjeitel had more success no-gi but a terrible call by the referee cost him gold as his opponent decided that he could win by pushing the single x foot on the hip across his knee line to scream reap. As much as I was outraged by his opponent Taco was furious. Screaming, pleading to the referee and asking Kjeitel’s opponent, ‘Is this how you want to win!?’ (Other words were used) Upsetting as this was the referee later came to apologise for the bad call. Given where we were, being the first competition in Vietnam I understood the level of due diligence on IBJJF rules would not be high.

Dominic doing us proud

Just before the purple belts started a mutual friend of ours Vince arrived a little later and asked if we had collected our trophy. What trophy? It turns out that with the 5 of us had managed to get the 3^rd place team trophy on the gi day of competition. It was quite amusing that we had zero idea and that we hadn’t stayed to collect the team trophy.

The team trophy we forgot to get

Sheepishly I asked Anthony if we could collect the trophy and once he passed it to us I asked our Sebastian to keep it for safe keeping as he was out of No-gi due to illness and was at the venue as a spectator.

We did not realize how sick he was until the next day when we were back at the airport and he was shivering in the terminal asking us for an extra layer of clothing.

The Gentleman Grappler

But I digress, Taco ended with a Silver medal and I won gold competing against one, who is a natural light-featherweight in Fitri. No one interested in the absolute we headed back to lick our sore joints and headed straight out for libations and Pho at a famous restaurant called Phở Cao Vân.

A must

Ridiculous Portion Sizes

I have since kept in touch with Anthony Luu and he was kind to enough to answer a few questions regarding BJJ and Vietnam.

Mr. Luu

Anthony Luu Front House manager of Saigon Sports Club and an avid grappler started the first Saigon Open in 2016 and have since then hosted the Saigon Open II and a submission only tournament held in-house at their facility Saigon Sports Club.

Here is his interview below:

Hi my name is Anthony, and I’m from San Jose, California.

I manage the Front of House at SSC, which has a plethora of disciplines under its roof. The classes we have offer a chance for people of all different backgrounds and interests to be able to join us and personally, it’s quite nice to see such different groups of people every day.

I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a little over two and a half years ago here at Saigon Sports Club (SSC) and never looked back; it was the first sport I felt truly expressive and creative in.

Among my favourite Jiu Jitsu competitors are Gui Mendes, Jeff Glover, Kron Gracie, and Garry Tonon.

SUPER 8 Lineup

Competition-wise, I am most influenced by IBJJF tournaments, the Eddie Bravo Invitational, Submission Underground and Polaris.

Having a variety of sports under one roof results in a lot of people cross training and it’s interesting to see people’s interest shift from striking to grappling and vice versa.

I, myself, started with boxing when I first came to Vietnam and I was doing that for a little over a year. It was my introduction into martial arts and a lot of the fundamentals of boxing are still utilized in my grappling style now.

Last minute Pep

Before Vietnam, however, I didn’t really practice any sports. I didn’t miss out on much though, I enjoy my work and I don’t enjoy late nights. This combination works pretty well for a majority of my life, but I do wish I had more time to explore nature.

Ho Chi Minh City, now my home, unfortunately, doesn’t have much nature close by either so I seldom get a chance to just get away from the city and hike.

When asked which of the formats of Grappling and Jiu Jitsu he organized are his preference he gives an enigmatic reply;

We are Ronin

Both are great to gain experience from, seeing as they’re starkly different conceptually. Saigon Open’s purpose is to raise the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community as a whole; it provides a platform for all practitioners to validate their training for both their coaches’ evaluation, as well as their own.

In contrast, SUPER8 is meant to elevate the best that the country has to offer, providing a platform for top grapplers based in Vietnam to showcase their ability. The event was held in a Cage, where cage use was allowed with no reset of position. Match length was 10 minutes, submission only with a judges’ decision (out of 3) if there was no submission at the end of the allotted time. All submissions were legal except from heel hooks, toe holds and spinal manipulation.

Naga to the left

Saigon Open’s biggest difficulty was definitely the logistics; herding hundreds of people through the competition processes will never be as simple as a single 8-person sub only bracket. As for SUPER8, the biggest challenge is aligning the event’s structure to facilitate an entertaining, spectator friendly show. I believe that is the biggest problem with all grappling shows in the world at the moment. The more profitable the show is the more money can be put back into its competitors, further validating their career choice in professional grappling.

Saigon Sports Club has a good amount of every type of practitioner. We do encourage everyone to compete, in every discipline here. Of course, the reasons will be different for each individual but it doesn’t matter if you want to win, make friends, or experience new things; the important thing is to get out of your comfort zone and expose yourself to as many things as you can in life.

Spoils of War

Two Saigon Opens, one sub-only competition and a burgeoning BJJ community shows that the only way is up for the grappling community in Vietnam.

May 2019, 2 years later at Dumau Saigon, none the wiser

The post Anthony Luu, Saigon Sports Club – The State of Jiu Jitsu in Vietnam appeared first on BJJASIA.

The co-main event saw Sagnick Gupta of Indian Top Team MMA take on Ishtiak Ahmed Chowdhury of Invictus BJJ and MMA (Bangladesh). The main event had Ryan Davis from the Northwest Jiu-Jitsu Academy based in Seattle, USA going up against Siddharth Singh from Crosstrain Fight Club, India.

The group matches followed the league format with the athlete getting the most number of wins taking the gold, and the silver awarded to the runner-up. The results under the different weight categories are as follows:

Below 50 kg: Sandipan Roy (North 24 Parganas Judo Association) – Gold, and Rohit Mitra (North 24 Parganas Judo Association) – Silver.

Below 55 kg: Prem Prakash Pal (Kratoz Combat Academy) – Gold, and Harish P. Tiwadi (Dragons MMA Gym) – Silver.

Below 60 kg: Biswajit Das (North 24 Parganas Judo Association) – Gold, and Koushik Mondal (Next Level MMA) – Silver.

Below 65 kg: Aditya Saha (BJJ Ronins) – Gold, and Pratik Suryavanshi (Dragons MMA Gym) – Silver.

Below 70 kg: Kabir Sarkar (BJJ Ronins) – Gold, and Rahbar Ali (North 24 Parganas Judo Association) – Silver.

Below 75 kg: Rachit Tyagi (Crosstrain Fight Club) – Gold, and Debayan Sinha (BJJ Ronins) – Silver.

Co-Main Event: Sagnick Gupta (Indian Top Team MMA, India) – Gold, and Ishtiak Ahmed (Invictus BJJ & MMA Gym, Bangladesh) – Silver.

Main Event: (Super Fight): Ryan Davis (Northwest Jiu-Jitsu Academy, USA) vs. Siddharth Singh (Crosstrain Fight Club, India) – Draw

Famed Indian wrestler Virender Singh attended the event as the brand ambassador. Virender Singh is an Indian freestyle wrestler from Haryana and is regarded as one of India’s most accomplished deaf athletes. He has won three Deaflympics gold medals and a bronze medal. He received the Arjuna award in 2016 for his stellar contribution to Indian sports. Also, for the very first time in India, the promotion organized a mixed-gender bout. Though the bout ended in a draw, the contestants, Prem Prakash Pal from Kratoz Combat Academy, and Sankalita Chakraborty from BJJ Ronins delivered a solid all-round performance.

Chief Convener and Founder of GRIND, Shiba Pradhan said – “GRIND 3 has been an upgrade from our previous two events. We have had significant media coverage this time. The co-main and main event was exceptional. Watching the veteran athletes fight it out has been an enriching experience for our athletes. Virender Singh was very appreciative of the fact that we wanted him as the brand ambassador. His presence was a source of inspiration and empowerment for the competing athletes. We have plans to include more international teams and super fights next year. We are also planning to hold try-outs across the country and invite elite athletes.”

CEO and Co-Founder of GRIND, Subhoroop Ghosh said – “GRIND 3 has been an exciting event. We had some of the best athletes from the country competing in the tournament; hence, the level of competition has got even better. The super-fight was astounding. We saw two skilled athletes battling it out on the mats, and it proved to be a learning experience for the competitors. The inclusion of Arjuna Awardee Virender Singh as the brand ambassador has been a blessing for us. We aim to involve him in seminars and workshops in the coming days so that athletes can improve their skills. We wish to gear up and get ready for a GRIND – World Championship soon. To realize this we need support from all combat gyms across the country and abroad.”

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Sunset over the Sabah marina

It’s been a memorable few days in the island beneath the winds.
This was my first trip to Borneo and I was not disappointed.
Stunning coastline, majestic mountain range, lush green forest, exceptionally friendly locals and some delightful local entheogens.

I guess you realise you travel a lot when you land in a country and it’s not where you thought it was. I was under the impression that I was in the vicinity of Malaysia however Borneo is actually geographically closer to the Philippines. It’s directly under Palawan which coincidentally is where Alex Garland wrote The Beach.  A stunning part of the world.

The reason for my trip was to compete at the Copa de Borneo 2018.
A weekend of wrestling, binge eating and trying to make sense of the previous weeks data releases.  Yes I can fly off on a whim however maintaining a handle on what’s going on in the markets is essential.

Downtown Sabah – always prepare for rain in the tropics

The competition was oversubscribed. This is fairly usual given the procrastinating nature of the jiu jitsu crowd. As such there were 2 mats where 3 would have been ideal.
This oversight caused the event to run later than expected. Then again we all know that jits competitions involve waiting and waiting and more waiting. The event was hosted in a mall so there was plenty to do and given the incestuous nature of BJJ in Asia, I got to catch up with loads of acquaintances I only see at such events.
Once the ball got rolling the action was evident.

A small regional competition and everybody brought their A-games. The lower ranked matches tend to be the most entertaining as for the most part the participants don’t really know what they are doing which makes for greater spectator enjoyment.
There appeared to be no easy matches or rolls though. Everyone brought their A-game.
This reminded me of the culture at my home gym in Bangkok, Arete BJJ.

Flying armbar – executed with precision

The lack of black belts on the island meant that individuals held their rank longer than if there was someone on hand to grade them.
As such, rolling with 10 year veteran purple belts was not unusual . Inevitably most of the senior competitors were running their own gyms or fitness instructors. I was getting nervous and the regret of spending the previous week on an acid induced island bender was becoming apparent.

Sebastian, my fellow team mate from Bangkok  was up first and put on a valiant performance taking the gold medal in his division in spite of a dislocated collar bone. That’s correct. He was scheduled in for surgery but opted to compete instead.  One can only admire his fortitude.

Judo, Sambo and MMA have a foothold at the various gyms on the island so the physicality of competitors was there.
These guys were no strangers to combat sports.
I had 5 matches, winning 4 and losing to a guy significantly smaller but equally far more skilled and technical than I am. Cardio has always been my nemesis and I fell victim to it once again. Or maybe it’s the combination of cardio and churro’s. Either way I have much to do to get back to fighting fit.

Almost getting that reverse triangle

The black belt super fights were certainly the highlight of the day. The bonus was that my coach from Bangkok was on the super fight card. Having your general go to battle with you always gives one an extra impetus to perform. Andrew put on a stellar performance but unluckily lost to Carlos Bakural who was last year’s Asian Open champion. Watching high level jits like this certainly gives one an insight into how much more training and time on the mats is required. Certainly an inspirational experience.

Ian Lee, Malaysia’s first black belt and an all round thoroughly cool individual was also on the black belt super fight card. I trained with Ian many years ago in KL and he certainly left an impression on my game. This time around we got to hang out and casually discuss techniques, life and lasses. Ian won his match and the crowd with an exhibition of world class jiu jitsu.

All in all the gi day was a blast however the post competition celebrations were lacking in the ‘exoticness’ that those of us from the kingdom of Siam are used to but fun nonetheless.
This was after all the first night.
The main event was the following day.
Sadly once the adrenaline and stimulants had worn off, I realised I had broken my middle finger.
Not the first time this happened but certainly the first time it took me a day to figure out.
Day 2 of the comp was over for me.
I was now relegated to a spectator.

C’est la vie.

It was time to network, play BJJ journalist and enjoy a whole different class of medication.
Therapeutic CBD oil procured from an island witch doctor.
Day 2 was no-gi with a Luta Livre rule set.
Fun stuff.
Exciting to watch and definitely more spectator friendly than gi.
The event was over by 4pm.
Earlier than I expected and much needed as two long days had transpired.

As is often the case in situations like this, following a tournament, the competitors descend upon the host city like a Mongol horde in search of the spoils of war.
This was not going to be any different.
Ian, Evan and I started the evening rather nobly with dinner at a highly rated local seafood restaurant.
I thought it was strange that the guys would take me to an aquarium. Turns out it was a seafood restaurant. Fresh has a different meaning in this part of the world.

The main afterparty was set at a club on the Kota Kinabalu waterfront.
A spectacular viewing point for the sunset and somewhere I say should be put on your bucket list. People aside, the backdrop is stunning and unblemished by the masses of tourists we are accustomed to in Thailand and other island holiday destinations.
Slowly but surely the participants, worn out from 2 days of wrestling and grappling, trickled in.
Soon the place was packed and our ever generous and hospitable host ensured the rare and smooth whiskey flowed with ease.

This I find to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of jiu jitsu. The culture and camaraderie behind the sport. Meeting fellow enthusiasts of the sport, realising you are not the only deviant in the village and then proceeding to get fucked up with them.

Kota did not disappoint in this respect. Most of the regional teams were well represented and there was certainly a festive and playful spirit with the crowd. Island life tends to bring that out in people.

Jits people aside, the locals were friendly, engaging and genuinely interested in the foreigners to their city.
Even though on Air Asia’s budget airline route, this locale hasn’t been polluted or tainted by tourism.
Sure I saw a couple of bogans but not enough to sour the atmosphere.
Finding a party prescription may not be as easy as other Southeast Asian countries, but then again I’ve always found it difficult to find a buzz in a Muslim country.
But don’t let that put you off.
What was lacking in entheogens was definitely compensated for by the local talent of this luscious island.
Luscious is also the adjective I would use to describe the locals.
Say what you will about British colonial history, I’m grateful for that islands imperial ambitions.
After all they did bring all these races together, enslave them for agricultural and mining work and generations later we have this amalgamation of ethnicities.
Tall Chinese looking girls with Indian features, European figures and tropical complexions.
My kind of place.

So my better half is probably reading this section now so I will end my account of the events and proceed to describe what I heard from some of the other guys that ended up on all night bender. Or maybe I will save that bit for when we meet in person. Needless to say it was a memorable time and the most fun I’ve had without lube.

I would like to personally thank Syaiful for organising and hosting this event. Clearly a lot of time and effort goes into such an endeavor and it was appreciated by all of those that participated.

Stick this event on your calendar. It’s the best small, regional competition in Asia!

I will definitely be back next year.

BJJASIA gift packs coming out soon

Signing out for BJJASIA and remember our motto guys:
“Amoxycillin and Okamoto 0.1 – Live to fight another day!”

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Step back with fresh eyes from a competition and your head will spin with trying to keep up with what is going on with each mat and try as you might to understand what the hell certain people are yelling to their friends and gym-mates on the mats. Yes, chaos is fair, but in this specific competition, Copa De Bangkok, it’s also the name of the game.

Now, this was my first tango with the Copa scene as both a spectator and photo-journalist. My recollection of the tournament will not be 100% for a myriad of reasons. So, please keep in mind that I could not see every match nor remember all the details of these matches. I am simply going to talk about the matches and events that stood out.
The comp began, as most, with getting the large mass of both female and male white belts to compete at the varying weight classes. Next was blue, purple, brown and lastly (and awesomely) black.

For the matches I neglect to mention, let it be known that every single competitor did great and all deserve in-depth analysis but I am but one person. So, I offer my apologies to any competitor I don’t mention that thinks they deserve place in this article. Groovy? Let’s get to it.

The white and blue belt levels on both the gi and no-gi days were hard for me to keep up with. It seemed that a new match was sprouting up every minute and I was trying to see new and old friends compete while also keeping a steady eye on those that I had not had the pleasure of knowing. The immediate white and blue belts that stood out to me were Danial White from BFL, Jonathan Degler from Arete and Stan Tski from Elite Fight Club. In Stan’s case, he had shown immense poise and growth from the last time I had seen him compete. Plus, the dude looks like Zangief from Street Fighter, and that gets and automatic tip of the hat.

Next, is Jonathan. On both days, Jonathan competed in a very wrestling-focused style that surprised most the spectators. He also showed huge improvements since his last competition. Both Jonathan and Stan competed in gi and no gi. And last mention in these weight divisions goes to Danial White from only rolled in gi. Dan went up against some tough guys in his weight division. His last match was against Marco Kuster from Akatsuki Dojo Zurich who is a very fierce and intense competitor. Danial looked real sharp in this match and shined through to the win. All of these guys have shown big level-ups in their games and really let it be known on the Copa mats. Well done, gents.

Now, with these specific mentions, I wanted to talk style. Any of the competitors at or above the blue belt level seemed like jiujitsu gods to me. I was simply flabbergasted about all the talent being displayed, and I was transfixed on the styles and choices of strategy by the competitors. I was super impressed with quite a few people here so please bear with me. The first two names that come to mind in this category are Philip Allsopp from 10th Planet Koh Tao and Tee Nguyen from VR Jiujitsu.

Both of these competitors had an electric and dominant style. They were supremely fun to watch and were relentless competitors. At one point in Philip’s match, I thought he was going to shoot lasers from his eyes. The dude was locked in and crazy dexterous, and the same can be said about Tee as well. If you get a chance to see these two roll, be sure to give them the attention they deserve. They have an approach to BJJ that is fun to watch and definitely not orthodox.

Keeping the same category of style in mind, I wanted to mention Tauquil Atkinson from Arete (who rolled at purple) and Victor Dorfman (who rolled at brown) from Phuket Top Team. Now, the two had contrasting but equally interesting styles. Tauquil looked really comfortable and somewhat reptilian in his movements. He looked calculated and in his own element against all his competitors; winning two matches with an arm triangle from mount and bow-and-arrow choke respectively.

Victor rolled a bit more rough and tumble and looked really technical in his answers to his competitors attacks. Watching Victor roll was like seeing a Swiss Army Knife come to life. By that I mean that he showed a great complexity to his game and hid it behind great athleticism. Where Tauquil was surprising for not being obvious, Victor surprised by being bold. Both of these guys held captivating performances that were crazy fun to watch.

Last person I wanted to mention concerning the matches was the black bet from Gracie Barra Singapore, Bruno Amorim. Bruno caught my early in the day as he was coaching his team in a super loud, fun and bombastic style. The dude has a voice that carries, and it carries through a gym full of hundreds of people who are also yelling at people. His other matches were fun to watch too. He was solid all-around; pressure, technique, movements, etc. Bruno showed he is a great competitor to all his opponents and spectators. The one match specifically that had most people wowed was when he jumped a guard, collected an arm and got an arm bar in well under 10 seconds into the match. The match was absolutely fantastic to see, and absolutely infuriating if you missed it while taking photographs. I am so pissed at myself for not having better pictures of that match specifically, but trust me, everyone who saw it was floored. Seeing that match was definitely the highlight of the tournament for me specifically in terms of pure jiujitsu. Bruno impressed every single person in the room.

With all this being said about Copa, some other little facts should be said as well. Sunday had the no-gi and kids events. All of those matches were great to see, but everyone paused the matches to get the scoop on the McGregor/Khabib fight taking place at the time. It was fun to see everyone swirl and react to that fight and then go roll in no-gi. It gave Sunday some needed added electricity to the day. I think some competitors were a bit tired from Saturday’s rolls.

I learned quite a bit about the Jiujitsu competition scene here in Southeast Asia while covering Copa De Bangkok. I saw some weird organizational decisions and heaps of great matches. I met some great and not-so-great people. Everything seemed to just work out. It was far from perfect and definitely not ideal at times, but that’s how competitions can be sometimes. I will say this, I had a ball being able to watch and photograph this event. I wish I had more feedback about how spectators and competitors felt about the competition but maybe its best for them to voice their own opinion. If you have the chance next year, get to National Stadium and compete, or support your gym. Oss.

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Shakespeare once said something about brevity being yadda yadda yadda, and since he seems like a smart dude, I felt it best to keep this summary of the BKK Inter-Club White & Blue Belt Friendly Tournament held at Arete BJJ in Bangkok on June 9th, 2018 as brief as possible (and since the name of the tournament is not).

That is not to say that the tournament does not deserve a proper match-by-match summary or analysis because it does. Furthermore, the tournament was held for a very good cause, and it raised 30,000 baht for the APSW Thailand – Emergency Women’s Home and Orphanage. So, I mean no disrespect at all. I am simply suggesting that people probably prefer brief reads about events. That all being said and out of the way, here we go.

So, as stated above, the BKK Inter-Club White & Blue Belt Friendly Tournament at Arete included various weight classes from light to heavy in both white and blue belt divisions and in men’s and women’s categories respectively. There was also a children’s division as well but it was split into small kids, big kids and teens. The results and photos of the participants of each weight class and division will be listed below but before that, I felt it best to go over some of the highlights of the day. So, in the hopes of being objective and fun, here are few awesome things that happened during the tournament.

So, the day began with the kids categories, and to me, it was this part of the day that really shined the brightest. A little girl, Myu Suzuki, walked into the gym, put her little gi on, stepped onto the mat and beat every boy and girl she competed against in both the little kids and big kids categories. This little girl showed all the people watching what jiujitsu is all about. Her gender and size meant nothing at all, and she walked off into the sunset (it was really closer to 11 am) head held high, making her parents and peers so proud. For me, Myu was the high watermark.

After the kids, the white belts in both men and women began, and all did exceedingly well. The surprising aspect of this section of the day came in two varieties. 1) The tournament , casting a surprisingly wide net, landed some competitors from as far as both Pattaya and Myanmar. So, it was refreshing to see that people came from afar to not only compete, but do so honorably and in the name of such a good cause, as stated above. 2) Also, Grace Cleveland. Grace competed well at the tournament but she did so against a higher belt level and she also did so while having recently recovered from being paralyzed. No matter how you write that, the fact that Grace suffered a terrible injury and was able to perform at this tournament skillfully speaks volumes about her and her trainer. It was truly something special.

After the men and women competed at the white belt levels, the blue belts (who also had a few more seasoned white belts) then competed. The women’s division was a fantastic watch with a real nail-biting, exciting finish. But all the more surprising, to me was Stan Pizdanuke at the 90kg men’s division, training out of Elite Fighting Club. He walked into the gym and owned the room. He didn’t necessarily finish where he probably wanted, but if what he said is true, it was his first tournament, and he had been training in a gi for only a week. He showed a lot bravery and grit on the mat, and to me, it was another great display of what jiu-jitsu does for a person’s confidence and will.

So, needless to say, all the competitors did a fantastic job at the tournament. There were submissions, upsets, surprises and joy (and even pizza!) all day, and it made for a great and encouraging jiu-jitsu experience in Bangkok. As previously stated, the results and some photos of the day will be listed below. Congratulations to all who competed or contributed to the tournament! The word on the street is that more inter-club friendlies are coming soon (no news on when that will be yet), and we all hope the next is as great as this tournament was. OSS!

Results:
Small Kids:
1) Miyu Suzuki (Arete BJJ)
2) Halu Suzuki (Arete BJJ)
3) Emir Ali Osmanov (Arete BJJ)

Big Kids:
1) Miyu Suzuki (Arete BJJ)
2) Baden Lees (Arete BJJ)
3) Narawut Limpanonda (Arete BJJ)

Teens:
1) James Leelayuvat (EMAC)
2) Itsuki Yamaguchi (Shingi Dojo)

Female White Belt (Open Weight):
1) Stamp Fairtex (Fairtex)
2) Elizabeth Espinar (Myanmar BJJ)
3) Chenxing Yu (Arete BJJ)

Male White Belt (50-60kg):
1) Surarat (Beam) Supimarost (Arete BJJ)
2) Guy Woodard (Bangkok Fight Lab)
3) Naoyuki Yamada (Arete BJJ)

Male White Belt (60-70kg):
1) Tetsuo Shibatani (Free)
2) Hiroyuki Fukui (Arete BJJ)
3) Hideyuki Shimura (Arete BJJ)
3) Masakazu Amemiya (Bangkok Fight Lab)

Male White Belt (70-80kg):
1) Jon Degler (Arete BJJ)
2) David Sutthaluang (Bigfoot BJJ)
3) Montri (Arete BJJ)

Male White Belt (80-90kg):
1) Nishikawa Takanori (Arete BJJ)
2) Blake Beavers (Bigfoot BJJ)
3) Julian Rowlands (Myanmar BJJ)
3) Tim Gerard Daly (Arete BJJ)

Female Blue Belt (50-60kg):
1) Bridgid Whitehead (Bangkok Fight Lab)
2) Maysa Talerd (Arete BJJ)
3) Tammi Willis (Bangkok Fight Lab)

Male White & Blue Belt (90kg+):
1) Stuart Dean (Arete BJJ)
2) Stan Pizdanuke (Elite Fight Club)
3) Aku Salminen (Bigfoot BJJ)
3) Ruttapon Larbsrisaward (Deraforce)

Male White & Blue Belt (70-80kg):
1) Ola Jacobsson (Fairtex)
2) Carl Nelson Jones Jr (Arete BJJ)
3) Nattha Dhamabutra (Arete BJJ)

Male Blue Belt (80-90kg):
1) Damian Gorski (Team Poland)
2) James Lees (Arete BJJ)
3) Meechum Purnell (Arete BJJ)

The post BKK White & Blue Belt Inter Club Friendly 2018 appeared first on BJJASIA.

From MMA legends Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett comes a unique grappling contest, where you must compete and defeat other team grapplers. It’s not 5 on 5 MMA like we see from Russia (that’s one extreme many people, including myself, find tough to watch), but it has taken the grappling world by storm with three thrilling events so far.

So what is QUINTET? Why haven’t we heard much about it? And what makes it so exciting?

The concept of submission grappling events has been a very individual based event since its inception. Like MMA fighters in the cage, or 2 boxers in a ring, it is just you and your opponent on the mats. Events such as the Eddie Bravo Invitational (EBI), Kasai Grappling, Submission Underground or the now defunct Metamoris see competitors pitted against one another in one-on-one super fights or a 16-man tournament where the individual must duke it out for glory.

10th Planet – Big in Japan

Arguably some of these ‘sub only’ events do not push for finishes, a problem first addressed by EBI’s creator, ‘Edgie Brah.’ Cash incentives were given to finish opponents by submission and make 5,000 dollars for each finish out of the possible 20,000 dollar grand cash prize. Some say this is insufficient because competitors can make it to the finals and gain notoriety simply via overtime rounds and, as it were, ‘game the system.’ You can see this strategy being applied effectively by Joe Soto making it through to the finals of EBI 4 by surviving overtime rounds, ‘beating’ the likes of notable competitors Geo Martinez and Joao Miyao.

Team Tiger Muay Thai

Even in Metamoris we saw a lot of matches ending in draws after a frustrating 20 minutes where two competitors were evenly matched and neither competitor had any intention to finish or go in for the kill. When you’re a pay per view event this can kill subsequent events, because many do not want to watch a card in which competitors ‘stall out’ to a long, frustrating draw. This can also be said of the recent results of the ACBJJ events held in Europe and Russia.

The recent ACBJJ in Moscow is another example of this frustration: the event’s president Zaurbek Khasiev publicly stated that he would stop future BJJ super fight events if the competitors do not push the action.

https://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/acbjjs-president-sick-boring-bjj-matches-threatens-stop-future-events/

Team Vagabond

So what then has QUINTET done to address these issues seen in previous professional grappling events?

Firstly, the rule set is completely different to that of anything seen in professional jiu-jitsu events.

Four teams of five elite grapplers compete in a tournament series with a rule set all its own:
1. Total team weight cannot exceed 430kg.
2. Matches are open weight.
3. Submission only. If there is no submission, the match ends in a draw and both teams move to the next grappler.
4. Each match is eight minutes long
5. Weight difference over 20kg is a four minute match
6. Penalties are given for closed guard, stalling and not enough action in general.
7. No heel hooks

In other words, the winning man fights on against the predetermined order with the opponent’s team one after the other until he loses or draws. Therefore, if there are extremely strong athletes and that team member is at the forefront of the 5-man team, it can lead them to victory by him alone, defeating everyone by themselves.

Team Reebok

As a nerd, I can tell you that this kind of format is well-known in Japan and has been a long-standing part of anime storylines which I’ve been reading since I was a kid. Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, and King of the Jungle Ta-chan all have similar storylines in which teams of five are pitted against opposing teams immeasurably stronger than them. So this format of competition is not new to the Japanese audience but does have an air of newness to the western audience.

The incentive to win is there not just for you but also for your team mates and to enable them to effectively attack the other team by taking out multiple competitors that can be troublesome in terms of style or size.

How is this ultimately done? By FINISHING. The only way you actually win is via submission therefore if you perform poorly or go to a draw all it does is eliminate you and the other one competitor on the opposing team. This can be troublesome if you are the last competitor in the team and they still have 3 competitors left.

Losing at a competition is one thing and I am sure some guys who have been to BJJ competitions can relate to this disappointment. But you alone causing your whole team to lose? That’s a tough pill to swallow and you want to work hard to ensure you at least aren’t the cause of the team’s elimination.

Sports such as football, soccer, basketball and rugby have an element of team spirit that has been missing from these events. As exciting as the past events in the US were the one detail missing from these events was essentially what QUINTET has managed to capture in its ‘Grappling Team Survival Matches.’
As Dave Camarillo famously states, ‘rules dictate behaviour’ and under the rule set organized by Sakuraba and co. the event brings about fireworks as well as an element of team spirit unlike any other grappling event.

Legendary founder Kazushi Sakuraba

Sakuraba’s intention was to bring an exciting, action packed event to grappling and he has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectation. Even the competitors themselves marvel at the atmosphere and the unique event they are part of. The unique team format meant that grapplers had to work together and develop a stratagem to keep the team moving forward to the finals and if one person did well the whole team benefitted having one less opponent to fight.

So why have we not heard much about this event?

Firstly, it’s relatively new. The inaugural QUINTET.1 was just held back in April 11th and since then we have had Quintet Fight night in Tokyo, June 9th with a lightweight division and a recent QUINTET.2 July 16th. The events unique format seems to have captured the attention of grapplers around the world, as Polaris alumni’s and Eddie Bravo’s 10th Planet teams have been sent to compete at the event in Tokyo.

You can hear a detailed synopsis from none other than Daniel Strauss AKA the Raspberry Ape on his podcast, the Raspberry Ape Podcast. In this particular episode you can hear his analysis of the first QUINTET and the thoughts going into the event and during the event.

Judging by his analysis of the event and the passion in which he details the event itself it is clear the team format engaged him and brought him closer to his team or ‘tribe’ as it were throughout the competition.

The first QUINTET saw teams representing supplement company HALEO which included Marcos Souza, Sakuraba himself, Nakamura Daisuke, Josh Barnett and Japanese MMA legend Hideo Tokoro, who were favourites (being the local team)to win the tournament. However upset after upset saw Team Polaris mowing through the competition having the likes of Marcin Held and Craig Jones literally mowing through the Sambo team finish after finish.

Even the HALEO team had some moments in the first match up against Team Judo, when Tokoro displayed a masterful armbar within the first 20 seconds of the first round match. Though Tokoro would go on to get choked out twice through the event his stock went exponentially up considering the fact he was a bantamweight fighter going up against much heavier opponents in the competition.

Quintet 1

Quintet Fight night in Tokyo was a little different as the competitors teaming up with weight discrepancies was changed to a light weight format. The event still a success saw less finishes but the event was exciting nonetheless. Team Carpe Diem managed to show case their stable of talented grapplers and to ultimately take home the win from the event, beating team Tokoro and team HALEO that even had world class competitor Roberto Satoshi in the mix. As anti-climactic as the event seems it was a huge success for the local talent, Carpe Diem especially as they have just started their global domination opening schools in both London and Singapore, a feat unheard of by a home-grown Japanese Jiu-Jitsu affiliation.

With the format back to that of the first event match ups in QUINTET.2 saw Carpe Diem’s Ghanaian monster Haisam Rida, AKA ‘Kirin’ a brown belt standout based in Tokyo joining Sakuraba’s Team Reebok. We saw Haisam tearing through 4 of Team Tiger Muay Thai’s competitors via submission in quick succession.

In similar fashion, we saw Haisam looking unstoppable against Team 10th Planet in the finals arm barring CBJJ Welterweight Champ Richie ‘Boogyman’ Martinez. Then, out of nowhere Boogie’s younger brother Geo ‘Freakazoid’ Martinez, current 135lbs EBI champion manages to stop the giant wrecking ball that is Haisam with a mounted guillotine to subsequently lead Team 10th Planet to victory.

Official highlight reel below.

The only way is certainly up for QUINTET and the recently announced lightweight amateur QUINTET tournament to be held in Tokyo on September 23 is a clear indication of its success. The event will be taking lightweight entries for adult, master male divisions and a women’s open weight division.

Official QUINTET site below.

トップページ

Check out the link below for details regarding the upcoming amateur Quintet promotion in Japan.

Amateur QUINTET.1

Credit to QUINTET for all images and videos.

Author: McCulloch Sakuhei Hamada (Mac)

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