Grappling: Grab their foot in a threatening manner, it doesn't cost you anything

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > Grappling: Grab their foot in a threatening manner, it doesn't cost you anything

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fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

Grab Your Foot! posted:

He was just there in a T shirt and when Nick didn't show he was one of a bunch of dudes who offered to roll for the fans, half of whom were already gone. I can't believe he really expected the offer to be accepted.

According to Braulio Drysdale wasn't offering to roll, he was offering to translate.

# ? May 13, 2012 19:32

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# ? May 17, 2024 01:37

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

CrooklynMMA posted:

Diaz didn't allow anyone from Estima's camp to witness his weigh-in, but insisted that someone from his camp witness Braulio weigh-in. Shady

# ? May 13, 2012 20:00

Grab Your Foot!: Apr 24, 2007; The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Well that's a whole lot of giving a poo poo about a meaningless exhibition in a sport which he doesn't really compete in professionally against a guy he probably couldn't hang with anyway.

# ? May 13, 2012 22:28

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

But Diaz is totally a warrior who'll fight anybody any time, y'all.

# ? May 13, 2012 22:31

Pimp Cauldron: Aug 3, 2002; A twisted pictoral of phoenix, AZ

Grab Your Foot! posted:

Well that's a whole lot of giving a poo poo about a meaningless exhibition in a sport which he doesn't really compete in professionally against a guy he probably couldn't hang with anyway.

I'm sorry you can't appreciate the irony of a known sociopath no showing a pajama disease hugging event for charity

# ? May 13, 2012 22:46

Bubba Smith: Sep 27, 2004; Is tonight the greatest moment in Dominick Cruz's life?

No.

The greatest moment in my life was realizing that I didn't need a belt to be happy.

Grab Your Foot! posted:

Well that's a whole lot of giving a poo poo about a meaningless exhibition in a sport which he doesn't really compete in professionally against a guy he probably couldn't hang with anyway.

Yeah, nick diaz is a big shithead, but this isn't that big of a deal. He just ditched a seminar like two weeks ago and nobody really cared then. If there had been any decent MMA on last night or today (or if Tuesday's show had bigger fights) few people would have cared about this too. Instead it has been the top story on most mma sites because nothing else is really going on.

But Nick Diaz needs to stop signing up for things he has no intention of really doing.

# ? May 13, 2012 23:38

manyak: Jan 26, 2006

He should actually continue doing this until he disappears entirely, and hopefully all the internet nerd "Aint no bitch! its the 2 - 0 -9!!! I love weed ha ha!" rapping granny guys will also shut up and fade away sort of like the Fedor guys did

# ? May 14, 2012 00:00

the yellow dart: Jul 19, 2004; King of rings, armlocks, hugs, and our hearts

Chemtrail Clem posted:

He should actually continue doing this until he disappears entirely, and hopefully all the internet nerd "Aint no bitch! its the 2 - 0 -9!!! I love weed ha ha!" rapping granny guys will also shut up and fade away sort of like the Fedor guys did

Nick Diaz is far more entertaining than Fedor because his failures are just as immense as his successes. Any man who can make Nate Diaz look like a reasonable and well-adjusted human being can be nothing but comedy, for better or worse.

# ? May 14, 2012 00:21

Ninja PD: Jul 21, 2006

Nick saved Braulio's life by not showing up, that's charity enough.

Plus he probably gives them money anyways but ain't a publicity whore like all the other guys you hear about that do charitable things and boasted about it in the media. Braulio is a bitch that would get worked in BJJ, MMA, any way, all day, errday. 2-0-9 ya dig

# ? May 14, 2012 01:09

1st AD: Dec 3, 2004; Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: sometimes passing just isn't an option.

Ninja PD posted:

Nick saved Braulio's life by not showing up, that's charity enough.

Plus he probably gives them money anyways but ain't a publicity whore like all the other guys you hear about that do charitable things and boasted about it in the media. Braulio is a bitch that would get worked in BJJ, MMA, any way, all day, errday. 2-0-9 ya dig

where is this cp from

# ? May 14, 2012 01:15

Taratang: Sep 4, 2002; Grand Master

There's a video doing the rounds now where a reporter asks Braulio who saw him make weight and he clearly says "Lana" (as in Lana Stefanac, Cesar Gracie team member).

The reporter repeats back to him "Rhonda?" and with all the noise and people crowded round he nods and agrees. Now Rhonda Rousey has come out attacking Braulio's character because he "lied about saying she saw him make weight".

I hope she realises her error quickly and apologises because this poo poo is making everyone look dumb.

# ? May 14, 2012 01:31

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

Taratang posted:

There's a video doing the rounds now where a reporter

It's not a reporter, it's "Layziethesavage", Diaz's PR guy.

# ? May 14, 2012 01:33

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

Ninja PD posted:

Nick saved Braulio's life by not showing up, that's charity enough.

Plus he probably gives them money anyways but ain't a publicity whore like all the other guys you hear about that do charitable things and boasted about it in the media. Braulio is a bitch that would get worked in BJJ, MMA, any way, all day, errday. 2-0-9 ya dig

I'm seriously going to start probating for this dumb poo poo because whether it's copypasted or just "ironic imitation" of sherdog posts, it's still filling up threads with really lovely posting and seeing the threads fill up with them is really dumb.

# ? May 14, 2012 01:34

fawker: Feb 1, 2008; ARMBAR!

Taratang posted:

I hope she realises her error quickly and apologises because this poo poo is making everyone look dumb.

It really just makes Rousey and Diaz look dumb, as well as midddleeasy, but everyone already knew that they were dumb.

I like how Ronda is adamant that Braulio was scared of Diaz and only started boasting about tapping Diaz out once it came to light that Diaz was gonna no show again.

# ? May 14, 2012 01:35

manyak: Jan 26, 2006

fawker posted:

I like how Ronda is adamant that Braulio was scared of Diaz and only started boasting about tapping Diaz out once it came to light that Diaz was gonna no show again.

Braulio might have been scared of Diaz in the sense that Alan belcher was scared of palhares, in that even if you are a far better fighter you never know what a mentally ill retard will do to you under the pretense of a fight

# ? May 14, 2012 02:04

Triticum Guzzler: Jun 16, 2002

Chemtrail Clem posted:

Braulio might have been scared of Diaz in the sense that Alan belcher was scared of palhares, in that even if you are a far better fighter you never know what a mentally ill retard will do to you under the pretense of a fight

Nick really needs his own version of the Rani Yahya head kick-snake throw to cement his legacy

# ? May 14, 2012 02:08

Yuriy: Dec 25, 2006; Pay no attention to me, for I am a stupid cunt.

breadbugs99 posted:

Nick really needs his own version of the Rani Yahya head kick-snake throw to cement his legacy

I've googled around for this and can only find a few ancient Sherdog threads and no video, but what exactly happened here?

# ? May 14, 2012 03:49

AZCollins: Feb 4, 2004; Meanderthal

Caio Terra is awesome. He's so young and has been taking a lot of tournaments. He also happens to be one of the nicest guys I've met.

Here's his match with Jeff Glover. It's super super entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7eixxm5CLI

# ? May 14, 2012 17:49

Triticum Guzzler: Jun 16, 2002

Yuriy posted:

I've googled around for this and can only find a few ancient Sherdog threads and no video, but what exactly happened here?

Well I'm hazy on the details after all this time but he felt a referee was being unfair to one of his guys at a grappling competition or something, after words were exchanged between him and the opponent, he threw a head kick at the guy, pocket sanded his pet snake at some people, and then ran off, possibly shirtless.

# ? May 14, 2012 23:23

Biodome: Nov 21, 2006; Gerry

Subparr posted:

Caio Terra is awesome. He's so young and has been taking a lot of tournaments. He also happens to be one of the nicest guys I've met.

Here's his match with Jeff Glover. It's super super entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7eixxm5CLI

Great match, was rooting for Terra so was disappointed when he lost at the end.

# ? May 15, 2012 02:39

Bohemian Nights: Jul 14, 2006; When I wake up,
I look into the mirror
I can see a clearer, vision
I should start living today; Clapping Larry

Here's the word from Cesar Gracie on the entire affair: http://graciefighter.com/2012/05/world-jiu-jitsu-expo-and-nick-diaz/#more-690

# ? May 15, 2012 12:07

Opal: May 10, 2005; some by their splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil.

I'm surprised they're still trying to paint Braulio as some kind of weasel attempting to build an MMA career off of a win over Nick Diaz in a completely unrelated competition, I would have thought he commanded more respect than that

e: I mean this whole section is just a mess of false assumptions and leaps of logic unless I'm missing something major:

Cesar Gracie posted:

I called Junior who assured me Estima would not be fighting in mma and that he had spoken with him and been assured he had given up on the idea of ever fighting. Junior reiterated, �Cesar I spoke with Braulio, the guy is in his 30′s, he has a family and doesn�t want to live that type of life at this stage in his life�etc�

I repeated this info to Nick. A week or so later it was all over the Internet that Braulio had joined the �Blackzillians� and was training for an mma fight. We had been lied to. Furthermore it was evident that Nick�s sole condition that he not go against a wanna be mma guy was violated and this was in fact an attempt by Braulio to ignite an mma career.Nick was to have been accurately portrayed as a fighter returning to his BJJ roots. He had even agreed to give his entire purse to charity; St Jude�s Children�s Hospital for kids with cancer. If you know the story of Ralph Gracie�s son you would understand why this charity was chosen. Nick�s name having been added to this event had saved it but now it was clear he was to be the patsy, not respected but used.

Opal fucked around with this message at 12:40 on May 15, 2012

# ? May 15, 2012 12:29

Dante: Feb 8, 2003

the least weasel posted:

I'm surprised they're still trying to paint Braulio as some kind of weasel attempting to build an MMA career off of a win over Nick Diaz in a completely unrelated competition, I would have thought he commanded more respect than that

e: I mean this whole section is just a mess of false assumptions and leaps of logic unless I'm missing somenthing major:

Gracie crazy is way more crazy than Diaz crazy. I also can't help but laugh at this:

quote:

Nick is not without fault by any means. His lack of communication with his team and coach was inexcusable. This will be addressed privately.

Dante fucked around with this message at 12:37 on May 15, 2012

# ? May 15, 2012 12:34

Neurosis: Jun 10, 2003; Fallen Rib

fatherdog posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNF0lgcZ_44&hd=1

Braulio seems like a cool guy from this video and other things I've heard form people who've trained with him so this just makes me more upset for when he inevitably does terribly in MMA.

# ? May 15, 2012 13:00

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

quote:

Although they can't say for certain why Nick Diaz no-showed the 2012 World Jiu-Jitsu Expo, Braulio Estima and Renzo Gracie can agree there were serious problems behind the scenes at the event.

In a pair of interviews today with MMAjunkie Radio, Estima and Gracie detailed their roles at the Expo, which took place this past Saturday in Long Beach, Calif.

Both said miscommunications in the lead-up to a superfight between Estima and Diaz likely contributed to the unfortunate ending, which came when a weight dispute scrapped the bout.

But the jiu-jitsu "superfight" shouldn't have happened in the first place, said Gracie.

"This was a matchup that I didn't want from the beginning, and they did it," he said. "Because Nick Diaz has unbelievable jiu-jitsu. But to match him against a guy like Braulio, it's uneven.

"If it was an MMA fight, it's a different ballgame. But it's not an MMA fight."

And Saturday night, it wasn't a grappling match, either. Estima arrived on the mat to find Diaz and his manager Cesar Gracie � Renzo Gracie's cousin � absent. A member of the Diaz camp was unable to find the pair, so Estima took Diaz to task before the audience and said he would fight the UFC welterweight in MMA.

By then, Diaz was long gone, Cesar Gracie today told MMAjunkie. He had left Friday night when Estima's weight first came into focus. Gracie said Diaz, who's now back in his hometown of Stockton, Calif., donated his base pay for the event this morning to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

UFC president Dana White, who once booted Diaz from a title fight Georges St-Pierre when he no-showed press conferences in support of UFC 137, did an online version of a shrug when news of the no-show caught up to him on Twitter.

"No, not shocked and I'm surprised u people are!" White wrote. "He no showed a Las Vegas press conf to a fight he was gonna make HUGE $ and title."

To cut or not to cut?

Estima arrived in Long Beach on Thursday following a vacation in Thailand and quick jaunt to his adopted home in the U.K. for two days of filming on a reality show. He said there was a verbal agreement that he had to weigh 180 pounds on Friday or 185 on event day, but said the Expo's promoter did not have a clear plan for weigh-in schedule.

On Friday night, Estima said he still hadn't heard anything about when he was supposed to weigh in and at what weight, so he called the promoter as he sat down to sushi at a local restaurant. The promoter, in turn, called Cesar Gracie, whose team had a presence at the event.

"'Cesar told you that you need to weigh 180 (pounds) tomorrow,'" Estima said of his next conversation with the promoter. "I said, 'Hold on. The verbal agreement was 180 on Friday, or 185 on Saturday. It was supposed to be one or the other.'"

Cesar Gracie admitted the agreed-upon weight changed multiple times in the lead-up to the event. He declined to further discuss details of the tournament and said a statement from his camp is forthcoming.

Still, Estima agreed to cut to 180 pounds. He soon heard via Twitter that he had missed weight, which wasn't accurate in his mind because the weigh-in had been agreed for 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. He wasn't sure whether Diaz's manager was behind the messages, but proceeded nonetheless.

Estima said he made 180 pounds on Saturday morning in the presence of a Cesar Gracie black belt Lana Stefanic and documented the entire process with video. He then texted Gracie with confirmation of his weight and asked the manager if he could check Diaz's weight.

"[Gracie] said, 'Nick was 180 yesterday, last night,' and I said, 'Where did he weigh in?' Estima said. "He said, 'I saw.' I said, 'OK, you saw, but none of my representatives saw it.'"

Gracie then informed him that the promoter had told Diaz he could eat on Friday night. Estima asked if he could meet the fighter to promote the match, which was reportedly for charity. He was informed Diaz wasn't available.

"That was the level of how things were going," Estima said.

For his part, Renzo Gracie said the weigh-ins should have been done on Friday.

"That's how all the competitions are," he said. "I think it was the fact that I let a guy handle this that he wasn't prepared. He's not used to the fighting world. He's a guy who makes shirts, who makes expos. He was very efficient on that. But on everything else, he lacked knowledge."

Yet Estima completely expected Diaz to show up Saturday evening. A run-in with Cesar Gracie beforehand gave him the impression that the match was still a go, and when he walked out on the mats, he expected to see the controversial and popular fighter from Stockton.

Instead, he saw empty space.

Renzo Gracie said he plans to talk with the promoter soon to find out exactly what went wrong over the weekend. But he noted that Cesar Gracie had a role in the expo that may have exceeded that of a mere fighter rep.

"For Cesar to bring in his camp, he received a big percentage of the expo," Renzo Gracie said.

However, the MMA legend specifically points to the conversation between Estima, the promoter and Cesar Gracie as the root of the problem.

"You don't call a guy's room to tell that [the opponent] is going to be 10 pounds overweight at midnight on the day previous to his fight," said Renzo Gracie. "There's a psychological effect in there.

"Nick Diaz is a guy that was already giving up too much to fight Braulio, and the next thing you see, 10 pounds heavier. And the other one is so ignorant that he passes that information without even thinking how much damage he can deliver, and it ended up being that."

# ? May 15, 2012 14:05

DekeThornton: Sep 2, 2011; Be friends!

Now I'm fairly new to seriously following MMA and really no expert on the Diaz brothers and their camp, but am I mistaken in concluding that Cesar Gracie is an utter weasly shitheel?

# ? May 15, 2012 14:08

manyak: Jan 26, 2006

DekeThornton posted:

Now I'm fairly new to seriously following MMA and really no expert on the Diaz brothers and their camp, but am I mistaken in concluding that Cesar Gracie is an utter weasly shitheel?

You are correct

# ? May 15, 2012 14:19

colonel_korn: May 16, 2003

I love how as it becomes more and more obvious that the thing about Braulio missing weight is utter horseshit, Cesar moves the goalposts and starts saying that it was *really* about Braulio trying to use Nick to launch his MMA career :laugh:

# ? May 15, 2012 14:22

Xguard86: Nov 22, 2004; "You don't understand his pain. Everywhere he goes he sees women working, wearing pants, speaking in gatherings, voting. Surely they will burn in the white hot flames of Hell"

It's an event for charity in a sport where guys give up forty pounds and still win tournaments. The weight issue is all a smoke screen.

# ? May 15, 2012 14:56

ch3cooh: Jun 26, 2006

I should give Braulio a call. I know how it feels to be stood up by Nick Diaz, maybe I can offer some coping strategies (my main one is seething hatred of all things stockton)

# ? May 15, 2012 15:37

fatherdog: Feb 16, 2005

Braulio Estima posted:

@CesarGracieBJJ Hi C�sar i was reading yr statement. vry interesting points..
1st- When junior approached me 2 Offer me the fight I was actually training at the blackzilians at the time so obviously I was training Mma. Junior told me abt nick not wanting 2 fight an Mma fighter. I nevr fought before so he said it was fine & y u dnt cancel the fight before if ths was really an issue..??
2nd- nobody has ever bended no rules for me. Because there was no rules set to start off with, it wasnt going to be a UFC match but a superfight on a BJJ Expo so the whole point here was for us to show a fight..has Nick signed a contract that stated the date time and weight that we both need to reach? I didn't. And since this whole thing was going to be a friendly event I really don't see any issue here even if Nick turned up 10lbs overweight. Still when asked I went and dropped the weight to meet the requirement. Actually to put things straight it was myself that called Junior around 10pm Friday to check if there is going to be a weigh in at all. He kept contacting you and got back to me saying I need to be 180 that time, of course I said I can't for the simple reason I was away in Irvine and it was already late at night but I said sure no problem I'll make it first thing in the morning if needed, even if it would put me in a bigger disadvantage I didnt care I just came to fight. Junior had actually called me back no later than midnight that he spoke to you and confirmed the weigh in for 10am.
Besides when did Nick actually weigh in? And who witnessed that if we are being so strict and proffessional?
3rd - you are saying Nick had left by 10am Saturday morning? Why you never said anything then? I even asked you I'd like to see him and his weight and you said he's not gonna come down because he ate already and wouldn't make the weight anymore. And Lana after speaking to you called his room and said he was actually there sleeping. Nobody at any point had mentioned he could have left. Leaving me believing we would fight till the very last minute, now youre talking about lack of proffesionalism in the organisation of the superfight and this was very professional behaviour right?

There is many more points here that I don't agree with but I am just fed up of this whole situation and don't agree for anyone to ever release the blame from Nick for whatever reason, we were there to fight and that's what should happen no excuses, we are both professional athletes and should respect one another no matter what. And this is inexcusable.

# ? May 15, 2012 18:50

The MUMPSorceress: Jan 6, 2012; ^SHTPSTS; Gary’s Answer

It's cool that Braulio is into beat poetry.

# ? May 16, 2012 02:44

hopper2k: Jan 22, 2007

Apologies if you guys have discussed this already, but is anyone here doing Worlds next week? It will be my first time, and I'm pumped. Hell, it will be my first time going to California. I think I have the largest division (blue, middle), but screw it, I'm ready! Quiet a few of us from my gym will be going, so I am pretty excited.

# ? May 22, 2012 05:00

Julio Cesar Fatass: Jul 24, 2007; "...."

hopper2k posted:

Apologies if you guys have discussed this already, but is anyone here doing Worlds next week? It will be my first time, and I'm pumped. Hell, it will be my first time going to California. I think I have the largest division (blue, middle), but screw it, I'm ready! Quiet a few of us from my gym will be going, so I am pretty excited.

Good luck out there.

# ? May 22, 2012 13:12

Tezcatlipoca: Sep 18, 2009

http://gulf-coastmma.com/leg-lock-defense-webinar/
Alan Belcher is doing a webinar tomorrow that will go through his preparation for Palhares. His baby is fat.

# ? May 24, 2012 06:08

dokomoy: May 21, 2004

hopper2k posted:

Apologies if you guys have discussed this already, but is anyone here doing Worlds next week? It will be my first time, and I'm pumped. Hell, it will be my first time going to California. I think I have the largest division (blue, middle), but screw it, I'm ready! Quiet a few of us from my gym will be going, so I am pretty excited.

I'm competing at purple middle or medium heavy. I'm about half way in between right now and I'm going to make the final decision after talking to my coach tonight.

# ? May 24, 2012 23:37

dokomoy: May 21, 2004

Also, the finalish athlete list is up for the Mundials(athletes can change weight classes until midnight tonight, but that's everyone who signed up).

Big names missing include:
Marcelo Garcia(injured shoulder)
Roger Gracie(MMA)
Michael Langhi(visa problems)
Bruno Frazzato(No clue)

# ? May 25, 2012 00:02

Biodome: Nov 21, 2006; Gerry

dokomoy posted:

I'm competing at purple middle or medium heavy. I'm about half way in between right now and I'm going to make the final decision after talking to my coach tonight.

Good luck!

# ? May 25, 2012 01:40

AZCollins: Feb 4, 2004; Meanderthal

Purple, heavy. Let's do this.

# ? May 25, 2012 04:03

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# ? May 17, 2024 01:37

dokomoy: May 21, 2004

Worlds brackets are up.

Quick medal round picks + analysis

Rooster

Rafael Freitas vs Bruno Malfacine
Fabio Passos vs Caio Terra
Fabio and Bruno close the division

Each of the last 4 years the final matchup in this division has been Bruno Malfacine vs Caio Terra, with Bruno winning 3 of the 4 meetings. To be honest, there's no real reason to expect anything different this year. But, Fabio is one of my coaches and he's been killing dudes in training, I think if he pulls on Caio he'll beat him and I'm going freak the gently caress out.

Other names to keep an eye on:
Felipe Costa
Joao Kuraoka
Koji Shibamoto

Light Feather

Ary Farias vs Samuel Braga
Pablo Silva vs Guilherme Mendes
Ary and Guilherme close

Last year Ary Farias and Guilherme Mendes from Atos closed the division beating Samuel Braga and Pablo Silva both from Gracie Barra in the semifinals. And while I think a repeat of that is pretty likely there's a lot of dangerous guys standing in there way.

After looking basically invincible last year Ary has stumbled a bit this year loosing in the finals of the Abu Dhabi Pro trials and the Brazilian Nationals. His biggest test to make it to the medal rounds will be the super dangerous Carlos Holanda from Checkmat.

Samuel Braga is another former champion but he's got a couple tough guys to get past to make it to the finals including a super tough Laercio Fernandes who hasn't lost to anyone but Caio and Guilherme in quite some time and former silver medalist Dai Yoshioka.

Pablo Santos is a former world champion, but his side of the bracket features 2 other former champions in Bernardo Pitel and Gabriel Willcox. However neither Gabriel or Bernardo have been particularly active in recent years and I expect Pablo to make it to the semi finals.

Guilherme Mendes has a pretty straightforward path to the finals with his toughest test likely to be a quarterfinals match with Henrique Rezende.

Feather

Rafael Mendes vs Mario Reis
Rubens Cobrinha Charles vs ?
Rafael Mendes vs Cobrinha

Between the two of them Cobrinha and Rafael have won each of the last 6 world championships, with Rafael taking the last two. Rafael Mendes looked absolutely unstoppable at the Pan Ams this year armbarring each of his opponents in short order(including being the first featherweight to tap Cobrinha at black belt). As much as I'd like to see my instructor Cobrinha win this, it's hard to imagine anyone beating Rafael any time soon.

Rafael Mendes has a straightforward path to the semifinals.

Mario Reis is another former world champion. Samir Chantre could give him a decent match, but I think his toughest matchup(before he fights Rafael Mendes) will be in the quarterfinals vs probably Isaque Pavia. I say probably because while Isaque has had a great run so far this year(third at Brazilian Nationals, first at Abu Dhabi Pro trials) he's on the same side of the bracket of multiple time medal winner Marcelino Freitas and Mike Fowler.

Like Rafael, Cobrinha has a pretty straightforward path to the semi's, with his biggest challenge likely to be a quarterfinals matchup with Eduardo Ramos.

The last piece of the bracket is tough to call Leonardo Fernandes Saggioro beat a number of tough guys to win the Brazilian Nationals in April, while Samuel Hertzog navigated a tough field to win Abu Dhabi Pro. I haven't seen either of these guys enough to know how to expect a matchup between the two of them to go, but I think it's the most likely quarterfinal matchup to come out of this bracket. However you should keep your eyes out for Justin Rader who's been doing pretty awesome the last few years only loosing to Cobrinha and Rafael Mendes, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Rader beat both Leonardo and Samuel and made the semi finals. This bracket also features former world champion Fredson Paxio(who you may remember as a WEC veteran) making his return to competition.

Lightweight

Lucas Lepri vs Davi Ramos
Leandro Lo vs Roberto Satoshi

Lightweight is traditionally one of, if not the deepest division at the worlds. And despite missing a number of tough competitors(last years champion Gilbert Burns is focusing on MMA, former champion Michael Langhi has visa problems and last years silver medalist Kron Gracie has moved up to middleweight)

Former champion Lucas Lepri shouldn't have a ton of trouble with his first two opponents, but his quarterfinal match with Zach Maxwell will be tough. Zach has been on fire this year beating Kron at the Abu Dhabi trials and winning the Long Beach open. Lucas is the favorite in this match, but don't be shocked to see Zach make it competitive or even win.

There are a number of tough guys on his page(Vinicius Tavares, Thiago Abreu, Phillepe Della Monica). But Davi is the favorite in this group, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him footlock everyone on his page(fun fact Alan Belcher brought Davi in to help him prepare for his matchup with Toquinho).

Leandro Lo burst onto the scene last April winning the Abu Dhabi Pro and following it up a few weeks later with a win at the Brazilian Nationals, this year he won the Pan Am championships in March and then won the Brazilian Nationals again. With that said there are some serious competitors on his bracket including Theodoro Canal, Claudio Cardoso and Rodrigo Caporal.

After receiving his black belt late last year Roberto Satoshi got everyones attention by taking gold at the European Open in what might have been the deepest division that tournament has ever seen. He followed it up by winning Abu Dhabi Pro in April. Expect him to have good matches with Italio Lins and JT Torres(who Satoshi has beaten twice this year, though the second match was pretty close).

I feel pretty confident in predicting that Lucas Lepri will beat Davi Ramos in one semi final, but I don't have a clue how Satoshi vs Lo will go. Unlike almost every other division there's no clear cut favorite with all 4 of those guys capable of taking home gold and that's pretty cool. Also, this division has 59 competitors which may make it the biggest black belt division ever(or at least non absolute division) which is really freaking cool.

More later

# ? May 30, 2012 21:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > Grappling: Grab their foot in a threatening manner, it doesn't cost you anything

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