my Arte Suave

Abu Dhabi Trials New Jersey journal

What great weekend it was for me. Not only because of my obvious results. But because I got hang out with and meet family I have never had spent so much time with. 

The tournament organizers Emilio Novoa and Riccardo Ammendolia were on top of everything. I got lost in Jersey, called Emilio and he gave me great directions to get to weigh ins. It was a mess for me traveling to weigh in, and was actually the last person of the tournament to weigh in. I was also the first to register for the event according to Emilio, lol. 

As far as fights, I had 6 total. 3 at weight and 3 in the absolute.

My weight matches were all pretty good fights. I was able to implement my game very well, was not once tired, a testament to my strength and conditioning. I was doing a bunch of hills and a lot of high rep bar complex stuff, I felt excellent! The first match pretty set the tone for the way the weight matches would go. I was able to pass, sweep, and just do my thing. I was up big on points, was looking for the finish in mount, I ended up losing the position, was on bottom, hit an awesome sweep, transitioned to the back, and finished with a bow n arrow choke.

The second match went pretty fast, I messed up on a takedown and instead got taken down myself, injured myself in the scrammble I later found out, I swept, got on top half guard, and I ended up finishing the fight there with a cross choke.

The third match, I still had the stupid injury after trying to ice it all day, i waited like 2 hours to fight, and the ice did nothing, and I could not find anyone who had ibuprofen. This match I kind of just ran up the score to 8-0. The guy had a pretty tight defense to one of my passes, and I am already on it drilling the counter, mind you I could not pass or put weight on my right leg because of the pain, it was weird, but the guy ended up DQ’n himself with a minute left for reaping my leg.

In the absolute, I had 3 fights.

Once again the story of all my absolute fights were that I really could not use my right leg because of the pain I had in it. The only thing I could do was sweep stay on top and act like I was trying to pass.

In my first fight, I fought a pretty big kid and the champion i think from +92kg division. I swept him and just scrapped with him. He ended up rippng my pants in one instance, then I had to find someone nice enough to let me use their gi, which I did find some, and in another instance this kid picked me up out of bounds and dropped me out of bound on the injured leg! I really thought I was not going to be able to continue. Doc taped my leg up and I continued to scrap with the kid. I won 4-0.

My second fight, I fought the other big kid and the runner up from the +92kg division. Same story, I swept the kid, and stayed on top until the end. I could not use my leg to push off of. It was ridiculous, I ended up squeezing out a 2-0 victory.

My final fight of the day, This kid really made me earn it man. The story was the same with the leg and passing. I got a sweep, stayed on top, caught the kids back in a scrammble but fell off. The rest of the match I defended his passes, left and right, he had a weird pass for deep half guard LOL, I kept telling myself “I WANT THIS MORE!”, while he was passing I’d tell myself this among other things. I ended up pulling out a 2-0 victory. Got up and yelllled soo loud in that Gymnasium! Everything I worked for since June 2010, I let out that roar.

It was a good day in terms of results, but the performances could have been much better.

It felt really great to get my first OBJECTIVE of the year out of the way.

Next up in the Pan Ams in California, then World Pro in Dubai, then hopefully Brazilian Nationals, then WORLDS!