The annual gathering of Machado gyms around Australia and New Zealand was on 6th September in Melbourne. A number of gyms attended and the BJJ competition had 330 competitors. Rigan Machado was present at the competition and also taught a seminar the day after. The photo below shows a number of the BJJ Black Belts in attendance with Rigan Machado in the front.
Check out an article MMA Kanvas did featuring me doing some MMA submissions. It was for UFC Fight Night 50 featuring Jacare and Mousassi. Jacare is a top BJJ black belt and ended up winning the match by guillotine choke. You can see me demonstatting a number of submissions in short videos. Submissions include Rear Naked Choke, Guillotine Choke, Kimura, Anaconda choke and a Flying Triangle Choke too! Check them out.
IMC had their grading BJJ grading 29th August at the Kemps Creek gym. IMC is headed by Paul Zadro. He teaches Kempo Karate, Thai Kickboxing, BJJ and MMA from his gym. Ten students graded for their stripes on their white belt and two students Mitchell Elliot and Ben Sculli both received their blue belts.
Griffith had their first BJJ grading ever on Saturday 16th August. Nine students from RMA and Total Fitness graded to their first stripe. RMA is headed by Frank Cirillo and is primarily a Kyokushin karate school. Frank called me 6 months ago and wanted to introduce BJJ to his school and Griffith. Well done to Frank and all the students at RMA in Griffith on beginning their journey to a black belt and beyond.
SPMA only sent a small team of 4 students to the Australian BJJ Championships in Melbourne on 15th to 17th August. Oliver Silvestro won both his matches and is the Australian BJJ champion in his kids division. Tahyrin Roberts won one match and lost one and won a bronze medal in his kids division. Adults Tony Pycroft and Welsey Matthews lost their matches.
I was asked to do some BJJ analysis on the recent Metamoris matches for MMA Kanvas held in the USA on 9th August. Metamoris matches are 20 minutes long and if the match doesn’t end in a submission it’s a draw. There were some top BJJ matches with a mix of old and new BJJ and also seeing current UFC fighters getting in the mix. Go and watch the matches online and then read my analysis.
SPMA’s team of 17 students won an amazing 7 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals at the NSW BJJ Winter Cup on 26th July in Sydney. Gold medallists include Andrew Husman, Steve Rudic, Jean Mondaca, Zander Mucenski, Anwar Kumar, Aadam Kumar and Tahyrn Roberts. The team consisted of 8 adults and 9 kids who competed in both gi and no gi.
SPMA student Shaher Khan competed in the first Australian Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Grand Prix. It was held in Sydney on Sunday 20th July and had 8 of Australia’s best BJJ Cruiserweights (under 91kg) compete for a $2000.00 first prize. Shaher won his first match 6 – 0 and then lost a very close semi final match to a black belt 4 – 2. Official videos will be up on YouTube soon.
SPMA won an impressive 14 gold, 10 silver and 17 bronze medals at the Events bjj sydney Cup held at Ryde Aquatic Centre on Sunday 13th July. Stand outs include Frances Bavaro who won 4 gold medals and Nico Vu who won 2 gold medals. Frances won her weight and open divisions in gi and nogi and Nico won his weight division in gi and nogi. You can see the full results here and photos here.
It’s grading time and all the students at my affiliate BJJ and MMA gyms in Sydney, Mackay and Rockhamptom smashed it. The Griffith grading will be in August. The Sydney BJJ gyms are Macquarie University, Elite Martial Arts and Martial Arts research Academy. In Mackay is Mackay MMA and in Rockhampton is Rhino MMA. Check out all the photos below of the affiliate BJJ and MMA gyms.
