Hey guys! A few weeks ago I returned to the states with a fresh injury over my eye to remember my trip by. The doctor said a whole month without training for risk of re-opening the gash and with the US Open right around the corner I was forced to try to stay in shape without any jiu-jitsu training. I did not want to miss the event since it promised to be an awesome one this year and thus I went about doing my best to prepare without doing any jiu-jitsu sparring. Instead I did lots of Crossfit, drilling and circuit training. When going to compete a jiu-jitsu event there is no replacement for jiu-jitsu training but even without a single sparring session in a month I still went into the event confident in my skills and was able to come out with the gold in my division against a tough opponent in Romulo Melo (video above). Even in winning I didn’t feel my game was that sharp nor did I feel as physically prepared as I usually am but I still decided to go for the Absolute division as well and came up against another tough opponent in Julian Marquez, a match that didn’t end up going the way I wanted it to partially because of a mistake I made which created an opportunity for Julian that he took with everything he had. The loss in the open put a bit of a damper on my win in my division but I’m still glad I took part in this awesome event. Now I’m going to get back to training jiu-jitsu while still putting a heavy focus on physical training and weightlifting between now and the end of the year so that I can hit the ground running next year, stronger than ever! May also make an appearance at another tournament or two before the holidays if possible as well 🙂 Stay Tuned! Osssss