This weekend, the OTM crew is in attendance for one of jiujitsu’s most coveted tournaments—the Pan American JiuJitsu Championships, held at UC Irvine. Saturday was day three of the event and brought with it epic battles among the adult black belt open weight divisions. On Sunday, the final day of competition, the brown and black belts will fight for titles in their respective weight divisions.
One of Saturday’s biggest surprises came when Marcus “Buchecha” of Checkmat, took out Kron Gracie in the semifinals via kneebar. The fight was no easy feat for either fighter. “Buchecha” broke his finger early the match, while Kron later found himself in a tight toehold by “Buchecha” while the two were in 50/50. “Buchecha’s” Checkmat teammate Antônio “Cara de Sapato” Barbosa, were the finalists of the division and will likely make a gentlemen’s agreement and opt not to fight one another for the gold on Sunday.
Long time OTM athlete, “Move of the Week” super star, and all around rockstar, Kurt Osiander earned the gold in his class weight and picked up third in the absolute.
Although we are unlikely to see an absolute finals match play out between the two black belt teammate finalists on Sunday, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the black belt weight divisions. Best of luck to our OTM family of fighters!!
Expected to fight Sunday are Black belts Rafael Lovato Jr., Mike Fowler and Justin Rader, along with brown belts Sean Roberts, Nathan Mendelsohn and Julian Marquez.
You can also follow our pictures from the championship on Instagram by adding OTM’s founder Scotty “onthemat” or jiujitsu blogger Christie Sullivan “christiesully”.