The two day event first day being the OTM Championships of BJJ and the second the US Open of Submission Grappling were actually part of a larger, Black Belt Magazine Martial Arts Convention at the Long Beach Civic Auditorium. So Jiu Jitsu competition found itself on display hand and hand with more traditional martial arts such as forms demonstrations and point fighting. This was a big opportunity to showcase our favorite art to a wider audience, and the grappling events actually proved to be one of the larger draws of the entire show. This is the first year that the World Grappling Games staff was given the opportunity to run the grappling portion of the convention, and they came through by provided a top notch experience that was praised by both conventioneers and competitors.

Not coming from a traditional martial arts per say myself (funny but true story, my mother felt that karate would be too violent of a martial art for me to try because of the punching and kicking, so enrolled me in judo instead, which is several magnitudes higher and the contact scale), I couldn’t resist the opportunity to observe other martial arts in action. Some of the action I found to be entertaining, some I found to be quite ridiculous in the context of having any practical application, but everyone who came in seemed to be dedicated and talented in their own way.

My time was spent largely alongside the mat of the OTM of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, naturally. There was plenty of good action in the lower divisions and competitors gave it their all. Many white belt competitors were in fact competing for the first time.

There was a few brown belts that took to the mat as well. Shane Rice from Rickson Gracie took first place in a round robin division featuring Sim Go from Cobra Kai and Rafael Garcia from Guilobel BJJ. Shane was fairly dominant in his performance, submitting Rafael first and then racking up a large score against Sim, however he managed to dislocate his two early into his second match and although he gutted it out to the end, wound up withdrawing from the second day of competition. Sim Go was impressive in his brown belt debut and defeated a game Rafael.

Neither Mike Prudencio from Ralph Gracies nor Jose Dias from Gracie Barra had anyone in their respective divisions, so both opted to move up in weight class to get a match. In Mike’s case he was on a 4-0 osing effort against John Rickel of Street Sports whose intensity level was much greater than Mike’s, although Mike had a few near submission. Jose faired better in his move up, winning his match against Matt Baker.

The first black belt match of the day featured Joao Cunha vs Frederico Sabbatini. This was actually a rematch from a few years ago when Joao managed to defeat Frederico. This time Frederico seemed more than eager to return the favor, and this match was far more of a brawl than the 2-0 score would seem to suggest as both competitors were very aggressive. Cunha tried several times to pull guard and look for a submission, but Frederico did his part to keep up the tempo of the match. A late takedown by Frederico scored him the win.

Two competitors that haven’t been actively competing in sometime stepped up next, in Nelson Montiero and Chris Hauter. Chris immediately declared that this match was going to be difficult for him, as Nelson was one of his first instructors. (Chris was of course one of the first non Brazilians to achieve the rank of Black Belt, while Nelson lived and taught for several years in Abu Dhabi). If there were any nostalgic feeling, they were conspicuously absent during the actual match as the competitors went at it with everything they had. Nelson pulled guard, and on his second sweep attempt (the first was well defended by Chris) managed to sweep, pass guard, get to side control and secure the ambar for the victory. Afterwards it was all smiles and hugs for two of the pioneers of our sport.

Jeff Glover decided to step up to the open division, and he gave up a LOT of size to his opponent Roberto Carmago. Jeff was valiant, but the skill and size of Roberto was a lot to overcome. Towards the end of the match Jeff was resolved to merely defend himself, but Roberto broke through the defenses and secured a choke for the victory.

The standout competitor of the day has to go to one Debra Prosser from Rimando MA. Debra actually came for the more traditional martial arts of the convention, but thought that grappling was interesting and fun and decided to enter the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition! She actually had on a more traditional karate type uniform, but proved to be very game with a mix of good wrestling skills, and using what she observed during the competition, actually managed to win her division! Very impressive, and welcome to the wonderful world of Jiu Jitsu Debra!

The action on the first day wrapped up by around six o’ clock (which was the madatory cut off time by the convention hall anyway). Despite starting slightly behind schedule, the WGG staff was roundly praised for being efficient and proficient at what they do. Even Marc Laimon, perhaps one of the toughest tournament critics of all, declared that he had no complaints and felt that all the referees were doing a good job. (When I pressed him on the manner, he assured me he doesn’t like yelling for its own sake, but rather he does what he needs to do for his team and only complains when he feels it is necessary).

The US Open of Submission Grappling the next day probably attracted twice as many competitors than the day before, and in addition to the pre-registered competitors there were a large number of walk on registrations! The intermediate and advanced divisions were absolutely stacked with talent.

Ulysses Gomez and Sim Go split the flyweight division, and Sim Go also stepped up to win the featherweight division. Jeff Glover handily won the lightweight division and David Dunn took the welterweight. Sean Apperson took a round robin middleweight division, winning one on points and another by heel hook. In the light heavyweight division it took Robert Gerrits overtime to take out a game Kenichi Yamamoto. The superheavyweight division was hotly contested, but taken by Steve Grade.



There were also quite a few female competitors on the mat covering a wide range of weight classes and skill levels, Felicia Oh won both her advanced division and the open divison.

The ageless Dale Frank from Caique’s managed to capture the Masters Advanced Open division and Chris Hauter won the Executive Advanced Open division..

The standout competitor of the day has to go to the incomparable Jeff Glover. Jeff won every match he had by submission in one of the most dominating displays of grappling ability we’ve seen yet. First of all, Jeff moved up a few weight class to the Lightweight (under