Getting to Huntington Beach wasn’t easy this year. Our car ran out of gas and we broke down on the way.Getting ThereGetting to Huntington Beach wasn’t easy this year. Our car ran out of gas and we broke down on the way. This was a minor set back and we made it to the tournament early Saturday afternoon after catching up on some sleep. We had missed the first Black Belt match however we caught some good purple belt action.
EventThis year Cleber and Lilly had things running a lot smoother. Hiring Ryan Gregg to be the behind the scenes man was a good idea. He got the experience to keep the event moving.
There were quite a few purple belts at he event. Paragons Tyron was running through people and we saw some good stuff. Rickson’s team had a real good showing winning a lot of matches. Rickson & Kim were both there offering support to their team. Rickson hung out both day and was very social. It was great to feel his presence at the event. We hope their family is doing well, they looked strong. Saulo Ribeiro was also there working hard as a referee all day both days, I would have like to seen Macaco vs Saulo Ribeiro but it didn’t happen despite my attempts to riddle both of them to fight. Cameron Earle was there with a hurt ankle not competeing. Leca was also present along with Thinga and Gerson from Gracie Barra. Marc Laimon was there just back from Abu Dhabi. Everyone was looking forward to Sunday the Brown and Black belt match ups.
Ed Clay, Scott Profit his wife and beautiful Cheyenne, all from Submission Fighter Magazine, were there in full support of the event. It was good to see the new owner of the magazine fly all the way out from Tennessee. Ed says he will be visiting the West Coast a lot talking with people about what they are looking in the new magazine.
Met SoCal at the event, a great nice guy. Also saw GracieGirl, Choked Out and even the Punk was seen lurking around the first day less hottie I might add. Team Donuts was in the house and Rickson’s team had “Bling-Bling” in full effect.
Blue Belts The wave of purple belts are about to crash there were so many good Blue Belts there it was amazing. The level is really picking up and the brackets are about to burst. We say Nova Unioa’s the Bieri brothers owned the light weights and amazing battles in the open division with a very close final being decided by only one advantage left . This match could have gone either way. Congratulations to both guys in that division.
Brown Belts This is were we knew there was going to be some good action. Ryan Gregg (Machado), Henry Akins (Rickson), Jeff Higgs (Fabio Santos) and one other guy were thrown together in one division despite the 25 lbs weight differences. Ryan Gregg was able to beat Jeff Higgs by advantage and with a solid leglock sunk at the time. Henry Akins walked through out his opponent submitting him in XX minutes with his patented cross choke to armlock from the guard. Henry met Ryan in the finials. Henry started out strong with a good judo throw, but Ryan was able to come back and win 7 to 2.Thiago Vella (Rickson) fought Emilio Samatan (Pedro Carvalho), Thiago pulled to guard and didn’t have much trouble tapping Emilio with an armlock in about 4 minutes.
Black BeltsFabio Santos fought Marcus Vinious (Beverly Hills JJ) This was a tough seniors match. Both these guys seemed real sharp and it was a good match with Marcus winning on points.
Macaco fought Craig Kohl it what was a gimmie match for Macaco he was up 12 to 0 and then he armlocked the guy.
Garth Taylor (Claudo Franca) vs Ricardo Pires this battle lasted through out the first haft with both men on their feet. Pires threw Garth but they landed out of bounds, no points. Garth came back to take him down and then aggressively pass Pires’s guard wining 5 to 0.
Over all it was a good event; much better than last year. That mats were a little small and seemed dangerous. I’m not sure why they didn’t utilize the wrestling mats provided by the High School? They also forgot the OTM logo off the official tournament T-Shirts. Oh well. Enjoy the footage.
Special Thanks!Thanks to all the OTM supporters who bought videos and t-shirts. The extra cash helped us fix the car and get home! Thanks everyone!