Cara de Sapato in photo by Ivan Trindade
The black belts took to the mats at Grajaú Country Club this Saturday for the absolute contest. There was no lack of excitement as stars like Leandro Lo, Alexandro Ceconi, Antonio Peinado and last year’s champ Léo Nogueira fell by the wayside.
The different fan factions in the crowd were aroused, like when Antonio Peinado outdid Lo, Murilo Santana tapped out Léo Nogueira with a choke, Rômulo Barral won a hard-fought bout with Ceconi, Cara de Sapato armbarred Peinado, and Nivaldo Oliveira subbed Victor Bonfim.
Alexander Trans, GRACIEMAG.com’s pick for the absolute, ended up not competing . But still the glory went to team CheckMat, with the duo Cara de Sapato and Nivaldo. The former defeated Rômulo Barral in the semifinal. Antonio came out on top of an sweep exchange, ousting Barral by 4-2. Now Nivaldo had a truncated match with Murilo Santana in the semis. Following a 2-2 score from sweeps, the CheckMat rep went through to the final alongside his teammate.
Sunday is weight-division day for the black belts, so stay tuned!
