Black belt adult open weight podium at Abu Dhabi WPJJC Montreal trial. Photo: Erin Herle
Fabio Holanda ran his fifth trial in Montreal for the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship on Feb. 22. The one-day event ran quickly through the divisions with each trial winner earning their free package to the main event in April at lightning speed.
There were divisions for children all the way up to masters and each competitor battled for the gold on six mats circled by stadium seating for coaches, supporters and spectators.
The black belt adult males started off the day. To win a ticket, they needed to win their weight divisions. Most only had one to three matches each but the high level of participants prevented the journey from being a walk in the park.
Black belt adult male division results:
Light-featherweight Frederic Koomsatira of Brazilian Top Team won his division after a match against Nobuo Yagai. In the featherweight category, Leonardo Saggioro of BTT defeated Gianni Grippo in a 0-0 referee’s decision win.
Lucas Lepri, in the lightweight division, defeated Renan Borges of BTT by a choke from the back. Otavio Sousa had two matches in his division to win the gold at middleweight. His first match against Guy Montreuil was won with an armbar and the final against Tanner Rice was won by 9-0 from a sweep to pass to mount.
Abraham Marte sets up the triangle choke. Photo: Erin Herle
Medium-heavy was conquered by Brian Beaury from Black Hole Jiu-Jitsu with Lee Villeneuve from BTT earning his ticket in the super-heavyweight division. Lee also won the ticket last year as a brown belt and went on to win his division at the main event.
Abraham Marte of Yamasaki Academy punched in his ticket in the ultra-heavyweight division with two triangles and an armbar.
Black belt adult male open division results:
Lucas Lepri won the $1000 prize for the open weight division with Otavio Sousa in second and Leonardo Saggioro in third.
To start off, Otavio Sousa defeated Lee Villeneuve by armbar.
Leonardo Saggioro defeated Nobuo Yagai by cross-choke from guard.
Abraham Marte defeated Tanner Rice by cross-choke from guard as well.
Lucas defeated Mohamed Amir by 7-0 in points.
Otavio defeated Gianni Grippo by 1-0 in advantages.
Lucas defeated Abraham by a guard pass to an armbar submission.
Otavio defeated Leo Saggioro by 4-2 in points.
In the fight for third, Leo Saggioro defeated Abraham by one advantage.
Lucas passes the guard. Photo: Erin Herle
In the final, Otavio pulled guard against Lucas. When attempting his signature omoplata attack, Lucas quickly jumped over and around to defend. Not much long after, Lucas passed Otavio’s guard and as Otavio turned away, Lucas sunk the bottom hook in to take the back. Lucas secured both hooks to receive the full amount of points for the position and the match ended with Lucas winning the $1000 cash prize and a second gold medal.
Female adult brown/black belt results:
A combined division of both brown belts and black belts for the females gave three opportunities to earn tickets to Abu Dhabi. The divisions were divided out for feather, light and heavy.
Nyjah win the featherweight division. Photo: Martin Nguyen
In the featherweight division, there was a round-robin between black belt Nyjah Easton of Lloyd Irvin, Kristina Barlaan of Caio Terra Association and Jane Minondo of Victory BJJ. Nyjah defeated Kristina in the first round by advantages. In the second round, Kristina defeated Jane by points to move into the final and go against Nyjah once more. Nyjah won against Kristina with advantages for the gold and the ticket.
The lightweight division included brown belt Sijara Eubanks of Lloyd Irvin and black belt Christina Berry of Behring Jiu-Jitsu. Sijara won the match by points to win the gold and the ticket.
The heavyweight division started with Alison Tremblay of BTT who defeated Ana Santana of Cicero Costha. Dominyka Obelenyte of Marcelo Garcia Academy then went against Ana and won by armbar submission. In the final, Dominyka defeated Alison by points to win the gold and the ticket.
Female adult brown/black belt open weight results:
Dominyka secures the choke. Photo: Erin Herle
To start off, Dominyka defeated Nyjah by 7-0 in points.
Sijara defeated Christina by armbar submission.
Dominyka defeated Jane by choke from the back.
Sijara defeated Alison by 6-0 in points.
For third place, Alison defeated Jane by points.
In the final Dominyka defeated Sijara by shoulder lock.
For full photos, check out the two albums on Flickr: Erin Herle’s photos and Martin Nguyen’s photos.
For full results, click here.
