The 2014 IBJJF San Francisco Open went to full capacity before the registration deadline was reached but by the day of the event on Feb. 9, many of the top black belts in the world were ready to go.
Black belt adult weight division results:
Featherweight
Rafael Mendes wins the semi-final against Gianni. Photo: Erin Herle
Rafael and Guilherme Mendes both signed up for black belt adult featherweight division which filled a category along with seasoned competitor Osvaldo “Queixinho” and the newbie black belts Gianni Grippo and Vitor Paschal. In the first match, Gianni defeated Queixinho by 4-2 in sweeps. On the other side of the bracket, Guilherme defeated Vitor by baseball bat choke to move into the finals. Rafa stepped in after a bye to win against Gianni via lapel choke from the back. The brothers then closed out the division with a gentleman’s agreement in the final with Rafa taking the gold.
Medium-heavyweight
Keenan plays guard against Julian Marquez. Photo: Erin Herle
The medium-heavyweight black belt division brought Keenan Cornelius up from the GMA Atos Jiu-Jitsu Academy in San Diego. He went against Julian Marquez of Ralph Gracie and won with an ezekiel choke from the back. Samir Chantre did not go against his first opponent and so Marcus Vinicius Costa went straight to the final. Keenan submitted Marcus with a bow and arrow choke for the gold.
Ultra-heavyweight
Yuri takes down Alessandro. Photo: Erin Herle
The only other black belt division with more than one athlete was the ultra-heavyweight division. Yuri Simoes defeated Alessandro Ferreira with a choke from the back. Having flown in from Belgium the day before and after teaching a seminar at GMA Institute of Martial Arts, Yuri was set with his weight division gold and did not enter the open weight division.
Light-featherweight
Caio Terra had signed up for the light-featherweight division but did not have any opponents.
Open weight
The open weight division had five athletes. On one side of the bracket, featherweight Gianni fought the ultra-heavyweight Alessandro and defeated him with a choke from the back. On the other side for a semi-final match, medium-heavyweight Keenan faced featherweight Vitor and defeated him with an armbar. For the semi-final, Gianni and fellow featherweight Queixinho had a rematch with Queixinho taking the win via referee’s decision. In the final, Keenan submitted Queixinho with a triangle armbar.
To see a photo album of the day on our Facebook page, click here.
And for full results, click here.
