After toughing out the 2009 Worlds injured, Roberto “Tussa” Alencar was the big name at the 2009 No-Gi World Championship.
The Gracie Barra teacher, who achieved bronzes in the absolute in 2007 and 2008, started off Sunday becoming three-time heavyweight world champion, by submitting Marcel Louzado, of CheckMat, with a flying triangle.
In the big match of the evening, Tussa shone again, beating Antonio Braga Neto (Gordo-Evolve) in the absolute final, keeping Neto from his third open category title.
In the women’s division, recently-promoted brown belt Hillary Williams (Westside) surprised by taking her weight and the absolute.
In the team dispute, CheckMat BJJ won, with Gracie Barra in second and Lloyd Irvin in third.
In the black belt men’s, it is unlikely a No-Gi Worlds will ever see a list of so many stars at the top of the podium again: Pablo Teixeira (rooster), Caio Terra (light feather), Baret Yoshida (feather), Lucas Lepri (light), Lucas Leite (medium), Rominho Barral (medium heavy), Tussa (heavy), Braga Neto (super-heavy) and Josh Barnett (ultra heavy) went home with gold medals.
Now in the Master division, the teams of our GMAs shone: Jorge Britto (absolute), Carlos Francis (heavy), Maycon Carvalho (medium heavy), Hermes França (medium) and Joel Tudor (light) were champions once again.
If you were tuned in to GRACIEMAG.com during the week, were you or weren’t you surprised with the results?
