SEPTEMBER 04, 2021, on the 4th day of action at the Silver Spurs Arena, in Kissimmee, Florida, we finally found out who reached the quarter-finals of the Adult Male Black Belt Divisions, and the finals of the Adult Female Black Belt Divisions.
As expected, this has been a fun, high-level, high-pace tournament, with the biggest concentration of top-level talent this year, thus far. Dare we say the most talent-dense event since the start of the pandemic.
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There have been a fair few upsets, but, we would argue, not with as much impact as the open weight victory of middleweight legend Ana Carolina Vieira over the rising super-heavyweight super-star, Gabrieli Pessanha via 4×2 points – albeit, a highly controversial match where Pessanha appeared to have not been given passing points. Pessanha came into the event as a heavy favorite to take home double gold, despite her young age but was stopped by the clever tactics of the experienced GF Team competitor.
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Arguably the most impressive athlete of the new generation of grappling talent, in the male category of the tournament thus far, was Fabrício Andrey of Fight Sports. A training partner of Mica Galvão in Manaus, and a student of coach Melqui Galvão, Andrey is a recent black belt whose shown tremendous potential over the past few years as a colored belt. Today he proved his worth again with two submission wins on his way to the quarter-finals of the featherweight division. Two subs against top-tier opposition such as Osvaldo Moizinho (Queixinho) and João Mendes (Bisnaga). Very impressive.
On the female side, Yara Soares continues to overwhelm her opponents, currently going on a 9 match winning streak. The former Guigo student, now with Dream Art, might be on her way to a double gold performance in her first Pan-American experience at black belt, having reached the finals of her weight class (super-heavy) and the absolute. In the open weight class, Yara went through a true “who-is-who” of elite grapplers, taking out Sarah Rice, Nathalie Ribeiro, and Bianca Basílio.
Below are the current tournament standings.
ROOSTERWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Willis Nunes vs Kevin Martincowski
– Livio Ribeiro vs Lee Rosenfield
– Estevan Martinez vs Roiter Lima
– Hiago Gama advances to semi-finals (WO)
LIGHT-FEATHERWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Keven Carrasco vs Pedro Dias
– Jordan Vaisman vs Marcus Beddor
– Malachi Edmond vs Carlos Oliveira
– Diego “Pato” vs Suraj Budhram
FEATHERWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Alex Sodré vs Isaac Doederlein
– Gabriel Sousa vs Felipe Linhares
– Fabrício Andrey vs Danilo Moreira
– Jamil Hill-Taylor vs Richar Nogueira
LIGHTWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Jackson Nagai vs Daniel Quintana
– Fabrício Barbarotti vs Lucas Valente
– Kevin Mahecha vs Rodrigo Freitas
– Igor Feliz vs Johnatha Alves
MIDDLEWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Ronaldo Junior vs Eduardo Avelar
– Tainan Dalpra vs Alexandre Jesus
– Jonnatas Gracie vs Lucas Valle
– Leonardo Lara vs Yago Souza
MEDIUM-HEAVYWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Rodrigo Martins vs Jaime Canuto
– Pedro Marinho vs Gabriel Almeida
– Manuel Ribamar vs Jeferson Guaresi
– André Porfirio vs Murilo Santana
HEAVYWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Matt Leighton vs Chris Passarrello
– Gustavo Batista vs Xavier Silva
– Rafael Vasconcelos vs Adam Wardzinski
– Vinicius “Trator” vs Nathan Mendelshon
SUPER-HEAVYWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Guilherme Augusto vs Jackson Douglas
– Devhonte Johnson vs Lucas Norat
– Davi Cabral vs Jose Torres
– Fellipe Andrew vs Igor Araújo
ULTRA-HEAVYWEIGHT-MALE 1/4 FINALS
– Max Gimenez vs AJ Agazarm
– Leo D’Avila vs Victor Hugo
– Helton José vs Kharim Khalifa
– Austin Baker vs Rodrigo Ribeiro
OPEN WEIGHT FINAL DECIDED
– Fellipe Andrew vs Gustavo Batista
ROOSTERWEIGHT-FEMALE FINAL
– Jessa Khan vs Lavinia Barbosa
LIGHT-FEATHERWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Anna Rodrigues vs Mayssa Bastos
FEATHERWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Bianca Basílio vs Gabi McComb
LIGHTWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Margot Ciccarelli vs Nathalie Ribeiro
MIDDLEWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Andressa Cintra vs Luiza Monteiro
MEDIUM-HEAVYWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Elisabeth Clay vs Ana Carolina Vieira
HEAVYWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Melissa Cueto vs Maria Malyjasiak
SUPER-HEAVYWEIGHT-FEMALE FINALS
– Gabrieli Pessanha vs Yara Soares
OPEN WEIGHT FINAL
– Ana Carolina Vieira vs Yara Soares
