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.
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.
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
