Grappling Report: Bellator champion AJ McKee to compete in High Rollerz 10 tournament
A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
High Rollerz has quickly become one of the most unique professional Jiu-Jitsu promotions around and they’ve managed to put together a fantastic tournament for their tenth event. The tournament will feature sixteen athletes under 160lbs competing in a submission-only format for a $10,000 grand prize, including both MMA fighters and professional grapplers in equal measure.
The biggest name they’ve managed to book is undoubtedly the current Bellator Featherweight world champion and undefeated MMA veteran AJ McKee, who will be facing off against another Bellator fighter in Cris Lencioni. Some of the other competitors who stand a good chance of winning are 10th Planet black belt Keith Krikorian, veteran Bill Cooper, and Rafael Domingos, a black belt under Demian Maia.
Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida moves to 2-0 in MMA career
It hasn’t even been three months since the most successful IBJJF world champion in the history of the sport made his successful MMA debut, but Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has already managed to get back in the cage. He suffered very little damage in his first-round submission win over Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva and his second fight went down a very similar route.
Buchecha managed to take Kang Ji Won early in the first round after a short striking exchange and almost immediately started landing heavy shots from mount. This forced Kang to turn his back and Buchecha sunk in the fight-ending rear-naked choke. The future looks bright for Buchecha’s MMA career and with the recent news that he’s leaving BJJ behind to focus on it, the sky really is the limit for him at ONE FC.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Marcelo Garcia becomes third inductee to ADCC Hall of Fame
The ADCC Hall of Fame has only been open a matter of weeks and already it includes three of the most famous champions in the promotion’s history. The inaugural class has not yet been announced in full but after starting with Roger Gracie, it was clear that the Hall of Fame was going to live up to it’s name. The second addition was none other than the reigning superfight champion Andre Galvao, another deserving inductee.
The third man added to the ADCC Hall of Fame has now been announced as one of the most popular to ever grace the mats, Marcelo Garcia. Not only is Garcia famous for his wide smile and happy nature, but also his incredible ability to defeat men significantly larger than him. With four ADCC gold medals in his weightclass and a bronze and silver in the absolute despite competing at 77kg, it’s impossible to deny his place in the Hall of Fame.
First four invites to ADCC 2022 handed out
It hasn’t been long since the second edition of the ADCC trials wrapped up and each men’s division now has two competitors confirmed. The organization has previously waited until after all eight trials events have finished before they begin announcing the other half of each division who have received invites to the world championships, but this time around they’re starting a little earlier and the first four invitees have just been revealed.
The first female competitor has now been confirmed as Bianca Basilio will return to defend the title she won in 2019, and Felipe Pena will return to the 99kg division after his unsuccessful bid to take the superfight title from Andre Galvao in the same year. The 88kg division now has two invitees confirmed as the 2019 silver medalist Craig Jones returns alongside the two-time ADCC champion with the unpassable guard, Xande Ribeiro.
Quick Hits
- NFL lineman Will Gholston recently started taking up Jiu-Jitsu during the pre-season and claimed it was ‘harder than football practice’.
- Art of Jiu-Jitsu’s youngest prodigy, Cole Abate, has just been promoted to purple belt in BJJ after winning the ADCC North American East Coast trials.
- New Jersey has now become the latest state to adopt Gracie Survival Tactics as an officially approved police officer training program.
- The lead singer of American rock band Tool, Maynard James Keenan, was just promoted to brown belt in BJJ at the age of 57.
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