The Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship is picking up some serious momentum, and its next qualifying event in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday 11 Feb. is showcasing some of the brightest and best up-and-coming stars from the Brazilian circuit.
The Quarterfinals of the year-long Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship delivered a series of thrilling upsets that saw some of the sport’s best black belts taken out by lesser-ranked opponents.
2018 Abu Dhabi King of Mats champion Charles Negromonte lost to Vinicius Ferreira, who took third at the 2018 IBJJF World Championships in the brown belt division. The result came via judges’ decision.
2018 Worlds middleweight silver medalist Tommy Langaker was submitted by Victor Hugo via triangle
2018 featherweight world champion Jamil Hill lost to Johntha Alves of Atos / Art of Jiu-Jitsu– a recently-promoted brown belt who took silver at the most recent Worlds at purple belt. The match was decided by one advantage.
2017 ADCC silver medalist AJ Agazarm was beaten by Korean brown belt Inseong Jang in 0-0 match decided by 1-0 advantage.
The event featured the opening round of two tournaments, which decided the matches for the next Spyder event in November.
The shorter matches maybe favored the brown belts, who are used to competing in matches of 8-minutes duration in IBJJF as opposed to black belts, who have 10-minutes to work.
Also featured on the event was Australian grappler Craig Jones, back in the gi for the first time in a long time. He struggled with the heavy top pressure and conservative game of DJ Jackson, who won the match via decision.
Masahiro Iwasaki's dramatic last-second reversal was one of the highlights of the event. He had patiently worked his half guard game against the promising young black belt Hugo Marques, but it was literally in the last 5 seconds of the match that he was able to roll Marques over for the winning sweep.
Matheus Gabriel, a recently-promoted black belt who won 2018 Worlds at brown, gave Paulo Miyao a good run in a back-and-forth match that ended with the biggest score of the event at 8-6 in favor of Miyao.
A special no-gi match saw Benson Henderson take on Eduardo Telles in a compelling encounter characterized by the veteran black belt's unorthodox bottom game and Henderson's solid wrestling base. Henderson won 2-0.
RESULTS
-76kg
Johnatha Alves def Jamil Hill 0-0, 1-0 adv
Masahiro Iwasaki def Hugo Marques 2-0
Inseong Jung def AJ Agazarm 0-0, 1-0 adv
Paulo Miyao def Matheus Gabriel 8-6
+76kg
Kaynan Duarte def Matheus Godoy 3-0
Vinicius Ferreria def Charles Negromonte decision
Victor Hugo def Tommy Langaker via triangle
DJ Jackson def Craig Jones decision
Spyder BJJ Invitational Semifinals (November)
-76kg
Johnatha Alves vs Masahiro Iwasaki
Inseong Jung vs Paulo Miyao
+76kg
Kaynan Duarte vs Vinicius Ferreria
Victor Hugo vs DJ Jackson
Oss!