50/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

The first of two North American qualifiers for the 2009 ADCC World Championship was held at the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus in Carson, CA. The brackets were filled with accomplished black belts hoping to earn their spot in the world’s most prestigious no-gi tournament, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championship.

ADCC is an invitation-only event which takes place every 2 years to determine the best no-gi grapplers in the world. With only 16 competitors in each of 5 weight classes, it is the most difficult Jiu-Jitsu event in existence to gain admittance to. Ahead of the tournament, qualifiers are held on every continent to determine the representatives of each nation, making for some of the most difficult and hard-fought competition around.

In the under 65 kg Professional division, Ryan put on the most dominant performance of the tournament, submitting all of his opponents in rapid fashion without surrendering an offensive point.

Ryan finished Matt Betzold (Gracie Barra) in the first round with a triangle and Dustin Thornton (Undisputed) with a 50/50 heel hook in the quarter-final. In the semi-final, Ryan faced off against Matt Sanchez (Team Alpha, 2x NCAA All American, Mundial Champion), an extremely tough opponent who had defeated one of the other favorites, Justin Rader (Lovato), in the previous round. Ryan was able to sweep, take the back, mount, and finish with an armlock from the triangle to advance to the final. In the championship match, Ryan defeated Ryan Lang (2x NCAA All-American and NCAA Tournament Runner-Up from Northwestern University) with a 50/50 heel hook to earn the opportunity to compete against the world’s best lightweight grapplers at the ADCC main event in Barcelona, Spain later this year.

Special thanks to Paul Schreiner, Johnny Ramirez, and Brian Peterson for coaching Ryan during his matches.

Finishing Ryan Lang in the Final

Armlock in the Semi-Final

Paul and Ryan

Tags: abu dhabi, adcc, california, carson, Competition, matt sanchez, ryan hall, ryan lang, trials.
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Competition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.