50/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Fifty/50 sent a small group of competitors to the fourth edition of U.S. Grappling’s “submission-only” tournament, but we managed to come home with the Team Title with the most points for an individual academy. Details below…

Day 1: No-Gi

Advanced:

Coming off of his Advanced division title at Grapplers Quest a few weeks ago, Anthony Cincotta put in another impressive performance, dominating in all of his no-gi matches on his way to 4 submissions via heel hook to win both his weight class and the Absolute (open weight) class, defeating some giants and a very tough Parker Conner (BJJ Revolution) in the final with his signature finish, the 50/50 reverse heel hook.

Seph Smith submitted his only opponent in his the Advanced 160-169.9 lbs division with a triangle choke after a great scramble for the back.

Day 2: Gi

Blue Belt:

In the gi, Anthony worked his guard in every match, but playing the “B” game didn’t stop him from again submitting his opponent in his weight class before finishing 3 superheavyweights in a row to make the final of the blue belt open class. There he again met Parker Conner, who had been equally dominant in submitting his way through a series of larger opponents. After a 11-minute war, it was Parker who would get revenge, catching Anthony with a choke from the side to take the title. He’s not satisfied with the silver, but still a strong 8-1 performance all around by Fifty/50′s most reliable competitor of 2009.

Andy Ruffner was particularly dominant this weekend, picking up a series of victories and demonstrating greatly improved wrestling and top control. He took 3rd in the Men’s Absolute class after a series of victories via Kimura, 2nd in the Men’s superheavyweight class, and 1st in both the Masters (30+) superheavyweight and open classes. Strong performance by Andy as he looks to shore up his weaknesses in preparation for next year’s Pan American and World tournaments.

Rich Fitzgerald continued to demonstrate improvement, showing a great half guard, a retard-strength-level bridge, a vicious guillotine choke, and a very tame, gentle straight ankle lock. Rich took 2nd in the Men’s lightweight division, 2nd in Masters welter-weight, and 3rd in the Masters Absolute class. It was a bit on an up and down weekend for Rich, but he showed flashes of brilliance that are a glimpse of what he’ll be by the time the big tournaments roll around next year.

Ryan’s private lesson student, Zak Perret, looked better than ever this weekend. Zak competed in both the Adult and Masters divisions despite fighting a Muay Thai smoker (in-house amateur fight) in New Jersey the night before. Zak took 3rd in the Adult lightweight division, 2nd in the Masters Absolute class, and gold in the Masters 160-179.9 lbs division. Vastly improved performance from Zak as he showed off his top game and a varied submission attack.

Brown Belt:

In a round-robin division, Seph defeated Trey Martin (Five Points/BJJ Revolution) via mounted armlock after a quick foot sweep and pass to split the brown belt <170 lbs division with Ryan.

In the same bracket, Ryan Hall worked on top to repeatedly pass, and transition to knee on belly before finishing Trey with a cross choke to close the division with Seph.

Pictures and video to come.

Full Results:

http://www.nhbgear.com/forum/index.php/topic,90578.0/all.html

http://www.usgrappling.us/events/071809/

Excellent work by the standard group of Fifty/50 competitors. Local tournaments are a great way to work the kinks out of your game before stepping in with the big boys at the International level. If you think you have what it takes to compete for Fifty/50, make sure to register for the Competition Team tryout ASAP!

Tags: andy ruffner, anthony cincotta, Competition, parker conner, rich fitzgerald, ryan hall, seph smith, submission, us grappling, zak perret.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 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.