Won my division 9-0. I'll be honest. I was a bit intimidated. The guy had a few inches on me, used to fight Ultra, and had just won three fights to take Gold at the Vegas Open last month. I pulled guard, bread-and-butter spider sweep, passed, then took his back. He almost got me in a footlock.
I got a bye for the open quarter. In the open semi-, my opponent was a tough middle weight who barely beat the guy I lost to in the open final at nationals last year (and lost to twice at Grappling X). I pulled open guard to curu curu and got the sweep. From there it was a mess. I was played defense and basically stalled for 5mins because I was afraid to do anything because he was so fast and strong. He almost clock choked me and probably got several other advantages. Pulled out a squeaker 2-0. I don't want to face that guy again. Really tough.
A scrappy feather weight made it to the finals on the opposite side of my bracket. I typically have trouble with the smaller guys. But not this time. I don't recall everything that happened but I won 22-0. I couldn't catch an arm or a neck. His survival/escape techniques were excellent. I missed a few arm bar from mount opportunities but I didn't feel like I had the transitory position stable enough to execute so I played it safe. At one point I had a solid knee on belly and I could see "tap" in his eyes. So I pressed it but he shrimped and escaped. After the fight he said he was very close to tapping to the knee on belly pressure.
I'm more than pleased. My body's been beat and I've been fighting so poorly in class lately; my head was not into the tournament.
Thanks to all my RJJA teammates for the corner support. Oh! RJJA won second place as a team. OSS.
Congrats!!
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