The Queen’s Birthday public holiday weekend saw no rest for our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition team, who went to showcase their skills on the mats at Grappling Industries in Coburg. With the event running across two full days, many of our coaches and students from all three of our Australian gyms made an effort to come to both, and whether you were competing or supporting, a huge thank you to all the friends and family who came down to be a part of the Absolute MMA team. We appreciate the efforts of everyone in our community, as we know these can be long days! We are proud to report as a gym, our students took away a total of 17 gold, 12 silver and 5 bronze medals. To everyone who competed and received medals, we would like to congratulate you on continuing to challenge yourself and moving forward in your martial arts journey!
Standout performances from the weekend included Vesper Cheon, who won Gold in both her weight divisions for Gi and No-Gi, winning all fights via submission, securing two armbars and two straight ankle locks! It is super exciting to see Vesper throwing herself into competitions as of late, and inspiring our Melbourne CBD female team with her hard work.
Post ADCC Trials, Pippa Shaw also took away a double Gold in the Female No Gi Intermediate (-135lbs) and the Absolute No Gi, in a total of five matches, three wins in the Absolute and two in her division! Amazing work Pippa! Our very own Tom Everett made a triumphant return to competition, doing the desk crew proud by getting on the podium to achieve a Gold in the No Gi Advanced (-155lbs), even if it was in socks and slides. We’re lucky Tom’s Jiu-Jitsu is better than his fashion. Great work Tom, a well-deserved result and it is great seeing you back on the competitive circuit!
Jebadi Phazer stormed through the Adult Male blue belt division, having a total of eight matches on the mats, winning seven to secure Gold in the Gi (-210lbs), also taking out silver in the Absolute! Job well done by Jeb, who has been training consistently and putting in the hard yards on the mats in the gym to prepare himself for competition. A well deserved result!
Congratulations to Hugh Boyd, Assistant Kids BJJ coach at Absolute MMA St Kilda for also winning six straight matches to take away Gold in the No-Gi Advanced (-170kg)!
A huge thank you and shout out to Head Coach Thiago Stefanutti and coaches Cooper Burnham, Apryl Eppinger and Sean Le Gourierrec who spent a large majority of their weekend cornering and supporting our students through their matches. We have an amazing team, and we could not be more grateful for your guidance, particularly over a public holiday weekend! Well done once again to everyone who competed and earned their medals on the day.
Written by Emilie Yap
Photography: Vesper Cheon, Tom Everett, Jebadi Phazer.