It was a sweltering temperature of 37°C yesterday in Melbourne, but our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition team braved the heat at Monash University in Clayton to showcase their skills on the mats. It was great to see so many of our staff and members from Collingwood, St Kilda and Melbourne CBD competing on the day, a huge thank you to all the friends and family who came down to support the Absolute MMA team, despite the heatwave. How lucky are we to be part of such a supportive community?! 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!
We had some standout performances on the day, including Clay Lyne who took out Gold in his Gi Division (winning 6 matches in total) and Bronze in no gi advanced! Big effort for Clay, who went straight into the no gi after his gi division, losing 2 and winning 1. What a beast! We also had Edward McMutrie who closed out his division against some tough opponents to receive gold and Nick Hayden who competed in three divisions to receive bronze (open weight purple belt), silver in his weight class and gold (no-gi).
Sarah Chapman stormed through a massive 9 matches to secure a well deserved gold in her weight division for both gi AND no gi, as well as a silver in the absolute no gi division. Great to see Sarah killing it in the purple belt division!
Flo Ryan from Absolute MMA St Kilda also made a triumphant comeback to competition after 9 months away, winning all of his 7 fights by submission via heelhook and footlock to earn the gold medal in the -77k advanced no-gi division! In the absolute division Flo won his first two matches by submission, conceding in the third via points against Australian UFC fighter Jake Matthews. An amazing 10 fights, 9 submission from Flo! What a champion!
Brown Belt Jeremy Paul Skinner received gold in the no-gi absolute division, finishing 4 matches by submission to take the final decision against teammate Daniel Schuardt! In the under 155 weight division, Jeremy utilized his wrestling skills and avoided attacking the legs to secure silver, teammate Marcus Tan taking out the gold after battling through 6 fights (4 wins via submission)! A final match up we often see in our 10am pro training classes at St Kilda!
A huge thank you and shout out to Head Coach Thiago Stefanutti and coaches Apryl Eppinger and Sean Le Gourierrec who spent a large majority of their day cornering and supporting our students through their matches. We don’t know what we would have done without you two! Well done once again to everyone who competed and earned their medals on the day