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The Absolute MMA Shanghai team had a great showing this past weekend at the GCJJF Shanghai Jiu-Jitsu Open! We had an amazing amount of people come out to fight and support, and to put the icing on the cake, we took home some shiny medals that reflect all the hard work that has been put in on the mats! We saw some great gi and no-gi matches, and with this competition done, our thoughts are moving forward to future battles! Win or lose, the team is always proud of our members for stepping out on the competition mats and testing their skills. There is always room for improvement and always cause for celebration. Without further ado, congratulations to the following Absolute MMA Shanghai grapplers for their results.

GI

GOLD

邢易昀- Purple Belt -76.00 kg (Adult Male)
邢易昀- Purple Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
Pierrick Bertel – Blue Belt -88.30 kg (Adult Male)
Boboev Rustam – Blue Belt -76.00 kg (Adult Male)
Boboev Rustam – Blue Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
钱汇智– Blue Belt +100.50 kg (Master 1 Male)
钱汇智– Blue Belt Open Weight (Master 1 Male)
Bret Marshall – White Belt +100.5 kg (Adult Male)
Seitzhanov D – White Belt -94.30 kg (Adult Male)
Ben Baldieri – White Belt -88.30 kg (Adult Male)
Daniela Mediavilla – White Belt -53.50 kg (Adult Female)

SILVER

Belichenko Pavel –Blue Belt -82.30 kg (Adult Male)
陈狄祺 – Blue Belt +100.50 kg (Master 1 Male)
张乾俊夫– White Belt -88.30 kg (Adult Male)

BRONZE

陈彦霖 – Blue Belt -57.50 kg (Adult Male)
Jerome Giammartini –Blue Belt -82.30 kg (Adult Male)
陈斌理–Blue Belt -88.30 kg (Adult Male)
陈狄祺 –Blue Belt Open Weight (Master 1 Male)
Nathan Tillman –Blue Belt -88.30 kg (Master 2 Male)
朱杨俊–White Belt -82.30 kg (Adult Male)
郑扬佳- White Belt -48.50 kg (Adult Female)
Monica Infiesta – White Belt -53.50 kg (Adult Female)
秦岭- White Belt -58.50 kg (Adult Female)
Anna Linn Victoria Englund – White Belt -64.00 kg (Adult Female)
Daniela Mediavilla – White Belt Open Weight (Adult Female)
陆敏 –White Belt -76.00 kg (Master 1 Male)
Alex Liu –White Belt -76.00 kg (Master 2 Male)
Alex Liu –White Belt Open Weight (Master 2 Male)

NO-GI

GOLD

Arturas Luskinas –Brown Belt -86.80 kg (Adult Male)
邢易昀- Purple Belt -74.5 kg (Adult Male)
邢易昀- Purple Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
Bret Marshall –White Belt +99.00 kg (Adult Male)
Boboev Rustam –Blue Belt -74.50 kg (Adult Male)
Jerome Giammartini –Blue Belt -80.80 kg(Adult Male)
Bret Marshall –White Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
James Snell –White Belt -74.50 kg (Master 1 Male)

SILVER

陈斌理–Blue Belt -92.80 kg (Adult Male)
Boboev Rustam –Blue Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
字来保–White Belt -62.50 kg (Adult Male)
秦岭- White Belt -57.00 kg (Adult Female)
陆敏–White Belt -74.50 kg (Master 1 Male)

BRONZE

Jerome Giammartini –Blue Belt Open Weight (Adult Male)
Nik Kosmas –White Belt -74.50 kg (Adult Male)

Congratulations to all competitors! We see how hard everyone works day in and day out for these competitions, and everyone is so proud of you! Improvements are made everyday, and we’ll be even stronger for the next one!

Saturday, May 25th saw Coach Kevin “Le Monstre” Jousset step into the Eternal MMA 45 cage in his second professional Mixed Martial Arts bout, hoping to continue his five strong streak of securing first round knockouts! Up against opponent Jimmy O’Brien in a welterweight match up, Kevin did not disappoint, displaying his world class judo skills, to take down Jimmy in the first round to secure the KO win via elbows, in a brutal ground and pound finish at approximately 90 seconds. This brings Kevin to a SIX win streak, all via first round KO. Le Monstre strikes again, a huge congratulations to Kevin who is establishing himself in the MMA circuit as a force to be reckoned with!

Three of our Muay Thai fight team members flew up to Sydney to compete on Yokkao 39-40, on the promotions fourth visit to Australia. Anthony Trejo was up first on Yokkao 39 for the team in a 65kg bout against opponent Nattakit Pakkawan, an experienced Thai fighter. Trejo came out super aggressive and strong, and despite sustaining a cut eye brow and fighting with a height disadvantage, he kept a good pace the whole fight but unfortunately didn’t get the win, the fight going to judge’s decision in the end. Massive respect for Trejo for showing great sportsmanship, continuing to corner and support his team mates after recovering from his own bout!

Smokin’ Joe Coverdale fought a fellow Australian fighter in Jordie Bargailie in a 62kg match up. This was a very aggressive bout, with plenty of back and forth! Joe got dropped with a spinning elbow at the end of the third round, but managed to miraculously get back up and fought the whole five rounds. What a warrior! Not the result we wanted with the fight resulting in a decision loss for Joe, however we are extremely proud of how much heart he showed and the way he fought in the ring. Well done Joe!

Closing up for the team on the co-main event, Albert “Timorese Assassin” Xavier was set to go up against a formidable opponent in full time Yokkao sponsored fighter Spencer Brown (64kg). The first round saw Albert moving well, keeping a good distance, controlling the ring well to land cleaner shots down the middle and work his low kicks on his opponent’s front leg. Spencer continued to load heavy body punches on in the second round, dropping Albert with a liver shot right at the end of the round, with the referee calling the finish. Devastated for Albert, but we are immensely proud of the sportsmanship he has shown, and the level of technique displayed in the ring against a tough opponent. The Timorese Assassin will be back stronger for the experience! Huge thanks to Coach Laos Toohey for flying to Sydney with the team to corner and support, our students would not have been able to get to this level without your guidance.

Our ever active grappling team continued their efforts to dominate competition this weekend, with Coach Craig Jones and team mate Jeremy Skinner both set to appear on Polaris 10 in Poole, England. Jeremy was up first for the team against opponent Kamil Wilk in a 68kg catch weight match up. Jeremy showed off his very impressive leg lock game to secure a submission via Aoki lock, submitting Wilk at the half way mark. Congratulations to Jeremy, who has solidified himself as a competitor to watch in the future with his recent performances!

On the main card, Craig Jones had a hard fought fifteen minute battle with Matheus Lutes, where he used his improving standup and excellent Z guard to threaten subs and sweeps, eventually securing the win via decision for his efforts during the match in trying to engage Lutes. Well done to Craig, who retains his 185lb belt! With no sign of slowing down in his efforts, Craig moves on to his next match against Miha Perhavec (ECJJ) this week, on Grapple Fest 5 (01/06/2019)! Watch Grapple Fest 5 live on https://www.flograppling.com/

Interstate in our capital city Canberra on Sunday, May 26th, Coach Lachlan Giles went to compete at the 2019 Senior National Wrestling Championships. Lachlan has been dedicated in his quest to become a complete grappler, and has been training in Wrestling seriously over the last 4 years. This paid off for Lachlan this weekend, with him taking out the 79kg division to become the 2019 Australian Freestyle Wrestling champion! Fantastic achievement by Lachlan, and we look forward to watching him continue to dominate through competitions as he prepares for ADCC Worlds 2019!

Locally, the AGC State Championship kicked off at the North Melbourne Community Centre, with many of our grappling team eager to prove themselves on the mats. We had some great results from the team, such as David Du taking away a double gold and Clay Lyne taking away a gold in the gi and a silver in the open. We overall came away with the team trophy as the best NoGi team as a whole, and would like to congratulations all of our students on their efforts, thank you all for being such great representatives of the gym!

Photography: Just Jits Australia, Yokkao, Joshua Zuccato and Lachlan Giles.

Written by Emilie Yap. 

At the ACT AFBJJ Championships, Brodie Greco of Absolute MMA St Kilda took away a double championship in both the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi and No-Gi, showing off his double butterfly leglock entries. Four quickly secured submissions saw Brodie get four wins to achieve this result, and rise to #1 in Australia in the blue belt rankings! It has been great having Brodie train with us in the gym and we are happy to see his hard work paying off. Congratulations on your result, and we wish you the best of luck in your upcoming competition in a month’s time!

Competitors Susy Ferri and Doug Kaegi also went to the ACT to throw down on the mats, with Susy moving up to the middle weight division. Susy demonstrated excellent control in her first blue belt competition, hitting a slick back take and finishing with a cross choke in her first fight. In the final she exchanged sweeps with her opponent before getting knee reaped and winning by DQ. In the open weight she dominated both fights, not giving up a point and winning the open final by 6-0. Well done by Susy!

Brown Belt Doug Kaegi dominated his first Gi opponent, winning by armbar. In the semi-final, he escaped a tight triangle-armbar combination to win by an advantage. In the final he made a critical mistake with 30 seconds left and lost by points, however, in the No-Gi he won the open final by electric chair in 17 seconds! Amazing work Doug! This was a great day on the mats in the ACT with strong competitors across all the divisions. Between the three of our competitors, we came home with 8 gold and 2 silver medals!

Back home in Melbourne, we were lucky enough to have Jiu Jitsu Team League host their third team tournament with us at Absolute MMA St Kilda on Sunday. The first women’s quintet event in Australia was sure to be packed with excitement from the start, with this tournament putting four teams of five (blue and purple belt) women against each other, each representing a separate charity organisation.

With multiple gyms in attendance, we were happy to have quite a few competitors representing Absolute MMA, assistant Kids BJJ Coach Brionii Cuskelly, Lauren Thompson, Sarah Chapman, Meesh Hall, Juliette Brillet, Megumi Lim and Brooke Butler. Great work on the mats ladies, it was wonderful to see everyone rolling for their respective charities and putting in the hard yards for a good cause.

“The Aggressive Cuddlers” took came home with the win after defeating The Early Risers in Round 1 and Best Restraint, Escape, Submission Team in Round 2. The Aggressive Cuddlers represented Share the Dignity. Share the Dignity gives sanitary products to homeless women and fights for domestic violence victims. Nearly 100 people attended the Jiu Jitsu Team League event, raising $1000 in donations going directly to Share the Dignity.

If you missed the matches on Sunday there’s no need to worry. The event was streamed live and can be rewatched for free over at Jiu Jitsu Team League’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jiujitsuteamleague/

Massive thank you to Jiu Jitsu Team League for organising, Livia Giles, Megan Milne, Hannah Gorman, Zach Ayman, Jamie Strauss, Misha Tchernych, Ashley Wright, all of the competitors and of course the fantastic crowd that showed up to watch on the day.

Keep an eye over on the Jiu Jitsu Team League Facebook and Instagram pages to be notified about the next event they will be running.

We would also like to congratulate Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor Hugh Boyd, who took out his No-Gi division with two straight ankle locks at the Byron Bay Winter Open! In the Gi blue/purple open weight, Hugh won his first fight against a purple belt and lost his second to another purple belt. Hugh takes away Gold and a Bronze for his efforts on the mats, a well-deserved two medals! Great work Hugh!

Overseas in sunny Phuket, Absolute MMA Thailand fighter Tymo won his bout via KO in the second round at Bangla Stadium! In the first round of the fight, Tymo threw multiple, devastating knees to drop his opponent, and then in the second finished him off with a heavy punch. Congratulations on your win and on a great performance Tymo!

Published with thanks to Doug Kaegi.

Photography: Jiu-Jitsu Team League, Livia Giles, Doug Kaegi, Cooper Burnham.

Saturday, 11th of May saw two of our Mixed Martial Arts competitors, Josh Grove and Coach Luke “The Lycan” Catubig fly to Perth, Western Australia under the guidance of Coach Daniel Howard for Eternal MMA 44. First up to step into the cage at HBF Stadium for the Absolute MMA was Josh Grove (2-1-0), up against Abdullah Eltigani (2-0-0). Keen to improve his record against an undefeated opponent, Josh dominated in the cage despite Eltigani having a significant reach advantage. Securing a few successful take downs through his wrestling, Josh did get cut open in the third round while avoiding a head kick but got the win in the end via unanimous decision. Congratulations to Josh on a comeback win to the cage after his previous bout on Eternal MMA 37, and on his very first stitches! A well deserved win after a dominant performance, bringing Josh’s record to 3-1-0.

Next up on the card and finishing up for team Absolute, Luke faced off against opponent Luke Jones from Western Australia after a two year hiatus off. Exciting to see “The Lycan” return to the cage! Luke managed to land some heavy strikes on Jones on multiple occasions with his powerful overhand right, sadly his opponents ground game got the best of him and he couldn’t finish him off. Despite him sustaining a loss via unanimous decision, we’re proud of Luke for getting back in there and going the distance. Plenty to work on going forward!

On May 12th, it was time for the highly anticipated Asia/Oceania ADCC Trials with 14 competitors from the Absolute MMA Brazilian Jiu-jitsu team flying all the way to Tokyo to compete. With many of our team dedicating the majority of their training in preparation to compete at the ADCC trials in the hope to secure a ticket to ADCC Worlds, this was a much awaited event for the whole Absolute MMA crew.

Our standout performance for the day was Coach Lachlan Giles of Absolute MMA St Kilda who won his ticket for the -76.9kg division after four fights, three occurring via submissions (heel hook) and one via judges decision! After the semi-final win via decision against his Japanese opponent, Lachlan smashed it in the final via submission with his signature 50/50 heel hook. Huge congratulations to Lachlan, who will be joining his wife Livia Giles and Absolute MMA teammates Ben Hodgkinson, Kit Dale and Craig Jones at ADCC Worlds!

Jeremy Skinner (-65.9kg), Mikael Yahaya (-65.9kg) and Matthew McGuiness (-87.9kg) all did really well, winning multiple fights in their respective divisions. Brown belt James Walters (-87.9kg) dominated his first match, and then lost in his second in a very back and forth battle to seasoned Australian/Brazilian black belt William Diaz. Izaak Mitchell (-76.9kg) performed extremely well, making it through three matches in total, and had in our opinion one of the greatest matches of the day against another South Australian competitor Declan Moody. Coach Oliver Smith (-98.9kg) also had a great performance in his first round, in what was a very close match, losing by just one point! To all our students and staff who competed, including Pippa Shaw, Sean Le Gourrierec, Kaya Rudolph, Lachlan Warne, George Miller and Adam McMahon, we are supremely proud of your efforts on the mats and how hard you have all trained to get to this point of competition. Thank you to all of the team’s training partners and coaches who have put in endless hours to help our competitors get to Tokyo.

Shout out to fellow Australian and training partner Daniel Schuardt of Empire MMA who fought all the way up to the final, and to the three other Australians who qualified for ADCC Worlds, Keller Locke-Sodhi, Jacob Malkoun and Denis Roberts. Great to see so many Australians will be heading to ADCC!

Sunday also saw Coach Craig Jones secure yet another win on Submission Underground (SUG) in Oregon, in extremely quick fashion (12 seconds!) via toe hold against opponent Denis Hallman. Congratulations Craig on an incredibly slick victory!

Photography: Eternal MMA, Luke “The Lycan” Catubig, Lachlan Giles. 

Written by Emilie Yap and Richard Lattemagi.  

With three of our amateur MMA fighters in the cage for title fights on Path to Hex 9, it was sure to be a night of action for the Absolute MMA team! Up first for the team was Lisa “Savage” Kyriacou in a greatly anticipated rematch against Courtney Martin (Mach 1), who Lisa had previously sustained a loss against on Eternal MMA 37 in September 2018. Lisa controlled the striking well, and displayed solid defence, reversing her opponents takedowns to move on top. She put up a great performance which lasted the full five rounds, however unfortunately sustained a loss via split points decision when the fight went to the judges scorecards. It is great to see how much Lisa has improved her fight game, massive respect to her for stepping back into the cage for the rematch against an undefeated opponent. Well done Lisa! We look forward to seeing you back in the cage for Eternal MMA in three weeks time.

Second up for the team was Sem Kakembo, against opponent Pece Naumovski (Emerge MMA) for the Path to Hex Featherweight Championship. Sem largely controlled the striking, landing heavy hits and punching through the guard of his opponent. Showing good skills, speed and power in his strikes throughout all five rounds and setting the pace, the bout was conducted primarily via stand up. Sem came close to the knock out a couple of times however his opponent held on, with the bout going the distance for Sem to win via split decision! A very well-deserved victory for Sem, congratulations!

The main event rolled around, with our very own Rob Pelle stepping up against Jean Alexander (Kimekai MMA) in a bout for the Path to Hex Bantamweight Championship. In the opening minutes of the first round, Rob evaded a guillotine from his opponent, continuing to press forward in an attempt to secure a takedown, but unfortunately got caught in a second guillotine setup and submitted. A hard day in the office, but you win or you learn and Rob will be back stronger for the experience. Thank you to all the team members and coaches who came down to support the team at Path to Hex 9!

On Sunday, 5th of May, our boxing team members Aniera, Pin and Ben, coached by Pradeep “The Indian Warrior” Sihag went to compete at the Bowman Cup (Boxing Victoria Inc.) at the Italian Social Club in Altona North. Making the transition from interclubs to the amateur level, the team competed in a 3 round x 2 minute format. A day of learning for the team, who sustained three losses across the board, however we are proud of them for stepping up to the next level and challenging themselves. Thank you to everyone who came down to support the crew, and to Coach Pradeep Sihag for cornering!

Overseas in Sao Paulo (Brazil) at the IBJJF Campeonato Brasileiro de Jiu-Jitsu 2019, Head Coach Thiago Stefanutti went to war on the mats! In his first match, he fought from top half guard, displaying the pressure that we all know so well, and after passing he ended up winning a points victory. Amazing work by Thiago! In his second match, he fought hard from the closed guard, inverted for a knee bar which he couldn’t quite finish, ending in 50/50 guard. His opponent did a good job of defending, and ended up winning the fight by advantage. Safe travels Thiago! We are all missing you back home, but are inspired by your work on the mats in Brazil. Thank you for being such a great example for the team!

Photography: W.L Fight Photography, Pradeep Singh Sihag and Thiago Stefanutti.

The Muay Thai Team of Absolute MMA Thailand wrapped up the last week of the month by returning to Bangla Boxing Stadium with 3 fighters ready to showcase their skills on the 25th of April. First up, we had our Chinese visitor Yu Chen Jun Mu Ga. After a hard start, both boys looked up for the challenge. The first round saw Yu Chen landing some heavy leg kicks, which dropped his opponent, Yu Chen going in for the kill early. Congratulations on your first round stoppage!

Next, Absolute MMA Thailand regular Olivia Ritchie returned to the ring, keen to get back to her winning ways against a much heavier Thai opponent. Olivia utilised some crafty footwork and stance switching, constantly racking up points on the scorecards. It was the 3rd round that saw Olivia land some nasty elbows in the clinch, causing the referee to call an end to the fight! Well done to Olivia on a well-deserved win!

Finally, Alexander Welin took to the ring looking to capture a Bangla Stadium title in the main event, against a very talented southpaw fighter from New Zealand. Alex had the better of the boxing exchanges with his opponent constantly backing up, with the Kiwi fighter using his reach advantage well. Alex found some success late in the 5th round, but came up a little short on the judges scorecards.

Job well done by the Muay Thai team on all three accounts, you all performed well and were great representatives for the gym. Thank you to all the coaches who came down to support the team!

The team continued to represent at Bangla Stadium through to Friday night, with two of our fighters, Robert McNee and Yang heading to war! A clean sweep for the team here, with two wins from both boys. First up for the team, Rob made sure to utilise his height and the Thai clinch very well, delivering heavy knees to his opponent. Congratulations on your second round K.O Rob!

Next up was Yang. Yang’s strong K-1 base quickly became apparent as he used his left low kick to continuously attack his opponents leg. Well done to Yang who won via leg kicks in a round 3 stoppage! What a weekend for the team!

Our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ladies made waves overseas last week at the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2019 and the ADCC trials in Poland. In Abu Dhabi on Thursday, brown belt Shantelle Thompson stepped onto the mats first for the team, in a first round match against current division champion Gabrieli Pessanha. Having come up against Pessanha many times previously, Shantelle did well to evade Gabrieli’s submission attempts, with the match going the distance in the end. Despite a loss for Shantelle (0-4,3 advantages), she applied what she learned from her previous matches with Pessanha and showed an improved performance in giving her opponent a tougher fight.

Shantelle’s second match in repechage saw a close match against Finnish brown belt Jonna Konivuori with no points scored in the match. Both women were at 1-1 advantage each, with Shantelle eventually sustaining the loss via a penalty. Shantelle finishes her UAEJJF season with a ranking of number one in Oceania and Australia in the female black/brown division!

Representing Absolute MMA in Abu Dhabi next up for the team was Coach Apryl Eppinger. In her first match, she faced off against Jane Minondo, a 4 year brown belt from Canada. Apryl controlled the match by stuffing Jane’s attempts to jump guard and attack in the closed guard. The match resulted in 0-0 with Apryl securing the win via advantages 3-1, through takedown, knee bar and toe hold setups. An amazing win for Apryl given this is her first international competition as a brown belt! Congratulations Apryl!

Apryl’s second match was against Brazilian black belt Larissa Paez. Standing with her, Apryl attempted to take down her opponent which failed, with Apryl then pulling Larissa into an open guard. From there Apryl was not able to maintain the guard, with Paez passing her to secure side mount and the submission.

Her 3rd match was against Julia Maele,a Black belt from Norway. Apryl and her opponent finished on equal points 4 – 4, with Maele having two advantages. The match was in 50/50 and Apryl tried to escape to achieve 2 more points for the pass, which she secured but not in time to achieve the points. Apryl finishes her UAEJJF season ranked as sixth in Asia! Amazing work Apryl, it has been wonderful to see you work so hard and we thank you for being a great representative for the gym.

On Saturday, in Poland, Coach Livia Giles achieved an amazing result in winning the ADCC Trials in Europe for -60kg! After 4 tough fights, Liv finished the final with an inside heel hook. After sustaining a knee injury in December, Liv has worked tirelessly at her rehab and training to achieve this result. A well deserved result for Liv in her fourth attempt to win a ticket to ADCC Worlds! We are so excited for Liv who is now the fourth Australian to qualify for the 2019 ADCC Worlds (and the fourth for the Absolute MMA team)! Congratulations Liv, you crushed it!

Written by Emilie Yap and Apryl Eppinger.
Photography: Babskie Jiu-Jitsu, Livia Giles, UAEJJF, Proud Brown.

Our striking team went to work locally last weekend with our Boxing team representing at the ISCW Cup at the Italian Sports Club in Werribee, and Hector Vigor from the Muay Thai team on Warriors Way 23 at the Doncaster Shoppingtown Hotel.

Up against opponent Richard Fatileh (Hammers) in a 3×2 round matchup at 64kg under full Thai rules, Hector Vigor had put in a hard training camp and it was all coming together in the fight, with Hector throwing strong counters and winning the clinch exchanges. Hector was consistent with his kicks throughout the opening rounds, his opponent looking for the finish from the get go with several heavy, close exchanges. Majority of exchanges ended with Hector locking up a strong clinch that Richard struggled to deal with, a dominant performance from Hector until he got caught with a huge overhand right as he was throwing a left kick, resulting in a loss for Hector via KO in the second round. Regardless of the result, it was great to see Hector getting back in there after a couple of years off due to injury, and we can’t wait to see him back in there next time!

Sunday saw a hard day in the office for our Boxing team, with three fighters who were matched to fight having their bouts cancelled (Aneira, Avinash and Pin), however we are happy to announce they all have been matched to fight on May 5th, 2019 upcoming! This left two of our boxing team competing on the day in Werribee. Benjamin Elford fought really well in his match, and showed great technique in a bout that could have gone either way to sustain a loss via split points decision. Michael also lost his bout via UPD, but we are proud of the team for showing up and continuing to test themselves in the ring. Thank you to everyone who came down to support on the day!

Our Absolute MMA Shanghai team also put in the hard yards last weekend, with both of their Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teams competing. At the Oz Body Fit Fight Night, we had ALL THREE of our fighters win their Muay Thai bouts. Congratulations to Astrid De Leeuw, “Leo” Wang Le, and Viacheslav “Mike” Perlomov on their victories! Coach Jowad has run these athletes through hell and back, and it is great to see them reaping the rewards of all their hard training. Great work team!

At the IBJJF Washington DC Open, Jason Vauters secured the bronze, and at the IBJJF San Jose Open, Coach Dorothy Dao took away three medals with a gold in the no-gi, and two silvers, one in the no-gi absolute division and one in the gi division. Dorothy also received her brown belt this weekend, so huge congratulations to her! Amazing work from our Shanghai grapplers in America, great to see our students flying out to compete across the world!

Photography: Dorothy Dao, W.L Fight Photography, Pradeep Singh.