Bruno with students Claudia Gadelha, Kelly Faszholz, and Heather Renshaw. Photos: personal archive.
Saturday was a day of Jiu-Jitsu in the city of Dallas, Texas. The professional-division fighters took to the mats in pursuit of an airplane ticket to the West Coast ADCC trials coming up March in California (the East Coast qualifiers took place this Saturday in New Jersey).
Nova União combatant Claudia Gadelha – who currently resides in Dallas with black belt Bruno Bastos – had four matches and won at weight and open weight.
As Claudia is Brazilian and not allowed to compete at the American tryouts, the one who took the spot was under-132 lb runner-up Danielle Alvarez, a sixteen-year-old Bruno Bastos student.
“Claudia is doing great here and soon we’ll have more news for GRACIEMAG.com. This year she’ll compete at Naga, in December. My student Daniel “Jacaré” Almeida is also coming in December to compete at the same event. My team will enter everything, not to mention our partners Traviss Lutter, Paul Halme, Danny Alvarez, and Brandon Quick. I’ve already started preparing for the European Open in January, so there will be no end-of-the-year break,” says Bruno Bastos.
Claudinha Gadelha and Kelly Faszholz swept the female professional division.
Bastos’s academy, Octagon MMA, also snatched the over-132 lb gold, with Kelly Saszholz. In the men’s division, Jason Sampson (under-145 lbs), Albert Hugues (under-155 lbs), Frost Murphy (under-194 lbs), and JJ Holmes (218 lbs and absolute).