The men’s open weight final at Pans 2021 saw a rematch between Fellipe Andrew and Gustavo Batista.
This year, both Andrew and Batista had already won gold in their divisions by the time they met in the open weight finals — Andrew defeated Guilherme Augusto in the super heavyweight division for the honor, while Batista defeated Adam Wardzinski in the heavyweight finals to claim his title.
Batista and Andrew had also met in the finals of Pans 2020, with Andrew taking the gold after a hard-fought match. In this year’s back-and-forth final, Andrew once again put on a performance that put him on the top of the podium.
The competitors locked up, and Batista shot for a takedown that Andrew evaded. Batista then pulled guard, keeping a firm grip on Andrew’s pant leg and wrapping himself around his opponent’s leg. He briefly sent Andrew stumbling backward with a 50/50 transition, but when Andrew returned to his feet, he immediately focused on passing. Batista was able to keep him at bay by trapping a leg in half-guard, but Andrew soon secured the pass and three points. He then transitioned to knee-on-belly, though Batista managed to shake him off soon enough.
Andrew then tried to use knee-on-belly to transition to mount, but Batista saw it coming; he caught Andrew’s legs with his own before the transition was complete, inverting and latching onto one of Andrew’s legs. The athletes entered an awkward leg entanglement, with Batista trying to control Andrew’s back while Andrew tried to get up and turn to face his opponent. Andrew managed to enter 50/50 from the bottom and tipped Batista backward to reverse the position. Batista, however, kept a hold on Andrew’s lapel and wrapped his arm around Andrew’s leg to keep his foot trapped. He managed to get back up to his feet, scoring points for the sweep and locking up 50/50.
Batista kept a hold on Andrew’s ankle as Andrew tried to return to the top position. Batista ultimately was able to come on top with his back to Andrew, with Andrew’s legs wrapped around one of his. Andrew managed to topple Batista over with about two minutes remaining, ending up in bottom 50/50 as Batista turned around to face him. Andrew worked in a lasso, and though Batista stayed upright by keeping a low center of gravity at first, Andrew eventually succeeded in toppling him over. Batista, however, wasted no time in rolling through and coming on top again.
The last thirty seconds of the match kicked off a scramble that resulted in Andrew coming on top and getting side control. Batista tried to roll out of it in the final seconds, but it wasn’t enough; Andrew won the match 18-8 and came away with his second consecutive Pans open weight gold.
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