Finfou, Mick Willson, Rafael lang and Carlos Português on absolute podium. Photos: personal archive.
Last Sunday the 11th Pan-Pacific Jiu-Jitsu Championship came to a close in Melbourne, Australia. Victor Costa, who earlier this year took gold at the Pan and No-Gi Brazilian Nationals, sent in the news. The AFBJJ- (www.afbjj.com) organized event had a total of 800 athletes competing for gold in both gi and no-gi disputes between the 26th and 28th of November.
“Alan ‘Finfou’ do Nascimento, of team CheckMat, won the middleweight black belt gi and no-gi divisions and also took gold in the gi absolute. Now I took three silvers. The first was in the superheavyweight gi division. I went in as an ultraheavyweight in the no-gi competition because there were no matchups for me in my division. I also took second in the no-gi absolute. I let victory slip through my fingers in the last five seconds, when I was winning by an advantage point but ended up getting taken down,” recounts Victor to GRACIEMAG.com.
“The winner of the absolute was Mick ‘Big Mick’ Wilson, of Peter de Been Team Australia. The guy’s huge, weighs 113 kg!” he adds.
“Finfou won two matches in the absolute by submission before beating Rafael Lang in the semifinal on points. In the final, Big Mick won by 6 to 2. He swept and got back mount, then had a sweep scored against him at the end.”
Mick Willson with Victor Costa on absolute no-gi podium.
Some other standouts at the event were Carlos Vieira Português (Cia Paulista), who won the gi lightweight division; Rafael Lang (Garra JJ), winner of the medium heavyweight gi division; and Pedro Pacheco (Tukaha JJ), winner of the medium heavyweight no-gi division. Click here for the complete results.
Superheavyweight podium.
After the event Victor and Finfou set off on their Jiu-Jitsu tour of the world again.
“We took off Thursday for a seminar at Marcus Escobar’s academy in Malaysia on Saturday, and Sunday in Singapore, at Alexsandro “Leke” Machado’s academy. Everything has been great around here, it’s been an excellent experience,” says Victor in closing.