Gramado Trials: Braga Neto wins absolute; 13 athletes qualified for WPJJC

Antonio Braga Neto was the big name in Gamado Photo: Carlos Ozório/Archives.

Sunday was the third day of the selective for WPJJC in Gramado, Brazil, and the black and brown belts who almost did it on Saturday during the weights dispute had a chance to win a ticket to go to the United Arab Emirates to fight at a professional event in April. Even with the second chance, they weren’t happy. Antonio Braga Neto and Vinicius Marinho are the ones to blame, who won again in heavy and light absolute (up to and over 74kg).

Sunday was thrilling from the semifinals.

In the light absolute, up to 74kg, judoka Moacir Mendes (Alliance) eliminated the tough Claudio Caloquinha (GB) by 2 to 0 and went to the final.

Across the draw, the brown belt Victor Silverio (GFTeam) had been showing a pretty game, after beating the always dangerous submitter Isaac Paiva (Saikoo) to ensure the semifinal.

But there was a companion in the competition. It was the lightweight championship Vinicius Marinho (GFTeam), who took Abraão Amorim’s back (Evolution) to get to the semifinal, making his partner Silvério give way to the victory.

In the final, Vinicius Marinho and Moacir Mendes began exchanging grips. The GFTeam fighter tried to pull for his guard and go for the x-sweep. Moacir, however, avoided the sweep with good posture. In the end, Vinicius got an advantage from the sweep, which earned him the victory and the check worth a plane ticket to Abu Dhabi.

In the heavy absolute, Antonio Braga Neto (Gordo Jiu-Jitsu) showed to be the strongest. Neto submitted all in his absolute fights with his complete Jiu-Jitsu. In the semifinal, the most memorable Sunday moment, Neto beat Agnaldo Silveira (Gracie Barra) with a flying triangle.

Across the draw, Tarsis Humphreys (Alliance) exchanged sweeps with Alexandro Ceconi, 2 x 2, and won by 2 x 1 with the advantages.

Clock choke in the final

In the grand final, Neto pulled Tarsis for the guard, but the Alliance beast fell in middle. Before straightening up, Neto started working the grips and applied an omoplata, being able to sweep. Tarsis kept on his guard, but couldn’t deal well with Neto’s pressure, and he passed the guard and used a clock choke to win another gold. Neto had already won the over 92kg category when he gave his ticket to Ricardo Evangelista, who was the second.

Find out who were the 13 classified in the selective:

Ladies first: in the purple, brown and black belts, the winners were Marina Ribeiro and Michelle Nicolini.

Marina made a perfect championship and also won the light absolute. In the absolute final up to 61kg, she almost sweeped Luanna Alzuguir with an omoplata and secured the title by two advantages to none. Michelle Nicolini won with a score of 6 to 4 against Talita Treta. One detail: the CheckMat star was recovering from a serious muscular injury on her thigh.

In the male competition between beasts and revelations, almost all were saved after a sparkling Saturday. The champs were Thiago Barreto (up to 65kg), Vinicius Marinho (up to 74kg), Gustavo Campos (up to 83kg), Luiz Panza (up to 92kg) and Ricardo Evangelista (over 92kg). On Sunday, at 4 p.m., two more champions guaranteed their package to Abu Dhabi, the absolute lightweight and black belt heavyweight.

In the lightest category, up to 65kg, Thiago Barreto da Brasa was the big name after the elimination of several favorites, like Isaque Paiva and Pablo Silva. In the end, Thiago Barreto beat Paulo Roberto (Gracie Humaitá) in the score and won the great final against the revelation, Pedro Valença, from Cícero Costha. Thiago applied an americana on Valença’s feet.

In the up to 74kg division, Vinicius Marinho beat Antonio Carlos, his GFTeam partner, after winning the seminal against Kim Terra in the advantages (guard passing).  Marinho got the ticket and is a strong name for Abu Dhabi, since he has already won several championships in this category in Brazil.

In the up to 83kg, a war of giants, Guto Campos needed to defeat Thiago Porto (Alliance), who beat Tarsis Humphreys on Friday, while Rodrigo Pimpolho fought with Eduardo Português. In the final, Guto submitted Rodrigo with style using an omoplata.

And up to 92kg, one of the pleasant surprises of the competition, Luiz Panza (Barbosa) beat Pedro Henrique (CheckMat) and then fought with Nivaldo Oliveira (Brazilian absolute champion) in the final. Panza swept, was swept, but in the end, with a score of 4 to 4, he defeated Nivaldo with two advantages for attacking more.

The biggest turnaround was in the above 92kg category. First, Braga Neto won against Rodrigo Cavaca by decision. On the other side of the semifinals, Léo Nogueira fell ill with an intestinal infection, and let Ricardo Evangelista advance. And because Braga Neto already had a ticket do the UAE due to his victory in Rio selectives, he gave the ticket to Ricardo (GFTeam).

In purple and blue belts, five representatives of the new generation have done well.

In purple heavy, the winner was Victor Honório (GFTeam), who beat Fernando Andrade (Alliance). In the purple light absolute, one of the biggest submitters of the event: Wellington Luís (Cícero Costha) took Lucas Nogueira’s back (BTT) and will try to shine in Abu Dhabi.

In the female blue absolute, the noble blood of Ana Carolina Vieira prevailed. Rodolfo Vieira’s sister, the two-time heavyweight world champion from GFTeam, won after applying some beautiful armbars and will face some of the best in the world in Abu Dhabi.

In the male blue belt, Fellipe Trovo (Nova União) won the heavy absolute and Nicholas Menegali (Alliance) got the gold in the light.

The 13th spot went to the white belt absolute champion, Eder Negão, from Nova União.