Max Gimenis and Mahamed Aly go way back. The two accomplished athletes first faced each other as purple belts, and as black belts, they currently have a 1-1 record against each other. Aly lost to Gimenis at the NY BJJ Pro last year, but then defeated him at the World Series of Grappling. Now, Aly — who Gimenis calls a “great athlete” — will once again face Gimenis, this time on top of the most famous stage in grappling.
Tomorrow, Gimenis and Aly will compete in the main event for Fight 2 Win 102, which takes place in New Mexico. The two will be facing off for the super heavyweight gi title, and with so much history behind them, there’s no doubt that both will be giving it their all to see who will get that coveted second win in their black belt trilogy.
Gimenis has had a big first year as a black belt. He says that his biggest challenge was Worlds — especially because he first had to go up against Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida himself. “I had a great challenge. I could not leave with the victory, but I managed to beat myself,” he says.
Gimenis didn’t let his loss against Buchecha keep him down, though. Right after Worlds, he faced (and defeated) Aly at the NY BJJ Pro. “It was not the biggest event I ever won, but victory over Aly a month after he won the Worlds was very important to me.”
While Gimenis says that he’s training to submit, he’s well aware that making Aly tap out even in a sub-only oriented event is somewhere between “extremely challenging” and “extremely unlikely.”
“I think the fight will end by referee decision,” he admits. “We know that the two opponents are very strong and the technical level is also great.”
This grappler says that no matter what happens on the stage, we will “always see him in big tournaments.” He has big goals to match his words — he hopes to win both Pans and Worlds this year. But his upcoming F2W match is still set to be a highlight of his jiu-jitsu career. “I always wanted to fight at F2W, and I’m very grateful for making my debut fighting for the title. This really is something great, and that makes me very happy. I’ll be the owner of the belt.”
Be sure to watch when Gimenis vs. Aly and many other exciting matches stream live on FloGrappling!
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