“Hulk smash” won’t be on the card at Third Coast Grappling (3CG) Kumite 6. Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa and teammate Gustavo Batista pulled out of the card. 3CG President Ryan McGuire said: “Lucas had some personal things to handle, Gustavo injured.” Read on to find out who is taking their places.
Replacing Hulk is 2018 NoGI World Champion Arnaldo Maidana. He will face super-heavy Victor Hugo, who won Kumite II. Maidana normally competes at heavyweight, so he will be the lighter of the two.
Taking Batista’s place is Fellipe Trovo. Batista won the inaugural Kumite I by beating Roberto Jimenez, who is also on this card. Trovo was part of the Gracie Barra team that won the recent Subversiv 3 tournament. Training out of Gracie Barra Northridge under all-time great Romulo Barral, he is on the rise in the tournament and super-fight circuits. He will face Gabriel “Todd” Almeida, a Rising Stars BJJ (Checkmat’s scholarship program) alum. The latter has much to prove, racking up gold medals at lower belts and looked to break out at black belt last year, but the pandemic put a damper on his quest. This match-up makes an interesting clash of two hungry young wolves out to collect both prize and prestige.
Jimenez has won two of the five $10,000 3CG Kumite checks so far. He’s looking for another run at the last all-male Kumite bracket. 3CG will go back to their regular formats after the all-female Kumite VII on Sept. 26. Watch for special features regarding that event soon.
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