2013 Abu Dhabi WPJJC: Buchecha and Rodolfo in Action During the Open Class Final; photo by Dan Rod
The last day of the 2013 Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship came to a close after its fourth day. The Saturday open weight finals day was full of varied action from the very start. All divisions warmed up in their respectable bullpen mats and every division was represented on the competition mats throughout.
Instead of dividing the day by rank, gender or age, the organization chose to run all divisions at once, leaving every mat engaged with combat from young to old, beginner to expert. By the time the finals began, everyone in the crowd was ready to see who would be crowned for each division. You can see the full results below.
Keenan Cornelius and Paullo Miyao both confused after a double DQ in the brown belt open weight final / Photo by Erin Herle
The brown belt adult male open division ended in a very peculiar way. Paulo Miyao and Keenan Cornelius both made their way to the final as they usually do together. So far in this year alone, they have met in the open weight finals in the Europeans, the Pans and now the WPJJC. As with all of their matches together, they pulled double guard and worked from there. Keenan’s strategy revolves around the advantage from coming up in a double guard pull situation. Knowing that the Miyao brothers will avoid playing top with him, he can stay on bottom as well, avoiding their backtake and footlock attempts until the last moment where he scores. The referee was not in favor of this strategy in Abu Dhabi and gave penalties one after another to both. At about the four minute mark, after he saw they were not improving the level of action, both were disqualified. Visibly shocked and confused, they were out of the money prize and medal, allowing third place athlete Kaue Damasceno from Nova Uniao to take the top spot on the podium. Ironically, he was also disqualified in his match with Keenan in the semi-finals for a slam.
The black belt male adult open division came through after eight brackets leaving the semi-finals and the finals left. Marcus Almeida Buchecha made his way beating Roberto “Tussa” Alencar with a knee bar and then Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu in the quarterfinals by points. The semi-final match for Buchecha was against Tarsis Humphreys where he outscored Tarsis 7-0 for his spot in the final. Rodolfo Vieira made his way to the final with one of his matches by choking Lucas Rocha from the back and also beating Claudio Calasans by points in the semi-final. Tarsis and Claudio fought for third with the win by points going to Claudio Calasans.
Claudio Calasans on the back of Tarsis Humphreys as they fight for third place of black belt open weight / Photo by Erin Herle
Andre Galvao was cut short in the open weight division after a bout with Tarsis Humphreys. The runner-up of the 2013 Pan black belt open weight division was very distraught over the loss that came by penalty. Both Tarsis and Andre had one advantage but before the six minute match ended, the referee decided that Andre’s passing was not active enough and gave him a stalling penalty, voiding the existing advantage he had earned earlier in the match. This caused a 1-0 in advantage lead by Tarsis Humphreys over Andre Galvao creating a commotion by Galvao who asked for witnesses to support him in his objection. Unfortunately, the decision was final and Galvao was no longer in the running for double gold. He won the -88kg black belt adult division the previous day.
Gabi Garcia passing the guard and attempting a submission on Beatriz Mesquita / Photo by Erin Herle
Gabrielle Garcia counts her fourth year of winning at the Abu Dhabi WPJJC, winning her sixth gold medal today. She met Beatriz Mesquita in the final, just like at Pan Ams this year and again won her over by points. Beatriz Mesquita made her way to the final by beating Luanna Alzuguir for the second time in this tournament as she also defeated her in the division the day before. Gabi Garcia submitted Mackenzie Dern in the semi-finals repeating the same feat as she did at the Pan Ams this year as well. The third place was left for Mackenzie and Luanna to battle it out, where Luanna passed Mackenzie’s guard to secure enough points for a bronze medal.
The final black belt adult male open weight match can be seen below between two hungry athletes. Rodolfo Vieira took hold of the match in the first minute however Buchecha came back full force. Both fought until the very end getting into many different positions along the way, even 50/50 but always engaging in progressive action. See how the match between these two current champions below and let us know what you think:
