Worlds 2014: Erberth Santos and Monique Elias earn double gold for the brown belts

The final of the female brown belt open weight division. Photo: Erin Herle

The brown belts at the 2014 World Championship finalized their divisions on Saturday, May 31. In the open weight divisions, the Alliance members took home the gold and silver for the females and the two of the males took home the gold and bronze for Team Lloyd Irvin.

Here are the final champions of the weight divisions for each:

Brown belt male

Rooster: Huendel Dinelly Osaki – Ogawa Jiu-Jitsu
Light-feather: Ram Ananda – Alliance
Feather: Marcio Andre – Nova Uniao
Light: Michael Liera Jr. – Atos
Middle: Marcos Silva – Alliance
Medium-heavy: Patrick Gaudio – GFTeam
Heavy: Tim Spriggs – Team Lloyd Irvin
Super-heavy: Erberth Santos – Team Lloyd Irvin
Ultra-heavy: Victor Honorio – GFTeam

In the open weight division, it came down to the semi-final between Tim Spriggs and Felipe Silva. The match went to the 50/50 position and Felipe earned a sweep and the match went to Felipe with 2-0 points. Erberth Santos defeated Michael Liera Jr. on the other side of the bracket in the semi-final. He kneebarred Liera while time was running out. The final between Felipe and Erberth was a points battle with Erberth taking the gold after a 10-8 lead.

In response to his win he says, “I’m very happy because I came here from a leg injury. Thank God I did well since I was just doing cardio for the last two weeks and not training Jiu-Jitsu. I just have to say thank you to the guys at Team Lloyd Irvin; they helped me a lot with training and helped me achieve my dream of becoming open class and weight division world champion.”

Brown belt female

Light-feather: Rikako Yuasa – Paraestra Shinagawa
Feather: Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner – Atos
Light: Angelica Galvao – Atos
Middle: Monique Elias – Alliance
Medium-heavy: Sijara Eubanks – Team Lloyd Irvin
Heavy: Dominyka Obelenyte – Alliance
Super-heavy: Alison Tremblay – BTT

In the open weight division, the two Alliance champions came together for yet another final. Monique Elias under husband Mario Reis in Brazil defeated Alison Tremblay in the semi-final with an armbar submission. On the other side of the bracket Dominyka Obelenyte under Marcelo Garcia defeated her opponent Samella Shohamy Lopes Leite of Riberio Jiu-Jitsu with her version of a mounted gogoplata of sorts. In the final, Monique pulled guard and Dominyka pressured to pass but no points or advantages were awarded to either. The referee decision was given to Monique Elias.

She says there were three things that contributed to what made this accomplishment special: “First thing is that Mario gave me a job to win everything this year and I did it. Another thing is that I hurt my foot two weeks ago and I thought about not fighting but my support from Alliance made me feel better to train and get ready. And the third thing is that I fight against Dominyka all the time and it’s so exciting because I know she’s really tough and good at killing my positions and I never know how it will end. I’m also happy since she’s from Alliance too and that both of us are fighting together.”

Monique Elias promoted to black belt. Photo: Erin Herle

Monique was promoted to black belt on the podium after the open weight division by Mario Reis. Angelica Galvao was awarded her black belt on the podium from husband Andre Galvao after she won her brown belt lightweight division and Galvao also promoted Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner for her gold medal in the featherweight category.