Tough Day at NAGA Florida Grappling Championship

Roberto Torralbas and students headed over to Ft. Lauderdale for the NAGA tournament. Knowing the level of competition down in FL, it was gonna be a fun day!

Roberto’s first match in the No-Gi was against Edson Diniz. Edson is perhaps best-known for his match against BJ Penn in the finals of the Black Belt division in 2002. Roberto fought tough in there with the Brazilian, losing only 6-2.

The Gi division wouldn’t be any easier. This time it was Brown Belts, mostly from Pablo Popovitch’s team (currently the largest in the area). Roberto defeated his Brown belt opponent, 5-0; throwing him and then tight-passing him from the top of half-guard. The next bout would be against Wagner Rocha, who had defeated Roberto a few weeks ago. This match would be just as close as the first with Roberto getting to some good positions but unable to capitalize. It ended 2-0 again.

Roberto Struggles to Pass Rocha's Guard

It’s very important to evaluate the matches in context. For Roberto to go in there and be battling with far more experienced competitors shows great promise for the future, despite the current results.

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