US Nationals Day 1 – Roberto Wins GOLD!

Crazy 88 was back in Los Angeles for another weekend of Jiu-Jitsu competition. This time it was the 2-day US Nationals run by the IBJJF. A total of 4 Team Lloyd Irvin competitors went out there with a shot at getting four medals apiece (Gi Weight, Gi Open, No-Gi Weight, and No-Gi Open).

Michael Florey was the first Team Lloyd Irvin competitor up and he did not dissapoint.  After passing his first opponent’s guard, Michael used an armbar to get the tap.  In the semifinals, he faced Dan Schon who was coming off a Gold medal at the Worlds this summer.  Michael went to sleep rather than tap to a clock choke and ended up with a Bronze medal.

In the Blue Belt Open, Michael submitted his 1st opponent again with an armlock but lost 2-0 in the next round.

Roberto Torralbas jumped up to Medium Heavy for this tournament.  He dispatched the Purple Belt in the quarterfinals with a choke and then passed Chris Engle (Team Mica) to make the finals.  The Championship match was very even with Roberto trying to pass his lanky opponent’s guard.  Despite his hard work, the scored ended up being 0-0 with zero advantages.  The officials awarded the Gold medal to Roberto thanks to his aggression!  Great job!

Roberto continues his win streak into the Open division, with a 5-0 victory.  In the following round, Roberto again got up 5-0 and then used a bread cutter to get the tap.  In the Final Four, two sweep points courtesy of James Puopolo (NW JJ Academy) separated our Cuban friend from a finals berth but he did get himself another piece of hardware!

Fred Ramie did not look like his normal self today.  Fred squeeked out a narrow 2-0 victory in the quarterfinals over a grappler from Roger Machado’s team.  In the medal round, he faced Fadi Khouri who outpointed him to enter the Finals.

Brad Court, one of our Black Belts, defeated Sam Joseph (Hollywood BJJ) in the first round, and then grappled Fredson Paixao.  Fredson is a multiple-time Black Belt world champion and Brad gave him all he could handle.  The final score was 7-6 in Paixao’s favor but Brad got everyone’s respect by taking the veteran to the wire.

Roberto Wins Gold at Medium Heavy

Team Lloyd Irvin - We Buy a Lot of Grey Shirts

Leave a reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

CAPTCHA Code *