JT Torres Submitted World Champion Lucas Lepri in Upset Quarterfinal Victory!

Congratulations to JT “Spiderman” Torres on his 2nd place finish at the 2010 Brazilian Nationals.  The Brazilian Nationals is one of the toughest BJJ competitions in the World and the list of non-Brazilians to have medaled at the Black Belt level can be counted on one hand.  JT tore through his side of the bracket, submitting 3 opponents with chokes from the back and 1 with a toe-hold.  In the finals, he lost 2-2 (3-1) to Atos’ Gilbert Burns AKA “Durinho”.

With this strong performance and the victory over Augusto Mendes, previous World Silver Medalist, at the NY Open a few weeks ago, JT puts himself in solid contention for a Black Belt World Championship.

JT was accompanied in Brazil with two other teammates – Mike Fowler and Brown Belt, Jim Harbison.  Mike submitted his first opponent and won 6-0 in the Sweet 16 rd, before losing 3-0 in the quarterfinals.  Jim Harbison also did well, winning 3 before losing on points.  These guys are all on the mats training hard everyday and its great to see that dedication pay off.

Lloyd Irvin Black Belt, Mike Fowler gave a seminar at Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu today.  Mike is one of America’s best competing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts and has been one of mainstays for the team since he started training.  Mike covered his favorite guard positions including 3 variations of the bump sweep and lots of counters to counters to his “unstoppable sweep”.

The seminar was very well-organized with basic movements and concepts blending into more complex movements and concepts.   For example, Fowler would teach a simple mount escape at the start of the seminar and then by the end of the seminar, the simple mount escape motion would be used to finish a Brabo choke from the bottom of the half-guard.  Another great seminar at Crazy 88!

PS – We will be adding some techniques from the seminar to our facebook fanpage, so if you are not already a fan, please register!

Mike Fowler watches and corrects Evan's mount techniques

Lloyd Irvin Black Belt, Mike Fowler will be holding a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Seminar this Saturday at Crazy 88 BJJ. Mike is a Black Belt PanAm Medalist (silver) as well as a Final Four rounder at the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships. He is still super active on the competition scene, just coming off a strong showing at the European Open where he lost a close match to Open Division champion, Guto Campos on points (I think Lloyd will be uploading the full match to his facebook page soon so make sure you are a fan).  He has victories over some of the best grapplers in the world and has fought EVERYONE! 

At this seminar, you will benefit from his immense competition experience as well as get insights into his intense training regimen that allowed him to earn his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt in under 4 years.  He will be covering  a lot of his new attacks, including some new followup attacks to his half-guard and unstoppable sweep.  If you are interested in the seminar, make sure you reserve a spot with the front desk. 

PS – If you haven’t already, add Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as fanpage on your facebook.  We post the latest events to the facebook because of the ease of the interface!

The mats were hot at Crazy 88 BJJ as Lloyd Irvin brought his Camp Springs team up to the Baltimore area.  We had Mike Easton, Lloyd Irvin, and Mike Fowler representing the Black Belts and some of the Lloyd’s up-and-comers such as DJ Jackson and Frank “the Crank” Camacho.  For the ladies, Nyjah Easton and Tracey Goodell were training hard and helping out.  In the back room, we had JC Cuffee and Timothy Woods, drilling, getting ready for their MMA fights on Feb 20th in Tennessee.  We also had Kenny “Evolve” Brown visiting again.  Overall, a great day of hard training.

Remember, Mike Fowler New Attacks seminar next Saturday at 1 PM!  Make sure you pre-register with the front office!!!

Team Lloyd Irvin United!

Another great night of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training at Crazy 88 BJJ.   Tonight we had Mike Fowler bring up a killer squad from Lloyd Irvin HQ in Camp Springs, MD.  The group consisted of Tracey Goodell, Willie Leonard, DJ Jackson, and Frank Camacho.  Tracey is one of Team Lloyd Irvin up-and-coming female stars.  Willie took Gold at the 2009 World Championships.  DJ is the World and PanAm No-Gi champ and of course, Frank Camacho is one of Team Lloyd Irvin’s top MMA prospects, coming off a dominating victory in his last MMA fight.  Needless to say – the mats were on fire!

If you missed the Advanced class tonight, you missed out BIG TIME.  If you are not training with us yet and want to get serious with your BJJ, MMA, or Muay Thai training, give us a call now (443) 283-1450.