2017’s Biggest BJJ Superfight on the way
The world wide growth of BJJ has been nothing short of phenomenal over the past 10 years and the recent shift towards professional event with athletes actually being paid a decent sum for their grappling efforts is a great change.
Heading the pack were Metamoris and ebi but now with even more events the idea of professional grappling has erally taken hold and doesnt appear to be going anywhere soon. Last on the list to follow suit was the IBJJF but the have jumped in the pool head first in a HUGE way with a tourney the likes of which rarely seen.
Galvao, Roger, Buchecha plus god knows who else this gonna be super fight after super figjht under IBJJF rules!! ” i know many claim those to be boring non submission friendly rule set but given its the forte for most of the BJJ world beaters this is going to make for great match ups and quite possibly the #1 matchup most hardcore GI Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fanatics are longing to see
Roger Gracie vs Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida #1
I had the pleasure of working closely with Buchecha for an entire fight camp in prep for ufc 120 and this guy was obsessed with Roger!! Hearing i lived in Canada he put the pieces together and assumed i may have worked with roger in montreal at tristar (i hadn’t and actually never been on the mats with Roger) but he was super hungry to face the champ it was really impressive.
A few years later the match went down at Metamoris
Buchecha has taken the crown as top heavyweight gi competitor with roger having moved on to MMA the squared off in Metamoris submission only rules and made for a GREAT match with back and forth action and the closest ive ever seen roger to being submitted
But Rogers famous defense came through 1 more time as he pulled out of really smooth back attack to Arm-
bar thus making the match a draw.
With the IBJJF rules this time there will be a clear winner and with both guys actively prepping for the event i anticipate an amazing match-up and stiff competition for the rest of the event on the other sides of the brackets
Going to be a great event and its nice to see the IBJJF tackling the professional Jiu-Jitsu scene and giving those competitors a fair venue to work within without having to go too far out of their skill set.