April 25, 2011 – After a full weekend of shooting and processing photos, along with editing hours upon hours of match video from this past Saturday’s 2011 Texas State Championships, I can safely say that the level of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling competition here in Texas is the strongest its ever been.
Teams came out in droves from all around the state, with some driving in from the DFW metroplex, Corpus Christie, the Rio Grande Valley, and beyond to vie for a chance to call themselves a “state champion.”
All in all, over 730 grapplers graced the mats at the Legends Sports Complex for a day of fierce non-stop rolling from about 8:45am until the last match concluded at about 6:30pm.
Based on feedback I’ve gotten from competitors, the overall consensus has been positive, with a feeling of amazement at the number of high-level players that came out to compete for state bragging rights, and of course a cash prize for the absolute brackets. Many of the competitors on hand came with lengthy resumes and many a medal on the world stage amongst them, a fact that did not go unrecognized by the watchful crowd who enjoyed the action.
Looking back at the event, perhaps the main opportunity for growth based on immediate feedback regarded the event was the area of refereeing, which left a bad taste in more than a few peoples’ mouths.
Other than that, the event ran at a brisk pace with non-stop action on twelve mats, quite the feat considering the amount of registered competitors (700+) along with the added wrench of 70+ adults and 40+ kids/teens missing weight and having to be re-bracketed on the spot. Kudos to Seth Daniels for finding a quiet corner to hide in to pull those brackets together on the spot while Brett Boyce and his team coordinated the action on the mats to keep the day flowing smoothly.
Highlights of the Day
Taking home $500 each in prize money was Carlos Diego Ferreira of Arsenal BJJ along with Daniel “Jacare” Almeida of Octagon BJJ / Nova Uniao. These two respectively won the GI and No-Gi Absolute, winning over a field littered with some VERY impressive opponents, including Jorge “Macaco” Patino (Gi) and Jason Sampson (No Gi) in the finals.
With this win, Ferreira become the first person to beat Jorge “Macaco” Patino in grappling competition here in Texas, an impressive feat considering the Gold Team Leader was not only previously unbeaten, but also has not had a single point scored on him before Saturday’s competition.
Besides those, there were too many impressive performances to name so I’ll just let the action speak for itself and update this post with team/individual results when those are released.
Video Footage
Special thanks to Lucho Silva, Colton Khoury, and Conor Hogan for helping record all these great matches at the tourney!
Video of these final bouts, along with 70+ other advanced matches are all posted on my Texas Grappling Channel on YouTube. Subscribe today!
Here are a few to get you started…
Tony Tipton vs. Jason Soliz – No Gi – here- Levi Forrest vs. Julian Vega – here
- Tony Tipton vs. Jason Soliz – Gi – here
- Julian Vega vs. Albert Hughes – here
- Hector Munoz vs. Daniel Pineda – here
- Macaco vs. Albert Hughes – here
- Carlos Diego Ferreira vs. Macaco – here
- Jeremy Mahon vs. Angel Huerta – here
- Renan Chavez vs. Robert Yamashita – here
Event Photos
For easy tagging, I’ve posted the following divisions below to Facebook. Also check out this TXMMA Slideshow for a selection of some of the best from the day!
- Absolute Divisions – here
- Men’s GI Divisions – here
- Men’s No-Gi Divisions – here
- Women’s Divisions – here
- Kids and Teens Divisions – here
- Coaches and Crowd Shots – here
Click this picture above to see a slideshow of the 2011 Texas State Championships!
