The event was highlighted by a men’s brown belt no gi superfight between Gold Team and No-GI BJJ’s Victor Pozas and BJJ Revolution’s Ben Malberg.
The two traded sweeps for the duration of the ten minute regulation period. After some discussion over whether to award the match by referee judgement or not, Elbert Hebron and the two competitors decided on overtime instead. Within the three minutes of the extra period, Victor Pozas was able to capitalize on an opportunity to sink a mounted guillotine to win the day’s main event.
Also performing well on the day in the advanced division was Evan “Oz” Gideon, a newcomer to the Texas competition scene and a purple belt under Lloyd Irvin. Evan was a 2010 Blue Belt Medium Heavy world champion and just recently moved to Galveston where he’s opened up Lone Star BJJ. In Saturday’s tournament, Evan only had two matches that I saw but was victorious over both Reed Shelger and Joel McClain – even after running off the man to go puke in his second go-around.
Another highlight was seeing Jorge “Macaco” Patino on the mats. One day after winning the Legacy Fighting Championship 170 title in a hard-fought contest over UFC Vet Pete Spratt, the Gold Team leader was right back on the scene first thing in the morning to be the primary coach for all his guys, including superfight competitor Victor Pozas. As if that wasn’t enough, Macaco would also step on the mats to help referee and get the action going a little faster. He probably didn’t have to but Patino stayed all day, taking pictures with fans in between reffing and coaching his team.
I asked him why he was doing all that.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” he said of his post-fight experience. “I just laid in belt holding my belt. This is my first title and I’m very happy. Now I come here and coach Victor, coach all the guys… Today is for them. Last night they come and support me and today is their day. I come here, coach, help out, then afterwards we’ll celebrate as a team. Tonight maybe I’ll watch the fight since my one of the guys from my team, Craig, he recorded it. Then I’ll sleep.”
Looking forward, it should be an exciting future ahead for Macaco as he’s got a title to defend along with other big competitions.
It was announced live at the event by promoter Elbert Hebron (as first reported in the August edition of our Texas Grappling Digest) that a BJJ Superfight is upcoming between Macaco and none-other than Dallas area “Wrecking Ball” Marcus Hicks at Elbert’s upcoming ‘Battle of H-Town’ BJJ event on October 29th.
Who do you think will win that one? Go to our Facebook Page and answer the poll and let us know!
We’ll post full results of the 2011 Martial Arts Mania Fall Classic when we get them. Until then, enjoy the Photo Gallery of the Martial Arts Fall Classic exclusively on our Facebook Page.
Click on the appropriate photo below to go directly to the album for those divisions.
Men’s GI Divisions
Men’s NO GI Divisions
Female Divisions
Kids and Teens Divisions
Shots from the Crowd
Match of the Day – Evan Gideon versus Reed Shelger
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