HOUSTON, TX, April 5, 2012 – According to promoter Elbert Hebron, the latest edition of superfights has been decided for his upcoming Texas International Grappling Festival tournament, scheduled for April 14th at Summer Creek High School. Known for putting together these types of attractions for as long as he’s been promoting, Elbert has put together names like Ryan Hall vs. Justin Rader (2006) way back when and has more recently focused on putting together area instructors as a means to showcase their skills in competition, like he did at his most recent tournament when he paired Jeff Messina with Jorge “Macaco” Patino.
This time around it’s no different as it was recently announced that Team Tooke’s head instructor Travis Tooke will be taking on 4OZ Fight Club and Zion MMA head grappling instructor Renan Chavez in a No-GI match that will serve as the featured attraction of the day at the Texas International Grappling Festival. Both these black belts are known for being multiple-time winners at competitions like NAGA and Grappler’s Quest but have also been steadily developing reputations as premier coaches for MMA fighters as well. In fact, both have UFC fighters under their stead with Travis being the head grappling coach for UFC fighter Andrew Craig and Renan providing the same service to 4OZ Fighter Daniel “Pit” Pineda.
To our knowledge they’ve never rolled against each other in competition before it should be very interesting to see who gets the upper-hand in this matchup of two highly-skilled grappler / coaches.
Also in superfight action in the brown belt division in a GI superfight will be Elite MMA’s Julian Vega taking on Texas Punishment Crew’s (TPC) Clay Copeland. As you may remember, Julian won the 2011 TXMMA award for grappler of the year in the purple belt division and hasn’t stopped since while continuing to shine in the brown belt class. Likewise, Copeland has been tearing up the mats as of late. Both are recently back from the 2012 IBJJF Pans and will be looking for a win in this one to serve as momentum for the rest of the year.If memory serves us correct, Clay and Julian are currently 1-1 against each other in competition.
With the skills of both men serving paramount to anything else, look for this tiebreaker to be yet another highly-competitive affair.
So there you have it folks. Who do you think will win in Houston on April 14th?
We’re discussing this very topic on our TXMMA Facebook Page so hop on over and share your thoughts!