UAEJJ San Antonio World Pro Trials Recap – Results, Photo highlights of the action, plus over 90+ match videos

As the third event of our 2013 TXMMA tournament season, the 2013 UAEJJ San Antonio Trials promised to deliver some exciting action last weekend at the St. Mary’s Athletic Center. The event offered up some exciting incentives for competing athletes – namely prize money as well as a chance to win a UAE travel package to compete in the prestigious Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship scheduled for this coming April. Hence athletes came from far and wide to compete last weekend and we were there at the Bill Greehey Arena to cover all the action.

With several thousand pictures taken and over ten hours of match video recorded, it would be hard to narrow highlight performances of the day but we’ll try as there some dominant ones.

Before we get to that, let’s list out all the obvious ones with the men and women who won the major divisions of the day.

Brown/Black Belt

Heavy Absolute – Bruno Bastos (Nova Uniao) closed out w/ Ricardo Bastos (Nova Uniao)
Light Absolute – Vitor Henrique (GFTeam) over Marcos Tinoco (DDR)
65kg – Gabriel Martins (Gracie Barra) won Cleber Luciano (Cooper MMA)
74kg – Vitor Henrique (GFTeam) over Francisco Iturralde (Alliance)
83kg – Lucas Freitas (Gracie Barra) over Marcus Antelante (Soul Fighters)
92kg – Kaue Damasceno (Nova União) over Rodrigo Pinheiro (Rodrigo Pinheiro)
92kg + – Ricardo Bastos (Nova Uniao) closed with Bruno Bastos (Nova Uniao)

Purple Belt

Heavy Absolute – Jared Dopp (Lovato JJ) over Ryne Sandhagen (Alvarez BJJ)
Light Absolute – Emmanuel Martinez (Atos Jiu-Jitsu) closed with Michael Liera (Atos Jiu-Jitsu)
65kg – Antonio Casarez (Paragon Jiu-Jitsu) over James Chancey (Harlingen Jiu-Jitsu)
74kg – Michael Liera (Atos Jiu-Jitsu) over Frank Marshall (Renzo Gracie)
83kg – Rehan Muttalib (Alliance) over Evan Gideon (GFTeam)
92kg – Daniel Goss (GFTeam) over Nick Schrock (Gracie Humaita)
92kg + – Jared Dopp (Lovato JJ) won Raynald Ray (Rodrigo Pinheiro)

Blue Belt

Heavy Absolute – Jimmy Lugo (Paragon) over Christopher Roberson (Paul Thomas JJ)
Light Absolute – Angelo Barden (Atos JJ) won Eunsoo Kim (BJJ Revolution)
65kg – Jose Aguilar (Elite MMA) over Tyler Shinn (Demian Maia JJ)
74kg – Angelo Barden (Atos JJ) Won Michael Esquivel (Paragon JJ)
83kg – Dennis Sisson (Solis Martial Arts) over Brandon Ruiz (Leonardo Xavier BJJ)
92kg – Chad Hollan (Gracie Barra) over Eddie Perez (New Union)
+92 Kg – Christopher Roberson (Paul Thomas JJ) won Jamil Fakhoury (Gracie Barra)

Female Purple to Black Belt

Up to 63kg – Mackenzie Dern (Gracie Humaita) won Fabiana Borges (Gracie Barra)
+63 Kg – Tammy Griego (Gracie Barra) won Pilar Roper (Peak Performance BJJ)

Female White/Blue Belt

Up to 63kg – Gabriela Muller (Alliance) over Laura Heiman (Paragon JJ)
+63 Kg – Audrey Drew (Guy Mezger’s Combat) beat Petya Petkova (Bruno Bastos BJJ)
Absolute – Audrey Drew (Guy Mezger’s Combat) won Mandi Johnson (Sparta Pit)

The rest of the divisional results from 2013 UAEJJ San Antonio Trials can be found here.

2013 UAEJJ San Antonio Trials Photo Gallery

We’ve posted some albums on social media to like, tag, and share via our TXMMA Facebook Page and also on Mike Calimbas Photography but the ENTIRE gallery for all UAEJJ San Antonio Trial divisions is available for license and print order via mikecalimbas.com.
Here’s a slideshow of some of the action with the men’s divisions below. Check out mikecalimbas.com for the rest.
 

 

UAEJJ San Antonio’s Highlight Performances and Select Match Videos

Like we said before, there were plenty of highlight performances and we captured most of it with our 2013 UAEJJ San Antonio Trial Photos or through recording almost ten hours of high-definition video now posted via our YouTube Channel.

As far as matches that definitely stick out, there were several.

At brown/black belt, Gabriel Martins got some big cheers from the crowd with his big win over veteran Cleber Luciano. Lucas Freitas got the same with his victory over Marcus Antelante while brown belt Kaue Damasceno may have scored the biggest win of his young career over another vet in San Antonio-based Rodrigo Pinheiro.

Likewise on the women’s side, Mackenzie Dern impressed all with her convincing submission victory over Fabiana Borges in the final match while also defeating resident Texans Tessa Simpson and Lora Hallock along the way.

There were also many highlight performances at purple belt but none more dominant than that of Atos rep Michael Liera Jr. who followed up his win in the San Diego World Pro Trials by helping clear the way for teammate (and former Beaumont, TX resident) Emmanuel Martinez to also win his own golden ticket to compete in the UAE. Liera beat some tough guys to get to the final including NYC’s Frank Marshall, Memphis’ Tyler Steppe, and top Texan Matthew Fox amongst others. As for the heavier purples, Jared Dopp of Team Lovato won out there but not before competing in perhaps the most exciting match in the belt division with Rilion Gracie purple belt Pedro Migliano in his semi-final match.

Check out this matches mentioned above and all the rest of the action and 90+ matches by subscribing to the Grappling Channel or just letting the playlist play through below.