By Mike Calimbas (BJJ Event Photographer)
Top Competitors Show Up In San Antonio For Matshark’s Premier Competition of the Year
SAN ANTONIO, TX, July 14, 2013 – It was a hot and humid day inside the Woodlawn Gym in San Antonio as some of the top BJJ players from all around Texas showed up to compete in Matshark’s iteration of the Texas State Championship.
Roughly 300 competitors showed up altogether to compete at the Matshark TX State Championship Pro this past weekend.
Promoter Rafael Perez had built this one up as his organization’s top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament of the year and incentivized some serious competition with prize money across a variety of skill levels – including the absolute divisions for all ranks for both teens and adults. The event also featured several superfight divisions with even more money on the line for select male, female, and teen competitors.
The superfight action started right off the bat with the teens taking center stage. Making the finals were Justin Rebolloso (Alvarez BJJ) and Michael Basaldu (Team Ferreira) in the lightweight bracket and Andy Cordova (GB Texas) and Mark Lozano (Ohana). The competition was fierce throughout the entire bracket in both divisions but in the end, the IBJJF-credentialed twosome of Rebolloso and Cordova proved their rightful claim as the two best teens in Texas at their weight with yet another win in this tournament.
Next up was the female GI superfight division. Lots of great action in this division as well with plenty of close matches involved. A pivotal one featured Gracie Humaita’s Tessa Simpson taking on Lana Hunter of Soul Fighters in what amounted to a BJJ chess match won by Simpson, who also won the whole thing. Another highlight came when Sarah Michelle Boyd (Genesis) managed to pick up a win by flying triangle choke over Gabriella Mueller (Gacho).
As for the men’s GI brackets, they were plentiful with money in the 140, 155, 185, anf 219 divisions. The winners included Daniel Pinheiro, Thiago Macedo, Carlos Diego Ferreira, and Robert Yamashita respectively in all four of those classes. There were tons of great matches coming out of this qaudron of divisions as well, and in actually too many to go through and dissect. We’ll actually do you one better and just show you most if not ALL of these matches in HD video quality.
Check out a ton of action from the 2013 Matshark TX State Championship Pro below or directly on our YouTube Channel.
Also don’t forget to order all your Matshark TX State Championship Pro high-quality event photos from mikecalimbas.com.
Matshark TX State Championship Pro 2013 – Event Slideshow
Matshark TX State Championship Pro 2013 – Select Match Videos
