Tournament of Champions 13 – Recap and Highlights

By TXMMA Staff | Photos: Mike Calimbas Photography

First tournament of the year in Houston highlighted in this TXMMA tournament recap

HOUSTON, TX, January 27, 2014 –The first tournament of our 2014 TXMMA tournament season was held on January 18th in Houston with Fight to Win and World Grappling Circuit putting on Tournament of Champions 13 at the Competitive Edge Sports Complex in Spring, TX. With 550 competitors showing up for the first tournament of the year along with some other new F2W/WGC wrinkles like a challenge mat and an absolute champions division (with prize money), this proved to be quite the exciting affair to start off the year.

TOC 13 – Team Results

Starting off with team results, Vinicius Magalhaes’ Gracie Barra contingent won the day with a first place finish followed up by Solis Martial Arts led by Alvis Solis in 2^nd and Travis Tooke’s Team Tooke squad placing 3^rd. Also present at the tournament were BJJ Revolution, Champions Factory and Paragon along with about 20 more teams who sent representative to compete.

TOC 13 – Individual Competitor Highlights

As we mentioned in the beginning, one of the neat new wrinkles for Tournament of Champions 13 was the introduction of the ‘champions division’ absolute bracket. This was basically an opportunity for anybody who’s ever won an open division for F2W/WGC in the past to enter and compete for the chance to win prize money, this time with $500 going to the winner.

A good amount of names showed up to partake in the division including black belts Raul Jimenez, Pablo Silva, Chris Westfall, Jarrod Clontz and more. In the end it was Misael Miranda (Alpha and Omega) winning the division by points over Silva (GB Texas) in the finals.

Another revelation in this division and perhaps the highlight of the tournament was BJJ Revolution’s Matthew Kim. Fresh out of the juvenile ranks and competing against all these experienced opponents as a blue belt, Kim was able to defy the odds and earn third place. This included wins over two capable brown belts in Jared Chaffee and Frederico Silva. With his performance here at TOC 13, Kim is definitely putting TX BJJ on notice as one to watch for the rest of the year.

Some other competitors we noticed doing well at this tourney included blue belt Chad Lutu who won his weight and absolute along with Fight to Win’s own Seth Daniels who looked much improved in putting on a sweep clinic in his division. Also winning were Saul Flores, Andy Cordova, Cody Hoffstatter, Roberto Jimenez and many others.

Check out complete tournament results from TOC 13 here and scroll on for about 4 hours of video and pics from Tournament of Champions 13.

Tournament of Champions 13 – Event Photos

Galleries on our TXMMA Facebook page can be found via the links below. You can also see the complete high-resolution tournament photo gallery for TOC 13 available for prints and downloads at www.mikecalimbas.com.

Men’s Gi | Men’s No Gi | Female Division | Kids and Teens | Coaches and Crowd Shots

Tournament of Champions 13 – Select Match Videos

Enjoy 60+ match videos encompassing over 4 hours of footage from this tournament. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more from BJJ tournaments in Texas and beyond!