Grappling Report: Oliveira emerges victorious at EUG 3
A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira managed to take home the $10,000 grand prize at Evolve Ur Game 3 by defeating three elite grapplers in his weightclass. The first round saw him defeat Alika Villiatora by racking up a significant point-margin while Gianni Grippo managed to defeat the B-Team’s Damien Anderson. The semi-final then saw a much closer contest between Oliveira and Gabriel Sousa, one that he won by judge’s decision.
In the other semi-final, Grippo continued his dominance by putting up over a dozen points against Liam Hill. When Grippo and Oliveira met in the final match, neither man could really get his game going. Oliveira landed an early takedown and tried to pass guard for a prolonged period until Grippo landed a sweep to tie the score. In the end, Oliveira won the judge’s decision thanks to maintaining top position for the majority of the match.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Kayla Harrison claims second consecutive PFL Lightweight championship
After earning two Olympic gold medals in Judo, Kayla Harrison has now earned two PFL women’s Lightweight season championships to go along with them. She put on a dominant display against fellow finalist Taylor Guardado and never really looked in trouble on her way to a second-round finish by armbar. This win not only took her professional record to 12-0 with ten finishes but also earned her another million-dollar prize as well.
She wasn’t the only person to earn a second PFL championship either as Ray Cooper III knocked out Magomed Magomedkerimov in the third-round of the welterweight final shortly before. Perhaps the most interesting story of the night came in a non-title fight however as multiple-time boxing world champion Claressa Shields lost her second professional MMA fight, dropping a decision to Abigail Montes.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Danielle Kelly puts in solid performance at Fury Pro Grappling 2
Despite only having put on one show before, Fury Pro Grappling is really hitting their stride already. In the promotion’s second event, they managed to book top-ranked UFC bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili against Fight 2 Win veteran Kevin Dantzler as the main event. Dantlzer put on a convincing display and managed to outwork Dvalishvili to a unanimous decision win in the end.
Shortly before that, Danielle Kelly was a dominant force against Cathryn Millares and got to show off her much-improved wrestling talent on the way to a decision victory. In the post-match interview, the Karel ‘Silver Fox’ Pravec black belt reaffirmed her desire to transition to MMA and work her way up the Strawweight rankings. There was some more good news as well, as she also stated that she wouldn’t stop competing in Jiu-Jitsu either.
Full results for the event can be found here.
UFC 267 sees a number of high-level submission finishes
For the first time in almost a decade, the UFC staged a numbered PPV event outside of the United States and the fighters involved certainly pulled out all of the stops. Khamzat Chimaev made his return to competition after almost retiring due to a nasty COVID infection and utterly demolished Li Jingliang, submitting him with a rear-naked choke in the first round without absorbing a single strike once again.
Not one to be out-done, Islam Makhachev submitted Dan Hooker in even less time by wrenching on a nasty kimura that forced him to scream out loud as he tapped. The biggest surprise came in the main event however, when 42 year old Glover Teixeira showed off beautiful Jiu-Jitsu in taking Jan Blachowicz’s back and sinking in the fight-ending rear-naked choke that earned him the UFC Light-heavyweight world championship.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Quick Hits
- Three-time NCAA champion Bo Nickal has just been promoted to BJJ blue belt ahead of his second amateur MMA fight.
- The Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championships have just announced that a total of $800,000 in prize money is available for medalists at the event.
- UFC and Bellator veteran Ben Saunders has just announced his intention to open a new branch of 10th Planet in Orlando, Florida.
- Former UFC title-contender Kevin Lee will be competing in a grappling match at Submission Underground 28 against Bellator fighter Chris Lencioni.