Big pro grappling events, the return of world champions, and much, much more — all in your essential weekend recap.

Fight To Win promoter hits twister in first match as black belt

Seth Daniels is a man of many talents. As the driving force behind professional grappling event Fight To Win, he’s the matchmaker, ring announcer and even sometimes competitor! 

Daniels got his black belt at the end of last year, and on Friday night he hit a beautiful twister submission, tapping out opponent Josh Turner in around a minute at F2W Pro 60 in Reno, Nevada. 

Fight To Win showcases first all-para jiu-jitsu match

The crowd went wild Friday for Fight To Win’s first all-para jiu-jitsu match. 

Back on Jan. 12, Tyler Brey became the first disabled athlete to take to the F2W stage, competing against an able-bodied opponent at the promotion's Sacramento show. 

What made this match in Reno different was that both Shannon Kitchen and David Tallent are disabled.

Photo: Mike Calimbas

It was another step in the show’s plans to feature athletes of all backgrounds. 

“I want to give everyone the opportunity to showcase their skills and encourage others with disabilities to get into the sport,” Daniels said. 

Kitchen won the match via decision.

IBJJF Los Angeles International Open: Key Results 

Just a week after the mammoth European Championships, the IBJJF was back with an event in the jiu-jitsu hotbed of Los Angeles. 

Notable results include the Ecuadorian duo Johnny Tama and "Sinistro" Iturralde closing out the lightweight division. Tama won his semifinal match via kneebar, see a clip below: 

Two-time world champion Gabriel Arges returned and did what he does best. The Gracie Barra black belt has been busy putting the finishing touches on opening his own gym, which will be called GB Thousand Oaks.

Check out Arges in action in the semifinal of the medium-heavy division and watch how he easily defends the typical modern game of inversions and berimbolo attacks. 

Other results: 

• Gustavo Batista of NS Brotherhood took double gold, winning both the heavy and absolute divisions. He missed out on Europeans due to only getting his black belt creds through late in 2017 and not having enough qualifying points. The double gold he got in LA means he’ll definitely be able to compete at Pans, should he desire. 

• With two submissions, Tanner Rice won the super-heavyweight division. 

• Lucas Pinheiro took gold in the light featherweight division. 

UAEJJF hosts five events in five countries on same weekend

As the 2018 Abu Dhabi World Pro approaches (it's scheduled for April 24-28), the qualifying events are coming thick and fast. Competitors wishing to get those all-important ranking points have a few months left to do so, and there are plenty of opportunities to compete. 

On the same weekend, the UAEJJF hosted events in Florida (U.S. National Pro); Melbourne, Australia (Australia National Pro); Guarapari, Brazil (Brazil National Pro); Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia (Asia Continental Pro); and Fujairah, UAE (International Pro). 

Notable results: 

• Igor Silva swooped gold in Brazil and now sits at the top of the UAEJJF ranking (,1360 points) and is 340 points ahead of Adam Wardzinski in second place. 

• Jon Satava of Alliance-Marcelo Garcia defeated Diogo Araujo in Florida to take the 77kg gold. Satava won 2-0. 

• Lachlan Giles used his hometown advantage to good effect and earned gold in the 85kg division and also the absolute, beating 110kg division champion Ben Hodgkinson 7-4 in the open class final.

2017 world champ out until further notice

Claudia do Val had shoulder surgery last weekend, putting the reigning IBJJF world medium-heavyweight champion out of action until further notice. The 2018 European champ will probably be out until Worlds.

Erberth taps out in strange circumstances, third loss in a row 

It’s not been a good couple of weeks for Erberth Santos, who mysteriously tapped out to Adam Wardzinski at ACB 10 in Sao Paulo on Friday. 

Mounted by the Polish black belt, Santos tapped with no danger of a submission. Speculation raged that maybe he was injured, something Santos hinted at in a post-match video posted to his social media in which he said he “felt something” in his body during the match and will now take some time off to look after himself. 

That's the third match in a row that Santos has lost by submission and the second in the space of a week, as he submitted to Tommy Langaker at Europeans just seven days prior. 

Ruotolo bros invented a new move for Kids Pans

The twin grapplers from the Atos team are training hard for the upcoming IBJJF Pan Kids (Feb. 18), and they posted a video which shows a new guard pass they have invented. Maybe we’ll see them use it in action next month — the twins are heavy favorites to win their divisions. 

Dillon Danis meets Salt Bae

OK, it doesn’t have much to do with jiu-jitsu, but still…  how cool is that?