Weekend Recap: Featherweight Cole Franson Wins Absolute
Weekend Recap: Featherweight Cole Franson Wins Absolute
A featherweight comes out on top in a division of big guys in Seattle, an American wins her first black belt gold in Brazil, and Erberth claims to be back.
A featherweight comes out on top in a division of big guys in Seattle, an American wins her first black belt gold in Brazil, and Erberth claims to be back.
Franson Wins Absolute Gold at IBJJF Seattle Open
Featherweight Cole Franson wins absolute division which included a win over silver medalist Wellington Peroto who is a heavyweight. Michael Liera Jr and James Puopolo both took bronze. Franson’s path to victory included a win over super-heavyweight Puopolo in the semifinal. Franson is a recently-promoted black belt who took gold at Pans earlier this year.
WATCH: Cole Franson in action from earlier this year at the 2018 Pan
Swanson Claims Black Belt Gold in Brazil
Jessica Swanson of Soul Fighters got her black belt on the podium at Worlds after winning the brown belt middleweight division. Swanson appears settled into her new belt rank– she competed at the IBJJF Vitoria Open in Brazil this weekend and beat Bianca Basilio, one of the best-known and most active competitors on the circuit.
Swanson had already competed as a black belt a few weekends ago at the Sao Paulo BJJ Pro and took gold in her weight and silver in the absolute. A strong start from the young American.
WATCH: Jessica Swanson vs Glaucia Braga, 2017 Gracie Pro
Purple belt Atos Killers Clean Up in Seattle
More news from the IBJJF Seattle Open: the Atos crew won six out of seven possible gold medals at purple belt, taking the feather, light, middle, medium-heavy, heavy and the absolute divisions, with only the lightweight champ not coming from Art of Jiu-Jitsu in Costa Mesa, CA.
Best in Japan
The All-Japan Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship is one of the most notable tournaments of the year for local grapplers. Here are the notable results:
• Tomoyuki Hashimoto predictably picked up gold in the light feather division. We believe Hashimoto to be the pound-for-pound #1 Japanese black belt right now.
• Hideki Sekine, lovably nicknamed Shrek, took both ultra-heavyweight and absolute gold. It's a shame he couldn't make the -110kg division at the recent Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Tokyo, he would have been a solid addition to an otherwise sparse division.
• Frenchman Thomas Mietz continues to impress with a god medal at middleweight. Rumors are that the Carpe Diem instructor will be relocating overseas as part of their ongoing expansion plans to open a new location, although details are TBD.
• Tokyo-based team Carpe Diem took first place in the team standings. For a look inside the growing team's Hiroo location– one of three in the city of Tokyo– watch the vlogs from our recent visit to the city.
Watch Tomoyuki Hashimoto vs Takuto Kako in the final of the All-Japan
Erberth Is Back... Or Is He?
The IBJJF Vitoria Open saw Erberth Santos back in action. Santos took silver at super-heavyweight losing to Vitor Toledo in the final. He later returned for the absolute division, beating Admilson Gobi Jr in the semifinal via points to face man-mountain Otavio Nalati in the final.
Santos wasted no time in throwing the big man to the mat and securing a submission, jumping to his feet and screaming "I'm back!" when Nalati tapped. Let's wait and see about that, as reports are that Erberth still lacks access to consistent training that will keep him at the upper levels of the sport.