4 Black Belt Women's Dream Matches We Want from Pans 2019
4 Black Belt Women's Dream Matches We Want from Pans 2019
The female black belt categories promise to contain some of the best action from the 2019 Pan Championships.
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Though the divisions are small (the average bracket size is less than 5 competitors), the female black belt categories promise to contain some of the best action from the 2019 Pan Championships. Make the jump to find out which matchups we're dying to see.
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Talita Alencar vs Gabriela Fechter - Light-Feather
Originally expected to remain out of action until May, previous World and Pan Champion Talita Alencar has thrown her name in the hat for next week's festivities.
The Alliance representative is one of the most talented competitors of her generation; she wields a versatile game that makes use of solid pressure passing and effective use of the lasso spider guard. With that said, her most recent competition appearances have seen Alencar prefer to fight for the takedown and look to play on top, and we expect more of the same next weekend at Pans.
Gabriela Fetcher one of Checkmat’s rising stars and the 2018 brown belt absolute World Champion. Traditionally a featherweight competitor, Gabriela is dropping down a division to try her odds against a different set of athletes after some rough appearances since making the jump to black belt. Gabriela is more of a guard player which may play to Alencar's strengths, but the size difference will pose some interest problems for Alencar
Karen Antunes vs Ffion Davies - Feather
2018 was Karen Antunes year.
Just eight months after becoming a Mother, Antunes stood atop the pans podium. She then repeated the performance two months later at the World Championships, and once again at the 2018 Masters World Championships in Augst of that year.
In short, you could say she’s pretty good at what she does. You could describe Antunes' game as very submission-minded; her passing and ability to excel in the scramble are some of her sharpest weapons.
Karen Antunes vs Bianca Basilio - 2018 Pan Championships
Ffion Davies is a surging black belt out of Cardiff, Wales and black belt under Darragh O’Conail, and despite only received her black belt after the 2018 world championship, she's already developed quite a name for herself at the elite level.
Davies decimated the competition at No-Gi Worlds on her way to gold in her very first major at faxia preta and followed up the performance a few weeks later by taking gold a the 2019 European Championships and the London Grand Slam just last weekend.
A match between these two see's a legend of the sport testing the young blood trying to shakeup the division.
Bianca Basilio vs Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin - Lightweight
Bianca Basilio, an exceptional competitor, hasn't had a competitive success she's used since the beginning of 2019.
Basilio took second place at the European Championships, and third place at the London Grand Slam; while the results are clearly respectable, they are not the norm for someone of Basilio's caliber – meaning this author believes Basilio will enter the Pan Championships with something to prove.
Bianca Basilio vs Emily Tuukkanen - 2018 European Championships
Basilio's standup game is among the very best in jiu-jitsu, big throws are quite common; he closed guard is also one of her strongest weapons and a triangle/ armbar finishes are commonplace.
Enter our dream opponent for Basilio: Amanda 'Tubby' Alequin. A longtime student of the game, Tubby has had a fantastic resurgence on the competition scene in late 2018 early 2019 with exciting matches at Fight 2 Win. A brown belt double gold champ in 2015, Alequin has solid toehold game and is very comfortable in the 50/50 position.
Luiza Monteiro vs Monique Elias – Medium-Heavy
Luiz Monteiro has conquered virtually every possible title in Jiu-Jitsu. More than once.
She's won Worlds, Europeans, Brazilian Nationals, and Pans multiple times, and that only scratches the surface of what' shes accomplished over the years - but there seems to he one athlete who has managed to supersede Monteiro's domination, even if by the narrowest of margins: Monique Elias from Checkmat.
The pair met in 2015 at the Pan championships and saw a calculated match that ended with Elias taking the win on points 6-4. They faced off one more time in 2015 at the Brazilian Nationals, this time Elias took the win by referee's decision. Finally, the pair fought again in the finals of the 2016 World championships: the duo managed to rack up a score of 10-10 with Elias taking the match on advantages and winning her first Word title.
For someone as successful as Monteiro, this is surely a frustrating rivalry, and should this pair of top-level athletes meet up, you know she'll be looking to reverse the momentum in her favor.
Luiza Monteiro vs Monique Elisa - 2016 World Championships
