On October 9, 2010 I participated in the Revolution BC BJJ Championships. It's an open tournament that goes by Belt Ranking. Since I'm still a white belt I competed in the last division at Middleweight (165-177lbs). I had to really watch my food and water intake for this. I'm used to Muay Thai fights where you weigh-in the day before and then can eat and drink as much as you can to put the weight back on. In BJJ though, you weigh in right before you compete, so you have to really be on the ball or you face Disqualification.
This was even more pertinent for me, because I was JUST on 177. At any time your opponent can ask you to be weighed, and if you're over, you're out. This sucked because the schedule had us competing from 12:-1:30. It was 3:00 before I started and 4:45 before I was done, so I could barely eat or drink any water the whole day. Not exactly Ideal when you're going really hard for 5 minute rounds.
The Goal is to beat your opponent by:
Submission: - Arm locks, Shoulder locks, or Chokes.
or....
Points:
Takedown - 2 points
Sweep or reversal - 2 points
Guard pass - 3 points
Knee-ride - 2 points/3points
Mount - 4 points
Back control - 4 points
First Match- Win. 6-0
This was a full 5 minute match against a 4 stripe White Belt (highest before going to Blue Belt). We had a good roll and some back and forth stuff, but he never scored any points, though he may have gotten an advantage. I passed his guard and got side control twice, so I won the match 6-0. I'll let the VIDEO tell the rest.
Second Match- Win: 9-0.
After waiting about an Hour and Half (which is ridiculous, my buddy had three matches between my first and second) I finally got called up for my second match.
This was against a 1 or 2 stripe White belt, so I really should have submitted him. I came close a couple of times, and had an armbar from mount set up, but I didn't want to lose my position, so I played it safe. I really need to be more aggressive and go after the subs. It's a more definitive win and will use up less energy (if succesful), something that would have really helped me later this day.
Anywho, I got a takedown by going around the guy (almost taking his back). Later, I passed guard and got Mount so I ended up with 9 point. At one point he attacked my back but didn't get his hooks in, so they gave him an advantage, which only means if we tied he would have gotten the nod, but since he didn't score at all, it didn't matter.
Third Match - Loss via Armbar.
So after waiting 90 minutes for my second match, I waited about a whole 5 minutes (maybe a bit more) for my third. I was still pretty tired and my arms were sore from over gripping when I got called on the mats. My opponent was looking pretty fresh, but I have no idea how long he had to rest since his last match. We locked up and I shot for a double to his right. I did it in my last match and almost got to the guys back. Not with this dude though - he was very strong in the clinch and started to sink a guillotine choke on me. I lifted him up a bit and crossed my body to the opposite side of the choke as we hit the mats. I'm not sure if I got point for this or not, as it wasn't quite a takedown, and wasn't quite a guard pass. I was in side control though and safe from the choke. I'm honestly not sure what happnened after that. There was a scramble, he ended up in mount and I bucked to get him off. He ended up going for my back, so I turned into him, trying to get to a neutral position. While doing so he grabbed my arm and I defended it for a few seconds. He got his leg across my face, flipped me over and tapped me with a prone armbar. Basically that means I was fucked and I was NOT getting out of it.
This dude was REALLY solid and ended up winning the Gold, so all things considered I'm not too disappointed.
I'd like to say that my injuries or the weight cutting or the lack of rest between matches is why I lost, and those were contributing factors, but in all honesty that dude was just plain better than me.
I asked the hosts if there were anymore matches for me, and they said no. Normally if you do 3 matches you at least get silver (or Gold if you win all of them) but since my division had so many people, that was that.
I went back to the dressing room, changed, drank a ton of water and relaxed for a bit. When I left the change room I hear my name being called to fight again! I went up to the mats as said "I just asked, you said I had no more matches!" He replied "well, you can take the Bronze right now, or if you want, you can do another fight and you'll still just get the Bronze." I was hemming and hawing if I should get back in there, but the host (and other competitors) said "Just take the Bronze dude. It's a smart tactic!" which got a good laugh from the crowd. So yeah, I ended up with a Bronze after all!
The Medals don't really matter THAT much. My record is still the same: 2-1. My buddy also went 2-1 and got Silver. He just had less dudes to fight. Another guy I know went 1-1, and got Silver. Same deal- less people in his division. Yet another buddy lost his first match, but he lost to the Gold medal winner. So the luck of the draw and the depth of your division are just as much of a deciding factor as your performance when it comes to getting a Medal. That's the way Tourney's go, I guess.
Good experience. Now it's time to heal up and get ready for the next one!
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