Big Ass Update 5.7.08

Back in business! Making fun of white people is always enough to keep me blog-satisfied for a week or so.

Actually, the real reason I was MIA was because I had the Rickson Gracie Cup on Monday. Which went awesomely! Second place awesomely, to be exact – Blue belt, Adult, Middleweight division.

Second Place!

I won my first two matches by submission (triangle choke, natch) against an American and a Brazilian guy, and lost my third by submission (gi choke from the back) to a Brazilian guy who ended up getting his purple belt after he won. Man. I almost caught him with a triangle, too. Just a few inches more and he wouldn’t be a purple. Oh well.

Props go out to my fellow Alive teammate (and All Japan Brown Belt Champion) Akira Hosokawa for moving up to middleweight and making it across the bracket, including a submission win over crowd favorite Max Fernandes, to fight Kron Gracie. He even managed to last a whole minute or two more than Kron’s other opponents. Dang, he’s a beast.

Sadly, all the pictures I took were with my phone camera, so I don’t have a whole lot of good shots, but here’s the rest of them:

Alive Shachou and Amazon waiting for Hosokawa’s match against Kron.

Rickson Gracie (in the window) posing with a Japanese Brazilian family. Awwww.

A bunch of little kids who ended up performing some kind of BJJ kata. Cute, no?

A view from above.

Eduardo Telles, chillin’.

This was a good tournament for multiple reasons. Of course, I did better than I have in the other two tournaments I’ve fought in this year, which is great, and it was nice to show off my triangle in front of all the fellow gym-mates that came to cheer us on. I’ve come a long way – only a year ago, I got basically the same results (two wins, one loss, third place) in the Pan Americans at white belt level – and I think this tournament, as well as the preparation process, was helpful for letting me know both how far I’ve come since then as well as all the things I need to work on before I could possibly have a shot at my purple belt. (That, however, is material for my next post.) A good day, a medal, and a t-shirt; not a bad way to spend $70.

Perhaps the only better way to spend money was breakfast the morning after at C’s Avenue Cafe:

$7.50 of DELICIOUS

Though a big FAIL goes out this order of guacamole dip, which cost us $5.50:

 

Fuck that. I could almost buy another plate of Breakfast Combo instead.

Yes, I’ve been indulging the goddamn hell out of myself since finishing that tournament. Not pictured: Chicken Adobo, Fried Chicken Bento lunches, Indian food, Girl Scout Cookies (shout-out to the lady for sending them! I love you!), this delicious maple cake-bread, tacos, beer, milk tea, and even this weird-ass fluffy fake cheese bread I got at a convenience store. JUST BECAUSE I COULD. Breakfast tomorrow is whole-wheat blueberry pancakes (thanks again love!) with fried chicken. I love being me.

Here’s the links that have caught my eye lately:

A cool little writeup on Shinya Aoki’s win over JZ Calvan in Dream 2 last week and the ways to fight with the guard in MMA, over at Lockflow.

A dope ass video with Andre Galvao and Leo Vieira, highlighting how to use a balance ball in BJJ drills, over at Martial Farts.

Finally, an article on Mexican/Mexican Americans and fighting at Sherdog.

Peace.

pat m.