Matwork! 11/30/11

Recent happenings in the worlds of sambo, judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu, submission grappling and/or collegiate/freestyle wrestling. If it takes place on the ground and it's interesting, it should be here.

First, we begin with a phenomenal nutrition advice video by the world renowned expert - Renato Laranja.

Below the jump, a surprising upset of the reigning NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion, Abu Dhabi World Pro qualifier results, international and college wrestling results, judo updates and more.

If you have any links of your own, questions or comments, leave them below or get at me on Twitter. Please let me know if I missed anything major.

The list of BE Twitter accounts is right here for your pickings: BloodyElbow Twitter, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Jonathan Snowden, Chris Barton,Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth.

Wrestling news:

On November 26th and 27th, the Journeymen/Asics Northeast Duels were held in Troy, NY. The idea behind the tournament is that the mid-majors within collegiate wrestling (Lehigh, Binghamton, Rutgers, Maryland, Penn etc.) face off in dual meets and get their wrestlers some tough matches early in the season before the NCAA championships are contested later this year. Zach Rey, the 2010 Division 1 heavyweight champion, was upset 5-1by Levi Cooper, who won all four of his matches during the weekend. Flowrestling has the match video and you can view it if you're into NCAA heavyweight wrestling (the significant action kicks in around the 7:10 mark). The full results for the meet can be peeped over here.

It is also worth noting that Urijah Faber, Chael Sonnen and Clay Guida were at the Journeyman/Asics meet. There's a video over on Flowrestling of Sonnen giving his thoughts on the potential match-up between Jordan Burroughs and Ben Askren at Midlans (not likely to actually happen this year according to Burroughs' Twitter).

Tommy Messano over at Sherdog went to the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic on November 20th and came away with a very nice article showing that MMA is indeed seeping into the wrestling world as a very viable post-college career option. The article shows the reluctance of the coaches to consider anything other than Olympic contender status for their wrestlers and the determination of some younger wrestlers who actually train MMA during college.

In related news, 2010 157 lb NCAA wrestling champion Bubba Jenkins is making his MMA debut at Tachi Palace Fights 11 against Josh Williams on December 2, 2011 (this Friday).

The InterMat college wrestling divisional individual rankings were updated on November 26th.

In international wrestling, a few noteworthy tournaments were held this past week. Gary Abbott has an update on the Henri Deglane Challenge, which saw Shawn Bunch win gold, Henry Cejudo, Phillip Keddy and Wynn Michalak win silver and Mike Zadick win bronze. The Russians won the team title and seven medals overall as the results show.

On November 26th, the Karavaev Cup was also held in Minsk, Belarus, with Russia winning this Greco-Roman competition over nine other teams. The individual results of the dual meets and the medal matches are here. On the same day, the Haavisto Cup - another Greco-Roman competition - was held in Ilmajoki, Finland. Abbott again has the update and information to read.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu news:

A leg of the globe-spanning Abu Dhabi World Pro Trials was held in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, November 26th, 2011. With it being the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, attendance was sparse, but several world-class competitors competed. It's almost getting to be a habit to name-drop this particular name, but Rafael Lovato Jr. won the men's black belt absolute division. All the absolute winners for the various belt divisions earned an all-expenses-paid trip to the World Pro in Abu Dhabi in March of 2012. Mike Calimbas put in a herculean effort to get tons of photos, videos and write-ups for this event over at TXMMA.com. If you want to get straight to the 40+ videos, here's the YouTube playlist Calimbas put up. France, Morocco, Jordan and Mexico will see ADWP trials in December before the "big" one in January for Brazil.

Roger Gracie, multiple time world champion and MMA competitor, gives his thoughts on the philosophy of adding new things to his game and some other things while rolling at an Evolve Gym.

If you are a grappler and you are not following the writings of Christian Graugart, the brown belt behind ShogunHQ and BJJ Globetrotter, you are missing out majorly. He put up a post with video of him rolling with Marcelo Garcia, rolling with black belts in Rio and rolling in Bali. Watch them. Envy his life. Figure out how to make your own more awesome.

Seymour Yang brings the best looking Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi reviews on the net. Here's his most recent one concerning the Tatami Terere Signature gi. It's worth checking out for the pretty pictures at the very least.

Judo news:

The World Cup held this year in Jeju, South Korea starts on Friday, December 2nd, and ends Saturday, December 3rd.

The Grand Prix in Amsterdam finished up on November 20th. Photos are here. Some (quite a few) videos are here. Full results were split in half, so I give you Part 1 and Part 2.

Dr. Ann Maria DeMars, Ronda Rousey's mother (and judo world champion herself) writes one of the best blogs ever. Her dry humor and terrific presentation of funny or meaningful stories stuns me just about every time. Dr. DeMar's recent post on armbars and Legos is a good place to start.

Odds and Ends:

Dahlia Lithwick, my favorite legalese analyst and writer for Slate, takes a quick look at the lawsuit brought by Zuffa and a congeries of MMA athletes, writers and coaches with strong connections to New York. The article is not particularly cogent, but someone like Lithwick picking this up for Slate means that the issues presented are interesting from a legal standpoint and are getting out there to a fresher audience.

An interesting scientific article titled The Evolution of Speed in Athletics: Why the Fastest Runners are Black and Swimmers White (PDF). That's about as controversial a paper as you'll see a team of two mechanical engineers and a nutritionist ever put out. Good read and I hope it sparks legit rebuttals and further research.

Lastly, a compilation of animals doing Greco-Roman wrestling. I could watch this stuff all day...