Matwork! Ottavia Bourdain's Festivus Power Guillotine, The 49th Midlands Championship Videos and Results, Who Is Tiago Camilo and More News

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 12:00 PM EST in Grappling News

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.

By now the newness of 2012 may have worn off. Vows made to improve physical fitness or to stop lusting after worldly goods could be in danger. Fight the temptation! Do not let winter colds drag you down or veg forever on that couch - except if you are reading this column. Hopefully the holiday seasons were good to you and yours and this dose of grappling news revives your warrior spirit.

Ottavia Bourdain, the lovely wife of Chef Tony and fierce fighter in her own right, kicks us off into 2012 the right way with her Festivus Feat of Strength.

Ottavia has a Twitter account which shows her ardent dedication to combat sports on top of her own busy life and the demands of keeping Chef Tony in fine company. I am stunned enough to completely blank on a No Reservations or Layover pun. All due respect to the Bourdains' union of coolness and expertise.

After the jump, delicious video highlights of the 49th Annual Midlands Championships along with an insider's perspective on the tourney, then we go globe-trotting with wrestlers and Brazilian judoka, start digging into the technique-explaining bon bons of the grappling world and there are some delectable brain food Odds & Ends links for your consumption.

If you have any links of your own, questions or comments, leave them below or get word to me at DefGrappler on Twitter. Please let me know if I missed anything major and I will fix this, that and the other thing.

A list of official crew Twitter accounts is right here for your pickings: BloodyElbow Twitter, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O,Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth, Anton Tabuena, T.P. Grant, Josh Nason.

Wrestling News:

I am telling you ahead of time that this is going to be a T.R. Foley-heavy section. If you do not like to read the stories of a 2004 wrestling All-American and his friends who have traveled to places like Mongolia, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam to go wrestle people in their native styles of grappling, then you are advised to skip down to the NCAA event results or to the Judo news.

Although long out of college and admittedly not in the shape an elite college wrestler should be in, Foley wrestled at the 2011 Midlands in the 184 lb division. The opening paragraphs of his tourney round-up should tell you how good a story teller he is:

The night before stepping on the scales at the 49th annual Midlands wrestling tournament, I went to a low-key dinner at a Mexican-fusion restaurant down the street from my Chicago apartment.

My best friend and former teammate was visiting from out of town, and a dinner with mutual friends seemed appropriate for his arrival. I'm not a monk, and as promised in an earlier article, I drank a few glasses of red wine. My meal was equally indulgent, as I took down healthy portions of chips, salsa, and a lime-cooked ceviche appetizer. Glasses were clinked; jokes were told.

The next morning I arrived at Welsh-Ryan Arena fifteen minutes before weigh-ins. In the back room of the complex I was reminded of the less-playful realities inside a collegiate weigh-in: gaunt-faces, sallow skin and the constant thwacking of jump ropes. Some of the Northwestern wrestlers I've come to know over the years paced by me, most shirtless and shoeless, each holding their phone manically checking the time and texting loved ones their current condition. Their faces looked soured, lips purple.

I was wearing jeans, some boots, and a sensible winter sweater.

Foley went 1 and 2, with the first loss being against Braden Atwood of Purdue University (who would lose to top ranked Robert Hamlin of Lehigh in the semi-finals). I do not agree with Foley's closing thoughts about collegiate wrestling being the sport that demands the most physically from its athletes out there. I lean more towards freestyle wrestling or judo, but his writing is phenomenal and provides a window into what a wrestling tournament looks like from a more worldly perspective.

Now for the other part of the T.R. Foley writing endeavors I like so much. He started a website called Wrestling Roots, which is basically designed to collect the experiences of people in traditional combat sports around the globe. The latest entry, written by Mark L., is an absolutely brilliant photoessay of a folkstyle wrestler in Ethiopia learning about and then entering a Tigel tournament off the cuff. Tigel is the local form of grappling, which is at times like Greco-Roman and more like Mongolian wrestling at others. It may also be the source of that greeting between people where you shake hands and then go in for the shoulder bump - or so Mark says. Please read that article. It has pretty pictures like this:

via wrestlingroots.org

The archives of Wrestling Roots are absolutely worth spending a few hours browsing through. I particularly like the Mongolian stories and the brief summary of kushti, the Indian dirt wrestling. The latter is noteworthy because it provides the link to kushtiwrestling.blogspot.com, which is the most comprehensive collection of videos, articles and pictures of indigenous wrestling that I have ever seen (note that translations into English may not always be available).

The full 49th Midlands Championships results, courtesy of the NCAA, are right here. For those of you looking for a shorter recap, Bill Hupp over at InterMat has the big storylines summarized and the outcomes of the divisional finals.

Gary Abbot over at The Mat has a rundown of the Top 10 wrestling stories of 2011. Jordan Burroughs, Cael Sanderson, the Times Square duals with Russia and more are all there. A surprising amount of these stories appeared here on Bloody Elbow - which proves that we are paying attention to the right stuff and will hopefully continue to do so in 2012.

In one of the most hotly anticipated duals of the season, Oklahoma State, ranked #2 at the time, narrowly beat out #1 ranked Iowa in a tie-break over total points scored - which made for a final score of 17-16. InterMat has the rundown and Flowrestling has the video highlights.

Watch more video of Iowa vs Oklahoma State on flowrestling.org

During the intermission of OK St and Iowa, two high level freestyle matches took place. Brent Metcalf, the 145 lber, won 1-0, 1-0 against the Canadian Haislan Garcia, a 2010 Worlds 5th place finisher. Steve Mocco, the 265 lber beat the German Nick Matuhin 1-0, 2-0. All four are aiming to represent their countries in the 2012 Olympics and are tuning up for the qualification process. This is the video of the Metcalf/Garcia match from Flowrestling. This link is the video of the Mocco/Matuhin match, also from Flowrestling.

If you are a college wrestling rankings junkie, InterMat has them ready and waiting for you.

In sadder news, Jake Deitchler, a 22 year old former Olympian and University of Minnesota wrestler, was forced to end his wrestling career early due to multiple concussions. Deitchler had enormous talent, as he was the first high schooler to make the U.S. Olympic team since 1976, but the concussions caused him to sit out and attempt a comeback. Unfortunately, the problems persisted and he called it quits. Most fans may not care, but CTE is a supremely scary thing that all combat sports - not just boxing - must confront in the coming years. On the positive side, Deitchler retains his scholarship and will finish his degree and remain with the Golden Gophers team in some capacity.

Judo News:

The first 2012 big event of the international scene will be the World Masters tournament in Almaty, Kazakhastan on the 14th and 15th. The World Masters will kick off the competitive build-up to the Olympics in London later this year. Of course, the athletes with their eye on Olympic gold have already been training for most of the last decadeand are probably wishing July would hurry up and get here.

Until then, we have to content ourselves with some more Qingdao Open videos, Dr. Ann Maria DeMars giving us some more great competition tips and Jim Hettes tossing Nam Phan all over the cage.

Everybody and their mother - if she paid attention to grappling news - saw the video of Demian Maia training with a Brazilian judoka named Tiago Camilo. It got linked to all up and down the Interwebs, but usually without much context. To put it briefly, Camilo is a judo monster. Right now, he is the #4 ranked judoka in the world at 90 kg (roughly 198 lbs) and a beastly ippon machine.

At the age of 18, Camilo fought his way to a silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2007, he became the U81 kg champion in the Worlds (held in Brazil) with what I call the "Jacare-style bull rush"because I am a BJJ dork. At the Beijing Olympics, he won the bronze (unfortunately, I cannot find video of that medal-winning match). In 2011, Camilo was a quarter-finalist in Paris at the World Championship (check out Nishiyama's ridiculous te guruma to beat him), a bronze medalist at the Grand Slam in Brazil (losing to his rival Asley Gonzalez Montero, took gold by ippon at the Pan Ams in Gudalajara and won a Grand Prix event in Amsterdam by sweet tai otoshi.

How Maia's training with Camilo helps or hinders the upcoming fight with Michael Bisping remains to be seen, but Camilo knows his way around the mats very well. Props should be given to Demian Maia for working with him. If you have access to the MGinAction video library, you can pull up the video of Jimmy Pedro, an American judo world champion, rolling with Marcelo Garcia and doing quite well at times. If I had to guesstimate, I would say Camilo is a bit better than Pedro and Maia a bit worse than Marcelo, but we all win when these guys share video of their training sessions.

Submission Grappling/Brazilian Jiu Jitsu News:

The grapplers over on Reddit have started my favorite Brazilian jiu jitsu meme ever: Kurt Osiander quotes combined with a picture of Osiander pointing at you. Osiander is a Bay Area BJJ legend with a black belt from Ralph Gracie and quite the competition resume. He sporadically puts up a Move of the Week video on YouTube that is always filled with solid technique and often hilarious explanations.

I'm partial to this picture from the Reddit thread:

Kurtosianderquote_medium

But feel free to make your own, using this handy webtool. The YouTube videos are full of quotable moments, but real time pithiness is always appreciated.

Jen Flannery, a purple belt over at Fifty/50 BJJ in D.C., gives us a very solid recap of the year for women grapplers over on the Fightworks Podcast. There is still much work to be done, yet things are improving for ladies everywhere in terms of prospects, gyms, tournaments, sponsorship, coverage and opportunities.

Christian Graugart, the best BJJ blogger anywhere, is in the midst of writing a book about his trip around the world, spent teaching and learning grappling, as well as taking tons of amazing photos and videos. He did a recap of his year, which simultaneously reignites the competitive fire in me and firms up my belief that the combat sports community worldwide is perhaps the best anywhere.

The provocative Renato Laranja gave us another glimpse into his amazing life and lets loose on all kinds of topics. Check out the entertaining Q&A session and pictures of the InsideBJJ interview and remember that true Brazilians pronounce their "r" as "h".

Matthew Maldonado, an Alliance brown belt in New York City, gives us two escapes from the brutal position that is knee on belly. Be warned that the second may not be IBJJF-legal, but it works fine in the home gym or non-IBJJF tourneys.

On what is fast becoming one of my favorite BJJ blogs, The Jiu Jitsu Laboratory brings you a breakdown of the smash pass - or whatever you or your instructors call the battle to push the opponent's knees together on one side and pass guard. Also, lookit the banner image:

If that call back to the old days of video games (featuring Rafael Lovato Jr.) doesn't draw you in, I shake my head sadly.

DSTRYSG had a great post about a counter to the berimbolo - a flashy back-taking technique often used on the big stages of Brazilian jiu jitsu tourneys - from Davin Maxwell. This counter is probably going to be used against that purple belt who has seen the latest tourney highlight videos and is now trying new moves out on your unsuspecting keister.

The Copa Nova tournament was held in Virginia this past weekend. Some of the videos have popped up on YouTube and the full results can be found on their website. This tourney has a particular connection with Bloody Elbow as several teammates of Patrick Tenney (BE Grappling Team) competed and won medals.

Gianni Grippo, a brown belt and multiple belt level champion who trains at Renzo Gracie, has a Young Guns profile over at Submission Control. I liked that one, but my heart fell for the other Young Guns profile on Filipino brown belt Ralph Go, who took second at the 2011 Mundials (to Jordon Schultz, an Alliance brown belt). Seeing this profile on Go and Anton Tabuena's awesome coverage of Southeast Asian MMA reminds me of Ratatouille. Not everyone can be a great fighter, but a great fighter can come from anywhere.

NAGA was quiet, but Grapplers Quest is running their Florida State Championships this weekend. If you are in the Coral Springs area, consider turning out to watch, learn and interact with your fellow Floridians and submission grapplers of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Odds and Ends:

I missed this Black Belt magazine article with Chael Sonnen when it appeared back in October. Sonnen is the master of the Sweet'n'Sour talk and has polarized MMA for the past year and more. However, this interview is all sweet and really has Chael at his most earnest - which displays his genuine knowledge and love for combat sports.

Be careful when out at the bars in Phuket, Thailand. Even if you are Jeremy Renner, fresh off Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and have a whole crew with you, people can get into bar brawls and stabbed.

Combine this super-smart post by Mike Shatzkin about the future of publishing books vs. e-books with Clay Shirky's genius-level thoughts on newspapers and paywalls. Add in combat sports. What do you get? I keep ending up at "Judo Chops" and some vague stuff about communities while seeing a desperate struggle to get and hold the attention of small chunks of the faceless masses.

Eh, cool your overheating brain off with these pithy quotes accumulated by Kevin Kelly. I should do an MMA-specific version of these. Or you can try this Big Picture "Images of the Year" compendium.

There is no better build-up possible to the latest #GrapplAnimals than the words of Deo Wade: "Acrobatic rolling, some cardio and the most devastating back mount control ever."

Without further ado, Stoat Kills Rabbit 10 Times Its Size, courtesy of the BBC's Life series. [Embedding disabled at the BBC's request]

People, I always need more awesome Odds & Ends. Videos, gifs, links, whatever. Do not hesitate to send them my way in the comments or on Twitter.

Def Grappler out!

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Comments

by Machiel Van on Jan 12, 2012 12:09 PM EST reply actions 4 recs

The Airing of Grievances

can be done in the format of an Open Letter.

Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 12:20 PM EST up reply actions

Gladly making this green

by Art_Wanderlei on Jan 12, 2012 3:48 PM EST up reply actions

Awesome. The Bourdains are so freaking cool.

Twitter: @ProfessorBLove
MMA Blog: NothingElseMMAtters.wordpress.com
Stop by and say hi lol

by ProfessorBLove on Jan 12, 2012 12:11 PM EST via mobile reply actions

Thanks for this feature

One of my secondary areas of research is World wrestling traditions and this is fantastic. I had already followed the kushti blog, but wrestling roots is an amazing find!

El Santo inspired me to be a submission grappler.
...my knee jerks and kicks a strawman right in the junk. :(

by Enmascarado on Jan 12, 2012 12:33 PM EST reply actions

Ottavia Bourdain

I love her.

I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful. - Marilyn Monrow
Follow @katiew
I'm at Gal's Guide to MMA!

by KatGirl on Jan 12, 2012 12:36 PM EST reply actions

Let's talk about Anthony Bourdain's earring

Where did it go? Did it get sucked into a time warp back to 1992?

"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

by menckenstein on Jan 12, 2012 12:43 PM EST reply actions

Is this in reference to something else? You know the guy getting choked out wasn’t Bourdain…right?

by Diz D on Jan 12, 2012 2:52 PM EST up reply actions

He used to wear one earring and coupled with his hard living IN YOUR FACEness he looked like a walking midlife crisis

Recent pictures of him show it’s gone. that’s all.

"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

by menckenstein on Jan 12, 2012 3:20 PM EST up reply actions

gotcha..yeah, I knew he did have one in the past, but I think that’s been gone for a few years…

by Diz D on Jan 12, 2012 6:00 PM EST up reply actions

The Bourdains are pretty awesome.

by The Hamburger Pimp on Jan 12, 2012 12:44 PM EST via mobile reply actions

That Kurt meme crushed me

He is fucking hilarious and says dude and bro a lot.

BOOSH

by Farthammer on Jan 12, 2012 12:45 PM EST reply actions

Maldonado's second knee-on-belly escape

seems completely legal from an IBJJF perspective. I didn’t watch it with audio on, but at no point does his leg from outside-in (not reaping). The calf slicer at the very end of it is illegal at some levels (only legal for brown and black belts I believe); however, that is a minor aspect of the escape.

by grozzy on Jan 12, 2012 12:49 PM EST reply actions

That’s what I was referring to. Although with the new rule shift in IBJJF rules, I’d have to give the rules explanation video a good examination to suss out the knee reap rule once more.

Or I could just not do IBJJF tourneys… It’s a toss-up.

Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 1:03 PM EST up reply actions

That stoat vs rabbit video reminded me of Marcelo Garcia vs Ricco Rodriguez

Including the whole chasing bit.

Bloody Elbow Grappling Editor.
Follow me on Twitter @KJGould
Like me on Facebook

by KJ Gould on Jan 12, 2012 1:07 PM EST reply actions

Some day I will figure out GIMP and mash up the two.

Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 1:10 PM EST up reply actions

HOW DARE YOU

I needed adorable animals wrestling before I have to go to work, and you let me down!

BECW Season 1 Champs - K-1 Level Predictions Team
BECW Season 2 - Cecil Peoples Champs

by Andy Davis on Jan 12, 2012 2:57 PM EST reply actions

Chameleon zots a baby bird.

http://youtu.be/0YZbAyeq-E0

Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 3:07 PM EST up reply actions

I love these articles, keep it up.

Here is a link I think most people will find interesting. Quick summary is that returning All-American, and currently 2nd ranked D1 wrestler at 197 pounds, Chris Honeycutt is planning on trying to make the Olympic team this summer, and then turn to MMA.

http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=24548

by dpk875 on Jan 12, 2012 8:58 PM EST reply actions

I saw that, but wanted to wait until the NCAA tourney rolls around to really build up the coverage of Honeycutt and the others who are trying to straddle both worlds.

Good stuff.

Twitter: @DefGrappler
InStrength dot com.

by Ben Thapa on Jan 12, 2012 11:18 PM EST up reply actions

Really enjoying your articles, Ben. Props for featuring Jen Flannery, Christian Graugart and Gianni Grippo. Here’s an awesome video of Grippo drilling a leg drag that will cause you to rethink what intensity means.

by JiuJitsuLab on Jan 13, 2012 2:56 AM EST reply actions