Great night of grappling in Las Vegas! The @ufcfightpass Grappling Invitational out on a great event here is Las Vegas tonight featuring a tournament and several high profile super fights under EBI rule set. Teenage blue belt phenom @helenajiujitsugirl helena crevar took on black belt champion Emily Fernandez and won with a an excellent stranglehold from the back, showing the audience her incredible potential for the future. Nicholas Meregali @nicholasmeregali had a match against the great ADCC champion Cyborg Abreau. It was a close fought battle with Mr Meregali initiating all the attacks but Mr Abreau survived to force over time where Mr Meregali won via juji gatame armbar. In the tournament Dan Manasoiu @jiujitsugiant showed everyone the impressive improvements he has made to his game. He won his first two matches with the best submissions of the night – two beautifully applied leg locks. In the finals he had a great match against former team mate Nicky Rod. It went to over time where there was a dramatic moment where Mr Manasoiu came very close to locking in a juji gatame arm bar, but Me Rodriguez showed good escape skills and presence of mind to escape and then win via stranglehold. In the main event Craig Jones squared off against Felipe Pena. Both men are mostly known for their guard game, but in this match neither wanted to play bottom position and opted to most grapple in standing position presumably so that they could save energy for the over time. Overtime was interesting. Mr Jones got a good early escape in the first over time round which proved decisive as neither could escape the other after that,
thus Mr Jones won a tough tactical match via ride time. Once again it's great to see the UFC putting their resources behind grappling. I'm very happy that the audience got to see the rapid improvements youngsters Helena Crevar and Daniel Manasoiu have made and how they are climbing rapidly towards their goals. Hope you all enjoyed the show!!
