Contributor: Ben Kohn
As a huge fan of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the upcoming Metamoris event is something that I am extremely excited for. Sadly I may have to miss it live (fuck work, seriously) but I will definitely watch it as soon as I can. In the meantime, I am going to provide a brief breakdown of some of the matches (going in depth would require time I don’t have at the moment). I hope you all will share my love of Jiu Jitsu and watch the event because it will be a hell of a good one.
Main Event: Kron Gracie vs. Shinya Aoki
Kron Gracie is a 1st degree BJJ blackbelt under his father, Rickson Gracie, which he received at the young age of 19. Kron is now 25 years old and is a very accomplished competitor in the BJJ world with a 3rd place finish in the 2011 ADCC under 77 kg division and a second place finish in the 2011 World Jiu Jitsu Championships at LW. He is known for his aggressive style and will attack with submissions even if it means losing position. This aggressive style is a double edged sword in points style BJJ but in a submission only ruleset, it carries much less risk of losing the match than in IBJJF or ADCC rulesets. Kron’s guard is extremely tricky to pass and in the first Metamoris event his opponent, Otavio Sousa, did not pass his guard once, despite being on bottom for the majority of the match. From the top, Kron had difficulty passing but once he did, his aggressive style paid off and he secured a victory by armbar with 2:59 seconds remaining. Kron is an extremely high level competitor in the BJJ world and before jumping to conclusions that he will destroy Aoki, let’s take a look at the grappling of this MMA submission wizard.
Shinya Aoki is an MMA fighter with 22 of his 33 wins coming by way of submission. He is known for his incredibly aggressive attack on the ground and has made opponents run away from him as he butt-scooted towards them making for some very amusing moments in his career. He also has no qualms about literally taking his opponents limbs home with him (see his fight with Mizuto Hirota for evidence of that). He is a black belt in BJJ, Judo, and a class A shoot fighter. He has also competed in BJJ competitions before taking first place in ADCC Japan 66-76 kg division as well as winning the All-Japan Jiu-Jitsu World Championships as a blackbelt in 2005. Aoki’s grappling style in BJJ is aggressive and submission oriented like his MMA game. He will even attempt flying submission attempts. He seems to favor his top game in BJJ though and his best bet at winning this match is to get on top and do it fast.
Bottom line of this match is that while Aoki is an extremely talented submission grappler, he is not a world class BJJ competitor. Kron Gracie is and Kron is going to submit him. Although Aoki has a better shot because it is no-gi, he still really is just not at the same level as Kron. Plus Aoki is kind of a dick… (that was for Josh Hall). Kron Gracie’s guard will not be passed should he end up on bottom and once on top, he will slice through Aoki’s guard like butter. Kron Gracie by armbar, 4:38 into the match.
Co-Main Event: Brendan Schaub vs. Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu
*Sighs deeply* I really don’t know why they are doing this. Breaking this down is also pretty pointless but I will make some semblance of an attempt.
Brendan Schaub is a brownbelt in BJJ and a currently fights at HW in the UFC. His overall record is 9-3 with none of his wins coming by submission. He does not have any wrestling or BJJ credentials but he was a former football player…god damn it. Ok so Brendan is basically big with a BJJ brownbelt but couldn’t submit Lavar Johnson, the worst ground fighter the UFC HW division has had in recent years. I don’t know what else to say about this so let’s move on to Cyborg.
Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu is a legitimate world class blackbelt BJJ competitor who has won the World no-gi Championships as an Ultra-HW from 2010-12 as well as the absolute division in 2010. Cyborg’s game in BJJ tends to lean more towards guard play and he is especially adept at open guard and the berimbolo guard. His wrestling and takedown game is mediocre for a BJJ guy and against the much larger Schaub, I expect him to pull guard and bewilder him with his tricky guard. I have nothing more to write on this match because it really is a bullshit matchup but I figured writing on the two MMA fighters competing should be done. This match will end in less than two minutes with Cyborg catching him from the bottom or in a sweep/transition.
I would write on all the matches if I could but time is unyielding sadly. I hope everyone can tune in to watch the matches and I guarantee some awesome matches before this. Trust me, the event, while having one farce of a match, features some of the best BJJ guys on the planet in Andre Galvao, Braulio Estima and his brother Victor, Rafael Lavato Jr. and more. The matches will be intense, technical, and exciting and I cannot wait to watch them.
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten
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