Pan Ams 2015 Finals Recap
Sunday brought the fourth and final day of the 2015 IBJJF Pan-Ams to a close. There were some great matchups in the round of adult black belt finals.
The Women
In light feather it was Gezary Bandeira getting the win over Bibiana Silva. The featherweight match up pitted Mackenzie Dern against Tammi Musumeci. If you remember from last year’s world’s it was Tammi who would not tap despite having her left arm on the right side of her body. This one was a hard fought match but Mackenzie pulled it out with a kneebar for the win. In the Lightweight division it was a great battle between Beatriz Mesquita and Angelica Galvao. At the end Beatriz won by advantage. In the Middleweight category Monique Elias won over Luiza Costa. In Medium-Heavy Ana Laura Cordeiro beat Andresa Correa on points. In the Heavyweight division it was Dominyka Obelenyte over Tammy Griego. And rounding out the women’s weight classes Gabi Garcia was uncontested I the Super Heavy category.
Which lead to the absolute Final. Gabi Garcia used her considerable size advantage over Mackenzie Dern to play the top game for almost the entire match. Mackenzie did an admirable job of defending a few submission attempts but in the end it was a collar choke from the side that was too much for Mackenzie, giving the win to Gabi.
The Men
The Rooster weight matchup pitted longtime foes Bruno Malfacine against Caio Terra. This was Caio’s second time back in competition since a long absence for health issues. It was good to see Caio back in the finals. Malfacine managed to get Caio in a very bad spot and finished him with a bow and arrow choke. The Brothers Miyao closed out light feather with Paulo Miyao taking the top spot on the podium. The Featherweight matchup was spirited to say the least. Gianni Grippo and Osvaldo “Queixinho” Moizinho went at it exchanging points and submission attempts. In the end it was Gianni winning on points. JT Torres and AJ Agazarm met up in the Lightweight division. It was a fun one to watch with JT constantly on the attack AJ had to fight off a dangerous arm bar attempt. In the end there JT got the win on points. In Middleweight Leandro Lo beat Octavia Sousa on points. Keenan Cornelius and Gustavo Campos closed out the Medium-Heavy division for Atos. In Heavyweight Lucas Leite put on a show beating Lucas Freitas 20 to 2. In Super Heavy Bernardo Faria and Leonardo Nogueira closed it out for Alliance. To round out the weight divisions Alexander Trans managed to surprise James Puopolo with a kneebar just 17 seconds into the contest.
Bernado Faria and Leandro Lo locked horns in the absolute division. Lo managed to keep Bernardo in his guard for much of the match until he passed. Then in a scramble Bernardo ended up on top in a north-south position and finished Lo with what appeared to be a clock choke.
All in all it was a great weekend with a record number of fighters signed up. Be sure to check out all the behind the scenes action in the Mary issue of Jiu-Jitsu Magazine on-sale April 21st everywhere!
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For Recaps of the previous days click here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.
Photos by Mike Calimbas.
