East West is located at Power/McDowell

Despite the fact that the BJJ program at East West MMA started only 7 months ago, the Instructors GD, Bob Merriman  and Assistant Instructor Kristina Barlaan have been able to discover new talents for the Team.  East West sent 9 competitors to the tournament, who captured 7 medals, making 3 State Champions! The standouts of the Team were: Gerald Perkings (Teen/Feather/White), Justes Eguchi-Kahawaii (Teen/Light/Feather/White) , and Sione Manako (Ultra Heavy/Senior 1/White) who won their divisions.Plus the runner ups: Kelly Fiori (Senior 1/Heavy/White), Justin Recker (Juvenile/Light Feather/White) and Chanson Eguchi-Kahawaii (Juvenile/Heavy/White) secured their second places. Aaron Nolan (Adult/Light Feather/White) took 3rd place.

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Bruno and Demente in the podium with Robinho and Feijao

The 2010 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship came to its end today. Team Nova Uniao was able to capture two medals in the Black Belt Super Heavyweight Division, with Bruno Bastos and Ricardo “Demente” Abreu. “Demente” took 2nd place, losing in the final match to Roger Gracie. Bruno Bastos took 3rd place.  Team Nova Uniao has been restructuring the team and has been accomplishing outstanding results in Brazil. The team hopes to reproduce the same results in the U.S. in the near future, especially with the head U.S. instructors, Gustavo Dantas, Robson Moura, and Bruno Bastos, building and organizing a stronger team for all IBJJF Tournaments.

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Day 3 of the 2010 Worlds took off with the Brown and Black Belts in Action. The standout of the team today was Pete Runez, from Nova Uniao Texas. Pete is the older brother of 3x Pan Jiu-Jitsu Champion and GD’s Brown Belt, Pat Runez. Pete took 2nd in a very stacked brown belt, lightweight division. In the black belt division, four Nova Uniao black belts advanced to the quarter finals on their weight classes on Sunday. In the roosterweight, Bernardo Pitel and Marcelo Pereira advanced to the next round, and in the Super Heavy, Bruno Bastos and Ricardo “Demente”advanced as well.

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David Margraf takes 2nd in the Blue Belt/Ultra heavy

Our Team was able to capture one more medal today. With a very tough division, The 2009 AZ State Champion and U.S. National Champion, David Margraf, took 2nd place in the Blue Belt/Ultra Heavy Division. Dave had a total of 5 matches. The Juvenile Blue Belt, and the Adult Brown and black belts divisions start on Saturday, we wish the best of luck to all Nova Uniao competitors.

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Kristina took 3rd place in the Feather Weight/Blue Belt

The 2010 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship started today in Long Beach, CA, and it will finish on Sunday, June 6th. The tournament gathered 2000 competitors from all over the globe, who are pursuing the most prestigious Jiu-Jitsu title in the world. Team GD Jiu-Jitsu/Nova Uniao had two medals today with Issa Able and Kristina Barlaan. Issa took 2nd in the Blue Belt Feather weight. It was a stacked bracket with 96 competitors! Issa had 7 matches, and won 4 by submission. Kristina Barlaan repeated her 2009 Worlds Performance taking 3rd in the Female/Blue Belt Feather weight.

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10 Competitors, 13 medals and 4th Place Team Trophy

The 2nd Fabio Santos Open took place in San Diego, California on May 15th, 2010. The event reached nearly 400 competitors, and Team GD Jiu-Jitsu was well represented by 10 competitors, who brought back to AZ 13 Medals, and the 4th place Team Trophy! The Team Trophies were both points from the Kids and Adults Division combined, and even with only Adult Competitors, Team GD Jiu-Jitsu was still able to claim its top in the top 4!

The standouts of the Team were Issa Able, who won the Blue Feather Weight, and submitted all his opponents in the Open Class, and Ryan “Scoop” Heilman, who won the purple belt feather, and took 2nd in the open class, in a very close match.

Here are the full results:

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Gustavo Dantas recaps the biggest BJJ tournament in Arizona history. This video talks about Gustavo’s background, the evolution of Arizona Jiu-Jitsu and tournament highlights. This tournament featured many of jiu-jitsu greats including Robson Moura, Kron Gracie and as well as current WEC light weight champion Ben Henderson.

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Issa had 10 matches in two days!

The World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup took place in the Abu Dhabi International Tenis Complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE on April 15, 16 & 17 of 2010. The event had over 300 of the best jiu-jitsu competitors in the world competing for $150,000 in cash prizes. Trials were held all over the world for this competition, and Issa Able, who won the Blue Light and the Open Class (7 matches) during the U.S. West Coast Trials, represented GD Jiu-Jitsu/Nova Uniao in Abu Dhabi. Issa ended up taking 3rd place in the Blue/Light weight Division, and he lost in the quarter finals of the Open class accumulating a total of 10 matches in 2 days,with the final record of 8-2 with 5 submissions.

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Team Many Weapons won 5 Medals!

The 2010 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship took place in Irvine, CA from April 8th to the 11th. The largest tournament in IBJJF  history gathered over 2800 competitors from all over the world. Team GD Jiu-Jitsu/Nova Uniao was represented by 30 competitors who were able to win 20 medals! The standouts of the Team Were: Christian Broadnax, who won both his weight and the Open Class in the Blue/Juvenile division, Kristina Barlaan, who won the feather weight division and took third in the Open Class, accumulating  a total of 9 matches in one day, and Phil Brown, who had the most matches (total of 6) to win his division in the Blue/Master/Middle. Also, Team Nova Uniao took 1st place  in the Juvenile division with the three gold medals won by the Broadnax Brothers. More pictures will be available soon. Here are our Team’s full results:

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