Well deserved, as always - who's next?

• Blue
  • John 'The Ant' Antognoli

Once again, fighters step up, and they get their due, congratulations!

• Blue
  • Omar Sabha
  • Khunvanary Vong
  • Kristen

No rest for the wicked folks - right after the SBO comes this!

• Chris - This was his first tournament, but you would have never known it. He battled his way into the finals and took a silver medal. His focus was amazing and his opponents never knew what hit them. I saw him blow a guy back with a double leg that would have made all us proud.
• John (Ant) - from John: I was nervous up until the time i hit the mat, as this was my first tournament too. I pulled half guard against everyone and worked the sweep before they could even come down on me. if not for a careless mistake with 30 seconds left while up on points, i would have made it to the finals as well. I did however manage to put my bronze medal opponent to sleep, so it was in a way a validation for my efforts.
• Noah - This was a big step up for Noah competing as a newly annointed blue belt. Up on points in the bronze medal match, Noah lost to a very slick sweep and kimora.
• Omar - What can i say about Omar? He rolled through his bracket, taking every match on points and took the gold. The highlight of the tournament though was when Omar rolled his way into the open division finals and faced a fresher 270 lb. monster. Omar actually swept him and (i think) could have taken that gold as well, but in the end, his opponent was just too big and rode a tired Omar out for the win. Everyone was amazed though at Omar's ability to fight over and over and never show any sign of giving up. That is what being a BTT warrior is all about.

After a short hiatus, with time to regroup our fighters, and for a better, stronger, more determined competition team (helmed by JT), BTT Long Beach posted some amazing results at the 2008 South Bay Tournament.
Not only did our adult competition team rise up with new leadership, so did our kids Jiu Jitsu team, first their results:

• Edwin "The Budda" 7 yrs old at 80 lbs got lumped in with a 9 year old, and fought him tough for 2 close matches to pull out a silver medal.
• Jake "The Mohawk" 6 yrs old at 66 lbs lost his first, but came back hard to score a Rear Naked Choke to secure the bronze in his bracket in his second.
• Riley "The Monster" 9 yrs old at 56 lbs fought a guy twice his size in his first match, won by dominating RNC in his second, and lost a close third match 3 to 0 (questionable as well b/c he didn't get points for taking the back)
• Bryan "The Jokester" 8 3/4 yrs old at 90 lbs fought very hard in his 2 matches
• Chris "The Big Brother" 13 yrs old at 120 lbs won his first in awesome fashion and lost afterwards in tough battles.

As far as our adult competitors:

• Omar Sabha fought at least four times. His last match was incredible! He was caught in a triangle choke, picked his combatant up off the ground and walked off of the mat with him. Omar was almost disqualified, however Caique, over ruled the referee decision and gave the opponent 2 pts. and made them restart. Omar then took his opponent down, established side control and went for the submission. My brother did it BTT style with a spectacular GI-choke finish, that his opponent tapped out to
• Khunvanary Vong took gold in the rooster division and then decided to compete at the next weight division where she placed Silver!
• Kristen fought some very tough opponents. She came, she saw and conquered. She took home the Bronze.
• Chris entered his first BJJ tournament and took the bronze medal. Chris, lost his first match, however I felt bad for the next three guys. He kimora'ed, arm-bar'ed and arm-bar'ed. He was so intense, he wasn't just there for points!
• Rob "Man on a Mission" took home the Silver.

Following hot on the heels of the Pan-Am belt promotions, two more of our fighters were promoted!

• Purple
  • John Thomas
• Blue
  • Luke Cozart

As of Tuesday April 8th 2008, Brazilian Top Team Long Beach will be training at a new facility located at 4323 E Anaheim St, Long Beach 90804. We will no longer be training at the facility on 7th and Junipero. There will be NO CLASS on Monday the 7th.

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After the Pan-American Jiu Jitsu Championship, Prof. Marcelo publicly recognized the hard work of several of our fighters. Congratulations to you for all of your hard work!

• Black
  • Brandon Dabu
  • "Big" Mike
  • Dave Harris
• Purple
  • JP Donahue
  • Raj "Elastic" Nair
  • Israel Sanchez
  • Lee McDermott
• Brown
  • Matt
• Blue
  • Kelly
  • Ed Gonzalez

Check out the gallery (login required) for pictures from the night!

Congratulations to all of our fighters, listed below are the medals that our fighters won. Win or lose, never forget how much courage it takes to step out onto the mat, as John Orr put it:
It takes a warrior's heart and courage to compete, and there is no bigger stage than the Pan Ams. I am proud of all our warriors going into battle over the next 3 days, and will be there to support you however I can. They say "Train hard - fight easy." We train hard.

• Gold
  • Israel Sanchez (Blue Belt, Masters, Male, Feather)
• Silver
  • Khunvanary Vong (Silver (White Belt, Adult, Female, Super Feather)
• Bronze
  • Luke Cozart (White Belt, Masters, Male, Heavy)
  • Franklin Quenga (Blue Belt, Senior 1, Male, Light)
  • JP Donahue - Blue Belt, Senior 1, Male, Super Heavy)