Texas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament Results

Tyson did an awesome job at the Travis Lutter Texas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Invitational. He competed in three separate divisions and won first place in two of them. You can click on the "match" links to be taken to the video on YouTube. Tyson usually walks around between 150 and 155 lbs. He and a friend cut weight on Friday before the weigh-ins. Tyson only had to cut two pounds to make the 149 lb cutoff and be able to fight in the 140-149 division. His friend had to cut seven pounds, so Tyson stayed in the sauna with him for moral support, but he was losing too much weight, so he got out when he reached 147.

The first division was the Men's Absolute Novice. There were no weight restrictions, but everyone who fought in this group was brand new to the no-gi style of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Tyson finished his first match with a triangle choke.
Tyson's second match in the Absolute division was ridiculous. He had to fight a guy who was 340 lbs. Tyson still had to fight in the adult (18+) and the masters (30+) divisions later in the day. I was worried about him getting injured fighting the huge guy before he even had a chance to compete against guys his size. When the match started, the other guy knocked him down and planted all of his weight on top of him, then tried for the next three and a half minutes to twist his arm into a submission. Tyson couldn't even close his legs around the guy to get him in his guard. He finally managed to flatten Tyson completely out during the last thirty seconds of the round, and Tyson couldn't breathe at all, so he couldn't defend well and had to tap out when his opponent was finally able to catch him with an americana.
That eliminated him from the Absolute division, but he was not too upset at losing to a guy more than twice his size with the same level of experience. Usually when tournaments have an Absolute division there is no weight class, but they tend to group people of similar builds together. The first opponent that the big guy had to fight was 149 pounds, then he fought Tyson who was 147. Tyson didn't care, but I thought it was a bit ridiculous the way it was organized.

The third match was in the Men's Novice division. Tyson won this one by triangle submission. (The guy he beat was the poor guy who had to fight the 340 lb guy in the first round of the Absolute division.)
The next match was for first place and Tyson won that one too, but he was unable to finish his opponent by submission, so he won by decision (7-0). He did manage to possibly re-fracture his nose during this match.His fifth and final match was in the Men's Master's beginner division. He had less than 5 minutes to recover from his fourth match before he had to fight this one. There was only one other man who showed up - the rest of the competitors dropped out. They could have gone best of three, but were both tired from their previous fights, so they decided to only go one round. Tyson finished this fight after about a minute by getting his opponent in an arm triangle.
Overall it was a very successful day and Tyson was pleased with his performance. He was also glad that he was able to roll with so many people who were, with one exception, close to his weight. Almost all of the guys that he trains with are more experienced and at least 20 pounds heavier than he is.