NEWS

Fred Ramie, Purple Belt  Pan-American Bronze Medalist, and a long time friend of Roberto Torralbas ( Third Law BJJ Head Instructor) came down to visit the team Monday, 14  through Saturday 19 of August , of 2008.  Fred had a great time training and teaching classes.

Fred Teaching Class

 He volunteered to teach the White Belt Basic Class in which he disclosed his favorites and most effective techniques. Fred also had a blast doing our circuit training and regular jiu-jitsu training until the late hours of the night.

In his own words this is what he had to say about the Third Law BJJ Team:

I want to thank all the guys for giving the opportunity to show you my Jiu-Jitsu, everyone was welcoming and respectful. You guys have a very young, but strong team that I envision will be a force to be reckon  with in the near future.

Once again thank you,
- Fred Ramie

Fred Ramie and the class.

Roberto Torralbas kicked off the whole tournament in the purple belt division on the third mat. He dominated and controlled his first match finishing with a bread cutter choke. With a pretty much even fight in the second match, he came up on top with four points to two. Just goes to show that advantages are relatively important: Roberto won the gold medal by defeating his opponent with 2 advantages to 0.

Roberto Sweeping from the Half-Guard

Roberto with the silver and bronze medalists after winning his division

Andre “Whiteshaq” Arata showed outstanding performance in his first match, getting the takedown, passing his opponent’s guard to full mount, and finishing with an armbar in less than two minutes. In the second match, he was dominating but went for the t-rex choke instead of sprawling. As a result, he got mounted and lost the match. Keeping his head up high, he came into the No GI division defeating his first opponent with a reverse guillotine after passing his guard. Coming out fired up and knowing that he had his chance to redeem himself, he immediately got side control after passing his guard, from where he proceded to finish with an Americana and win the No Gi white belt division.

Andre finishing with the reverse guillotine

Mike ” Goku” Defurio wasted no time, jumped guard and within a minute managed to secure and finish an armbar from his guard. Showing confidence in his second match, he went straight into his half guard and then from there managed to sweep his opponent. Getting pulled into his opponent’s guard after the sweep, he was able to open the guard. But then he went right back into the guard and was immediately put into a triangle. “Goku” won the bronze medal in his white belt division.

Mike setting up effectively for the armbar

Greg “GT” Torres quickly hit the mat and defeated his first opponent. In his second match, he lost against a much tougher and more experienced opponent who had an all-out battle in the finals but ended up getting silver due to advantages.

Greg moments away from his first match of the day

Beker “JaguarPaw” Escalante went for the single-leg takedown but got caught in a guillotine and blew his knee while going down. Holding on tight he managed to break the choke but got arm barred while trying to open his opponent’s guard. His opponent went on to win the gold medal in both Gi and No Gi division.

Beker vs the division champion

Overall, this was an excellent tournament for Third Law, not only because of how some of the competitors performed, but also because of the experience that came with it. Make sure to congradulate Mike Defurio, Andre Arata, and Roberto Torralbas for bringing back home their deserved medals after great fights and Greg Torres and Beker Escalante for giving a great battle in the tournament .

Team Third Law celebrating!!!