The personal website of Matt Henderson.
11 May 2003
Tonight was the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) championship in Malaga, Spain, in which three BJJ academies competed, Málaga, Marbella (where I train) and Granada. The good news (sorta), I finished second. The bad news, there were only three of us in my category (white belt, around 75 kg). Each fight lasted five minutes. A win was by either points, or submission.
In my first fight, I was a ball of nerves and lost on points. In the second, I got into my rhythm and submitted the opponent with a foot lock. The judges then indicated that foot locks are illegal in our category, but gave me the win anyway (since they hadn’t announced the rule beforehand.)
Finally, I had to fight the same guy again for the championship, and unfortunately lost by two points, thereby finishing second among the three of us.
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