I did something a little unusual last night. I opened my usually firmly clasped wallet and spent some money. The lucky recipient? The Budovideos live broadcast of the 2011 IBJJF World Championships. It was money well spent!
I saw all the brown/black belt women finals, all the mens quarter and semi finals and most of the mens finals. It was a true visual treat for us BJJ fans and I have to thank Budovideos for putting on a great show - with quality picture streaming (albeit with the odd hiccup) and fantastic commentary from Caleb )Fightworks Podcast), Shawn Williams and Budo Jake himself.
It was a privilege to watch superstars of the BJJ world compete in the comfort of my own home. For me, the big surprise of the night was Leticia Ribero against Njyah Easton. I've never heard of Njyah before but after her superb gutsy display against the pressuring might of Leticia, I think we'll see a lot more of her for years to come. Leticia won of course, but it was close.
Another great final fight was between Michelle Nicolini and Kyra Gracie. Both fighters exhibiting great skill but Nicolini is in my opinion, something else! Her guard is superb and was able to snap out triangles at will. Brilliant stuff.
The mens division was not short of drama and action. I loved watching Caio Terra smash his way through the early rounds but was defeated by the supreme Champ, Bruno Malfacine. These two are like the Sampras and Agassi of BJJ. Always meeting up in finals and snatching wins off each other in a tit for tat struggle to claim to be the best rooster in town. Awesome!
I managed to catch all the rest of the mens action bar the Absolute and loved watching them all. Marcelo Garcia proved he is still the best in his division and topped that with the best after-match speech ever! I could go on, but I'm sure all the BJJ news sites and forums will debate the Mundials matches for many weeks to come. My only regret was not to see Roger or Braulio in action (due to their injuries) but roll on ADCC in September!!
:)
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5 comments:
Nyjah has been blogging for a year or two now, but I don't think she's updated for a while. IIRC, she teaches with her brother, who I think is a black belt under Lloyd Irvin.
i did the same thing..i loved every match!
I must say that though the broadcast was excellent, the commentary on the other hand was not. These guys had no idea who the people fighting on the mats were half the time. Heck, if I knew, they should too!! Then the rules.. Oh the rules. They seemed very confused if the matches went anywere outside the sweep and the guard pass and then the nonsense on the Cavaca vs Pe de Pano where they couldnt understand what was going on (Pe de Pano verbally tapped)... Oh well, even so it was a very nice event to watch, and Budo Videos, I salute you
I must say that though the broadcast was excellent, the commentary on the other hand was not. These guys had no idea who the people fighting on the mats were half the time. Heck, if I knew, they should too!! Then the rules.. Oh the rules. They seemed very confused if the matches went anywere outside the sweep and the guard pass and then the nonsense on the Cavaca vs Pe de Pano where they couldnt understand what was going on (Pe de Pano verbally tapped)... Oh well, even so it was a very nice event to watch, and Budo Videos, I salute you
I think it is hard for even seasoned experts to figure out what is going on half the time mainly owing to not being right there in front of the action and seated some distance away.
I thought Caleb, Shawn and Jake did a most excellent job and filled me with lots of knowledge as well as their entertaining banter.
However an improvement for next time would be an on-screen caption so folk can see what division and, preferably who, is fighting at the time, plus a live link to the score on the board - a bit like when watching live football (soccer) or other major league sport.
For the few dollars I spent, I still consider it unbelievable value for money and if you consider a time not so long ago when it was almost impossible to view live elite matches without actually being there, then we are very lucky indeed. But yeah lots of room for improvement, which I hope we'll see sometime soon :D
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