Bráulio absolute champ
Bráulio sets up sweep on Xande, photo: Luca Atalla
The man from Pernambuco takes European title at Xande's expense
Lisbon, Portugal, 4:45 pm. With an extremely offensive guard, the man from Pernambuco, Bráulio Estima, has just beaten Xande Ribeiro and takes the openweight title at the fourth European Jiu-Jitsu championship, which is taking place at the Casal Vistoso Pavillion this weekend.
The decision started with the two athletes circling and feinting for the first grip. Bráulio got a grip first and immediately pulled guard, from where, with an outside hook, sought to throw Xande off balance. And he already had an advantage when he executed a precision move. Xande, upon hitting the ground, twisted his knee, and the fight was interrupted for a few minutes, for medical attention. But Bráulio was ahead 2 to 0 on the score card.
In the second part of the confrontation, Bráulio again looked to sweep. The two went out of the fight area and stood up, after which, quickly, Xande tried to pull guard. But the man from Pernambuco living in Birmingham, in England, showed great agility in jumping over the legs and obliging the world champion to go to all four. Immediately, he took the chance to jump into closed guard, from where he tried for several choke attempts. Xande, looking unhappy, carried on fighting, but did not react threateningly, and, after ten minutes, victory was Bráulio's, who thus enters the list of absolute Jiu-Jitsu champions.
"Finally!" exclaimed the winner, who was happy with his tactics working out. "Everything went as planned, I managed to apply everything I had thought of for this fight," said Bráulio, minutes after winning.
Everybody was silent and then Xande pointed to Braulio and looked to the audience, and then started the applause by himself clapping. Xande then left the ring, with his head lowered, and went straight to the doctors, for another examination of his right knee and a painkiller. The second place winner lamented: "I wanted to take advantage of his being off balance to come back passing his guard. But I was too confident in my flexibility."
The path to the final
The semi-finals began with a victory for Bráulio Estima, over Rafael Lovato, at 3 min 07 seconds, with a triangle from the back. Xande took a little longer to get to a decision, as he beat Lúcio Lagarto by two points with a sweep, after ten minutes.
Previously, Bráulio had submitted Vanderson Gomes with an armbar, and Fernanco Soluço with a choke from the back. On the other end of the bracket, Xande choked Felipe Dias and Yan Cabral.
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