Days after tying the record for most points scored in a Fuji BJJ match, Andrew Wiltse took on Gabriel Almeida at Who’s Number One: Jones vs. Ruotolo and brought home the victory with a choke.
Wiltse immediately shot for a takedown, and Almeida defended with a guillotine attempt. A brief scramble saw Wiltse escape the submission attempt and end up on the bottom to play guard. Almeida looked for opportunities to pass, at one point trying to cartwheel to a dominant top position, but Wiltse’s guard remained open and strong. Not much action happened before the ten-minute mark, which showed the judges favoring Almeida. The referee gave a warning to both athletes to pick up the pace and show some more action.
The warning seemed to work, and Almeida showed more aggression in his passing while Wiltse made more effort to search for transitions and submissions from guard. Still, there were no further big submission attempts until about the six-minute mark, at which point Almeida latched onto one of Wiltse’s legs for a kneebar attempt. Wiltse worked his way out and came up on top, snatching a single-leg as Almeida tried to get to his feet. Almeida was chased out of bounds, and they were reset in a neutral standing position in the center.
An arm-drag from Wiltse briefly brought Almeida to the ground before the athletes once again returned to wrestling on their feet. The five-minute mark passed with the judges still favoring Almeida. Another single-leg from Wiltse was shut down by Almeida, but the next attempt successfully brought Almeida to the ground, and Wiltse transitioned to side control with a knee-cut pass. Two and a half minutes to go, and Wiltse moved to mount before quickly taking the back and getting his hooks in. Wiltse trapped one of Almeida’s arms, and from there, it was mere seconds before he worked his way under his opponent’s chin, sunk in the rear-naked choke, and got the tap with a minute and 57 seconds left to go.
Andrew Wiltse was declared the winner by submission.
