What was supposed to be an exciting main event to a star-studded card ended abruptly at today’s BJJ Stars: Black Belt Edition.
The final match of the evening, which was between Felipe Pena and Erberth Santos, started out normally, with Pena pulling guard. However, a little over a minute or two into the match, Pena elevated his opponent to attempt a sweep, and somewhere in the scramble, Santos appeared to injure his knee.
As Santos sat on the mats nursing his knee, he began shouting back and forth with someone off camera. Disregarding his supposed injury, Santos ran off the mats and attacked his verbal sparring opponent, who appears to be Pena’s black belt Daniel Thebit, knocking through multiple bystanders in the process.
A brawl ensued, and event staff and spectators worked to separate the fight’s participants. However, Santos was able to break free from the people attempting to restrain him and then went after another black belt on Pena’s team, Servio Junqueira.
Santos was eventually escorted out of the main event area, and a couple minutes later, Pena was awarded the BJJ Stars belt. In a post-match interview, he said he would like to compete against Nicholas Meregali in a later event.
The night’s previous matches were far less scandalous and highlighted some of jiu-jitsu’s best talent.
The co-main event between Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida and Joao Gabriel Rocha was primarily one between Buchecha’s guard and Rocha’s passing attempts. Rocha was able to gain the dominant position over Buchecha a few times, but the closest the match came to a submission was towards the end as Buchecha began to look for a foot or leg lock. The two began to move out of bounds, and the ref stopped the match and moved them back to the center to the sounds of boos from the crowd. Rocha was then able to escape Buchecha’s hold, and although Buchecha attempted a toehold in the last few seconds of the match, he didn’t secure the submission in time. Rocha ultimately won by advantage.
Leandro Lo and Nicholas Meregali’s match was also highly anticipated, and although the match went the distance without a submission, it certainly lived up to the hype. The fight was a constant back-and-forth between Lo attempting to use his guard to maneuver Meregali to both opponents trying to feel each other out from a standing position. It appeared that the match was going to end with no score, but in the last 30 seconds, Meregali managed to take Lo’s back, winning the match 4-0.
Here are the full results for the main card:
Ricardo Rocha defeats Carlos da Silva via triangle
Bianca Basilio defeats Michelle Nicolini via points
Gabriel Rollo defeats Celso Vinicius via advantage
Delson “Pe de Chumbo” defeats Fernando Terere via lapel choke
Patrick Gaudio defeats Tim Spriggs via points
Isaque Bahiense defeats DJ Jackson via decision
Marco Barbosa defeats Wellington “Megaton” Diaz via points
Roberto Godoi defeats Renato “Babalu” Sobral via points
Nicholas Meregali defeats Leandro Lo via points
Joao Gabriel Rocha defeats Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida via advantage
Felipe Pena defeats Erberth Santos via disqualification
The Jiu-Jitsu Times will provide updates on the Santos situation as they become available.
