The third match of the Road to ADCC saw Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa face off against William Tackett in what turned out to be a dominant performance for the Hulk. Tackett, of course, was a late replacement for Craig Jones, who was originally scheduled to be Barbosa’s opponent before breaking his hand in training.
Barbosa and Tackett spent a few minutes on their feet at the start of the match, engaging in aggressive wrestling tactics with Barbosa trying to wrap up his opponent’s neck for a guillotine. Tackett pulled his head out, and Barbosa finally brought the match to the ground at four and a half minutes in with a big double-leg. Barbosa stayed heavy as Tackett worked to keep his guard, eventually managing to close it up. Tackett soon opened his guard back up, and Barbosa went back to his signature body lock pass. Tacket regained his closed guard by capitalizing on Barbosa’s attempt to step over his leg. He opened his guard again and pushed Barbosa away with his feet, then worked his open guard as Barbosa came back in.
A little over twelve minutes left, and Tackett tried to isolate a leg, and Barbosa’s escape led to a scramble that nearly resulted in Tackett taking the back. He instead returned to trapping Barbosa inside his closed guard, but soon opened it, and Barbosa passed to side control and then mount. However, because the match hadn’t passed the ten-minute mark yet, he didn’t receive points for his efforts. Tackett regained his guard, and Barbosa passed again after the ten-minute mark, this time earning three points and picking up two more after getting knee-on-belly. Another three points came after Tackett regained and then lost his guard, and Barbosa then moved to north-south. He briefly landed back in Tackett’s half guard, then transitioned to mount. Barbosa passed again after Tackett collected one of his legs, bringing the score up to 14-0.
Barbosa continued to rack up points by getting past Tackett’s guard, and though Tackett briefly managed to escape his opponent’s pressure, Barbosa wasted no time in passing Tackett’s guard again, bringing the scoreboard to 22-0. However, the judges believed that Barbosa wasn’t delivering enough action from the top, so he was hit with a single penalty point. Tackett locked up his closed guard again, and Barbosa was hit with a second negative point. Barbosa stepped away from Tackett, and the latter tried unsuccessfully to secure a leg before Barbosa again ended up in his guard. He knee-cut his way to another pass to earn a further three points before being hit with another penalty. Another guard recovery from Tackett, another pass and three points for Barbosa.
Two minutes left, and Barbosa attempted a north-south choke that Tackett escaped from. He got his closed guard back, but not for long, and Barbosa brought the score up to 31-0. Barbosa earned another penalty point. With twenty seconds left, Tackett attempted a triangle that Barbosa easily slipped out of, and Barbosa managed to score one more guard pass before the match ended, bringing the score up to 34-0 before the end of the match.
Lucas Barbosa was declared the winner by points.
