East Coast Battle Ahead of the No-Gi Pan Ams

The 2015 edition of the IBJJF No-Gi Pan American
Championship kicks off this weekend, a tournament that is used by many of the
elite black belt competitors as a warm up to the No-Gi World Championship
taking place in approximately one month’s time.

This year the No-Gi Pan Ams will be missing last year’s
featherweight champion - Osvaldo “Queixinho”, as well as runner-up Samir
Chantre, leaving the doors that lead to the final wide open to two of the
sport’s most accomplished New Yorkers: Gianni Grippo and Paulo Miyao.

Although neither were born in the big apple, both have
adopted the world’s most famous city as their own in recent times. Training in
two of the top Jiu Jitsu academies in the world, Paulo at Unity Jiu Jitsu
School and Gianni at Marcelo Garcia’s Alliance, these two crafty competitors
seem to have also embraced that hard working trait for which New Yorkers are
known for, running through competitions at full pelt this year.

Out of the two, Paulo Miyao has been the busiest, competing
in the past couple of months throughout the globe, including around the US,
Japan, and Brazil where he recently won Brazil National Pro’s open weight
division, beating studs such as Alliance’s Fábio Caloi, Barbosa’s Felipinho
César and Checkmat’s Gabriel Rollo (Palito) in exciting fashion.

Grippo has also been keeping busy, choosing not to rest on
his Pan American title (Gi) laurels, earned earlier this year. Focusing on the
NoGi season, Gianni has been competing in a variety of tournaments, including
the ADCC, where he had a good showing, losing only to the champ Rubens Cobrinha
in the quarter finals. He also took part in the Polaris event, where he showed
his superiority over Tom Barlow, making quick work of the Brit.

But the ramping towards the No-Gi Pan Ams is over, and the
two grapplers are more than prepared to face off this weekend. This foretold
battle will seem somewhat familiar to a few of the fans, as the Miyao vs Grippo
rivalry is quickly becoming a modern day Jiu Jitsu classic.

The Miyao brothers (Paulo and his twin brother Joao) have
met with Gianni on 4 occasions in the past 12 months. Unfortunately for Grippo
the Miyao’s have always been one step ahead, and we might very well be getting
set up to see more of the same. Both Gianni and Paulo have very similar games,
masters of the Berimbolo, back taking and leg drags. But in their similarities,
Miyao seems to have been sharper, more accurate and versatile. On their last
outing (2015 IBJJF Boston Spring Open featherweight final), Paulo dominated
Grippo, sweeping, passing and taking the back of the young Marcelo Garcia
student.

We are 100% sure Gianni has been working hard on mistakes
made in previous matches, but can Grippo come back to avenge his loss? We will
find out this weekend.

By Andre Borges