Grand Slam Recap: Young Gun Black Belts Steal The Show In Rio

Isaque Bahiense, Hugo Marques, Jose Carlos Lima and Gerard Labinski were among the young black belts who shone at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in Rio.

Nov 12, 2017 by FloGrappling

Grand Slam Recap: Young Gun Black Belts Steal The Show In Rio

Isaque Bahiense, Hugo Marques, Jose Carlos Lima, and Gerard Labinski were among the young black belts who shone at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in Rio de Janeiro this weekend.

Bahiense met another fresh black belt in the final in Gustavo Batista, who only received his black belt last month. They fought their way through a stacked 85kg bracket with the match going in Bahiense’s favor via advantage points in a close affair.

Hugo Marques emerged top of a hyper competitive 77kg division, beating out Ricardo Lima of NS Brotherhood via a takedown scored earlier in the match.

Jose Carlos Lima, who got his black belt in 2016, is a rooster weight tipped for great things. Lima faced first-year black belt David Herrera in the final and won his first major title at black belt by beating the Soul Fighters rep via advantages.

Gerard Labinski is a relatively unknown athlete from Poland, who again was only promoted to black belt this year. He won the 110kg division, beating GF Team’s Igor Silva in the final via a single advantage. Labinski was repping Leandro Lo’s NS Brotherhood team.

Ana Carolina Vieira crushed the 70kg division, winning all three matches by submission. She’s had one of the most successful years of any black belt, male or female. Amanda Monteiro of GF Team is another first-year black belt and a fine example of the work GF Team is doing in producing top women's black belt competitors.

Check out the finals below...