Bobby Cannici won his division.  Dan DeMarco took silver in his division.

Derek Picinich won the heavyweight brown belt division this past weekend at the 2009 No-Gi Pan Ams.  He won his first 2 matches by submisison, and on points in the final.

Jerry did phenomenal.  He won 2nd place, losing only to Xande Riberio (2x ADCC World Champion, 5x BJJ World Champion at his weight plus 2x BJJ Absolute World Champion plus many other tournament titles) by 2 points.

List of competitors in the Under 99 kg. Weight Class:

Xande Riberio, Ilir Latifi, Radek Turek, Rafael Davies, Marcio Cruz (Pe De Pano), Anthony Perosh, Vinny Magalhaes,  Rodrigo Henriques, Dean Lister, Andreas Olsen, Glover Teixera, Vesa Vuori, Ricco Rodriguez, Tomasz Szczerek, Jerry Rinaldi,  Yoshiyuki Nakanishi.

Recap of the final match from www.allBJJnews.com:
Xande Ribeiro defeated Gerard Rinaldi (2 to 0)
Xande Ribeiro and Gerard Rinaldi are now battling for the -99kg gold. Xande is in an under hook half guard. Rinaldi seems stable. Now Xande goes for a deep half guard, and Rinaldi looks for a kneebar attempt. Xande defends and gets top position. Rinaldi amazingly goes for an omoplata and is able to stand.

Half guard again, now Rinaldi tries a kimura, Xande almost ends on top. Back in Xande’s 1/2 guard. Xande finally gets a sweep (2-0) but Rinaldi scrambles and is back on top. Rinaldi attacks Xande’s back, but the current champion defends well and almost goes on top. Rinaldi is now trying a kimura, Xande defends and almost sweeps. It’s a chess game, not really active but very technical. Xande is capitalizing on Rinaldi’s attacks and he’s the champion.

Check out today’s Bergen Record article about Jerry Rinaldi qualifying for the 2009 ADCC World Championship, the most prestigious submission grappling tournament in the world:

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/amateur_adult_sports/Taking_a_swing_at_Brazilian_Jiu-Jitsu.html

ADCC is an invitation only event which takes place every 2 years to determine the best no-gi grapplers in the world. With only 16 competitors in each of 5 weight classes for men and 2 weight classes for women plus the absolutes , it is the most difficult Submission Fighting event in existence to gain admittance to.  Ahead of the tournament, qualifiers are held on every continent to determine the representatives of each Continent.

Georges was back training at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York this week after recovering from his groin injury sufffered in his succesful UFC Welterweight World Champion title defense against Thiago Alves.  Georges periodically visits the academy, and Karl is one of his training partners when he is in New York.

October 24th (Gi) and 25th (No-Gi) in Jersey City.  Open to Renzo Gracie affiliated schools and those with close ties to Team Renzo Gracie only.  Free T shirt to Gi competitors and free rash guard to No-Gi competitors.  IBJJF rules (pre-registration required, weigh-in before 1st match etc.).

Jerry Rinaldi, Silver Fox Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Brown belt qualified for the ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) World Championship to be held in September 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.

ADCC is an invitation-only event which takes place every 2 years to determine the best no-gi grapplers in the world. With only 16 competitors in each of 5 weight classes for men and 2 weight classes for women plus the absolutes , it is the most difficult Submission Fighting event in existence to gain admittance to.  Ahead of the tournament, qualifiers are held on every continent to determine the representatives of each nation, making for some of the most difficult and hard-fought competition around.

Congratulations to all who got promoted at the June 9, 2009 class, including Jerry Rinaldi (Brown belt), Jason Baron, Mario DeLuca, Matt Hyman and Edie Mendoza (Blue belts).