#75 - Recapping The 2026 IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix

Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Flow Grappling show. Today we're going to be recapping the IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix, and then we're going to be talking about Polaris 36 that's going down this weekend. As always, I'm Trey Robinson. We got Joey Gilps right there. And then Big Uncle Reed is MIA. This guy came down with the flu or something, came down with a little bit of a bug. I think it's because he didn't want to give up his title. Speaker 2: Oh, that's exactly what happened. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Won't show his face, is embarrassed about how everything went. Uh, didn't get it done in the draft and doesn't want to own up to it. Speaker 1: Yep, so. Speaker 2: He's a draft dodger. Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit of a draft dodger if you will. For a timely reference. Speaker 2: They really got slack. Speaker 1: But, uh, so yeah, Joey Gilps won the Sub Hunters draft this one, retaking the throne off that. Haven't actually done the math, but I just know because all of his guys got submissions and then not a lot of me or Reed's guys got submissions, so. Speaker 2: I think I kind of picked there was seven submissions. I picked five of them. So I I I feel pretty good about uh how I did. Uh, can I can I say something that is true? This is true. Uh, Speaker 1: No, say something false first and then say something true. Speaker 2: Uh, I'm really happy to be here. Definitely nothing no place I'd rather be. Uh, I'd never won one of these drafts before. We were getting on Reed for not winning any of these drafts. I had accepted one of them in on Slack's behalf. But I had never actually won a draft. So we had really been getting on Reed. I was just waiting to get something on the board to finally bring this up that like, no, actually, I've been in last place. Speaker 1: Okay, so you yeah, you were just riding the coattails of of me talking crap to Reed. Speaker 2: Let let him let him somehow fail even more spectacularly. Speaker 1: Yeah, guys, get him, get him. Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Speaker 1: All right, well, congratulations. Welcome to the. Speaker 2: Feels good. Feels good to win. Speaker 1: Feels good to hoist the grand prize, right? Speaker 2: And you know what? Didn't do it small. Did it big my first time. Speaker 1: True. Speaker 2: Just just hungry for number two. Speaker 1: But let's get into the recap of the uh IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix. So obviously it was a sick event out there in Costa Mesa at the Hanger. Um, I guess we can just start off with talking about the big, the big champion, you know, the big man Flow himself, Victor Hugo, ended up taking the bracket, taking home the $50,000 grand prize. And his final a little interesting, huh? I don't I don't I don't think it was necessarily controversy, but it was just kind of like a wild moment that really did kind of decide the match. He hit Pedro Mourinho with the with the major look. Like they were. Yeah, like they were like, uh, super engaged in this kind of standing hand fight thing, which if I'm being honest, there's so many matches where Pedro Mourinho is able to kind of like control that hand fight, get an advantage and win that way. But then eventually they were both they were both being a little coy too, you know. So it was like Pedro's kind of doing his little spins, like doing his little like fake like he's about to kick him or something. I don't really know. Like kind of, you know, having some fun. And then Victor eventually just went like this and did the like, oh, what is that in the distance? And Pedro fully turned his back and Victor just tackled him, which I thought was really funny. But even Victor afterwards told me he was like, yeah, as soon as I hit the mat, I was like, oh no, what have I done? Was that was that not a cool move? But I think they were all both cool about it and everything. But I guess overall, what did you think of that final? Speaker 2: Yeah, it was uh, definitely, you know, I think it's a little controversial. Uh, allowed, obviously within the rules. Uh, you know, the referee did never tell them to stop. Uh, uh, you know, we know that referee a little bit. I you know, he's always a good one to talk to. Uh, and uh, Damian, I was trying to think of his name, Damian. Uh, he never stopped him. It was just Pedro's error, unfortunately. And when you're fighting at the highest level, you make a big error, you can lose the match. There you go. The focus dropped for a second. Uh, yeah, and and there's a lot of money on the line, so I totally understand striking whenever you see the opportunity like that. Uh, yeah, it it does kind of suck to see the tournament get decided on something like that. Uh, can I just bring why are people like, I know Pedro Mourinho has good guard passing. I was so surprised to see Victor standing and wrestling for that long because that like you said, that does feel like Pedro's path to victory lies with getting, you know, if you were to write out the best thing that could happen to for for Pedro in that match is to get Victor wrestling with him. He did, but Victor showed off some some uh good takedowns and kept scoring points, kept scoring points. I think it was like 15 to two by the end. Uh, congratulations to him. 50k richer. Big man Flow getting it done. Speaker 1: $350,000 man. Speaker 2: $350,000 man. Speaker 1: We got to really like, yeah, start chilling on this. People are going to start hitting up Victor asking for uh for for some sweet cash. Speaker 2: Yeah, he he said, hopefully the IRS doesn't watch Jiu-Jitsu. Speaker 1: Yeah, genuinely. Speaker 2: Uh, but uh, yeah, we love Victor. Pedro, again, showing he's one of the baddest dudes around, uh, making it all the way to the finals, beat Pato. First round, submitted Batista. Second round, there's some fun little matches uh sprinkled throughout the bracket there. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think so to talk about uh what you were saying, cuz it is interesting to me that Victor didn't pull against Pedro, you know. I kind of thought it's like, you think Victor wants to play guard anyways, you know? Speaker 2: The best guard north of 220 pounds is Victor Hugo. Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think Pedro has really good passing, probably underrated passing to be honest. But I think maybe there's an aspect of it where Pedro is so good tactically in these matches, you know. Like he's so good at playing the game, scoring necessary points or advantages and then just kind of like controlling enough to not get penalized and then like riding it out that way. Um, I mean, it's like you guys can have whatever take you want on that style, I guess, but it's like it does win Jiu-Jitsu matches and that's kind of like what Pedro does. Is he like wins matches. This guy like wins a lot of matches in that way, especially in GP brackets and stuff. But the other aspect of it, he is dangerous submission hunter, which we saw against Gustavo Batista, where it's like Batista opted to pull, Pedro starts getting into passing, immediately falls back on the heel hook, submits him. It's like, do I think Pedro can leg lock Victor Hugo? I don't know about that. But it's like there's something about it where I guess either Victor wanted to show his wrestling or he just, you know, knew that Pedro is kind of dangerous, more underrated than people give him credit for in the passing game or just the the controlling of the top game where uh it played out that way. But obviously Victor had an incredible performance. Shout out to him, like you already said. I thought Pedro looked great as well, getting that quick sub. What was it like? It was like 10 seconds or something, like 14 seconds. Speaker 2: Against Batista? Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Oh, no, I think it was a little longer than that. I thought it was like a minute. Speaker 1: Oh, okay, okay. Speaker 2: Uh, but it it was. Speaker 1: In the moment, in the yeah, yeah. Oh, 20 seconds. Oh, was it? Okay, wow, it was only 20 seconds. I knew it was like fast, but yeah, it was like one of the first exchanges after he pulled, but in the moment, like Matt side, it's all flurry, like it's hard to remember everything. But, uh, he looked great. Um, I want. Speaker 2: I by the way, we've been doing more breakdown videos. I know uh people have been liking the octopus one that just came out. Uh, may do a breakdown. So many more people dropping back on leg locks successfully from top position. Uh, and I think there's some reasons for that. Uh, may talk about that in the future. Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. I think one example of someone who does that really well is Cole Abate, where he threatens the either the leg drag or the heel hook kind of off of that like depending on how they react to that. Um, but we'll get into his match in a second. To talk more about the rest of the GP, I wanted to give a shout out to Marlon to Jick also. Marlon fought Victor first round, and of of course, Victor won and went on to win the bracket. But I did think like Marlon looked good, especially as someone as high level as Victor Hugo and established world champion Black belt. This is Marlon making his IBJJF Black belt debut. And I thought he like he I think he pulled, right? He pulled against Victor. And then I thought his guard was actually like super impressive. Like and there was a moment where Victor almost had him passed, but he was able to like just keep throwing his leg over kind of in that like, I guess it'd be like a backside Choy bar, kind of like the opposite of a normal. Speaker 2: Like a north south almost. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Where he like is able to just throw his leg up over and kind of hook it inside. And I was like, holy shit, dude, like is he actually going to use this to either like get a submission threat or at least like escape the position, get back standing or get back to his guard. So I thought overall Marlon looked really good. Marlon did call me out for me and you saying Ferris won. He came up to me and he was like, whoa, look at this, look at this guy over here, freaking picking against me. So, I said I would say something nice to about him. So, I want to say this direct to the camera. Marlon to Jick is one of the most handsome grapplers competing today. You know, so if you guys just want to follow a real handsome fella, then go follow Marlon to Jick, all right? That was my nice thing I wanted to say about Marlon, but. Speaker 2: There you go. Speaker 1: Everything else about him is garbage. I'm kidding. Really really good dude. I like Marlon a lot. Speaker 2: I like Marlon a lot. Uh, Marlon, I'm keeping it real. That was my opinion on that match. I thought you did awesome here. Uh, I thought you've done awesome so many other times. Speaker 1: I told him if it went to a decision against Victor, I would give him the decision. Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah, I'll just give my opinion, you know, it's. Speaker 1: I have no I have no issue lying either, so. Speaker 2: Uh, no, I love lying. I I would love to lie. I I lie as often as I possibly can. Speaker 1: I usually do about for seven hours every night. Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, Marlon looked awesome. His guard looked incredible. Speaker 1: Anybody else impress you just in the GP as a whole? Speaker 2: Javier Barter for sure, I thought looked really good. Him coming out and uh really putting it on Nick Hartman. If you understand how good Nick Hartman is, you'll understand how impressive this was. Nick's a guy who I think by the time we wrap back around uh IBJJF Nogi Pans, Nogi Worlds, I think he's a guy who's going to end up on a podium at least one time for sure. Uh, he he's so talented and and uh for Javier to come out and be able to just really put it on him, pass the guard, I think multiple times, get the submission win. Uh, that was awesome. That that was really uh uh very, very impressive to me to see. Speaker 1: Yeah, do you ever have like, do you know of any references of Javier competing in the ghee? I don't know if I ever yeah, I haven't either. I wonder if he's exclusively Nogi. Speaker 2: I I feel like it's one of those ones that's maybe happened, like maybe he's hopped into a bracket or two, but yeah, just almost exclusively Nogi in terms of like him being successful. Like we've said, we've seen him in ADCC competition as well at trials. Would love to see him at West Coast trials. That would be awesome. Uh, you know, he could be the first Panamanian guy that I'm aware of to uh uh place at uh ADCC trials. Potentially even win the damn thing. Uh, so yeah, just thought he looked incredible. Speaker 1: Like Javier, obviously really good at Jiu-Jitsu, absolute beast. Whenever whenever him and Nick Hartman took the mat, I was like, oh my God, bro. These dudes are tanks. Like Javier Barter, a few people were telling me that have like, they've had teammates or something uh go against Javier, that he's like just the strongest dude in the world. And it's like when you look at his legs and stuff, he's an absolute tank. I'm like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like, of course this guy is just kind of like throwing dudes by taking their back, just kind of dominating top like. So, I think he's an absolute beast. I think he's a dude to just keep watching. Like I've never interacted with him like face to face personally. I don't know what he's like, you know, on that side of it, but I do know on the mat, he seems to be incredible to watch. So, definitely want to keep an eye on Javier Barter, especially if he enters trials and everything. I think that'd be super sick. But I I think Nick Hartman probably a little bummed in the way that shaped out, but that was just a tough match, you know, like tough match against Javier Barter. Speaker 2: Black belt debuts often do not go amazing, to be perfectly honest. We still know how awesome Nick Hartman is. We've seen him compete many times. Uh, I know he probably wanted to come in there and really make a statement and put it on people. Man, this this bracket was so good. You know what I mean? Uh, for a brown belt world champion coming up into this, facing almost exclusively black belt world champions uh throughout the bracket. Uh, you know, him, for Marlon, for Pixley, neither one of them was able to make it very deep, but I think uh the future continues to be really bright. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think uh Pixley, Batista, that one was a little bit of a stinker, to be honest. It was like, you know, just a lot of seated versus standing. Um, probably didn't play out a way that either guy really hoped for, you know, but I don't know. These matches get tough whenever you get at this this not just the black belt level, but an IBJJF invite tournament. It's like you know every dude in there is going to be so rock solid. Like you don't want to make any mistakes and sometimes that's how it plays out. But was there any other big moment or anything from the GP like sitting out. Speaker 2: Pedro Pato's maybe the last match we haven't talked about and that was also just a super strategic one. Uh, and you know, that's part of the problem with being in an absolute like this is, you know, you try to put a smaller guy like Pato in, even if he's facing a guy like Pedro Mourinho who's not 280 pounds, you know, he's still a uh, you know, multiple weight classes bigger and uh uh also a high level strategically sound, technically sound athlete. Uh, so very difficult to be the smaller guy in that situation. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the biggest weight discrepancies in the first round was I think Victor Hugo, Marlon was maybe like the biggest at like a 60 pound difference. But then I think Pedro Pato was still like 50 pounds difference. So even though like Pedro's not the biggest dude, he's still a big dude, like especially like weight wise. He's not incredibly tall, but he's like very like built. And then Pato's obviously the smallest guy. So it's still a big weight difference there. Um, but so that's how the GP shaped out, you know, Victor Hugo, shout out him getting it done. I think jumping into just like big stand out performance I want to talk about. The first one I kind of want to talk about is Sarah Galvao. I thought Sarah Galvao had one of the most impressive performances because obviously Sarah is still so young in her black belt career. Um, she's been super active. She's competing a lot since getting her black belt. So it's already making her feel like this. Speaker 2: She's she's competed since this match. She's already had more matches. She's she can't be more active. Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's kind of like it makes it feel like Sarah is this like established veteran already, even though she's like still in her rookie year at Black belt. And for her to come out and like, I guess one aspect of it that I think is so impressive about Sarah is we're seeing her in so many different weight divisions, you know. We see her in the absolute final against Gabby Passanya at Euros. She competes lightweight, wins lightweight, and now we see her do this at I think medium heavy, right? So it's like to go out and submit uh Maka in the medium heavy division is like, I just thought that was super impressive. Like I think Sarah Galvao like the sky's the limit for her. I know we talk about her a lot, but it's just like it's kind of like we're watching a pretty incredible athlete at work right now and it's like, you know, it's something to be grateful for as Jiu-Jitsu fans that we have this young star athlete kind of like blooming in front of us. So, I thought her performance was super sick. Speaker 2: 100%. Every time we see Sarah, I feel like we're seeing something uh a little new, a little different to her game. Uh, here she was able to not just win, but win by submission, win in dominant fashion against uh uh top five, top six ranked uh medium heavy. She's only a lightweight that's going up two weight classes. That's incredible for her to be able to get done. Uh, I I yeah, I I just can't be more impressed with everything we see out of Sarah Galvao. Uh, I know that she's got about as high an expectation for herself as you can have as a rookie black belt, wants to be a super grand slam champion. Uh, as a rookie, she's already getting that done. Uh, the first of the five uh uh uh what's the things from uh Avengers? The first of the five. Speaker 1: Infinity Stones. Speaker 2: Infinity Stones has already been collected at Euros. Uh, now she's just got four more. This is just kind of a little side quest, got this done. Uh, Maka's incredible. Maka could win a world title this year. Uh, so for Sarah to go out there and be able to submit her, I think is uh really just uh uh uh so telling of what her ceiling is, what her potential is. Speaker 1: Yeah, Vitor Freitas, if you're watching right now, we need you to make the uh kind of AI graphic of Sarah with the like gauntlet thing with, you know, one of the stones on it and just keep progressing with that. I feel like that's a Vitor Freitas Communica uh type of post to make right there. So that we'll give you that one for free, Vitor. Speaker 2: The rest you're going to have to pay for. Speaker 1: Yeah, the rest, you know, we're going to come to collect. Speaker 2: I got a lot of stupid AI ideas that we could be making. Don't worry. Speaker 1: True. Speaker 2: Don't worry. Speaker 1: Um, another impressive performance I thought was Helena Kravvar. Helena kind of just doing what she does. You want to kind of talk through that match and everything? What do you thought about Helena? Speaker 2: Definitely. Super impressive match. Uh, impressive because of how game Agata was. Uh, Agata came out and uh, you know, she has some uh credentials herself in Nogi. She's a Nogi Brown belt world champion for the IBJJF in 2024. Uh, but she came right at her, was putting her in deep submission trouble very early. Uh, had some super meaningful exchanges entering the legs. Helena was able to weather that storm, escape that, turn it into a Darce. It was a beautiful counter. It was one of the more exciting matches I feel like we've had here in 2026. Uh, really back and forth, really technical, really high level. Uh, one of the few matches where the person losing, I'm actually going to increase their ranking because of how impressive they were. Uh, that that really the last time I did that was Abe and Felipe Costa, right? Doesn't really you have to really show something. Uh, so yeah, I thought Agata was uh uh awesome in this match. Helena, obviously is a machine. 13 match win streak, all by submission, uh, couldn't be more impressed. Speaker 1: Definitely. Speaker 2: Not all by I think 12 by. The last 13 matches she's had, she's won by submission. I think the win streak extends even further. Speaker 1: Gotcha. Yeah, so super impressive performance by not just Helena, but Agata as well. And then I want to talk about Cole Abate and Will Wilson. This match for me, like being there in person, this was one of the most intense matches watching Matt side. And like I I think there's like a there's a distinction between whenever you're like watching a mat live, like in person and like watching it on a stream, cuz it's like when you're watching the stream, it doesn't always capture the intensity and like the ambiance of the moment. But this one felt like big for some reason there live. Like it's like both guys come out and I'm kind of like, I I feel myself tightening up a little bit. Like I'm like, oh shit, okay, how's this going to go, you know? Speaker 2: Really got to get this angle. I get the shot. Speaker 1: Yeah, got got to get the shot by any means necessary. And like that's I thought live, that's just how it played out. Like it was like both guys super, you know, like super intense, super focused. Speaker 2: It felt like there was a lot on the line. Speaker 1: Yeah, and like I like there was, but also there wasn't. But like so it's like I I don't know why it felt like that, but it did seem like that. Obviously Cole's kind of going up to lightweight for this, where we've been seeing him compete at featherweight at uh IBJJF and everything. Will Wilson was able to beat Matteo Cardona at IBJJF Euros at lightweight, and then Cole kind of bounced up, got one back for his boy, got the win there, played a played a super good game, obviously kind of, you know, I thought controlled a lot of exchanges. But I did also think Will Wilson looked super impressive. So for me, this was one where both guys like definitely kind of just raised their stock, you know. It made me think about the prospect of seeing Cole more at lightweight. Like I'm kind of like, I don't know, if it I don't I don't know if it like I don't know. I haven't decided yet if I'm like, that would be sick to keep seeing Cole at lightweight or to keep seeing him at featherweight. Do you have any thoughts on that? Like Cole bouncing around kind of between these two divisions or anything? Speaker 2: Cole is definitely one of those guys who when we see him at these major tournaments, when I saw him at Euros, when I see him, I feel like he's one of those guys where you especially notice how thin he is on day one. Uh, and how sucked out he is to have some of those early matches. Uh, and you know, he's he's far from the only guy, uh, especially down some of those lower weights. You see some of these guys getting real crazy with it. Uh, so anytime he can move up to light, I'm always interested by that. I feel like we've seen some of his better performances at light. I know for this last IBJJF season, he went from feather to light. He looked incredible. Uh, and and so uh, I thought that was awesome. I really watching from home, like you said, you know, you had the experience of being able to watch live. Watching from home, uh, I just kept waiting for that one distinctive moment, but it was just Cole just getting a little bit ahead uh in the match and and just being able to edge it. And that speaks obviously, we know how incredible Cole is. That speaks to how incredible Will is. Uh, you know, for a guy who went one and one in Brown belt worlds last year to turn it around and now be a world class lightweight. There's a real chance that we just watched the 2026 featherweight and lightweight champions face off in that match. Speaker 1: Very true. Speaker 2: Uh, and we're going to look back at that match and realize, actually, this was even more monumental than we realized in the moment. These are two guys who are operating on a super high level. Maybe not, maybe I'm wish casting. Uh, but it it did kind of have that uh that sense and that air of grandiosity of like, okay, nothing, you know, there's not a major title on the line, but there's a lot on the line. Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. And so like, one thing I guess I wanted to talk about, maybe even ask you about, because one thing Cole kept doing. Speaker 2: Otherwise you're just talking to yourself, so I don't know. Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm talking to all the boys at home watching right now. What's up, fellas? Speaker 2: Maybe I'll even include you at some point in this. Speaker 1: What's up, fellas? No, um, during the match, Cole was doing a lot of where he would kind of throw his outside leg around almost into a reap position. And this is something I feel like Tynan does a lot. And a lot of the AOJs kind of do a lot. And I even feel like maybe it's potentially what led to Tynan getting DQ'd at, what would have been 2024 Worlds, right, against Francisco Low. And it seemed like Cole was doing that position a lot where he was then able to knock uh Will like back on his butt, using it and stuff, kind of rack up the advantages that way. And now, self-admittedly, this is where my technical knowledge of the nuance of some of these positions starts capping out. And I can speak misinformed about it if you guys want me to, but I'd prefer not to. I like letting kind of, you know, the athletes explain a lot of this stuff. But. Speaker 2: Which I am not one to do. Speaker 1: Yeah, which but so I thought, um, I just thought that was interesting. And I think it's interesting how willing a lot of these AOJ guys are to play kind of like, like to toe that line of this position where it does seem like you're so close to being able to get DQ'd. But whenever you're obviously as good as someone like Tynan, you're as good as someone like Cole, and then you have G Mendes in your corner, who like, I would assume knows the the rules better than like almost anyone on earth. Speaker 2: Down to the T, yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. It's like they clearly see something there where they like think this is a good position to be playing. But it just feels scary, right? Like I don't know. It's just like there were a couple times where I was like, I don't know, are we getting close here to like, like Cole better not mess up, right? And like, or even like, you know, I'm not saying Will Wilson would do this. I don't think he would, but like some guys will kind of like just push the foot in to like and then kind of like look for the ref like, I don't know, it's like, but I don't know. I just think that's a little bit of an interesting technique that we keep seeing out of these guys. Speaker 2: Yeah, I I 100% agree with you that uh a lot of these guys, it feels like at the black belt level especially. I feel like when I look at the color belts, I really don't see it and I think that's very interesting as well. Uh, they really ride the line with where they place the foot in the single leg X especially. Uh, and Tynan's was a little bit of a different situation in in at Worlds in 2024, but like, you know, John Ainya an hour before that got DQ'd for a very similar position in the reap rules. I know it are different if the person has their foot down on the mat versus like if you're like seated uh in in a double sit and a double pull. Uh, the reap rules are a little bit different. Uh, there's other athletes that really ride the line. I'm not going to name names we haven't brought up yet, but there are a couple out there where it's like, man, I just can't believe this person hasn't been DQ'd like once or twice for this kind of stuff. Uh, yeah, athletes are are going to continue to push the line and it's going to be up to referees to continue to enforce it. Uh, the way I've heard it put and the way I like to think about it, a dog's going to run to the end of the leash, right? And you it's up to you to kind of set how far do you want that leash to be? Because if they start DQ'ing everybody at a certain point, by the time we show up to Worlds next year, I promise you all the smarter athletes are going to have internalized the change. Speaker 1: Yeah, and and it's like the ref's responsible for like enforcing like obviously an illegal move and DQ'ing. And it's also he's responsible for allowing a legal application of like a somewhat close technique to play out, which is what I think AOJ is kind of getting really good at is like making sure it's like, no, this is not illegal, you know, it's like this is just an effective technique that like, I don't know, is like it like works well in that scenario. But. Speaker 2: I agree. I also think it's important to point out these referees, uh, I think once upon a time there was the the uh belief that some of the refs didn't understand some of the leg entanglements as well as they needed to to referee those positions. Speaker 1: But everything's kind of like caught up and. Speaker 2: I think they they know them well by now. These are very professional referees who spend a lot of time studying. Uh, they're all black belts, especially when you get into these pro events and high level majors. They're all very experienced black belts. Speaker 1: This ref this event was also reffed out the wazoo, to be honest. Like I don't know if you could see on the stream, but there was the main judge, then there was the corner judges seated, and then there was a table with two guys watching like the the the stream to like also call out techniques and like that's where you get the like talking to the in the earpiece, you know. So I was like, man, these boys ain't missing a thing, dude. They are locked in. Speaker 2: That's kind of where I'm at. So yeah, if all those guys all working together, all with a way superior understanding of the rules, you know, if they're all cool with it, uh, then then it should be cool. I thought, man, you know, at one point I thought a double DQ for not stalling. Stalling isn't the right word, but just lack of progression might have been on the table because they were doing such a good job of locking each other up and it was like three calls each with like three minutes left. I was like, man, you know, are we going to, you know, that that that's where it really starts to get me nervous when you have three calls with three minutes left for for uh lack of action. Uh, and and, you know, those guys were able to keep it going. I thought the last 30 seconds they really sprinted and Cole really tried to put a stamp on it. Uh, and uh, was able to get it done. Like I said, just two super high level elite guys who could both win world titles this year. Speaker 1: For sure. Yeah, the other the other technique aspect I want to point out is just like how good Cole's K guard is. Like he's just yeah, Cole Abate's K guard is insane right now. I think if you're trying to get into K guard, then Cole's definitely got to watch. I also know he dropped a uh uh or maybe it was already available, but I saw him promoting it, like his K guard master class on AOJ Plus. Like I think that's probably a great resource if you like messing around with K guard. I know sometimes like I just get into K guard and then I kind of like figure it out. Call me CLA if you want, you know what I'm saying, brother? Just getting into that K guard and seeing what daddy can do from there. But that's probably not the smartest way if you have lack of knowledge like me. So I would go watch uh Cole's K guard because it is super impressive. But the other. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, my game's real CLA. Catching L's always. Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go, baby. Um, then this is less about the Jiu-Jitsu, but something I think is worth talking about. Speaker 2: Oh, no. Speaker 1: Mr. Wilson. Speaker 2: Oh. Speaker 1: Mr. Wilson, dude. This guy is bringing in some lore to the to the Will Wilson uh world of grappling, you know, it's like. Speaker 2: It's all it's all good flavor. Speaker 1: Yeah. No, we got we got hit to Will Wilson cuz of Euros. And now I'm like, real interested in keeping watching Will Wilson, seeing what he's all about. And. Speaker 2: Hawaii's favorite son. Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we found that we saw that video of him running around, you know, and I was like, damn, this dude's crazy. And I I get to the event and I like see Will and I'm like, yo, what's up, Will? I'm Trey, nice to meet you. Like it's cool to meet you in person all this, you know. And uh, I believe they listen to the podcast sometimes. So, be careful what you say next. But uh, I'm just kidding. Only good things to say. But he's like, dude, you got to meet my dad. And I was like, I started shaking in my boots. I was like, I was like, meet me. Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm I don't know if I'm ready on that one, Will. Speaker 1: Who? Me? I don't know if I want to meet Mr. Wilson. I'm scared of this guy. But he like tried to go. Speaker 2: Can I check my T levels first, Will? Speaker 1: Yeah. He like he tried to go find his dad, which I was like, Will, Will, you didn't have to do that. You're getting ready for a major match. You don't need to go look for your dad. But Will is super cool, guy, super nice. And he like tried to go find him, couldn't find him. And he was like, ah, don't worry about it though. You'll know, you'll know who my dad is once the match starts. And so, they call out Will Wilson, and I just hear this like mixed between a howl and a bark. And he's just like, and it's just like the whole arena. Speaker 2: There's an echo on it, right? Yeah. Speaker 1: Yes. It's just like bouncing around the arena. And I was like, I think that might be Mr. Wilson. Speaker 2: Feel like we have found, we have located. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. I believe I found Mr. Wilson. And then like as the match kept going on, you even sent a message and you were like, I think he has an air horn. And I was like, no, brother. That's man-made. Speaker 2: Turned out, yeah. Speaker 1: Dude, he started hitting the fog horn on him. And he's just doing the the mouth fog horn going nuts. I was like, dude, this guy is incredible. I'm a huge fan of Mr. Wilson. So, I'm going to say this. Hey, Will, you and your dad are competing for my current favorite of the Wilson family. I haven't met your mom or I don't know if you have other siblings. I want to meet them too. Cuz I think this family might be one of the most interesting families in Jiu-Jitsu right now. Speaker 2: But but the rankings can change at any time. Speaker 1: Yeah, the rankings can change at any time. It's a very it's a very very tight race. Yeah. So, one good appearance either from Will on the mats or Mr. Wilson from the crowd and that can shift right away. But yeah, dude, like I have a feeling like right before like Will's going to be like walking out for a black belt world final. And Mr. Wilson's going to hit the perfect frequency. Yes. Uh, holler. And it's it's going to like just supercharge Will to like Super Saiyan 3 and he's going to go out there and like smoke the guy, you know what I mean? For sure. Like it's it's it's too ingrained. It's already been written. The prophecy's coming. We we just have to be there for it. Speaker 2: For sure. Speaker 1: Definitely, you know. Mr. Wilson is about it. He's about that life. He's getting rowdy out there for his boy. I love to see it. So, I don't know. I want I want to hang out with these guys, but I don't know if I can hang, to be honest. Like I get my pull-ups up. Speaker 2: By the way. Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to you know what? I'm going to commit to working on my pull-ups and my push-ups. So if I hang with you guys, I can bang them out if it calls for it. Speaker 2: It very much seems like Will might be the second most fit member of his family. And I haven't met anyone else in his family. So he might be two out of two his friend. Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine he has like a really big family. Like we need to talk to Will more and figure this out. He might have like five brothers and three sisters and they're all just he's the last. Speaker 2: And he might be on bottom. Yeah, like in terms of athleticism. And he's yeah, some of the stuff they're putting out. And it is really cool. You know, we we see so often how often Jiu-Jitsu can bring like fathers and sons together especially. But you know, you know, any parental uh combination there. Uh, but always such a cool thing when you see the dad in the workout. And like not just in it, but like really going after it and like kind of setting the pace on some of it. Uh, that that's an awesome thing. And yeah, we've talked to, you know, Marine family and and uh always getting after it. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think it's like to to I guess to just go back to like almost even a hobbyist perspective on Jiu-Jitsu stuff. I feel like so many people wonder like, oh, how can I get my kid to like want to do Jiu-Jitsu? Like I love Jiu-Jitsu so much. Like how can I get my kid to do it? And really, I don't have a kid. I have a dog that I consider my kid, but she doesn't really like Jiu-Jitsu. She does dominate at the dog park though. She'll play guard, she'll pass, doesn't matter. Shout out Kona. She absolutely owns. She we have this one guy Ollie, he's on the marketing team. He has his dog Penny. Kona Kona would absolutely destroy Penny. Speaker 2: No, not true. Not true. Not true. You can give no, you can give. Speaker 1: Penny dog walks Kona every day. It's just not true. And we're going to we're going to cut that from the podcast and it's not true. Speaker 2: Wait, and but you dog walk your dog. So by transitive property, you dog walk Kona? Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 2: That's what he's saying about Kona. Speaker 1: I'm cutting all of this. No one no one is going to see this on the show. And honestly, that was incredibly disrespectful for him to come on our show like that and just say something mean. But anyways. Speaker 2: Mean and untrue. Speaker 1: Yeah. Back to the parental thing. Um, I just like I think like obviously parents want their kids to be interested in what they're interested in, but it's obviously seems to be a very hard thing to do, especially trying to get a kid into Jiu-Jitsu and it's like, uh, do you want to force this kid to do this? So they're going to get burned out. Maybe they're just not into it. Maybe they want to play football and just take dudes' heads off, you know. But whenever you're like Mr. Wilson and Will is, and even like Jeremy Abate and Cole is a good example. It's like it's like we kind of have a great match of just like good father-son combos it feels like in these two, where it's like they're in the workouts with their kids, you know. It's like, it's not like they're like forcing their kid. This is I don't know, to point this out. This is something I always thought was interesting. Even when like when we go to train and stuff, like we go train and the kids' class is getting done right before like the the the adult class starts. And there's so many parents out there who are just there to like pick up their kid that I've never seen train before. And I always think that's so interesting because it's like, obviously you see the value in Jiu-Jitsu. You see the value in like your kid doing a martial art, in like, you know, committing to this thing. But it's like, you're not doing it. That's so weird to me. Like I just feel like if you if you're a parent and you're like, oh, my kid's going to train because I know it's good for them. Why would you also not just train? Cuz it's like you know it's a good thing to do. So I think that's very it's like a weird dynamic that never made sense. But I think it's like when you're kind of like Jeremy Abate or you're Mr. Wilson and you're kind of like leading from the front and then it's just like now your kid just kind of wants to they want to do what you do, you know. It's like it's like they want to like do what their hero does in a way where it's like a cool thing to see for sure where he's like running alongside Will, you know. It's like it's like they're preparing for the world championship together. And I think that is a good combo. Like if you want your kid to do Jiu-Jitsu, it's like, you got to be doing it too, you know. It's like you got to like set the example and then eventually hope that they're going to become a part of it, kind of on their own will just cuz they see you doing it. But I guess that's a little bit of my take on parenting as a guy without any kids. We got Slack who has a kid behind the camera and he's like, man, you don't know what the freak you're talking about. But I'm just kidding. So I don't know. Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a kids. Speaker 1: You got you don't got any kids either, huh? Speaker 2: Uh, I was a kids coach for many years and I never answer that question directly. It work. Uh, I was a kids coach for many years. Yeah, I saw so many great examples of people who could train as hobbyists and train uh uh, you know, whatever speed they wanted to. Uh, and then also their kid could train at whatever speed they wanted to and it was still something they could share. I want anybody to come away from this thing, oh, well, if I want my kid to be a black belt world champion, I got to be a freaking, you know, in the gym every day. That's also not true. But like the more you can share it and the more that uh, you know, you can make it a thing that you do together. Uh, you know, the family that trains together stays together, right? You're just more likely you're all going to keep making it a part of part of your lives together, making it a thing that you guys all come back to. Uh, I I've seen that be a really wonderful thing for a lot of people. Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess one more anecdote on this thing is uh Adam Wardzinski was in town over the week and I was talking to him about his son Jan, who's one of my best friends in the whole world. I love Jan. Uh. Speaker 2: Sleepiest boy in the world. Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't seen him in a while. Yeah, Jan, good one. But haven't seen him in a while, but I I need to go see Jan, you know, I miss him. But Adam was here and he was telling me about how uh Jan is training now. He's like four years old or so, somewhere around there. And obviously I don't think Adam wanted to like force him into it, but of course, you know, how do you not want your son to like train whenever that's kind of your whole life and everything. And he said like, I think Adam is like an unofficial assistant coach now for the kids' class at Hybrid, which is really funny to think about. Like Adam Wardzinski's like a kids' coach. But it's mainly because like Jan wanted him to like stay around and be there. But he said that Jan has started like wanting to stay for Adam's class and like get to watch his dad do it and stuff. And it's like, dang, that's a that's a cool thing that, you know, it's like he's not forcing Jan to do it, but he's just like naturally kind of be like, well, I did all this training. Now I want to see how dad does it. And then I think like he'll roll with Jan or something at the end and it's like, that's a pretty cool thing. Speaker 2: That's also such a different calculation. Slack, I'm sure you'll appreciate this. Uh, that's such a different calculation when you're Adam Wardzinski and your son wants to watch you do Jiu-Jitsu and watch you in class versus like if if uh little Slack Jr. wants to come watch watch Slack do Jiu-Jitsu, it's like, close your eyes, son, close your eyes. How many blue belts do I get to roll with today? You know, just like, okay, but it's like, this guy going to ask me to train, this guy going to ask me to train. Speaker 1: When when you're not Adam Wardzinski, there's a lot of close your eyes, son. I don't want you to see daddy like this. Speaker 2: You could you could just go. Speaker 1: I don't want you to see daddy like this. Speaker 2: You could just be the eye patch for this round. That's fine. Yeah, that's fine. Speaker 1: Yeah. Here we go. Here's like here's 14 screens. Enjoy that. Speaker 2: Just for this next seven minutes while I'm rolling with this one guy, while I'm rolling with Nick. Yeah. Speaker 1: Uh, yeah, but it's been a long time off. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure. And like, do you know from that that video Michelle did? She didn't compete at all in 2025? Yeah, so she was away from competition all of 2025, which is obviously a huge deal for a competitor. Like you said, kind of it's like can be different reasons, you know. I think also Kendall just like leans in, she'd been leaning into a lot of the media stuff as well. Speaker 2: That's what it is. I think it's a lot more. It's like her just picking her spots. Speaker 1: Yeah, just kind of like establishing herself more as like a media presence as well, doing commentary, a lot of stuff like that. But you you have to assume that she's probably pretty amped up wanting to make a big statement in her return back. But she has a pretty game opponent in Annabelle here. Um, another uh big match is Sarah Galvao versus Libby Jinj, right? In the bantamweight division. These are all Nogi, by the way. I don't know if we said that. These are all Nogi matches. Speaker 2: Yeah, these are all Nogi matches. Yeah, we do not know 100% how to say Libby's last name. I'm guessing that you also are not 100% sure. Uh, so yeah, it's Libby versus Sarah. Libby, uh, actually got uh world ranked there for a second at 135 pounds. She had a great uh Nogi Pans, I think it might have been or or Nogi Euros where she beat some really tough people. Uh, and she is definitely one of the better Nogi up and comers in the UK. And what do you have when you what do you do when you have one of the best Nogi up and comers on the continent? Put him against one of the best in the world. Let's see what happens, right? Honestly. Uh, and and Sarah has signed a Polaris contract. I believe this is her first time on Polaris. Uh, we've already talked about how she's one of the shining stars of the sport right now. It's always so impressive to see her out there. Uh, and this is going to be a chance to see her in a uh new context, a new little format in the UK. Excited to see this, her and Libby. Speaker 1: Definitely. And then uh the final super fight on the main card is going to see Ross Nichols and Sam Gibson. A couple of OGs in the UK scene. Ross Nichols, an ADCC veteran, uh been holding it down on the UK scene for a long time. Um, trains out of London Grapple. I believe Sam Gibson is out of Arma. That's the gym that Fion Davis is the uh the head coach at, kind of that new really sick looking gym. Speaker 2: Yeah, it does look amazing. Speaker 1: Looks like an Equinox for Jiu-Jitsu, you know, like super sick looking. But so I think that's a pretty cool couple OG UK guys throwing it down. But overall, I think it's going to be a sick card, you know. Like I said, March 7th. Speaker 2: Big prelim card available uh live exclusive live on uh YouTube as well. Speaker 1: David Carride's competing on the uh the prelim. That's uh Owen's coach, who gave him his black belt. So I'm kind of that's one of my my prelim ones I've I've marked. I'm excited to watch to see David Carride compete on there. Um, but yeah, March 7th, it starts at 8:30 Central time, right? Is what it was? 8:30 Central time, which if you ask me, that's a great time for a Jiu-Jitsu card. I love waking up like on a Saturday morning and just immediately knowing that I can just turn on Flow Grappling and start watching some Jiu-Jitsu right away. Speaker 2: It's like being a little kid with your cartoons. Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's like this is adult Jiu-Jitsu guy cartoons. Saturday morning cartoons. Just get you a little coffee, you know, freaking whatever supplements you like to enjoy with your coffee and then start watching some Jiu-Jitsu on Flow Grappling, you know. Speaker 2: However you enjoy. Speaker 1: I like creatine, but whatever you boys are taking, you know what I'm saying? Wink wink. But uh, I'm stoked for it. Speaker 2: I'm pumped. Speaker 1: I got my lighter, I got my spoon. I can't wait. Yeah. All right, well, I think that pretty much wraps it up for us here. We we have some big WNO stuff coming out as well. So we've announced we're about to announce the second uh member of the youth bracket. Speaker 2: We're doing that are we doing that today? Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll post it today. Yeah, so it's like the first one we announced is what was the first one we announced? Jay Ortiz. We announced Jay Ortiz for this 145 pound youth bracket. And today we're announcing J P Tran. All right. And listen, I'll say this, the JP and JP Tran stands for he was just playing before, but he ain't no more. All right. So this one's this one's getting down to brass tack. Speaker 2: We are making him go by AB Tran on this one cuz he's all business. Speaker 1: Okay, yeah. He's going from just playing Tran to all business Tran. Uh-huh. So we got AB Tran. He'll be announced today. Um, and then a couple more big names coming for this bracket. Speaker 2: This is going to be the best teen bracket in the history of Jiu-Jitsu. Okay. That I'm I'm willing to put my name on that. Uh, this we got the four guys that we wanted. Uh, super exciting, all been proven against high level elite opposition. All four of these guys have future black belt ADCC world champion written all over them. Uh, one night bracket. We have the right rule set. We have the right guys. This is going to be the best team bracket of all time. Speaker 1: Yeah, so super sick. Keep your eye out for more of those announcements coming. But I think that's all we got for you guys today. Thank you for tuning in and watching and we'll see you guys in the next episode.