#71 - Recapping Team WNO vs Team Polaris At Polaris 35

Speaker 1: All right, what's up everybody? Welcome to a special edition of the Flow Grappling show here. Obviously, we got Big Reed, I'm Uncle Trey. Mix it up on them this time, but not always do you do a podcast in front of a castle, you know, a castle cast if you will. You know, you want to tell the people where we are right now? Speaker 2: Ah, I I I forget how to even pronounce it. What is it? Carfili? Speaker 1: Carfili? Speaker 2: Carfili? Speaker 1: Maybe that's a little too Irish with it. Speaker 2: Carfili. Uh, you know, this is a, I believe this castle behind us, uh, built in like the 13th century. Uh, so, so very, very old castle here. Incredible town. We're in South Wales. Carfili, uh, beautiful day here in South Wales. We just wrapped up Polaris 35 yesterday. Epic, epic show. Team WNO versus Team Polaris. Uh, great time. We had to kind of come out here and and check out a little bit, you know, of what Wales had to offer and so we had to come check out a castle. And we're bringing you guys along with us, so hope you appreciate it. Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we'll we'll get into recapping the event and all that. I got to ask, what's your favorite century for castles? Speaker 2: My favorite century for castles? Speaker 1: I mean, it's I've been dying to ask you, Reed. Speaker 2: Ah, 13th century. Looking looking pretty good. Looking pretty good here to me. Speaker 1: Yeah, this is for sure one of the best centuries. Speaker 2: They got that leaning tower. You know, I don't I don't know if you guys can see it. Can they see it? Yeah, you guys can kind of see it. Speaker 1: Yeah, at a steeper grade than the leaning tower of Pisa. Speaker 2: Um, just beautiful to be honest here and uh just an incredible castle. It's got this huge moat around the entire thing. So, you know, one of the perks of of the job. It's obviously we're living the dream out here. We get to do jiu-jitsu, travel the world and see some of the, you know, some of these uh incredible sites that the world has to offer and uh, you know, this is just another example of it for sure. Speaker 1: Yeah. One problem though I do have with castles, you know, um, deep, you know, deep if you look real far back into the uh, the Robinson, you know, ancestors and all that. I got I got a little Viking blood in me and I see a castle, I want to take it. Like I want to run that castle by by daybreak, you know what I mean? It's just it's just something in my genes, but I'll try to refrain. Speaker 2: No, I have a lot of ancestry from uh Cork, Ireland. Speaker 1: Oh, really? Speaker 2: Actually. Yeah, yeah, when we when we kind of mapped it all back and and when we went to Ireland and I went and I won the Irish Open uh back in the day. I don't know if you guys remember that. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: But uh Speaker 1: People saying Reed didn't doesn't compete. Speaker 2: Doesn't compete. Irish Open champion here, brother. You know, Mexico City. Speaker 1: How many Irish Open champions you guys know? I know one. And a bunch more if I just start thinking about it. Speaker 2: Yeah, Richie B probably. Yeah, probably tons of them, tons of them. Yeah, come to think of it. But Speaker 1: Yeah, probably Fion, probably won that one. Rosa Walsh probably still. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah, scoot this way a little. I think I'm casting a shadow. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was trying to catch that sun. And like I said, beautiful day here in Wales. This the the the sun is setting. Uh so yeah, but Cork, Ireland, never been there. We went to Dublin, but I never got over to Cork. But uh Speaker 1: Yeah. I've always wanted to go to Dublin, Cork. I've been to Dublin. I want to go to Cork and Slab City. It's uh one of my favorite which I think might be Cork. I don't know. Speaker 2: Okay, okay. I was thinking Slab City in California, but Speaker 1: I want to go there too. But let's get into just talking about Polaris, you know. Obviously, this is our first time at Polaris. Uh, it's your first time as well, right? Speaker 2: Let's do it. Yeah, like I said, I've kind of been talking about this all all all week and everything like that, you know, it's a I've been been blessed to cover the the sport of jiu-jitsu for the last, you know, 10 plus years and travel the world and get to go to Copa Podio and get to go to ADCC and Speaker 1: All the best events. Speaker 2: You know, Kasai and obviously IBJJF Worlds and just kind of see some of the greatest jiu-jitsu events of all time and and you know, really get feel privileged to be kind of mat side to to see these athletes kind of accomplish their dreams at um at such big events and stuff like that. And obviously, we we've always watched Polaris from from afar for for a long time, but I've never actually, you know, been lucky enough to to get out there and uh and check it out. So, uh, you know, obviously now Polaris back on Flow and uh had to jump at the opportunity to see one of the the best, you know, longest reigning super fight shows in the world. It's really it's it's Speaker 1: Yeah, they've expanded beyond just being the one of the best shows in Europe. Like it is just straight up if you love jiu-jitsu and you're not watching Polaris, then boy oh boy, do I have a treat for you. Polaris is incredible to watch. Like go watch all the old events, go watch everything. Like it's it's it's a sick show. Like especially like all the people who have been on Polaris at this point in time, you know, like like Gary Paul was Paul Harris on? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's like there's some like historic Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the greatest jiu-jitsu matches of all time, really. You know, in the in the Pantheon of of jiu-jitsu, uh Husam Al-Haris versus Gary Tonon, you know, I still go back and watch that match, you know, like once a year or something like that. It's just a fun one. But and and you really just have to commend all the guys who um who who put together Polaris. You know, we've seen so many uh jiu-jitsu events come and go over these last 10 years. It's it's hard. It is it is a very difficult thing. I don't think people quite realize how hard it is to run a niche sport show like like a jiu-jitsu super fight show. And they've been doing it consistently for the last 10 years and they've been doing it consistently just an incredible show, you know, and uh, you know, so shout out to all the Tatami guys and and the Scramble guys. Um, you know, they they've been they've been doing some some incredible work over the years and and I really can't commend them, you know, enough for for what they do to be honest because because we run obviously WNO and we we get to see a lot of the behind the scenes of BJJ Stars and, you know, all the events and, youm, you know, it it's hard. So, so for these guys to still be trucking along, still be putting on great shows, still be still showcasing the the best European talent that's out there, you know, it's just uh, you know, my hat's off to them for sure. Speaker 1: For sure. And so this one, it was an epic one to, you know, make uh, its debut back on Flow. Team WNO going up against Team Polaris. Like obviously a friendly brand versus brand type of thing where we brought in some WNO guys, they brought in some Polaris guys and had an epic squads kind of as the main event. And then also a couple six super fights where I don't even think they meant to do this. We were asking them about it and they were like, oh, I guess it is Australia versus Norway for the super fights where it was Adele Fornarino versus Selma Vic and then Levi Jones-Leary versus uh, Davis Asare. Both not just Australians and Norwegians, but Australians that train together and Norwegians that train together quite often. So that was cool to see. But I guess where do you want to start? Do you want to talk about the squads or you want to talk about the super fights? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, let's maybe just dive in the super fights first. Uh, maybe just first off the bat, you know, I was uh one of the big reasons why I wanted to come too for sure is to see Levi Jones-Leary. Levi is just one of my favorites. He's just one of the most genuine, authentic people in jiu-jitsu. He he lives the life that he's that he says he does, you know, and um, I just I just love talking with with Levi. He has such a unique perspective on on jiu-jitsu and and the community and everything like that. And um, so I was really, really excited to see Levi. Obviously, I haven't seen him in in a year plus, two two years almost, I think. Yeah. Um, and he's coming back against, you know, a young, hungry dude who's trying to make a name for himself. Davis Asare, obviously, he's been training out there with with the Kingsway crew, really upping his game and and he's had some very impressive performances on, you know, at the ADCC trials and and some other super fight shows and things like that. So I was really jacked to see uh to see Levi come back again. But uh yeah, I don't know. What what'd you think of of Levi's performance? He obviously got the victory. Speaker 1: Yeah, so obviously this was Levi's return since DJI 1, which is like, that's too long to go without Levi Jones-Leary on the mats, you know, to see him out there competing. Like like you said, Levi one of my favorite competitors to watch. Just one of my favorite people in the world to be honest. Just a such an eccentric, like wild dude who's just kind of doing his own thing. Like I love watching his freestyle videos when he's just out when he was in New York just like battle rapping people and stuff. It's like, this dude's wild, man. This guy's like running side quests that people only dream of. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like, you know, Adam too. I we we talk a lot about Adam. We we love Adam too. And it's just like these guys that that just really have these unique perspectives and and, you know, Speaker 1: Just kind of doing their thing. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I really appreciate that that they're really able to kind of like show who who their authentic selves are through this art of jiu-jitsu. It's incredible. Speaker 1: Yeah, so the super fight format for Polaris is they've adopted the three five-minute rounds. And so basically we saw it went to decision. We saw Levi and Davis uh do all three rounds. And basically each round I feel like was kind of the same, you know, it came out Levi immediately pulling and kind of playing guard like he does, you know. But then I think like the more evolved version of Levi that we saw is like his willingness to now kind of like wrestle up or sweep off of his guard. Like use it to actually come up and then immediately get into like a top game and some passing. His passing was incredible. Watching Levi pass in this one, like it was kind of he he would basically like like bid his time, you know, throughout each round. Get to it it felt like he was getting to like a certain time into the round, like maybe like two minutes left in the round or something, like three minutes in. And then he would like sweep, come on top. And then he just does this little like like knee shuffle pass where he kind of like gets in between uh Davis's legs or gets Davis's legs in between him. And then he just kind of like shuffles his leg and then just floats over it and then just boom, he's now he's just right on the other side. Kind of into almost like a uh like a knee on belly like close position blocking off Davis's legs from retaining and then kind of getting into a side control and then I think he mounted, right? Did he mount? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I think he mounted a couple times there. And yeah, I think I remember that third round he had a he had a pass. Just such smooth jiu-jitsu Levi has, you know, and that that third round I remember remember, I believe he kind of did that. Yeah, he's doing he's really doing kind of like Murilo Santana kind of kind of 101 passing, I I I feel like, you know, it really was sort of a passing clinic. I think if like if you're trying to work on on your passing and and things like that, especially obviously Nogi, you know, you definitely got to watch this this Levi Jones-Leary match and and uh he's got some incredible details and I think, you know, it's a it's a it feels like a lot coming from Murilo Santana and obviously he trained a lot for a long time with Murilo Santana. Now back in Australia training with Lachlan Giles and stuff like that. So I wasn't quite sure what we were going to see. Were we going to see some Murilo stuff? Were we going to see some Locky locks and some leg locks and stuff? But you can tell that obviously Levi's been working a lot on his passing and there was one in the third third period where he kind of like windshield wiper over Davis's legs, like kind of passed passed his knee and I just like audibly was like, woo. So smooth, you know, and just knowing knowing how good Davis Asare is and everything like that. And it's just like, man, that was that was some smooth jiu-jitsu. That's that's what I love to watch. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just like buttery as can be. Like it's the type of passing where it's like, you just kind of like feel so low-key even though you're just kind of like dissecting someone's guard. Like if you pull that off in the gym, I feel like that's one where dude's going to be like, that was sick, dude. All right, you got you got me there, you know, I couldn't do nothing about that. But yeah, it was great seeing Levi come back. I thought he looked incredible and he kind of talked beforehand about like he was going to show like more of his passing and stuff like that and he kind of did that. So I think it really uh went to plan and I mean, hopefully, yeah, this is the spark of seeing a lot more Levi all over the place. Speaker 2: Now he now he's the Polaris champion. So, you know, Speaker 1: Yeah, champion. Speaker 2: Middleweight champion. So hopefully we get to see him, you know, defend his belt against some some fun names in the future here and and hopefully we see a lot more of Levi because yeah, I I just don't think we see enough of that guy and and jiu-jitsu needs needs personalities like him, you know, so. Speaker 1: Yeah. And so then the other super fight, Adele Fornarino versus Selma Vic. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we got to kind of move through this a little a little quick. The sun the sun is setting kind of right behind us here. So. Speaker 1: Yeah, behind the castle. How we doing on? Let me get up in here real quick. We bump this up. Speaker 2: We're bumping it up. We're we're making some uh adjustments here on the fly. But that's what you get with a kind of a public podcast, you know. Speaker 1: Yeah, for real. Trying to get one of these Welsh guys to walk by and get them on here. Speaker 2: See what they thought. Speaker 1: Yeah. See if they were cheering for Team Polaris or for Team WNO. But um, yeah, you want to walk us through kind of the Adele match? It went two rounds before she got the submission. Speaker 2: Went went two rounds. Yep, absolutely. And you know, obviously, man, Adele is just on fire right now, you know, and uh she's just submitting girls left and right and she's really just kind of like really separating herself from the pack. But, you know, that being said, I was impressed with Selma Vic. Obviously, I think it was a big step up in competition for her. Um, but that first round was pretty close, you know, I thought that Selma had some some good looks and things like that. Adele did end up winning the the the first round, but I thought it was a very close round and that Selma was, you know, representing herself very, very well and and I was obviously it seemed like Adele was kind of trying to to work some more passing, work some more top control. She's obviously known as a guard player, known as a leg locker. She's had some, you know, extremely quick finishes on the on the legs and it looked like she kind of wasn't really interested in that, maybe. Um, for this match and she wanted to kind of show off a little bit of more of a top game and try to chase the back and try to get that finish from the back, which she ended up uh getting, you know, and um, so like I said, Selma put up a a great fight, but it came down to uh kind of uh Adele taking the back towards the end and um, and getting that rear naked choke finish. And um, so yeah, just another incredibly impressive performance from Adele Fornarino, you know, she's just on fire right now and uh can't wait to see her at ADCC again and everything like that. So, um, yeah, yeah, great performance from Adele. Speaker 1: Definitely, yeah, it was, you know, Adele's the best in the world right now for a reason, you know, she kind of obviously comes out and just seems to dominate everybody at this point. Like I think it's only really like Fion that we've seen recently that she didn't she lost to or didn't even just completely dominate, you know, so, you know, I don't know I don't know. The world is Adele's oyster, I think. And I guess like a quick thing that I do want to address because I feel like people are just going to be like, oh, address this, you know. Adele had some stuff she wanted to say in the post-match interview. To be honest, all this stuff going on in the jiu-jitsu world, we don't know this information right now. Like us personally, like I don't know. I'm just hearing rumors and stuff. So it's not something I'm comfortable speaking on yet. I think Adele might know more, a little closer to it and stuff. If you want to hear the thoughts on that, then go watch her match. It's on our YouTube and the post-match interview is on there as well. So like hear it from Adele. I think at this point in time, it makes more sense to hear it from her than for us to just talk on speculation and all that. And as we know more things and more things are solidified and everything, then yeah, maybe we can talk on it. But I'm just not comfortable talking on it right now whenever I don't actually know any facts. But I I recommend if you do want to hear that stuff, then go listen to her post-match interview. Like we can't talk about it better than Adele can at this point in time. So. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I just want to say that, you know, I I obviously just really appreciate that Adele is kind of using her her um, you know, gold medals and her status in the sport to to really kind of try to to to make a change, you know, and uh, you know, you got to really respect that. She's she's putting herself out there and and, you know, who who knows what's going to happen from here, but but I think Adele is is the person who you kind of want to be the spokesperson for our for our community, you know, and and especially for the women in jiu-jitsu. She's she's an incredible role model. So yeah, like Trey said, if you haven't seen her post-match interview thoughts, um, you know, it's really worth checking out and really just getting hip to to what's going on here in the jiu-jitsu community. We all want this thing to be um inclusive and inviting for everybody. Uh, you know, I truly believe that jiu-jitsu can change the world and we, you know, we we've all got to work at it together and um, you know, I guess we'll leave it there and and like I said, go go watch Adele's um post-match interview. She definitely had some had some um well-articulated thoughts and she's going to be a thought leader in this time that we're in right now in jiu-jitsu for for for, you know, um years to come, of course. And so, uh, I just I appreciate what what Adele is doing and she's putting her neck out there and she she really wants to make a change and I I think it's warranted. Speaker 1: Yeah. And so now as a visual transition of us moving into the squads match up, I'm going to go backwards hat type of guy. And that's really to try and not block off your face as much in the in the sun. I'm struggling to not block you off. Speaker 2: Well, I said my hat's my hat was off to the uh Polaris guys and you said me too. And so. Speaker 1: Oh, shit. Oh, no. Speaker 2: So but you but you but you had your hat was on, so. Speaker 1: Yeah, this is devastating. Speaker 2: We'll cut that part out. Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to AI my hat off of my head. I'm going to have the sickest flowing hair, dude. But uh, yeah, let's let's talk about the squads match up because we are fighting the sun right now, you know. You think you can beat the sun? You think you're stronger than the sun, dude? No chance. But Polaris versus WNO, two stacked teams. All right, these teams were electric. I think to kick it off, I want to talk about the contrast in this team. I think maybe we can kick it off with kind of how it ended because I did think the ending was like kind of epic, you know, it came down to like this last second thing. But just to start, man, you go into the warm-up area for Team Europe or Team Polaris, a bunch of these European guys, a lot of London dudes, you know, Santieri was in the mix too, Lucas Cannard, you know. These boys are jokesters. I mean, these guys are just like, you walk into their warm-up area and just everyone's taking the piss out of each other, you know. Everyone's just like making jokes and like, I walk in and I'm like, hey, Taylor, can I interview you? And he's just like cracking jokes and he's like, oy mate, interview Christian Osbeck. Like all this all this British slang and stuff, you know. And then you go into the WNO team. Speaker 2: Impossible. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, very stark contrast to what the WNO team was doing. Obviously, WNO team, it's a little bit more, I mean, I guess there's Australians, you know, it's like you can't really nail down the uh the nationalities, but, you know, the WNO team definitely felt like they were taking it a lot more seriously, you know, and they were really locked in and really focused, you know, and and trying to to drill backstage and get into their game and get into into their their flow and their zone, you know, and it was quiet and it was and it was intense, you know, and then you would go over to the Polaris room and everybody's just messing around and just like making jokes with each other and stuff like that. Obviously, it seemed like those Team Polaris guys are are are real close to each other. A lot of them train together and stuff like that. So they they they know each other really well, but it was really funny seeing the kind of uh disparity between the two. And and even kind of going into it, I was like, ooh, man, WNO looks locked in. Polaris boys, I think you guys kind of need to lock in a little bit more because WNO is coming for blood, you know. Speaker 1: Yeah. And boy oh boy, is there egg on our face. It turns out these these Polaris dudes operate very well when they're being silly gooses, you know. This was a silly goose time for Polaris team and they got it done. Polaris ended up getting the win. I think they won 14 to 12. But the way the squads worked is like the you do 45 minute halves and the clock is like counting up while the matches are going on, similar to soccer, it just runs. And when it got to the second half, it it ended up coming down to the next to last match was Santieri versus DeAndre Corby. Santieri beat uh Lucas Lira, right? To to get the win. And then they sent out DeAndre. So I think we were down maybe two or down I think, yeah, down two at that point. Speaker 2: Sounds right. Speaker 1: And Speaker 2: Or or maybe just one, I think. Maybe it was like 10 to 11 or something or. Speaker 1: Yeah. Or. Speaker 2: 11 to 12 or something. Speaker 1: I guess it would have had to have been one. I don't know. You guys can watch the video. Speaker 2: It's a it's a bit of a blur, you know, it was an intense uh intense show, you know, and it's like even even being there mat side, you know, and obviously we were pulling a little bit for for WNO. Honestly. Speaker 1: Especially because once we rolled up and every single dude told us they want Polaris. I was like, okay, fine. I'm rolling with WNO for sure. Speaker 2: You know, I honestly at the end of the day, we just want to see good jiu-jitsu, you know, and and that delivered. So, you know, hats off to the Polaris guys for for taking the win. Speaker 1: It's fun to like back a team also though, you know. So I was kind of like, okay, the Polaris like the Welsh crowd is all Polaris and the Polaris guys are like, obviously we want Polaris. So I'm like, all right, I'll get behind my team too. Like sometimes you're scared to like be like, no, I I want this team to kill this team. But I was like, no, if that that's the vibe, then you know, just for funsies. Obviously, we we like those guys a lot. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, we try not to we try not to kind of openly root for people during matches and stuff. Speaker 1: We do it secretly. But that next to last match where if DeAndre was able to submit Santieri, they would get three points, putting us in the lead, you know, like going into like what I think like by the time that match ended, Santieri DeAndre, I think there was like a minute and a half left or something. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Like two like a yeah, like a minute 55 seconds or something. And it's 90 seconds, I think was like the cutoff to whether or not they get you get points. Yeah, yeah, for for the winner and stuff. Um, Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And so it was like, it was intense where it was like, oh my god, DeAndre can pull this off and Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I'm saying I'm sitting there mat side, you know, the the the English guys are screaming, just don't get submitted, just don't get submitted and we win, you know, and it's like the clock's going, the points are there. I'm on the mat. You're you're kind of watching that clock, the the bigger clock, you know, the points, you know, it was just like, oh, there's only three minutes left, four minutes left, you know, like it it was kind of chaos there at the end and and we were just like, DeAndre, get the choke. Come on, come on, you can get the choke, you know, and and obviously Santieri was able to to get out and uh and DeAndre didn't get the choke and and that was kind of really the the the crux of the end of the of the um the whole team duels. Basically, it was like everybody was kind of really needing DeAndre to to submit Santieri. Obviously, Santieri a lot bigger than uh than DeAndre and uh, you know, didn't didn't work out and then Taylor Perman went out against DeAndre afterwards and Taylor got that kind of two-minute victory. It was a quick quick match. Speaker 1: Yeah. I I remember how the scoring was now. When it was going into DeAndre Santieri, we were down two. And so he needed to submit him to put us ahead one with this last like uh last match basically as time would run out. But he didn't submit him, but he did win the match. So he got one. That put us back only down one point going into the final minute and a half Taylor versus DeAndre. Because if DeAndre could at least pull out the decision over Taylor, it would have tied. And they would have had to fight again. They're both team captains. So they would have had to do another they would then have to go into a super fight to decide the winner. But it was Taylor who was able to get the decision in that last one, which ended up putting them up two for the final score. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Speaker 1: There you go. That's how it played out. But any of the any other just like because we're running out of time, we can't go through everything, but any like big performances or takeaways from just like overall in the squads match? Speaker 2: I will say that I think the guy who really impressed me the most is uh Owen O'Flanagan, you know. I just was so impressed with Owen and uh, you know, we we haven't seen a whole lot of Owen O'Flanagan, you know, I know he he just had that great match against uh Jonatas Gracie where he was able to submit Jonatas Gracie and and that was definitely kind of like a a light bulb, I think in our minds where it's like, whoa, you know, nobody submits Jonatas Gracie. Nobody takes him down and passes his guard and and submits him. Like that just doesn't happen really to Jonatas Gracie. Mika Galvao couldn't really do that. So the fact that Owen was able to do that, it was like, whoa, maybe maybe Owen is is really kind of starting to kind of like, you know, turn over that hump to be like extremely elite, you know. Obviously, I know he's he's one of the best grapplers in the UK here and has been for a little while. But now Speaker 1: He's an ADCC medalist. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: But it just felt like it was like, oh, okay. Even as an ADCC medalist, as a guy that like, you know, a lot of people do know and is notorious now, it's like, this guy's underrated. This guy needs to be in the talks of like, you know, that upper echelon of like all the grapplers in the world. Like and just like the fact that he was so good at wrestling. Speaker 2: I was so impressed. I was so impressed with his wrestling, you know, and and not that really anybody on Team WNO. I mean, I think DeAndre probably has the best wrestling maybe uh on Team WNO, but it just felt like anytime anybody was on the feet with Owen, he just was kind of two steps ahead, you know, the way he was uh yeah, the way he was just kind of crowding their their head and and faking to the legs and faking to the upper body. It really kind of I I feel like uh messed up the the kind of flow of the WNO team, you know, because they were expecting him maybe to pull guard and just attack the legs and stuff like that. But his wrestling was so impressive and he maybe hit one of the craziest takedowns I've ever seen on Lucas Lira. I was like inches from from the takedown and Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: And I Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe if if we download the clip off Polaris's Instagram and show it because it was like, that was crazy. It's like four times and then Lucas Lira just direct face to mat. Like it was like a little bit of a scary like, oh my god, is he going to be okay? We talked to Lucas afterwards. He was like, no, I'm good. I was definitely like in the moment, but, you know, I'm good. I don't know. Speaker 2: That was crazy. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, he's he's said he was all right afterwards and everything like that. And and Owen ended up did getting the submission on Lucas Lira, got the submission on Declan Moody. You know, things are a little different. These guys are some some guys are are tired, you know, some you know, I think Declan had done two matches or one match before and and Lucas as well. So, you know, things are a little different, but but that makes it fun. It does make the opportunity for submission uh a little bit more prevalent. But uh just just again, I I was so impressed with Owen O'Flanagan and and I told him after, man, just just sick jiu-jitsu, dude. Just sick um, you know, just like submission first jiu-jitsu. So, uh I I was really, really impressed with him. I really hope we get to see a lot more of this dude in the future. Uh seems like he's not traveling a whole lot, but hopefully he does because uh I I think Owen has all the tools to be ADCC champion or champion or whatever he wants to be to be honest. Like uh some of the sickest jiu-jitsu I've seen this year. Speaker 1: Yeah. And then another I feel like big moment, maybe like the biggest like uh swing for Team Polaris, kind of probably contributed to them winning. Like Owen I think had a he might have had a couple submissions for sure. He got he ended up, you know, getting the team trophy for most valuable grappler. Speaker 2: Owen O'Flanagan? Speaker 1: Yeah, they gave it to him. But then Owen Jones uh he ended up coming out and submitting Devonte, which gave him three points as like the size discrepancy. And, you know, worth noting that uh even Owen and all of the other the Polaris team, they admitted that Owen came out there and got him at 1 HP. You know, Devonte had just done a like a couple matches and was obviously tired and just had some hard fought matches, racked up a couple points for for WNO. Kind of like did his job, you know, I was like, that's what I wanted from Devonte right there, you know, come out. Don't let these guys push you around, Devonte. Throw him into a damn table. Show him a little bit of American grit tastes like, you know. And uh he did that, but then Owen Owen caught him at 1 HP, just kind of came in after basically, this dude's been in dog fights and just kind of like, you know, Speaker 2: Yeah, Owen was all Speaker 1: Toppled him over there where he was already falling off the cliff. But Speaker 2: Owen smelled blood in the water, you know, and he and he was he was all Yeah, yeah, he was he was hustling, man. And he was on the back early and Devonte got out and then he got the back again, you know, and it was just like, oh, man, like Owen is just all over Devonte. You can just see like every moment that passed, Devonte was just losing HP as it went and then he sat back on the legs there. Speaker 1: You can feel it. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the their whole corner was like, their corner was hilarious. Mainly their corner was just telling the other guy to admit that they're tired, you know, just to kind of joking with the the WNO guy who's out there just trying to get in their head. But their corner was just like, and they also are so casual whenever they said everything. They'd be like, hey, Owen, if you feel like it, man, you could backstep into the legs and probably submit him there. And then he just did that. I was like, oh my god, all right. These guys are so goofy. They're so like, they just joke about everything. Don't have a care in the world. And they're just so good at jiu-jitsu as well. I'm like, that's that almost isn't fair, you know. You just be like the biggest goofballs and uh I say that with respect, you know, like I I'm a goofball myself. Listen, I'm a silly goose. I've had to jump in the water a few times as a silly goose. And uh but I'm also just not that good at jiu-jitsu, you know. The world was like, you can't do it all, Trey. You can't make jokes and be good. But I guess these guys just operate on a different different, you know, world. But, you know, I think overall it was sick though and I thought Team WNO did great, you know, it was great. Declan came out there. Chris Wozniak, you know, looked awesome. So really it was just like a fun fun time overall. It's like fun to do these kind of like collaborative things. It feels like it builds like some camaraderie in a weird way, you know, whether it be for the promotions or the athletes and all that. So it was definitely a good time. I'm a big fan of Polaris Squads and I thought it was a sick event overall. Speaker 2: They can. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, great event and, you know, shout out Declan got uh I believe he submitted Mayram. Uh he had some some impressive matches. I think, you know, the the team was really, really uh hoping for Declan to kind of uh put the team on his back a little bit, I feel like, being being one of the bigger guys and kind of one of the guys who's who's uh, you know, just surging right now. Um, so Declan had some impressive performances, you know, Chris Wozniak, I thought uh looked looked great, you know. Speaker 1: Yeah. Came came a little wrestle up, kind of sweep thing, pass to mount on Owen O'Flanagan, you know. So he looked good. Definitely showing he's I think he wanted he's been adamant about not wanting to show or wanting to prove to people that he's not just like a leg lock guy, that's all he can do. Like this dude does have like go back and watch Chris Wozniak versus Cody Steel. That's one of the craziest like craziest like examples of wrestling and scrapping in jiu-jitsu. So I think he wanted to showcase that a little bit and I feel like he did. So, you know. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, always great to see the Corby brothers out there and and, you know, Devonte is such a good dude and, you know, it was just fun kind of once we got into it, you know, and it's just like, oh, smokes. It's it's it's Chris Wozniak versus Mayram up next, you know. And it's like, it's Gavin Corby versus uh Lucas Cannard up next, you know. And I guess we I do want to Speaker 1: Lucas Cannard, all-time unpassable guard. Speaker 2: I do want to mention Lucas Lucas Cannard, man. Like his guard is too good. Like it's it's crazy. Speaker 1: This guy might have broken the system because it's just like, you throw like and talking to the to the uh Polaris team guys, like they even said like, yeah, bro, when you have Lucas Cannard, you can send him out there and no one is going to pass him. It's impossible. So basically how we use Lucas to game this a little bit is we send Lucas out. No one can pass him. He can, you know, get deep on some legs enough to like win the decision. And then boom, we just ran off like 25 minutes on the clock. Like, you know, it just it's true. Like he's an ultimate like if you have Lucas Cannard on your squad in this format, like he's going to get those decision wins because it's just like, not only can no one pass him, like it never looks like anyone even has a look at passing. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: It's so dangerous to try to pass his guard. Like, you know, he's he's he really has kind of broken the the system a little bit here where it was just like, I think it really kind of messed up WNO's strategy a little bit because it was just like, after he won one or two or whatever, it was just like, man, who who can pass this dude's guard? Who who can have a have a shot at passing this dude's guard? And it was just like, man, it's hard to tell. But you do got got to shout out Lucas Lira for kind of being the Lucas Cannard killer there and he did beat Lucas Cannard in in both halves, you know, by decision. So luckily, Team WNO was able to find an answer to kind of this insane puzzle that is Lucas Cannard. Um, so, you know, shout out Lucas Lira. He he had some impressive matches, I thought there and and really took took some heat for for Team WNO by by just kind of like pushing Lucas Cannard's ankles into his face for, you know, five minutes, basically. Speaker 1: Yeah. And then the the one last thing I wanted to just say about Taylor Perman too, specifically. Taylor Perman, like obviously an extremely good leg locker, just good overall game. Lucas uh Taylor Perman's ability to like kind of like get into like, I guess like deep De La Riva type of positions, like probably some like more nuanced version of like a Nogi De La Riva guard that I'm just I guess not as good at talking about or identifying. But then able to just constantly off balance people. I feel like he was just like, like he's so sticky whenever he gets his legs connected and the way he plays that guard, like the guy trying to pass is just like, once he gets in there, they never have their balance back. Like just a a incredible display of just like constant off balance, breaking posture and just putting the guy making the guy put his hands on the mat, you know. So I thought Taylor looked great as well. He was a team captain, you know. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Representing. Speaker 2: They don't know Really all those guys on Team Polaris just have fun jiu-jitsu, you know, just have fun to watch jiu-jitsu. Taylor, the Owens, you know, Santieri, like they really just have kind of dynamic fun jiu-jitsu. So Speaker 1: And, you know, luckily, if you guys are into that, I know I am, ADCC Euro trials is coming up in a couple weeks. So it's like so definitely a good time if you, you know, if you want to watch more of these guys, then they're going to be competing at trials. Speaker 2: Yeah, two weeks, I think. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, just a just a a fun time in European jiu-jitsu. We just had the IBJJF European Championships where we saw a lot of great jiu-jitsu. You have Polaris and then two weeks from now, you have the European trials. So if you like European jiu-jitsu, if you like these guys, you mean you get an opportunity to watch them on Flow quite a bit. Speaker 1: And so like, you know, one last thing, I haven't added up the scores yet, but we did do a little bit of a draft, you know. Just to see who could uh draft our own teams of sticks out of all 12 of the competitors. And I like my chances on this one. I got to I got to run the numbers, you know, I got to I got to get Chat GPT to do the math for me. But Speaker 2: Oh, I totally forgot. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: All right, we'll check that out on next podcast because I I honestly forget who who I even picked, but Speaker 1: Yeah. I just know that I ended up with a lot of Polaris guys and you ended up with a lot of WNO guys. Speaker 2: I feel like I picked one of the Owens though. Speaker 1: Uh, at least one of the Owens. I think you might have got Owen O'Flanagan, which would be huge. But I got I think I have Owen Jones who got a three-piece for me. But I don't know. We'll do the math. You guys stay tuned because that that'll come soon. But any other any last closing thoughts before we get out of here? Sun's kind of setting. I don't even know if they're going to be able to see us at this point. Speaker 2: Yeah, a little dark. No, I think before the the sun sets, we got to go check out this castle a little bit, walk around and uh and make sure we get a get a good lay of the land here. So, yeah, no, I think we can wrap this up. But uh great event. Uh I believe they have another one here coming up in in March. Uh so, you know, it's going to be live on Flow. So definitely get hip to this Polaris stuff, man. It it is hype jiu-jitsu and uh they're not going anywhere. Speaker 1: Definitely. So, thank you guys for tuning in. Go check out all the Polaris matches, the replays on Flow Grappling and, you know, stay tuned because we got a lot of other cool stuff coming up soon. But we'll see you guys in the next episode.