#65 - Announcing The Nominees For The 2025 FloGrappling Awards

Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Flow Grappling show, aka the worst show on the internet. As you can see, we just upgraded our graphics package. You guys see that little cube swipe over to the side? That thing was beautiful, but. Speaker 2: That's slick. You've been setting that up all morning. Speaker 1: Check it out. Yeah, Nicky, our producer in the lab back there, dude. Nice work, brother. But as always, I'm Trey Robinson. We got Joey Gilps right there. Big Uncle Reed right there. And then we today we're going to have Slack bear it behind the scenes doing some stuff, but we're going to pull him out here for this first segment because later in the episode, we're going to dive into the Flow Grappling Awards. We're going to talk about all the nominees for male, female, breakthrough, juvenile of the year, match of the year, submission of the year. But first, we got to do our Christmas special, boys. It's the Christmas season. It's our Christmas episode. So let me go grab the stuff I got you guys real quick. Speaker 2: Uh-oh. I didn't get you guys anything. I didn't sorry, I didn't uh. Speaker 3: Well, it's the thought that counts and I didn't think of any of you at all. Speaker 2: Well, I just didn't think that uh this was going to be a Christmas episode. Speaker 3: Did you go to the mall and get charms for all your sharks? Speaker 1: 100%. Speaker 2: Dude, you got charms for us? Wait, it's actually. Speaker 1: Yeah. New charms. Oh. Yep. You know, shout out. Speaker 3: The song of the year, the song of the year. Riff Raff. Speaker 1: Yeah, Riff Raff. Speaker 3: Jiu-jitsu song of the year, I think we can all agree. Ferrari. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. We we that one's we were going to. Speaker 3: That one's we're not even. Speaker 1: Yeah, but we'd lock that one up. Speaker 3: What's the name of that song? Riff Raff. Speaker 1: Ferrari. Speaker 3: Ferrari. Oh, yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah, so I went to the mall. I spent 50 grand on myself and then I got new charms for all of my sharks who've been there, glow-in-the-dark tattoos on all of our arms. But here, I got some gifts for everybody. You guys want to pick randomly? I don't know which which of these is which. Speaker 2: What's what are the gifts? What's inside? Speaker 1: You got I can't tell you. Would freaking grapple claws tell you? Oh. Speaker 2: Dang, I wanted that one. Slack got a good one. Speaker 1: All right. Speaker 2: Slack got a good pick there. Speaker 1: All right, boys. Speaker 2: All right, what? Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and open them up. Speaker 2: Boys, let's go ahead and open them up. Speaker 1: Yeah, he also didn't give me one. I knew you guys weren't going to give me one. Speaker 3: Incredible wrapping job. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 3: No way you wrapped this, Rochelle. Speaker 1: I'm not a present wrapper. Speaker 3: I've been wrapping a lot of presents lately. Speaker 1: That was that was my girlfriend. She did it. Speaker 3: I've been wrapping a lot of presents lately. It's hard. Speaker 1: Yeah. Wrapping presents. I do the Tootsie Roll wrap where I just put a bunch of paper and then I just tie up the ends. Speaker 3: To me, the front half is usually pretty good, but then whatever comes up in the on the second half. Speaker 2: What the heck did you get us? Speaker 1: So I was actually going to give I was going to give this one to Ray. But we'll see. Maybe I'll keep it depending on which one I got. Speaker 2: So we all got Kansas themed mugs or something? Speaker 1: No. Speaker 3: Aren't you jiu-jitsu themed? I have a jiu-jitsu themed mug. Speaker 1: Yep. They're cringy jiu-jitsu mugs. You got to buy you got to buy the people in your life something they wouldn't buy for themselves, you know? Speaker 2: Dude, I got a sick one. Speaker 1: Oh. Dude, I got I got the best one actually. Speaker 2: I got the I got a pretty sick one. Tears of the people I beat at jiu-jitsu. Speaker 3: Incredible. Speaker 1: So really that one was for Ray, but you know, it was it was up to the draw, but I had I had them pick for who I wanted. Speaker 2: What what is this one? We can switch. Speaker 1: I'm going to show mine last. Slack, what's yours? Speaker 4: I got to say it right. It says, "Touch me and your first jiu-jitsu lesson is free." Speaker 1: That's right. Oh. Speaker 2: Oh. Speaker 1: I thought Slack's was the funniest. What's yours say? Speaker 3: Uh, it might look like I'm listening, but in my head, I'm doing jiu-jitsu. Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Speaker 2: That's a good one for Joe. Speaker 1: And this one, I'm glad I got this one. Mine says, "Jiu-jitsu dad." Like a normal dad, but cooler. And I'm keeping this one. I'm not trading with anybody. No, no. I'm just kidding. I'll trade. You want to trade? Or do you want that one? You don't have to take this one. I think it'd be funny. All right, you got the jiu-jitsu dad one? All right. There we go. Speaker 3: I'm afraid that Slack thinks his is 10% cooler now. He did upgrade when he's done his now. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2: Very much. Speaker 1: I'm stoked. Speaker 3: A sideways lateral move. Speaker 4: Now, now I'm going to take this home. Speaker 1: Let's go. All right, thanks for. Speaker 3: This will be my podcast mug. Thank you, Trey. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: For going to the mall and getting charms for all your sharks. Speaker 1: That's right. Should I give this one to Ray? Speaker 2: Tears of the people I beat at jiu-jitsu. Speaker 1: You like that? Speaker 2: That's that's a good one. Speaker 1: You're not really a coffee guy, huh? So you're going to put what in there? Speaker 2: Tea. I'll put tea in there. Speaker 1: Put tea in there. Speaker 3: Coca-Cola. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I'll put some Coca-Cola in there. Speaker 1: All right, there we go. Now we all have sick mugs, but. Speaker 2: Have some chicken soup out of it. Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking like, you got to buy something people wouldn't buy themselves. And like, if you're a jiu-jitsu guy and you buy this mug for yourself, that's pretty whack. But if someone else buys it for you, it's kind of funny. So there we go. Now we all have sick mugs. Speaker 2: It's at least a little better. Speaker 1: Hey, Merry Christmas to everybody watching out there. Happy Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate. Speaker 2: Oh, hey. Speaker 1: Put some eggnog in here. Speaker 2: A peaceful and solemn Ramadan. Speaker 1: Kwanzaa. All right. Speaker 2: Happy New Year while we're at it. All right. Speaker 1: Wow. Speaker 2: Trey. Speaker 3: Cleaning up after ourselves. Speaker 2: We thought Trey was setting us up for some crazy bit where he's going to make fun of me and stuff like that, but. Speaker 3: I still assume these were like painted with a laxative of some kind or something. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. You guys didn't take your pre-show laxatives? I always pre-show laxative up. It's just a race to finish the episode or me hit the bathroom. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: All right, thanks for watching. Speaker 2: Just five minutes before we go live. Just down and laxative. Speaker 1: 100%. All right, there we go. Now everybody's got sick mugs. I I still might give this one to Ray. I feel like Ray would Ray would unironically think this is awesome. He's like, "Oh, hell yeah, dude. I've been getting in fights at the gym. All these young bucks at the gym yelling at me for dropping weights." You guys, if you're a die-hard watcher of this show, you saw where Ray came on once. Ray's been getting in fights at the gym with just 20-year-olds because he's dropping the weights too loud. I feel like Ray would like this one. He just be like, "Oh, yeah, okay, buddy. Yeah, I'm dropping the weights. How about this? Free jiu-jitsu lesson on me, pal." Speaker 2: All right. Speaker 1: Just another story that Ray didn't want. Speaker 2: Yeah, just out there. Speaker 1: Ray straight up got to keep him closer to the vest. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Ray's been pretty upset that we keep sharing his personal stories. Yeah. To the internet, but. Speaker 2: Classic. Speaker 1: All right, there we go. Now that we all got mugs, I feel like we can dive into the 2025 Flow Grappling Awards. Speaker 2: What a year it was. Speaker 1: What a year. Speaker 3: Crazy year. Speaker 2: What a wild year. Gi, No-Gi. It had it all. Speaker 1: You guys have a favorite year of all the years? Speaker 2: I mean, they all just keep getting like. Speaker 3: 2022 was pretty sick in terms of like all the jiu-jitsu. Speaker 2: 2022 was an incredible year. Speaker 3: You know, if you if you know, you're you're you're putting a gun to the back of my head making me give just one. First of all, I think that's a really weird thing to do. Second of all, I would pick 2022. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 2022 had Andre versus Gordon, quite possibly the the biggest single match kind of like ever. Speaker 3: We people talk about, I feel like, you know, maybe enough time has passed where like CGI 1 kind of gets painted as like the greatest grappling event of all time. I'm not here to tell you that CGI 2 was or CGI 1 was bad. CGI 1 was incredible. I do think ADCC 2022 is the greatest grappling event I've ever seen and witnessed. Speaker 1: Yeah. I agree with that. Speaker 3: It's like Giancarlo all submissions to take over 88. Speaker 2: Kade Miko. Speaker 1: Kade Miko. Speaker 2: The breakout of Adele, you know, Adele really. Speaker 3: That was 24. That was 24. Speaker 2: Oh, sorry, sorry. Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, you're right. Speaker 1: Yeah, Kainan. Speaker 3: Kainan was going crazy. Uh uh you had Amy Campo beating Gabby Garcia was totally nuts. You had obviously that armbar from Hyson, which was one of the craziest, most turnt up moments of ADCC history. Million upsets, million crazy matches. Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty unbelievable. Speaker 2: Maragali, Tye and Maragali, Tye. Speaker 1: Tye's run to the absolute. Speaker 2: Tye for Gi. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, there's tons of good matches there. Speaker 1: But this was a great year too. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. 2025, you know, it's like it's they just keep getting wilder and wilder to be honest, crazier and crazier. There's always just kind of new developments, new people, you know, and just to to mix things up and this was definitely a a mixed up year. Things are wild. Speaker 3: I feel like this year had a lot of turnover of kind of new stars and new people kind of taking over and uh Gordon's retired and Craig's out of the game and all these guys who were big stars for a long time are out of the game. Speaker 2: Yeah, Rotolo's kind of going over to MMA. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're kind of seeing this kind of new crop of stars and people trying to kind of like take that mantle, you know, we finally have a a new who's number one heavyweight champion. We haven't had one of those in a long time. So Luke Griffith on the short list to kind of be that the next guy. So we'll see what he can accomplish in in 2026. He'll be going for his first ever ADCC title. So. Speaker 3: 100% guys like Dorian, who I think is going to be a big star. Helena, I think had an incredible year. Sarah obviously had an incredible year. Uh a lot of very young grapplers kind of making their name, you know what I mean, which I think is a really encouraging positive sign for the sport that there is a big youth movement right now. Uh yeah, awesome year. Speaker 2: And they the the women are more interesting than ever. They're the the divisions are bigger than ever. We have great personalities who are kind of like emerging, Jasmine, Adele, you know, it's like there's a lot of fun back and forth and and uh you know, we just watched Nogi Worlds and where the women just really are stealing the show, I feel like lately. Speaker 1: 100%, you know, it's a great time to be a grappling fan, but let's kind of start diving into some of these awards. We have six awards to go through. We're going to talk about all the nominees today. And we can start with uh the submission of the year award. I think we've got a graphic here. Speaker 2: And don't forget to uh vote on the Flow Grappling website. The uh the link to vote is on our Instagram as well. We need your help to kind of vote, decide who's who's the best. So definitely don't forget to go on flowgrappling.com, check out our Instagram. Uh and you can actually vote and and decide who who had the best year, who had the best submission, who had the best match, etc. Speaker 1: Yeah, so our six nominees this year, it's Roberto Jimenez's flying armbar against Elder at WNO 26. Mika's armbar sorry, Mika's armbar over Roberto at BJJ Stars 15. Joel Bisnaga's Kaio Terra lock at Worlds. Helena Kravvar's ankle lock at uh CGI 2. Mayrum's step over armbar against Gabriel Souza at BJJ Stars 17, I believe. And then Liz Clay heel hooking Gabby Passania at Nogi Worlds. So a nice nice little spread here. Speaker 2: The year of a year of armbars and ankle locks. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Which which I pretty pretty accurate to to the year, I feel like. We kind of we saw the resurgence of the ankle lock in in 2025, I feel like. Here, everybody's kind of going back to the ankle locks and Mateusz Szyszynski style stuff. And uh, you know, tried and true armbars, one of my favorite submissions. Speaker 1: For sure. Do we do we have the videos for these or not? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we got some videos we can play, I think. Speaker 1: There we go. Speaker 3: Yeah, it was an awesome year. A lot of really dynamic submissions. People, you know, big stars delivering big submissions and big moments. Uh and here's definitely one of the craziest ones. Speaker 1: We should vote best referee reset. Speaker 3: Best referee, best referee and then we give it to the guy. Speaker 2: That'd be a tough one to to go through to be honest. Speaker 1: Good ones. Oh, we skipped the armbar. Speaker 2: Or the this the uh the Kaio Terra ankle lock. Man, this is honestly one of my favorite submissions of the entire year. Obviously, Joel Bisnaga had a big year. He he kind of really solidified himself. Not a lot of people talking about Joel, but he had a huge, huge year. And uh this is one of the most impressive performances obviously of his year, the IBJJF World semifinals right here against Diego Sodre, who hit, you know, a submission of the of the year candidate as well. Didn't get nominated, but uh Diego Sodre hit that crazy loop choke on uh Kennedy Maciel right before this. So. Speaker 1: Yep, yep, yep. And one of the parts that makes this so crazy, two things that help make this especially crazy. One, Joao is in the World semifinals. He's the 22 seed. That's incredible. He's on this Cinderella run, making it happen here by submission early in the match against a guy as tough as Diego Sodre. I can't really think of another time when Diego Sodre got tapped out. Speaker 2: Yeah, for real. I don't I don't. Speaker 1: So so and hard to do anything with. That's really incredible. You can see he's overcome there. And one of the coolest parts of this submission, you can see if you watch the super cuts or go back and watch the match is uh Kaio himself on the call. Uh how often do you get that, right? The guy who invented. Speaker 3: Is my foot lock. Is my foot lock. I know that technique. Speaker 1: Uh. Speaker 3: Yeah, that was awesome. Speaker 1: You know, that that that rules. That rules a lot. Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that that definitely turned out to be one of the best submissions of the year. We had uh, you know, this was a match we were all looking forward to as well when it was uh slated at BJJ Stars, Roberto Jimenez versus Mika Galvao. We didn't see a whole lot of Mika this year. A little little bit of a quieter year for Mika Galvao. He did have those CGI matches and and uh a couple BJJ Stars matches and stuff like that. But but overall, a little bit of more of a quiet year for Mika. Speaker 1: Yeah, taking a little little chill year. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: 2024. Speaker 2: Exactly. Speaker 1: You guys baby on the way, you know. Mika's cruising. Speaker 2: So anytime you again, you can submit uh Roberto Jimenez too. Like that's that's a real submission. Roberto doesn't tap easily. Speaker 1: His armbar was just nuts for how long he's like on it too. Like it just goes on for a while here. Speaker 2: Definitely. Speaker 3: If you want to see uh us talking about, me talking about the technique behind this, you can find that video on our YouTube channel and uh on the site right now. Boom, but there's that final angle where Mika. Speaker 2: He stays on it for so long. Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 3: One of the most precise, nuanced armbars in the world, Mika Galvao, unbelievable. Uh definitely the highlight of his year, winning that BJJ Stars Grand Prix with that submission in the finals. One of the craziest armbars that we've seen in quite a while. Roberto, such a gunslinger too. We're going to get a chance to talk about him a couple of times here. Uh but uh uh really cool after the year that he had and how much fans were responding to that that, you know, win or lose, that guy's going to going to, you know, be on on lists for just being in incredible moments. Speaker 1: For sure. That's what you get with Roberto. Speaker 2: And then maybe like maybe the the single most anticipated match of the year, I feel like at this point was was this Helena versus Sarah Galvao, two kind of teen prodigies, uh both peaking kind of at the same time here. And uh we saw the match earlier, what was that at Pans in the in the Gi. And uh Sarah ended up getting the win on points there. So, you know, obviously Helena her world is a little bit more in in Nogi, although she does do both. Um so this was like a very exciting match up for us all to see finally, Sarah Galvao versus Helena Kravvar, two of the the very best female grapplers in the world right now. Both both like you said, young, kind of peaking at the same time. So, one of the most anticipated matches of of the year and ends ends with Helena getting the finish. Speaker 1: Definitely. Speaker 3: Super crazy one, final of the $100,000 tournament, biggest tournament, most uh uh highest paid tournament in women's jiu-jitsu history. And yeah, just really cool to see two women this young in the finals of something that major. Like we talked about, there's a youth youth movement going on. I thought this was the best example of that. Uh, you know, both these people combined age of under 40 uh uh being in a match this important is uh uh pretty insane. Speaker 1: Do you guys have a uh a favorite out of these? You got not like a favorite like this is I guess it could be your favorite, but like what do you guys think are going to be the ones that end up pulling a lot of votes? Any predictions? Speaker 2: I mean, Helena has has has a big fan base, of course, as well. And, you know, that that ankle lock definitely just how much was on the line, 100 grand, you know, versus Sarah Galvao. That definitely seems like the front front runner to me. But that's not my personal favorite, but I do think that that maybe is the front runner. And and I know people call this Aoki lock or ankle lock. I guess she turns it a little. Speaker 1: It's like a little. Speaker 3: Slips over like, yeah, like 10%, but you know, it's an ankle lock. Nobody's going to really. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: Uh come after us too hard. Uh yeah, I I think that, you know, the favorites, the two favorites that I saw were both involving Roberto. Uh uh the Mika Roberto and then Roberto Elder. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: What was that? That was one of the fastest submissions in uh in uh who's number one history, right? It was like 26 seconds or something crazy. Speaker 1: Uh that's the wrong one. Speaker 2: Oh, that's wrong. Speaker 1: No, there's the wrong one. Uh yeah, we're looking for the Gabriel Souza, Roberto not uh. Speaker 3: Yeah, we're looking for the Gabriel Souza, Roberto not uh. Speaker 1: Homeboy Kleber there. Yeah. But that's all right. Speaker 3: But we got a lot of uh great submissions. Uh uh yeah, for for me, I just think that yeah, the speed of that Roberto uh armbar and the precision of it was pretty incredible. It was only like a 20-second match, but there was so much dynamic action going on. I feel like everybody's probably seen the armbar. Here we go. Yeah, they get kind of driven off. Speaker 1: I thought Roberto I thought this one was the funniest of them all, mainly because of Roberto's reaction is awesome where he pumps up the crowd, then quiets some of them, pumps them up again. All-time celebration. Just total control. I control the audience. Speaker 2: And Elder had a very active year. There it is. Just jumps it, man. That's some old school Roberto jumping stuff. And then hypes up the crowd. Crowd's going crazy. Speaker 1: Oh, get back up. Get back up. Speaker 2: Calms him down. Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a pretty electric one. When it comes to just like wild, like, holy shit, that's up there for like the wildest for sure. But I do think this final nominee, Liz Clay submitting Gabby Passania, I kind of didn't know Gabby Passania, I didn't know it was allowed to submit her, you know. I thought that wasn't allowed or something. It just never happened. So, but. Speaker 2: For real, like when was the last time Gabby Passania got submitted in competition probably? Speaker 3: You in the gym how often is it? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Speaker 2: It's like, did she get submitted at Blue Belt? I can't imagine she did. Like. Speaker 1: No idea. Speaker 2: I can't imagine there was Blue Belt submissions. Speaker 3: There's Blue Belts out there submitting her. Yeah, yeah. Liz mentioned uh having matches with her in juvenile Blue Belt. Yeah, I think this will also get a lot of votes uh because uh you know, one it is just a legendary moment and uh two it's so recent in people's memories. That's going to be really impactful. Liz just, you know, we've talked about it. We we brought Liz on the show last week, but, you know, how shocking that is, how uh uh impressive that is to be able to do that against somebody who broke Liz's foot like six months earlier, you know what I mean? It's uh uh it's stunning. Speaker 1: For sure. Speaker 2: Get your votes in there for submission of the year. Let us know what you think is the best one. Vote now. Speaker 1: Whoa, look at this little graphic. Oh, Nicky's going nuts on the on the graphics package, dude. This is crazy. Show it again. Show it again. That was crazy. Whoa. Vote now for Flow Grappling Awards. Flow Grappling show. Speaker 2: We're up in our game. Speaker 1: 2026 is going to be a big year. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Well, this is funny. We are we're oh, and the the swipe. This is crazy. Speaker 2: Oh, let's go. Speaker 3: Guys, I think we can say it. The show is only going to get technically better from here after this episode. You guys are going to come back next week. I bet it's going to look even better. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Joe's alluding to the fact that this is our last episode in this studio and then we're going to go back to filming it ourselves. So if you're an OG fan, you liked when we were just sitting on the couch holding microphones, then, you know, we're back, baby. We're back. This studio's shutting down. So we might trash it before we leave. Might kick a hole in the wall or something, but. Speaker 2: Andre stuff. Speaker 1: Match of the year. Yeah, we got match of the year. Speaker 2: Match of the year. The next the next category here, six great matches, good mix of uh Gi and No-Gi. We got Paige Vet Climber versus uh Rafael Aggettis in the corner there. We got Luke Griffith versus Victor Hugo. We've got Adam Wardzinski versus Roberto Jimenez, Abe LaMontagne versus Felipe Costa, uh Anna Carolina Vieira versus Sarah Galvao from CGI 2. And then um what's that? Speaker 1: Elijah versus. Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, Elijah versus Tainan. That's right. Speaker 1: Brazileros finals. Speaker 2: Brazileros finals. So good. Speaker 1: Good candidates for sure here. Yeah. Speaker 2: So what do you think, Trey? You got a favorite here or? Speaker 1: I mean, I think all these are bangers, obviously. And obviously there's a lot of matches that didn't make the cut that, you know, you could make an argument for. It's kind of hard to whittle it down to six of the best matches. I think personally, like one of my favorite matches that I remember watching and just thinking like, oh, man, this is unreal was Roberto Adam in the moment, you know, especially like going back and watching it and stuff. Like there's so much cool stuff in that match. Like even from a technical aspect where it was kind of like for a while, it seemed like Roberto had like kind of solved the the Adam butterfly problem that kind of no one else really solves. And so I was like, that's sick to watch, you know, but it's kind of classic Adam too, just like willing to accept someone else's points and knowing that he's going to immediately counter it and kind of get on top and then you kind of see some dominance from Adam as well. So I did think this match particularly was super cool. Speaker 2: Yeah, just kind of like two styles clashing, you know, uh Adam kind of has like that obviously kind of more traditional jiu-jitsu game, plays that butterfly game better than anybody. And Roberto just takes everybody's back, you know, and and he's a a scrambly passer and uh, you know, obviously a little bit more athletic and just kind of youthful than uh than Adam is. Adam just retired. Roberto just getting into into his prime years at jiu-jitsu, hopefully. Hopefully he he heals up and is back very, very soon. Big fans of Roberto. But uh yeah, and this was, you know, also going for uh Adam's kind of grand slam run here. So there was a lot on the line for Adam. He really had to win this match. So there was a lot on the line just kind of really up the stakes of this match a little bit more. Speaker 1: I'm also just a sucker for a good Gi match, to be honest. It's like when it like Nogi matches, I mean, I don't think it's crazy to say are often more exciting, you know, but like when it is a good Gi match, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. That's what daddy like. Daddy likey a good Gi match, you know what I'm saying? So, I'm I'm into this one for sure. Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, another one I I really thought was a standout great match is that Anna Carolina versus uh Sarah Galvao match, you know, uh the kind of first round, the semifinals of the of the four women's bracket that they ended up throwing down. And uh, you know, I think we all had a lot of question marks going into that match of how that was going to look. You know, Anna Carolina is a veteran of the sport who really kind of dominates a lot of these younger uh athletes these days and stuff like that. She just was coming off of the ADCC win last year. And Sarah hadn't really been tested in this way against a veteran in Nogi. Um and she passed with flying colors. It was a fun match. Speaker 1: 100%. Speaker 3: 100% and uh definitely takes two to tango in any of these matches. I feel like the story of this match is definitely the emergence of Sarah as an elite contender and her being able to beat an ADCC champion. You only get something like that and you only get a match this good if you have somebody as good as Anna Carolina, uh who was was able to win the first round and was looking really good in that match and uh had done so much leading into this that made it such an impressive performance that Sarah was able to come back against her. Uh really incredible from both of them. Uh just kind of the start for Sarah of uh long illustrious career. We all expect uh and yeah, just packed up with action. Sarah's jumping off the side of the thing. She's throwing triangles all around. She's uh uh, you know, using waiter guards and all, you know. Speaker 2: Yeah, real good case for the pit, I feel like. Speaker 3: The there was a great pit. Speaker 2: This is like like a get a great just like pit match, you know, they they used the wall, you know, she she definitely kind of used it to just like um fold Anna Carolina up in the corner there for for a while, threw her off of it. And if you remember, right, like when we were doing CGI 1, you know, there wasn't a lot of submissions that first day. And everybody was kind of. Speaker 1: CGI 2. Speaker 2: CGI, what did I say? Speaker 1: CGI 1. Speaker 2: CGI 1. CGI 2. Um, you know, and everybody was kind of hemming and hawing and that there that there weren't submissions and it wasn't going exactly how everybody wanted and stuff like that. Speaker 3: Very careful jiu-jitsu. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, careful, kind of a lot of strategy. And then these two girls went out and the place just went crazy and and really kind of saved that first day as like, okay, we have our we have Anna Carolina versus Sarah Galvao to hang our hat on as like that was an incredible match. And then CGI 2 ended up being kind of a a much better uh the second day ended up being a much better day. But but that day one, it was really everybody was talking about this match. Speaker 1: For sure, stole the show easily. But what are the other ones? We need. Speaker 2: Yeah, the Tainan and Elijah we added, which was I think a a great match from finals of Brazileros. Tainan had a great year, you know, and uh really dominant year and this is one of the the better matches I think that Tainan had all year. Very impressive performance from Elijah Dorsey, who had uh matches with Mika that same week or that that weekend or that the following week. I forget exactly how it went, but he did the both. Speaker 3: Mika first, Elijah second. Speaker 2: Mika first. Or Tainan second. So he did the uh BJJ Stars Grand Prix, then put on the Gi, did Brazileros. Um so really really fun back and forth match there. Uh Tainan ends up getting the win, but Elijah, you know, kind of really proves that that, you know, you can find some good positions on Tainan. Speaker 3: He definitely did, man. He he threw a black hole. Tainan threw one back at him. Uh they were sweeping each other back and forth. Here you see him locking onto a a nice toe hold. Uh but then ends up giving up the sweep. This was to me the most that I saw Tainan challenged uh throughout his Grand Slam run, honestly. Uh uh even though he did also have some pretty uh uh close compelling matches with Andy Murasaki. I feel like there was just a little bit more electricity to this match. Maybe some of that is the crowd being down there in Brazil. Uh where just all these matches feel just a little bit more alive because everybody's look look how he just jumped that black hole. It was so sick. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 3: So sick. Look how everybody's, you know, super keyed into this. And I feel like uh uh Elijah just really raised his stock over the course of like six days, kind of went toe-to-toe with two of the best guys, both in their preferred style. Unbelievable. Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a crazy match for sure. Should we keep it moving along, get through some more of these nominees and everything? I can't remember what I had next. Breakthrough grappler of the year. I believe. Yeah. So, breakthrough grappler of the year. We got Sarah Galvao, Pavel Javorsky, Declan Moody, Ana Mayra Domo, Mia Funegra, and Nolan Stewart. So, some definitely some good uh candidates there. What do you guys want to start with these ones, huh? Who should we talk about? Speaker 3: Let's talk about Declan. Declan Moody uh had an awesome 2025. I feel like we all knew he was uh uh super beast in 2024. He had some good performances, but really nothing you could like kind of hang your hat on as like this is, you know, an up and coming next guy. Uh but then came in, won the Open Weight Grand Prix, won ADCC trials with all submissions, including over some very, very tough guys. Uh uh just looked like a killer all year long. Uh uh and looks to have really leveled up into one of the best guard passers in the game, one of the best grapplers in his division and a real medal threat heading into 2026 at basically any tournament you can put him in. Speaker 1: Yeah, Declan obviously had an unreal uh year. Another trials winner that came out of that that's nominated is Pavel Javorsky. We've been trying to pump Pavel for a while now, you know. Pavel, I feel like has been on our radar since like. Speaker 3: The Poland trip. Speaker 1: Yeah, like 2023 probably, when we did Euro uh the Euro tour. And he's just kind of like really kind of done well by us, you know, for pumping him. He just keeps winning. Speaker 3: Yeah, making us look good. Speaker 1: Yeah, look like we really knew what was going on. And so I'm I'm glad to see Pavel, you know, be nominated for breakthrough grappler. I think he's super excited. I think if he wins, he'll have the funniest reaction because he'll just give the Polish smile and look real look real sad, even though. Speaker 2: He's so excited. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: He'll be so demonstrably excited. Speaker 1: I I feel like even Pavel just like, he won so much, it kind of flew under the radar a little bit sometimes, you know. It's like he he went out there just won Nogi Worlds too, you know, and it kind of flew under the radar a little bit just how dominant Pavel's being out there. But um. Speaker 3: Got the rankings top five now. Speaker 2: There you go. Grand fifth, yeah. But I also feel like you got to got to mention Ana Mayra Domo's reign or run here in 2025. I feel like she really put herself on the map as one of the elite female competitors out there. And obviously she got the whole country of Spain behind her. And uh she's doing some UFC BJJ stuff. So she had a huge year and and and really just like just um exploded onto the scene this year. Just maybe nobody really had a better year than than Ana Mayra Domo. That was incredible. Speaker 1: For sure. Speaker 3: Got to mention Sarah Galvao in this category, right? You know, there you know, there's so many awesome nominees in this category, but uh Sarah a year ago, I think we forget like still kind of hadn't broken out. She'd won Purple Belt Worlds. Uh and everybody knew that she was going to be so good, but she hadn't really faced any of these elite tests yet. Uh and was still but this is the year where she finally threw herself into the deep end. Saw her win the crown, saw her, you know, make it to the finals of CGI, win Nogi Pans, win in major titles Black Belt. Uh uh and getting it done on who's number one, getting it done in various super fight organizations like Ocean Pro. Uh incredible year for Sarah and she handled it not just on the mats, but in front of the camera. She's been an incredible uh interview and an incredible media presence, which is also really cool to see. Speaker 1: Yeah, Sarah's I I think Sarah's run was a wild one because it was like the jiu-jitsu world feels like it moves so fast. It wasn't that long ago that Sarah was winning Brown Belt Brazileros, Brown Belt Worlds, getting her black belt at Worlds this year. And then how much she's accomplished since she got her black belt at Worlds is like pretty unreal, to be honest. So, you know, it's hard not to have her on this list. Another girl that has like a crazy brown to black run is Mia Funegra. Obviously, she got promoted just days before the World Championship and then goes out and wins Worlds. So, how could you not put Mia Funegra up there? She won by submission also or no, submission in the semis and then. Speaker 3: She might have been like all submissions except for one. I think that's kind of one of those situations. Speaker 1: Yeah. So, uh that was just another insane case of like this girl got promoted three days before, right? I think was the official like 72 hours and ended up winning. And then the final nominee, Nolan Stewart. Nolan Stewart's just kind of been like a grinder, you know. If there was like a grinder of the year, it'd probably be Nolan Stewart just kind of always competing, always chipping away. And then we finally saw him break through at the crown where he was able to submit Adam Wardzinski. Uh Adam Wardzinski going to probably be a male grappler of the year nominee after winning the Grand Slam and everything. But Nolan Stewart breaking through, kind of getting the win there in such an electric fashion. So, definitely some good nominees overall for breakthrough this year. Speaker 3: Best Omoplata in the game, Nolan Stewart. Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Speaker 2: And then uh next category actually we have kind of like a a new category. I don't think we did this one uh in in the past iterations of uh of the. Speaker 3: It's happened in the past, but not the past few years. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So, this one we're bringing it back here. We're doing juvenile of of the year. You know, obviously this sport is just exploding like crazy and every year there's younger and younger athletes who are displaying black belt level jiu-jitsu. And so we wanted to try to kind of uh highlight six grapplers under the age of 18 who are absolutely killing it out there and who are probably going to be uh, you know, uh black belts very, very soon mixing it up in those divisions. So, uh tons of fun names here. If you don't know them now, you will know them in the future. But we got Daniel 220 right there in the corner there. We got Jocelyn Molina in the center there. We got Kalabi. We got John Anderson. We got Fernando Paiva. And we got Ikaro Moreno. So, six pretty electric grapplers. If you got to watch any of their matches this year, uh you saw some sick jiu-jitsu. No doubt. These guys have incredible stuff out there. So, what are we thinking about this uh this category, boys? Speaker 1: I like this category because if you're watching this, all six of these kids would absolutely dog walk you, dude. That's the funniest part of this category. These kids would whoop you. Speaker 2: I have 100 100 pounds easily on all of these guys and. Speaker 3: I wouldn't fight Kalabi. Are you out of your mind? Kalabi's a serial killer. Speaker 1: Kalabi's huge too, actually. But like John Anderson, dude. John Anderson terical plotted me like 15 times in a three-minute round. Speaker 2: And he was going and he was going easy on me. Speaker 1: Yeah, he was taking it easy on me. He's like, "I'll take it easy on you, don't worry." Yeah, these kids are like unreal, you know. The level of jiu-jitsu in the juvenile ranks these days is absolutely insane. What were you going to say on this one? Speaker 3: No, yeah, yeah. Uh uh a lot of great nominees, uh a lot of great future champions that we believe in. Some of them have been on who's number one. Uh almost all of them have gotten it done in the Gi and in Nogi. Uh some are a little bit more specialized, but for the most part, they're just very complete athletes. These are the kind of people who are going to be leading the sport in no time. There's a lot of other people. You can see Baby Shark, who's a two-time uh who's number one veteran, only 13 years old, ADCC trials medalist, which is incredible. Could win the next trials. She's just that good. I think she might have just turned 14, so I guess the gimmick's over. Uh out on her, 14. Uh no, but uh uh she's uh now training with King's Way. Just uh we just expect to to see the level continue to shoot up and up and up. There's a lot of people we we could have chosen for a list like this. I feel like, you know, we could go up and down a list of, you know, how many people, JP Tran, Babe Junka, there's there's a billion, right? Uh that are so incredible. We thought these were six people who had a pretty awesome year and uh went ahead and and gave them the honor. Speaker 2: First ever kids match on WNO here. Ikaro Moreno. Got the submission win. Um yeah, no, like I said, I'm just excited to for the future of jiu-jitsu, you know, these these six and plus all the other ones that we didn't dominate and everything like that. It really makes for a healthy uh future of jiu-jitsu here. So. Speaker 1: I can't wait until one of these kids loses to some kid not on the list and like their parent comes up to me like, "My kid beat a nominee of the year." My kid beat a. Speaker 2: Definitely. Prepare for that. Definitely. Speaker 1: I'm riding with all of them. None of these six are losing ever again. Defeated until the end of time. But yeah, there's six, you know, juvenile grapplers. If you want to get hip to the next generation, go check out all their stuff. Um, they're definitely worth watching. They're pretty electric matches all the time. But let's jump into the female grappler of the year nominees. So we got Helena Kravvar, Adele Fornerino, Liz Clay, Gabby Passania, Jenaina Lebre, and then Sarah Galvao. Some some uh good spread here, you know. We got some vets been in the game for a minute, some young blood, you know, some girls who are kind of made it to the top and just remain there. I think we can start off with just talking about Helena Kravvar. Helena Kravvar obviously probably the youngest, her and Sarah, uh the youngest nominees for this. Speaker 3: I think Helena is younger by a little. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. And uh Helena Kravvar obviously an unreal year, you know. She uh is the who's number one champ right now. She's CGI champ. Uh just kind of put on. Speaker 2: Nogi World champ. Speaker 1: Nogi World champ, just pound for pound number one. Putting together insane performances back to back to back. So, how could you have this list but not have her on it? Um what other what other girls stand out to this on this one to you guys? Speaker 3: Definitely, Liz Clay, I think uh was somebody who maybe was on the bubble for contention, but then with that legendary Nogi Worlds run, all submissions, taps out, you know, uh uh so many legends over the course of two days that uh really kind of uh, you know, announced herself that she definitely had to be on a list like this. So I think Liz Clay, especially with how recent that was, is somebody who's going to get a lot of attention, a lot of votes and she deserves them. She's had an awesome, awesome time uh this year. Also in the Gi World finals, also won Brazileros, gets it done in both styles. I feel like sometimes we think about Liz as like Nogi heel hook girl, but she her jiu-jitsu is so complete. Uh and so I think she's somebody who's going to garner a lot of attention here. Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of crazy that both Sarah and Helena started the year as brown belts, you know, and here they are nominated for black belt of the year. And I think, you know, maybe it might be a little controversial that. Speaker 3: We saw both of them lose a brown belt. You know what I mean? Like neither one of them had like this like tap everybody out, win everything, double gold. Like they both even, you know, had their their losses and their their things they had to learn. Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it might be a little controversial to see Sarah Galvao in here just because she had she's only had a short amount of time at black belt, you know, really. But I think you just when you when you look at what she's she accomplished and and just her presence in the sport, I think it's kind of undeniable that uh she really is kind of one of the faces of women's jiu-jitsu here. But uh we also got to talk about uh Jenaina too. Speaker 1: Yeah, she's next one. Speaker 2: Jenaina, I think had an incredible year and uh, you know, she Grand Slam champion, um won the world IBJJF World Championships. You know, she's been on the grind for a long time as well and I I'm pretty sure we nominated her for this for last year as well and it just goes to show that she's just consistently one of the best females out there competing. So. Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. And I mean, with the Sarah thing, Sarah ended up winning the crown, right? So it was like, you got Jenaina on here. She beats Jenaina for the crown. So it's like, jiu-jitsu math starts mathing, it gets complicated, you know what I mean? Speaker 2: A lot a lot of these girls have been a lot of these girls. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Speaker 1: Uh, but then also. Speaker 2: That's why we need your vote. Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And then obviously the last two, Gabby Passania and Adele. Adele's just like one of the best representatives for female jiu-jitsu right now. Stays winning, just won Nogi Worlds, ended up beating Ana Mayra Domo in the finals in like 15 seconds. Just incredible performance by Adele. It would, you know, just wouldn't feel right not having Adele in the mix here. Speaker 2: I think who's number one match against uh Jasmine, submitted Jasmine. Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty quickly as well. So she's just kind of stays on top here. This is they're playing their her match with Ana right here. Just gets right into it. Speaker 2: And we were so excited about this one. We were all kind of like, you know, foaming at the mouth being like, okay, Ana versus Adele, let's see it, let's see it. Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just and then it was over so quick. Speaker 2: And then it was just boom, done. Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think that ended up being one of the most anticipated finals at Nogi Worlds and, you know, without Ana Mayra Domo kind of breaking through on the scene and kind of making her name so big and then Adele being one of the biggest grapplers in the sport right now, you know, that wouldn't happen. So I think that's why both these girls are kind of represented here at the end of the year awards. And then Gabby Passania, obviously, Gabby takes a loss to Liz Clay at Nogi Worlds. Speaker 3: Kind of Gabby's like in in some ways, kind of Gabby's worst year a little bit. Speaker 1: And even on her worst year, she still. Speaker 3: She still one of the most dominant. Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, she obviously still basically won everything. She took a loss to Tainani at uh Brazileros, came back, won the absolute or won the I can't remember which one she won. Speaker 3: She won the division, then she lost the absolute because she lost the last match. Uh and she had beaten Tainani the week before BJJ Stars. Speaker 1: That's right, yeah. And so then but then she comes back Worlds, uh beats Tainani at Worlds, which you just saw. And then, you know, Nogi Worlds, she still uh wins takes gold and silver. So it's like, yeah, even on Gabby's worst year, it's still the best year of anyone pretty much. So. Speaker 3: I I dare you to release a line for a Gabby Passania match and she's not the favorite. Maybe Liz, maybe Liz and like maybe Helena? Probably not even then. Uh yeah, Gabby is is a generational athlete. We're never going to see very many grapplers who are as talented as Gabby Passania. She's right in the middle of her run. Don't get it twisted. She might have lost her last match. She is just as good as she's ever been. Uh and I'm really excited to see the comeback. Speaker 1: 100%. In 2026. All right, so that leaves our final category, the male grappler of the year. Let's put the nominees up there. We got. Speaker 2: Some great some great photos here. Speaker 1: Yeah, for real. Speaker 2: Phenomenal photos. Speaker 1: Look at these. Speaker 3: Shout out uh guys like Dave Keel, Dominic Horwich. Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of these are on a seas also. I think three of them possibly. Speaker 2: On a seas. Who who got the uh the Nicky Rod photo? Is that a Dave? Speaker 1: That's that's a Davey Flix special right there. Speaker 2: That's a great photo, Nicky Rod. Speaker 1: Yeah, meditating with the pyro behind him. And it's an all-time photo of Roosevelt. I don't know who got that one. Yeah, yeah, that's a sick one. Uh I think Dave, right? Dave would have got that one too. Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be Dave. Speaker 1: But our nominees here, we got Eric Munis, Diego Pato, Adam Wardzinski, Nicky Rod, Tainan Dalpra, and Roosevelt Souza. Kind of kicking it off. Let's talk about Adam first, cuz like, you know, I know he just took a loss. He took his he lost his first retirement match uh against Nolan Stewart. So technically, I don't know, does that count? Does it not count? I'm not sure. He was retired, you know. Different Adam. That's that's retired Adam versus competitor Adam. But first European ever to Grand Slam, you know. He kind of dominated everything all year. Just looked so sick. Became a two-time world champion. You know, like I said, he Grand Slammed. That was just such an incredible run. I feel like this year when you're watching jiu-jitsu, if you try to think back of the whole year, not just have a recency bias, like I was tuning in to watch Adam on almost every single event, you know. It was just like Adam was like the epitome of jiu-jitsu this year in my opinion. Like I think he was electric to watch. He's the guy I tuned in for. He was just kind of carrying that jiu-jitsu spirit through it all, you know. He does things a little different. Like I'm a huge fan of Adam for male grappler of the year, to be honest, you know. So I guess I guess I'm making my case. You guys got to vote, but like I I I like Adam a lot for this one. I think I just don't want there to be a recency bias. I think Nolan deserves a breakthrough bid, you know, that was incredible, but like that doesn't wash away everything that happened throughout the year. So. Speaker 2: Yeah, Euros, Pans, Brazileros, Worlds, you know, it doesn't get tougher than that. He fought Roberto Jimenez, he fought uh, you know, guys he's lost to in in the past in that run. So, just an incredible run from from Adam. Um, I want to shout out Roosevelt Souza, you know, uh a guy who who had an incredible run and and a guy that uh, you know, big dude, started jiu-jitsu late. Um, you know, maybe you wouldn't really suspect him to to kind of accomplish what he has accomplished. But uh incredible run from him as well. He had the who's number one victory over uh Fat Ninja, but just won Nogi Worlds, double gold, and won the IBJJF World Championships uh in his weight category, punched his ticket. So, the only male grappler uh this year to win both Nogi Worlds and Gi Worlds. He can do it both. So, uh phenomenal year for for Roosevelt. Speaker 1: 100%. Absolutely. Speaker 3: Absolutely. Uh I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about the only Nogi specific grappler that we have on the list, Nicky Rod. Uh the million dollar grappler, Mr. CGI. Uh had a uh a little bit of an up and down year in some ways, but uh uh by the time you get to the end of it, you're looking at a guy who in this enormous clash at WNO 27 between ADCC champ and the CGI champ was pretty dominant at the end of the day over Kainan. That was an incredible performance. Then he goes into CGI. He was the anchor of that team uh and he was the guy who with a million dollars on the line delivered a 10-8 round that his team needed in the biggest single match of the year. Uh uh Nicky was able to get that done. Obviously, controversy followed. Uh but Nicky Rod still the performance on the mat was undeniable. I think he was one of the biggest stars, one of the most impactful stars and he had one of the uh craziest years. I think he's very deserving of a nomination here. Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I think people jiu-jitsu moves so fast. People probably forget about WNO 27, but also, you know, the million dollar man leading the million dollar team to victory is is pretty insane. So. Speaker 3: Unbelievable. Speaker 1: Um and then Eric Munis, got to talk about Eric Munis. Eric Munis is kind of like the Gabby Passania of the men's division in some ways, you know, just. Speaker 2: Well, under the radar. Speaker 1: Little under the radar and just goes out and wins all the time, you know, just absolutely dominant, kind of dominating the IBJJF circuit, got some wins on BJJ Stars, including a win over Adam Wardzinski at BJJ Stars. So, can't not have Eric Munis on that list. Speaker 3: He lost this year, right? Speaker 1: Really? Speaker 3: I don't think. Speaker 1: He fought Anderson. Speaker 3: I don't think. Speaker 1: Or was that 2024? Speaker 3: Yeah, it was 2024. And uh yeah, he got knee barred in the World finals. He got knee barred real good. Speaker 1: But uh and then also the last two, Diego Pato and Tainan. Both uh Grand Slam, right? Speaker 3: Yes, both Grand Slam, both AOJ. Uh both uh uh not both, but uh uh Pato got it done on WNO, defended his title. They both did a peer on WNO and and went one and 0. Uh yeah, both these guys had awesome years. Speaker 1: Yeah, so a good a great crop of athletes for this year's male grappler of the year. You know, like we said already, you can vote now for all of these awards. I think we'll probably have like the yeah, we got the graphic flashing. So, go to the website. If you go to flowgrappling.com, surely you can find the links somewhere hidden in there. But also it should be in the description of this. If you're watching on YouTube, go click that. Cast your vote. Any anything else we got to talk about before we get out of here, boys? Speaker 2: Just want to say. Speaker 1: Instagram link tree. Yeah. Speaker 2: On Instagram link tree for sure. But yeah, awesome year. Thanks everybody for for watching, for for following along Flow Grappling and and just watching this podcast. It means a lot to us and everything like that for for you guys just to be to be following along with us and just kind of talking about the cool stuff that happened in in grappling. So definitely we need your vote. Help us out and and throw a vote in the in the Flow Grappling Awards and uh hope you guys have a have a Merry Christmas and a a good holiday and everything like that. There you go. It's up on the site right now. You can kind of just click the link in in this uh article and and uh get all your all your votes in there. So, uh happy happy Christmas and everybody and all that stuff and thanks for watching. Speaker 1: That's right. All right, we'll we'll announce the uh the winners on this show on January 5th. So next week, we're going to be coming to you guys live from an undisclosed location. All right? A little undisclosed location, a little secret show pretty much. Speaker 3: That we may have said earlier, I don't remember. Speaker 1: We didn't say the location, but we're not going to be in this studio. This is our last show in the studio. But yeah, so tune into that one and then January 5th, we'll announce the winners for everything. But thank you all for watching. We'll see you guys in the next episode.