Purple Belt 80+

Purple Belt -80

Blue Belt -100

Blue Belt -88

White Belt -70

Braulio Estima Seminar:

This seminar will take place at the Valley Leisure Centre, Belfast on Sat 4th February and is open to all.

The cost is £25 for GBNI members and £35 for non-members, but £30 if you pre-register. Contact seminars@gracie-barra-ni.co.uk to register

Facebook event here

white -57
Sam mc Nally – Ribeiro
Matthew macauley – Revolution

White -64
Marcus Phelan – Ribeiro
Ryan Russell – Rillion Gracie
Mark Barrett – Ribeiro

White – 70
James Gallagher – SBG
Pauric Henry – Torres
Paul Pike – Rillion Gracie
Steven Byrne – Ribeiro
Paul Largey – Dogpound
Aaron Shim – GBNI
Andrew mc Gahon – Torres
John Bradley
Fergal mc arde – Torres
Finian Ferry – Aizeria Milford

White -76
Conor Boyce – Rillion Gracie
Gerard Smyth – Torres
Stuart Bickerstaff – Revolution
David Phelan – Ribeiro
David Tiernan – Torres
Pierce Walsh – Rillion Gracie
Darren Henderson – Torres
Joe Allen – Revolution
Alan Philpott – Next Generation
Michael o connor – Torres
Paul Browne – Revolution
Joe Clarke – FAI

White -82
Gavin Carlin – Rillion Gracie
James Donaldson – QUB De la Riva
David Doherty – Torres
Ian Harper – Ribeiro
Darren Chism – Torres
Arto Toomsalu – Alliance
Barry Peoples – Rillion Gracie
Ryan Hood – Revolution
Adam Johnston – Revolution

White – 88
Rowan mc Kernan – Torres
Dominik Szerszen – Alliance
Aaron Flynn – Torres
Shaun o Sullivan – Ribeiro
Gavin mc Naney – Gracie Barra
Ciaran Leavey – Ribeiro
Ciaran o Brien – Torres
Stephen Grayston – Revolution

White -94
Jason van der Berg – Revolution
Brendan Newbanks – Torres
Scott Dalglish – QUB De la Riva
Craig Ryan – Fight Sports

White – 100
Peter mc Clay – Revolution
Gavin Tully – Legion
Patrick o Neill – Torres
Darren Giles – Rillion Gracie

Blue – 66
Tom Halpin – Revolution
Adriana Gibadulinova – Ribeiro
Denis Chetari – Revolution

Blue -70
Sean Slane – GBNI
David Vallely – Torres
David Morgan – Ribeiro
Paul Campbell – Torres

Blue -76
John Sheridan – Ribeiro
Conor Collins – Revolution
Karl Redmond – SBG
Ray Yore – Revolution
Marty Quigley – Revolution

Blue – 82
Stephen mc Court – Revolution
Paul Gallagher – Rillion Gracie
Chris Leddy – Ribeiro
Matt Black – Revolution

Blue – 88
Robert Orlovsky – Revolution
Kyle mc Clurkin – GBNI
Matthew Mullan – Torres
Ciaran mc Fadden – Rillion Gracie
Gary mc Dermott – Ribeiro
Paddy mc Conaghy – Rillion Gracie
Eoin mc Cluskey – Ribeiro

Blue 100
Michal Crkon – Revolution
Joe Neeson – Torres

Purple -80
Mark Curry – GBNI
Ryan Smyth – Alliance
Darren Whelan – Revolution
John Eustace – Fight Sports

Purple +80
Waquar Ahmed – QUB De La Riva
Morgan Smyth – Alliance
Ciaran Toal – GBNI
Stephen Coll – Rillion Gracie
Colin Laird – Revolution
Mickey Downs – Alliance

Huge thanks go to Tom Dargle who very kindly filmed every single match for BJJ.ie. Thanks Tom!

The Final – Chris Bowe v Darragh O’Connaill

Semi-Final: Darragh O’Connaill v Richard Gorey

Semi-Final: Chris Bowe v Tom King

3rd Place Match – Richard Gorey v Tom King

Darragh O’Connaill v Andre Ramos

Tom King v Kenneth Brett

Wayne Fagan v Richard Gorey

Chris Bowe v Clive Staunton

Purple -80kg
1. Adam Grimshaw (Hercules)
2. Richie Ivory (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)
3. Cian Conlon (SBG)

Blue Absolute
1. Chris Fields (SBG)
2. Andy Brady (Drysdale)
3. John Sheridan (SBG)

Blue -61.5kg
1. Tom Haplin (BJJ Revolution)
2. Paddy Copeland (Torres Jiu-Jitsu)
3. Chris Bombik (Killer Factory)

Blue -67.5kg
1. Stewart Dollery (Boxing Clinic)
2. Niall Scollard (Boxing Clinic)
3. Adriana Gibadulinova (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)

Blue -73.5kg
1. John Sheridan (SBG)
2. Shane Smith (Tuatha De Dannan)
3. Darren Henderson (Cobra)

Blue -79.5kg
1. Niall Mullen (Gordo Jiu-Jitsu)
2. Ciaran McIlvenny (Gracie Bara)
3. Mark Fogarty (Tuatha De Dannan)

Blue -85.5kg
1. Lukas Cikotas (Ferocity)
2. Darren Doherty (Evolve)
3. Aaron Flynn (Torres Jiu-Jitsu)

Blue -91.5kg
1. Danny McMahon (Torres Jiu-Jitsu)
2. Sebastien Wierzbinski (Morcegao)
3. Lukasz Ziemliwicz (Beserkers)

Blue -97.5kg
1. Ilkka Outa (Athlon Budokan)
2. Pawl Przygorski (Morcegao)

White -61.5kg
1. Sam McNally (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)
2. Blain O’Driscoll (Lucan)
3. Cian McDonnell (Fightsports)

White -67.5kg
1. Glenn O’Kelly (SBG)
2. Andrew McGahon (Torres Jiu-Jitsu)
3. Mark Barrett (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)

White -73.5kg
1. Aaron Maguire (Pedro Bessa)
2. Declan Dillon (Evolve)
3. Steven Byrne (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)

White -79.5kg
1. Lazslo Borcsok (Primal)
2. Ian Harper (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)
3. Ciaran Redmond (Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu)

White -85.5kg
1. Dominik Szysling (Beserkers)
2. Mick Finglas (Legion)
3. Krysztof Dragowski (Ferocity)

White -91.5kg
1. Adam Wrights (Morcegao)
2. Chris Connoly (Ferocity)
3. Simon Higgins (Killer Factory)

White +97.5kg
1. Pawl Kozlowski (Legion)
2. Kamil Iwaniuk (SBG)
3. Thomas McCormick (Independent)

Richie Crosdale v Clive Staunton

Wayne Fagan v Ryan Smyth

Chris Bowe v Arek Sternalski

Darragh O’Connaill v Sebastien Torres

Kenneth Brett vs Marty McGlaughlin

Tom King v Adam Grimshaw

Richie Ivory v Richard Gorey

Andre Ramos v Luke Corocan

63 points. That was how many Chris Bowe scored in four matches, on his way to winning the elite tournament tonight, only conceding 2 – from an O’Connaill single leg in the final.

Chris fought his way to the final with exceptional positional control to rack up points against Arek Sternalski, Clive Staunton and Tom King to get there. Of particular note was his excellent use of the seatbelt position to take the back and control from there, with his opponents finding him almost impossible to remove once he was there.

After an extremely strong start from Bowe, O’Connaill managed to escape a bad position and scored a single leg takedown from standing – unfortunately this wasn’t enough to regain and Bowe took the victory.

Darragh impressed as well, beating black belt Sebastien Torres in the first round with some lovely X-guard sweeps, then guillotining brown belt Andre Ramos in the quarter finals, he picked up another submission win in the semi-finals against Richard Gorey with a north-south choke.

Richard Gorey fought a smart tournament, showing some beautiful takedowns. He caught Richie Ivory with a kimura in round one and then beat Wayne Fagan at his own game in the second round, smartly scoring a takedown to rack up points and get the W. While he could never really get started against Darragh, Richie impressed in his 3rd place play-off, catching the always dangerous Tom King with a nasty toe hold.

Round of 16
Andre Ramos v Luke Corcoran (Guillotine)
Sebastien Torres v Darragh O’Connaill (Points)
Richie Ivory v Richard Gorey (Kimura)
Ryan Smyth v Wayne Fagan (Points)
Kenneth Brett v Marty Mcglaughlin (RNC)
Tom King v Adam Grishaw (Triangle)
Chris Bowe v Arek Sternalski (Points)
Richie Crosdale v Clive Staunton (Arm Triangle)

Quarter Finals
Darragh O’Connaill v Andre Ramos (Guillotine)
Richard Gorey v Wayne Fagan (Points)
Kenneth Brett v Tom King (Points)
Chris Bowe v Clive Staunton (Points)

Semi-Finals
Darragh O’Connaill v Richard Gorey (North-South Choke)
Tom King v Chris Bowe (Points)

3rd-place
Richard Gorey v Tom King (Toe-hold)

Final
Darragh O’Connaill v Chris Bowe (Points)

BJJ.ie filmed every match and we are currently in the process of uploading them, stay tuned!

The Elite tournament takes place tomorrow night in Dublin at Whitehall Colmcille GAA Club. Tickets are €20 and doors at 7pm. You can contact Barry Oglesby to reserve a ticket or pay on the door – see the site for all info.

Please do support Grapplepalooza, it’s an absolutely fantastic idea and a sign that Irish Grappling is starting to move to the next level. All the guys on the list have some serious skills and it’s important that we support them – and it’s going to be a great show. Bjj.ie will be there, so should you!

Now onto the competitors. As well as the twelve men profiled below, it’s also important to remember that qualifiers will be held during the daytime tournament, with four men going through to enter the final 16. If you’d like to watch the daytime tournament as well, it’s in the same venue commencing at 10am.

Darragh O’Connaill
Nationality: Irish
Team: Ribeiro Jiu Jiu Jitsu Dublin
Background: BJJ (Brown Belt)
‘D-money’ has been on an absolute tear of late, winning numerous titles in England and further afield. Darragh received his brown belt from Saulo Ribeiro earlier this year and is known for his nasty guillotine – most recently using it to submit english BJJ prodigy and ADCC competitor Luke Costello in the TUFF grappling challenge.

Sebastien Torres
Nationality: Brazilian
Team: Team Torres- Cia Paulista Newry
Background: BJJ (Black Belt), Judo (Black Belt)
Sebastien came to Northern Ireland several years back as a BJJ brown belt and Judo standout, being highly successful in judo competition in Brazil, and even receiving university scolarships. He received his black belt this year during a return visit to Brazil. Known for his phenomenal foot sweep takedowns and reverse triangle turtle attack, Sebastien has been a little quiet on the Irish grappling scene the past few years, after taking several golds in clean sweeps at no-gi tournaments. It’ll be interesting to see how Seb gets on after a relatively long layoff from grappling competition. One of the last times sebastien competed was in a trial run of the FILA rules in Belfast – you can watch his match with bjj.ie columnist Mark here.

Wayne Fagan
Nationality: Irish
Team: Team Ryano- BJJ Revolution Dublin
Background: BJJ (Purple Belt), Judo
A highly decorated competitor, Wayne has numerous medals to his name including a Silver from the 2009 Europeans. A very skilled takedown artist, most people would be surprised to learn that Wayne only began studying Judo after he started BJJ. Should a matchup with Darragh come about, the outcome figures to be very interesting as Wayne actually submitted Darragh in the Irish Open a few years ago. However given the vast improvement in Darragh’s game and the huge amount of competition experience and success, it’ll certainly be a different match this time around.

Tom King
Nationality: Irish
Team: SBG Dublin
Background: BJJ (Purple Belt)
A good candidate for the ‘most overdue belt’ award, Tom received his purple belt four years ago and has had great success since then. A phenomenal competitor with a penchant for quick finishes, Tom favours the triangle choke and a crushing top game. Tom has a friendly rivalry with fellow Grapplepalooza competitor Andre Ramos. Tom hit a beautiful armbar at the Irish Open last year but Andre was able to win on points in the Northern Irish Open back in January this year. Despite Tom’s excellent jiu-jitsu, he has had problems with skilled wrestlers in the past and his opponents may seek to exploit this on saturday night.

Arek Sternalski
Nationality: Polish
Team: SBG Dublin
Background: BJJ (Brown Belt), Wrestling
Surprisingly for anyone who’s ever trained with him, Arek has a relatively low profile on the Irish scene. This is a result of Arek’s disinterest in competing for the past few years, and doesn’t do credit to his ability. Recently promoted to brown belt and coaching at SBG’s new location in Dublin city centre, those who know Arek are very familiar with his technical knowledge and skill.

Martin McLaughlin
Nationality: Northern Irish
Team: Cobra Martial Arts Derry
Background: Wrestling
The only competitor not to hold rank in BJJ, Marty is still a solid grappler and one to be aware of. He’s won several medals in advanced divisions with a conservative style, utilising his wrestling to score points and submission awareness to stay out of danger. A wrestling coach at Cobra Martial Arts in Derry, Marty has four straight gold medals in the NI Wrestling Open and came 4th in the British Championships last year.

Andre Ramos
Nationality: Brazilian
Team: Sapo Team Dublin
Background: BJJ (Brown Belt)
Originally training with SBG when he moved from Brazil, Andre switched to train with his countrymen at Morcegao Sapo team when they began running classes in Dublin. An explosive grappler with an athletic style, Andre is technically excellent and combines this with his physical attributes to create serious problems for his opponents. Check out his match with highly experienced grappler Michael Devlin at a previous IP tournament here.

Clive Staunton
Nationality: Irish
Team: SBG Dublin
Background: BJJ (Purple Belt)
The best word to describe Clive’s grappling style is ’solid’. A fundamentally sound grappler, he espouses the old school Jiu-Jitsu style of conservative, smart tactics. You’ll never see Clive trying a flying gogoplata, but you will see him shutting down his opponents game and slowly working his way to a good position without putting himself at risk. Solid wrestling backs up his game. A veteran of Irish BJJ and MMA, Cive has been on the scene for a very long time and brings a lot of experience to the table. Look to see Clive take his time looking for the right takedown and then gradually advancing.

Chris Bowe
Nationality: Irish
Team: Braulio Estima Birmingham
Background: BJJ (Purple Belt)
The prodigy on the list. Chris Bowe has been training a relatively short time, but has achieved his purple belt and some solid competition accolades, winning gold after gold after gold. Training out of Braulio Estima’s gym in Birmingham, Chris came from a powerlifting background and has combined his athleticism with hard work and fantastic technique to become a serious player on the UK competition scene. Check out his match with former national rugby player Matt Stevens in the final of the British Open.

Richard Gorey
Nationality: Irish
Team: Pedro Bessa Cork
Background: Judo (Black Belt), BJJ (Blue Belt)
Another Judo standout, ‘Souza’ is probably better known for his MMA background – recently coming off a 19 second KO in his Cage Contender debut. Despite this slightly frightening striking power, Richard’s background is almost entirely grappling based – beginning with Judo from 9-16 years old, he moved into MMA and has been training BJJ for around a year now with Liam Beechinor in Cork. After winning the Munster Open’s blue belt absolute division in Cork, among other strong showings on the Irish scene, Richie might not have the credentials that some of the other competitors do, but he’s not one to be underestimated. Here he is showing off some sick grappling in an MMA match a few years ago.

Ryan Smyth
Nationality: Irish
Team: Alliance BJJ Sligo
Background: BJJ (Purple Belt)
Ryan may be the least well known competitor on this list. He’s an Alliance purple belt and coach at Alliance Sligo, having strong ties with the Alliance team and spent a lot of time at Alliance HQ. Ryan also impressed at the Munster Open – check out his match with Revolution Team purple belt Mick O’Hagan here.