That too:) He showed some serious resilience.
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Awesome show. Unreal display of heart from all the competitors.
Yuri Simoes v. Garry Tonon was one for the history books.
Garry vs Yuri was an incredible match. So impressive from Garry. He only came in weighing 173 to Yuri's 220. He looked like he was starting to get the better of Yuri towards the later half of regulation time too. Yuri's pressure passing was impressive too though. He consistently passed Garry pretty easily. It just got taxing for him to keep passing and Garry never stopped counter attacking.
Ironically, the way Yuri surprised Garry and won the match in that last OT round with a quick escape was also the same way he lost to Gordan. He purposely put his hand under Garry and Gordan's foot in order to immediately throw the hook out once Eddie said go. Garry just had a mental lapse and wasn't tight enough, so it worked. Gordan however immediately trapped that hand and it was all over after that. Garry only lost by 27 seconds, so very likely he could have held that long if he wouldn't of had that mental lapse and took advantage of it like Gordan did.
Admittedly I had no idea who he was until Sunday but I think my favorite competitor was DJ Jackson. His posture and base were pretty astonishing. The way he manhandled that giant Bruno Bastos was absolutely unreal to me.
Then for his match with the Russian Bear he immediately pulled quarter guard to lockdown to electric chair attempt? If he was able to finish that submission it would have been hands down the sickest of the night... especially considering it is Eddie Bravo's tournament. If I had a match against the Bear that is exactly what I would attempt personally, so It was crazy exciting for me to watch.
Definitely match of the night was Tonon vs Yuri. And, of course Grace did her thing and showed why she IS the best girl in the country hands down.
thank you guys, I appreciate the positive feedback, hopefully we can keep the show going in this direction :)
It was the best no-gi event I have ever seen! Why do we even have points tournaments anymore? I am pretty much keeping the fight pass subscription purely for EBI, everything else is just extra. Gordon really showed the world how good he is. It would have been great to see some post tournament interviews (at least for the finalists).
It also seems like more and more fighters are taking notice of EBI as an amazing tournament to compete in (Frank Mir said he would be down) so crossover stars it the future would be amazing to see. Any idea about what might be coming up after the Featherweights?
Maybe Middleweights (Davi Ramos is one guy I would like to see, and plus Gordon vs Keenan could potentially happen for that one!) and Heavyweights (the possibilities for this warp my mind - Cyborg, Barnett, Buchecha, Lister, Mir, Werdum, Drysdale, Big Red...)
Anyhow it was an amazing event by all involved and I will continue to support and tell everyone I know about it