Marcelo Garcia, world champion (again!)

[Ric]

Yaaaaay!

[Frank R.]

Hah and he thanked Steven Segal at the end for teaching him all his techniques. I couldn't stop laughing.

[Emir Mehovic]

How did he win?

[Ric]

Marcelo scored 2 pts very early in the match. I'm not sure how because my live video stream would freeze on occasion. After that, the commentators said Marcelo's opponent Lucas Leite was trying to get half guard on Marcelo. Marcelo defended well and was aggressive in trying to pass the guard. He wasn't able to pass. At times Marcelo would end up in full guard where he would stand up and quickly open the guard (as he teaches in class). In the last 20 seconds or so things got scary as Lucas looked like he almost swept Marcelo. By the end of the match he almost had back control on Marcelo. Lucas was complaining a bit after the match was over. Maybe he felt he had back control. I don't know.

Marcelo ended up winning 2-0.

[Matthew Edlund]

He scored to 2 points early with a butterfly sweep. At least that's what it looked like to me. I know it was a sweep. That was a great match.

[Tony Toffolo]

yes!

[Robert Sevigny]

without a doubt i knew he could win it !
marcello is just a MONSTER at BJJ just like MASTER EDDIE is

[Cookie Monster]

alliance had the biggest gathering i have ever seen

[Mike Nall]

Yeah this is the 2nd year Marcelo has won the finals by 2 points. He pulled guard and got a beautiful butterfly hook sweep so fast that it looked like a Sumi Gaeshi. At the very end Lucas Leite got up and got on Marcelo's back but Marcelo started chilling with a couple seconds left and right when Lucas got the second hook in the match was over. This makes Gold number 5 for Marcelo Garcia. This year was an interesting year for him in terms of his matches. I don't know if frustrated is the right word, but a few times he looked maybe a little bit annoyed.

In his first match he kept passing and looking for the North-South choke but kept getting re-guarded. He won like 8-0 but it didn't look as effortless, but he stayed methodical, and kept pushing the same effective game.

In the second match, he immediately pulled to the 1-leg x-guard and swept, but the guy broke a finger as he fell, and Marcelo won by medical DQ. So, going into Day 2, he didn't really have a lot of "warm up" time with the easier competition.

His first, quarter-final match today played a lot like his first match yesterday. It was against the always awesome Victor Estima, Braulio Estima's brother. Victor played closed guard on Marcelo in a weekend that had a few minutes worth of closed guard the entire time. Marcelo kept standing and breaking the guard, and got a really sick knee-cut pass early on. Once again he was re-guarded while trying to drop on the North-South choke. This time, Victor used the bottom of Marcelo's lapel to weave through for a Brabo choke grip from the closed guard, and it looked like Marcelo was almost in danger for a second. Marcelo broke the grip though, stood, broke the guard, and fought for another pass as time ran out for him to win 3-0.

Against Gustavo Campos in the semi-finals, Marcelo finally got a submission, a beautiful crucifix armlock using his legs.

In the Finals, he went against Lucas Leite, and despite the end, there was really no controversy. It was a clean win. Despite never really looking like a killer this weekend, he never looked to be in danger at any time. Can't wait to see him at ADCC in September!

[AndyK5]

Hah and he thanked Steven Segal at the end for teaching him all his techniques. I couldn't stop laughing.

Did he really do that? God I wanna see that.