🥷 How much oss is too much oss?

Who’s On Top This Week:

Back to the 60kg ADCC Open division this week to see who’s been shakin’ things up.

In the men’s rankings, a damn child has achieved more than most of us ever dare to dream of on the mats.

The 15-year-old phenom, Raphael Ferreira surged from #13 to #7 after going 3-0 to win the bracket at the Arizona Open earlier in August.

Kids these days huh!? 👦 

The Women’s 60kg division is topped by the talented Jasmine Rocha - with Alex Enriquez hot on her heels 👠 after her wins at the Arizona Open.

The talented grappler and MMA superstar Thug Rose 🌹  sits just within the Top 10 of this division - and even though her focus is basically all UFC nowadays, she’s still finding time to get her rounds in with dudes 3x her size - so y’all better watch yourselves at the top 💪 

September has a few ADCC events on the roster so we might see a few shake-ups before the month is out.

What’s Happening On The Mats:

The Biggest Con In BJJ History

Costumes, nerds & energy drinks as far as the eye can see - we must be at Comic Con! Jiu Jitsu Con! 🦸‍♀️

In what is thought to have been the largest Jiu-Jitsu event of all time, last weekend’s Jiu-Jitsu Con brought together over 10,000 athletes & 2,000 black belts for 3 days of competitions, seminars and general oss-ing about 🤷‍♂️ (what else happens there!?)

It wasn’t all part-timers and hobbyists though, the Master’s Worlds, and IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix side of the event brought in top athletes such as Tainan Dalpra, Helena Crevar, Diego Oliveira, Demetrious Johnson, Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barbosa & Mayssa Bastos to name a few.

The most anticipated match-up on the card ended up as a final between Nicholas Meregali & Victor Hugo, with Saint Nick taking the win with a slick sweep - and netting a cool 40k for his trouble 😎 💰

There were a number of other standout performances - but let's finish with a special shoutout for Danaher’s daughter (#lookintoit) Helena Crevar, taking quadruple gold 🥇 🥇 🥇 🥇 🤯 - proving yet again that not all blue belts are the same shade of blue.

Marcelo is on the mend!

For all the rivalry and arguments that the top BJJ guys love to go back and forth on, there’s one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on - Marcelo Garcia is a legend 🤝 

With multiple IBJJF & ADCC titles to his name, Marcelinho is already considered one of the sports ‘greats’ and is responsible for pioneering many aspects of the modern game (…next time you land flat on your back from a butterfly sweep, don’t forget to thank Marcelo 🙏 🧹 )

Despite being in peak shape most of his life, Marcelo, unfortunately, announced earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and went straight in for surgery and chemotherapy.

Since then, from grassroots to top levels, the BJJ community rallied around him with seminars and fundraisers to help chip in for the medical costs, and based on his latest update, it looks like this is yet another fight that Marcelo is going to win 💪 

He plans to be back on the mats ASAP … and maybe even eyeing off one final ADCC run? Take my money! 💵 

Dusting it off from the Gracie archives

Turns out that with a good strong coffee, a whole lot of Reddit trawling and a strong enough desire to avoid doing real work - you can find nearly anything on the internet 🤓 ☕️ 💻

Like this ancient Japanese documentary footage of Rickson Gracie in the late 1990s - training, surfing, fighting and living his dream! ⬆️

There isn’t much context to the clip, and a lot of it is just watching a grown man eat a lot of food, however, it’s a cool little slice of BJJ history nonetheless 😂 - if anyone out there knows any more about it - fire off a reply and let me know 🔥 

Do Less. No, Wait, Do More:

The Good Option:

The many ways to skin a cat…in closed-guard

Some of us can feel like our jiu-jitsu is pretty scrappy at times, while others seem to flow into positions and submissions like butter across a hot pan 🧈 🤤 

Well, Jean Jaques Machado has some of the butteriest damn jiu-jitsu in the game. He has a real knack for showing the small details and shifts that can make a technique work with next to no effort - and this clip is no different.

In under 4 minutes, he shows a run of different options from closed guard that lead to smooth sweeps and sneaky submissions - I’d be surprised if there isn’t something in there that you can’t use, but then again, I’m easily surprised 😎

The Not-So-Good Option:

Mugging the wrong guy

If you’re in the business of preying on the weak and looking for an easy dollar - it’s time to think again 👮 

With BJJ becoming so popular - it means anyone you pass on the street could be a certified walking weapon - ready to teach the lesson you so thoroughly deserve.

So to all of you dodgy characters prowling the streets looking for trouble - if you come across a guy in a rashie carrying tatami mats - you know you’ve found it ⬇️ 🤼 

Things That Keep You Up At 2 AM:

Ready class? OSS! … Did everyone get that? OSS! … Hey bro, what are you doing later? OSS!

Some people can’t get enough of the ‘oss’ and entirely replace the word ‘yes’ with it in all contexts all of the time 👍

Others would rather cop a flying triangle to the face than ever have to hear it cultishly chanted at them ever again 🤦‍♂️

So, the big question this week - where do you sit on the ‘oss-meter’?…

This week’s big question: ⬇️

Last week’s results:

Last week we asked you - “Do You Think Paying For A Belt Promotion Is A Scam?”

• 100% of you said - 🙅‍♂️ Absolutely. I pay enough in membership fees to cover a belt every few years

You think that’s a scam - some people are saying they’ve even had to pay for stripes! 🤯 

The Meme Open Mat:

Who said you had to know how to count to do BJJ huh!? 🤷‍♂️…

Think you’ve got the spiciest BJJ memes going around? Hit reply, send them through to get them featured 🔥 

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