The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 11 - Guilherme Mendes vs. Justin Rader - 2008 World Championships (Brown Belt)

(Last week’s edition can be found HERE)

The match I bring to you this week is Guilherme Mendes vs. Justin Rader from the brown belt featherweight semi-finals of the 2008 World Championships. 

Guilherme Mendes is a black belt under Ramon Lemos and fights for Atos Jiu-Jitsu. Today, Guilherme is considered to be one of the best fighters in the light featherweight division and arguably one of the best pound for pound. He is the older brother of multiple time world champion, Rafael Mendes. 

Just like his younger brother, Guilherme also has many a long list of accomplishments at the black belt level. He is a four time World Champion (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014), a two time European Champion (2010, 2011), a one time Pan American (2013) and Brazilian National Champion (2010). Guilherme was the first member of the Atos team to win a gold Medal at the World Championships at the black belt level. 

Guilherme is very well rounded. He is excellent both on the top and on the bottom. In lots of his matches, you will see Guilherme use a fake guard pull to an ankle pick and from there you see him immediately start to pass the guard. When passing the guard, he uses a tremendous amount of pressure on his opponent with the use of either a baseball bat or brabo choke and passes either from a leg drag position or a knee slide from the half guard. 

Guilherme Mendes

Justin Rader is a black belt under Rafael Lovato Jr and is the first black belt under him. Just like Lovato, Justin is one of America's most successful Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. He is one of the top competitors in featherweight/lightweight division today. 

Justin is a three time World NoGi champion (2013, 2010 black, 2009 brown), a one time World (2007 purple), Pan American (2009 brown), American National NoGi (2010), and Grappler Quest Pro Champion (2011). He also took bronze in the 2013 ADCC, the most prestigious grappling tournament in the world. He defeated Joao Miyao in the third place match.

Coming from a wrestling background, Justin has very good takedowns and overall, his top game is very strong. He starts off his matches immediately shooting for either a single or double leg. He uses lots of chokes in his matches such as the guillotine or d'arce choke.

Justin Rader
Source: Alicia Photos

In this match, you see Guilherme demonstrate his world class guard work. He uses his guard to create multiple sweep and submission attempts. You also get to see his superb guard passing. However, Justin being the experienced grappler that he is makes it no easy task for Guilherme. Throughout the match, you will see him escape multiple bad positions and his submission defense is excellent. 

The video of the match can be found below. I hope you guys enjoy!

See you next week!

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