The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 14 - Roberto Satoshi Souza vs. Michael Langhi - 2012 European Championships

(Last week’s edition can be found HERE)

Welcome to another edition of Match of the Week! This week I'm sharing with you Roberto Satoshi Souza vs. Michael Langhi from the lightweight semifinals of the 2012 European Championships. A battle between two of the best guard players around! 

Roberto Satoshi Souza is one of the biggest prospects in Jiu-Jitsu. He rose to fame in 2010 by winning the World Championships as a brown belt. Since then, he has gone on win many major tournaments as a black belt and today is considered to be one of the best and most exciting fighters in the lightweight division.

Being one of the hottest prospects in Jiu-Jitsu, It's no surprise that Roberto has won many titles throughout his career in Jiu-Jitsu. He is a four time World Champion (2006 blue weight & absolute, 2009 purple, 2010 brown), a two time WPJJ (2012, 2014), European (2011 brown, 2012 black), and Asian Open Champion (2010 brown weight & absolute), and a one time Pan American Champion (2010 brown). 

Roberto is arguably one of the best guard players in the black belt division today. He seems to not favour one specific guard but instead uses a variety of different guards. You will see in the majority of his matches play spider, de la riva, reverse de lar riva, closed and half guard. One thing he does exceptionally well is sweep from the guard. Often, you will see him set up a sweep from the omoplata, something which can be seen multiple times in this video. In terms of submissions, Roberto seems to favour the triangle over all other submissions and has even landed a few flying triangles in competition. 

Roberto Satoshi Souza

Michael Langhi is one of the best lightweights in the World today. He is known for his amazing guard game and a near impassable guard.  He became well known worldwide in 2009 by achieving the grand slam in Jiu-Jitsu by winning all four major IBJJF tournaments (World Championships, Pan American Championships, European Championships and the Brazilian Nationals) in his first year as a black belt. 

Just like Roberto, Michael has won numerous titles throughout his career. He has won all four major IBJJF tournaments on multiple occasions. He is a five time European Champion (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014), a four time Pan American Champion (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014), and a two time World (2009, 2010) and Brazilian National Champion (2009, 2013). 

As I mentioned previously, Michael is known for his impeccable guard work. He is best known for his spider guard in particular, but is also known for his open guard. The way Michael transitions from guard to guard and to submissions is flawless. He makes sweeps and submissions from the open guard look effortless even against some of the best black belts in the world. This is not to say that his top game is weak. He might favour the guard, but once he sweeps his opponent he looks to immediately pass and secure a dominant position to set him up for a submission.  

Michael Langhi

To sum it up, this is purely a battle of the guard players. Both fighters demonstrate their excellent guards throughout this match with both of them repeatedly exchanging sweep and submission attempts. You also get to see some great passing attempts from each fighter, but with each fighter having such great guards it's no easy feat to pass either ones guard. The keen observers amongst you would have already noticed that I have given away the result of this match already, but I'll let that one slide for this week.

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

See you next week!

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