The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 24 - Felipe Pena vs. Erberth Santos - Copa Podio Middleweight Grand Prix 2014

(The previous edition can be found HERE)

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Match of the Week. This week’s match is Felipe Pena vs. Erberth Santos from the 2014 Copa Podio Middleweight Grand Prix.

Felipe Pena, also known as Felipe Preguiça, is a black belt under Marcelo Azevedo and fights for Gracie Barra. Since his time as a purple and brown belt, Felipe has been considered by the media as one the hottest prospects in Jiu-Jitsu after his impressive performances at the lower ranks. Felipe is the younger brother Augusto "Tio Chico".

Felipe has done tremendously well throughout his competition career. He is a four time World (2014 black, 2012 brown, 2011 purple weight & absolute) and South American Champion (2012 brown weight & absolute, 2011 brown weight & absolute), a three time Brazilian National Champion (2014 black weight & absolute, 2012 brown), and a two time Pan American Champion (2012 brown, 2011 purple). He is also a one-time European (2012 brown) and Copa Podio Middleweight Grand Prix Champion (2014).

If you have seen any of Felipe's matches, you would know that he is an exceptional guard player. Mostly, he likes to play open guard, but he's very good from the closed guard also. Even though he is a very good guard player, Felipe is well rounded as a grappler. He’s good at takedowns and passing the guard, especially using the leg drag. Using the leg drag, he nearly always gets the guys back. He is phenomenal at taking the back. He does it flawlessly.

Felipe Pena

Erberth Santos is a black belt under Luis "Guigo" Guilherme and fights for both Guigo Jiu-Jitsu and Team Lloyd Irvin. If you watched the brown belt divisions last year, I'm pretty sure you would be familiar with Erberth Santos. He had fantastic performances at many major IBJJF tournaments, often taking double gold at them. As a result, Erberth was the number one ranked brown belt in the world for the majority of 2014. 

As I said above, Erberth had an incredible run over the last year. He is two time World (2014 brown weight & absolute), Pan American (2014 brown weight & absolute), New York BJJ Pro (2014 brown weight & absolute), and WPJJC Brazilian Trials Champion (2015 black weight & absolute). He is also a one time World NoGi (2014 brown), South American (2014 brown), ASN Challenge (2014), and New York Spring Open Champion (2014 brown).   

Erberth fights at super heavyweight, but he moves like a lightweight. He is incredibly fast and the pace of his matches is always very high. His hunt for the submission is relentless and very aggressive, as is his guard passing.  One move which Erberth is notorious for is the flying triangle. Yes, you heard that correctly. Every time he goes for the flying triangle, he always manages to get the submission. 

Erberth Santos

Actually, this match happened not so long ago. It's an interesting match. I always love matches where a world class brown belt takes on a world class black belt. Some of you might expect Erbeth to get killed, but actually he does very well against Felipe. The match is only six minutes long, and there are some really exciting moments in the match. I won't spoil it for any of you who haven't seen it, so make sure you take a look at the video. You won't be disappointed. 

The video of the match is not available on YouTube, but instead is available on Copa Podio's website. You can watch it HERE.

Catch you later,

Giordano