The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 32 - Michelle Nicolini vs. Luanna Alzuguir - 2013 Brazilian Nationals

After a four week break, welcome back to another edition of Match of the Week! I have done over thirty editions of Match of the Week thus far, so I thought it was about time to cover my first female match. The match this week is Michelle Nicolini vs. Luanna Alzuguir from the absolute finals of the 2013 Brazilian Nationals. 

Michelle Nicolini is black belt under Robert Drysdale and fights for team Checkmat. Michelle is one of the greatest female Jiu-Jitsu competitors of all time, and arguably the pound for pound best female competitor out there today. She saw tremendous amounts of success from 2010 onwards when she started to train fully under Rodrigo Cavaca. She left his academy in late 2013 when Cavaca decided to start his own team.

Michelle is a eight time World Champion (2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2007 weight & absolute, 2006), a three time Pan American Champion (2011, 2010, 2008), a two time World NoGi (2010, 2008) and European Champion (2012 weight & absolute), and a one-time ADCC (2013) and Abu Dhabi World Pro Champion (2012). 

One guard which Michelle has become particularly well known for throughout her career is the shin on shin guard. She will often pull straight to it at the start of her matches, normally falling back to the closed guard if she fails to get it. Looking at submissions, Michelle is very good at the toe hold. In fact, she probably finishes the majority of her matches with this submission. 

Michelle Nicolini

Luanna Alzuguir is a black belt under Marco Barbosa and is a member of Alliance (formerly with Barbosa Jiu-Jitsu). Luanna is one of the best and most dominant competitors in the female lightweight division today. As a result, she holds many major titles to her name. 

Luanna has had great success in competition at the black belt level. She is a five time World Champion (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 absolute, 2009), a three time Abu Dhabi World Pro Champion (2012, 2011, 2010), a two time European (2011 weight & absolute) and CBJJE World Cup Champion (2007 weight & absolute), and a one-time ADCC (2009) and Pan American Champion (2011).

The open guard is Luanna's favourite guard of choice. She is excellent from that position and flawlessly sets up sweeps and transitions to submissions. She doesn't seem to have one particular favourite submission, but she does seem to have a little bit of a preference for triangle, something which she sets up great from the open guard position. 

Luanna Alzugair

Boy, this is a good one! Probably one of my favourite female matches. It starts off quite slow for the first three minutes or so, but then the match starts to pick up with some great guard passing and back take attempts from Alzuguir. The finish of this match is great, so make sure you watch until the end. 

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

See you next week!

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