Last month (better late
than never!) I watched Metamoris 6 via their PPV livestream on their website.
This is actually the first time I have ever watched one of their events live. I
didn't watch any of their previous events mostly due to the time difference,
but I thought I would put sleep deprivation aside in this instance.
I will conduct this
review just like I did with my Polaris review back in January. The review will
be split into two parts. The first part will cover only the matches and at the
end I will give my suggestions for future matches I would like to see.
In part two I will cover
things such as the stream, the production, the rules, the price etc. I will
also comment on anything I thought could have been done better and any
adjustments I would make.
There were in total
eight matches that night. Two matches were on the prelims and six were on the
main card. I will cover all of them in this review.
Without further ado,
let's jump straight into this!
Metamoris
6 Prelims
Michael
Liera Jr. vs. Morgan Neidlinger
I'm glad that Metamoris
is starting to showcase some great young talents. I'm a big fan of Michael
Liera Jr. and his game, so I was very happy to see him be added to the card on
a very late notice.
I must say that I had
never heard of Morgan Neidlinger prior to this event. He is a black belt under Kron Gracie,
so I knew that he must be pretty good.
I think this match was
an excellent way to kick of the event. The quality of Jiu-Jitsu on display in
this match was great.
Michael really displayed
how good of a guard player he is. He started off with the closed guard and
transitioned to de la riva and spider guard. Along the way setting up multiple
omoplata, triangle and sweep attempts.
Morgan's defense was
excellent, however. He gave Michael a very hard time all the way through the
match, escaping from a handful of really bad spots. But Michael really dictated
the pace of the match all the way through and Morgan never really had
many opportunities to get going.
The match ended in a
'draw', but Michael was the clear winner in this match.
Francisco
'Sinistro' Iturralde vs. Greg McIntyre via submission armbar
Again, another great
match to kick of the show before the start of the main card. Sinistro did a
tremendous job against a very experienced competitor.
All the way through the
match, Sinistro made everything look so easy and smooth. He was constantly
attacking and transitioning all the way through the match. Greg was never
really much in it to be honest. Just like Neidlinger, he never got a chance to
get going.
Sinistro gets Greg right
off the bat with a triangle, waits for his opportunity and transitions into an
omoplata. Although, Greg does a good job of defending the omoplata, he gives
Sinistro the chance to attack a reverse armbar, before switching to
a standard armbar to get the victory at around four minutes into the
match.
The first submission of
the night and an awesome one!
Main
Card
Jimmy
Friedrich vs. Evandro Nunes
This is actually a
rematch, which I was surprised to find out whilst watching. The two fought
previously in a submission only match with no time limit and Jimmy was
victorious in that encounter with the match lasting over an hour!
Of course, Evandro was a
replacement for Jeff Monson at the very last minute. Jimmy was the winner of
The Road to Metamoris show and won the chance to face Jeff Monson.
After you saw how the
match was going after the first five minutes or so, you just knew it wasn't
going to end by submission. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of submission
attempts, and Jimmy endlessly went for the heelhook over and over again.
Honestly, I couldn't wait for this match to be over.
Clark
Gracie vs. Roberto Satoshi
I thought this match had
the potential to be the match of the night. It wasn't, but I certainly enjoyed
it.
Both of the competitors are super technical with excellent guard work, passing
and submission attempts from both.
A lot of nice de la riva guard work from Clark in this match which I enjoyed.
Satoshi showing his guard passing skills with some lovely near x and torreando
passes. Clark also had an omoplata attempt before the restart.
Once they restart on the feet, Satoshi attempts a flying triangle which was
pretty cool. From here it was really the same as explained above with Clark in
de la riva and Satoshi attempting to pass. There were a few signature omoplata
attempts by Clark thrown in the mix there but nothing much different.
Xande
Ribeiro vs. Keenan Cornelius
I remember when I first
saw Keenan vs. Xande in Copa Podio back in January of 2013. Man, I so wanted
Keenan to win that match! To be the best brown belt in the world and to take
down a legend would have been phenomenal. Sadly, Keenan didn't win that
match, but the hype behind it at the time was unreal.
However, I knew this time it wouldn't be the same. The fact that it is no
points and no time limit is the obvious reason, and also Keenan is not as much
of an underdog anymore. I still thought it was one of the best matches on the
card though.
I found Keenan's use of the worm guard with Xande's belt very interesting. He
almost swept him and made a transition to the back as well.
Keenan's passing in this match was great. Xande is notorious for never getting
his guard passed, but on a few occasions, it looked like that might
have been possible. Throughout the match, Keenan used the long step pass and at
one point almost gets Xande in a leg drag.
I thought Keenan would have got the armbar at one point, but the experience of
Xande is second to none.
For me personally,
Keenan won. Technically it is considered a 'draw' but he really did the
majority of attacking in the match. Even though I enjoyed the match I would
still love to see it in a match under IBJJF rules.
Dillon
Danis vs. Joe Lauzon via submission by D'arce choke
Personally, this was my
favourite match of the night. I've been a fan of Dillon since I saw him
dominate at the Pan Ams in 2014. I thought eventually he would submit him, but
never in fashion like he did.
Joe Lauzon is an excellent grappler in his own right, and has tons of
experience. However, Dillon made it look so easy.
He instantaneously
shoots for a heel hook but is unsuccessful, then catches him in a guillotine
off Lauzon trying to pass. Dillon transitions to the back and locks in the body
triangle. Joe is hand fighting with him and prevents Dillon from getting the
choke. After 2-3 minutes, Dillon lets go and works the pass before getting the
d'arce choke.
Super slick work by Dillon Danis! Definitely one to look out for in the black
belt division over the next year.
Chael
Sonnen vs. Renato "Babalu" Sobral
I thought it was a
little weird putting an MMA vs. MMA together when I first heard about it. I
could see why they would do a BJJ vs. MMA type match, because it's a cool
concept. I don't know why they put this one together though. I would have
preferred it if either of them competed against a BJJ competitor.
To put it bluntly, this match was so boring! The entire match was
just Chael in Babalu's guard. Now and again Babalu attempted a kimura, but
nothing ever came of any of them. It just seemed like Chael wasn't even trying
to pass the guard. It looked like he was sitting there hoping that his guard
would magically open so he could start to pass.
It may simply be just a clash of styles, but whatever it was, it made for a
terrible match. The worst match of night in my opinion.
Josh
Barnett vs. Ryron Gracie
Wow! I was shocked at
this one. I really didn't think that Josh would dominate Ryron, never mind
submit him. Holy s***!
It was a little bit slow
on the feet at the very beginning. They didn't actually get to the ground until
3.5 minutes into the fight. Once they hit the ground, it's still a little slow
with Barnett really using his size and weight advantage to good use by
completely smothering Gracie with incredible pressure!
Barnett is in Ryron's half guard for a while and on a few occasions passes to
side control put Ryron quickly brings him back to half guard. Off an attempt to
transition to mount by Barnett, Gracie escapes to a single leg x-guard
position. I thought Ryron would have attempted a heel hook or straight ankle
lock here, but Barnett just pushes his legs down like they're nothing and we're
back to half guard again.
It's not long and Ryron gets Josh into his closed guard. He tries to bring his
guard up high but he has little success with it and struggles to break Josh's
posture.
Once Josh breaks open Ryron's guard, it's really the beginning of the end. Josh
passes and Ryron attempts an inverted triangle but Josh escapes and rolls
through for a mega tight toe hold which Ryron taps to.
Man, I was shocked! A good way to end the show I personally thought.
I think it more than lived up to the hype. It will be interesting to see who
they pair Josh up with next. They might do a match with Cyborg again, but
who knows.
Metamoris
7 Recommendations
Female
Matches
Honestly, I find the
lack of female Jiu-Jitsu at the majority of professional Jiu-Jitsu events appalling. On Metamoris 2, I personally found Mackenzie Dern vs. Michelle
Nicollini to be the best match of the night. I also thought Angelica Galvao vs.
Michelle Nicollini at Polaris to be the second best match of the night.
Especially now, there is so much young talent in the female division.
Marcelo Garcia black belt, Dominyka Obelenyte, is totally on fire at the
moment. She has only been a black belt since January and a few weeks ago became
World absolute champion. Also, she is only 19 years old!
I mentioned this under my 'female match' heading of my Polaris review, but
Tammi Musumeci is another great fighter. She shows so much heart during her
matches, especially when she had her arm broken by Michelle Nicollini in the
finals of the World’s last year and still carried on fighting.
Throughout Metamoris, you have often seen the BJJ vs. MMA theme throughout the
card. I guess that would be a cool idea to do with female competitors.
The obvious choice here would be Ronda Rousey, but I seriously doubt that will
be happening. But I guess prominent MMA fighters such as Miesha Tate or
Cris Cyborg would be great opponents for the likes of Dominyka or Tammi.
Other Matches
I think people such as
AJ Agazarm, Dillon Danis, or Garry Tonon really embody what Metamoris is all
about, and that's putting it all on the line and going for the kill. However,
it doesn't always play out that way, as we have seen in past events.
Sometimes you put two big names together thinking it's going to be great and
it's a total snooze fest. Then again it could also be amazing; Roger Gracie vs.
Buchecha from Metamoris 1 is an example of this. It just seems that sometimes
peoples styles and strategies clash and make for a boring fight.
The truth is that everybody is going to have an opinion on what matches they
think would be great for the show. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying mine are
any better, they're just simply my opinion. I would definitely like to see recent black
belts such as Tim Spriggs and Erberth Santos be utilised in a future card. I
would also like to see the Miyao brothers be used at some point, also.
Some matches I would like to see include:
- Keenan Cornelius vs. Roger
Gracie
- Rafael Mendes vs. Marcelo
Garcia
- Ryan Hall vs. AJ Agazarm
- Paulo Miyao vs. Victor Estima
- Joao Miyao vs. Dillon Danis
- Erberth Santos vs. Leandro Lo
- Tim Spriggs vs. Otavio Souza
Of course, fell free to
give me your suggestions; I would love to hear them!
This concludes part 1 of my review of Metamoris 6. I hope you enjoyed and I
will see you either tomorrow or Monday for part 2.
Catch you later,
Giordano
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