2007 UNDER 65 KG With the 2007 ADCC less than 2 weeks away, your columnist Kid is going take a stab at handicapping the divisions. Although we will use our best judgement remember two things, that a fight is a fight and always open to unpredictable results and second that ADCC historically has frequently had a ‘dark horse’ take the title or make everyone’s life’s difficult, so any handicapping comes with the caveat: ‘buyer beware’. The Under65 KG divison for ADCC 2007 is always a solid and exciting division. The lightweights always fight a very fast paced and technical and a host of stars past and present have graced the mats in this division. Upon closer examination though,one can see that the division has been dominated by two names, Royler Gracie (winner in ’99, ’00 & ’01) and more recently Leo Vieira (winner in ’03 & ’05). Since Royler is not participating in this year’s tournament (barring last minute changes and still with 2 opens spots) one has to consider Leo Vieira, the returning Champion, to be the favorite to repeat.Leo’s strengths are his all around game, an abundancy of technical and physical talent and an incredible (of late) strategic mind. Following Leo as top contenders are Rani Yahira, Marcio Feitosa and the always dangerous Baret Yoshida. Rani has proved his point with a second place finish in ’05 after a 50 minute battle with Leo. Rani is resilient, technical and has a strong will in addition to being very strong fighter under the ADCC rules. Feitosa brings his experience, a previous victory over Leo and a gritty determination and incredible ability to win close matches while Yoshida is an ever dangerous guard fighter and submission machine but his Achielles Heel in the past has been his stand up.Other notable potential candidates for the title are Javi Vasquez and Bruno Frazzato. Javi has always been a good fighter but hasn’t fought against major competition in quite some time and may feel the lack of rhythm while Frazzato, the Brazil trials winner, may have a problem with being a first year fighterThat is my opinion, what’s yours??? To purchase tickets online for the 2007 ADCC go to Buy ADCC tickets 1 LEO VIEIRA BJJ BLACK BRAZIL 2 MARCIO FEITOSA BJJ BLACK BRAZIL 3 JEFF GLOVER BJJ BLACK USA 4 RANI YAHIRA BJJ BLACK BRAZIL 5 JAVI VAZQUEZ BJJ BLACK USA 6 SIM GO BJJ Black USA 7 EDWARD SANCHEZ BJJ BLACK USA 8 BRUNO FRAZZATO BJJ BLACK BRAZIL 9 JAMIE BALLARD AUS 10 NAOYA UEMATSU JAPAN 11 BLAIR TUGMAN WRESTLER USA 12 BARET YOSHIDA BJJ BLACK USA 13 RENIER NICOLAS FRANCE 14 AFRICA TRIALS
