LEVEL SUMMIT SERIES - Grappling Level Round 8 Highlights
Tokyo, Japan
FOTN - Super Macho Man vs Lysander Birdwhistle
Regardless of the seemingly unpopular style Macho brings to the grappling phase, and despite Lysander’s disappointment in the outcome, there is no denying the effective gameplan the Mac Little camp brought to these rounds. Birdwhistle dominated early and strung together 12 points in the opening 3 minutes by securing the takedown and advancing position early on; in fact, this looked to be another masterclass in the making. Then he got swept. While there were some offensive attacks from the bottom, Macho Man quite frankly reversed the roles, and transitioned from advantage to advantage racking up an amazing 23 points with relative ease to take home top honours for the leg.
SOTN - Frank Brown
Frank Brown is…unpredictable. He’s shown flashes of brilliance throughout the grappling rounds, but has also faltered in some matches seemingly fighting to the level of his competition. Nonetheless, Brown rises to the occasion tonight and topples another Group B favourite in Jone White.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
What to say about Don Rockmuller? We know he doesn’t take kindly to Wang’s in his face. If Wang thought he was hard going into this match, Don threw cold water all over that plan. Wang shrinks away from a dominant defeat.
Chukwuma, Lima, and Suita continue their upward trajectory and finish the grappling phase with submission victories. Ted Kona also bags another submission over Summit Panda.
Young Blood remains pointless, but it’s clear that the grappling stages were never going to be in his game-plan. I sense some payback will be forthcoming from this man in the next round. (Shout out to Maximus for saving me from writing a new paragraph - copy n paste bitches!)