Impact Jiu Jitsu brought 18 competitors to the PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships at University of California Irvine on April 8-11. Impact came home with one Gold, two Silver, and two Bronze medals.
Blue Belt, Men
Bryan "The Beast" Marugg was one of our first competitors. On Thursday, he wrestled in the Adult Lightweight Blue Belt division. This division was the biggest division of the tournament with 100 competitors.
John Atkins and
Sean Duffy were also in this division. Bryan started things off with ease. He sent his first opponent home in 27 seconds with a triangle submission. Bryan would have seven matches total, submitting five of those opponents. Bryan would tap his Impact patch after every victory, signaling that he couldn't have won without his team. His only loss was in the finals to a competitor who got two takedowns, then refused to do Jiu Jitsu with Bryan. Bryan kept attacking and going for submissions, but his opponent was able to escape and stalled out in Bryans guard to win the gold.
Yueh Han Lin and
Rodney Buswell also competed on Thursday. Both of them armbarred their first opponents, but would lose their second matches.
Blue Belt, Women
Missy Conklin came out to win. Missy had three matches in her Women's Blue Belt division. Her first match ended with an armbar submission victory, but her last match ended with an armbar submission loss. Missy's grappling was excellent and she received the Bronze medal.
Purple Belt, MenFriday was a tough day for Impact's purple belts. They all came out and wrestled to win, but unfortunately, many of them were
eliminated in the first round.

There was some spectacular grappling on Saturday, where we watched the purple belt masters (30-35 age group) division compete.
Richard Rangel dominated his division, just as we knew he would. He came out to win, and he did just that will all five of his matches. Richard tapped one of his opponents with a guard armbar. Richard let the submission go, but his opponent continued wrestling and the referee said he did not see the tap. After winning the match, Richard's opponent basically admitted to tapping and advised Richard to keep the arm next time. This fueled Richard's fire and he crushed the rest of his opponents. Impact proved to be one of the loudest groups in the stadium every time Rich won. It was a very memorable moment when his hand was held in victory after his final match. Richard also tapped his Impact patch and received many high fives and hugs after his final victory.
Keith Johnson had some great matches on his way to a bronze medal. Keith trailed on points in one of his matches and with five seconds left, applied a Peruvian Neck Tie submission on his opponent to snatch victory out of his hands. He also had a huge judo throw takedown in one of his matches.
Black Belt, MenSunday saw our black belts compete. Head Coach
Michael Chapman threw his hat in the ring and drew a tough match. His opponent got two takedowns - both times Michael attacked his opponent's back trying for submissions. Behind on points Coach Michael kept attacking with submissions but would eventually lose the five minute match. His opponent would go on to win the division.
Cameron Apple was up next facing Otavio Souza, one of the top middleweights in the world and the eventual division winner. Otavio swept Cameron, passed his guard and mounted him. Cameron gave a good fight, but Otavio stayed tight and didn't give Cameron any space to escape. A recurring shoulder injury forced Cameron to tap.

Coach
Armand Debruge was scheduled to be the first Impact competitor on Sunday, but he had been feeling ill on the entire trip. His desire to compete and to represent Impact overcame and he decided to compete in the Absolute division despite his illness. He wrestled three tough matches against much larger opponents, and he made it look easy. Armand should have won his third match, but the referee did not award points when he should have and then gave the decision victory to Armand's opponent. We all know Armand truly won that match. It was awesome to see him win and get so pumped up after each victory. He is truly an inspiration to everyone at Impact.
More HighlightsThere were plenty of other great matches as well. Our host,
John Manzi, won his Senior Blue Belt division, winning three matches. John trained with us at Impact for several years but recently moved to California for business. John still gets our newsletter and calls Coach Michael to keep up with "his team". Our friend
Jeff Bourgeois from Fosters BJJ in Washington (who runs the Revolution tournaments), placed second in his division.
Chris Haueter, who gave head coach Michael his black belt, won his first match by points, but lost his second by advantage points.
Kayron Gracie won an epic back and forth match against
Abmar Barbosa, who beat
Kron Gracie and submitted
Lucas Leite.
Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles Maciel made history, winning four PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He is the only person to win gold at four back to back PAN Jiu-Jitsu Championships and four back to back Mundials Jiu-Jitsu Championships.

Thank you to all of our competitors and coaches. Thanks to
Matt Leech who came out to help coach and drive everyone around. Thanks to our friends from Alive MMA,
Tom Tegner and
Scott Abernathy, for their support and encouragement. This was the largest number of competitors we have ever had at a National tournament. We proved that we could hang up there with the big name teams. Time to start training for the next one.