Our Monarchy MMA Brazilian Jiujitsu team has had the privilege of competing in the international BJJ circuit several times including countries around Asia and in Abu Dhabi. Last month, our team competed at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) Manila Open 2019. IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation) hosts several of the biggest Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments in the world, including the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and Nogi World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. At this prestigious tournament, 10 of our students and Professor Bruninho competed and we placed 3rd overall – a big jump from 6th place back in 2017. Our team comprised of purple, blue and white belts including Si Ying, a white belt who joined us half a year ago and has been training consistently.
Even our students who start off shy enter competitions and break out from their comfort zone. Our main goal as a team is to always help each other and produce good results in all the competitions be it local or international. Competing as a team brings like minded people together. Like everyone who competes for the first time Si Ying was very nervous and she didn’t win her match but she learnt a lot from her first competition. From that experience, she understands that she needs to train and compete more to get used to those feelings. More importantly,she had fun doing it.
All students definitely make improvements over time. Bjorn who came in 1st place in the Master 1 blue belt male division is one of them. He fell in love with BJJ and has become very dedicated to the study of Jiu-Jitsu and competes as much as he can. Throughout his competitions we see him constantly improving. Cassandra is another student crazy about BJJ. She trains really hard and loves competing. She has also been raking in the medals! She came in first in the Master 1 blue belt female division as well as the Absolute blue belt division. There is also Ai Jin who is a very strong competitor. She brought 3 golds and 1 bronze from Manila.
“ It’s never easy to compete internationally and even harder to reach the podium as we cant bring a big number of students. All the teams are competing with the same goal. The athletes fight for medals and as a coach we manage the team to help us to reach the podium. It sometimes becomes a challenge when there are really big Jiu-Jitsu teams that have affiliations around the world and they are very well organized to win those big competitions.
I’m very proud of our team, with them, together, we had the opportunity to stand on the podium with one of the biggest Jiu-Jitsu Teams of Philippines as well as one of the biggest teams in the world that had 3 different countries fighting under the same Jiu-Jitsu team,” (Professor Bruno)
This time around, Professor Bruninho brought home 2 gold medals while our team brought back 13 medals collectively. We are so proud of our team! We are already looking forward to our next competition – Copa Da Malasia in March! Just by being there, you’ll be supporting our Monarchy MMA Jiu-jitsu team and the local Jiu-jitsu community. If you’ve always been curious to see what the fuss is all about, be sure to check it out. It’s not just for adults, but for kids as well.
Here are the results of our team:
Adult / Male / Black / Feather
1st- Bruno Cardoso Barbosa
Adult / Female / White / Feather
2nd-Cheryl Kimberly Monteiro
Adult / Female / White / Middle
1st- Anchali A/P Naveena Neela Yogan
Master 1 / Male / Blue / Light
1st – Bjoern Henseler
Master 1 / Male / Blue / Middle
3rd – Nazmy Salamat
Master 1 / Female / White / Light-Feather
3rd – Si Ying Lee
Master 1 / Female / Blue / Light-Feather
1st – Ai Jin Lee
Master 1 / Female / Blue / Feather
1st – Cassandra J Poyong
Master 1 / Female / Blue / Enum_WeightDivision_Open Class_Label
1st – Cassandra J Poyong
3rd – Ai Jin Lee
Master 2 / Male / White / Light-Feather
1st – Eddie Ghin Leong Ng
2nd – Rusyan Sopian
Master 4 / Male / Purple / Light
2nd – Emmanuel Frenehard
Master 4 / Male / Purple / Enum_WeightDivision_Open Class_Label
2nd – Emmanuel Frenehard
See you at Copa Da Malásia!