Rio Grappling Cup II

We held in Livorno last sunday, the 23rd of may the second edition of the Rio Grappling cup, an international nogi competition under FILA grappling rules.

It was an amazing tournament, the organization from Bernardo Serrini and Alessio Di Liberti was perfect, also helped by FIGR vice president Vito Paolillo and our 2 new referees Fabrizio “kung fu panda” Culotta and Marco Longo

We, as a team, took many medals, both in the advanced and the beginners division, here’s a brief summary:

Simone Baldi took gold in the -60Kg unified division in a 4 men round robin, since he had no opponents in the advanced division, fought and won 3 matches hands down, winning on points only on his teammate Federico Tosi

Valerio Mori Ubaldini and Alessio Rimella took first and second place in the -65Kg division,

Mattia “Mutley” Macchelli took gold in the 70Kg unified division fighting some very good fights

I, Pierandrea Petazzi in the -75Kg first division took second place in a 5 men round robin winning 3 fights, one of which by submission, unfortunately injuring my friend Manuel, and losing for the third time in less then a year against Paolo Strazzullo

Stefano Raspadori our wrestling coach from bologna won the -80Kg unified division, getting for the first time on the highest step of the podium in a grappling competition, winning 3 fights on 4 in a five men round robin, 2 of which by guillotine choke, Emanuele Valenza from Sestri levante took the second place

Federico Dentone From Sestri Levante and Alessandro Zappalà the other great wrestler in our team took respectively gold and silver in the -90Kg second division.

Federico Nibbi from RGC Firenze took bronze in the -110Kg second division.

Too bad Erik Tornaboni from La Spezia, the only grappler from our team competing in the -90Kg first division, didn’t make it past the first turn, the category gave us an amazing final between the brazilian Nova Uniao Blackbelt Fabricio Nascimento, who couldn’t make weight for the -80Kg, and the Italian judo former olympian and grappling national Lamberto Raffi
needless to say, there was an unnatural silence during this fight, the only noise coming from the other mat. As far as italian grappling goes, this was history being made.