Pikaboo, 2 others strike gold

Trench Tech?s Shane ?Pikaboo? Alvarez poses with his gold medal after the awarding ceremony for last Saturday?s 2014 Marianas Open Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tournament held last Saturday at the Father Duenas Memorial School?s Phoenix Center in Guam. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)

Trench Tech’s Shane “Pikaboo” Alvarez and Gracie Barra Marianas’ Jesus and Lorenzo Attao bagged gold medals in the 2014 Marianas Open Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tournament held last Saturday at the Father Duenas Memorial School’s Phoenix Center in Guam.
Cuki Alvarez, father and trainer of Shane, in an email to Saipan Tribune, said his son won the gold medal in the white belt category (150 to 160 division), while Francis Mendiola, one of the coaches of Gracei Barra Marianas, posted in his email account, said Jesus and Lorenzo also competed in the white belt division (youth).

Completing and detailed results of the Marianas Open have yet to be posted at the event’s official Facebook account, but according to Mendiola, Jesus had three bouts in the weekend competition and recorded one victory via gi choke and two off Kimura hold. Lorenzo also defeated his finals foe in submission to give Gracie Barra its second gold medal.

Gracie Barra Marianas delegation, which was headed by coach Peter Mendiola, missed a third gold when Kimo Lizama lost in the finals on points in the green belt division.

“Saipan was represented well by Shane and Gracie Barra competitors,” said Cuki Alvarez, who also watched relative Roman Alvarez win a silver medal in the blue belt.

‘Crank’ lords it over
Meanwhile, Frank “The Crank” Camacho was the biggest winner in the annual competition, as he ruled the brown belt absolute (all weight classes) division and pocketed $1,000.

Camacho of Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam, employed a Kimura lock on Vida BJJ’s Josh Santos at the four-minute mark of the gold medal match to win the highlight bout of the day in front of a huge crowd. Camacho, who also defeated a tough foe in fellow Rurebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam fighter Eric Sian in the semifinals, managed to win despite having little time to prepare and heal the cut (left eye) he sustained from his victory over Keita Nakamura in PXC 42 late last month.

“It was my first ever BJJ competition at brown belt. I was very nervous at first, but had a good game plan going into the tournament. I love competing, it’s always a passion,” Camacho said.

“My semifinals match was my toughest one, personally. I fought my teammate and No. 1 training partner Eric Sian (Purebred). Eric is a really good friend and training partner, it was just unfortunate we were paired up in the first match. We have a very similar style of jiujitsu. It was like an unstoppable force running into a immovable object. It was basically a takedown fight the whole time with both trying to solidify position. We went all eight minutes of fighting to a 0-0 point match. I won via 5 advantages to 1 advantage,” he added.

After facing a familiar foe in the semis, Camacho was paired against Santos for the first time.

“It was a very interesting match. I’ve never trained with him or fought him before but I heard he had a very tough closed guard with multiple attacks from that position. I went in there and scored 2 points immediately with a double leg takedown. I ended up in his closed guard and stuffed it to half guard. I worked from that position and had a couple of scrambles. I worked my way back to half guard where I finished the match via a Kimura,” Camacho said.