A Prodigy Arrives: How Andy Murasaki Conquered EUG
Credit: EUG Promotions
Over the past few years, the next generation of grapplers have burst on to the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu scene, especially in the lower weight classes. Whether it was Tye Ruotolo’s scintillating debut at ADCC and his super-fight dominance afterwards or Matheus Gabriel’s seizing of the throne previous occupied by Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles and Rafa Mendes, the sport’s next generation is primed to takeover.
When EUG promotions launched their inaugural event, an 8 man single elimination tournament rife with World Champions, European Champions, and Pan-American Champions, not many could have expected that the man who would seize the opportunity to claim the EUG Lightweight Title and the ten thousand dollar prize that accompanied it would be the twenty year old making his black belt debut.
Yet looking back it seems it was always meant to play out this way, with one of the sports pre-eminent prospects announcing his arrival at a daring upstart promotion looking to change the way jiu-jitsu and its athletes are perceived and marketed. Who better could represent the idea behind EUG, a promotion looking to capture the best stories from the best practitioners than an athlete who left his home country at 15 years of age to pursue his dream of supporting himself while becoming a world champion.
While EUG’s lightweight tournament might have been Andy Murasaki’s first official foray against black belt competition, he is no stranger to facing and defeating world class competition. At the colored belt level, Murasaki has defeated world class competition including the reigning SUG Absolute Champion Mason Fowler, who himself has defeated the charismatic Craig Jones on multiple occasions.
Despite this, Murasaki had to have been considered one of the heavy underdogs in the EUG tournament especially considering that he drew ADCC silver medalist and current Fight 2 Win Champion, Kennedy Maciel in the opening frame. Yet Murasaki showed no fear against the son of Cobrinha, despite Maciel’s penchant for capitalizing on minuscule mistakes.
From the onset Murasaki’s pressure was unrelenting, a theme throughout his tournament run, as he routinely attempted and succeeded in penetrating his opponents’ guards from the outside. Despite excellent retention and recovery throughout by Maciel, Murasaki was able to pierce the guard for a moment while controlling the rest of the contest, gaining a clear cut decision victory over one of the division’s top competitors in his black belt debut.
Murasaki’s grip on the collar prevents Maciel from attacking the lasso as Maciel cannot invert nor obtain a spider hook on the free arm, which he tries to do by looking to strip the grip on the collar. While this occurs, Murasaki looks to unwind the last grip by dropping his shoulder onto Maciel’s foot, dislodging the lasso hook. As the lasso hook is no longer viable, Murasaki is able to fold over Maciel’s hips with a low angled torreando pass, which combined with the collar grip, functions similarly to a wrestling cradle. However Maciel is able to return to deep half, which Murasaki attacks by obtaining the undertook before lifting his opponents head to get to the crossface. From there, Murasaki uses the tripod to pin Maciel flat with extreme pressure so that Maciel cannot angle his hips to shrimp. Eventually Murasaki frees his trapped leg and gets to side control before having to return to the knee cut position.
Awaiting Murasaki in the semi finals was the American sensation Gianni Grippo. Fighting out of the prestigious Marcelo Garcia Academy, Grippo represented one of the more seasoned veterans along with Marcio Andre in the tournament. A five-time Pan American Champion, Grippo has defeated almost every big name in the lower weight classes, yet hadn’t been submitted in his weight class since 2014, by none other than Rafa Mendes. Yet, despite what Murasaki might have lacked in experience, he made up with in tenacity and crushing pressure as he handed the American icon his first submission defeat in seven years.
Once again Murasaki diffuses the threat of the lasso by keeping the lasso hook across his chest. With the collar unavailable to him, Murasaki instead steps over and traps the free leg of Grippo in a manner similar to his mentor and cornerman Gustavo Bautista. As he does this, Murasaki controls the knee of Grippo’s right knee to prevent Grippo from off balancing him and switching his hips, all the while inching himself over the free leg so he can shin flip over and get to the outside of Grippo’s legs, preventing Grippo from getting underneath him. Murasaki simultaneously controls the far side of Grippo’s collar to prevent Grippo from regaining the lasso as he goes back to the tonrreando pass as he did against Kennedy Maciel. However unlike his match against Maciel, Murasaki is able to get a deep underhook on Grippo from the Lo-like knee cut once Grippo goes to his vaunted De La Riva guard. The deep under hook Murasaki obtains allows him to get to a knee cut as instead of sliding his knee across the shin and to the outside of the guard, Murasaki uses the crossface to flatten Grippo to the mat, therefore preventing Grippo from framing and regaining guard, as he drives his knee into Grippo’s hip pocket, shredding the guard.
From there, Murasaki showed how devastating his pressure and submission ability is through a highlight reel triangle entry from side control of all positions.
Victories over Kennedy Maciel and Gianni Grippo would be career highlights for most grapplers, yet Muraskai’s debut was not over as he still had one more match to go. Awaiting Murasaki in the finals was the previous hotshot prospect of the division, a competitor who did something not even the hallowed Rafa Mendes could accomplish in winning the featherweight IBJJF World Championship in his first year at black belt, Matheus Gabriel. Gabriel’s road to the finals was just as difficult, defeating both Mendes Brothers’ protege Jonatha Alves and reigning world silver medalist Marcio Andre to advance to the finals. Despite the accomplishments of his rival, Murasaki once again showed no hesitation in attacking the pre-eminent guard player in the tournament as he set the tone early when he violently attempted a throw-by leg drag as Gabriel attempted to set up his preferred De La Riva guard.
The opening salvo set the tone for the rest of the match as Murasaki consistently used bursts of his immense power to deconstruct Gabriel’s guard. To get to these positions, Murasaki used expert positioning, primarily with his elbow to disrupt Gabriel’s ability to get to the De La Riva guard. Murasaki’s ability to displace his opponent’s open guard hooks with his upper body played a prevalent role in all of his matches, specifically against Kennedy Maciel’s lasso control when he escaped the lasso by dropping his biceps and turning away and against Gabriel’s De La Riva guard.
Notice how Murasaki uses a grip on Gabriel’s collar to create a wedge using his elbow, which in turn allows him to move Gabriel’s De La Riva hook past his own knee, eliminating any threat Gabriel might have of using the hook to invert underneath.
Once Murasaki was able to remove himself from the threat of the De La Riva, his objective differed when it came to passing Gabriel’s guard in comparison to his other world-class opponents. Whereas he employed tight passing against Grippo and Maciel, Murasaki sought to continuously switch sides before fully extending the legs of Gabriel with an assortment of throw-bys and legs drags in an attempt to pass the guard, yet Gabriel’s inhuman retention skills saved him by the skin of his teeth.
With the match coming down to the wire and Murasaki firmly in control, Gabriel showed why he is the reigning world champions as when all hope was lost he unleashed a flurry that saw both competitors fall off the stage not once, but twice. Gabriel gets Murasaki in a squared stance via multiple off balances before using the Deep De La Riva X to attempt a back take. Murasaki’s ability to prevent Gabriel from solidifying a second hook while mid scramble saves the match, his title, and the ten thousand dollar grand prize.
To be able to defeat three of the best athletes in the most competitive division in all of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in one night is quite the accomplishment. To add in defeating the current world champion in your black belt debut is practically unheard of. While the ending was not as dominant as Andy Murasaki might have hoped, his debut can not be considered as anything less than historically exceptional. His explosiveness, expert passing ability, and unyielding pressure have him on the fast track to becoming an IBJJF World Champion sooner rather than later, and everyone will remember that it started at the inaugural EUG Event.