Team Lloyd Irvin ROCKS in AC and USKBA

Ryan Hall Wins the Blue Belt Lightweight Division, Goes Unscored Upon and Submits All Opponents

Closing in on the triangle submission century mark, Ryan worked his way through the blue belt lightweight division, submitting all three of his opponents in less than two minutes apiece. In the opening round, Ryan faced off against tough blue belt out of the Yamasaki Academy, Alex Shatalin. After shaking hands, Ryan pulled guard and immediately went to work. After a series of near passes and an ankle lock attempt by Alex, Ryan regained his closed guard, immediately transitioned into an armbar, and extended Alex’s arm and forced the submission for the win.

The semi-final round pitted Ryan against a fighter out of Balance Studios of Philadelphia, PA. After pulling guard on his opponent, Ryan was forced to his half guard. Working a new set-up that Master Lloyd had shown him a while back, Ryan granbied underneath his opponent, threatened the oma plata, and then immediately spun back in and secured his opponent’s arm, transitioning into a tight triangle. Showing a lot of toughness, Ryan’s opponent fought to hold off the choke, but was forced to tap when Ryan extended his arm from within the triangle, advancing to the finals.

In the finals, Ryan faced off against an opponent that he had submitted twice before in Grapplers Quest competitions. This match would go much the same as the others, with Ryan pulling guard and securing a triangle about a minute and a half into the match. Immediately, Ryan adjusted the lock, gained a perpendicular angle, and pulled his opponent’s head to secure the choke and the gold medal without a point being scored on him.

Phil Weslow Takes 3^rd In Blue Belt Middleweight Amidst Controversy

In his opening match, Phil Weslow would come away with a convincing victory, passing his opponent’s guard and securing an armbar from side control to get the tap and advance to the semi-finals.

In the next round, Phil’s opponent immediately pulled guard, and was able to sweep from half guard. Immediately, Phil recovered, transitioning into his patented double lapel half guard sweep. Once he secured his grips, Phil immediately rocked and then turned his opponent, sweeping him to the bottom and securing the top position. Inexplicably, though, the referee did not award points for the sweep. With Phil still down two points, the match returned to the feet, where Phil’s opponent again pulled guard. Phil opened his opponent’s guard and worked to pass, but his opponent was able to escape to the feet again in a scramble. With only seconds remaining, Phil shot for a single leg takedown, but time expired a split second before he was able to finish it. While two points for the sweep would have brought the match to overtime, the score was recorded as 2-0 with Phil being forced to fight for 3^rd place in the consolation round.

In the 3^rd place match, Phil would sweep his opponent and pass his guard, dominating position and taking home the victory on points.

Following the tournament, Ryan had this to say, “It was a lot of fun getting to come up to Atlantic City and get in some matches. It wasn’t the biggest tournament out there, but it was a lot of fun to get to meet Jean Jacques, and having him ref my matches was pretty cool, too. The Arnold’s is up in two weeks, so this was a great opportunity to get in some more matches against some good competition.”

Team Lloyd Irvin represented about 1/3 of the competitors of Jean Jaques tourney. Everyone did awesome.

Brad Daddis also did an incredible job winning the USKBA San Shou Kickboxing Championships this weekend by TKO via knee strikes.