Monday night saw the beginning of official league matches for this summer’s Tackle Grapple Grappling League. A brainchild of Tackle’s Adam Knipfer and Michael Hudak, the league offers local competitors the chance for super fights at a very super price(free!). The TGGL consists of three weight divisions, Heavyweight(over 200lb), Middleweight(under 200lb, but over 170lb), and Lightweight(under 170lb). In the first night of league play, we witnessed some lightweight division action.
The first match of the evening was Jihad Salti(Tackle) vs Epifanio Peterson (Academy 440).
Both fighters began the engagement from standing, but quickly this became a matchup of styles as Salti favored his wrestling background and expertise, whereas Epi favored a skilled guard game centering on open guard and butterfly hook retention.
This match, though close would ultimately be decided by the judges in favor of Jihad Salti over Epifanio Peterson by unanimous judge’s decision, citing Salti’s topside dominance and several takedowns.
Next up was John Soltis(Cleveland Institute of BJJ) vs Jihad Salti(Tackle)
In this match up, we saw less of a division in styles, but still a good amount of guard play from Soltis, attempting both a buggy choke, and at one point sitting back for a leg entanglement, and much of the same topside pressure from Salti as we saw in the first matchup vs Peterson.
Though the match would remain even for much of it’s duration, eventually it too would go to judges’ decision where Salti would take another decision win, though this time via split decision, citing his pressure and attempt at a submission as reasons.
The final match of the evening was Epifanio Peterson(Academy 440) vs John Soltis(Cleveland Institute of BJJ)
In my humble opinion, this was match of the evening with a lot of great back and forth exchanges and the most submission attempts of the evening. Both fighters showed spectacular grit and overwhelming determination throughout.
However, despite such a great back and forth exchange, neither fighter was able to secure a submission by the end of the round, and the fight went to referee decision(yet again), wherein all three refs awarded the victory to Peterson, citing a near finish by straight ankle as reason.
In our opinion at ProGrappler, all three fighters showed great heart and determination, but what did you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of the referee decisions? Let us know down in the comments! And, as always, thank you for grappling!
