Riverfront Fights

Last Sunday, the Riverfront Sub-Only showcase occurred in Riverfront Jiu-Jitsu in front of a chilly but beautiful riverwalk in Wilmington, DE. It featured 40 matches, in ten of which many East Coast women got to face off. We saw a lot of familiar faces from the local competition scene, only this time, I participated, and will go over my own match and experience as well.

Results

Here are the results of the women’s matches:

Sarah Williams def. Rachel Haines via decision
This was one of the only white belt matches on the cards but it still had a lot of action. Both women attempted closed guard guillotines but Haines was able to turn hers into a sweep and an armbar, which ultimately won her the ref’s decision.

Amanda Mazza def. Kimberly Trabulsi via armbar
Anyone following the sub-only scene has probably noticed Mazza’s skill for spotting armbars from anywhere. She did so again at Riverfront, snatching up one of Trabulsi’s frames and falling past the guard for another quick submission.

Marissa Pacelli def. Molli Zbrowski via. triangle
Both Pacelli and Zbrowski are frequent competitors, Pacelli the most recent 145 Ironwoman champion and Zbrowski with an OT win over world champion Karina Lagrana. Pacelli was able to spring a triangle as Zbrowski worked her passing.

Chelsea Mapa def. Allison Ferrari via decision
This was a very active match but Mapa ultimately showed more initiative and offense. She played top, bottom, and legs, and although never secured a very dominant position, forced Ferrari to constantly defend attacks.

Taylor Schmidt def. Zania Walker via armbar
Schmidt caught Walker with an armbar during Walker’s aggressive pass for one of the fastest submissions of the night.

Gabby Best def. Kelly Zacchea via decision
Both women were hunting for submissions and we saw some unconventional attempts at the reverse triangle and dogbar from being reverse triangled. Best capitalized on submissions from slightly better positions, which earned her the ref’s decision.

Amy Lynn Camilli def. Sydney Andrews via armbar
Camilli came up from a sweep and pulled off a slick armbar as Andrews attacked an ankle lock.

Beatrice Jin def. Sue Yee Chen via triangle armbar
Hello, it’s me. Both my opponent and I tried to wrestle and both of us ended up using opportunities to jump closed guard. I was able lock up a triangle from there and pull the elbow through for an armbar.

Ansley Cox def. Angel Revie via decision
We saw more wrestling in this match than any other women’s match. Cox got a rear bodylock on Revie, took her down, and poured on the pressure from top.

Maria Pascetta def. Valerie Plump via triangle armbar
Pascetta used a nice headlock to gain top position, chased the guillotine from half, snapped on a triangle as Plump tried to pass. Plump showed very aggressive defense but Pascetta ultimately got the armbar within a minute and a half.

Overall remarks

For the most part, athletes prioritized submission over position, which made for a lot of exciting scrambles and surprises. Actually there were quite a few matches where athletes tried to force sweeps, guard retention, or passes and ended up getting caught in transition, which just goes to show the pace of the event.

The organizer of the show, Elyse Shaw, ran a tight ship in an exciting atmosphere. The livestream had a camera man who followed the fights closely and sharp commentary from Jess Flowers and Eric Naples. I look forward to writing about and participating in future events, especially if they run another bracket style tournament in the future.