UFC BJJ 12: Cassia Moura, Canuto and Thaynara Victoria among the five bonus winners
The three performance bonuses went to the title matches, and the submission bonuses went to two debuting athletes; Moura summed up her night on social media: “God is good. The only double champ in UFC BJJ”
UFC BJJ handed out five bonuses after UFC BJJ 12, held on Thursday, October 8, at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. The three performance bonuses went to athletes from the title matches: Cassia Moura and Adele Fornarino, who met in the main event, and Renato Canuto, the new lightweight champion. The two submission bonuses went to athletes making their debut, Brazil’s Thaynara Victoria and American Kade Anastasios.
“They put on a SHOW,” the organization wrote when it announced the performance bonus winners. Neither announcement said how much the bonuses are worth. Three of the five bonus winners are Brazilian.
“The only double champ in UFC BJJ”
Moura left Las Vegas with the flyweight belt, the bonus and a place in the history of the event. The 20-year-old Brazilian, who was already the bantamweight champion, beat Adele Fornarino by split decision and became the first athlete to hold two belts in the organization. She has six wins in six matches in UFC BJJ.
Her celebration on social media was short. “God is good. The only double champ in UFC BJJ. I’ll write more tomorrow, everyone,” she posted, in Portuguese. After the match, she also left a message in English: “If I can do it, everybody can do it.”
A bonus for both, and the debate over the result
Fornarino got a bonus even with the loss. The Australian attacked Moura’s legs in all three rounds and ended the first one with a heel hook locked in. One of the three judges scored the match for her.
In the comments on the announcement, the result split fans again. “cassia winning is NOT a robbery bro,” one follower wrote. Another asked: “What did Cassia do for performance?” The debate about the scoring and the format of title matches is in Are three rounds enough to decide a title?
Canuto ends the night with a belt and a bonus
The third bonus went to Renato Canuto, who beat Canada’s Ethan Crelinsten by unanimous decision and took the lightweight title. He looked for the submission the whole match, with an anaconda choke in the first round and an attack from the back in the third.
The title was a family celebration. The champion’s wife, Raquel Canuto, recalled the two title matches the couple had lost before this belt.
Five submissions, two bonuses
The two submission bonuses came from a night with five submissions in eight matches, all of them in the first round. Besides the two bonus winners, Gabriel Almeida submitted Gilbert “Durinho” Burns, and Landon Elmore and Raphael Ferreira, both 19 years old, also finished before the end of the round.
Victoria taps Danielle Kelly in under three minutes
UFC BJJ presented Victoria as a leg lock specialist, and that is how she started. She went to the mat early and attacked an ankle lock, which Danielle Kelly defended. Both athletes then attacked each other’s legs at the same time, nobody could finish, and they stood back up.
When the match went back to the mat, Kelly tried to get on top. Victoria isolated her arm, adjusted her legs and finished the armbar at 2:53 of the first round. Kelly had won her own UFC BJJ debut in August, at UFC BJJ 10.
Anastasios goes from the Opens to a win in the Bowl
The other bonus went to an athlete who took a different road to the card. Kade Anastasios was scouted at the UFC BJJ Opens in Las Vegas. The Opens are open tournaments where the expert divisions compete for cash prizes and a chance to sign with UFC BJJ.
In his first match in the Bowl, the UFC BJJ competition area, he faced Brazil’s Ataide Rafael, a fourth-degree black belt who lives in Arkansas and trains with Bryce Mitchell. Anastasios set the pace from the start and attacked the knee in the middle of the round. Rafael freed his leg and escaped for a moment, but the American stayed active from the bottom, controlled the right heel and locked in the heel hook in the final minute of the first round.
The next UFC BJJ Opens are in Indianapolis on October 24 and in Denver on November 21 and 22.
Raphael Ferreira, 19: “This puts me where I’ve always been”
In the second match of the night, Raphael Ferreira needed 3:14 to submit Kyle O’Hare with a heel hook. The 19-year-old brown belt fights out of South Jordan, Utah, and now has two wins in three UFC BJJ matches.
His body covered the lock, and not even the broadcast could see which attack it was. In his interview in the Bowl, Ferreira said he had a different plan. “I wanted the flying submission. He saw it coming,” he said. “The leg just happened to be there. He gave me his foot and I took it.”
Ferreira shared the win with his team. “This win, it’s not just mine. I have training partners, mentors, coaches, friends. It’s not just my win. It’s everybody behind me,” he said. Asked where the win puts him in UFC BJJ, he answered: “I think this puts me where I’ve always been. I’ve been fighting the best in the world since I was 15 years old.”
His only loss in the organization came in June, at UFC BJJ 9, when John Chandler caught him in a triangle choke in the final seconds. Chandler also competed this Thursday. He opened the card with a unanimous decision win over Raphael Gomez and is now 2-0 in UFC BJJ.
Elmore is back in the win column
Landon Elmore, also 19, came in after two decision losses in a row at featherweight. In his first match at lightweight, he swept Max Livingston from a body triangle, controlled one of his legs and finished with an ankle lock at 3:42.
All the results are in the UFC BJJ 12 play-by-play.
Did the bonuses go to the right people? Leave your opinion in the comments.
