Samuel McCoy Jr had been knocking on the door for some time and has now finally broken through with a victory in the most coveted class at the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship No Gi at the FGB Arena yesterday.
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After earning silver in the male black adult +93kg division, the Al Ain Jiu-Jitsu Club fighter stormed through the black open weight field and defeated Filipe Meirelles
The victory would not have been possible without Alexandre Henrique Moreira – who won gold in black adult 93kg – providing encouragement after McCoy Jr fell short earlier.
“To be honest, I would not have done the absolute if it wasn’t for my friend [Moreira]. He is, in my opinion, the best guy here and he just motivated me and said, ‘hey Sam, don’t leave on a silver medal note. I think you should go for it’.”
Against the smaller and quicker Bobrick, McCoy Jr used his size to his advantage and slowed down the fight. The American feels the varying styles and body types that show up in the black open weight is what makes the division the premier class.
“The open weight is strange because you’re fighting all black belts,” McCoy Jr said.
“These aren’t just black belts, these are some of the best black belts in the world. So everybody has their little thing that they do the best.
“It depends on their body type now because they’re so good, there’s nothing really you can plan for.
“The black belt open weight, I hate to say it because we’re all men, but it’s where you separate the men from the boys.
“Today, I got lucky. This would never happen to me because sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve to be on the same mat with these guys,” he added.
McCoy Jr will not be competing again today in the Gi event, but backs his friend Moreira as the favourite. Instead, the Miami native will prepare to take part in the Sharjah Open Championship next month.
Meanwhile, the only one to beat McCoy Jr on the day, Brazilian Mauricio Henrique Lima, walked away with gold in the +93kg.
Fighting for Cicero Costha, Lima was more than pleased to have success before competing in the black +95kg and black open weight in Gi.
“I don’t train that much for No Gi,” said Lima. “I came today just to warm up for tomorrow because I like to fight more with Gi. But it’s good, I got a good medal.”
Other winners in the field included Brazil’s Pedro Nogueira Duarte with gold in both brown black master +93kg and brown black master open weight, and Tajikistan’s Komil Boymurodov atop both blue adult 73kg and blue adult open weight.
Many of the fighters will again battle on the mats in Gi today, which features a field of 230 competitors.