Francisco Lo of Cicero Costha won three gold medals at the 2023 Denver International Open. Though he started off taking silver in the medium heavy division in the gi, Francisco bounced back in impressive fashion and won the absolute. “I had five fights total, submitting one with a false triangle and winning three by points. In the division final I ended up making a mistake and lost the final of the category. But I returned to the absolute stronger and more focused and thank God it worked.” Francisco won two more gold medals in no-gi, taking gold at medium-heavy and winning another absolute division.

2023 Pan Champion Adam Wardzinski returned to competition in Denver and turned in a 100% submission rate. “I had two matches and two submissions. In the first match my opponent pulled guard. I passed, mounted, forced the back, and got the rear naked choke. In the second match I pulled and was able to sweep from butterfly. Right after that I passed to mount, got an ezekiel setup, took the back, and finished ezekiel from there.”

Luciana Mota of Alliance took double gold in the gi. She commented on her performance, stating “In the medium-heavy division I had one fight. My strategy was to work on attacks from the closed guard. I did a sweep to mount from the closed guard twice and ended the fight with a 12-0 score. In the open class, I had one fight as well. My strategy was to pull guard. I did a sweep from the de la riva and then I passed the guard and mounted my opponent. At the end of the fight, I had closed guard and got the wrist lock submission. My performance was positive because I did scored a lot of points without concedinging any points or advantages. At the end I finished with a specific submission that I worked a lot. Now my focus is on the next two competition, San Diego Open and Worlds.”

2021 World Champion Diego Pato also took gold in the featherweight division. Pato won two matches to take gold.

2023 Denver Open team results:

1. Easton BJJ

2. Gracie Barra

3. GF Team

2023 Denver Open No-Gi team results

1. Easton BJJ

2. Atos Jiu-Jitsu

3. GF Team