AIGA has been busy staging some fantastic team grappling tournaments lately as part of their Champions League and ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim has just put together an amazing Modolfo team for their next event. This just the latest in a series of huge moves from the Almaty International Grappling Association lately, as they’ve been building a series of fantastic events for their Champions League. Their last event featured a lineup of grapplers from B-Team Jiu-Jitsu and several other top competitors, with plenty of exciting matches over the course of the event.
While there were some elite grapplers like Robert Degle and Henrique ‘Ceconi’ Cardoso competing at the last AIGA Champions League event, the team that Mo Jassim has put together looks practically unstoppable. First of all there is a pair of champions from ADCC 2022 in the Modolfo team, as Diogo Reis and Giancarlo Bodoni won the 66kg and 88kg divisions respectively. Two medallists from the same event are also representing the same team, as Dante Leon won a bronze medal at 77kg and Gabriel Sousa won a silver medal at 66kg.
There are several ADCC trials winners from all around the world competing as part of the Modolfo team as well; as Izaak Michell won the Asia and Oceania trials in 2022, Fabricio Andrey won the South American trials in 2022, and John Hansen won the North American East Coast trials in 2021. The final grappler completing the elite 8-man lineup is Thalison Soares, the IBJJF world championship gold medalist from the lightest weight class in 2022. Even one or two of these top competitors would make for a great team, but with all 8 of them being among the best grapplers in their respective weight classes it’ll be almost impossible for them to lose.
AIGA Global announced the lineup for the Modolfo team that Mo Jassim has put together in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
