This article and the accompanying footage of Andrew Kochel vs Luke Staley from Arena Grappling Series 7 is part of Free Fight Friday, our ongoing project to bring the best in professional Jiu-Jitsu competition to everyone. To avoid spoilers for the match, scroll directly to the footage below.
Arena Grappling Series 7 saw a great main event matchup between Luke Staley and Andrew Kochel, with both men putting it all on the line under the promotion’s unique ruleset. It’s a very interesting concept that clearly produces some exciting matches, and it’s called the ‘Endurance Format’. Two grapplers compete in 3 rounds of 5 minutes, with securing a submission being the only way to end a round early. That doesn’t end the whole fight though, and merely wins the round instead. This means that competitors could feasibly each submit each other once and reach the end of regulation rounds level.
In the event that competitors reach the end of the 3 regulation rounds level, they will then compete in a 10 minute overtime round to determine a winner. Evenly-matched grapplers could expect to battle it out over the course of up to 25 minutes in total, which is exactly what happened in this match. Both men are tough and experienced competitors and they each found moments of success at different points, although neither man was able to get the finish in the end. Not only was it a great match in general, but it also highlighted the beauty of the unique ruleset that Arena Grappling use.
Subscribe to the official JitsMagazine YouTube channel for more Free Fight Friday footage, and the full match between Andrew Kochel and Luke Staley can be found below:
