This article and the accompanying footage of Renato Canuto vs Damon Morgan from Proving Grounds Invitational 1 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.
Proving Grounds Invitational 1 took place all the way back on September 10th, 2016, and the event featured a fantastic eight-man lightweight tournament. Although Renato Canuto is a well-known competitor and even an ADCC veteran, that success was still yet to come at this point in time. In fact, Canuto was still a BJJ brown belt and was a few months away from being promoted to black belt by his father Valdir. Not only was Canuto a relative unknown at the time, but wasn’t even supposed to be entered in the lightweight bracket originally.
He actually stepped in to replace MMA veteran Thiago Alves on a little less than a week’s notice, and he made a huge impact by the end of the day. Canuto was matched up against American BJJ veteran Bill Cooper in the opening round and not many people would have predicted what would happen once the match began. He came out strong right from the start and shocked the crowd with a beautiful flying armbar to get the upset win in the opening seconds. That got Renato Canuto through to the semi-final, while Damon Morgan won his opening round match against Michael Ransom.
Canuto and Morgan met in the next match and it was another great display, as Canuto was able to pass Morgan’s guard several times and even take mount at one point. There were no points available though and as neither man was able to find the finish in regulation time, the match went to EBI overtime to determine a winner. Canutao was able to escape Morgan’s back control in the first overtime round and just as it looked like Morgan might do the same, Canuto transitioned to an armbar to get the tap. He progressed to the final and won that match as well, taking home the lightweight title after a series of impressive performances on the mats.
Subscribe to the official JitsMagazine YouTube channel for more Free Fight Friday footage, and the full match between Renato Canuto and Damon Morgan can be found below: