This article and the accompanying footage of Zac Rhatigan vs Bobby Riordan 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.
We’ve featured the main event of Arena Grappling Series 7, Andrew Kochel vs Luke Staley, as part of Free Fight Friday in the past but another match at the event delivered just as many fireworks for the fans in attendance. Zac Rhatigan and Bobby Riordan faced off a little over halfway through that event on June 16th, 2023 and both men put everything they had into winning the match. This was Riordan’s debut for the promotion, whereas Rhatigan had already competed in the Arena Grappling cage multiple times already and had several submissions to his name in that time.
They competed under the promotion’s unique ruleset, 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. It’s a fun format that often results in a lot of action later in the match when one grappler has managed to secure an early lead. That’s actually what happened in this match, as Rhatigan caught Riordan in a tight triangle choke in the second round, forcing him to really push the pace in the final round in an attempt to equalize. Although Riordan wasn’t able to make the comeback happen, it was still a fantastic match from start to finish with great performances from both men.
Subscribe to the official JitsMagazine YouTube channel for more Free Fight Friday footage, and the full match between Zac Rhatigan and Bobby Riordan can be found below:
