Grapple In The Temple 3 took place on January 27th, 2023 and the night was full of fun matches and exciting results that was impressive from such a young promotion, headed up by Fabio Lima of 313 BJJ. Several young competitors impressed in their performances and may very well be ones to watch for the future, like Henry Zachary and Zach Mabey. The event was well-run and as it transitioned to the main card, the promoters were keeping a good pace throughout. When the professional competitors took to the stage there was a number of superb finishes and a huge moment of controversy.
First of all Tabatha Watkins locked up a beautiful no-arm triangle choke and Pedro Zapata grinded out a tough decision win. Then David Garmo finished Daniel Leith with a strong straight ankle-lock and Danny Maira slapped on a lightning quick heelhook to force Alex Hodi to tap. The main event between Haisam Rida and Vinicius ‘Trator’ Ferreira was the moment fans had been waiting for and it was a good match initially, but sadly descended into chaos right at the end.
Haisam Rida wrestled up from the ground in the last ten seconds and Vinicius ‘Trator’ Ferreira caught him in a guillotine but was driven off the edge of the mats. Trator ended up practically sat in David Garmo’s lap while attempting to finish the guillotine and the referee appeared ready to intervene in order to reset them. Trator didn’t stop the submission though, and despite Garmo’s protests the referee didn’t prevent him from doing so either. Rida stopped fighting at this point as he believed they would be reset, but the referee then declared Trator the winner of the match. This results in chaotic scenes at Grapple In The Temple 3 almost immediately.
Garmo came onto the mats to raise Rida’s hand and start protesting the decision, only for Trator to leave to begin his post-match interview. Garmo continued his protest and managed to prevent the interview from taking place, as several people got involved in the debate of how to handle this correctly. The crowd started chanting for overtime and the officials managed to calm them down but after some back and forth, they stuck to the original decision. It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise great night, and it served as a reminder that a referee’s job is often the most important at the entire event and a good referee is worth their weight in gold.
Grapple In The Temple 3 Full Results
Vinicius ‘Trator’ Ferreira defeats Haisam Rida via Decision – Unanimous
Danny Maira defeats Alex Hodi via Submission – Heelhook
David Garmo defeats Daniel Leith via Submission – Straight Ankle-lock
Pedro Zapata defeats John Toth via Decision – Unanimous
Tabatha Watkins defeats Stephanie Cline via Submission – No-arm Triangle Choke
Preliminary Card
Jason Kaczmarek defeats Jesh Marsh via Submission – Heelhook
Joshua Johnson defeats Bill Konkel via Submission – Straight Ankle-lock
Josh Clowney defeats Christopher Ciric via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Khodor Hoballah defeats Derek Ginn via Submission – Arm-triangle Choke
Calvin Tracey defeats Darren Gibbs via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Ricardo Casa defeats Anthony Shibley via Decision – Unanimous
Brandon Wilson defeats Drew Guarismo via Submission – Kimura
Huessain Saab defeats Torryn Heffelinger via Decision – Unanimous
David Willacker defeats Austin Harrison via Submission – Heelhook
Zach Mabey defeats Farris Abuwandi via Submission – Kneebar
Intermediate Matches
Joe Rencsok defeats Christopher Lee via Submission – Armbar
Danny Lauer defeats Michael Gomez via Submission – Arm-in Guillotine
Jay Lonick defeats Ryan Gatny via Submission – Heelhook
Kevin Crunk defeats James Parks via Decision – Unanimous
Henry Zachary defeats Rick Roy via Submission – Straight Ankle-lock
Vincent Tenaglia defeats Derek Thornton via Submission – D’arce Choke
Saad Shajira defeats Kody Roy via Decision – Unanimous
Sean Hayes defeats Nick Kott via Submission – Kneebar
Beginner Matches
Joe Youngblood defeats Aaron Piper via Submission – Armbar
Anthony Nitecky defeats Chaz Terrabrood via Submission – Guillotine
Omar Shajira defeats Tien Pham via Decision – Unanimous
Jona Torres defeats Kristina Nikolaj via Decision – Unanimous
The full Grapple In The Temple 3 event replay, including all of the above results, is available to watch on FloGrappling.
