Enigma Jiu-Jitsu have just managed to book a fantastic match for Enigma Invitational 11 on May 27th, 2023, as Luke Griffith and Pat Shahgholi will be battling it out for the promotion’s inaugural heavyweight title. It’s a great matchup and it represents one of the biggest opportunities that the young Shahgholi has found recently. He’s an interesting young prospect who has already submitted plenty of adult competitors and has given good accounts of himself at major tournaments that would normally be reserved for those well beyond his years.
Griffith on the other hand is a top competitor from New Wave Jiu-Jitsu who won the 2022 edition of the ADCC European, Middle-Eastern, and African trials. That booked him his place at ADCC 2022 where he made his debut, but he was unfortunately the victim of a very tough draw in the opening round. Griffith was pitted against the eventual absolute champion Yuri Simoes and although neither man was able to score a point, Griffith lost the judge’s decision and was eliminated.
Since then, Griffith has put in an impressive performance at Grapplefest 15 to claim that promotion’s under 100kgs title and solidify his place as a top competitor in the sport. Shahgholi on the other hand has been significantly busier competing at smaller events, although he has had success in defending one of his titles at Finishers 18 and quickly defending another at SOGI Pro: Winter Warz. He’s always a frequent competitor and he’s taken on plenty of tough challenges in the past, but Griffith will definitely be among the toughest he’s ever had to face.
They were actually both invited to compete at the same event at EBI 20, although both of them went out in the quarter-finals in EBI overtime and never met. Both Pat Shahgholi and Luke Griffith have been in very good form recently, so it’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top when they finally cross paths at Enigma Invitational 11 on May 27th, 2023. A win for Griffith will add another belt to his collection and continue his run of form into bigger events, while a win for Shahgholi would be a huge moment in his career and undoubtedly lead to even bigger opportunities in the future.
The news that Luke Griffith and Pat Shahgholi would compete for the inaugural Enigma heavyweight title was announced in a post to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
