The Emerald City Invitational is returning and several competitors have now been announced for ECI 6 on April 29th, 2023. Their first five events have all been incredibly exciting affairs and they’ve routinely attracted some of the top athletes in the sport like Gianni Grippo, PJ Barch, and Kyle Boehm among many more. Their sixth event will almost certainly be no exception, as the promotion has managed to book several exciting grapplers to compete in one of two different tournaments. The event will feature both a women’s and a men’s 135lbs grand prix, along with a handful of superfights in between tournament matches.
The women’s division will feature one of the top young female prospects in the sport, Trinity Pun, who is more than capable of making a huge impact in this stacked tournament. She will certainly have an uphill battle though, as there’s plenty of experienced competitors like UFC fighter Miranda Maverick and ADCC trials winner Peyton Letcher. That’s not all though, as Claire North is also competing and she really stands out as the most likely winner here. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if her and Peyton Letcher cross paths once again, as the pair battled it out in the final of the EBI bantamweight tournament at Medusa 3 where North won with a Kimura.
The men’s division is equally full of talented grapplers but one man in particular stands out as the most likely winner, Estevan Martinez. One fact is that Martinez will likely be a little smaller than a lot of the competitors in a 135lbs tournament, as he has competed as low as 120lbs in the past. He’s known as ‘The Giant Slayer’ for good reason though, so he’ll no doubt be comfortable against anyone in the division. That said, it’s no easy task to win so many matches in a single day and really any of the men in the bracket could win here on the day.
The full Emerald City Invitational 6 event, including all of the above competitors, will be available to watch live on April 29th, 2023, on FloGrappling.