In 2017, Kaynan Duarte had a little known match against a self taught white belt. They had both entered in a JiuJitsu.net Open tournament with cash prizes and no restrictions on who could enter. The organiser, Dan Lukehart himself stated “Anyone of any age and any experience level” could enter and compete for a thousand dollar cash prize.
Kaynan, at this stage of his jiu jitsu career had already won a World Championship gold medal at Purple belt. On the other end of the experience scale, was Joshua Escobar, a self taught white belt. With only one year of online Judo study under his belt, Joshua showed a lot of heart in entering this tournament. Joshua and Kaynan were matched up in the early elimination rounds.
Many were expecting Joshua to learn a very painful lesson that day. However, Kaynan, bless him, was very merciful with Joshua, gently sweeping and passing. He even allowed the self taught white belt to escape from under his side control and stand up, each time opting to pull guard instead of taking Joshua down. Kaynan eventually got the tap via knee slice.
Watch the video here. Scroll to 2:24:34 to see the match in question. Or if you have the time, watch the whole tournament. There were plenty of juveniles and coloured belts competing that you may recognise as big players in the competition circuit this year.
Don’t miss out on Kaynan Duarte competing in his next match on Who’s Number One against Rodolfo Viera!
Or for more of our articles looking into moments throughout BJJ history, visit our throwback archives.
