Third Coast Grappling Kumite 6 is only a little over a week away and has just suffered another huge blow after the brackets were already finalized. The news comes after the event already lost Ricardo Evangelista and had to find a late replacement in the form of Guilherme Augusto in order to complete the eight-man absolute gi tournament. This time not one, but two of the competitors have withdrawn from the tournament and will need to be replaced at the last minute.
The first loss is the 2018 IBJJF World and Pan-Ams Champion Gustavo Batista, who was due to meet Gabriel Almeida in the opening round. Batista had already won a Third Coast Grappling Kumite event and was one of the favorites coming into this edition, along with the other loss, Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa. As a five-time IBJJF World Champion, Barbosa is a front-runner in every single competition he enters and losing him is certainly a blow to fans everywhere. This makes for an unfortunate start to the promotion’s next big event, only a matter of weeks after their fifth Kumite event was sadly marred with controversy due to referee’s decisions.
Hey Everyone! Sadly Lucas Barbosa and Gustavo Batista both had to pull out for Sept 12th. Who deserves a shot at 10k and our Absolute Kumite Crown?
Posted by Third Coast Grappling Championship on Tuesday, September 1, 2020
There will also be a number of superfights featuring lesser known grapplers in the build up to the main event and the full card is as follows:
Brandon Gambucci vs Curry Gaut
Micheal Esquivel vs Omar Hillail
Orin Nova vs Jordan Vaisman
Ricky Peoples vs Jordan Plutin
Abel Salazar vs Duke Edwards
Jay Spiegel vs Isaiah Malik Carlson
Andy Cordova vs Sergei Zack Edwards
Casidy Welch vs Shannon O’Shea
Cristian Guzman vs Brandon Gutierrez
Kristin Kotinek vs Jessica Crane
The full Third Coast Grappling Kumite 6 event will be streamed live on FloGrappling on September 12th, click here to subscribe and watch.
Barbosa pulled due to Personal issues and Batista is still injured and thought he’d be ready to go. No need to sensationalize the pull outs. They happen every day.