On April 28th & 29th The BJJ Tour hosted the 11th annual American Cup at Independence High School in San Jose, CA. The tournament boasted over 900 competitors, including: a Black Belt Pro division, Masters, Kids, and armature for White Belts to Brown Belts.

El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brought 3 competitors this year:

Mason Mahoney fought his first tournament at 7 years old. He was very eager to compete and had a tremendous attitude before and after his match. After fighting very hard for the entire 3 minutes he walked away without his hand raised, but gained a valuable experience and taste for competing on one of the biggest stages for kid’s competition.

Mateo Diaz has been competing a lot this past year and added a second place medal to his resume at the American Cup in the Boys 2004 Gray Belt lightweight division. He had a spectacular performance in the Semifinals with an armbar to finish the match.

Aaron Martinez fought in the Master 3 Black Belt Lightweight division and has a nice sweep from guard, but eventually was submitted by armbar from his opponent in his first match.

The BJJ Tour is a tournament series founded and promoted by Master Claudio Franca, who is a pioneer for helping introduce BJJ Competitions in America. The tournaments have a reputation for being professional and well organized.

El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a grappling based academy in El Dorado Hills that offers lessons and training for BJJ, NoGi (Competition Style and Submission Only), and Wrestling for adults of all ages and for kids, ages 4 and up. Black Belt and pro fighter, Eliot Kelly, founded the school nearly a decade ago and has created a mainstay in the community with the school through his academic approach to teaching Martial Arts and his civic minded events he organizes throughout the year.