Chocolate Medal at Toulouse BJJ Open
On May 4th 2025, I competed in a BJJ competition. The first one since I got my black belt. I wasn’t particularly motivated at first, but since my son was taking part in the same competition, I wanted to lead by example and so I signed up to fight in my division: Masters 3 (40+ yo), black belt, under 64kgs. I had to follow a strict diet to drop 2 to 3 kilos as I didn’t really care about my weight for a while, and I had a month and a half to do it.
I actually enjoyed the struggle to cut most carbs, strictly eat three meals a day with no snacking. It’s tough in the first couple of days, but you get used to it, and you rediscover the joy of enjoying foodie time!
I didn’t exactly “prepare to win”, I wasn’t too sure what to expect as in black belt you can fight someone who can have a ton of experience that could wipe the floor with your face, or someone like me, a daddy who knows his stuff.
No particular physical prep, mostly sparring more often and rougher than usual, but nothing close to what I needed. It was for me to feel the thrill of the fights and competition again.
Fast forward to 10 days before the competition, no one signed up in my division. The only people who I could compete with were in adult division under 70kgs. So I made the change and joined them.
I didn’t need to drop the last 200g I still had to lose anymore. But most importantly, I was reminded just two days before the comp, that adult fights at black belt last… 10 minutes instead of 6! That kinda messed with my mind as I never fought in 10-minute matches and I don’t know how to manage my efforts for that long.
I weighed in at 64,5kgs, and was facing my opponent, 11 years younger with a ton of competition experience, and a fitness coach for the academy he trains at.
I had my strategy to follow, but would have to save energy and improvise my effort management as I didn’t know how much gas I would have in the tank past 6 minutes if I didn’t manage to finish the fight early.
The fight started according to plans, I pulled a half guard that’s usually a nightmare to pass. And as predicted, he spent a lot of energy trying get through (he didn’t).
During that time, I attempted multiple submissions that were all fended off, also thanks to the help of Laurence Cousin (first non-Brazilian female BJJ World champion at black belt), his coach on the sidelines, who was yelling the right instructions to get out before it was too late. That was extremely frustrating as I believe some of them would have landed without her help.
Past the 7-minute mark, score is still 0-0. I attempted to sweep but he got up and we scrambled. That’s where I should have had the energy and lucidity to take over the fight and land a takedown. But I didn’t have that left and I ended up giving up my back in the result of that scramble.
I defended his attempts to choke me out succesfully, escaped the back and he got up to avoid me passing his guard, but there was only a few seconds left on the clock.
I lost the fight 4-0 (the 4 points of the back take) with a taste of unfinished business in my mouth.
He was a better fighter, more physical, more experienced, more well-prepared. He beat my teammate in the finals, submitting him with an impressive flying arm bar. I probably could have won had I put the time into my preparation… but that was just not possible. BJJ isn’t my priority and while I felt disappointed, it was still a great experience that I learnt a lot from. I’ll try to come more prepared next time!
Photos: Lu’nivers Athletics
