A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.

It turns out a ADCC silver medal is no guarantee of a successful MMA debut.

While AJ Agazarm is one of the most polarizing grapplers in the world, many fans expected his wrestling credentials to help him transition over to MMA. On Saturday night, Agazarm paired off with Jesse Roberts on the undercard of Bellator 214 and his maiden MMA performance left a lot to be desired.

Agazarm looked out-matched on the feet and his sluggish footwork meant that his takedown attempts were predictable and mostly easy to stuff. On the occasions that the fight did hit the canvas, Agazarm showed his grappling savvy and was able to work his way to the back, but it was not enough.

Jesse Roberts took the split-decision victory, but AJ shouldn’t be too disheartened, even Marcelo Garcia struggled to transition over to MMA.

GRAPPLING STORIES

IBJJF GP 2019 has two new competitors as multiple-time World Nogi champion “Hulk” Barbosa joins one of the greatest gi grapplers of all-time, Leandro Lo in vying it out for $40,000. Lo will be looking to rematch Gordon Ryan, who he previously defeated 4x0 at the ADCC trials in 2017.

Saved by the bell stars Mario Lopez and Mark-Paul Gosselaar met on the mats in a reunion of sorts. Both actors are blue belts, but Lopez has a more storied past in combat sports. Let’s hope it didn’t end up like their last brawl.

IJF Tour touched down in Israel last week and the Israelis had a great showing. Over the course of the event, Israel earned 4 gold medals and put on a pretty dominant display throughtout. Olympic medallist Or Sasson took home gold in the 100+ KG division and capped off a successful event for the hosts.

VIDEO CONTENT

Gordon makes it look easy

OUCH

The devil is in the details