Eddie Bravo Announces Female 10th Planet Quintet Team
10th Planet system creator Eddie Bravo took to his personal Instagram page today to announce his 10th Planet team for a new all-female Quintet show in Japan on April 7, 2019.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuSk3blgLUF/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Reposting the picture of Liz Carmouche getting her hand raised at this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night in Prague, Eddie announced that Carmouche will be on the female 10th Planet Quintet team for April along with Elvira Karpinnen, Lila Smadja-Cruz, Grace Gundrum, and Fabiana Jorge.
Liz Carmouche was also featured on the 10th Planet team for Subversiv, where she secured wins over EBI veteran Sophia Nordeno and Lloyd Irvin black belt Nyjah Rollins, cementing the win for the 10th Planet team. Liz received her black belt not long after that performance and she also runs 10th Planet Poway in California together with fellow black belt Kevin Berbrich. Carmouche is very well known for her achievements in mma as well, including being in the first ever women’s UFC fight against Ronda Rousey.
Elvira Karpinnen, who is coming back to competition after recovering from surgery, is also on the female Quintet team. Elvira was supposed to be in EBI 16: The Female Bantamweights, but was forced to withdraw due to her knee injury. Elvira made waves by upsetting ADCC champion Mackenzie Dern in the very first round at ADCC in 2017 prior to her knee injury. Elvira is a brown belt and runs 10th Planet Tampere in Finland with her husband, Lauri Karppinen, who was the one who convinced her to start training jiu jitsu and doubles as her coach. Now that she is back to 100% it will be great to see her compete again.
Lila Smadja-Cruz, a brown belt under Eddie Bravo and multiple time EBI veteran, is another one of the Quintet team members. Training out of 10th Planet HQ and helping to run 10th Planet Pasadena with her husband, Erik Cruz, Lila Smadja-Cruz has been the top 10th Planet representative in all three of the female EBI tournaments at EBI 12, EBI 16, and EBI 18. In fact, she stepped in when Elvira was injured for the bantamweight tournament and again when Grace Gundrum was injured for the strawweight tournament. Lila has been an active competitor for quite some time and has shown a lot of heart in her matches. She also has had some very quick submissions among her various EBI appearances, so you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled when she hits the Quintet mats.
Grace Gundrum, a blue belt training out of 10th Planet Bethlehem under Zach Maslany and JM Holland, is the youngest and smallest of the 10th Planet competitors on the female Quintet team. She was supposed to compete in EBI 18: The Strawweights, however she was forced to withdraw due a knee injury. Now that she is recovered she is ready to get back to the competition scene and will be starting with Quintet in April. Grace has competed in EBI four different times in teen superfight matches and is currently undefeated. She also submitted grown brown belt women with ease on her way to winning the Onnit Invitational almost a year ago now. A fan favorite, many will be excited to hear of the return of the Silent Assassin.
Fabiana Jorge, recent EBI veteran, rounds out this stacked women’s team for Quintet. A purple belt training out of 10th Planet Denver, Fabiana was the winner of the 10th Planet qualifier to earn her spot in EBI 18. She also secured all of her wins with submissions in regulation during her qualifier run, which you can watch here. At EBI 18, Fabiana’s first match was against the eventual champion, Mayssa Bastos, however she still held her own in a super tough match that went to overtime.
Eddie clearly did a great job in picking a team of five tough and experienced women for the female 10th planet Quintet team. It will be interesting to see what other teams will be participating and who their competitors are.
