Oliver Taza Takes Over Emerald City
Last weekend, Emerald City put on another spectacular event at the TEST Sports Center in Martinsville, New Jersey.
The main card of the event saw a stacked 16-man 185lb bracket.
The bracket consisted of Giancarlo Bodoni, Steve Kasten, Oliver Taza, Nick Ronan, Matteo Martinez, Alan Snachez, Steve Joachim, Nick Domgjoni, Aaron Harris, Jay Rodriguez, Sean Yadimarco, Jon Piersma, Josh Hayden, Isiah Wright, Enrique Galarza, and Andre Petroski.
All matches were contested under the EBI rules format: 10 minute sub only regulation with EBI style overtime to declare a winner if both athletes survive regulation.
The MVP and winner of the 185ln tournament was New Wave Jiu-Jitsu’s Oliver Taza.
The former DDS and Tristar standout has found a new home in Austin, Texas with fellow standouts Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon and coach John Danaher. Taza has been putting in the work at their new home in Texas after a short stint in Puerto Rico. The hard work payed off this past weekend where Tazza went 4 for 4 in submissions to claim the 185lb title showing is always dangerous leglocks.
Oliver Taza’s first match at Emerald City 3 was against Nick Domgjoni. Taza entered the legs in under a minute and finished with a classic double outside ashi heel hook.
In his second match, Taza faced former teammate Jay Rodriguez. Again, in under a minute Taza entered the legs from a false reap and finished with an inside heel hook to move on to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, Taza faced off against 10th Planet’s Alan Sanchez. The match went 2 minutes longer then Taza’s previous two matches but, still finished with a backstep to an inside heel hook to claim a spot in the finals.
Oliver Taza faced off against friend and former teammate Nick Ronan in the finals of the 185lb tournament. During the regulation period, Taza dictated the pace playing top and bottom sweeping and taking down his old teammate. Neither man could finish a submission so the two went into EBI overtime.
In the overtime, the two traded positions back and forth. Ronan chose to take the back and Taza chose the armbar. They both escaped the first OT and headed to the second. In the second, Ronan again chose the back. Taza was able to pummel and roll to escape. In the bottom of the second round, Taza chose the armbar again. As Ronan tried to escape, Taza changed the angle and locked up a tight inverted triangle. Within 10 seconds of locking up the triangle, Ronan was forced to tap declaring Oliver Taza the Emerald City 3 185lb champ.
Just last week, Taza received his 2022 ADCC invite and said “I intend to stay active as much as possible over the next year gathering as much experience as possible and fixing as many technical and tactical mistakes as possible beforehand to insure a gold medal performance. Let’s get to work!”
Keep an eye out for the always exciting Oliver Taza as all roads now lead to ADCC 2022 in Vegas!
Full event results at the link below…
Emerald City Invitational 3 Live Results (mymmanews.com)
