And Just Like That, It's All Over

Wrapping up a crazy year of competition in Mexico.

EBI 22 — Cancun, Mexico

Last weekend, I traveled to Cancun, Mexico and competed in the Eddie Bravo Invitational.

When I first started Jiu-Jitsu at 18, I used to watch EBI in my college dorm room in Oregon. For the first EBI I watched, I used my credit card for a free trial of UFC Fight Pass. The next time, I used my mom’s credit card. The time after, my dad.

I was always worried about where the next free trial was going to come from.

I would watch people like Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings, and the other top grapplers of the day. It was when I really started to fall in love with Jiu-Jitsu and the idea of doing it professionally because I was seeing other people doing it professionally.

So, competing at EBI 22 was a bit of a coming-of-age moment for me. It was another moment — like ADCC earlier this year — when it finally set in that I was living the dream I set for myself when I was younger and couldn’t tell the difference between a heel hook and an ankle lock.

But the tournament had more than just matches for me. It was the culmination of a year of crazy ups and crazy downs.

Here’s what happened.