Kaynan Duarte Continues His Winning Streak in 2020

Kaynan Duarte Becomes Fight to Win No- Gi Heavyweight Champion

Kaynan Duarte defeated Vinicius Ferreira to become the Fight 2 Win Heavyweight Nogi Champion at Fight 2 Win 136 in San Diego, California. In his first superfight of the year, Duarate followed up an impressive 2019 campaign which included an ADCC gold medal, with an impressive win over an IBJJF Nogi World, Pans, and Brasileiros champion.

Both competitors cancelled out much of the other’s game for a majority of the 10 minute match. The physical grapplers began with an extended feeling out period, with some collar ties, hand fighting and a few guard pulls and takedown attempts by Kaynan. The action did not turn up until the last few minutes when Kaynan picked up the pace, being a bit more active from half guard whenever he would pull guard. But even then, neither the Andre Galvao protégé in Duarte nor the Marcelo Garcia pupil in Ferreira really threatened the other with any submission attempts. In the end, Duarte dictated the pace of the match and made an honest effort to push “Trator” in the fight, earning himself a unanimous decision victory on the Fight 2 Win stage.

This is Duarte’s first competition since the announcement of his 2019 IBJJF World Championship being stripped due to a failed drug test administered by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. The 22-year-old black belt accepted a 1 year suspension from USADA after testing positive for trace amounts of Ostarine following his gold medal performance on Worlds in 2019. The suspension will be retroactive to the failed test, making Duarte eligible to compete under USADA again June 2, 2020.

Fight 2 Win CEO Seth Daniels, who also competed and won on this card, came to the defense of Duarte following the news of his failed drug test. With only a few organizations using USADA testing, Duarte is primed to have a very active competitive schedule in 2020. It was recently announced that Duarte would take place in the inaugural Polaris Absolute Grand Prix event April 4, alongside ADCC rival Nick Rodriguez. 

Jena Bishop Retains Fight 2 Win Bantamweight Championship

In the co-main event of the evening, Jena Bishop retained her women’s 135-pound Black Belt title over Gabbi McComb by split decision in an action packed match.

The match began with McComb leaping across the mat, jumping to guard. After a few technical offensive exchanges, McComb began to find herself working from top. With a game built around pressure, McComb looked to advance her position. But Bishop was able to create enough space to take the fight back to their feet. McComb again pulled guard, and Bishop began her offense from top with a hard slam from closed guard. It would still be a few minutes until Bishop could open McComb’s guard. At which point, Bishop attempted another slam and McComb opened her guard to stand back up and avoid hitting the mat again. McComb would pull guard again and the two would briefly exchange leg lock attacks before standing once again. With just under two minutes left, Bishop would be the one to pull guard. But soon, McComb would begin to work from top again and, with about 30 seconds left, had an armbar setup in the works before Bishop escaped and time expired. 

Notable Fight to Win 136 Results

As previously mentioned, Fight 2 Win CEO Seth Daniels returned to the mats with a submission win over Dustin Peek by Electric Chair. Edwin Najmi defeated Johnny Tama by decision. Ron Henderson became Fight 2 Win Flyweight Champion by defeating Kristian Woodmansee via decision, and Johnny Souza won the Fight 2 Win Masters Middleweight Champion, defeating Nick Greene by split decision.