JT Torres (Essential BJJ) dethroned the F2W Lightweight and Welterweight No-Gi Champ, Vagner Rocha (Fight Sports) in Philadelphia at Fight 2 Win 119 to claim the welterweight strap.

In a match of brain versus brawn who wins? Obviously, JT Torres and Vagner Rocha have both. You don’t become an ADCC gold medalist or claim F2W titles in two weight classes without champion qualities. But, this match pitted the ruthless side of Vagner Rocha against the methodical composure of JT Torres.

Vagner, notorious for doing whatever it takes (within the rules) to create opportunities did not disappoint. 

JT almost gets Vagner's back

Rocha was his usual amped-up self, full of fire and fully enjoying the aggressive clinching. He chatted to JT throughout the preliminary few minutes of the match, and motioned to the crowd to keep them entertained. 

After Torres landed a relentless single leg take down, Rocha wasted no time in leveraging his guard in attempt to find a submission, but JT’s pressure was just too much. Vagner went “full Rocha” from bottom, going palm to face and hand to throat to create space, frustration, any kind of opportunity– all things he is excellent at doing. But Torres remained too tight. 

In the midst of Rocha attempt to create scrambles, JT remained absolutely composed and steadfast. He met the violent strength of Rocha with classic, suffocating pressure passing, progressing his positions with purpose and precision. With about three minutes left and a lethal head and arm control in place JT was able to advance to half guard and eventually start attacking the back. Rocha was able to spin out at the last second to avoid the position, but JT Torres unanimously convinced the judges and won the F2W No-Gi Welterweight title, which makes him champ in both gi and no-gi.

If this is any indication of what to expect at the upcoming ADCC World Championships in September it’s safe to say that JT is looking just as dominant, if not more so, than when we won the title in 2017. Both JT and Vagner are in the -77kg division. Will we see a rematch there? we can only hope. 

WATCH: JT Torres vs Vagner Rocha

The co-main event was a rumble between two 210lb juggernauts also headed to ADCC: Tim Spriggs (Team Lloyd Irvin) and Aaron”Tex” Johnson (Ribeiro). Coming into the match Tex was coming off some of the most dominant performances of his career: winning ADCC trials by submitting all of his opponents. 

It was a 10-minute strategic battle with Tex exclusively playing seated guard. Spriggs was cautious and sporadically attempted dynamic passes but remained just out of range of Johnson’s control to avoid the dangerous leg locks. Tex wouldn’t wrestle up and couldn’t tie up any of Spriggs’ limbs, while Spriggs wouldn’t commit to any real pass attempts other than diving over the guard– this is something we’ve seen many times on the F2W stage when a good top player meets a leglock specialist. A last-minute Estima lock attempt gave Tim Spriggs the unanimous decision victory over Tex. 

WATCH: Tim Spriggs vs Aaron Johnson

Watch every match from Fight 2 Win 119 here