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Preview: Kasai Pro 5 to feature Craig Jones, Felipe Pena in 8-Man Tournament

Rachel Dows

Kasai Pro 5 takes place Saturday, April 6, 2019 at the Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom. This event will feature a stacked 205lb tournament as well as several superfights.

The eight man 205lb tournament will determine Kasai’s inaugural World Light Heavyweight Champion. Craig Jones is an early favorite, having recent wins at Polaris 8, GrappleFest 4, and Grappling Industries (check out his win over Tim Spriggs here). However, he will face stiff competition. Felipe Pena has an extensive grappling history with 122 wins and just 16 losses. Almost half of his wins have come via submission. Kaynan Duarte has been perhaps the most active of the members of the tournament, racking up wins in 2019 like child’s play, with just one loss to Lucas Lepri.

Mayssa Bastos, a 21-year-old black belt under Julio Cesar Pereira and Jair Court, will face Fiona Watson on the main card. Bastos has an extensive list of accomplishments, including seven World No-Gi Championships, six Pan Am No-Gi Championships, seven Brazilian No-Gi Championships, an EBI Female Strawweight Championship, five World Gi Championships, seven Pan Am Gi Championships, seven European Gi Championships, and ten Brazilian Gi Championships.

Fiona Watson will challenge Bastos. She is a 29-year-old black belt and owner of Notorious MMA. Her list of accolades is a bit shorter, including a Fight 2 Win superfight championship and medals at IBJJF No-Gi and Gi Worlds, Pan Ams, as well as NY, Boston, Miami, and Vegas Opens.

Full fight card below:

205lb Tournament:

Felipe Pena (Gracie Barra)

Craig Jones (Absolute MMA)

Kaynan Duarte (Athos JJ)

Tex Johnson (Unity JJ)

Jackson Sousa (Checkmat)

Jon “Thor” Blank

Rustam Chsiev

Pedro Marinho (Gracie Barra)

Superfights:

Mayssa Bastos v. Fiona Watson

Dante Leon v. Edwin Najmi

Marcos Tinoco v. Romulo Barral

Undercard:

Steven Ramos v. Albruce Touaev

Chelsea Mapa v. Cristina Pinto

Laura Griffith v. Nathalia Santoro

Alex Nemeth v. Justin Primrose

Sean Yadimarco v. Mathaus Anderson

Jonathan Potts v. Konstantino Chioutakos

Nick Fiore v. Freddy Martinez

Rey De Leon v. Tony Bergamo

Athos Miranda v. Pierre Olivier-Leclerc

Vinicius Ferreira v. Sergio Vilas

Matteo Martinez v. Stanley Rosa

Carlos Rosado v. Kurt Chase-Patrick

Rachel Dows

Rachel is a 20-something year old writer and martial arts enthusiast. She works at a desk job all day to afford to be able to spend the majority of her free time at the gym, where she is a blue belt in BJJ. She also sometimes goes outside to run, hike, and enjoy living in small town USA.

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