LAS VEGAS – Gracie, Werdum, Galvão … Erlam?
Canmore black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Travis Erlam, was rubbing shoulders with, or more specifically, trading submissions with some of the best grapplers on the planet at a major submission fighting competition in Las Vegas last weekend (Aug. 17-18).
The Dark Horse Martial Arts owner and coach held his own at his first ADCC Open, a feeder circuit to the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship, which is like the Olympics of jiu-jitsu.
but despite it being a grappling event, it almost turned into a mixed martial arts bout pretty quickly.
In his match against France’s Tyrone Gonsalves, which Erlam had been winning on points, the French fighter attempted a submission but the Canmore grappler slammed him – a legal move – before later being submitted by a rear naked choke.
In a disrespectful moment, Gonsalves gave Erlam a hard shove after the tap.
“It was crazy, like, I came out of it and people were like, ‘man, you should have just thrown hands because then you at least would have went viral,’” Erlam said with a laugh.
Erlam added that the ref almost disqualified the French grappler, but the Dark Horse coach acknowledged Gonsalves beat him “fair and square.”
“It just kind of looks like poor sportsmanship … there’s a lot of guys going hard and maybe it was me wearing my tie-dye shirts and goofy shorts that they didn’t enjoy, but I had a lot of fun and I think my style worked really well against them.”
Though that’s been Erlam’s approach to fighting competition: calm, cool, and keeping it fun and entertaining.
Erlam had been up two points on Gonsalves, but instead of riding out a timed decision, he elected to live – and die by – one of Dark Horse’s mantras of saying “no to boring jiu-jitsu.”
“I wanted to go after the submission and he caught me in a transition and then he caught me in a counter-submission,” said Erlam. “I probably should have played it safe, but you know, it’s just not my style.”
At the ADCC Open, rounds are six minutes with a three minute overtime if it’s a draw. A grappler can win a bout by submitting their opponent or by scoring points, such as passing guard and getting a back mount with hooks.
The coveted event had combat world stars such as controversial UFC champion Jon Jones in attendance, checking out the submission fighting matchups.
“It definitely feels next level,” said Erlam, “but I think in, like, the last two years, the Alberta scene has started flourishing … [The ADCC] definitely hasn’t seen the last of me. I’m doing this one again; I feel like I was able to hang with the people that I was against.”
Erlam has fought in amateur mixed martial arts and combat jiu-jitsu, but his biggest passion is jiu-jitsu. Competing in the men’s under-91 kilograms (200 lbs.) and absolute (open weight) categories, Erlam went 1-2 in Las Vegas – with a sprinkle of controversy mixed in.
In his other U-91 kg bout, Erlam tapped USA’s Danielson Garcia with a straight leg ankle, one of the Dark Horse grappler’s favourite submissions.
“He was doing very well up until he dropped down for one of my legs and I was like ‘Here we go, this is good,’” said Erlam.
“I was able to actually grab an ankle lock and I just cranked it.”
In the absolute, Erlam was giving up 30 lbs. to USA’s Charlie Glipin and lost by leg lock.
Coming from a small mountain town, Erlam said he’d like to stand out from those coming from bigger city clubs – an underdog breaking the norm of where a high level of jiu-jitsu can be practiced.
“That’s Dark horse, baby. That’s where the name comes from,” he said. “Kind of my goal is to put on entertaining matches and get the wins that way. They definitely haven't seen the last of me.”
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