150 athletes from both sides of the border met for a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds.
If Brazilian jiu-jitsu was a religion, then Orlando Valenzuela could best be called an evangelist, with eyes set on pitching his revival tent in Lynden.
The Oregon native spearheaded the second Roll A Lot jiu-jitsu tournament in Lynden on March 8, where the first event was held last year. It’s a cross-border competition, with competitors coming from along the American West Coast and across Canada.
“I had never been here in my life,” Valenzuela said. “It was during the ‘snowpocalypse’ of 2024. (The venue) thought we were going to have to cancel, you know, but we showed up and we plowed the parking lot. The city treated us so well, the reception that we received, I was ready to come back right then and there.”
As American-Canadian tensions rise due to irredentist rhetoric and a looming trade war from the Trump Administration, some 150 athletes from both sides of the border traveled to Lynden in the spirit of competition. The group was split roughly in half between Team USA and Team Canada, from as young as 4 to as old as 47.
Lynden’s Mauro Oliveira, head of Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu of Lynden — which opened in 2022 — was integral to the event’s success. He invited Valenzuela to make Lynden the founding city of the Roll A Lot tournament.
“When you’re starting a new tournament, that support is so integral; you need someone to back you up,” Valenzuela said. “You need somebody that’s going to say, ‘We’re going to put students in that tournament.’ Mauro was that guy for us, really went above and beyond.”
The competitors
Students from Renzo Gracie Lynden competed in the tournament as did practitioners from as far south as Northern California and as far north as Alberta. One such student, Nick Sturlaugson, is by day a K9 officer for the Bellingham Police Department.
“I’ve only been coming here for around six months,” he said. “I did a long time ago when I was young, and kind of fell out of it, but I have two younger kids, and they take classes from Professor Mauro. Just watching them do class, I missed it and wanted to get back into it.”
Parents following their children into jiu-jitsu is not uncommon. The same happened to the family of 13-year-old Michael Loza, another local competitor.
“I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu since I was 9,” he said. “My first competition was (at about) 10. My entire family followed me into it. I did it first, and when we moved up here, they all started doing it.”
Lucas Abitia, a 13-year-old competitor from Puyallup, is no stranger to these sorts of outings.
“I compete pretty often, like almost monthly, maybe once or twice a month … around like seven years now,” said Abitia. He won both of his matches Saturday by submission.
“The first time that I saw (jiu-jitsu), I was just curious about what’s going on, and the more and more I trained, and more and more I enjoyed and started to understand it,” said 12-year old True Tionquiao of Hillsboro, Oregon. He attended the competition with his father, Vernon, also a practitioner.
The star of the show, in Valenzuela’s estimation, was 36-year-old Micah Brakefield of Toronto, Ontario, a veteran practitioner with a respectable competition history in jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts and submission grappling.
“I wrestled through university and got into jiu-jitsu right before my third (mixed martial arts) fight. Some guys from one of the local gyms asked if I would teach wrestling at the gym, and they’d teach me jiu-jitsu,” Brakefield said.
USA versus Canada
Valenzuela speculated the Canadians were more technical practitioners, owing to a better-entrenched culture of Brazilian jiu-jitsu there compared to the U.S.
“Their game’s more complete,” he said.
Brakefield was skeptical, noting that said jiu-jitsu scene is largely concentrated on the West Coast and in the Vancouver, B.C. area, where he himself trained.
“Ultimately, all the lineages, U.S. or Canada, it all goes back to Brazil. It’s the same source,” Brakefield said.
In the end, U.S. took the most wins, with a final score of nine wins via submission, or decision, compared to Canada’s seven.
If American-Canadian tensions, which manifested at the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament in February, affected the atmosphere of the tournament, Brakefield didn’t notice.
“I got dual citizenship, actually. I always lived in Canada, but in the summer I’d go to my uncle’s cabin in Montana. That’s definitely changed over the years. I remember growing up, it was cool to not like the States for a while, so I always felt very American, and then it turned into people really liking the States, and then I’d be defending Canada. I always kind of just take the contrarian point of view,” he said.
Compared to hockey, jiu-jitsu is more of an individualist sport, Brakefield said.
“I don’t know how much there will be a camaraderie between the teams,” he said. “A lot of those American guys are probably grappling each other next weekend at some other event, and same with the Canadians.”
In jiu-jitsu, competitors don’t rely on teammates, Valenzuela said.
“When there is any bad blood, you normally take care of any issue on the mats,” he said. “If you feel patriotic, you feel you want to display the best of your talent and represent your country, it’s on you. So when you take a win, it’s amazing, but when you take a loss, you also have to accept it just as much as a W, and I think jiu-jitsu- kind of helps people with that. It’s a humbling sport.”
That doesn’t mean the Saturday tournament was tension-free.
“The level of competitiveness is definitely going to be on another level, more than other tournaments,” said Valenzuela. “Everyone’s going to want to really leave everything on the mat and not want to hold back.”
To him, though, that’s all a part of the game
“If you’ve ever put out, put yourself out there and roll a lot … whether you win or lose,” he said, “you want to come back and defend your belt or another chance to win a belt; you’re more than welcome.”
— Story and photos by Troy Schulz
Also read in Salish Current:
• “FIFA’s green promise for Cascadia extends beyond the soccer pitch,” Oct. 22, 2024
• “Breaking the mold: Pacific Northwest women in combat sports,” July 25, 2024