Fight Pass Invitational 77KG Tournament

The UFC recently announced that Georges St-Pierre will be competing for their grappling event, Fight Pass Invitational (FPI). This is incredible news for both submission grappling and MMA fans as it means more money is going into submission grappling, and professional fighters have additional ways to compete and make money when MMA might be out of the question.

For those unaware, FPI uses Eddie Bravo Invitational (EBI) rules with some modifications for special matches involving MMA fighters or high level wrestlers. EBI is a submission only event where if no one gets a submission in regulation the two competitors go to a submission shoot out to see who can score a submission or escape faster. The competitors alternate starting on their opponent’s back or with an arm bar and try to submit each other as quickly as possible, with one to three EBI overtime rounds, depending on the event.

FPI has received criticism for using a ruleset that encourages a relative lack of proactive offensive grappling. Generally speaking I think the rules generate fan friendly highlights so EBI rules are a net positive for me.

In the wake of St-Pierre’s news one question remains, who is he going to face? There have been a few names thrown around, Demian Maia, Khabib, Gilbert Burns, and others. I say, why limit his return to one match? The Fight Pass Invitational has been hosting tournaments, why not do the same for St-Pierre’s return?

Assembled below is a roster for what would be an awesome way to push the Fight Pass Invitational event over the edge. A one night, winner take all tournament at one of submission grappling’s best weight classes ever, 77KG. Here are the competitors we chose, why, and how this tournament would shake out.

The Athletes

Choices and Seeding

Before we get into the weeds on how we chose athletes and their seeds, let’s talk about the methodology for selecting athletes first.

We chose MMA fighters that could make the 77KG weight class and have more than one match at that weight class in a single day. That’s essentially 170 pounds for all my Americans out there. We’re taking fighters who primarily fought at lightweight and welterweight, but no grapplers that competed at 88KG. That means no Demian Maia. I know I know, but he and Chris Weidman can compete in the 88KG tournament.

We avoided selecting pure grapplers for this event. Who cares if Kade Ruotolo can heel hook everyone in less than three minutes? We want to see MMA fighters compete in grappling, not how long they can last against people that do submission grappling everyday.

We also looked for MMA fighters that have name value to attract new viewers to this event. There are unlimited D1 wrestlers and BJJ black belts floating around the regional level and Dana White’s Contender Series. We need athletes that will draw a crowd.

For seeding we looked at each MMA fighter’s grappling credentials, submission to win rate, and overall record before subjectively evaluating how their style, age, and physicality would lend itself to their success at this event.

Without further ado here are our competitors in order of seeding.

Our favorite for this event is Gilbert Burns. Burns is well credentialed in grappling events, having won golds at the IBJJF Worlds, No Gi Worlds, Abu Dhabi World Pro, and an ADCC bronze medal as well. He has 9 submission wins on his professional MMA record and has competed in professional grappling as recently as 2021.

Burns made his name in the IBJJF and it would be interesting to see how he changes his game for an EBI rules event.

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