There is only one spot left on both Team UK & Ireland and Team USA as the former had their under 75kg lineup completed with the previous announcement, and the latter has had their under 95kg lineup completed now.
Kieran Davern will be the third Irishman to compete for Team UK & Ireland, and the fifth person to return from the team that was victorious at the first Polaris Squads event. Davern is an ex-professional MMA fighter and BJJ black belt competing out of SBG Tullamore. He works from butterfly guard very well and makes liberal use of the shoulder-crunch position to sweep his opponents, switching to becoming a heavy pressure-passer the moment he gets on top. He put in good work at the first event in matches against Tarik Hopstock and Marcin Held, demonstrating that he’s also able to get into firefights with veteran leglockers and emerge completely unscathed.
On Team USA, Jon ‘Thor’ Blank will be joining his fellow 10th Planet teammates PJ Barch and Richie ‘Boogieman’ Martinez. He also continues the trend of ADCC competitors taking part, as he received an invite after losing a decision to Josh Hinger in the semi-finals of the West Coast trials and leaving with a bronze medal. He then fell just a hair short of podium position in the world championships 88kg bracket when he dropped another decision to Josh Hinger in the third-place playoff. Blank is a stellar leglocker who’s already registered heelhook victories over some phenomenal grapplers like Adam Wardzinski and Manuel Ribamar so he’ll no doubt be looking to put those skills to work against Team UK & Ireland.
