Scrambling: Polaris 34

The Squads World Tournament Finals and two women's title matches close out the Polaris 2025 event calendar. And it looks great.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1 FROM POOLE LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE, UK
BROADCAST: UFC Fight Pass
STARTS: 3pm GMT

Polaris have done an amazing job at being consistently present in the jiu jitsu competition space, putting on events that are well produced, have good match making, and are making it spectator friendly. Which is why this is, again, the final major grappling event of the year for me.

With two title fights and the finals of the Squads World Tournament on the docket, Polaris 34 looks to end 2025 on a strong finish.

Main Event: Vacant No Gi Women’s Featherweight Championship - Helena Crevar vs Sula-Mae Loewenthal

The first meeting between Crevar and Loewenthal took place earlier this year at Polaris 32 during the Women’s Squads event, which again I should have covered but didn’t pay attention enough. During their bout Loewenthal secured a decision win in a short, high-intensity round. Loewenthal surprised Crevar by immediately leaping past her guard into mount, threatening multiple submissions and maintaining dominant control for most of the brief round. Crevar eventually escaped and began attacking the legs, but the round ended before she could fully capitalize. Which is important since nobody has been able to put Crevar in as bad of a position during a match other than Lowenthal, which is very much worth noting.

Crevar is widely recognized for her technical precision, positional control, and submission-oriented guard game. As a black belt under John Danaher she has developed a methodical style that blends strategic leg attacks with dominant front headlock sequences to great success. She has very quickly become a dominant name in women’s grappling.

Meanwhile, Loewenthal brings a contrasting style to the matchup, characterized by explosive transitions, aggressive positional play, and a high-pressure top game. Loewenthal has built her reputation on relentless pace and dynamic entries into dominant positions like mount and back control. Her win at the ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials in 2024 showcased her ability to perform under pressure and adapt to elite competition. Typically her approach often involves overwhelming opponents early, using fast guard passes and submission threats to control the tempo.

While I’m a fan of Loewenthal’s style, it’s hard not to pick Crevar to win. I want to be wrong though.

Co-Main Event: No Gi Women’s Bantamweight Championship - Ffion Davies (c) vs Margot Ciccarelli

Ffion Davies is one of the most aggressive guard passing, powerful top control, and well-rounded submission grapplers not only in the women’s divisions, but also in general. She became the first European woman to win ADCC gold in 2022 and has held the Polaris Flyweight title since its inception in 2019. This match also marks her final appearance for the promotion before transitioning to UFC BJJ. *sigh*

Davies and Ciccarelli have faced each other twice before in the gi, with Davies securing wins in each encounter. Since then, Ciccarelli has significantly evolved her approach and has shifted heavily into the no-gi rule set. Their most recent meeting was at the 2022 IBJJF Pan Championship, where Davies’ positional control proved decisive. While Davies has more no-gi experience, Ciccarelli made a strong impression earlier this year by winning five consecutive matches at the all-female Squads event, earning her this title shot.

Which is not surprising given Ciccarelli’s career. In the gi, she emphasizes lapel usage, berimbolo variations, crab rides, and leg drags. Her move to no-gi has also been quite fruitful with a win at the ADCC European Trials in 2024 capping off her achievements. I really like Ciccarelli as a competitor. She’s competitive and does not give up even if she’s on the back foot. Toughness is a great character quality, but it doesn’t always mean you’ll take home the “W”. Ffion keeps the belt, then bails for the UFC’s “illustrious” league. She’ll be out of there as soon as her contract ends after realizing what she is worth to them.

Squads World Tournament Finals - Team Europe vs Team Asia & Oceania

The first proper Squads World Tournament is coming to an end and we have found ourselves with two regions in the Grand Final that, most people, would argue are not the true hotbed of grappling. At least not consistently. Europe has always produced exciting talent, but their ceiling was never quite that high. The same can be said for Asia & Oceania. However, in the past handful of years that has started to shift and now we see both regions putting some amazing competitors in front of us, bucking the trend that grappling is a sport dominated by the Americas.

At the end of the night, only one team will be declared the best team in the world under the Squads format. And, hopefully, we’ll see another tournament next year and so on because this has been pretty fun to watch (and catch up on) so far.

Team Europe

I will continue to chastise myself for missing the first half of the Polaris Squads World Tournament. Earlier in the year, Team Europe faced off against Team North America in which the ever dangerous Mateusz Szczecinski was able to score several submission wins over the 90-minute team match, while Jozef Chen, Eoghan O’Flanagan, and Santeri Lilius scoring a handful of submissions and more consistently taking decision wins in their bouts. Despite strong resistance from North America, Team Europe’s depth of talent just easily overwhelmed their opponents and they took home a pretty strong 14-9 victory. Not bad for Eurotrash.

Owen Jones
A rising star in Europe, Jones has become known for his technical precision and creative guard work. He made headlines by winning the ADCC European Trials as a purple belt, showing he’s more than capable of competing at a high level. Jones has been seen training with groups like B-Team in the USA, and has also been featured on previous Polaris and AIGA events. These performances have helped cement his reputation as one of the most active and promising stars coming out of Europe.

Mateusz Szczecinski
The current Polaris welterweight champion is not a bad dude to have on your team. Hailing from Poland, Szczecinski has made a name for himself with devastating leglocks and a high submission rate, including standout showings at ADCC and Polaris. He has an aggressive style and ability to finish from pretty much most positions he can find himself in. Good shit.

Eoghan O’Flanagan
O’Flanagan gained a boat load of recognition with his breakout performance at the 2022 ADCC World Championships with wins over Alexandre Ribeiro and Mason Fowler en route to a fourth-place finish. Since then he hasn’t been as much of a focal point, but he has continued to compete at the highest level typically in the UK with Polaris.

Jozef Chen
We all know Jozef Chen by now. Widely regarded as one of the most technical young athletes in the sport, he has been consistently competing at a high level. At CJI 2 he Giancarlo Bodoni to a draw, which is pretty good to do against an ADCC medalist. We can sit here all day talking about Jozef, but I mean…it’s Jozef. He’s just good, even if he lost.

Taylor Pearman
Pearman was last seen at CJI 2 where he did a good job and even scored a submission victory over Giancarlo Bodoni (who claimed he never tapped even though we all saw it on air clear as day). Pearman also dominated the 2024 ADCC European Trials, submitting all six opponents in the under 88kg division, a feat that highlighted his aggressive and clinical finishing ability. Pearman has also competed successfully in events like Grapplefest and Polaris, where his relentless pace and submission hunting have earned him a loyal following. He is most assuredly a big threat for Team Europe to have in their roster.

Santeri Lilius
Lilius is a Finnish black belt with years of experience competing across Europe and internationally. A two-time ADCC European Trials winner, Lilius has built a reputation for his well-rounded game and calm, methodical approach to high-pressure matches. He also been present on prior Polaris cards, consistently putting on strong showings.

Team Asia & Oceania

The first half of Team Asia & Oceania vs Team South America was pretty good, if a bit lopsided in Team Asia & Oceania’s favor. By half time they were up 8-5 and I had pretty much convinced myself that the margin will stay that wide. Then, annoyingly, Team South America rallied in the second half and nearly took home the W but were just two points shy of reaching the finals. With a 15-14 victory, this puts Team Asia & Oceania at a bit of a disadvantage as comparatively speaking, Team Europe sailed on into the finals while the gang from the Eastern hemisphere had to desperately hang on to a lead they steadily shrank.

We all know who is on the team thanks to my Polaris 33 preview but let’s take a quick recap.

Lucas Kanard
Polaris 33 was pretty interesting given that, early on, Lucas appeared to have gotten a pretty bad cut on his eyebrow and then he just kind of kept competing and took out three Team South America members on his own, ultimately finishing the event 4-2. While he may be criticized for being a bit too keen to sit on bottom and enter the legs, it’s hard to deny that he isn’t more than capable of winning with that approach.

Mohammad Avtarhanov
Shortly before Polaris 33, Kit Dale was reported as injured and was replaced by the relatively unknown Mohammad Avtarhanov. Having most notably beaten Jacob “JayRod” Rodriguez at Polaris 29 in a controversial decision win, Avtarhanov has mostly flown under the radar until recently, mostly appearing in Polaris events. At Polaris 33 he did a solid job filling in for Dale and scored wins over Samuel Nagai and Jorge Gabriel, finishing the night 2-2.

Igor Tanabe
“Fat Ninja” had some great moments versus Team South America, including a very slick sequence taking him from guard to a John Wayne sweep to an armbar finish on Romao Carvalho. He went 2-2 for the night which was not as great as I would have assumed he could go, but scoring submission finishes helped keep Team Asia & Oceania up on the scoreboard. Which is kind of all that matters I guess. Still though, check out this finishing sequence.

Hejraat Rashid
Despite being a relative unknown, Rashid did not take long to show why he is someone worth keeping an eye on. While he ultimately only went 1-1 for the night, he also scored a submission win over Carvalho (rear-naked choke) helping put Team Asia and Oceania ahead with some much needed extra points gained via submission finishes. This however was also negated when he lost right after to an armbar put on him by Gabriel Sousa. Still though, fun guy to watch and definitely game.

Tommy Yip
At Polaris 33, it simply was not Yip’s night. Going 0-2, which hopefully he has been able to figure out how to avoid happening this time. Despite the poor performance, Yip is stilly a very talented and game competitor and he now has another chance to show that off. Hopefully.

Oliver Taza
Kenta is Kenta, and Kenta is good. Unfortunately, we do not get to have Kenta. Instead we have Taza, which works because of the alliteration. Taza is now Kenta. This is canon. Jokes aside, Oliver Taza is legit and a fantastic replacement for Kenta on the team. Putting the Western Asia (aka Middle East) in Team Asia & Oceania, Taza has been around and has consistently performed well. As a pro he has podiumed at ADCC US Trials, took second in the 170lb EBI Tournament in 2022, took silver at the IBJJF European Open (No-Gi), and also taken home a few IBJJF No-Gi championships recently. He’s also been pretty active in AIGA when it comes to team formats as well.

Given the format and the team rosters, this is a finals I am looking forward to. Team Asia & Oceania have some really technical grapplers who have competed at some of the highest levels in the sport. However, the same can be said for Team Europe who, arguably, have better individual performances in high level competition along with their experience in team formats. With that in mind I think Team Asia & Oceania may not have enough, so congrats, your 2025 Squads World Tournament Championship are Team Europe.