BJJ

Rodrigo Cabral A good friend of BJJ Heroes, Rodrigo Cabral “Brucutu” has moved toTexas, US recently where he has been coaching is awesome Jiu Jitsu (at John's Gym). We got together with theAllianceblack belt and asked him a few questions, not only about his recent move, but also about some current issues as gym affiliation and fighters switching camps.

The French Laurence Cousin Fouillat is regarded as the first European female black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. An incredibly accomplished grappler Laurence was also the 2nd non Brazilian to win a gold medal at the world Jiu Jitsu championship in the black belt division.

One of the men responsible for GFTeam’s success, Huanderson Pavão is one of those guys that is not mentioned often enough in the sport. A top level grappler with a vicious no-gi game and one of the top coaches out there, BJJ Heroes was lucky enough to drag him out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his past enterprises in the USA, his future and the release of his new website

James Puopolo is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Rafael Lovato Junior who became one of the most highly regarded American submission grapplers in the BJJ circuit having won several important tournaments at a national and international level.

Roberto “Toshi”, is the son of the late Master Adilson de Souza, he is also one of the top competitors in the Jiu Jitsu lightweight division. Having been a BJJ black belt since May 2011, Roberto Satoshi has already beaten some of the division's top athletes, such as Michael Langhi and JT Torres havin won important tournaments including the Mundial, the European Open, the Asian Open and many others.

A professional MMA fighter, Jiu Jitsu black belt and Capoeira Master, Delson Heleno, also known as Pe de Chumbo is part of the elite grapplers of the world, having been a former Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World and Pan American champion at the black belt level. He is a student of Adilson Lima from the city of Teresopolis.

Rigan Machado is a legendary BJJ figure and one of the most feared Jiu Jitsu competitors of the 1980's. Rigan was the first black belt of Carlos Gracie Junior and the founder of Machado Jiu Jitsu, one of the most prosperous grappling academies in the USA.

Jair Lourenço is one of the top Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & MMA coaches in the world, having brought to the limelight a legion of incredible fighters such Renan Barão, Michele Tavares, Jussier “Formiga”, Marcelo “Caneta”, Ronny Markes, Claudia Gadelha, Gleison Tibau to name a few, helping to put the northeast region of Brazil on the BJJ map.

Marina Ribeiro is a top Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor from the Checkmat Team out ofRio de Janeiro,Brazil. A proof of just how talentedMarinais was her meteoric rise to black belt, which took her only 4 years, training under the legendary and former BJJ World Champion, Ricardo Vieira.

Another edition of the European Jiu Jitsu Championships, opening the Jiu Jitsu season for the year of 2012. Many were looking forward for a few new duels that were in the making as fighters such as Roberto Satoshi, Alexander Trans, Ida Hansson and a few others had a chance to test their newly received black [...]

Leandro Martins, mostly known as “Leu” is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and one of the most highly regarded super featherweights in the sport having defeated big names such as UFC champion Jose Aldo. A former member of the famed “TT” team, Martins is also recognized as the cousin of the legendary Fernando “Terere”, the man who awarded him his black belt.

Marcus Norat is a former Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt World Champion (2002) and a representative of the illustrious Gracie Humaita in the early 2000’s. The man from Belem do Pará, Brazil also became the founder of Norfight, a successful academy in the region, while serving several mandates as the president of Parana’s Jiu Jitsu Federation.

Ralph Gracie is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Carlos Gracie Junior (his cousin) and the brother of Renzo Gracie, he was an accomplished Vale Tudo, MMA and Jiu Jitsi fighter in the 1980s & 1990s later becoming also a successful coach from his academy in San Francisco, CA.

Renan Barão is a professional MMA fighter with a Jiu Jitsu background having become the 100th black belt awarded by the Andre Pederneiras in 2011. Originally fighting out of the Kimura/Nova Uniao camp in his naive town of Natal (RN), Barao also trains regularly at Rio de Janeiro with the main Nova Uniao team, sharing the mats with Jose Aldo, Marlon Sandro and many others.

Mark Ramos is an accomplished American fighter who holds a black belt in Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Master Edson Carvalho. Born and raised in New Jersey, Ramos became a very successful competitor earning his black belt in an astonishing 5 and ½ years.

James Harbison (often called “Jim” or “Jimmy” Harbison) is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Master Lloyd Irvin who gained notoriety in the grappling circuit after he won the 3 major tournaments in the IBJJF circuit in the brown belt division (European Open, Pan American & Mundial) in 2011. Since achieving such an impressive landmark, Harbison has been awarded his black belt and is an avid presence in the main Jiu Jitsu tournaments.

Marcelo Garcia winning his weight division at the 2007 ADCCs. Photo credit European Fight Network

Marcelo Garcia is perhaps the most successful middleweight grappler in the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The ever-smiling Alliance competitor has won the gold medal at the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship five times, at the ADCC Submission Grappling World Championship four times, and the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship three times.

Garcia comes from a sleepy town in the province of Minas Gerais called Formiga, which means “ant” in English and has a population of less than 75,000 people. Remote and without much jiu-jitsu, Garcia headed for the city on a quest to learn more BJJ and found that upon arrival the differences in his accent and those of cariocas in Rio made it difficult to communicate! Later his path brought him to Sao Paulo where he came under the tutelage of Alliance leader Fabio Gurgel, who would later promote Garcia to black belt.

Marcelo Garcia teaching a no gi armlock technique with assistant instructor Antonio Batista. Click to enlarge.

Several years and many gold medals later, Marcelo runs a successful Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in a radically different environment than Formiga: New York City. Just blocks from bustling Times Square and a quick elevator ride up six floors, newcomers to the academy are prone to spontaneous approach from Marcelo’s students who are quick to express that they feel lucky to train under the unassuming middleweight from a remote corner of Brazil. Those who are not nearby to his academy in the city are able to learn jiu-jitsu online via Garcia’s virtual BJJ school, MGinAction.com.

Join us this week as The FightWorks Podcast sits down with Garcia one-on-one in person at his school in Manhattan for a conversation about how the humble star began jiu-jitsu, details of his journey in the martial art, and his current plans.

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New York City’s Times Square, just a few blocks from Marcelo Garcia’s academy.

Take Our Poll

At the end of 2008 we asked what your New Years Resolution for BJJ was going in to 2009. Cohost Dan and I were thinking of the new year we have in front of us in 2012 and wondered what types of things might prevent a jiu-jitsu person from achieving their goals for the year we now have ahead of us.

There are probably many things that could come between you and the BJJ glory you have cooked up in your head (a gold medal at the Mundials, maybe?), but Dan and I decided the five options in this poll would cover many common problems that we face. So which of the options above do you see as the biggest issue for you and your BJJ this year?

Let us know by voting in the poll, and in the comments section for this post, let us know what you plan to do to overcome the obstacle you voted for!

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu phenom, Samuel Braga, was awarded his black belt by Master Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes in 5 years after consecutive wins at the lower belt levels of the main tournaments in the world. Originally from the Gracie Barra Belo Horizonte team, Samuel Braga moved to theUnited Statesopening a Gracie Barra franchise gym in Knoxville, TN.

Roger Gracie, perhaps the most consistent BJJ athlete in submitting his opponents, prepares to finish Tarsis Humphries at the 2010 BJJ World Championships.

Later this month, Rose Gracie (daughter of Rorion Gracie and wife of Javi Vazquez) will hold the Gracie Nationals BJJ and No Gi Tournament in Los Angeles. Rose has been holding this event since 2008 as part of the LA Fitness Expo and has made some noteworthy changes to the way things are run this time around:

• Some athletes will be randomly selected for testing to detect performance enhancing drugs.
• The competition (gi and no-gi) will be a submission only tournament. No points will be awarded. You can only advance in the event if you submit your opponent.

Rose has some very strong feelings about the state of Brazilian jiu-jitsu today, and believes that the steps above are necessary to return jiu-jitsu to her grandfather Helio Gracie’s original ideas. We’ll speak with Rose on these ideas in our first interview in our show today. (Related: see her cousin Kron Gracie’s performance at the inaugural 2008 Gracie Nationals, where he submits four opponents!)

On a similar note Alliance Jiu-Jitsu, who last year became the first BJJ organization to win all four major IBJJF events (the World Championship, the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, the European Championship, and the Brazilian National Championship), will be holding a series of submission only jiu-jitsu events at their United States headquarters in Atlanta. We will speak with Alliance leader Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti about what made them decide to use the submission only format.

Happy new year! May 2012 be the best year of your Brazilian jiu-jitsu yet!

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