31.05.2008 Gurgel: ‘Alliance is here to win’After conquering the Pan-Ams, team wants to defeat Gracie Barra in Long Beach
On his way to the airport in Brazil, Fabio Gurgel is nothing but confidence. After the 1st place at the 2008 Pan-Ams, Alliance has gathered all its power to dethrone Gracie Barra (2007 champion) also at the 2008 Worlds. “It has been a long time since we were able to enter a championship with the team complete. I estimate we are going to have almost 90 athletes,” says the General, with pride. Gurgel took the opportunity to list the team’s favorites for gold medals: “In the black belt, we will have Tarsis Humphreys, Rubens Charles, Lucas Lepri and Michael Langhi, American Bill Cooper and Gabriel Vella.”
Part of Alliance black belts
The Worlds preparation, as well as it was for the Pan-Ams, is going to be done in Atlanta, Georgia, the Team’s headquarters run by GMA member Romero ‘Jacare’ Cavalcanti. Says Gurgel: “I am traveling with 20 athletes and the rest is going directly to Los Angeles. We have no last minute trouble this time. No injury, money or visa problem. We even have a new sponsor. So we are going to Long Beach to win the championship.”
The presence of so many Brazilian athletes at the Worlds is a clear sign of success of the event’s new location: “There was a doubt regarding the difficult for non-Americans traveling to the USA. That is past now. The Pan-Ams had over 2000 athletes. The Jiu-Jitsu boom among Americans is a reality now,” analyzes Gurgel.
Alliance wants to repeat this scene at the Worlds
Well prepared, Alliance knows who are going to be its biggest adversaries at the Worlds: “There are a lot of teams with good athletes, but I think the team's dispute will be restricted to Alliance, Gracie Barra and Brasa.” Gurgel also spoke about the individual disputes: “I think all categories will be tough. Only at Roger Gracie’s category I think he has an edge over the others.” He also commented the absolute category: “Here it is difficult. Roger is the favorite, but we have seen him losing a couple of times.”
As a closure to his analysis, the four-time world champion talked about Jiu-Jitsu biggest news recently. The son of Rickson Gracie getting the black belt: “Kron arrives at the black belt in an excellent moment. He had an amazing end of brown belt, as we all saw at the Pan-Ams. He has a style very similar to Rickson’s – very aggressive and defined. Nevertheless, he will have trouble at the middleweight at the Worlds.”
Training in Atlanta
Check out the coverage of the 2008 Worlds at GRACIEMAG.com and then run to get your issue ogf GRACIEMAG with the complete account of the event. The 2008 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship takes place on June 5th-8th, in Long Beach, California.
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