01.08.2007 The month of the Worlds 1999 World Championship at the Tijuca. Can Long Beach, CA, repeat the magic? |
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The heat is on for Jiu-Jitsu's greatest competition
As more than one year has gone by since the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, during the final weekend of July 2006, that incredible fight between Roger Gracie and Xande Ribeiro that decided the absolute championship in favor of the latter is starting to become hazy.
Well it’s just that, to revive our memory, the two could face each other again when for the first time in history the Worlds leaves Brazil. Between the 23rd and 26th of this month, the most important competition in Jiu-Jitsu will take place at California State University Long Beach.
While Roger continues his tradition of preparing in London, where he teaches, and going to Gracie Barra (except this time to the one in Lake Forest, Southern California) 15 days before to fine tune his training, Xande left San Diego for Oklahoma, with the aim of training with his teammate Rafael Lovato, cover of July issue of Gracie Magazine.
Beasts like the current ADCC under-87kg champion, Demian Maia, current Pan-Amercian champion, Rômulo Barral, and the always-phenomenal Marcelo Garcia, Lovato himself, and a dozen other standouts could impede Roger vs Xande, and change the direction of the championship. But, whatever happens, the public will lose nothing if something unexpected were to occur.
The greatest hope for this 12th edition of the championship is that the International Federation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (IBJJF) will manage to, with the change of scenery, maintain of the celebrated championship’s magic. The chosen stage, the eye-catching pyramid of Long Beach, carries reminders of its time as the venue of ADCC 2005, helps.
This will be the closest World Championship in relation to the division of athletes by country, since Brazil, notably the strongest force in the modality, will not enter with the greatest number of athletes. That is what analysis of the sign-up report up till the end of July indicates (see report below).
Service: the competition is open. Those that have not signed up yet may do so online, through the IBJJF site (http://www.ibjjf.org/mundial2007registration.htm).
Table: Report on competitors per country, of the 644 athletes to sign up by August 3rd:
US 466
Brazil 59
Japan 59
Canada 11
United Kingdom 10
Norway 5
Italy 4
Finland 5
Switzerland 3
Australia 3
Dominican Republic 3
France 2
Sweden 4
Ecuador 1
South Korea 1
Serbia 1
Peru 1
Poland 1
Portugal 1
Jamaica 1
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