Master Julio Cesar beside Marcus Bello and Alexandre Baraúna, who will also be fighting.
The next installment of the traditional Master International IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship — South America will be held on July 28 and 29 at Arena Carioca 1 in Rio de Janeiro. Lots of veterans will be present, but one name in particular caught our attention.
A BJJ coral-belt and founder of GFTeam, Julio Cesar Pereira is the only master signed up so far. His name is among those enrolled in the black belt, master 5 group, and our team reached out to Julio for comment.
“I’m arriving in Brazil on Thursday,” he warned. “I’m fighting indeed. I came to the U.S. to teach BJJ, and with the training rhythm here, also with the incentive from my students, I decided to fight in the Master International and in August in the World Master.”
Julio’s last tournament was in 2016, when he fought as a black-belt, months before getting his coral belt. The situation is atypical — few BJJ masters have ever taken part in regular tournaments with the seventh degree around their waist. Julio joked about it. “Technically I can fight. I will, indeed, fight with the coral belt. Who knows — it might bring me luck.”
Among the other big names on the sign-up list, one can find Thales Leites, Carlos Holanda, Helvécio Penna and Isaque Paiva. To see the full list for yourself, click here.
