Tijuca Tennis Club, the origins of sport Jiu-Jitsu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (GRACIEMAG.com archive photo)
At the time the first ever Jiu-Jitsu World Championship came around, in Rio de Janeiro in February 1996, GRACIEMAG was still a newspaper, the UFC was into its ninth installment, and you most likely were a white belt. And all of us were 17 years younger.
However, the big black belt stars were all there. Beasts like Fabio Gurgel, Murilo Bustamante, Amaury Bitetti, Saulo Ribeiro, Royler Gracie, Roberto Roleta, Wallid Ismail, Ricardo Libório, Roberto Gordo, Mario Sperry and other was all blazing the trail the sport would take.
Relive the experience through the following video of some of the techniques used at the 1996 Worlds, and comment: do you miss anything about those days?
