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Thomas Lisboa as a brown belt in Long Beach Open 2012. / Photo: John Cooper

Newly graduated to black belt, featherweight Thomas Lisboa is another beginner who wants to make noise in Irvine, Calif. during the 2013 IBJJF Pan American Championship.

The Alliance athlete is confident, mainly because of having the luxury help of one of the biggest stars of the gentle art, middleweight Marcelo Garcia.

“Pan is the second most important tournament of the Jiu-Jitsu season, and I’m in New York training with Marcelo Garcia,” said Lisboa. “I feel prepared, and every day I learn something new. I train twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. I left a bit of the physical preparation aside to experience the training philosophy of Marcelinho: put all energy into training Jiu-Jitsu. I’m training with and without the gi from Monday to Friday.”

(See his promising style below.)

“My Jiu-Jitsu is what I learned from my professor Gurgel and my friends from the gym. I try to be complete, playing bottom and on top. I’m trying to improve my base, my guard passes, but the defects show up even where we feel comfortable,” he explained.

“That’s the fun of Jiu-Jitsu. The important thing is to have an open mind to learn and correct. For example, my brother is a purple belt and he always shows me something new. I think it’s like that. But as a black belt if you make a mistake you’re done. It is my goal in this Pan: fight forward without missing. It will be an honor to fight with many big names: Laercio, Gui Mendes, Gabriel Wilcox,” he concluded.

See the draws of Pan 2013 by clicking here.