LONG BEACH, Calif. — Following his loss to Vitor Belfort at UFC on FX 8, Luke Rockhold needed to find a place to regain his focus. The spinning heel kick that Belfort landed will be remembered by many for a long time, but Rockhold isn’t one to sit and get down on himself about it.

Instead, the former Strikeforce middleweight champion decided to go back to a place where he found success in previous years. Rockhold put away his MMA shorts for a weekend and threw on a black gi with a brown belt.

The 2013 Jiu-Jitsu World Championships gave the UFC fighter a chance to find what he was looking for.

“I’ve been wanting to do it for a while,” Rockhold told GRACIEMAG.com when asked about competing at the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships. “Losing to Vitor gave me the motivation to at least try it out.”

In 2007, Rockhold said, the fighter was a blue belt looking to compete for a gold medal in the Mundials. A presence at the podium and a gold medal later, Rockhold was the best blue belt in the world for his weight class. The win at the 2007 World Championships earned him his purple belt, as well, the fighter said.

He went on to compete in no-gi later on and earned his brown belt, but shortly after that he decided to focus on MMA. The transition was one that proved beneficial, as Rockhold now sits among the top 10 in most 185-pound MMA rankings.

At the 2013 Worlds, the UFC middleweight looked to repeat the success he had at blue belt in 2007, trying for a gold medal in his weight division. Bigger and more experienced, the American Kickboxing Academy standout competed in the heavyweight brown belt bracket.

After an opening-round defeat of World Pro champ Kaue Damasceno, Rockhold moved on to the second round of the tournament. But after doing an illegal maneuver, the UFC competitor was disqualified and his run in the heavyweight brown belt division was over.

“I went for a heel hook, crossed the knee over and got disqualified,” he said, following the loss. “I just didn’t understand the point system. I should have won my match. I could have done a lot better.”

Like his loss to Belfort in the UFC, Rockhold said he won’t look back on this disqualification as something to mope about. He came out, competed, got a win and a little exercise to top it all off.

The point system isn’t for Rockhold, the fighter explained, and being down in the tally led him to try and finish with the heel hook. Not being familiar with the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s rules had him disqualified when going for that submission, but there were no regrets in the end.

“For me, I like to finish. I don’t like the point game,” Rockhold said. “I like to get in there … I want to go for the finish as much as I can. I tried and went for it … but I’m not going to get too down on myself for it.”

The fighter recently revealed that he turned down his black belt so he can compete one more time at brown belt. He felt a win at the Worlds would earn him that coveted black strap, but it didn’t end up that way.

The fighter shrugged off the loss as if to say “oh well.”

Now comes the time when Rockhold waits for his next UFC fight. With the Belfort loss in the rearview mirror and some focused gained from his time at the Mundials, Octagon wins are all the fighter sees over the horizon.

“I’m going to win,” he said of his inevitable sophomore effort in the Octagon. “I feel really good about the future.”

Vinicius Marinho turned the tide with Tererê, and won by 8-2. Photo: Gustavo Aragão

After being greeted by the good performance at Copa Podio, lightweight Vinicius Marinho, who placed third in the Lightweight Grand Prix overall, sat on the floor next to the reporter with legs crossed and eyes shining.

“The campaign was cool, but fighting Tererê was certainly the highlight. It was an indescribable emotion,” said the GFTeam athlete, remembering his performance in the duel of the event opening, which started to ensure the victory of GFTeam over Alliance in three matches that ended in a total score of 14-4.

“When I found myself face to face with him I even lost my focus, because I knew it was a magical moment. But then he swept me and I was forced to return to reality and fight. I swept back and it all worked out,” said Vinicius, who may fight in the middleweight division at Worlds in Long Beach.

Tererê’s reaction to the match was content.

“Fernando is coming back now, and an eventual victory would show a lot. He needs a nutritionist and a fitness coach to get back to his good shape,” said Elan Santiago, Alliance black belt and a childhood friend of the black belt. “Not to mention that the guy spent the last 20 days eating almost nothing, at most fruit, in order to lose weight. He was weak. He swept beautifully but then he couldn’t avoid having his X-guard swept the same way that Rodolfo swept Léo Leite in their duel.”

Help of Tatiana and Marcelo Garcia

Tererê entertained the crowd at Hebraica on Sunday. His presence was celebrated by the organizer, Jeferson Maycá, who already thinks about the Cantagalo star in an upcoming superfight at middleweight, Fernando’s category. But the black belt has other plans before that.

Last week, Fernando went to the U.S. consulate in Rio with as many documents as possible. “He even had a recommendation letter from the Pope,” joked Elan. Before the official, he heard that only one document was missing: The certificate of acquittal of a process from when he lived in the U.S., due to a confusion on board of an aircraft. “I don’t have it, I’ve lost it,” said Tererê.

The document must now be obtained in the U.S. In New York, Tatiana Tognini and Marcelo Garcia have put themselves at disposal and are helping the friend. If he gets his visa on time, Tererê will again be seen on the edge of the mats in Long Beach. Or on top of them, if he gets back to his weight, willing to compete again.

A double black belt world champion in 2000 and 2003, Fernando Tererê hasn’t fought in the event since 2004, when he got the silver medal in the ultra heavy against Fabricio Werdum.

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