The third edition of the Polaris Jiu-Jitsu Invitational is ready to go this Saturday, in Poole, England.

This Friday, April 1, all athletes on the card faced the scale and made weight for their matches.

The event kicks off at 4PM (London time) with the undercard and then the main card at 6:30PM.

If you are on the USA, the start times are: undercard (11AM/8AM ET/PT), main card (1:30PM/10:30AM ET/PT).

Here is the complete card for Polaris 3.

PRELIMINARY CARD
4:00PM GMT (UK TIME)
Free Stream
10 Minutes – Submission Only

Alain Pozo vs. Micah Atkinson (NO GI)
Vinicius de Castrovs. Greg Creel (GI)
Keith McKenzie vs. Jeff Lawson (GI)
Adam Adshead vs. Phil Harris (NO GI)
Travis Newaza vs. Ben Dyson (NO GI)

MAIN CARD
Pay Per View
6:30PM (UK TIME)
15 Minutes – Submission Only

Joao Miyao vs. Yukinori Sasa (GI)
Geo Martinez vs. Dan Covel (NO GI)
Darragh O Conaill vs. Jon Satava (GI)
Gezary Matuda vs. Laurence Fouillat (GI)
Bruno Frazatto vs. Gianni Grippo (GI)
Augusto Tanquinho vs. Eddie Cummings (NO GI)
AJ Agazarm vs. Jake Shields (NO GI)
Rousimar Palhares vs. Garry Tonon (NO GI)

You can watch the preliminary card here.

You can buy the PPV for the main card here.

We land in London, England, where we meet 10X world champion Roger Gracie.

He teaches a guard pass using the leg drag.

Pay close attention to the details and add it to your top game.

London Calling! 

The registration periods for the Miami International Open and the London International Open (Gi and No-Gi) close on October 9.

Don’t miss out on the chance of competing at two of the most prestigious events in the IBJJF calendar.

The Miami International Open is scheduled Oct. 17, at the Miami Dade College – Kendall Campus.

The London International Open takes place on Oct. 17-18, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Click here for more info and to register for Miami.

Click here for more info and to register for London.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH LIVE

The prelims at the Toukon Challenge start at 1:00PM/10:00AM (ET/PT), this Sunday.

Watch here all the action.

The event will feature many attractions for a day of Jiu-Jitsu at the Clapham Grand, in London, starting at 6:00PM local time (1PM/10AM ET/PT).

The main card carries big names such as Lucio “Lagarto” Rodrigues, Felipe “Gargamel” Mota, Luke Costello, Daragh O’Conaill and many more.

The program also features a Brown belt GP, Teams Challenge and a Country Challenge with Kywan Gracie.

In the prelims, eight big talents of the competition circuit will clash and you will be able to watch it live and for free right here at GRACIEMAG.com.

See the prelim card in the image.

For the rest of the event, you can purchase the PPV and enjoy the thrills.

Click here for more info.

For the PPV, click here.

The 2014 No-Gi British Open is here. GMA member Braulio Estima brings another edition set for Sept. 21 in Birmingham, UK, the event boasts an athlete list full of varied teams and competitors.

You can register for male, female, juvenile, adult divisions.

The venue for the event is the Cocks Moor Wood Leisure Centre: Alcester Road South, Kings Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands B14 6ER.

Registration closes on Saturday, Sept. 13 so hurry and register here: https://www.strongvon.com/BNOGI14/m_tournament_main.jsp?page=m_tournament_registration1.jsp

Learn more information about the event here: http://nogibritishopen.com/

Kev Capel earns first degree from Roger Gracie. Photo: Personal archive

Kev Capel of GMA Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire is celebrating his third year as a black belt. As a customary mark, the head instructor received a degree on his belt from Roger Gracie.

Congratulations to Kev and the RGA Bucks.

Learn more about RGA Buckinghamshire at www.rgaa.co.uk

Members of Choke Academy of Copenhagen, Denmark at the IBJJF London Open. Photo: Joao Pedro Santos

Rube Thorbek in his one of his no-gi matches at the IBJJF London Open. Photo: Joao Pedro Santos

Mark Munuz (pictured) and Michael Bisping have reportedly told each other “Let’s do this, bro.” and will fight in October. Photo via Getty Images.

A battle will commence on British soil.

That’s what MMAjunkie.com is reporting, anyway. Michael Bisping and Mark Munoz have verbally agreed to fight each other at an unnamed UFC event tentatively scheduled for Oct. 26 in Manchester, England.

The fight, according to Junkie’s sources, will be a five-round main event and broadcast in the U.S. on the new Fox Sports 1 platform, which is scheduled to launch on Aug. 17.

Munoz (13-3) recently told The Choke MMA Show that a fight with either Bisping or Vitor Belfort would make the most sense following his drubbing of Tim Boetsch at UFC 162. It now appears the British fighter is on board.

Bisping (24-5) is coming off a win at UFC 159, wherein he won a technical decision over Alan Belcher. The fight got him back on the winning track after suffering a devastating headkick knockout to Belfort in January.

Stay tuned to GRACIEMAG.com for more information as it becomes available.

[highlight]Last chance: Get a FREE Vulkan Pro Light Gi with a 24 month subscription of GRACIEMAG for only $177 Click here and get yours now. Offer ends Friday, July 16. Use Promo Code GMVULKAN during the checkout.

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Oliver Geddes in Kuwait. Photo: Personal Archive

Oliver Geddes is a black belt under Roger Gracie from England most known for his ability to get around and compete. A numbers guy, he keeps track of all his wins and losses, amount of matches he’s ever competed in and most importantly his budget. Living at the London Roger Gracie Academy at one point, he values experiences over things and manages to gain enough money and network among the Jiu-Jitsu community to take trips around the world for Jiu-Jitsu purposes.

There are huge lessons learned that came with Oli’s journeys and lucky for you he can spare you the money, time and efforts (most), maybe awkward moments as well, so that you have a guide to traveling for competitions.

Here is how the traveling nomad plans and executes his trips, near and far:

The competition is the priority. “The number one mistake people make when traveling to competitions is treating it like a holiday. If that’s what you want, fine. But a lot of people complain about the cost of competitions when they are traveling with family or partners, staying in proper hotels, traveling at convenient times, and so on and so forth. The first thing to take into account when traveling for a competition is that the competition is the priority. Comfort and sightseeing has to take a back seat if you want to do this on the cheap.”

Be conscious of how you spend your money. “Don’t stay in hotels, stay in hostels. Fly at awkward hours. Take coaches or buses, not trains. Research the route beforehand, because making spur of the moment decisions is nearly always more expensive. If you can referee, and are qualified, then take that into account. For a multiple day competition, that can really mess with your performance, but for a one day event, it really shouldn’t impede you too much. This applies mostly when you’re traveling solo, but if you can find a like-minded travel partner, this can sometimes shave a little bit more money off. Just know your travel partner well enough so that you’re sure they will make the trip cheaper rather than more expensive. It only takes one night out to turn a very cheap trip into a moderately expensive one.”

Consider sightseeing for free. “As the downside of all of this – no, you’re probably not going to see much of the countries you are visiting. And this is a shame. But with enough planning and research, you should be able to find a number of things to see and do that are free and where you can take some pictures and at least feel you saw another country, rather than the inside of another gymnasium.”

Plan as to stay within your budget. “If you’re really hurting for cash and it’s a short trip, buy your food beforehand and bring it with you. You can spend a lot of money waiting at airports on things that you can get for a quarter the price in a supermarket. Equally, if traveling to a country with a different currency, be aware of exchange rates. Not really knowing how much you’re paying for something (and hence whether something is actually cheap or expensive) can hurt a lot over the course of several days.”

With IBJJF tournaments surfacing all over the world, don’t let the fear of spending too much money get in the way of earning a gold medal and testing yourself. Traveling for a competition doesn’t always have to mean top hotels, car rentals and nights out on the town so long as you have a budget and keep your eyes on the competition itself.

For upcoming tournaments, you can see the IBJJF calendar by clicking here.

Xande discusses strategy after the match with Braulio Estima at Copa Podio Lightweight GP

The superfight between Xande Ribeiro and Braulio Estima at Copa Podio on Sunday, May 5, in Rio represented the City Challenge between Manaus and Recife. For Xande However, the motivation was different:

“I don’t fight just for my city. I came to Brazil to fight Braulio by a personal motivation to show my Jiu-Jitsu is efficient,” said Saulo’s brother.

Said and done. Fight time, around 6:15 p.m., Xande used a lot of pressure, passed Braulio’s guard and won by a 5-2 score. The Gracie Barra teacher swept when he was losing, 3-2, but Xande swept again, increased the score to 5-2 and almost mounted at the very end.

“I was surprised to see Braulio insisting hard on the berimbolo. It isn’t exactly his specialty, so I think that despite the surprise, it favored me. I thought Braulio would use the closed guard a lot, many De la Rivas, which are always complicated to deal with,” said Xande.

“I passed putting a lot of pressure. I didn’t have much strategy or anything different. He has very strong legs, which complicates it all for the passers. I trained in closed guard a lot in Niteroi with Ricardo Arona because I thought that would be the most common situation in the fight. As he insisted on the berimbolo, I tried to put my weight on his hip, applying full pressure and it worked,” explained the Los Angeles transplant.

Roger front-kicks Anthony Smith at  the farewell Strikeforce event last Jan. 12. (Strikeforce publicity photo)

A London-based Jiu-Jitsu professor, Roger Gracie is going through a special moment in life.

Having signed with the UFC in January, the 31-year-old middleweight has two months to go until the birth of his first daughter, Maya. In the meantime, Roger is planning his routine for a new stage in his career: the life of UFC athlete.

Over the phone from England, the three-time absolute world champion of Jiu-Jitsu spoke of his plans and explained the arm-and-neck choke that sent him through to the UFC and the changes to his career from here on out.

GRACIEMAG.com: First, the unprecedented. Is it true that a slippery floor tile nearly knocked you out before the fight?

ROGER GRACIE: It’s true. It was a few hours before the Jan. 11 weigh-ins for Strikeforce in Oklahoma. I was doing my last sauna and tub session to make weight and slipped, fell flat on my face on the ground. It opened up a big cut on my forehead. I was fortunate that I was already at weight when I got out of the Jacuzzi. If I’d had to sweat any more it would have been rough because of the cut. Renzo [Gracie] quickly calmed me down and went to the pharmacy to buy Super Glue. We glued my forehead together, put a discreet Band-Aid on it and went to weigh in. The Strikeforce medic was suspicious, but since it looked like an old training cut, he let it pass (laughs).

And what went through your head when you went in to fight Anthony Smith knowing the cut could open at any moment?

Well, Renzo warned me that as soon as I’d grab onto the guy, in clinch or on the ground, the cut would probably open up. I knew that if he’d touch it there it would open, so that made me all the faster on the ground. In the first round, he didn’t land a punch, which calmed me down. In the second, when I landed on top, I felt three drops of blood come out. I got kind of worried the ref might notice and the doctor could stop the fight… But I managed to tap him out quick.

You tend to only leave mount when you’re sure you’ve got a hold in place in MMA. Did you feel the hold was 100 percent in?

The moment I took him down I went straight to pressuring him with my shoulder on his neck, and I could feel his breathing getting kind of iffy. I kept smothering him, got my arms in place and had faith it would pan out, and it did.

After finishing him did it strike you that you were through to the UFC? Did you think about that?

I was pleased that everything had gone well. But even before the fight, my manager, the famous Jorge Guimarães, had already put me at ease about that. “Joinha” is always talking with the folks at the UFC, and he told me that I was practically in. It was great to win, but I think I would have made it in anyways so long as I didn’t have a really bad fight. The UFC will likely absorb everybody. Even so, I’ve only got one fight left on my contract, so now we have to work on getting it renewed. After we sign, then we’ll think about opponents, if just because that’s the routine for a fighter, right? They could call on me to fight next month to substitute someone, or four months from now. You never know. All I know is I have to be trained and ready.

You’re always really calm. Does anything change in your mind now you’re in the UFC?

These days there aren’t any dilettantes in MMA anymore, much less in the UFC. So if I chose this to be part of my life, I know I have to dedicate myself to being the best I can be. If Strikeforce was tough, the UFC is even tougher, since the level is a lot higher and there are a lot more athletes with different games and strengths in my weight class. There’s a lot of competition. To think that with my Jiu-Jitsu I’ll go in there and tap everyone out is an exaggeration. I have to train a lot, learn more and improve in a number of aspects.

That means your training routine is going to change, right?

Yes. I understand that now I need to do all-around training to not stop progressing. So far I’ve been satisfied with the training I’ve been doing alone in London for most of the season, but now I know I have to spend a lot more time in New York with Renzo and in Los Angeles at Black House.

Is there anyone in particular you have in mind as an opponent to move you up the ranks in your weight division? Or are you in no hurry?

I’m in no hurry? I’ll take on anyone. Truth is, I don’t really have a choice. At Strikeforce I couldn’t pick, so in the UFC there’s no way. In Jiu-Jitsu we can start with a seemingly easy match and go working your way up. In the UFC you could very well be facing a former divisional champion for your debut fight.

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