Ary overcome with emotion during promotion / Photos: personal archive

A submission savant who has stood out at every belt so far, Ary Farias is getting ready for his black belt debut, at the European Open in Lisbon starting January 27. The mission: to live up to the expectations everyone inevitably has for him.

The Atos representative had a brief chat with GRACIEMAG.com. Here’s what he had to say:

How are you feeling for your black belt debut?

Man, I expect the best. I’m fully aware that my part and my team’s part have been fulfilled and I’m going in with the same objective as always, of making it up there with the group leaders. I know for that to happen it will be war, it will be a good chance to show I’m not a kid among adults anymore. My division is stacked with burly dudes! But that’s what I chose for my life, so I’m going to try and do it to the best of my abilities. The only thing I don’t want is to disappoint my family, friends, and fans.

Do you feel you’ll have any trouble with match duration, now they’ll last ten minutes instead of eight?

I’m going in there ready. If the duration is ten minutes, I’m ready. Let’s do it! I just want to be able to give it my best.

What do you feel will be different at this rank as opposed to the other belts?

I feel the difference is in the professionalism at black belt. Everyone is a professional, there’s no one in there piddling around, they always have something up their sleeves. You can’t make mistakes at black belt, that would be costly. It’s not like the other belts, where you can make a mistake and still fix things. There’s a huge difference between the other belts and black belt. I’m just another rookie about to debut. Whether I’ll do well or not I’ll only know come competition time, it will all depend on me.

Thanks, GRACIEMAG.com, for the interview and I wish everyone a great tournament in Europe!

And stay tuned to the GRACIEMAG at the European Open Blog for all the ins and outs regarding the first major tournament of the year.

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E para ficar ligado em tudo na competição, fique ligado no  Blog Graciemag no Europeu de Jiu-Jitsu . Oooosss!

Resident of Spain Yan Cabral won in Lisbon. Photo: Personal archive.

This Saturday on the outskirts of Lisbon, the World Pro tryouts organized by Sérgio Vita and Zé Marcello took place. With the approach of the European Open, there was a large number of Brazilians signed up for the event, and they dominated the black belt division.

As previously reported here on GRACIEMAG.com, Lucio “Lagarto” (Gracie Barra) won the absolute division, beating Alan “Finfou” (CheckMat) in the final. But there were a number of standouts at the competition counting approximately 180 participants in the Pavilhão dos Lombos gymnasium in Cascais, 25 km outside of Lisbon.

The under 65 kg division was won by veteran Wellington “Megaton” (Gracie Humaitá), now guaranteed an all-expenses-paid trip to the World Pro main event in Abu Dhabi. Now the under 74 kg division was all Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes’s (Soul Fighters). The black belt got the tapout in his first two matches and won the decider with an 18-0 drubbing.

Tanquinho at the top, again / Photo: Personal archive

In the under 83 kg division, Alan “Finfou” took gold, also making it to the final of the absolute. The under 92 kg winner was Yan Cabral (Tarântula), beating absolute champion Lúcio “Lagarto” iin the final. “It was a great match. I landed a takedown early on, he swept, but then I got him back with a sweep of my own,” Yan tells GRACIEMAG.com.

In the over 92 kg, José Junior, from Rio de Janeiro state beach town Araruama, took top honors.

The ladies were in action, too. The winner of the under 63 kg division was Michelle Nicolini (CheckMat), defeating Mackenzie Dern in the decider. In the weight class above, Monica Silva (2 Brothers) took the gold.

“It was the first time a World Pro qualifier was held in Portugal and everyone is of the opinion that it was quite positive. We hope next year will be even better and with the same response from the athletes,” remarks organizer Sergio “Telinho” Vita.

Langhi against JT at European Open / Photo: Ivan Trindade

Comfy in their new home, already shown here on GRACIEMAG.com, Alliance has some news brewing. The team’s big champions are teaching their greatest secrets.

“There’ll be a week’s worth of specific classes, from 11 am to noon, Monday to Friday. The idea is for us to have new guest teachers every month. To start things off, on the 10th, two-time world champion Michael Langhi will teach the secrets to the spider-guard, a fundamental that made his one of the best of present day,” announced team leader Fabio Gurgel.

Langhi, who hasn’t tasted defeat since the 2008 Worlds, is one of the top-notch competitors who will see action at the European Open to start off January 27 in Lisbon. Anyone who signs up by Friday will pay the reduced rate. Find out more here.

In the meantime, check out the lightweight semifinal match between Langhi and Jonathan Torres at the 2010 Euro Open. Afterwards, Michael went on to lose out the division with his teammate Lucas Lepri.

Bernardo in photo by Gustavo Aragão

One of the new-generation black belts standing out most these days, Bernardo Faria had a great 2010 season. The Alliance representative won his weight group and the absolute at the Pan, the absolute at the Brazilian Nationals, won the world championship for the first time as a black belt, won the Brazilian Team Nationals and closed out his division at the European Open with his master Fabio Gurgel to boot.

The fighter comments on his expectations for 2011 on GRACIEMAG.com and declares his greatest dream: winning the absolute division at the Worlds.

What are your goals for this year?

I want to maintain what I did last year, the best year of my life in Jiu-Jitsu. The first semester of 2010 was nearly perfect, I did well in nearly all the championships. Now I want to repeat. I spend the new year with my family, but I’m already in São Paulo training like mad. I believe my first championship will be the European Open. In 2011 I intend to do the same: compete at the European Open, Brazilian Nationals, and the Worlds. I also want to participate at the World Pro tryouts in Gramado, the Rio one would be cutting it close. God willing, I’ll compete at the World Pro and I intend to be in Fepa events too, those are getting big.

You won your first World Championship as a black belt in 2010. Is it about time to get that absolute title?

The world absolute is the title everyone wants and is precisely the one I’m missing. Last year I won the absolute at the Pan and the Brazilian Nationals, so I’m training for it. I’m already training a lot of Jiu-Jitsu and now I’m getting back to doing judo too. The one who wins the absolute will be the one most complete, technical, and mentally and physically well prepared on the day. I’m working on all that. Up until last year, my greatest dream was to become world champion at black belt. Now it’s to be absolute world champion.

Faria in photo by Carlos Ozório

One of your greatest adversaries is Rodolfo Vieira, who missed some of the big events in 2010. What do you expect when facing him in competition now?

He’s doing really well, winning most of the championships he’s in. Last year he got hurt and had to miss the big championships during the first half of the year, but I’m not worried about him or anybody else. I want to train as much as I can, compete as much as I can, and the results will come as a consequence. I’m going to train to beat him, just as I train to beat all the others.

Last year, you had the opportunity to travel and conduct seminars. What did you make of the experience?

I had seminars in Finland, Germany, and Brazil. I’ve been training Jiu-Jitsu for ten years, I relinquished all else for it and things started coming up. Besides the results in competition, I was given the chance to conduct seminars and get to know new places and people and make some money, which is good too!

JT in Japan. Photo: Hashimoto Kinya.

JT Torres was one of the main standouts at this weekend’s 2nd Southwest BJJ Classic in Mesa, Arizona. With a pair of submissions, over Samir Chantre and Caio Terra, the Lloyd Irvin student secured the prize of an air ticket to Lisbon, Portugual, to compete at the European Open in January 2011.

The other big winner of the prize was Bruno Bastos, who won the division above, the heavyweight division.

In his match with Samir, JT passed guard using his X-pass. After gaining positional control, JT got knee on belly, back mount, faked a choke and, true to double-attack philosophy, ended the match with an armbar four minutes in.

In the final, JT faced Caio Terra, who started off with a sweep attempt. JT maintained his posture and tried for the back mount, when Caio got up and ended up on top. The Cesar Gracie student then tried to maneuver to 50/50 guard, which Torres escaped from, grabbed Caio’s sleeve and sunk an armbar, five minutes into the match. Check it out!

Complete coverage of the event coming up in issue 165, coming in December. Click here to secure your copy.

Guto Campos is another guaranteed to be there. Photo: Ivan Trindade

Sign-ups for the Miami Open are moving right along, with this Saturday’s deadline fast approaching. One thing guaranteed is that there will be plenty of great black belt action, just given the submission aces signed up for the October-23 IBJJF event so far.

Among them, Guto Campos is another looking good to try his luck at weight and open weight. In 2009, Luiz Felipe Big Mac was the open class champion, but he won’t be at Miami Dade College this time. Guto, European champion at weight and open weight this season, promises to head the battle.

However, there are many other hard-nosed competitors confirmed in the running. IBJJF director André Fernandes offers a taster of who’s in: Eduardo Milioli, Jonathan Torres, Diego Gamonal Nogueira, Gustavo Ramos Campos, Marcelo Conti, Marcela S. de Oliveira Macedo, Rodrigo Clark, Stephen Vincent Hall, Marco Antonio Giudice Machado, Alessandro Elisio Chalita de Souza, Daniel V. Alvarez Jr., Jason Scully, Rodrigo Antunes Guimarães, Jared Weiner, Marcos Paulo Guimarães de Barros, Rômulo Reis Pereira, Joao Moncaio, Renato Sampaio Tavares Filho and April Robinson, among others.

Do as they do and sign up for the Miami Open by clicking here.

Keep on top of the upcoming IBJJF events:
To find out more about the Miami Open, click here.
For more on the No-Gi Worlds, click here.