Michelle Nicolini (Checkmate) and Angelica Galvão (Atos) dueled at a high level in a submission only combat of 20 minutes at Polaris Pro.

More experienced, Nicolini was able to perform an accurate attack at Angelica’s foot, which did not resist.

Review the submission and watch the champions comment the fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8cjbkqOJy0

Mackenzie Dern celebrates victory. (Photo by Mike Calimbas)

At the WPJJC trials that took place in Texas last weekend, Gracie Humaitá black belt Mackenzie Dern once again showed her collectedness in transitioning between moves and in the final sunk a snug footlock on Gracie Barra’s Fabiana Borges.

Learn how it’s done from Wellington Megaton’s daughter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT0IQIYqXVA

Rubens Cobrinha against Augusto Tanquinho at 2013 European Open (photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG.com)

One of the highlights of the last European Jiu-Jitsu Championship, which wrapped up last weekend, was the final between two of the most technical athletes around at the moment, featherweights Rubens Cobrinha and Augusto Tanquinho.

Cobrinha, our GMA in Los Angeles, made two attempts before sweeping Tanquinho in style (check out minute 11:12 of the video).

But how did the sweep happen? In a conversation with GRACIEMAG.com, Augusto Tanquinho gave his account:

“I was on top and the score was 0-0. And as the match was coming to an end, I decided to go for a figure-four footlock on him. The initial position was in place, but I ended up losing hold and he ended up on top, scoring two points. I still had a chance to draw even with a sweep, but I didn’t get to stabilize it and he ended up winning by 2-0. Props to him for making fewer mistakes. He deserves the win,” said the professor for team Soul Fighters.

Rodrigo Cavaca attacks Rodrigo Caporal’s foot in Lisbon at the 2011 European Open (photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG).

Having recovered from serious knee injury, Rodrigo Cavaca is finally returning to competition. In Lisbon, Portugal, this weekend, the instructor for team CheckMat will be fighting for gold again. But he’s going to take it slow: all he wants is the title for his weight-division, to take his return slowly.

Cavaca, a bronze medalist in the absolute at the 2011 European Open, is just starting to get back in competition rhythm and isn’t likely to try his hand at open weight at the end of the month. All for a greater objective: to show up in tip-top shape for the 2013 World Championship in California and close out the ultraheavyweight division with his student Marcus Bochecha, the current world champion.

In the following GRACIEMAG.com interview, Cavaca talks about training, knee surgery and warns: “There’ll be a lot of footlocks going around.”

GRACIEMAG: How do you feel going into this European Open, the first IBJJF tourney of the season?

RODRIGO CAVACA: I’m feeling like I did in 2010, the last season when I was able to train for real. Since then I haven’t been able to train hard, and thank God today I’m 100%. My focus now is this year’s Worlds, closing out the ultraheavyweight division with Bochecha, and that’s why I’m training. The European Open is a test for me to know how I’m doing and what I need to work on. I know I’m not 100%, as I’ve only been training hard for two months now, but my mindset and desire to fight will be enough. I can’t wait.

At the last European Open, you went all the way in the absolute and took bronze…

That’s right. I lost in the semifinals to Sérgio Moraes, a match I was winning until making a fatal mistake in the last 10 seconds. It was a mistake that cost me a spot in the final. But no, this year I’m not doing the absolute. I want to be strong for the weight group and leave a spot open for our athletes, who will surely do a good job of representing CheckMat. I’ll only be hunting gold medal in the weight division, for which I’ve done a lot of physical conditioning with Coach Yan Reis.

You underwent a series of operations on your knee. What motivates you to compete again?

My students are my biggest motivation. I see how much they like it when I compete, when I train and get ready for a tournament, as I’ve been doing for the European Open. There’s also the desire to always pursue new challenges, something inherent in Jiu-Jitsu fighters’ makeup. In my case, I went through four surgeries on two knees, two of them in the last 18 months, and even so I’ve never considered not competing. Now I’m recovered, ready and more motivated than ever to take on the big names of the sport.

How do you define your current game, Cavaca?

I’d define my Jiu-Jitsu game now as being more intelligent, since I’ve learned a lot during this layoff when I dedicated myself to my students. In the role of coach I managed to work on a side of mine that I wasn’t too familiar with. I learned to see the shortcuts in a number of fight situations, to be more strategic and never think that my game is so good that I can beat anybody, because there’s no such thing as that. Now there are athletes who are more and more well-rounded and who we’d never be able to beat if we didn’t study them and put together specific game plans. So my game is the same as it’s always been, just more complete. In other words, there’ll be a lot of footlocks going around.

What’s the state of the ultraheavyweight division in your view?

The ultraheavyweight division has been really deep ever since the days of my idol Pé de Pano. And now the current biggest name in the sport is in it: my student Marcus Bochecha. This European Open will be no different. From what I’ve seen there’ll be big names like Igor Silva, José Junior and my teammates Bruno Matias and Alexander Trans. It’ll be tough but I feel prepared, and I’m going in with a single objective: to win a third European title. I miss competing in Europe, where I feel at home. I’d like to thank the team at GRACIEMAG.com, my sponsors, my students, my master Léo Vieira and God for letting it happen.

Caio Terra swaps grips with Laércio Fernandes in the up-to-64 kg  division at the IBJJ Pro League. Photo by Erin Herle/GRACIEMAG.

Last Saturday, Caio Terra lived up to his billing as favorite to win the up-to 64 kg division and seized the $5,000 prize for first place at an unprecedented IBJJF professional tournament in Long Beach, California.

Facing the consistent Laércio Fernandes in the final, Caio won the decisive match by three advantage points to one.

In the following interview with GRACIEMAG.com, Caio reveals what he learned during his exploits in the Walter Pyarmid this past weekend and commented on the frenetic footlock exchange he endured in the final. Check it out!

GRACIEMAG: What’s your assessment of your performance at the IBJJ Pro League?

CAIO TERRA: This may not have been my best performance of the year. And not just mine, but most of the black belts who competed. A lot of us had our minds on the end of the year, tired after a long Jiu-Jitsu season. I alone must have competed more than ten times in 2012. If we also take into account all the seminars and classes at my academy here in San Jose and at other branches, we can tell how tough it is to truly live the life of an athlete. Considering what a busy year I had, I think I did great.

You tapped out Daniel Beleza in the semifinal and beat Laércio on advantage points in the final. What’s your take on the decisive match?

Laércio is really tough, technical and fast and is strong for the division. Sometimes he is even overlooked by people who aren’t too familiar with him, but for sure he’s going to make a name for himself in Jiu-Jitsu. I don’t think either of us were in any danger during the match. His footlock didn’t even tickle. And mine was in tight but I didn’t feel his foot pop at all. The only time there was any danger may have been when I made it to his back early in the match, but he did a good job of escaping. At the end of the match, I was on his back; but he was losing and probably had to expose himself more than he normally would.

What lesson that could be of use to our readers did you learn at the championship?

I decided to do the championship out of support for the IBJJF’s initiative, for my friends and the teammates who were training for this event and for my sponsors, Gameness and Versa Climber, who helped me a lot. However, the truth is that I felt worn out, after so many Jiu-Jitsu battles this year. I really didn’t want to be there, much less compete. There was a strange feeling of defeat in me before the tournament began—all I wanted was to get the event out of the way so I could think about vacation, you know? So the big lesson I derived from it is to believe in myself more.

What about the prize money, did it make a difference?

This year I had some supermatches and I know how important it is to us athletes to get remunerated. There’s still no way to make a living just off of prize money and sponsorship. You have to have an academy or teach seminars, and that’s why life as a professional athlete is complicated. The cash prize was a good initiative, but it’s only a beginning. With $5,000 you can hardly make it two months in the USA, and so far only the champion gets the money. Sometimes we have to forgo teaching a seminar so that we can train, which makes it even more of a risk, and that’s why other athletes decline to compete. Over the years, the IBJJF has shown that whatever it is they set about doing tends to improve. I believe that soon there will be more divisions, better prize money and, perhaps, more League events during the year. I’d like to thank all the sponsors of the event, the IBJJF and the crowd for having contributed to this new step in Jiu-Jitsu becoming more professional.

Do you feel this IBJJF initiative may help dissuade competitors from migrating to MMA?

Most of the athletes who migrate to MMA because of money end up losing. To fight MMA, you have to really like the sport, and not do it for the money, because that will be the end of your career. Besides the fact you’ll be unhappy.

What are your plans for 2013?

I’m still wrapping up my latest seminar tour in the USA, and after that I’ll go to Brazil on vacation. The 2013 ADCC tryouts don’t figure in my plans yet. Here’s the deal, I won the last five World No-Gi Championships, I’m the current national No-Gi champion at weight and absolute. If the promoters don’t feel that’s enough to qualify me, it’ll be a shame… I got the most votes in the last poll that they held on their website. Still they ended up inviting other people and I got left out. For 2013 I’m planning really professional training camps at my academy for the Pan and Jiu-Jitsu World Championship. Plus I want to do seminars in Asia, Europe and on the East Coast of the USA. If any academy is interested in having me, please contact me via the email info@caioterra.com or Facebook.

Victor Estima celebrates winning the Abu Dhabi WPJJC Trials in Portugal. Personal archive photo.

Last Saturday, Cascais, Portugal’s Pavilhão dos Lombos gymnasium hosted a leg of tryouts for the Abu Dhabi WPJJC, a professional tournament paying out in big-money prizes next April.

Promoted by black belts Sergio Vita and Zé Marcello, the event featured over a hundred athletes, and the standout among them was midddleweight fighter Victor Estima, a Jiu-Jitsu teacher from Brazil now living and teaching in England.

GRACIEMAG.com had a chat with the champion, who explained his last-minute decision to compete in Lisbon, the move he used to wrap up the final, and much more.

GRACIEMAG.com: Were you training hard for this leg of the WPJJC Trials?

VICTOR ESTIMA: Not exactly, although I was well trained. My trip to Portugal was a short one, as I decided to compete at the last minute. I arrived there on Friday just in time for weigh-ins, and I returned home on Sunday, one day after the tournament. But I had no problem making weight, as I normally weigh 80 kg, so all I had to do was show my Jiu-Jitsu, like I always do.

What was the final, against Mathias Ribeiro, like?

To me it was the best match I was in. I missed passing his guard on two occasions, and I learned that I need to be a bit more patient in such positions. I was going for the tapout, and so I tried passing guard on speed. So I ended up not passing, but I did channel the fight to my best game and ended up tapping him out with a footlock–the “Estima-lock” (laughs).

Of those qualified in your weight class, the under-83 kg division, who is the sternest test in your opinion?

There are so many first-rate opponents, like Lucas Leite, Claudio Calasans, Keenan Cornelius, who did great at the tryouts in the USA. I’m really confident in my game and have already started training for this competition. I know I’m going to need to do some tough matches but I’m focused on my own Jiu-Jitsu, and I’m preparing to fight anybody.

Besides Abu Dhabi, what are your plans for 2013?

I plan to compete at the big Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, like the Europeans, Worlds, Abu Dhabi WPJJC as well as the ADCC–to do that I’ll also have to do the tryouts too. For the second half of the year, the plan is to do a seminar tour in the USA because I’ve gotten a number of invites.

Tanquinho teaches how to defend against the straight footlock. Personal archive photo.

When you’re playing open guard looking to defend or sweep, your foot becomes a sitting duck, and the passer won’t need much to take a shot at it. As everyone wants to go home without a limp, it’s a hold you’ll want to know how to deal with.

So, how do you defend your foot? What do you do when a passer wraps an arm around your ankle and sits back for the finish? What’s the first thing you need to do? That’s what our reader Miguel Useda asked, and today we offer him a solution.

“First, the trick is to keep calm and analyze the position so you can set about defending,” says Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes.

The US Open champion and winner of the New York leg of the Abu Dhabi WPJJC Trials breaks the position down into minute detail in the following video sent in exclusively to GRACIEMAG.com, with the luxury help of his “father-in-law” Wellington “Megaton” Dias.

Check out the position, and enjoy your training!

Fabio Gurgel and Mauricio Rua having fun during Jiu-Jitsu training, in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Jair Lacerda/GRACIEMAG

Every week, Alliance academy in São Paulo has its Casual Friday, and not a soul in the gym wears a coat. Last Friday was a gala occasion, however, as a special guest put in an appearance—or reappearance. And GRACIEMAG.com was there to witness it. To everyone’s delight, Mauricio Shogun didn’t want to even hear about ceremony and dove right in, swapping sweeps and footlocks with the heavyweights at Fabio Gurgel’s academy, such as Antonio “Batista” Peinado and Tarsis Humphreys.

“Shogun’s a Jiu-Jitsu black belt. He knows his way around on the ground. Here at the gym we don’t have MMA-focused training but we have been making the most of this partnership, which began with Sérgio [Moraes] and André Dida at the ‘TUF’ house,” explains Gurgel. He too was caught hitting the No-Gi training hard, in preparation for his ADCC 2013 supermatch with Zé Mario Sperry.

“I really like working on Jiu-Jitsu, and I learned so much here at Alliance in such a short time. I can only thank Fabio and the rest,” Shogun said in praise.

Liked those unprecedented and exclusive images taken by the hard-nosed Jair Lacerda? Share them with your friends, then.

Want to stay up to date on all the goings-on in the world of Jiu-Jitsu and MMA? Then, subscribe to GRACIEMAG; click here.

Vinny Pezão at ADCC 2011 / Photo by Daren Bartlett/GRACIEMAG.com

This one’s from last year; it’s not all that old. At the Ultimate Absolute event in New York, UFC fighter Vinny Magalhães locked horns with the current absolute world champion of No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu, Marcus Vinicius “Bochecha”.

Note how Bochecha’s trademark game of tangling his opponent up in his legs doesn’t work too well on Vinny. At the 5:46-minute mark, take a look at what the UFC light heavyweight gets up to after adjusting his positioning from 50/50 guard.

Caio Terra against Jeff Glover at Metamoris Pro / Photo by Lamonica/publicity

Metamoris Pro served up a whopping dose of high-caliber Jiu-Jitsu last weekend in San Diego, California. It was an unforgettable afternoon, and right on the very first match of the card, one of the liveliest of all, Caio Terra had the wherewithal to break free of a figure-four footlock, pass guard and launch an attack of his own on Jeff Glover’s arm.

Cold calculations, persistence in execution, and heaps of confidence—those were the three aspects that made the difference in his winning.

As the gentle art teaches to do without end, Caio had to be patient to not give up on the hold. Pay attention to how long it takes him to finish the fight after launching the arm assault at minute 11:17. Watch and learn with Caio and Jeff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3RjoLVX4jE

With this attack in the final, Jeff Glover surprised Caio Terra and won their May supermatch at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo on points. Photo by Dan Rod/GRACIEMAG.

GRACIEMAG: Metamoris is just around the corner, coming up on the 14th. How’s training going for your 20-minute, no-points match against Caio Terra?

Going well, no injuries. As always, I’ve been welcomed in to train at a bunch of places. Besides pointers from Ricardo Franjinha [teacher at and leader of Paragon JJ], I’ve been training with Joel Tudor a lot lately. I like the way he sees Jiu-Jitsu. He has a good guard, aggressive game and deadly guillotines, as well as other dangerous chokes.

Are you in good physical shape?

Not at all. I’m in awful shape. I need to finish him quick (laughs)!

In your view, what’s the most dangerous thing about Caio? What’s his best submission?

He’s got a good figure-four footlock. I’ll be watching out for that.

You guys fought last May at the Jiu-Jitsu Expo. What’s your breakdown of that late come-from-behind win of yours?

It was awesome! The crowd was on my side, and I could feel that energy from them. I think the crowd will make a difference again in San Diego. Anyone with all that energy on their side will find a way to win. Let’s see who the fans in San Diego like better. I think that in our last match he might have thought he’d won it, until he walked right into one of my traps (laughs). Want to learn that sneak attack of mine? I can teach it to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TumzKpBC9zs

What do you really think about Caio Terra as an opponent, Jeff?

Caio has been a good buddy of mine for some time now, in a weird way. Our bull*&%$ and fights [on Facebook] have gotten us loads of attention from fans and the Jiu-Jitsu world. Positive or negative, repercussions are always repercussions. So I’m grateful to him, in a way. He makes me better, makes me train more to beat him. He’s like a great wall in my path. I have to climb him. Oss, Caio, we’re two warriors!

In the Metamoris promo video, you say you don’t see Caio having a chance of subbing you…

On points, he can beat me at any championship. But to get me to tap out is something completely different.

He compared you to Chael Sonnen in a GRACIEMAG.com interview. What did you think when you read that?

I love it. Lift us up, Caio! Let’s go. It’ll be a good fight.

Why is it that sometimes you start a match with your back to your opponent?

Well, it’s a way of provoking and irritating my opponent. But I also have some good tricks from that position. Want to see?

Not today. This is a Gi match, but your latest good results have been in No-Gi, like at the 2011 ADCC, where you came in third in the under-66 kg division. Do you like No-Gi fighting more? Do you ever think about doing MMA?

Perhaps, I’d like to tap people out with my triangles, Chris Holdsworth style. But I really do like competing in the gi—there are more submissions available. I love the brabo choke, for example. I love the ADCC too. In 2013 I’ll be there to compete without the gi again.

Brown belt Gianni Grippo won another in his backyard, at the 2012 No-Gi Pan. Photo by Mike Calimbas.

Brown belt Gianni Grippo is one of the Jiu-Jitsu standouts of the season, and he was no different last Saturday, when he won the featherweight division at the No-Gi Pan.

“I trained a lot because I always feel obligated to win in my own backyard [New York],” Grippo told GRACIEMAG.com. “I made it past some tough opponents, including the light featherweight world champion, Mateo Maldonado. All of them were talented fighters, which made victory all the sweeter.”

In the featherweight final, Grippo faced a game Carlos Rosado (Gracie Barra). Cool and collected, he escaped a straight footlock and later slapped on practically the same hold, just from 50/50 guard and switching to a figure-four grip.

“My coach John Danaher went over the details of the footlock with me a lot, making me sharper with attacks and escapes with every training session. It all worked out. I did it like I did at the academy and got my fourth No-Gi Pan title,” he said in signing off.

Check out the barnburner below, and let us know: What did you learn from the match? How did you like the moves?