IBJJF Worlds | Graciemag

Fabricio Werdum on Cobrinha’s 5th world title, Buchecha’s chances in MMA

Graciemag Newsroom — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 14:19:48 +0000

The former UFC champion discussed his ground coach’s campaign at the BJJ Worlds.

Heavyweight Fabricio Werdum had a successful BJJ career before moving to MMA. Having won two world championships at ultra-heavy and two ADCC titles, he traded the gi for the gloves, but he never forgot his roots. The former UFC champion closely followed the 2017 installment of the BJJ World Championship, which reached its climax early this month. Besides seeing old friends, he was there to support his ground coach Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, who won a fifth world title at featherweight. Werdum was reached afterwards to discuss this and more. Read on for his thoughts.

On Cobrinha’s campaign

“I’ve been training with Cobrinha for five years. I know how much he trains and dedicates himself. He spends the whole day at the gym dedicating himself to BJJ. So Cobrinha really deserved this world title.

“I made a point of being with him the entire day at the championship, giving support. His first fight was at 9 a.m.; I arrived at 8:30 and stayed until 9 p.m.

“This year he won the Grand Slam — he became champion at the Brazilian Nationals, the Euros, the Pan and the Worlds. And he did it all at 37! There is no such thing as age; there is only an athlete’s dedication. He is an example to everybody and a great inspiration to me.”

On Buchecha’s campaign

“Buchecha is very strong, very technical and, when he goes on turbo mode, no one can hold him back. He is very well at takedowns and he doesn’t let people get away with scoring on him — he comes back with a vengeance! He is, without any doubt, the best BJJ fighter in the world.”

On Buchecha’s future in MMA

“I saw that he trains boxing, wrestling… He has all it takes to do well in MMA. But it remains to be seen how he will do this transition, because this transition is the hardest there is. Many BJJ fighters did not adapt to MMA. You have to like it; you have to know how to hit and get hit.

“This start is the hardest part, because everything changes, including positions — BJJ has to be adapted to MMA. I think Buchecha is in condition to do well in MMA; he’s got blood in his eyes and is exceptional in grappling. What remains is to know whether he likes MMA. It can’t be an obligation, or migrating to make money, because that’s not gonna work. You have to like it, and, in time, he’ll win a purse.”

Fabrício Werdum is scheduled to fight Alistair Overeem July 8th at UFC 213, in Las Vegas. This will be the third time they butt heads, and a win could mean a new shot at the heavyweight belt for Werdum.

[Based on a press release.]

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5-time absolute champ Buchecha reviews Worlds campaign, reveals talk with Lo before final

Graciemag Newsroom — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 15:01:36 +0000

Marcus Buchecha takes down Erberth Santos in the open division. Beatriz Lina/GRACIEMAG

Twenty-seven-year-old Marcus “Buchecha” Vinicius reached a record-setting five absolute titles in IBJJF World Championships with his campaign in the 2017 edition, which ended last Sunday.

This week, Graciemag got to talk to the world’s best BJJ fighter from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. Read on for the interview.

GRACIEMAG: You and Lo ended the absolute final last Sunday in a state of complete exhaustion, each one fallen to one side. How do you feel now?

MARCUS BUCHECHA: I’m still recovering from the battle on the weekend. There were several wars, but thank God I managed to conquer another two world titles. Now I have ten, adding up the absolute ones and the ones from my weight division. I’m very happy! It hasn’t properly sunk in yet. I haven’t yet been able to realize what I have achieved in this sport. But I’m thrilled.

Is there a little movie playing in your head?

Exactly. I have now achieved a feat I never thought possible when I started out in the sport. When I bought my first magazine, I remember Pé de Pano and Roger Gracie were the big names in BJJ. They were my first idols, and having reached the record of Roger, the first one to have ten world titles, is a feat I still can’t describe. All I know is that it’s something grand to reach in the sport.

How do you deal with this pressure of being the man to beat?

The occasion where I felt the most pressure was in 2015, when for the first time I had the opportunity to surpass Roger in absolute titles. I was a three-time absolute champion, like him. And it was precisely the year where I felt the most pressure in my life as a competitor — and, as a consequence, I wound up getting seriously hurt on my knee. But, after that, everything changed for the better. My mind changed a great deal there; I matured plenty, and that has helped me conquer the following titles.

What did you and Lo talk about before the absolute final last Sunday?

Lo is a great friend that BJJ gave me. And, in my opinion, he is the world’s greatest fighter today. He has been making history, winning titles in several different weight classes. Everybody has to respect what he’s been doing in the sport. I already knew this final with him would be the hardest match in the championship. I wasn’t wrong. It was a war! We talked before the fight and agreed to go at it hard. I think our friendship did not interfere in the fight in the slightest. Everyone was after the same dream. It was an extremely tough final, practically a draw — 2 to 2 on points and 1 to 1 on advantages, — but I won by one penalty, when he landed off the fight area. It was a big dream come true.

And who stood out in your weight class?

The final with Gustavo Dias was another very hard fight. But I managed to walk away with the win also. I believe I can only thank everybody who helped me all this time with training; the friends and supporters who send me good vibes, who root for me from near or far. Thank you all for everything! And let’s keep moving, because it’s not over yet. The year is just starting, and there’s the ADCC in the second semester.

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Alex Sodré on winning five bouts to become brown-belt world champion

Graciemag Newsroom — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 14:56:12 +0000

Alex Sodré.

Alex Sodré (Nova União), 21, is the new light featherweight brown-belt world champion. A student under Rodrigo Feijão, Sodré had to tame five opponents to get his gold medal last weekend. In the final he defeated Canada’s Eric Cong (Jiu-Jitsu For Life Team) by one advantage on top of a 2-2 tie on points.

Sodré gave an interview following his victory. “The final was hard,” he said, “but what made it easier was that I was ahead on the scoreboard the whole fight, and that left me calm throughout. I didn’t need to expose myself too much, because the fight was under my control the whole time. I swept and scored an advantage. Then I yielded a sweep but was able to win.”

About becoming champion, he said, “It’s an inexplicable feeling, because I prepared myself a lot for this competition. When I became champion, it took a long time to sink in. I felt very accomplished at that moment.”

As cool as he was during the final, there were some tough moments throughout his campaign. “I did a total of five fights, and in each one I had a bit of difficulty,” he said. “However, the one I had the hardest time was the semifinal, against Pablo Mantovani. It was a very hard fight for me, with a score of 10 each, given the intense sweeping action. We ended up in a tie, and the ref gave me the win.”

After securing his title, the brown-belt champion sat in the stand to watch the black-belts’ light featherweight final, where Mikey Musumeci (Atos) beat João Miyao (Cícero Costa). “It was a very strategic fight,” Sodré said of that match. “The champion kept the rules in mind for the whole fight, and that made all the difference in the fight. It’s not new to me to see myself doing a final at black belt, especially at light featherweight. I felt in that moment that I could be there soon, and doing a very good fight with both athletes.”

[Based on a press release.]

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Atos conquers men’s adult title, ends Alliance’s 9-year streak

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 05:12:04 +0000

Atos conquers male adult title, avoids Alliance 10-year streak to happen. Beatriz Lina

After nearly a decade of supremacy by Alliance, Atos Jiu-Jitsu has dethroned the team of Fabio Gurgel to become the 2017 men’s teams champion at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship.

Erberth Santos’s gold at super-heavy and Galvão’s at medium heavy were decisive in taking the team to the top. Atos finished with 105 points, followed by Alliance’s 88 and GFTeam’s 53. Atos was also the overall juvenile champion. Still, Alliance did not walk away empty-handed, as it won the women’s section with 67 points. You can check out the complete teams’ results below.

Adult Male – World JJ Championship 2017

1 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 105

2 – Alliance – 88

3 – GF Team – 53

4 – CheckMat – 38

5 – Brasa CTA – 36

6 – Cicero Costha Internacional – 30

7 – Gracie Barra – 24

8 – Nova União – 21

9 – Unity Jiu-jitsu – 19

10 – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu – 19

Adult Female – World JJ Championship 2017

1 – Alliance – 67

2 – CheckMat – 51

3 – Gracie Barra – 45

4 – Soul Fighters BJJ – 30

5 – Gracie Humaita – 26

6 – Ns Brotherhood – 24

7 – GF Team – 22

8 – Jiu-Jitsu For Life Team – 19

9 – Fight Sports – 18

10 – Cicero Costha Internacional – 15

Juvenile – World JJ Championship 2017

1 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 126

2 – Gracie Barra – 43

3 – Infight JJ – 39

4 – Team Lloyd Irvin – 34

5 – Alliance – 31

6 – GF Team – 29

7 – CheckMat – 23

8 – Ares BJJ – 18

9 – Brasa CTA – 17

10 – LEAD BJJ – 17

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Marcus Buchecha adds two more titles, ties Roger Gracie as a 10-time black-belt world champion

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 05:00:15 +0000

Buchecha again tops the world of BJJ. Beatriz Lina

The 2017 Worlds is in the books. Graciemag followed every move from the event that crowned Marcus Buchecha and Tayane Porfírio as absolute world champions, and saw Atos Jiu-Jitsu’s first-ever overall victory, stopping Alliance just short of a full decade of supremacy.

It was Leandro Lo’s worst worlds. It was Leandro Lo’s best worlds. The Ns Brotherhood star, for the first time in several years, walked away without any gold medals. But he was also just millimeters away from taking down Marcus Buchecha and claiming the title of world’s greatest BJJ fighter. It was an exhilarating battle until the final seconds, and the stronger fighter won. Buchecha is now a five-time absolute world champion, and a ten-time world champion.

In the ultra-heavyweight division, Buchecha beat Gustavo Dias by a landslide. Meanwhile Lo, who was laser-focused on the absolute, was less brilliant in the heavyweight division. He had already barely beaten Matheus Diniz by decision, and in the final he wound up swept by Nicholas Meregali’s excellent guard. Lo tried to sweep back twice, but Meregali retained his balance as best he could, achieving the win.

Tayane Porfírio beat Nathielly de Jesus and won her first absolute championship. Michael Musumeci, Gabriel Arges and Nicholas Meregali also became world champions for the first time, proudly joining the ranks of veteran champions like Bruno Malfacine, Rubens Cobrinha, Lucas Lepri, André Galvão and Marcus Buchecha.

You can click here to see the final results.

BLACK / Adult / Male / Rooster

1 – Bruno da Silva Malfacine – Alliance

2 – Caio Terra – Brasa CTA

3 – Lucas dos Santos Pinheiro – AMBJJ – Alex Martins Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

3 – Tomoyuki Hashimoto – Brasa CTA

BLACK / Adult / Male / Light-Feather

1 – Michael Musumeci Jr. – Brasa CTA

2 – João Ricardo Bordignon Miyao – Cicero Costha Internacional

3 – Ary de Melo Farias – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

3 – Gabriel Afonso dos Santos Moraes – Alliance

BLACK / Adult / Male / Feather

1 – Rubens Charles Maciel – Alliance

2 – Leonardo Fernandes Saggioro – Brazilian Top Team Int.

3 – Gianni Paul Grippo – Alliance

3 – Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor – Team Lloyd Irvin

BLACK / Adult / Male / Light

1 – Lucas Alves Lepri – Alliance

2 – Roberto Satoshi de Souza – Bull-Terrier Bonsai

3 – Jhonny Loureiro Sigallis Souza – Alliance International

3 – Yan Lucas Cordeiro Paiva – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu

BLACK / Adult / Male / Middle

1 – Gabriel Arges de Sousa – Gracie Barra

2 – Marcos Vinícius da Silva Tinoco – Alliance International

3 – Jaime Soares Canuto – GF Team International

3 – Otavio Ferreira de Sousa – Gracie Barra

BLACK / Adult / Male / Medium-Heavy

1 – Andre Luiz Leite Galvão – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

2 – Patrick Pontes Moura Santos Gaudio – GF Team

3 – Felipe Carsalade Araujo Pena – Gracie Barra

3 – Rômulo Claudio Barral – Gracie Barra

BLACK / Adult / Male / Heavy

1 – Nicholas de Barcellos Meregali – Alliance International

2 – Leandro Lo Pereira do Nascimento – Ns Brotherhood

3 – Dimitrius Soares Souza – Alliance

3 – Guilherme Augusto Soares Santos – Alliance

BLACK / Adult / Male / Super-Heavy

1 – Erberth Santos de Mesquita – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

2 – Bernardo Augusto Rocha de Faria – Alliance

3 – Luiz Fernando de Azevedo Panza – CheckMat

3 – Mahamed Aly Santos da Silva – Team Lloyd Irvin

BLACK / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy

1 – Marcus Vinícius Oliveira de Almeida – CheckMat

2 – Gustavo Dias Elias – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu

3 – João Gabriel de Oliveira e S. Rocha – Soul Fighters BJJ

3 – Otavio de Souza Nalati – Team Lloyd Irvin

BLACK / Adult / Male / Open Class

1 – Marcus Vinícius Oliveira de Almeida – CheckMat

2 – Leandro Lo Pereira do Nascimento – Ns Brotherhood

3 – Erberth Santos de Mesquita – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

3 – Luiz Fernando de Azevedo Panza – CheckMat

BLACK / Adult / Female / Rooster

1 – Rikako Yuasa – Paraestra Shinagawa

2 – Rayanne Amanda Carmo dos Santos – Attack JJ Team – Belém PA

3 – Outi Järvilehto – Brasa CTA

3 – Serena Gabrielli – Flow

BLACK / Adult / Female / Light-Feather

1 – Ana Talita de Oliveira Alencar – Alliance

2 – Gezary Matuda Kubis Bandeira – American Top Team

3 – Kristina Sofia Puruganan Barlaan – Brasa CTA

3 – Thamires Diógenes de Aquino – GF Team

BLACK / Adult / Female / Feather

1 – Emilie Maxine M. H. Thylin – Gracie Humaita South Bay

2 – Ana Carolina Schmitt – Gracie Humaita

3 – Aarae Alexander – Team Lloyd Irvin

3 – Jaqueline de Moraes Amorim – CheckMat

BLACK / Adult / Female / Light

1 – Luiza Monteiro Moura da Costa – Ns Brotherhood

2 – Beatriz de Oliveira Mesquita – Gracie Humaita

3 – Jessica Cristina C. A. dos Santos – Elite Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Redmond

3 – Tammi Alana Musumeci – Brasa CTA

BLACK / Adult / Female / Middle

1 – Ana Carolina Vieira Srour – GF Team

2 – Monique Medeiros Elias – Alliance

3 – Amanda Loewen – SBG International (SBGI)

3 – Nivia de Souza Moura – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu

BLACK / Adult / Female / Medium-Heavy

1 – Nathiely Karoline Melo de Jesus – Cicero Costha Internacional

2 – Andresa Correa – Alliance

3 – Jessica da Silva Oliveira – Gracie Barra

3 – Leah Roseanne Taylor – SBG International (SBGI)

BLACK / Adult / Female / Heavy

1 – Claudia Fernanda Onofre V. Doval – De La Riva JJ

2 – Talita Andrea Nogueira – Ns Brotherhood

3 – Fernanda Mazzelli Almeida Maio – Striker JJ

BLACK / Adult / Female / Super-Heavy

1 – Tayane Porfírio de Araújo – Alliance

2 – Venla Orvokki Luukkonen – Hilti BJJ Jyvaskyla

BLACK / Adult / Female / Open Class

1 – Tayane Porfírio de Araújo – Alliance

2 – Nathiely Karoline Melo de Jesus – Cicero Costha Internacional

3 – Beatriz de Oliveira Mesquita – Gracie Humaita

3 – Jessica da Silva Oliveira – Gracie Barra

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Michael Musumeci becomes only 3rd American black-belt world champion

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 03:05:08 +0000

Mikey Musmeci and João Miyao. Beatriz Lina

Michael Musumeci has made it to the exclusive group of non-Brazilian world jiu-jitsu champions. The Caio Terra Association athlete joins BJ Penn (2000) and Rafael Lovato Jr. (2007), the other two American* fighters to have gotten there since the Worlds’ first edition in 1996.

Musumeci made history by beating the light featherweight field. The American from Marlboro, New Jersey used solid strategy against his archrival João Miyao and beat him for a fifth consecutive time. This win came by advantages, but at the end he sank a foot lock, avoided the points from the sweep and set the Pyramid on fire.

* Robert Drysdale (2005 World Champion) has double citizenship but trained his whole life in Brazil.

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See the final results of the 2017 Worlds

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 01:33:43 +0000

Leandro Lo and Marcus Buchecha. Beatriz Lina

WOMEN’S

Rooster

Rikako Yuasa def. Rayanne dos Santos via choke from the back

Light feather

Talita Alencar def. Gezary Matuda 2-0 (takedown)

Feather

Maxine Thylin and Ana Carolina Schmitt abstained from fighting

Light

Luiza Monteiro def. Beatriz Mesquita by DQ (knee-crossing)

Middle

Ana Carolina Vieira def. Monique Elias by points (12-0)

Medium heavy

Nathiely de Jesus def. Andresa Correa via choke from the mount

Heavy

Cláudia Doval def. Talita Treta by 2-2 on points and 4-0 on advantages

Super-heavy

Tayane Porfírio def. Venla Luukkonen via kneebar

Absolute

Tayane Porfírio def. Nathiely Jesus via keylock from the mount position

MEN’S

Rooster

Bruno Malfacine def. Caio Terra by 4-4 on points and 2-0 on advantages

Light feather

Michael Musumeci def. João Miyao on advantages

Feather

Rubens Charles “Cobrinha” def. Leonardo “Cascão” Saggioro by 2-2 on points and 1-0 on advantages

Light

Lucas Lepri def. Roberto Satoshi (Satoshi injured his shoulder in the beginning of the match)

Middle

Gabriel Arges submitted Marcos Tinoco with a choke from the back

Medium heavy

André Galvão def. Patrick Gaudio by referee decision (2-2 on points and 1-1 on advantages)

Heavy

Nicholas Meregali def. Leandro Lo 2-0 (sweep)

Super-heavy

Erberth Santos def. Bernardo Faria by points (9-0)

Ultra-heavy

Marcus Buchecha def. Gustavo Dias via choke

Absolute

Marcus Buchecha def. Leandro Lo by one negative point

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BJJ Worlds: Rudson Matheus wins double gold at the brown belt

Graciemag Newsroom — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 00:52:28 +0000

Rudson Mateus. Beatriz Lina

Rudson Mateus, of team Caio Terra, shone this weekend with double gold at the brown belt. First among medium heavyweights, he beat six opponents, including Gustavo Batista (Ns Brotherhood) in the final.

In the open division, Rudson had another four matches. First he outplayed Gutemberg Pereira (GFTeam), who was super-heavyweight champion this weekend and ranked among the favorites. Then he defeated heavyweight champion Vinícus Gazola (Alliance). After that, it was time to face ultra-heavyweight Casey Hellenberg (Ribeiro JJ) and secure a spot in the final. Finally Rudson beat Perttu Tepponen (Hilti BJJ) to wrap up his memorable campaign.

Stick around for more coverage of Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s biggest day.

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