Even with all the effort and planning to avoid a lost year, the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) has now made it official: There will be no 2020 BJJ World Championship. The information was published Tuesday night on social media.

The previous plan was to host the Worlds between the 14th and 20th of December, parallel to the Master Worlds (which has not been cancelled). To the federation, the travel restrictions in place due to the pandemic have made the event impossible. For the same reason, the No-Gi Worlds, which usually takes place at the end of the year, is also cancelled.

Although there are no current plans for events in Brazil, the IBJJF is continuing with a leaner-than-usual calendar of events in the U.S. Besides the Master Worlds slated to take place in Florida, the federation will be hosting the Houston open on Nov. 14 in Texas, and the No-Gi Pan on Nov. 21–22 in Georgia.

Here’s the IBJJF’s official statement:

The IBJJF regrets to inform that unfortunately, there will not be a 2020 World Adult Championship Gi & 2020 World No-Gi Championship. Due to the extreme difficulties of travel challenges, including forbidden entry into the United States faced by the organization and athletes, these events can not come to fruition.

The IBJJF will continue to work diligently to bring the competition calendar back to normal as much as possible next year and will post updates on future events accordingly.

We thank you all for the continued incredible support.

BJJ Stars: The Return marked the return of superfights events to Brazil.

The night of this Saturday, July 25, is one for the history of jiu-jitsu. With Brazil still counting an average 1,000 daily deaths from the coronavirus, BJJ Stars, led by the promoter Fepa Lopes, delivered a high-level tournament in São Paulo while following a rigorous protocol of safety an hygiene, marking the return of BJJ competitions in the country. On the card, there were 12 duels with elite black-belts.

The main fight saw Kaynan Duarte (Atos) defeat João Gabriel Rocha (Double Five), who replaced an injured Felipe Preguiça on short notice, by points. Before that, Lucas Hulk of Atos beat Leandro Lo (NS Brotherhood) on points as well. Additionally, Patrick Gaudio (Alliance/DreamArt) had a highly anticipated rematch with Erberth Santos, winning by advantages.

Read about the most important moments below.

Kaynan fights smart, and João gets injured

In the final match of the night, Kaynan Duarte and João Gabriel had a technical duel. Kaynan, following his normal strategy, pulled guard with the intent to sweep and get ahead. But as he pulled haphazardly, Kaynan didn’t think twice before turning to the 50/50 to avoid the danger of João fighting on top with his weight and pressure. With lots of adjusting, Kaynan came up to score two points, but João promptly responded. With 4-4 on the board, still on the 50/50, João came up with his knee tangled, and felt pain. Arguing with the doctors, João asked to keep fighting. Kaynan came up to gain a lead of 6-4 and got rid of the guard. Even hurt, João tried to take him down and fought until the end, but the numbers remained at 6-4, giving Kaynan the win. Now Kaynan leads João in their encounters, 2 to 1.

Lucas takes Lo down

In the penultimate fight, Lucas Hulk wasted no time. In the first seconds, he shot for a successful takedown, scoring two points. On top and with firm grips, Hulk avoided the unpredictable guard of Lo, who was moving between the foot on bicep, the lasso and a sitting guard, trying to unbalance Hulk. With Lo visibly tired at the end, Hulk exploded, leaving Lo’s guard and trying to get his back. Lo defended, but wound up having Hulk on his back trying to choke him. Lo avoided the choke, but Hulk’s two-point advantage persisted to the end.

Patrick attacks and scores to beat Erberth

In one of the matches the fans were most hungry for, Patrick Gaudio and Erberth Santos took their social media spat to the mat. The fight was tense at first, with a lot of caution all around. After two penalties and one advantage each, for lack of combativeness, Patrick pulled guard and spun under Erberth, coming out on the leg lock. Erberth foiled the move by spinning his knee, and Patrick scored an advantage. Erberth tried to employ a leg lock of his own, but was ineffective. Then Erberth pulled and tried to sweep, but Patrick controlled on top and won with a 2-1 lead on advantages.

Also noteworthy were Gabriel Napão’s winning armbar over Léo Leite at the last second of their match, Isaque Bahiense’s ezequiel choke on Claudio Calasans, and the north-south choke applied by Serginho Moraes to beat Luis Marques.

Complete results:

BJJ STARS: THE RETURN
São Paulo, SP
July 25, 2020

Kaynan Duarte def. João Gabriel Rocha, 6-4 points
Lucas Hulk def. Leandro Lo, 2-0 points
Patrick Gaudio def. Erberth Santos, 2-1 advantages
Gabriel Napão def. Léo Leite, armbar
Isaque Bahiense def. Cláudio Calasans, ezequiel
Gabriel Rollo def. Caio Almeida, bow-and-arrow
Anna Rodrigues def. Bia Basílio, 3-1 advantages
Sérginho Moraes def. Luis Marques, north-south
Meyham Maquine def. Cleber Clandestino, 8-6 points
Charles Duende def. Gustavo Ximu, 1-0 advantages
Renata Marinho def. Sabatha Lais, 4-2 points
Marcos Petcho def. Robinho Jesus, 4-0 points

Rodolfo Vieira vs. Bernardo Faria at the 2014 Worlds. GRACIEMAG

Despite having made the jump to MMA, Rodolfo Vieira is still a BJJ teacher through and through, occasionally traveling to teach a packed seminar somewhere in Brazil.

A few years back, he paid a visit to Escola de Jiu-Jitsu Brasileiro, led by Edgar Guimarães in Blumenau, and taught a maneuver he used at the highest possible level: a final of the IBJJF Worlds. This may well be the detail currently missing from your top game.

It’s worth noting that it’s a guard pass with a double underhook, bringing the passer straight to the mount and earning them seven points (three from the pass and four from the mount).

Translated transcript:

“I’ll show a guard pass I employed at the Worlds final. He will be here keeping it all closed on half-guard. I’ve managed to gain the underhook there. I’m here wrapping his arm [0:25] with that traditional underhook, except I’ll change it up a little here. I’m gonna underhook under his arm. I keep my elbow at the level of his elbow, because if I come too close to the armpit, he becomes strong and lowers his arm. So I keep it right here [0:46] at the elbow and I carry his arm up. I close the hand-to-hand grip. Now I’m gonna prop my foot here, I raise my hip, I’ll step on his calf, and I’ll go right to the mount.”

Buchecha’s solo training.

The record holder for most BJJ world championships, Marcus Buchecha is going to have to wait a bit to compete again. With the postponement of the main IBJJF tournaments, he’s now looking at a longer-than-expected hiatus. But that does not mean he’s sitting idle at home.

Buchecha kindly sent Graciemag a video with the training circuit he is currently performing at home, paired with the details needed for anyone trying to get some ideas from the very best in the world. Check it out below.

# Free stretching
# Alternating pushups with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 20
# V situps with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 15
# Side pull with bands — 3 sets of 30 seconds
# Hops with touch — 3 sets of 30
# Climbing with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 40
# Squat and short throw with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 15
# Burpee with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 15
# Russian Twist with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 30
# Lunge and rotation with medicinal ball — 3 sets of 10 to each side

 

Ver essa foto no Instagram

 

Uma publicação compartilhada por Gracie Magazine Brasil (@graciemagoficial) em 19 de Mar, 2020 às 6:15 PDT

Kyra Gracie. GRACIEMAG

Always looking for new experiences, Kyra Gracie from Gracie Kore, located in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, recently welcomed a special guest. Luciano Jatobá, a blind competitor, is a black-belt in BJJ. And today you’ll learn his favorite submission starting from the guard.

Jatobá applied the choke on Kyra with his hand on her lapel, and the move got her so fast that she had to take a moment before weighing in verbally on its effectiveness.

Translated transcript:

J: “You are in my guard. I release the lapel and grab it here under the arm. The grip is this one here, Kyra.”

K: “With the four fingers here, right?”

J: “I close a fist here, and done. On the same side, I’m gonna put four fingers on the inside, way up on her neck. The hand is on the outside here. Theoretically, she thinks there’s nothing here. I pull this hand here to this side, and I already bring it down choking her with the blade of my arm. This is a very good position; I’ve won at least one championship with this position.”

K: “It really is. It gets you quickly.”

J: “And it’s an innocent position.”

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Even though there is an infinity of options on the ground to choose from, a BJJ fighter should never forget that the fight starts standing. And if you’re looking for a good takedown to add to your game, what better place to find inspiration than at the Judo World Championships? So here’s a collection of the twenty best ippons employed by competitors at this year’s edition.

Enjoy and have a good week of training.

Looking to win his middleweight bout against Robson Ferreira on Aug. 23 at Future MMA 8, Caio Borralho has intensified his training. Working with him on his ground game is Demian Maia, leader of Vila da Luta — and the UFC legend made us a video showing one of his many tricks.

Demian and Caio show here how the passer can avoid an attack on their leg with a sneaky finish via kata-gatame. Demian stresses the importance of isolating his opponent’s hips so that the transition toward the leg can be completed. Then he slides his arm to his opponent’s shoulder, underhooking to get in underneath, making a hand-to-hand grip to then apply pressure and free the leg. Then he arrives on the side to squeeze the choke.

Check out this technique in the following video and don’t miss out on Future MMA 8, which will be livestreamed for free on the Future MMA app.

Translated transcript:

“I’ll ask him to get a knee bar from the bottom, and I’ll show how I counter the knee bar.

“I’m passing Caio’s guard here, and he has spun to my knee. His idea is to spin and stretch my knee.

“So once the guy spins to my knee, the first thing I have to do is shut down his hip here. With his hip here pressed against my body, I can’t do anything. So I’ll give it a little pull [0:43] and use my chest to shut down his hip. Push, Caio. It’s harder, right? I’ll make a base and get my hand in, to his shoulder, to defend. And here, nobody will notice the counterattack. Hand to hand. I’ll adjust, I’ll stretch my leg, crushing him, and arriving on the side. Right? He attacked me with a knee bar; I shut down his hip, spun and went to the kata-gatame.”

Future MMA 8
São Paulo, SP
Aug. 23, 2019

70 kg (title fight) – Jackson Tortora vs. Alex Canguru
66 kg – Marcos Babuíno vs. Cleiton Foguete
61 kg – Gustavo Erak vs. Rogério Carvalho
77 kg – Cleber Sousa vs. Vinicius Cruz
120 kg – Henrique Montanha vs. Hugo Cunha
70 kg – Augusto Abdias vs. Magnus Kelly
70 kg – Jack Godzilla vs. Rogério Karranca
61 kg – Luís Felipe Buda vs. Nilton Gavião
84 kg – Robson Ferreira vs. Caio Borralho
66 kg – Gabriel Oliveira vs. Alireza Noei
61 kg – Caionã Blade vs. Raul Baiano
57 kg (women) – Bruna Vargas vs. Alana Souza

The thin boy began bulking up, acquiring skills, and impressing the world with his brand of jiu-jitsu. After each trip to Rio de Janeiro, to compete in the IBJJF World Championships, Jacaré would return home with a handful of gold and good stories to tell.

In 2003, for instance, Jaca confirmed his favoritism in the brown belt by claiming the medium heavy and absolute titles at Tijuca Tennis Club.

In the absolute final, he was pitted against Lucio Rodrigues, who also happens to have a reptilian nickname (his Lagarto being the lizard to Jacaré’s alligator). Things sure heated up.

Four minutes in, check out how Jacaré nearly submits Lagarto from the back. But Lagarto, who nowadays teaches at Gracie Barra, had some defensive skills to brag about.

Watch Jacaré’s win right here:

Matheus is a sitting world champion. 

Always on the lookout for the most modern techniques in BJJ, Graciemag this time sought help from the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, with our friends over at Wilson Ulhoa’s DOMO Sport Training Center.

For today’s lesson we recruited Matheus “Teteu” Menezes, who became a blue belt world champion at the 2019 Worlds. Now a purple-belt, he demonstrated the move that got him there. He enters the one-leg guard, uses the hook of the X guard, and then comes up and takes down his opponent, winning two points.

Transcript: “I’ll do the traditional grip and pull to the one-leg X guard. I’ve pulled my opponent; he’ll start kneeling to try to defend the position. I’ll change to the throw-it-in-the-trash [0:39]. I’ve made the grip on the sleeve here to have the control, and I’ll get into the X position. I’m trying to throw him. He’ll fight it. I use force toward the ground, bringing his leg with me. And from here, I can already get started on the guard pass.”

Abi-Rihan secures the gold medal.

Today’s throwback takes us to a confrontation of ten years ago, when the Brazilian Nationals still had the sacred temple of Brazilian jiu-jitsu for a stage — Tijuca Tennis Club in Rio de Janeiro.

In Brazil we use the Portuguese word for cauldron to describe an arena packed with a very loud crowd, and those wishing to understand what we mean should turn up the volume to watch the video below. It’s a battle between Raphael Abi-Rihan and Tarsis Humphreys in the medium heavyweight final of the 2009 Brazilian Nationals, held by the CBJJ.

Kyra Gracie adjusts a choke on Malvino Salvador. Carlos Arthur Jr.

Our partner school Gracie Kore, which has welcomed names like Robson Gracie, Roger Gracie and even Brazilian megastar Zeca Pagodinho, had last month a day of training featuring owner couple Kyra Gracie and Malvino Salvador testing out a few BJJ positions.

The session, documented exclusively by the Graciemag team, took place during the seminar with Roger Gracie. The ten-time world champion taught details for choking from the back, and the disciplined student Malvino, a purple-belt actor who has appeared in telenovelas for the past 15 years, recruited Kyra to perform the move.

With Roger’s tips, Malvino tried out the choke, and then it was Kyra’s turn to return the present, with her well-known pressure when attacking from the back.

Watch the happy couple roll here:

Fake news hits BJJ. GRACIEMAG

The speed that information travels, thanks to the internet, may be the defining aspect of the era we live in. But alongside content that has relevance and quality, we have witnessed the rise of fake news — and it travels just as fast. In BJJ, as in any other field, fake news can be dangerous, as they spread wrong philosophies or give credit to harmful practices.

So we decided to invite a few teachers to say what, in their opinion, is the biggest piece of fake news about BJJ that they’ve heard. Here are their thoughts.

Fabio Gurgel: “The biggest piece of fake news? Wanting to turn the new generation of BJJ into Nutella. These kids are too tough!”

Roberto Godoi: “The most fun piece of fake news is that one popularized by UFC fans, about Steven Seagal. It was always hilarious to see the movie star give that final ‘polish’ moments before an athlete would go in for a fight.”

Zé Mario Sperry: “The biggest bit of fake news I’ve seen lately in the BJJ community is that athlete that posts a picture with a medal on his chest, boasting — and the title came after just one match, and won by W.O. at that. Brilliant.”

Bernardo Faria: “Tough one, but something that is fake in BJJ is when that higher-ranked guy turns to you and proclaims, ‘Oh, that position doesn’t work.’ I will never agree with that. Maybe that technique doesn’t work for you but fits great in someone else’s game. My half-guard is an example: When I started doing it, I’d let all my opponents arrive on top and gain the underhook, and I heard over and over that I could never let that happen, that it was a mistake… But I’d always end up sweeping everybody from there. In BJJ, there’s no right or wrong, and everything can work, as long as you comprehend the position deeply and know the right time to use that technique.”

Rafael Dallinha: “Fake news in BJJ is the matter of learning only online, without ever having trained on a mat with a real master, and getting promoted even so. I’m not chastising online learning in any way, which presently has many very high-level teachers helping students through this format; but I believe that in-person classes are vital to the total comprehension of the gentle art, its history and its benefits.”

Rolles Gracie: “In this age of fake news, the world of BJJ isn’t free from it. There are many frauds out there teaching in schools or showing techniques on Instagram. The student must watch out, do their research well to avoid getting duped.”

Muzio De Angelis: “Easy one: Fake news in BJJ is saying that Renzo Gracie will retire one day. We all know that Renzo will be fighting until the last day of his life — like, really old. Renzo, my man, you will be doing MMA at 70. Oss!”