Gabi Garcia treinando MMA. Foto: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

Gabi Garcia tem finalmente uma adversária à vista. A faixa-preta de Jiu-Jitsu vai estrear no MMA em dezembro, no Japão. Ela vai encarar uma judoca chinesa na categoria até 93kg, cujo nome ainda é cercado de mistério, por questões contratuais.

O novo momento da carreira já provocou uma série de mudanças na vida da campeã formada por Fabio Gurgel. Ela mudou-se de São Paulo para Huntington Beach, onde está morando com a mãe.

A rotina de Gabi no sul da Califórnia está dividida em três etapas de tirar o fôlego. Primeiro, ela treina a parte em pé na Kings MMA com Rafael Cordeiro. Depois, Gabi guarda as luvas e treina sem kimono na academia de Rubens Cobrinha. E por fim, faz o último treino com Jacob Harman, treinador de wrestling.

“O treino de MMA é tão difícil que outro dia quando fui treinar no Cobrinha pensei que estava no céu. Realmente, leva um tempo para se acostumar a levar socos no rosto”, conta Gabi.

Antes da estreia no MMA, Gabi defende o título no ADCC 2015, agendado para os dias 29 e 30 de agosto, em São Paulo.
Bicampeã do evento sem kimono, Gabi quer o terceiro título na categoria acima de 60kg.

Gabi Garcia training MMA at Kings MMA, in Huntington Beach, CA

Gabi Garcia has finally an opponent in sight.

The Jiu-Jitsu black belt will debut in MMA against a Chinese judoka on a big event in Japan, at the end of 2015.

This is what she confirmed to GRACIEMAG in the morning of this Wednesday, July 15.

The new moment in the career already motivated a lot of changes in Gabi’s life.

She moved from São Paulo, Brazil, to Huntington Beach, CA, where she is living with her mother.

“She came to help me stay in the diet and also to help me deal with all those changes.”

Gabi practicing her striking at Kings MMA

Gabi’s new routine makes her drive to three training grounds in Southern California.

She goes to Rafael Cordeiro’s Kings MMA to train striking, then she’s off to Cobrinha BJJ for her ground work and finally she joins the ranks of Jacob Harman’s Calvary Chapel wrestling camp.

“I’m going to change my ticket and go back to Brazil. I can’t take it anymore,” she jokes about the intensity of the training she’s been doing.

Before the MMA debut, Gabi has a commitment with grappling at the end of August, the 2015 ADCC.

Champion in 2011, in Nottingham, UK, and in 2013, in Beijing, China, Gabi wants her third title in the +60kg division.

“The MMA training is so hard that the other day when I went to train at Cobrinha’s it was like I was in heaven. It really takes a while to get used to get punched in the face.”

Gabi can’t give out the name of the organization she’s going to compete in MMA yet, but she guarantees it’s going to be a huge event.

She told GRACIEMAG she still does not know the name of the opponent, but she knows it’s a Chinese judoka.

“There are four other girls in my division. This first opponent is bigger than me!” says Gabi, who told us she will compete at the 93kg (205lb) division.

Fabricio Werdum: his three jobs parallel to the UFC do not distract him from his main goal, the heavyweight belt. Photo: GRACIEMAG archives

GRACIEMAG: How are you leading up to this decisive clash with Travis Browne at the April 19 UFC in Orlando?

FABRICIO WERDUM: I feel in the best moment of my career. I’m 36 and I’m living my most professional phase as a fighter. I’m also a UFC commentator in the Spanish version that goes out to Latin America. And I have a third responsibility as the UFC ambassador in Latin America. My role is to introduce the sport and explain the UFC to people who don’t know it. Not to the fans, but to the new potential spectators. So I have three jobs in the UFC: fighter, commentator and ambassador. And physically and technically I feel very good.

So you’re constantly either training or traveling – is that it?

Yes. The UFC sends me to Mexico, Colombia, Chile and many other countries. I stay in each place for three days and promote the outfit in every medium. The UFC is investing a lot in these new markets. I also tape the show “UFC Ahora,” a Spanish-language version of “UFC Now,” with Kenny Florian and Daniel Cormier. There’s also a Latin American “TUF” in the works, whose registration is still open for rookie athletes. The coach must be Cain Velasquez, against either me or Travis Browne. Whoever wins this bout is going to be a “TUF” coach in Latin America. It will be special, as the reality show will be gathering fighters from many countries.

How is your camp for the Travis fight?

The training is excellent; I’ve now been training for seven years with Professor Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA gym. The wrestling aspect is in the hands of Kenny Johnson, who adapts takedowns to MMA like no one. For almost two years I’ve been honing my BJJ and doing physical preparation at Rubens Cobrinha’s academy. Today I weight 109kg and feel great. Cobrinha is a very serious guy as a coach, he demands a lot of repetition, so I think I’m going in very well technically as well.

How do you evaluate your BJJ today?

I hear a lot of people in MMA say: “You don’t need to train BJJ anymore; you’re already good.”I think the exact opposite. Since everybody already knows my BJJ is strong, I must practice that much more to get it even better – otherwise my foes will be able to avoid it easily. These days I get to Cobrinha’s school at 8 a.m. and he only lets me leave at 2:30 p.m.! I’m on the mat the whole time – I only step off it to eat something and take supplements. I don’t want to have happen to me what I saw happen to many BJJ fighters who started training boxing and muay thai and had their games change completely. I’m aware that my game is on the ground. Once
we’re down, I know the fight must be finished; I can’t lose the position.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M5cyDlmzHM

What is the worst part about transitioning from BJJ to the UFC?

Getting hit in the face, of course. If you watch my bouts you’ll see I don’t take many punches when I’m on the ground. I manage to defend well down there – the guy does hit, but not very hard. What helped me a lot in my transition was the self-defense program at the Behring schools. Behring, Corleta e Hunter – that makes all the difference. It’s the strong base for the guy to defend himself in the octagon.

What is Travis’ strong point?

He has very sharp muay thai and showed it recently. He has three wins with the best KO of the night, and that certainly cannot be underestimated. Travis Browne is doing his game so well that many of his fights don’t even get to the ground. That is also a consequence of his good takedown defense. He has a good elbow strike, but I remind fans I also have two elbows. If he hesitates I can throw one as well. But I’m calm; I’ll have 25 minutes to take him down, and I know we’re gonna hit the canvas.

With the event being in Orlando, you expect a lot of incentive from Brazilians from there, right?

I hope so; I hope there’s a noisy crowd there. If they chant, “Uh, vai cavalo!” [“Go, racehorse!” perhaps] then I’m gonna get emotional. I hope for a big number of supporters, also from Brazil through the TV. The last few times I went to Brazil I saw the people have been rooting for me more, respecting me for my recent wins. I ask them to really do it, because the positive energy from the people travels all the way to the octagon, and I’m leaving there with another victory to get me closer to the heavyweight belt.

Rafael dos Anjos dominou Mark Bocek, no UFC 154. Foto: UFC/Josh Hedges

Após uma luta divertida e convincente contra Mark Bocek no UFC 154, a parte empolgada da mídia especializada brasileira já começou a ver Rafael dos Anjos como um rival em potencial do campeão Ben Henderson, o atual dono do cinto dos leves.

Rafael não liga para esses confetes. O faixa-preta de Jiu-Jitsu de Roberto Gordo sabe que tem carências e alguns degraus a subir. E o melhor: não está com pressa.

Confira o que nós do GRACIEMAG.com aprendemos com ele neste rápido bate-papo:

Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu ou a porrada em pé? Onde você curtiu mais a luta com Bocek, no último sábado, em Montreal?

Achei a luta muito boa em todos os sentidos. Consegui impor minha estratégia e anular o jogo sempre perigoso do Mark, um lutador completo também. Sobre minha parte em pé, eu sempre quero melhorar nas áreas em que sou mais fraco, por isso treinei com Rafael Cordeiro na Kings MMA, e também na Black House e na Evolve MMA, em Cingapura. Todos os treinos têm sido benéficos para mim. Antes do UFC 154 fiquei duas semanas em Cingapura trocando com aquelas feras do muay thai de lá, e isso me ajudou bastante.

Qual a diferença dos treinos de muay thai na Cingapura e os treinos do Rafa na Kings MMA, na Califa?

Com o Rafael o treino sempre é de um muay thai voltado para o MMA, com os golpes combinados. Fazemos a trocação e a parte de queda e chão também. Já em Cingapura é o muay thai puro.

A quantos degraus você se vê do campeão Ben Henderson?

Não sei a quantos degraus estou dele hoje, mas estou seguindo firme na minha caminhada.
 Sei apenas que nossos estilos são um pouco diferentes, as origins também. Ele vem do taekwondo e do wrestling e eu do Jiu-Jitsu.

Dana White disse que pretende fazer 12 eventos no Brasil ano que vem. Você esperar lutar no Brasil em 2013?

Seria uma boa, faz tempo que nao luto com a torcida a favor! (Risos)

E quem você enfrenta agora? O Gleison Tibau é um nome forte, que te venceu. Gostaria de uma revanche?

Tenho vontade sim, mas essa categoria é muito cheia, então acho que não é muito provável.

Rafael dos Anjos dominated Mark Bocek at UFC 154. Photo by Josh Hedges/UFC.

Following his convincing performance against Mark Bocek at UFC 154, an enthusiastic portion of Brazil’s specialized media has started murmuring about Rafael dos Anjos being a potential challenger to Ben Henderson’s lightweight belt.

Rafael isn’t getting caught up in the hype, though. The Roberto Gordo Jiu-Jitsu black belt knows he’s got some holes in his game to patch up and some rungs on the ladder of challengers to climb. And the best part: he’s in no hurry.

Check out what we at GRACIEMAG.com learned from him in a recent conversation:

Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu or standing and banging—which part of your performance against Josh Bocek last Saturday were you most pleased with?

I feel it was a good fight all around. I managed to impose my game plan on him and neutralize Mark’s always dangerous game. He’s a well-rounded fighter too. Where my standup is concerned, I always try to improve on where I’m weakest, which is why I trained with Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA and at Black House, as well as at Evolve MMA in Singapore. Training at all these places has been beneficial to me. In the lead-up to UFC 154 I spent two weeks in Singapore working on my striking with the Thai boxing aces they have over there, and that helped me a lot.

What’s the difference between the Thai boxing training in Singapore and that with Rafa at Kings MMA in California?

With Rafael it’s MMA-geared Thai boxing, combining standup striking with takedowns and even grappling. Now, in Singapore it’s pure Thai boxing.

How many steps do you feel you are from Ben Henderson?

I don’t know how many steps away from him I am right now, but I am forging ahead on my path. All I know is that our styles are kind of different, our origins too. He comes from taekwondo and wrestling, while I come from Jiu-Jitsu.

Dana White said he intends to hold 12 events in Brazil next year. Do you expect to fight in Brazil in 2013?

It would be great. It’s been a while since I’ve had the crowd on my side (laughs).

And who will you face next? Gleison Tibau is a solid name, and one who beat you. Would you like a rematch?

I would like one. This is a really stacked division, though, so I don’t think it’s too likely.

Para isso, o lutador esquentou as turbinas na Kings MMA com feras como Maurício Shogun, Fabrício Werdum e Renato Babalu, entre outros, supervisionado pelo mestre Rafael Cordeiro.

Confira:

In hopes of keeping his promise, the fighter warmed up his engines at Kings MMA alongside Maurício Shogun, Fabrício Werdum and Renato Babalu among others, all under the watchful eye of Master Rafael Cordeiro.

Take a look: