The second edition of the Copa Podio Middleweight Grand Prix will be on Sunday, September 8 in Rio de Janeiro. The ten athletes, who are separated in two groups, will match-up against each opponent within their group. Whoever earns the most points will move on to compete against those who earned the most points in the opposite group.

Check out where the athletes are before the big show in a few days:

Travis Stevens made his way from Boston to the Graciemag headquarters in Rio with CEO Luca Atalla and team. Photo: Alan Teo

Kit Dale traveled from Australia and is around Rio training at major academies like the one here, Checkmat Copacabana. Photo: Kit Dale

Paulo Miyao competed in a local tournament and closed out with his brother Joao. Photo: Paulo Miyao

Davi Ramos won his most recent MMA fight with a guillotine in the first round. Photo: Davi Ramos

Felipe Pene trained with his instructor Draculino as the Gracie Barra Texas leader visited Brazil. Photo: Felipe Pena

Manny Diaz flew into Sao Paulo and trained with Leandro Lo who will be facing Claudio Calasans in a superfight. Photo: Manny Diaz

The full schedule for the event in PST or LA time is as follow:

City Challenge(No time limit to submission) – 1:00 pm (LA)
Manaus (Diego Borges) x San Diego (Clark Gracie)

ROUND 1 GP – 2:00 PM (LA)
Verde Renato Cardoso x Travis Stevens
Verde Paulo Miyao x Manuel Diaz
Amarelo Felipe Preguiça x Alexandro Ceconi
Amarelo Diogo Moreno x Davi Ramos

ROUND 2 GP – 2:35 pm (LA)
Verde Paulo Miyao x Jaime Canuto
Verde Manuel Diaz x Travis Stevens
Amarelo Diogo Moreno x Kit Dale
Amarelo Alexandro Ceconi x Davi Ramos

ROUND 3 GP – 3:10 pm (LA)
Verde Manuel Diaz x Renato Cardoso
Verde Travis Stevens x Jaime Canuto
Amarelo Davi Ramos x Felipe Preguiça
Amarelo Alexandro Ceconi x Kit Dale

ROUND 4 GP – 3:45 pm (LA)
Verde Travis Stevens x Paulo Miyao
Verde Jaime Canuto x Renato Cardoso
Amarelo Alexandro Ceconi x Diogo Moreno
Amarelo Kit Dale x Felipe Preguiça

ROUND 5 GP – 4:20 pm (LA)
Verde Jaime Canuto x Manuel Diaz
Verde Renato Cardoso x Paulo Miyao
Amarelo Kit Dale x Davi Ramos
Amarelo Felipe Preguiça x Diogo Moreno

SPECIAL MATCH (NO GI) 5:30 pm (LA)
Leandro Lo x Cláudio Calasans

Catch the livestream by going to www.copapodio.com

Paulo Miyao em ação no San Francisco Open. Foto: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

A tese é conhecida desde os tempos de grande mestre Carlos Gracie. A partir do chão, um elemento equalizador de forças, o Jiu-Jitsu oferece a chance de um atleta mais leve superar um lutador mais forte.

Quem provou isso mais uma vez foi o peso-pena Paulo Miyao, que após brilhar na categoria ao lado do irmão João, ditou o ritmo para vencer o absoluto contra os mais pesados, pelo San Francisco Open, realizado no último fim de semana.

Para fechar o aberto com o mano, Paulo passou pelo duro Manny Diaz. E fez o que mais sabe: se enrolou nas pernas do oponente para abusar dos giros para as costas.

Curtiu a vitória do magrinho habilidoso? Comente com a gente.

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

Photos by Mike Calimbas

Manny’s road to Dubai has been an interesting one thus far. He was a golf professional before he began training in Jiu-Jitsu. He was trying to become a playing professional, but ended up a teaching professional. “I played golf eight to 10 hours a day for years,” he says, “I dropped it just like that for Jiu-Jitsu. I have barely played golf in three years.”

Manny started training in 2009 at Sandro Batata BJJ. He claimed gold at the Pan and received his blue belt on the podium. He’d only been a white belt for three months. As a blue belt, Manny attended the 2009 Abu Dhabi Pro Trials in Santa Cruz. “I was two matches away from going to Dubai when I lost by an advantage point,” he says, “I knew then that getting to the Abu Dhabi World Pro Cup was one of my main goals in Jiu-Jitsu.”

Manny took silver at the 2009 US Open, the 2010 American Cup, and the 2010 Worlds. He then took seven months off from training Jiu-Jitsu to pursue MMA and his standup, but he still competed at Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, winning the 2010 American Nationals and claiming double gold at the US Open, taking both his medium heavyweight division and the open; he was promoted to purple belt on the podium. Manny then had one MMA fight, which he won.

He attempted competing at the 2011 Abu Dhabi World Pro trials in San Diego, but lost to a referee’s decision in his first match. “I was unprepared,” Manny says, “It was my first purple belt competition, and I’d only trained for about a week.” Then Manny came back, competed at the Pan, and took silver. “I felt like I really shined there,” he says, “I surprised a lot of people. No one really knew who I was.”

by Mike Calimbas

His success at the Pan motivated him to continue training hard, but his plans to open his own Jiu-Jitsu school got in the way. He signed up for the Worlds but didn’t realize how much work it would be getting his school ready. “I just had no time to train,” he says, “I ended up having to go up a weight class because I hadn’t been watching my weight. I was so tired from working. I just wasn’t mentally or physically prepared.” At the 2011 Worlds, Manny lost his first match by two points.

Watsonville Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu opened the following weekend and Manny made his academy his main focus. He still wanted to compete, but he had a hard time balancing his priorities. “My training time was cut in half,” he says, “I was trying to train twice on Sundays to make up for it.”

Then over the summer, Manny began driving to San Francisco to train with Antonio Braga Neto until A.B.N. had to leave for Brazil. “It meant a lot to me to be able to train with him,” Manny says, “I hadn’t been exposed to that level of training before. I had never been smashed like that ever. He walked through me. He demolished me! He opened my mind and made me see possibilities I hadn’t seen before. It propelled me forward.”

Manny attended the Las Vegas Open in August and won double gold in his weight and the open. “You can’t beat having a world champion kick your butt,” he says, “A.B.N. made me feel like a white belt. It got me going, gave me my confidence back. After training with him, everyone else felt like air to me. The pressure I felt going against my opponents was nowhere near what he did to me.”

Manny attended the 2011 US Open. He’d won it the past two years in a row and he wanted to win it as a purple belt, which he did. Manny was a double gold winner, taking both his weight and the open class. “I feel like my game has grown to a point where I don’t have to worry about my opposition,” he says, “I can focus on what I’m going to do to them, not what they’re going to do to me.” Manny started training with Caio Terra at the Institute of Martial Arts and says that Caio and his team really helped him refine his game. “They offer me really great support, which has been the most important thing to me,” he says.

In November, Manny flew out to compete in the 202 lbs. category at the San Antonio Trials. He had three matches in his weight. He won the first on points, the second via armbar, and his final with a loop choke to take gold. In the absolute he had four matches and caught three of his opponents in armbars, finishing one of them in just 15 seconds. He won his semifinals match by a referee’s decision, but unfortunately, his foot snapped during the contest. “Everyone heard it and thought I broke my leg,” he says, “I thought I broke my ankle, but I kept attacking anyway. I almost caught him in a couple armbars, but he kept getting out of them.” Manny persevered and won the match to move on to the absolute final.

by Mike Calimbas

In his last and most important match of the day, Manny says he tried to pretend nothing was wrong, but everything was wrong. “I couldn’t put any pressure on my foot,” he says, “I pulled guard right away. I worked sweeps… I could hear Samir [Chantre] coaching me to do other things, but I couldn’t do them because of my foot.” Manny started playing spider-guard and ended up tapping his opponent out with an armbar, giving him double gold for the day and a ticket to Dubai in 2012.

“It was very emotional for me,” Manny says of his big win, “I can’t describe it. It still hasn’t set in. I felt like these last three years went into that moment. Seeing all the people who get to go to Dubai… only the best. I told myself if I had a goal in Jiu-Jitsu, other than winning the Pan and the Worlds, this is it. I want to go and be amongst the best. I’ve always wanted to see how I would stand with them.”

Now, Manny is going to heal his foot before his big trip in the spring and prepare himself for his 2012 goals that lay ahead of him. “I want to win the Abu Dhabi World Pro Cup, the Pan and then the Worlds,” he says, “I’m going to continue to move forward and do my best.”

Manny's arm raised at Mike Colón's expense / Photo: Jerry Roberts

This was Manny’s second time competing in an absolute. The first came at the US Open, where he had the good fortune to close out the bracket with a teammate. This time, the win was all his. He had four matches in the open class. He won the first two by points and the third by armbar. “I fought really tough guys,” Manny says, “The little guys drain me. They really move. They wore me out!”

But Manny persevered and went on to face Gracie Barra’s Mike Colón in the finals. The two are not strangers to each other. They’re in the same weight class and met up at last year’s Pan in the same fashion, with Manny getting the better of Mike. At the Las Vegas Open Manny was able to shut Mike down again to take gold in the absolute.

“I watch Mike all the time,” Manny says, “He’s got the longest legs. I had to stay tight so he wouldn’t triangle me. He’s really good and he’s got good sportsmanship, too. It’s like battling a friend. It’s been a good experience fighting him. It makes it better. Makes it feel like we’re friends out here.”

As the two exchanged humorous banter after the match, Manny telling a laughing but frustrated Mike that there was a way he could beat him at his game. “You could get me if you just figured out how,” Manny said. The two went back and forth until Mike finally figured out that the omoplata is Manny’s kryptonite where Mike is concerned. “Maybe we should train together,” joked Colón.

In the medium heavy division, Manny had three matches on the day. He won the first by points. “I was playing guard, which is my game,” Manny says, “I like to let an opponent decide what they’re gonna do. Everyone likes the top; I like guard, so it works to my advantage.”

His second match was against the aforementioned Mike Colón. Manny won by two advantages to one. “He has a really good spider-guard,” says Manny, “Him and his daddy long legs! I had three loop chokes on him and he got out of all of them.”

Manny overcame Brad Pearson of Lloyd Irvin in the final to take divisional gold. It would be Manny’s first time winning double gold on his own and also his first time competing at the Las Vegas International Open. “It’s a great tournament,” he says, “Really well organized. I will definitely come back next year.”

One interesting tidbit about Manny is that he has only been doing Jiu-Jitsu for two and a half years. Prior to him taking up the gentle art, he was a golf pro; a teaching professional. “I just get it,” he says, referring to learning Jiu-Jitsu techniques. Winning double gold for the day, Manny definitely proved at the Las Vegas Open that he indeed gets it!