Mendes brothers with the AOJ team in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Personal archive

The Mendes brothers, Guilherme and Rafael, traveled to Tokyo, Japan this past weekend as part of their annual trek to compete at the 2014 Rickson Gracie Cup. This time they took a number of their students form GMA Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy. All fared well and the brothers came away with a great experience plus some double gold achievements.

We spoke with Gui Mendes about the trip, what the Jiu-Jitsu scene is like in Japan and how the students did:

GRACIEMAG: What were your matches like in the weight division?

The double gold brothers. Photo: Personal archive

GUILHERME MENDES: Rafael had 3 fights and I had 2, we both were able to finish all our fights with the submission. I used the baseball choke in all the fights of my division and used choke from the back in the absolute, Rafa used armbar, choke and choke from the back.

Who was your toughest match in the open weight?

The level of difficulty was the same as our division. I believe that we fought with no pressure and focused on showing our technique and technical progress so we were able to apply nice moves.

What makes competing in Japan different than the rest? Why do you always keep it in your competition schedule each year?

The energy is different, the level of respect and love of our fans are some things that keep bringing us back every year. We do not do it for the medals or money, we want to be there every year because it’s fantastic to be around people that recognize your work and give the right value to it. Japan is our favorite place to compete so far.

How would you describe the Jiu-Jitsu scene in Japan?

The level of kids, blue belts and purple belts is really good. We saw amazing matches over there. In the brown and black belt [divisions] they have less competitors but it’s still good and fun to compete. It’s growing and in the future it will be even better!

How did your students do?

Gui, Mason Monsevais, Rafa, Danny Stolfi. Photo: Personal archive

Great! We had 9 kids from our school competing and it was another successful tournament. They train hard and achieved the result that they were expecting; they made us really proud one more time because we had the opportunity to show our work with the kids in a different country.

A lot of people came to us to say how impressed they were with the level of our students. Also, we had two of the AOJ coaches competing and they did amazing! Mason Monsevais won again, he is an amazing competitor and is building his name in the sport. We can’t wait to see him competing next year. Danny Stolfi is a purple belt middleweight and won double gold submitting most of his opponents. He is another student that has been improving fast and dedicating himself to become a great champion.

I see that all the work that the students have been putting in is starting to give them the results that they want. It’s motivating and exciting! I’m sure we will have a lot of champions in the next competition season!

Check out footage of the matches on artofjiujitsu.com!

With the kids of AOJ. Photo: Personal archive

Blue belts face off. Photo: Erin Herle

The much anticipated showdown between top teams Alliance and Atos has already begun after the very first day of the 2014 World Championship on May 29 inside the Long Beach Walter Pyramid in California. The two teams scattered the results page as the white belts for male and female, male blue belts and two purple belt male divisions established initial team scores.

So far the points for the male adult team category are as follows:

1 – Alliance – 38
2 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 37
3 – GF Team – 19

And for the adult female team category:

1 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 16
2 – Gracie Barra – 14
3 – Gracie Elite Team – 13

The white belts ended the day in the novice team category as follows:

1 – Alliance – 21
2 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 16
3 – Gracie Barra – 15

In some cases, members of the same team fought each other rather than closing out. Often times the athletes will let teammates pass whether they train with them every day or not. In the blue belt light-featherweight category, Mason Monsevais under the Mendes brothers at Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy met Pablo Mantovani Dutra under Gustavo Campos in the final. Pablo took the gold after a referee decision.

Spencer Nogawa against Ruben Coronado. Photo: Erin Herle

Another Atos match-up came in the featherweight category between Ruben Coranado under Andre Galvao at Atos in San Diego, CA and Spencer Nogawa also under the Mendes brothers at Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Spencer was able to take the win by points and also defeat another Atos member in the final, Pedro Oliveira Crixel also under Gustavo Campos, for the gold.

Age was more than just a number as many newly crowned world champions are also too young to be considered an adult. Mikey Musumeci conquered the purple belt light-featherweight category at seventeen and was even promoted to brown belt by Guilherme Mendes on the podium. Another young one is Luan Gustavo Frasson of Zenith BJJ who won the blue belt lightweight category at the age of seventeen. Spencer Nogawa is a bit older at the age of eighteen.

Luan Frasson. Photo: Erin Herle

You can see the full results of the first day of the 2014 World Championship here.

To see full photo albums, visit our facebook page albums here.

The AOJ kids at the tournament. Photo: Personal Archive

On Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 14-15, the Mendes brothers Rafael and Guilherme led their team to victory from big to small. The GMA  Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy won another kids title at the SJJF Kids Worlds tournament placing first as a team.

They had 53 kids competing and we won more than 40 medals.

Getting the team trophy. Photo: Personal Archive

Guilherme says, “It is a great result for us and we are very happy, today we lead the best kids team in the World and we know that the best is yet to come. We are gonna change the sport, we will make more champions than any other academy has ever made, it is part of our plan for the future and we are working hard on it. We would like to thank all of our students and coaches from AOJ for the amazing team work. It is just the beginning!”

In the adult divisions of the championship two stand-out competitors placed first in their divisions. Blue belt Mason Monsevais won the super feather division with submissions in all four of his matches. Purple belt Rick Slomba won the feather division.

Mason Monsevais after submitting all four opponents for the gold. Photo: Personal Archive

The brothers have their eyes on these two students who came from Fresno, CA and Baltimore, MD respectively: “We would like to say congratulations to our students Mason Monsevais and Rick Slomba for the amazing performance during this whole year. They moved to California to train with us when we started AOJ, they train everyday four times day and are two of the many champions that we have for 2014!”

Rick Slomba on the purple belt feather podium. Photo: Personal Archive

Check out more of the results for the AOJ team at www.artofjiujitsu.com

See Mason in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–ziYeamKvs