Pablo beat Saggioro 5-3 to become the champion in the Professional black belt lightweight division. Photo: Personal archive

After succeeding in structuring his personal life in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, Pablo Mantovani resumed doing what he has always done well: competing. A teacher and athlete full-time, Pablo proved, in practice, that he is sharper than ever as he won the Grand Slam in Moscow, Russia.

In the tournament held by the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro Tour (AJP), Pablo conquered the 69kg division when he defeated Leonardo Saggioro (BTT) in the final, scoring 5 points to Saggioro’s 3, with a guard pass and a back-take. Pablo’s path was not easy: he also had to eliminate Abubakar Khadaev and win a tough battle against Raul Basílio in the semifinal, where the score was 4-4.

In a recent interview, Pablo analyzed his fight with Saggioro, one of the biggest names in the division.

“I’ve been following him for a while,” said Pablo. “He’s done a World Championship final with Rubens Cobrinha, he’s done several tough fights with Rafael Mendes, and because of that, I knew I couldn’t afford to make mistakes. I left my comfort zone, and since I’m a guard player, I decided to take on his guard and try to pass. He has a good guard pass; that was when I decided to move away from his strong game. In the fight, he pulled; I accelerated to pass and take the back. Later, I ended up losing the back adjustments, and he put pressure to try to pass, but I managed to contain his impetus.”

Victory against great athletes, a Grand Slam title and lots of confidence once again. But how did Pablo keep his mind strong even after going a fair bit of time without competing? He explained:

“I believe that now, at 26, I’ve reached the maturity of an adult. What do I mean by that maturity? I mean not feeling pressure. Many times, I lost tournaments due to feeling pressured to win or because my opponent was tough. This time was different; I ignored that factor. I simply went there to have fun. I didn’t put pressure on myself before fighting; I was just a lot more focused this time. I fought moving forward because I wanted to win. Maturity was a determining factor in my victory.

“I read a few times that other athletes became world champions when they lost the fear of making mistakes. I just did what had to be done: I believed in my game and my potential. It made a big difference. I was ready to become champion — that’s my mindset. It’s to fight moving forward, whether on top or on the bottom, without the fear of making mistakes.”

It’s worth noting that when Pablo isn’t teaching at Baniyas Sport Club, he’s training with the Abu Dhabi national team, led by Ramon Lemos, which brings together some BJJ fighters that reside in the UAE. All the methodology that was being used at Atos Jiu-Jitsu gets applied to the team.

Tererê and Cobrinha. Photo Fernando Tererê’s Facebook Page

Two of Jiu-Jitsu’s greatest names met today in Russia and shared a training session once again after 8 years.

Two-time world champion Fernando Tererê and his perhaps most famous and accomplished black belt, Rubens Cobrinha, a four-time world champion himself, trained together in Moscow.

Tererê posted two quick techniques on his Facebook timeline.

Here’s one.

Here’s the second one.

Cobrinha wrote about on his page on Instagram: “The last time I train with @tererebjj was a 8 years ago. I was great seeing you and also learn more from this legend of our sport.”

The teams after day two of the Moscow Open

The Saturday of the 2014 IBJJF Moscow International Open was far more busy than the previous day, with every division busier and the venue filled with enthusiastic competitors and supporters of all belts.

The black belt divisions, in turn, were also significantly more busy and competitive and the results of these are detailed below:

The lightweight division consisted of the same two competitors from the no-gi event the day before, Robson Maia of Alliance and Samuel Herzog of UAE Jiu-Jitsu, with the addition of Oliver Geddes of Roger Gracie, moving down from middleweight on the second day. In the opening match, Oliver and Robson clashed for 10 minutes, with the action being decided almost entirely from the half guards of both players. At the end of the time, the score was 12-8, putting Oliver through to the final. Robson and Samuel’s third encounter went the same way as the previous two, with Samuel victorious with a guard pass after another 10 minutes of his pressuring top game. This left the final between Oliver and Samuel, and it was a drawn-out and tactical affair. Samuel picked up an early advantage for coming on top off a double guard pull, and then maintained pressure from the top whilst looking for his opportunity to pass. Flattening Oliver out towards the end earned him a second advantage, and that was enough to give him the victory and his third gold medal of the competition.

Middleweight was the busiest division of the day, with five entrants slated to be competing for the gold. Sadly, it was not going to be as simple as that. To begin the division, Thomas Oyarzun of Alliance in Switzerland defeated Rogerio Maciel of UAE Jiu-Jitsu by 3 advantages to 0 after the match closed with a score of 2-2. On the other side of the bracket, Ryan Durbin of Gracie Barra Texas did not return to the venue after the previous day’s competition which allowed Jose Luis Huber, also of UAE Jiu-Jitsu to advance to the final unopposed. This left a semi-final match between Thomas Oyarzun and Russia’s own Leonid Gatovskiy. Unfortunately, an early slam from an overenthusiastic guard pass attempt led to Leonid being disqualified and whilst Thomas was being treated following the incident he briefly passed out. For safety reasons he was not allowed to contest the final (or the absolute, later in the day) and thus Jose Luis Huber also took the final match without contest. A disappointing set of circumstances from a division that had the potential to be extremely exciting.

The middle-heavyweight division consisted of a straight final between Lorenzo Fraquelli, recent black belt under Roger Gracie, and Lucas Fiqueredo Duarte Rego of Alliance. A dangerous spider guard with an opportunistic top game allowed Lucas to rack up a lead of 19 points to 0 before he was able to take advantage of Lorenzo’s desperation to finish the fight to lock on an armbar of his own and take the submission victory shortly before time, and with it the championship.

At heavyweight, the lone fight was a rematch from the previous day of competition. Jorge Elias, who had submitted Renato Tavares with a toehold in the absolute, would face him again in the gi. This time the match went the distance, with Renato getting his revenge and taking the victory by 3 advantages to 0 to become heavyweight champion.

Ultra-heavyweight was a complicated three man division, with friends and teammates being drawn against each other. Igor Silva of GFTeam and UAE Jiu-Jitsu submitted Marlon Queiroz of Gracie Barra in less than 30 seconds, taking the win with a quick guard pull to armbar. With Marlon and the third member of the bracket, Thiago ‘Monstro’ Borges of GFTeam being friends, Marlon allowed ‘Monstro’ into the final where he then elected to close out with his teammate, giving Igor the ultra-heavyweight gold medal.

The final and most prestigious black belt division of the day, the absolute, was another division characterized by close-outs. Robson Maia was victorious over Jose Luis Huber by 6 points to 4 in a battle of sweeps, whilst Thiago ‘Monstro’ defeated Jorge Elias with a takedown, pass, and collar choke from side mount. Samuel Herzog advanced to one side of the final with Renato Tavares and Thiago ‘Monstro’ making way for him, and Igor Silva finished his second fight of the competition in under a minute, defeating Robson Maia by way of a sweep to mount followed by an armbar. Samuel then stepped aside for his UAE Jiu-Jitsu teammate in the final, giving Igor Silva the absolute title to add to his divisional title and drawing the black belt divisions to a close.

See the full results here: http://static.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/000324/en-US/Results.pdf

The referees at the 2014 IBJJF Moscow Open. Photo: IBJJF

Every year, the IBJJF works to bring tournaments to new countries or cities and give new audiences a chance to compete in the federation’s tournament circuit. This time it was Moscow that would see its first IBJJF competition. A strong group of fighters turned out in force in the lower belts, with several local academies fighting it out for the team championships and the prestige that came with it. The black belt divisions were slightly less busy, partly due to the still-growing nature of the sport in Russia, and partly due to the visa requirements for entry. But despite that, there were still enough black belts to put on some thrilling matches. The black belt results were as follows:

Samuel Herzog of UAE Jiu-Jitsu was one of several fighters from the middle eastern outpost of Jiu-Jitsu who made their way over to Russia for the championship, but the only one to take part in the no-gi event on the first day. He took gold in the lightweight division by defeating Robson Maia of Alliance by 8 points to 2, in a match where the points all came from sweeps.

The middleweight division saw Russia’s first black belt, Leonid Gatovskiy, becoming champion in the IBJJF’s first competition in Russia. He began his path to the championship by defeating Ryan Durbin of Gracie Barra Texas, probably the man who had travelled the furthest of all the competitors present, by north-south choke. This sent Ryan across to the other side of the bracket to face Oliver Geddes of Roger Gracie Academy. After some initial exchanges from the half-guard, Oliver was able to secure an omoplata-armlock to take his place in the final. The final lasted the full ten minutes, with Oliver going ahead midway through the fight with a sweep and near back take, but Leonid came back strongly to score a guard pass later in the match and take the win by 3 points to 2.

Middle-heavyweight was a rather eclectic division, populated by 60-something kilogram Jorge Elias from Alliance, Valecio Senna of Stone Fight team, fighting down four age categories, and Roger Gracie student Lorenzo Fraquelli. Jorge first defeated Lorenzo with a seamless combination of butterfly guard and X-guard sweeps combined with a smooth top game. After 10 minutes, the score was 12 to 0 in favor of Jorge. This being a three man bracket, Lorenzo’s next opponent would be Valecio. Valecio, also a black belt in Judo, managed to score two takedowns in a match where both men left nothing in the tank, with the final score being 4-2 in Valecio’s favor. In the final match, Jorge against used his dangerous guard to sweep and pass, and this time he managed to secure his veteran opponent’s back and finish with a choke, to become middle-heavyweight champion, at least three weight classes above his actual weight.

Renato Tavares of Frontline Academy was alone in his division and with no available option to satisfy his urge to fight, claimed his gold medal unopposed.

The absolute was a relatively sparse affair, lacking the customary collection of huge beasts who normally populate the division, making the division and title anyone’s to take. The final came down to two of the smallest competitors present: Jorge Elias, already middle-heavyweight champion fighting above his weight, and lightweight champion Samuel Hertzog. Jorge had submitted Renato with a toehold midway through his match to earn his spot, whilst Samuel had defeated Robson Maia in a gruelling contest where a strong but precarious lead of 6 advantages was sealed with a late takedown. The final wasn’t any less gruelling, with much of it spent with Jorge playing from the butterfly and seated guard that had stood him in good stead throughout the day. Samuel remained patient, working from the top and waiting for his opportunity. When it came, he was able to briefly pass to side control, earning him the three points that would give him the match and with it, the title of absolute champion to add to his lightweight gold.

See full results here: http://static.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/000324/en-US/Results.pdf

No duelo final do aberto, Igor superou o valente campeão peso leve Samuel Hertzog Canquerino, da UAE JJ Team, dos Emirados Árabes.

Para chegar à finalíssima, o atleta da GFTeam teve antes de bater Robson Maia, da Alliance, com um belo armlock, em duelo que você pode assistir logo abaixo. Para conferir os resultados completos, clique aqui!

It’s a wrap in Russia.

The first ever IBJJF event in Moscow took place this Saturday, november 8.

GF Team’s Igor Silva dominated the adult black belt division with double gold in the ultra-heavy and in the open class.

Here’s the open class semifinal between Silva and Robson Maia.

Here are the other results in the black belt division.

BLACK / Adult / Male / Light
First – Samuel Hertzog Canquerino – UAE Jiu-jitsu Team
Second – Oliver Leys Geddes – Roger Gracie
Third – Robson Alan Maia Borges – Alliance JJ

BLACK / Adult / Male / Middle
First – Jose Luis Huber – UAE Jiu-jitsu Team
Second – Thomas Hernan Oyarzun – Alliance International
Third – Leonid Gatovskiy – Gracie Barra
Third – Rogério Gomes Maciel – UAE Jiu-jitsu Team

BLACK / Adult / Male / Medium Heavy
First – Lucas Fiqueredo Duarte Rego – Alliance International
Second – Lorenzo Fraquelli – Roger Gracie

BLACK / Adult / Male / Heavy
First – Renato Tavares de Moraes – Frontline Academy
Second – Jorge Elias Bucaram Santistevan – Alliance International

BLACK / Adult / Male / Ultra Heavy
First – Igor Silva – GF Team
Second – Thiago Jorge Borges – GF Team International
Third – Marlon Frank Santos Queiroz – Gracie Barra

BLACK / Adult / Male / Open Class
First – Igor Silva – GF Team
Second – Samuel Hertzog Canquerino – UAE Jiu-jitsu Team
Third – Robson Alan Maia Borges – Alliance JJ
Third – Thiago Jorge Borges – GF Team International

In the teams competition, the standings were:

1 – Strela Team – 126
2 – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu International – 112
3 – Alliance International – 111

For the full results, go to ibjjf.com

The IBJJF has opened the registration period for the first ever event in Russia.

The 2014 Moscow International Open takes place November 7-8, at the CSKA.

Early bird registration gets a discount until October 7 and costs US$109.

For more info, go to ibjjf.com