Jiu-Jitsu world champion Gabi Garcia travelled this Friday to St. Louis, MO.

In Missouri, she met American pro wrestler and BJJ blue belt Lei’D Tapa (whose real name is Seini Iwalani Draughn).

The two will fight at Rizin FF’s New Year’s Eve card, in Tokyo, Japan.

Gabi posted on Instagram about her debut and the first encounter with her opponent: “I’m ready. I was born to be challenged.”

Tapa also wrote about her debut on her Instagram feed: “I’ve trained hard for this day to come and now that it’s here I’m even more hungry and determined to go that much harder. I am the Queen of Rings, a warrior and I will fight my heart out because I am destined for greatness!! Gabi be ready to bow down!! I will show no mercy!”

While Gabi moved to the USA a few months ago to train at Kings MMA under Rafael Cordeiro, with training partners like Babalu Sobral, Mauricio Shogun and Fabricio Werdum; Tapa trains at American Top Team with King Mo. Tapa’s Jiu-Jitsu coaches are black belts Michael Allen and Paulo Mushu, of Checkmat, in Charlotte, North Carolina. .

Tapa competes at Global Force Wrestling, but has also some experience in competing in BJJ. She competed and won her division at the 2015 Atlanta Winter Open as a white belt and then again at the 2015 Atlanta Summer Open, already as a blue belt.

Before starting her career in wrestling in 2011, Tapa played women’s football for 4 seasons in the IWFL, playing for the Carolina Queens.

She was born in 1982, in Germany, while her father was stationed in a US Army base.

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

The new Japanese MMA event will be called Rizin Fighting Federation.

The announcement was made this Thursday, Oct. 8, in Tokyo, Japan.

Nobuyuki Sakakibara, former Pride FC president, also announced that the first card will be caled Rizin Fighting World Grand Prix, scheduled Dec. 31, at the Saitama Super Arena, in Tokyo.

The event will also feature fights on Dec. 29 and a MMA fan fest on Dec. 30.

The rules will be similar to Pride FC, with a 10-minute first round and boxing-style rings instead of MMA cages.

The only confirmed match was Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki. Sakuraba, now 46, will be making his return to the sport since his last fight, in 2011.

Russian MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko was also present at the press conference and his participation on the new year’s eve event is confirmed, but the opponent was not announced yet.

The same thing happened with BJJ superstar Gabi Garcia, who commented on the new event: “It will be a dream come true to fight in the birthplace of martial arts.”

Sakakibara announced the Japanese event will televised by the USA-based cable channel Spike TV.

The new event has partnerships with other MMA organizations like Bellator, Jungle Fight, KSW, BAMMA, King of Kings.

Check back here to know more about Rizin FF.

Gabi Garcia tem treinado MMA em ritmo intenso, na Califórnia. Foto: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

Na manhã desta quinta-feira, 8 de outubro, os fãs de MMA vão enfim conhecer os detalhes do evento de réveillon que promete sacudir a cena das artes marciais no Japão, e talvez no ocidente.

Com a presença de Fedor Emelianenko, de Gabi Garcia, do dirigente Nobuyuki Sakakibara, ex-presidente do Pride, o novo evento japonês será anunciado em uma grande coletiva de imprensa, transmitida direto de Tóquio para os fãs de todo mundo pelo site OmisoKakutogi.com.

O novo show de MMA será realizado no dia 31 de dezembro, na clássica Saitama Super Arena, palco de memoráveis edições do Pride, e já tem como atrações certas o mito Fedor Emelianenko, que não luta desde 2012, e Gabi, campeã de Jiu-Jitsu da Alliance que promove sua estreia no MMA. Segundo apurações do GRACIEMAG, o evento do CEO Sakakibara ainda negocia com um astro brasileiro do MMA, que poderá estar na coletiva desta quinta.

Além de personalidades do mundo das lutas e dirigentes, a coletiva do evento misterioso promete contar com Wallid Ismail e outros figurões. Segundo fontes ligadas ao evento, o adversário de Fedor Emelianenko ainda não foi escolhido, assim como a rival de Gabi Garcia pode não estar 100% confirmada.

Rumores davam conta de que o nome do novo evento seria Samurai, mas o staff da organização nega que o nome seja este.

Fique ligado para mais novidades.

Rickson Gracie fighting Takada at Pride 1. Photo by Nocaute

If you started following MMA after 2007, you haven’t experience the thrills of Pride FC.

From 1997 to 2007, the Japanese promotion was the main force in mixed martial arts and its demise left millions of fans feeling like the end of the world.

To this day, eight years after the company was sold to Zuffa, you can easily find in any MMA foum people saying the UFC in its geatest days will never compare to Pride.

In their defense, it’s fair to say Pride still holds the record for MMA event with the largest attendance, the August, 2002 Pride/K1 Shockwave/Dynamite, which drew over 91,000 people to the Tokyo National Soccer Stadium.

It’s also fair to remember that Pride FC was the stage for the greatest moments of legends like Rickson Gracie, Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, Rodrigo Minotauro, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randelman, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Shogun, Ricardo Arona, Ryan Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Kazushi Sakuraba and many, many more.

Pride had an integral role in making MMA popular with its GP tournaments where fighters would compete two or three times in one night. Could you imagine the UFC doing something like that nowadays?

Anyway, It’s all in the past now, but once in a while rumors surface that it may be coming back.

The latest one comes from the Japanese press, which says former Pride President Nobuyuki Sakakibara is making a move to return to MMA after spending the last years as the owner of a soccer team in Japan.

Reports say he started a legal battle with Zuffa to regain control of the Pride brand. Even if he can’t get the name back, the Japanese press says Sakakibara already has a big partner to fund the launch of a new MMA promotion.

The partner would be Bellator MMA’s President, Scott Coker, which was once an executive for K-1 and Strikeforce.

Last April, Coker confirmed to MMAjunkie.com that a contact from Sakakibara did take place: “He asked if we could help.”

Other clues came from big names within the sport.

Randy Couture twitted that there are big MMA events being planned in Japan for the near future.

Wanderlei Silva celebrated online that the “UFC monopoly” is about to end.

Jiu-Jitsu superstar Gabi Garcia confirmed to GRACIEMAG that her MMA debut will take place in Japan, at the end of the year, against a chinese judoka.

Gabi would not release the name of the promotion, but said it’s a dig deal.

So, all we can do is wait. As soon as we know more, our readers will know as well.