Guthierry Barbosa in action. Photo: Ane Nunes/AJP

Professor Pedro Lott lives and teaches Jiu-Jitsu in Canada, where he has been able to follow the evolution of Carlson Gracie team in competitions. The team recently had good performances in IBJJF events as well as superfights. In three Copa Podio’s editions, for exemple, Guthierry Barbosa’s star shone bright.

On the Jiu-Jitsu Con stage and at the Worlds Masters, held by the IBJJF in the same week of November, Pedro Lott had four students winning gold, and six more with silver medals. A respectable result for the team, which turned its attention toward competition in 2021.

“The result was very good; the team is evolving a great deal”, Lott stated. “The athletes are progressively more aware of the rules, the training is well structured, and the result could not have been different. I am very happy with the result, team Carlson Gracie place third overall at the Master Worlds — we’re a real threat again! It’s some very serious work that has been done by Master Carlson Gracie Jr; he’s getting the team together again. It’s a very hard tournament, and we did great. Out of the champions, I want to point to my student Ahmad Kabalan, who was the master-3 champion black-belt at the feather division. He was a Pan champion in the brown belt as well, so I could make him a black-belt, after five matches, including a win over Ranieri (Mike) in the finals.”

In the adult black-belt competitions, the young Guthierry Barbosa has been leading a new crop of talent. He now owns three Copa Podio trophies, including a win in the lightweight GP and two in middleweight GPs held in 2020 and 2021.

“Guthierry certainly is our team’s standout in the black belt. He’s coming off some excellent campaigns in Copa Podio. We also have other strong names like Matheus Nascimento, Celson Ricardo, Alexandre Molinaro, Pedro Dias, Juan Lopes, plus the new generation. There’s also Pedro Dias, a silver medalist for two years straight in the IBJJF Pan in the black belt. Team Carlson Gracie is coming in really strong this season,” Lott said.

For 2022 season, Pedro wants his team focused on the main IBJJF competitions, especially the Master Worlds.

Pedro Lott and his team during an IBJJF competition in USA. Photo: personal archive

Team Carlson Gracie is assembling, again, a strong competition squad for Jiu-Jitsu tournaments around the world. Currently a resident of Canada, Pedro Lott is a strong arm in this restructuring, and has as his mission, alongside Master Carlson Gracie Jr, the task of providing his athletes with opportunities to train at a high level, travel and compete in the main IBJJF tournaments and, above all, to have a career plan.

Pedro, a black-belt since 2008, spoke of how the roots of team Carlson Gracie — one of the biggest competitive forces of the aughts — remain strong, and how they plan not just to make good athletes, but for them to have solid careers in the sport.

“Master Carlson Gracie Jr. has been restructuring the team in such a way that all of today’s athletes will tomorrow have a future on the team, because competition is a short stage in the life of an athlete,” he said. “Today we’re champions, but tomorrow we have to pay bills, support families, and that’s what’s most important. The preoccupation of our master with these athletes is for them to be able, tomorrow, to live off the sport with dignity.”

The team’s most recent competition was the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Confederation’s (CBJJ) Brazilian Nationals, where it was represented by 126 athletes ranging from blue-belts to black-belts, including Guthierry Barbosa, Matheus Nascimento, Alexandre Molinaro — the team’s black-belts.

“From blue belt to black, we have lots of athletes,” said Pedro. “The names mentioned above, as well as Rerrison Gabriel, Cleison Santos, Yago Oliveira, Filipe Assis, Wesley Teixeira, Maria Raniele, Luiz Eduardo, are some of our athletes in the colored belts. They’ve been making some noise in the recent tournaments. They are students under Profs. Juan Lopes and Douglas Rufino, who are teachers with our team Carlson Gracie. We have other names that are greatly standing out, and you’ll know about them soon.”

Pedro, who leads his own gym on Canada’s West Coast, went on to talk about the challenges the pandemic brought — but also, on a better note, about the strides the sport has been making around those parts.

“BJJ on the West Coast of Canada was evolving at a pretty fast pace in the last seven years, but with this pandemic and the regulations by the Canadian government, things greatly slowed down around here,” he said. “In the last 19 months, our gym was closed for 12 months in total, opening and closing within the period. But the community will go back to growing again, and it has all my support to do so.”

He added: “At our gym, in Canada, we have many students who have been standing out in the masters; we have many IBJJF world champions. There’s a 23-year-old black-belt who won the Orlando Open in his first year as a black-belt, in 2020.

Chayse Diekema, Pedro’s student and Pan champion. Photo: personal archive

“I should mention my student Chayse Diekema, who, in the space of a year and a half, became champion at the European Championship in the blue belt without getting scored on, and in the same year, already wearing the purple belt, was champion at the Pan with a submission in the final. This year, she was runner-up at the No-Gi Pan with an arm that was injured from the quarterfinals on. At the gi Pan, she finished her opponents in all her fights, in an incredible performance. Her mindset in on another level; she’s going to take the brown belt by storm, and in the black belt she’s going to be in the top five of the world, without a doubt.”

Pedro ended the interview by talking about the legacy of the late Carlson Gracie.

“The fact that our team bears the Carlson banner makes our athletes and all our teachers stronger due to knowing that we don’t represent only a team, but rather a legacy that shaped the greatest athletes and representatives of the sport in the world. Carlson Gracie was Jiu-Jitsu’s ‘SWAT team’ for decades. When Jiu-Jitsu needed someone to defend its name and honor, it was Carlson or someone from his team who was there to defend the legacy.”

Durante a primeira semana de setembro, Bráulio Estima (Gracie Barra) e Leandro Lo (Cícero Costha) se encontraram nos tatames do príncipe Tahnoon, em Abu Dhabi.

Nosso amigo e professor do xeque, Pedro Lott, aproveitou para registrar os dois ensinando posições exclusivamente para GRACIEMAG.

Pedrinho testemunhou (mas não filmou) também o treino dos dois:

“Foi salseiro. Deram dois treinos de kimono, de dez minutos cada, e quatro sem kimono, de seis minutos cada. Foram alguns dos melhores rolas que já vi”, disse o faixa-preta, despistando sobre quem levou a melhor.

Bráulio elogiou o jovem Lo e contou mais detalhes: “Ele é sinistro, tem reações muito boas no ‘embola-embola’. Tinha vezes que eu achava que estava lutando com meu sósia; depois ele disse o mesmo pra mim, e falou que se amarrou no treino”, disse o Carcará.