Wiz Khalifa homenageou Leandro Lo em show. Foto: Reprodução

A perda do ídolo Leandro Lo no ano passado abalou a comunidade do Jiu-Jitsu. Leandro marcou época nos torneios da modalidade e era uma unanimidade entre os fãs do esporte. Dono de um carisma ímpar e de uma personalidade cativante, Lo conquistou oito títulos mundiais na faixa-preta em cinco categorias diferentes (leve, médio, meio-pesado, pesado e absoluto) – feito inédito no adulto faixa-preta.

Leandro Lo nos deixou tragicamente na madrugada do dia 7 de agosto de 2022. A morte do astro gerou comoção mundial e rendeu inúmeras homenagens. Menos de um mês após o falecimento de Lo, o rapper Wiz Khalifa homenageou o saudoso campeão durante um show realizado na Pensilvânia, nos Estados Unidos.

A homenagem ocorreu durante a música “See you again” “Nos vemos novamente”), composta por Wiz Khalifa com a participação de Charlie Puth. Fotos de artistas, cantores e esportistas foram estampadas no telão do show. Além de Leandro Lo, Paul Walker, o rapper DMX, entre outros, também foram lembrados.

Wiz Khalifa é aluno de Rigan Machado. Foto: Reprodução

Wiz Khalifa treina Jiu-Jitsu desde 2017 e é aluno do mestre Rigan Machado, professor da Machado Brothers, em Los Angeles. Apesar do bom período nos tatames, Khalifa ainda está na faixa-branca devido à dificuldade de conciliar a carreira artística com os treinamentos. Ele até já compareceu às competições de Jiu-Jitsu, como o Mundial 2017. Nesta edição, Lo ficou com o vice no superpesado, ao ser derrotado por Nicholas Meregali por 2 a 0 na final.

Confira, no vídeo a seguir, a homenagem feita por Wiz Khalifa.

Below, Rigan talks about the match.

Renzo Gracie e Demian Maia são presença garantida no The Camp. Foto: Reprodução

Tudo pronto para um dos mais esperados camps de Jiu-Jitsu do ano. Com uma seleção de professores e mestres, o The Camp será realizado em Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, entre os dias 4 e 8 de junho, e é a oportunidade perfeita para o atleta do Jiu-Jitsu aprender o mais puro Jiu-Jitsu direto da fonte, com a chance de aproveitar a paz e o visual de uma das melhores hospedagens do sul do Brasil.

O evento será realizado no resort Costão do Santinho, que irá juntar suas belezas naturais com grandes aulas de Jiu-Jitsu, Defesa Pessoal e técnicas de MMA. Escalados para tocar o camp, estão os faixas-corais Crolin Gracie e Rigan Machado, com presenças garantidas dos professores Renzo Gracie e Demian Maia.

As vagas para o camp são limitadas, então corra para garantir o seu lugar e fazer parte desta experiência única da arte suave. Para maiores informações, visite o site graciegym.org/thecampbr , e entre em contato pelo e-mail popovitchpaula@gmail.com ou pelo telefone 48 91745355.

Confira no vídeo abaixo a convocação do mestre Crolin Gracie e não fique de fora!

They are cousins, they were professor and pupil and they were friends.

Even so, they were the best of their time.

Here’s what Rigan Machado remembers of the day he had to compete against Rickson Gracie.

Cssio Werneck in action in Hawaii

After two years in California, the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship jumped on the plane for two editions in Hawaii.

Honolulu was the city chosen to host the championship.

In 1997, Japanese TV made a film on the event.

Marcelo Araujo, now the IBJJF VP, is seen in the video weighing the athletes.

He tells us what he remembers of that years: “Back then, the idea was to rotate the Pan throughout the USA. I think that Relson Gracie gave the idea of doing it in Hawaii and Carlos Gracie Jr agreed. We had around 300 athletes on each year. One curious thing is that even today it’s hard to find Jiu-Jitsu mats in Hawaii, so both events were made on wrestling mats. For the recent IBJJF Honolulu International Open (2010) we had to ship the mats from California and later it was sold in Hawaii. On the mats, I remember two great fights. Marcio Feitosa defeated Vitor Shaolin in 1997 and Saulo Ribeiro had a great battle against Renato “Charuto” Verissimo in 1998.”

Marcelo Araujo checking Yuki Nakai’s weight in 1997

A few curiosities about the 1997 Pan.

Rickson’s late son Rockson Gracie competed as a blue belt and finished third in the blue belt roosterweight division.

Kai Garcia, leader of Kauai’s ever-present Wolf Pack, competed as a purple belt and won the absolute division.

Rigan Machado won his second absolute title in the black belt division.

Also in the black belt division, Royler Gracie competed and won the featherweight division.

As a matter of fact, Royler was the only athlete to win a division in the adult black belt that year who didn’t belong to the Gracie Barra school. The other champions were: Marcio Feitosa (light), Fernando Vasconcelos (medium), Roberto Magalhães (medium-heavy), Ricardo Herriot (heavy), Roberto Correa (superheavy), Rigan Machado (ultra-heavy and absolute).

Royler also talked about his experience in 1997: “It was great. I love Hawaii and I had the opportunity to fight Marcos Aurelio and get the finish (watch the match below). He had defeated me months before in Rio, by ref decision. Hawaii is always Hawaii and I think something changed with that championship. It established Jiu-Jitsu in the islands and helped to counterweight the localism, always a big thing in Hawaii. That place was always mystic for Brazilians, but they would hide from the locals to avoid trouble. With Jiu-Jitsu, that changed.”

Roberto Godoi, now leader of Godoi JJ and still an active competitor in the Master division, competed as a black belt in 1997 and came back from Hawaii with two medals, silver in the heavyweight and bronze in the absolute. He tells us a bit of his experience: “It was great championship to compete in. For me specially because it was my first event as a black belt, which I had received at the end of 1996. You can’t compare the structure back then with today, but it was a beginning for sure. I remember we exchanged six months worth of sponsorship to pay the trip of eight athletes from our team in Brazil. We were the ones who brought the event t-shirts that the CBJJ would distribute to the athletes. A funny thing happened during the weigh ins, which were done one day before the competition. It was held at Master Relson Gracie’s academy and behind us there was a group of Japanese fighters. At one point, Master Relson started asking all athletes who their professors were. The Japanese, not understanding exactly what Reslon meant, took out VHS tapes of them training to prove they were indeed Jiu-Jitsu fighters.”

In 1998, Rockson competed again in the blue belt roosterweight division and won gold.

Still a purple belt, Alexandre Ribeiro won the featherweight division.

The future two-time absolute black belt world champion remembers those days in Hawaii: “I remember that everyone would hangout together all the time. Athletes from all academies on the hotel, walking the streets. It was fun. I had to really go on a hard diet to weigh in at 67kg. I was only 17 then.”

Also in the purple belt, brothers Gabriel and Thiago Vella dominated both the middleweight and the open class.

Cassio Werneck on the top of the podium in 1997 Photo: Cassio Werneck’s archives

Cassio Werneck, today leader of Werneck BJJ, in Sacramento, CA, was a brown belt in 1998 and won the medium-heavy division. He also tells us what he remembers of that year: “I have a lot of stories about the Pan. In Hawaii I won two times, in 97 and 98. I remember that the Pan 1997 was a breaking point for and the first time I won a division in a big event. I had three fights and finished all my three opponents. The final match was against the later famous Jorge Patino “Macaco”. A curious fact was that Ryan Gracie was rooting for me in that fight, because of his problems with Macaco. In the end, I was able to catch him with a nice triangle. Master Carlos Gracie Jr was the commentator for the Brazilian TV and said that I was the technical standout.”

In the black belt division, Saulo Ribeiro had a double gold competition, winning the heavyweight and the absolute.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO REGISTER FOR THE 2014 PAN

Rigan passes Roleta’s guard Photo: Rigan Machado Archives

Historians like to say that history is divided in before and after the written word.

The history of the Pan is exactly like that and 1996 is the first year when records were kept for the future.

Looking for the results at the IBJJF page, you can only imagine how good a championship Pan 1996 was.

There were amazing match ups between some of the toughest competitors of that time.

Even in the lower belts, we see names that later would leave their mark in Jiu-Jitsu history.

For instance, in the brown belt Robson Moura and Vitor Shaolin won their divisions, light-feather and feather.

Amal Easton, now leader of Easton BJJ, in Colorado, was a 26-year-old blue belt in 1996.

Graciemag’s report on the 1996 Pan

He told us what he remembers of that competition and the medium-heavy final with a Gracie.

“I scraped up enough money to get back to the states from Brasil to compete. The weigh ins took about 6 hours, and it was brutal. Then I waited since 8AM to go as they didn’t give times so I sat and tried to hear my name all day. My first fight was around noon and my last fight was at almost midnight with Rolles Gracie. I believe I submitted three fights before the finals. I thought they were going to do the finals the next day so I was walking out the door, I said good night to Carlinhos (Carlos Gracie Jr) and he asked if I wasn’t going to compete in the finals. So I put my gi on and fought. I had only eaten 4 power bars all day cause you never knew when you were going to go so I was afraid to eat all day. I remember three of my fights including Rolles. I believe he was like 17 or 18 and I had trained with him as I spent a little time in Florianopolis with Rillion Gracie. All the people I considered my coaches were in a spot where they pretty much had to cheer for him. Carlos Machado was the only one in my corner as I had started with a student of his and had trained a few times with him before I moved to Rio in 1995. I’ll never forget Carlos for that. It was a competitive match with him getting the advantage the whole time. I got stuck on bottom in half guard and he either passed or almost passed the whole time. I was happy I felt in the game the whole time, back then we were similar sizes, because now I get smashed by Rolles and we are friends.”

Blue Belt medium heavy podium: Amal, Rolles, Max Araujo  Photo: Rolles Gracie Archives

Marcio Feitosa, a recently promoted black belt in 1996 had the chance to have a personal revenge at the black belt lightweight division. In 1995, he was defeated by Joe Moreira’s student Bob Bass, his first defeat since he was a yellow belt. In 96, Marcinho got his way. He remembers of what hapenend in Los Angeles:

“The bracket was really tough. My match with Bass was in the early rounds and I got the better of him. After that, I competed against Renato Barreto in the final. It was a tough match as always. He is a guard player with great flexibility. In the end, all went well and I got first place”.

Another great duel that took place in Los Angeles, in 1996 was the black belt medum-heavy final between Roberto Roleta and Saulo Ribeiro.

It was the second of three memorable matches between the two. This time, Roleta played on top almost all the time and got the win by ref Joe Moreira’s decision.

But the big name of the event was Rigan Machado. Now the leader of a successful association of academies, with affiliated schools all over the world, Rigan Machado was only starting his life in the USA in 1996. He tells us how he managed to get to the top of the black belt absolute division and specially remembers his battle with Roleta..

“I wanted to go to Brazil to compete in the Worlds but I was in the middle of an immigration process, so I couldn’t leave the US. So Carlinhos (Carlos Gracie Jr) said I was not to worry because I would have some great names to fight against at the Pan. I was working so much I had only two weeks to train for the event, so I decided to fight with a lot of strategy. I remember the fight with Roleta really well. It was the guy I was most worried about. He was known for his dangerous guard and I knew that if you would let him make his grips in the spider guard you would be in trouble. At the same time, I saw that he had a gap in his guard that I could explore. I decided to mix some wrestling moves at the very beginning of the match so that’s what I did and managed to get to the side and secure the three points in the beginning. After that I played his mistakes to secure the victory. I like to compete like that, using more strategy than strength.”

After beating Roleta, Machado went on to defeat Eduardo “Jamelão” Conceição for the gold medal.

“Against Jamelão it was all about pressure. I used pressure to pass the guard and monut, but there was no time to get the finish.”

After all that, we’re sure you got the competition fever.

So don’t miss out and register now for the 2014 Pan, to be held March 12-16, in Irvine, California.

Go to ibjjf.com and register now.

Fabio Clemente helps guide his students at GMA Alliance NYC / Photo by Erin Herle

Fabio Clemente is a leader for many aspects of the sport. He spread the art to places it hadn’t seen, gave opportunities to now top athletes and paved the way for many after him.

GRACIEMAG.com made a visit to his GMA academy on 3rd Ave in New York City this month. As the first Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York, this upstairs nest is home of many champions from past and present.

Fabio Clemente is a black belt under Rigan Machado, coming up in the ranks alongside the Machado family. “I was a blue belt at the same time as Jean Jacque Machado,” he says.

After moving to New York and opening his NYC academy, Fabio became part of the Alliance banner. Not long after the move, the promotion to black belt and the changing of teams, Fabio took the responsibility of sponsoring one Alliance member to move from Brazil to the states. This athlete was Marcelo Garcia.

What you might not know about Fabio beyond his accomplishments and Jiu-Jitsu flagship in the states is his love for photography. In fact, he has worked in Paris for Vogue and many other prestigious fashion outlets. He has since put away the lenses once the digital era erupted and having kids, but he still maintains a strong eye.

After some time with Marcelo teaching at the Alliance academy, the split was made and the Marcelo Garcia Academy was born. Thereafter came another champion: Lucas Lepri.

While Lucas trained and taught classes, the academy helped create a competition atmosphere that only furthered the intensity for team Alliance on the competition mats. Lucas has since moved to teaching at the Alliance Headquarters in Atlanta, GA, but the intensity in New York still remains.

Black belt Leo Iturralde from GMA Alliance Ecuador trains with white belt at Alliance NYC / Photo by Erin Herle

Training at the academy finds people of all ages, genders and ranks. Black belts train with white belts, company is kept tight and the inside jokes are plenty. It is a tight knit family who welcomes any who buzz their door. Many students have been given the opportunity to teach at other places around the town and even at the main academy, allowing full-time focus as an easy option. Fabio maintains a strong lead but a soft hand as he treats his students like his own children– both of whom train religiously.

Check out this video below of the technique of the day taught by Fabio Clemente with his student and assistant, David Bass:

Don’t miss the photos as well. To learn more about the second Jiu-Jitsu academy established in New York, visit www.AllianceBJJNYC.com

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At 11am on a Saturday morning, 28 April 2012, having stepped into Top Gym Singapore, I found myself facing a predicament. Having incurred a minor slipped disc about 2 months ago, I was put on ice by the doctors until at least the middle of the year. Which in itself is not the worst thing. However, being on the side-lines is the last place I wanted to be at a John Will seminar.

(For those uninformed: John Bernard Will is part of the “dirty dozen”—one of the first non-Brazilians to earn a black belt in BJJ. John received his black belt from Rigan and Jean-Jacques Machado Brothers; and is head of the Will-Machado team.)

Attempting to make the best of a potentially frustrating situation, I turned to the lesson of one of my favourite teachers, the German philosopher Werner Hamacher. He contends that there is a difference between listening and hearing. Not just that the former is active whilst the latter is potentially passive. But more importantly, in order to listen, one has to cease hearing: for one can hear many things at the same time, but to listen—in the precise sense of attending to, responding with—one has to select one, whilst ignoring all other sounds, voices, things.

Which is precisely what John Will recommends in any situation. Whilst reinforcing the importance of details, he encourages every one to focus on “tiny increments” rather than attempting to take on “entire problems.” For instance, if one is caught in side control, “it makes little sense to think of getting out in one move”; instead one should ask oneself “how [one] can improve [one’s] situation by 5%.” In fact, the entire notion of “moves” is problematic: for that doesn’t take into account the fact that the other person is moving, constantly shifting, reacting to you as you are to her.

And this is why Will says: “I don’t believe in having end goals.” Even though one needs to have a general idea of where one is headed, focussing on the end only serves to blinker one to the situation, blind one to the other person. Instead of attending to, reacting with, listening, one is merely hearing. In Will’s words: “one is being a crocodile—in denial of the reality, the situation, one is facing.”

Will’s reminder to stay in the moment, to listen, is a call for one to open oneself to the possibilities of the other. And: to open oneself to the possibilities of the unknown, the yet to come, about to come. In foregrounding the fact that listening entails choosing, one also unveils the aspect of exclusion in choice: in attending to one, one always already has to leave out other(s). However, this does not mean that the ones that are left aside are gone: one can always be affected by something that is beyond one’s cognitive sphere—just because you do not see a bus does not mean that it cannot hit you. So, even as listening involves ceasing hearing, one who truly listens always also keeps in mind that listening brings with it the unheard, the unhearable. One should never forget that the submission that catches you is the one you did not see—or hear—coming. This perhaps opens another dossier in Rickson Gracie’s now famous phrase “invisible jujitsu”: the invisibility is not just in one’s own movements, but also in the very relationality between oneself and the other. What remains invisible—silent—is other’s movement in relation to oneself.

Thus, listening is attending to relationality itself.

Which means that there cannot be an object in listening, let alone an object to listening. Which also means that one can never know if one has listened, or if one is even listening. It is nothing more, and nothing less, than an approach.

And it is the notion of approaches that brings us all the way back to the beginning, to the title itself. To the teaching of Aristotle: in particular his lesson on how to climb a mountain. If one were to do it haphazardly, one would be stumbling around in circles, and will quite possibly go nowhere. It is only with skill, with method—meta hodos (across a path)—that one has the possibility of ever reaching the top. This in no way means that one single method would allow one to climb all mountains: each path calls for a different response, calls for one to pay attention to the singularity of the trail. Which means that even as experience with other mountains will help, one must always listen—attend to the unhearable(s)—of this particular mountain. Every guard you pass gives you a better idea of passing guards: but one has to attend to the specific relationality that this guard is presenting to one.

So, even as we remember to drill—for learning is mimetic, and thus requires repetition—we should also keep in mind that as we pay attention to the details of every technique, we need to keep ourselves attuned to the relationality between ourselves and the other person.

And perhaps it is in this very manner that the gap between theory and practice can be approached. By keeping in mind the singularity of both situations, every situation—so, it is not that in theory this should happen but in reality there are many variations, but more radically that theory itself is multiple; each time one attempts to address a situation through theory, one is always already facing the uncertainties of reality. Thus, each attempt to theorise, to think of, is always already a practice in responding to potential unknowns, the unhearables—a practice in listening.

Since all listening occurs in a particular situation, the very place—space—one is in is crucial. Thus, we might momentarily turn out attention to the notion of seminars—and attend to the echoes of seminaries, disseminations, inseminations, and seeds (semen). For, in attending a seminar, one temporarily displaces oneself—goes away to a space specifically to learn from someone—and where the person conducting teaches, professes—bearing in mind that in jujitsu our teachers are called professors—their particular approach to the art. More importantly, the profession occurs in a distinct period, a definite time frame (a few hours, a day, even a week; but with a defined end point). Thus, rather than guide the students like (s)he would in an academy, the professor has to plant a few seeds of thought; how they develop, germinate, spread, is beyond her or his control. Moreover, those who attend the seminar can also never be sure how these seeds, thoughts, will grow, or if they even will. Hence, even as we go to seminars to learn, what, how, or even if, we learn always already remains hidden from us—until learning happens, we potentially remain deaf to its call. To compound matters, we usually realise that we have learnt retrospectively. Thus, even when the lesson is unveiled to us, the point at, and in which, we have learnt remains veiled from us. In this manner, the scene of the seminar itself is nothing more than the setting for possibility—there can be no knowable object to it, until perhaps it happens.

But, we must not forget that for possibility to be (even if it is a possibility to not-be) there has to be a space; one which cannot be defined, set, known, in advance. And what else is this space but the fringe—the demarcation that both separates and always already joins.

Perhaps then, it is only by being on the side—the fringe—of the seminar, that I had the opportunity to tune in—listen—not just to the possibilities that John Will was offering, but to the very space of possibility that is the seminar.

* Jeremy Fernando is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School. Even though he has a black belt in Judo, he spends an inordinate amount of time facing the ceiling. Whilst on his back, he has refined tapping out to an art form; complete with rhythm and all.

Rigan Machado. Foto: Divulgação.

Faixa-preta oitavo grau, mestre Rigan Machado entrou na briga do Jiu-Jitsu contra um dos males do século. A competição solidária Jiu-Jitsu vs Cancer, que acontece no dia 17 de abril, na Califórnia, é beneficente. A ação é em parceria da Kids Kicking Cancer, organização sem fins lucrativos que ajuda crianças a lidar com o estresse e a dor da doença através das artes marciais.

As inscrições terminam no próximo dia 15. Para mais informações, clique aqui.