Scotty wins Gold at Teams Championship in Sao Paulo!
After eight hours in a bus from Rio to Sao Paulo, just the sight of Sao Paulo was great. Sao Paulo is a huge city with a very scary reputation. All seemed good though. I still had no idea how the heck this team’s tournament worked. No one could explain it to me. I hoped I would figure it out tomorrow. Now I was ready to get some needed rest. Our hotel room had a spectacular view, of the airport runway, that is. All night long planes were taking off and landing right on top of our heads. It was so loud I put toilette paper in my ears but I could still feel the jets rattle my bones. But, at least we were finally there and despite my nerves and the planes I got some rest.
The following day I was told I would fight at ten thirty in the morning. Everything starts late in Rio so we were thinking we would sleep in late and catch a cab to the event rather than be ready for the nine am bus. I figured if show up at 10:30, I would be right on time to fight at 11:30. Things in Rio always run at least an hour late. Well things might start late in Rio but this is Sao Paulo. Here the people seem to pride themselves on not being like the Cariocas from Rio and pride themselves on organization and promptness. I walked in to the arena to hear my name being called on the mat with my whole team looking for me. This was the start of my bad day. My warm up consisted of one push up and no time to stretch. I had just eaten a little as well. Damn, I didn’t even have a legal gi on. I had a blue top & white pants that is a no-no at CBJJ events. So I had to borrow a gi top and run right over to fight.
My first fight I was actually wining by 6 advantages to 0 until I decided to try and arm lock the guy. Suddenly, I remember Ralph in my head "Bro, always have to tap the guy!" It felt like there was a lot of time left and I was dead tired. It turned out really I had only 40 seconds left. I could have held on and won. But, no I had to try and finish him. In the scramble after the failed arm lock I stood up so he caught my pants and tripped me. Two Points! Imagine this: I loose with 5 seconds left! Note to self: Have a coach next time to keep track of time.
Well, it was over. I had come all this way, trained so hard, starved to cut weight, and spent a lot of money just to loose in the first round. Only one fight and I lost. Six minutes and it was all over! All I had managed to do was embarrass myself in front of all of Gracie Barra and all of Brazil’s Ju Jitsu elite. Since I was finished for the day, I decided I’d finally eat a real meal, change my clothes and get ready to start filming. But then while I was eating and relaxing, two hours later two of my teammates came running up to me in a mad panic. They were spitting out Portuguese so fast I couldn’t possibly register but a few words. It seemed they had been calling my name for my next fight. Next fight? WTF? I lost already how could I have another fight? Oh man, I won’t even bother you with the details of that fight. Let’s just stay it went worst and I lost on a nice _ guard sweep. At least I didn’t puke any pizza on the mat. Damn, what a day.
The Team’s championship is a very respected event. Now that I have fought in it I can tell you how it works. All the best teams are represented there and each team picks their top seven guys to represent them on their A-team. Their next best seven fight on their B-team. All the team’s A’s & B’s together are bracketed to fight opposing schools. So an A team from one school might even fight a B team from another school. There are only three weight classes: light, middle and heavy. Black and Brown belts share a division fighting so a brown belt might end up fighting a black belt. If your team wins 3 out of 5 fights then you move on to the next bracket. If anyone gets hurt, then the team is covered by the extra two guys on your team of seven.
So how did I end up with a gold medal even though I lost two matches? I was lucky enough to have Gabriel Kitober and Andres Galvaoo from Osvaldo Alves School on my team. These guys schooled everyone. They tapped everyone with ease! Then my main man and pimp gringo, Spenser Olsen pulled through in a clutch and submitted his opponent in the finials of our team’s finials. I am in great debt to all of them! With out them, I would never have received my great gold medal! Thanks guys!
All the best teams were at this event: Gracie Barra, Macaco Gold Team, Alliance, Caveirinha, Companhia Paulista, Integrasao, Equilibrio, Gracie Sao Paulo, Godoi Jiu Jitsu, Infight and Yamazaki. The biggest names and some of the best fights were in the heavy weight division.
The finials had Gracie Barra (A Team) against Alliance team. The best fight was Fernando Tererê (Alliance) x Jefferson Moura (Gracie Barrra). Until this fight, it had been pretty easy for Tererê but Jefferson gave him a real hard fight, alas, in the end Tererê won on an advantage.
Pe de Pano had a good fight with Telles wining 10 x 2. The final fight was Roger Gracie against Damian. Damian started with a lot of force taking the lead, but Roger had unreal heart and came from behind to win. It was an awesome match, you’ve got to see this one.
One thing to note was the Alliance team had fought the day before in Rio at the FJJO Teams event there. They drove all night to fight the next day in Sao Paulo. They took second in both events. How is that for a tough bunch of guys? The event was awesome. Some unreal fights. I was really glad to be a a part of it. Now that I have a better idea of how it works I will be better prepaired for next year. We are thankful to Carlos Gracie Jr. for letting us film and let us offer this tape in conjunction with the CBJJ. We got some really great fights on tape.
Here they are:
Brasileiro de Equipes 2002
Alberto Crane – Santa Fe Jiu Jitsu
Christan "Xaropinho" Tatin vs Otavis Ferreira
Jefferson Moura vs FernandoTerere
Robert Drysdale – Nova Uniao / Equilibrio JJ
Grabriel Kitober – Oswaldo Alves JJ
Andre Galvao – Oswaldo Alves JJ
Dr. Spenser Olsen- Gracie Barra
This was a great event even though i sucked so bad.