The charming Jiu Jitsu event that is held annually in the North of Rio de Janeiro city, took place last May 1st in the Monte Sinai Gymnasium.The charming Jiu Jitsu event that is held annually in the North of Rio de Janeiro city, took place last May 1st in the Monte Sinai Gymnasium. This was the third edition of the event, but for the first time we didn’t see single submission fights among the blue, purple and brown-belt gi tournaments. And the main organizer of the event, Bernardo Fuks, explained why:
Our event was focused on Jiu Jitsu tournaments and single submission fights between Jiu Jitsu versus Luta-Livre. We do not know what happened with Luta-Livre in the last year, but its representatives are not competing very often. So we decided to organize an event full of Jiu-Jitsu fighters’.
And the event really was full, with 200 athletes competing in the tournament. The two winners of the brown-belt division (light and heavyweight) were rewarded with prize money. Andre ‘Capoeira’ from Brigadeiro JJ ‘captured’ 250 reais winning the lightweight brown-belt division, while Antonio (Manimal Family) put 300 reais in his pocket due to his conquering of the heavy division. Like was said above, the challenges between Jiu Jitsu and Luta-Livre were not held, however we had three special-fights involving the new talents of black-belts, plus the experience lightweight master champion, Muzio DeAngelis. Lets go to the review of these three superfights:
Thiago Veiga (Gracie Humaita) over Alvaro Bombadilha (UGF) by advantages 2-1 [6-6 in points] At first it was Bombadilha who showed better tools on the feet and took Veiga down easily and early on in the 10 minute bout. Veiga was too passive from the bottom and the fight seemed to be more going more Bombadilha’s way than Veiga. That was when Veiga swept Bombadilha and kept trying to gain the half-guard. Bombadilha was not affected by the crowd screaming in Veiga’s favor. At that moment, the emotions were high and a sequence of sweeps from both fighters started with Bombadilha. Veiga countered with the same skill and Bombadilha put Veiga on the bottom again. The fight was 6-4 for Bombadilha, who tried to stall a bit, and the referee put them on the feet. While Bombadilha tries to avoid putting his win in jeopardy, Veiga pushed ahead and successfully took Bombadilha down. The fight was equal and with ten seconds left on the clock, Veiga scored an advantage from the half-guard to beat Bombadilha. It was a very good fight which proves once again that the lightweight fighters put on a show!
Rafael ‘Formiga’ (Best Way) over Muzio DeAngelis (Muzio DeAngelis) by referee decision, [no points, 1-1 in advantages] This was the confrontation of generations, with the lightweight master champion, DeAngelis facing off against the sweeper and novice black-belt, named ‘Formiga’. While DeAngelis is known for his efforts competing in several Jiu Jitsu events in last three years, his opponent, the younger ‘Formiga’ received some recognition when he beat Luis Enrique ‘Cabelinho'(Gracie Barra) in the Trials for MUNDIALS 2003. He also gave Marcio Feitosa(Gracie Barra) a hard time in the MUNDIAL 2003, even though Feitosa beat him. The fight itself is shorter than the introductions above. DeAngelis took care of most of Formiga’s skills, who pulled the fight to the guard and avoided the takedowns of DeAngelis. Each one got an advantage; DeAngelis by nearly passing the guard, and ‘Formiga’ by nearly sweeping but not succeeding. The fight was restarted on the feet but it was not enough to make the fighters go for submissions. At the end of the match, ‘Formiga’ was rewarded with the victory due to his efforts to sweep.
Arthur Cesar ‘Gogo’ (UGF) over Lenny ‘Montanha’ (Team Tata Jiu Jitsu) by ude-gatame
The extra weight of ‘Montanha` was not enough to save him from an uncommon arm-lock in the last 50 seconds. ‘Montanha’ did not work his stamina and that contributed to his defeat. He shot in for a takedown, ‘Gogo’ sprawled and countered-attack, putting ‘Montanha’ with his back on the mat. ‘Montanha’ eventually obtained full guard but he did not work for any submissions. At that point, ‘Gogo’ imposed his game and after passing the guard, he finished by catching ‘Montanha’ with an ude-gatame(armlock using the legs) at 9:50.
Without almost no sponsorship, Copa Tijuca put together a tournament of black-belts who showed that the sport comes in first place when fighting in the superfights.