We sent our roving OTM reporter to New York to talk with the man who many consider to be the best pound for pound grappler in the world: Marcelo Garcia. We sent our roving OTM reporter to New York to talk with the man who many consider to be the best pound for pound grappler in the world: Marcelo Garcia. The two time ADCC champion is remarkable for his extraordinary abilities in Jiu Jitsu, but should be equally know for his positive outlook in life; Marcelo also happens to be one of the nicest guys in the sport! Paul Schreiner sits down Marcelo on the eve of Marcelo preparing for a historic third straight run at the prestigious ADCC title.
OTM: What are you doing to prepare for Abu Dhabi?
MG? I’m helping my students and thankfully the academy is full and generating good training for me – lots of people have been coming to help to – my professor Fabio, Tarsis, also some big names like Dave Camarillo are here helping to push my training. I’m also cross training with Gilson Oliveira.
OTM: How is it different entering the tournament as a two-time champion – is the mental preparation different?
MG: I really don’t want to think about the pressure. But the easy way for me is to remember what happened last time and just try to do the same thing.
OTM: I notice when you train even though you move through many positions – do you always train very hard?
MG: I like to train with intensity but I like to move a lot – not use strength always find another way do something – do you understand?
OTM: Many people want to see a no-gi match between you and roger – have you thought about how you would approach another match with roger?
MG: I will make the best fight possible and I will enter with a different strategy than I used in our first fights in the gi. More important for me is to bring everything I have into the fight and express my jiu jitsu completely.
OTM: How is Jersey City treating you – are you rocking a gold chain yet?
MG: I’m not going to get a gold chain.
OTM: When you are guest dj at the academy what do you play? (it was previously explained to me that there is a rotation at the academy – different people bring in their ipods and make training playlists – when you’re it, you’re guest dj)
MG: Ramones are my favorite – it’s the only band I’ve really followed for a long time.
OTM: I just found out that you skateboard tell me a little about that…
MG: When I used to skate it was like jiu jitsu for me now – it was so fun, I did it all the time. But you’re always alone when you skateboard and in jiu jitsu you train with you’re friends. I started skating when I was 10 or 12 and I skated only street but I was serious about it. After like 10 years of jiu jitsu I tried to go back to skating, but half pipe and I learned to drop in and skate the pipe. The next day I went back and when I dropped in, I almost broke my foot and had to fight my next two tournaments with my foot seriously hurt – Grapplers Quest and Luta Casada. The guys there at the skate-park said I really went for it and did well, but I realized it was too dangerous for my career
OTM: What do you do to relax?
MG: I eat. I love going to nice restraints and trying new food.
OTM: What’s your favorite?
MG: Thai, but real Thai – you know.
OTM: Your life seems truly devoted to jiu jitsu – do you find it to be a spiritual path in addition to it being a sport that you really excel at?
MG: Jiu jitsu is so fun for me because it’s what I love, it’s my work and I get to make friends doing something I enjoy. Many people don’t have the luxury of doing something honest that they honestly love.
OTM: What’s the deal with you and Borat?
MG: Its fun for me – now whenever I go to teach seminars people ask me to do my Borat impression, I get messages on my phone impersonating borat. (He plays me ridiculously funny message). Have you seen the outtakes?
OTM: no, actually I haven’t
MG: man, you really need to.
OTM NOTE: If you haven’t seen the video on youtube of Marcello’s Borat impersonation, you’re seriously missing out.
OTM: What’s your favorite movie?
MG: I don’t think I can tell you
OTM: Ok, what’s the worse movie you ever saw?
MG: Van Helsing
OTM: Favorite tele-novela?
MG: I just saw the last one that just finished. (laughs)
OTM: Back to business, what’s your opinion of the ADCC rules?
MG: I really don’t think they need to change because I already feel a big change between 2003 and 2005. In 2003 people stalled a lot but not in 2005 of course it’s because of the referees. For me the rules work really well, the only thing I really see is that in the first period where there are no points scored it gives the opportunity for people to stall – stall and try to wait until the points are counted to start fighting.
OTM: What are you going to do after Abu Dhabi?
MG: I’m going to skateboard a lot, and then I’m going to eat a lot and then start to work a lot on seminars and start training a lot for mixed martial arts.
OTM: I hear you have a book coming out – can you tell us a little about that?
MG: For the first time I got to do exactly what I want – to show everything I want, explain it in a way that makes sense to me. I show everything about the x-guard.
OTM: With seminars, it seems you’re constantly traveling, what’s the best place you’ve been to?
MG: One of my favorites is New York, but of course I have great memories of teaching and traveling in Hawaii and Paris, France.
OTM: There was a lot of internet buzz about you possibly fighting mma. Any updates?
MG: I’ve been getting lots of offers, I just want to see who will respect my jiu jitsu the most – who will make me an important part of the show and give me the chance to show what I can do.
OTM: You mentioned earlier that Dave Camarillo is here training with you. How is it training with him?
MG: He is definitely very good – I haven’t had that kind of training in a while and he is at a very high technical level
OTM: Well, we are all very excited about watching you do your thing at Abu Dhabi – is there anything we should look out for? Any secret weapons?
MG: I always think I have something new to show – something I usually just do in the academy, but I’ll only use it if they defend the techniques I usually do.
OTM: Again, thank you so much for your time
MG: You’re welcome.
Watch Marcelo in action this weekend at the ADCC championships! OTM and ProElite.com present a LIVE internet PPV! Check out http://www.proelite.com/home to order right now!
Visit Marcelo Garcia’s website:http://www.marcelogarciajj.com/