Recently in Brazilian fighters Category

Royler Gracie, 6th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and one of the famous Gracie brothers, will be at Steve Maxwell's Maxercise in Philadelphia next month.

From Wikipedia: Royler Gracie has competed in the black-belt ranks for 20 years. He is the only person to win the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship three consecutive years, and has won the ADCC more times than anyone else. Royler is also a four-time World Jiu Jitsu Champion in the under 67 kg Black Belt Division.

Maxwell is a world-renowned trainer and according to his Web site's bio, "He was the first American to earn a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, certified by Relson Gracie."

The latest video from Wand Fight Team. Wand - fresh from his fight with Franklin (cuts on his nose and ear) trains his team and gives them a heartfelt psych-up, complete with a classic Chute Boxe-like cheer at the end.

I received an email from Joe Duffey, who, along with Frank Nguyen, run the Academy of Combative Arts in York City. Joe told me that ACA's resident black belt (2nd degree in BJJ) Daniel Beleza, got third in the recent International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation's World Championships, held June 4-7 at California State University in Long Beach.

Here are the results from the IBJJF Web site:
weight class: LIGHT FEATHER

FIRST guilherme mendes Atos

THIRD carlos vieira Check Mat Bjj

THIRD Daniel Beleza Academy of Combative Arts.

Earlier this year, Daniel scored back-to-back first place victories at the Pan-Ams and the New York International Open.

Congratulations, Daniel, from all of us here at MMA Explosion!

Worlds promo video:

The rivalry between former Chute Boxe teammates heats up. Here's what happened before this video.

Just received this email from LionHeart Fighters in State College:
We are proud to announce Diego Coloma as our new Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts instructor at LionHeart. Born and raised in Brazil, Diego is a BJJ Black Belt under legendary instructor Leo Vieira and brings over 20 years of BJJ experience with him. He holds a professional MMA record of 6-1 with 3 KO's and 2 submission victories.

"We are thrilled to be aligned with Robert Drysdale and his BJJ organization which is one of the best BJJ schools in the world. Through this relationship we were able to land Black Belt Diego Coloma as our head BJJ and MMA instructor. Diego is a perfect fit at LionHeart. In addition to his BJJ and MMA experience that will help elevate our fighters to the next level, he is a passionate teacher who will continue to help grow our MMA and BJJ school. I am grateful to the guys at Drysdale that worked with us over the last few months to find the right fit." -Chad Dubin, owner of LionHeart.

For details regarding class schedule, private lessons, or special programs please contact Chad Dubin at (814) 280-1982 or chad@lionheartfighters.com

LionHeart has a ton of fights coming up, including Phil Davis at Ultimate Warrior Challenge, Paul Bradley at Respect Is Earned's Brotherly Love Brawl, York County's Biff Walizer at The Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge and Brotherly Love Brawl and Dave Sachs at BLB.


Diego Coloma

Daniel Beleza, far right, in the blue rashguard, at M.A.C.E. in Red Lion.

As I said in an earlier post, Daniel "The Cobra" Beleza, second-degree black belt with York's Academy of Combative Arts, and Red Lion's M.A.C.E. academy scored a huge win at the recent Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Carson, Calif. In the black belt/master division, light featherweight, Daniel placed first.

Here's an account of Daniel's success from http://diariodonordeste.globo.com/ Keep in mind I used Alta Vista Babel Fish for the translation from Portuguese to English and then also did a little editing of my own:

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter Daniel Beleza won a gold medal at the Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu Championships, held at the California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson City, held the last weekend in March.

At the event, sanctioned by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, Daniel displayed a thrilling performance, finishing his first two opponents in less than two minutes in each match.

In the finals, Daniel faced Mauricio Villardo, a fighter from the Academy Gracie Humaitá, and won gold.

A total of 2,500 fighters representing countries including the United States, Mexico, Japan, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and France, participated in the competition. Three hundred of those athletes represented Brazil.

Daniel now has his sights set on the IBJJF's US Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship, held in April in New York City.

Following that, Daniel will enter the IBJJF's most important competition of this season, the XIV World-Wide Championship, Long Beach, California, in June.

Since August, Daniel has been living in York, Pennsylvania, where he trains and teaches at M.A.C.E. academy in Red Lion and ACA - Academy of Combative Arts.

As many of the prestigious Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments are held in the United States, Daniel decided to move here to minimize costs. Daniel's resume includes a 3rd place finishes at both the 2008 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships and the 2008 Pan-American Games.

Original story written by Moacir Felix.

Daniel Beleza

I talked with Llew Chester, co-owner of the Academy of Combative Arts, (located in downtown York), and he filled me in on a few things.

First, Daniel "The Cobra" Beleza, second-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, recently took first place at a major BJJ tournament, I believe in California.

"He cleaned up over there; it was really remarkable," Chester said. "He's really pumped up about it."

Llew added that the academy's progress is not moving along as fast as it should.

"We're having problems passing the inspection; we have to re-do the ceiling," he said. "Everything is set to go and we can't move."

Still, Llew remained positive, saying, "It's definitely going to happen, I'll tell you that."

To find out more information, call co-owner Frank Nguyen at 717-841-4077. To go to Daniel myspace page, click here.

Here's an email I received from LionHeart Fighters about an upcoming BJJ seminar featuring Tony Passos.

Passos is:
- One of the best BJJ instructors on the east coast.
- Black Belt under De La Riva
- Part of a select group of De La Riva Black Belts wich includes professional MMA champions such as Antonio Rogério "Minotoro" Nogueira and his brother Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira.

Training/Instruction Sessions
Sunday March 22nd from 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Monday March 23rd from 11:30am to 1:00pm
Private Lessons are available before or after group instruction

Cost is FREE to current LionHeart Fitness members and $10/person per session for non-members
Stop in Sunday March 22nd or Monday March 23rd for some World Class BJJ Instruction!

LionHeart Management
(814) 238-4617
127 Sowers St.
State College, Pennsylvania 16801
www.lionheartfit.com

Here's an email from George McGinnis, lead instructor at York Mixed Martial Arts Academy:

This past weekend Team Tatu, Team Souders and Team Phoenix visited the Scranton area to compete at the P.A.B.J.J. The event was founded by Rogerio "Tatu" Taborda just a few short years ago. The Tatu-affiliated teams compete constantly in this tournament as a show of respect to represent the very instructor that affiliates them and legitimizes their ranks. The following people competed and or placed in the event this past weekend. Congratulations to the following teams and it members:

Team championship title for this particular event was awarded to none other than Team Tatu and its affiliations.

Purple Belt Division(s):

Paul McDonogh (Team Tatu) - 1st place
Joe Apache (Team Tatu) - 1st place
Brad Souders (Team Tatu / Souders) - 3rd place
George McGinnis (Team Tatu / Phoenix) - 3rd place

Blue Belt Division(s):

Bobby Knotts (Team Tatu / Souders) - 1st place
Brett Myers (Team Tatu / Phoenix) - 3rd place

White Belt Division(s):

(Team Tatu / Mattis) - 1st place
Steve Johnson (Team Tatu / Phoenix) - 2nd place
(Team Tatu / Mattis) - 3rd place
Charles Parker (Team Tatu / Phoenix) - 3rd place

Sincerely Yours: George McGinnis
York Mixed Martial Arts Academy
www.YMMAA.com

Royler Gracie

Email from George McGinnis, about an upcoming Royler Gracie seminar:

To all:
Hello. This is coach George from the YMMAA. Below is information sent to me by our good friend Mike Weisensee of the Lancaster Family Martial Arts Center. It is in regard to his upcoming seminar that will feature none other then the great Royler Gracie who will be accompanied by some of his instructional team. I have personally attended Proffesr Royler's last seminar at coach Mike's school and it was outstanding. I hope many of you can attend the seminar to support Mike's continuing efforts to bring solid seminars and events to the area. Coach Mike's contact information is listed below along with all the information concerning the seminar. Get on it before all the spots are gone!!!

Here's Mike Weisensee's email:
The Royler seminar is on! Saturday, April 4 Noon - 2pm. $85, $65 RGDA members ($10 cheaper than last year). Sign-up ASAP.

Michael J. Weisensee can be contacted at 717-898-6120, or at mjweisensee@comcast.net

:

from tatame.com
What do you expect for you in Affliction?

I was thinking yesterday... I want to make a fight against Fedor (Emelianenko), because my category doesn't have anyone in Affliction yet. I think it'd be quite interesting, as well as Matt (Lindland) fought him. I never thought he was unbeatable, but he's very strategic and the way to beat him is striking up and then go to the ground. (Andrei) Arlovski lost that fight for puerility. A man with a good catch and good hands can win Fedor. He doesn't like to take a punch and showed that against Mark Hunt, and now he won luckily. Arlovski lost to himself.

Did you talk with Tom Atencio (vice-president of Affliction) about this fight against Fedor?

No, I didn't. I thought about this yesterday. It doesn't need to be for the belt, it can be a normal fight, simply for the challenge, I like that... Although I have to lose 20 pounds to the category (middleweight), I see that I'm very strong and technical, I think it'd be a challenge to fight Fedor, an opportunity, as we are in the same event. I'm a fast guy. Although he has a strong hand, I train with hard guys and it wouldn't be a surprise. He's a great fighter, but there are ways to beat him and I believe that.

George McGinnis, owner of York Academy of Mixed Martial Arts, recently attended a seminar at the academy of his instructor, Rogerio "Tatu" Taborda, in Scranton. There, Tatu received a stripe to add to his black belt from instructor Paulo Guimaraes, a black belt who hails from Australia.

So, the lineage would go like this Rickson Gracie -- Jorge Pereira -- Paulo Guimaraes -- Rogerio Taborda -- George McGinnis.

Now that's amazing.

Brad Souders received a stripe to his purple belt, George received his purple belt, and George's brother, Brett Myers, received his blue belt.

Congrats to all you guys from MMA Explosion.

Tons of fights going on tonight. First, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, we have Maximum Fighting Championships' "Long Time Coming" event. Two titles are on the line as LHW Champ Roger "The Hulk" Hollett defends against Emanuel "Hard Core" Newton and Pat "Bam Bam" Healy meets the challenge of Ryan Ford.

In addition, John Alessio locks horns with Paul Daley. The latest on this is that Daley was over the welterweight limit by several pounds, but Alessio, ever the warrior, took the fight anway, although he could have declined. To see this event, you have to get HDNet.

A hemisphere away, Brazilian MMA promotion FuryFC is staging their seventh show, "Final Combat" featuring former PRIDE fighter Antonio "Nino Elvis" Schembri against Mauro "Xuxa" Chimento Jr. To see the show live on sherdog, click here.

Wand's cage

Trainer Rafael Alejarra and Wand

from Silva's Web site:
Wanderlei Silva has started construction on the new Wand Fight Team Training & Conditioning Center! This brand-new, world-class facility will be housed in a 10,000sq ft building on Dean Martin Rd in the fight sport capital of the world, Las Vegas, NV.

Wanderlei has chosen THROWDOWN for it's training center design and construction services. Although the training center is in the early stages of construction, Wanderlei wanted his 30ft event series octagon installed so that he could train during the gym build out. The Throwdown Training Center team delivered and installed Wanderlei's octagon over the weekend, and he and strength & conditioning coach Rafael Alejarra (the man behind the "snorkel" workout) went to work immediately!

The Wand Fight Team Training & Conditioning Center is slated to be the home base to the top BJJ players & Brazilian fighters visiting Vegas. Robert Drysdale, Damian Maia, Jacare Souza, the Noguiera Bros are among those scheduled to train at Wand's new facility.

Lil Nog nails Shogun during their epic battle in PRIDE.

from fightticker.com:
Edo at betwwx.com has the following translation of Brazilian publication Portal Do Vale Tudo's article on Rogerio Minotouro Nogueira's upcoming bout in Japan:

Rogerio Minotouro has confirmed that he'll be fighting at Sengoku 6 on November 1 at Saitame Arena in Japan. The Brazilian will face Rimbon Moise, who holds 23 professional MMA fights to his name with his most recent win coming in August.

Minotouro has confirmed the bout with Portal Do Vale Tudo.

"I can confirm the bout," he said, "He is a tough guy and has faced many good fighters. It will be tough. I am glad to return to Japan, where my career started and where I have a big fan following. I am very anxious to come back to fight there."

Minotouro was informed of his opponent only two weeks in advance.

"I was supposed to fight for Affliction but their card was postponed." He said, " I was coming off two knockout victories in 2008. I'm in great form. I'm in the best shape of my life."

powered by ODEO
This week Tom and I talk about The Kimbo/Seth/EliteXC scandal, give our UFC 89 predictions and congratulate LionHeart Fighters' Phil Davis on his pro debut win.

Brazilian MMA Web site tatame.com interviewed Wanderlei Silva's former trainer, Rafael Cordeiro, who said that Rampage Jackson tried to hire him - presumably to get an edge on Wandy in preparation for their third fight at UFC 92. Rampage should have known about Brazilian loyalty ...

Q: You were at Wandelei Silva's corner when he defeated Quinton Jackson twice at Pride... What are your predictions for this fight, now in UFC?

A:I'm sure it'll be another knockout. If Wanderlei shows the same game he always showed, he'll bring to Brazil another victory. He knows Quinton's game, but unfortunately Quinton knows his too, but he may had bad memories of that... In fact, when I was here I heard some rumors that Quinton wanted to train with me, and when I knew that it was his preparation to fight with Wanderlei I didn't accept. Everybody is professional, but there are things that money can't buy. I heard this rumors, I have nothing against him, I'm a professional, but not that much, train someone to fight someone that already trained with me.

Cordeiro

from ufc.com:
Live From the O2-Dublin - Saturday, January 17, 2009

Las Vegas, NV (USA) - The world's most exciting sport returns to the Emerald Isle as the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®) organization opens up 2009 with the star-powered UFC 93 card at the O2-Dublin in Dublin, Ireland on January 17, 2009.

In the light heavyweight main event, former two-division world champion Dan Henderson will collide with former UFC middleweight king Rich Franklin in three-round war which will set the tone for the 205lbs division in 2009.

Then, 2005 PRIDE® Grand Prix Champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua returns to the Octagon™ to throw down with UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in a rematch MMA fans thought they would never see. The pair last met in Japan in 2006, with the legendary Coleman pulling off a stunning upset by breaking Rua's arm in the first round.

Here's the video of the Rua-Coleman fight in PRIDE and the aftermath. As I remember it, Rua breaks his arm early in the fight when Coleman goes for a take down. Coleman either doesn't realize it or doesn't care and keeps after Rua with the ref trying to intervene.

Chute Boxe members, including Wanderlei Silva, hit the ring, as do members of Hammer House, Coleman's team. Phil Baroni takes down Silva, who ends up getting Coleman's shoe on his throat. Coleman is charged up after the fight but later tries to apologize. Chute Boxe has nothing of it. Silva's so mad, he wants to take on Coleman, Baroni and Rampage Jackson at the same time.

Paulo Filho

Tatame: And if their decision is to merge you to UFC, will you face Anderson Silva?

Filho: Definitely no. We're close friends and I believe there's space for everybody there, it's definitely out of my plans.

Yeah, sure. We've seen this before. Guys who are purportedly best friends saying they won't fight each other, but once they both get to the top of the mountain, money talks. See, the Zuffa (UFC/WEC parent company) is folding the WEC's LHW and MW divisions into the UFC. That means Filho, the WEC MW champ, will be thrown into the UFC ranks. To me, that means his WEC title is no more. He's undefeated, and although he recently suffered bouts with drug addiciton and depression, I see him winning his first fight in the UFC before he's offered a title fight with Silva. He'll take the fight.

Silva

Lyoto

From Tatame.com:
At UFC 89, two unbeatable fighters will colide on the duel that will put one of them to meet a loss for the first time. With 13 win in a perfect card, Thiago Silva won 11 by knockout, and that's why Lyoto Machida predicts a fast fight against him at UFC 88. "I believe this fight won't go to decision... Thiago likes to fight aggressively, me too, he has good MMA techniques, so I believe this fight might finish before the third round", said Lyoto, that is training hard. "I'm training a lot, actually I hadn't stop training since my last fight. Now I'm doing a specifically training focused on Thiago, preparing my strategies and working on the physical preparation... I'm very focused", said the athlete to TATAME.com.

Ted's Take: Man, I am psyched for this one. Both these guys are undefeated, tough, Brazilian fighters, with very different styles. Both are great on the ground, and Thiago is an agressive muay Thai striker, while Lyoto prefers to be, as many have said, "elusive," making his opponents miss and then counterstriking. I'm thinking whoever wins this one gets a title shot, probably after Chuck Liddell.

Biff, a LionHeart student, Phil Davis, Ricardo de la Riva, Jeff Rockwell and Lou Armezzani.

Local lightweight pro Biff Walizer has been soaking up the MMA like a sponge in preparation for upcoming fights in Kentucky next Saturday and one on Sept. 12 in Atlantic City.

Biff gets wrapped.

Last week, Biff and some of the other fighters at LionHeart Fighters in State College attended a seminar led by Ricardo de la Riva and Tony Passos. De la Riva is a BJJ blackbelt who holds wins in BJJ tournments over three Gracies.Passos is a black belt under de la Riva.

Biff and some of the LionHeart Fighters also drove to Pittsburgh to train striking with K-1 fighter Mark "The Shark" Miller:

George "Phoenix" McGinnis of York Mixed Martial Arts Academy sent me an email about a new site called jiujitsushare, which touts itself as the "myspace of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu." From a quick look around, it seems to live up to the nickname.

The site was set up by Phil Migliarese of Balance Studios in Philadelphia, a Relson Gracie-affiliated school.

Here's a quote from George:
"The site seems pretty cool and I think it will produce a lot of good ties between other schools as well as information sharing. The site has clips, photo's, club information and communication tools. If you have the chance, sign your club up. If you are a student and or friend of the YMMAA, sign up as a student or solo practitioner under our school or an affiliated club."

Looks like it's set for Oct. 11 at the Thomas and Mack Center at UNLV.

Here's what's been rumored on the card:
Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovski
Jay White vs. Roy Nelson
Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Plus possibly Tim Sylvia, Pedro Rizzo and Renato "Babalu" Sobral

Vitor Belfort knocks Terry Martin through the ropes at Affliction: "Banned."

I'm wondering if they mean the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts' middleweight belt, since, as far as I understand, Affliction doesn't have its own belts, but recognizes - and promotes - WAMMA champions. And pardon the translation - the Web site is Brazilian, so they do the best they can with English.

By Guilherme Cruz, tatame.com

The knockout over Terry Martin at Affliction's first edition didn't only put Vitor Belfort back to victories, but can get him a title fight. Belfort's broken hand might not be a trouble for his next fight. "The doctor will analyze it, but I may stay four weeks out. I'll come back in October 11th to fight Matt Lindland for the belt", told the athlete, that will face the Fábio Negão's opponent on Affliction's first event.

"It'll be a great fight, we'll see who is the best of the world there", said Belfort, that guarantees his style will be a problem for Lindland. "I saw his fight with Negão and he's a warrior... He comes be over you, but I don't think he has the strength to stay over me", analyzes Vitor, that wants another knockout on his career. "I'll go to knock him out... My punches are well-aimed and when it hits he won't stand", guarantees Belfort.

The Axe Murderer and The Natural.

Since his move to the U.S., Wanderlei Silva has been training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. But I didn't think he'd be there forever...

From Wanderlei Silva's myspace page: "We are proud to officially announce the Wand Fight Team training and conditioning center! This brand-new, world-ckass facility will be housed in a 10,000 SqFt new construction at 4631 Dean Martin Road, in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. Complete membership details are coming."