#117 Robert Drysdale, BJJ Mundials Volunteering & BJJ Travel Tips
May 18, 2008
Caleb and Dan in Rio outside Gracie Humaita.
This week on Episode 117 of The FightWorks Podcast we’ve got a three-parter for you. You’ll hear:
- The last five of our Ten Tips for Brazilian jiu-jitsu travel, which we began in Episode 116. Don’t leave home without them!
- A conversation with Mike Buckels, part of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation event coordination staff, who will discuss the upcoming 2008 BJJ Mundials and what you can do to help make it a great event (and get the best seats in the house, food, and a t-shirt along the way)
- Robert Drysdale’s thoughts on Roger Gracie after their encounter in the 2007 BJJ Mundials. Roger took first place in the super heavyweight division and the absolute division in 2007!
And if you haven’t done so yet, Click here to go grab our Google Gadget!
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#116 Royler Gracie, Breno from Fight Quest, Rio BJJ Travel Tips
May 11, 2008
Royler Gracie at Gracie Humaita in Copacabana.
This week The FightWorks Podcast returns to Rio de Janeiro, where our cohost Dan just headed for some much needed rest, relaxation, and serious Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Such a trip can only result in some great content for this week’s show.
- We cannot endorse the idea of heading to train in Brazil enough. If you have never made it to the birthplace of BJJ, heed well the five travel tips for training in Brazil!
- You remember Breno Sivak, right? Breno was one of the two BJJ black belts who hosted the Discovery Channel’s Fight Quest which covered BJJ, and has always been the gracious host of The FightWorks Podcast crew since our first trip to Brazil in 2002. In this episode of The FightWorks Podcast, cohost Dan and Breno discuss how Fight Quest was put together, what it was like preparing an American with no real BJJ history for a competition match in just seven days, and lots more.
- We will also catch up with Royler Gracie at Gracie Humaita, who gives us recommendations on optimal amounts of BJJ training, advice on injury recovery, and even an update on the possibility of his fighting in MMA again.
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FightWorks Podcast cohost Dan on the business end of a Royler Gracie choke.
Rio BJJ News on the Way Soon
April 22, 2008
Cohost Dan with Breno Sivak in Rio.
Just a quick note to let you all know that the cohost of The FightWorks Podcast, Dan, landed in Rio de Janeiro for some authentic Brazilian jiu-jitsu training on Saturday, and with any luck he will be bringing back some great information to share with the rest of us.
In the photo above from 2003, Dan is on the left and Breno Sivak is on the right in the funny hat. You will all remember Breno from our prior interview with him on The FightWorks Podcast. He is not only a long time family friend of the Gracie family (especially Rickson Gracie) but he also was a central character in the recent episode of Fight Quest when they covered Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Breno trained the Fight Quest personality Doug. Maybe our cohost Dan will end up rolling in the water or pulling a jeep with his head the way Doug did.
Normally Dan and I have always headed down there together and stay with Breno but it did not work out in terms of scheduling this time around. So in the meantime I join you all in living vicariously through his stories about the great BJJ training in Rio.
#107 Wellington “Megaton” Dias
March 9, 2008
Wellington Megaton Diaz (l) against Jeff Glover (r) in competition in 2006
Wellington “Megaton” Dias hails from Rio de Janeiro, where he was awarded his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the age of eighteen at Gracie Humaita. With more than thirty years of BJJ training, Megaton continues to compete in tournaments today when he is not training others at his school in Phoenix, Arizona.
Having just returned from winning third place in his black belt division at the 2008 European BJJ Championship, we’ll talk about the European BJJ scene, the difference between training BJJ in Brazil and in the United States, raising a daughter in BJJ, and tons more!
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#80 Rolls Gracie Recollections from Bob Anderson
August 12, 2007
The term “legend” is likely over-applied in sports like ours. Great competitors come and go, and some truly stand out. But all Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners who hear the name Rolls Gracie would agree that “legend” is an apt way to describe him.
Rolls Gracie’s name is brought up often in our interviews with Brazilian jiu-jitsu classics Carlos Valente, Fabio Santos, and Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti, all of whom attest to Rolls Gracie’s historic role in the development of Brazilian jiu-jitsu at a crucial point in its early history. Despite a premature death due to a hang-gliding accident in 1982, his willingness to integrate grappling techniques that were not a part of Brazilian jiu-jitsu opened the door to a new era in the sport, an effect that some say prevented the sport from sliding into stagnation.
Last week here on The FightWorks Podcast, cohost Dan and I discussed nutrition with wrestling legend and nutrition expert Bob Anderson. Bob stayed on the line with Dan and I and was kind enough to share his experiences of training with Rolls Gracie in the mid- to late 1970’s. As you’ll hear, the two met rather coincidentally and the exchange of ideas that took place between them had an impact on the sport we know today as Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
And before we shut the show down, we’ll have an installment of The Black Belt Corner. We’ll speak with none other than Carlos Gracie Jr.! Carlos, also known as “Carlinhos”, is the creator of the International Federation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Confederação Brasileira de Jiu-jitsu which run the largest BJJ tournaments in the world: the Mundials, Pan American and European Championships.
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Thinking of Training BJJ in Rio?
April 16, 2007
Those of us who’ve trained in Rio know that you need to keep your wits about you while on the mats as much as when you’re in public. I probably don’t need to tell you that Rio de Janeiro can be a dangerous place. The favelas (slums) are not outside the city but found in pockets and in close proximity to areas where travelers stay, including those who want to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu alongside the originators of the sport.
This week a Washington Post article called “In Rio, Death Comes Early” (registration required) appeared that highlights the dangers that the favelas bring the city and its inhabitants. It’s not pretty.
From 2002 through 2006… in Rio de Janeiro, 1,857 minors were reported murdered, according to the Institute of Public Security, a state research center.
When you’re on the beach and look like FightWorks Podcast cohost Dan and I, sitting there with your towel (which you’ll never see local guys do) and sunburned (also not common among locals, lol) you tend to stick out like a sore thumb and risk drawing the wrong type of attention. While we never experienced anything personally, we did witness a mugging.
While I may paint a grim picture in this post, don’t worry. Rio is a great place with lots to offer. I’ll be posting a bit more about all the great things to see and do on and off the mats in Brazil soon 
MTV’s Wildboyz at Gracie Humaita in iTunes
October 13, 2006
Okay by now most folks know that once upon a time, the guys from Wildboyz (the offshoot of MTV’s show Jackass) headed down to Rio de Janeiro’s Gracie Humaita academy and, well, did what they always do and goofed around and came close to getting hurt. That incident is available in iTunes now.
Here’s the write-up as it appears in iTunes for the episode, “Brazil”:
Chris and Steve-O get down and dirty in the streets of Brazil, where they visit the Gracie School of Jui-Jitsu and go skateboarding in the city’s infamously low-income flavella district. Out in the Amazon, the two get tangled up with guest star Manny Puig and a gargantuan green anaconda, and then proceed to cross “that line” that everyone has wondered about since season one—entirely by accident, of course.
Okay, so they misspelled the terms “jiu-jitsu” and “favela”, but it’s the thought that counts.
Readers get bonus points for spotting a member of The FightWorks Podcast crew in the photo below when Chris and Steve-O were at the academy!
#25 Breno Sivak and News from Rio
June 18, 2006
Breno Sivak.
Episode 25 of The FightWorks Podcast starts with coverage from the East Coast Grappling Championships 2 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. We speak with Chris Moriarty, who beat Marcos “Yemaso” Torregossa in a very technical fight in the no-gi professional division and took home a $1,000 purse, and then speak with Andrew “Goatfury” Smith, the tourney organizer who gives advice for those wishing to start their own event. Our main feature comes to us from Rio: Breno Sivak, long time friend of the Gracie family and black belt who updates us on news from Brazil including the rumors of Rickson Gracie’s return to the mixed martial arts scene! Finally, this episode has another installment of our regular feature called The Black Belt Corner, with Lloyd Irvin black belt Mike Moses.
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