2008 Absolute Champion Xande Ribeiro’s Knee Injury
June 1, 2009
Today 2008 Black Belt Absolute Division World Champion Xande Ribeiro sat down with The FightWorks Podcast to explain his absence from the 2009 Brazilian jiu-jitsu World Championships which will take place this coming weekend in Long Beach, California. Ribeiro won the gold medal in the black belt adult male heavyweight and absolute divisions in 2008 with victories over Alexandre Souza (Gracie Florianopolis) and Roger Gracie (Gracie Barra), respectively. Many jiu-jitsu observers were anticipating the 2009 absolute division to result in a rematch between historical rivals Xande Ribeiro and Roger Gracie again this year. In a vote here on The FightWorks Podcast, 66% of respondents expected the two to face off for the absolute title.
This widely held prediction was not to be, however. Saturday it was announced that Xande Ribeiro was not going to compete at all this year in the Mundials because of a knee injury.
The FightWorks Podcast was able to visit the University of Jiu-Jitsu here in San Diego where Xande and his brother Saulo Ribeiro host Gracie Humaita’s athletes who are preparing for the BJJ World Championships this weekend. In this video, Xande explains his absence from the 2009 Mundials. Among other statements from the champion, Ribeiro states:
I’m sorry to my fans that I won’t be there competing but I will be there representing my team Gracie Humaita, hopefully for the team title, and to see who will be the black belt absolute champion. I have my favorite [contender for the 2009 black belt absolute champion title], I know my favorite is going to win, and I still expect to fight him next year.
Check out all of our video offerings in iTunes, in YouTube, or download the original files here.
And remember we’re getting together for coffee on Sunday morning at the World Championship!
Kron Gracie at the Gracie US Nationals in 2008
February 25, 2009
Back in February 2008 Rose Gracie (daughter of UFC founder Rorion Gracie) and her husband Javi Vazquez held their annual Gracie US Nationals at the LA Convention Center. The event had saw approximately 400 competitors mostly from Southern California, including a healthy children’s division. BJJ practitioners-turned-MMA-fighters Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Fabio Leopoldo stopped in to check out the action too. Although tons of elite-level BJJ practitioners were present, including Saulo Ribeiro, Xande Ribeiro and Jeff Glover, the competitor in the event with the highest profile had to have been Kron Gracie. Kron, the son of Rickson Gracie and a brown belt in BJJ at the time, had four matches that day all of which were won by submission. Above is video footage of the endings of three of them, presented in order. Here are the details of his performance that day:
- Middleweight division: Kron Gracie defeats Daniel Santana (Franco de Camargo) by armbar.
- Middleweight division: Kron Gracie taps Alfredo Barun with a choke from the mount.
- Absolute division: Kron Gracie armbars Felipe Fogolin.
- Absolute division: Kron Gracie armbars Bruiser Neal (not in video)
Kron threw the Kikskin gi he won for his performance into the crowd after the medal ceremony.
While Kron did lose his debut match as a black belt later in 2008 at the 2008 BJJ Mundials to Alliance’s Sergio Moraes, he has since bounced back, winning all of his matches at the 2009 European BJJ Championships.
As always, if you’re interested in automatically having our BJJ video automatically download to your computer, you can subscribe to them in iTunes!
Helio Gracie Ceremony - Video 3 of 3
February 19, 2009
On February 7th, the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California held a ceremony to commemorate the life of Grand Master Helio Gracie, who passed away in late January at the age of 95.
The third video with some words from Ralek Gracie is posted over on YouTube but I still recommend you subscribe to our BJJ Video feed in iTunes so that every time we release a new video it will be automatically downloaded to you, your iPod and / or iPhone, so you won’t miss anything!
This post marks the last of the short videos we’ve brought back.
Helio Gracie Ceremony - Video 2 of 3
February 18, 2009
On February 7th, the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California held a ceremony to commemorate the life of Grand Master Helio Gracie, who passed away in late January at the age of 95.
The second video with some words from Ryron Gracie is posted over on YouTube but I still recommend you subscribe to our BJJ Video feed in iTunes so that every time we release a new video it will be automatically downloaded to you, your iPod and / or iPhone, so you won’t miss anything!
This post marks the second of the short videos we’ve brought back. We’ll post the last one tomorrow.
Helio Gracie Ceremony - Video 1 of 3
February 17, 2009
On February 7th, the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California held a ceremony to commemorate the life of Grand Master Helio Gracie, who passed away in late January at the age of 95. We headed north to capture what we could of the event and brought back three short videos that we will share today, tomorrow, and Thursday.
The first video with some words from Rorion Gracie is posted over on YouTube but I still recommend you subscribe to our BJJ Video feed in iTunes so that every time we release a new video it will be automatically downloaded to you, your iPod and / or iPhone, so you won’t miss anything!
Gracie Barra San Clemente Video
November 6, 2008
Flavio Almeida faces portraits of Gracie Barra leaders.
Twenty Gracie Barra black belts made the trek to San Clemente, California on Sunday to celebrate the official opening party of Flavio Almeida’s academy and take part in his promotion to a three-stripe black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The FightWorks Podcast headed north from our headquarters here in San Diego to check out the event firsthand, and brought back a three-minute video for you.
The video is posted over on YouTube but I still really recommend you subscribe to our BJJ Video feed in iTunes so that every time we release a new video it will be automatically downloaded to you, your iPod and / or iPhone, so you won’t miss anything!
Penny Thomas Video Posted
September 23, 2008
We had Penny Thomas here as our featured guest on The FightWorks Podcast back in Episode #132, and I only just now got around to putting together the video I snagged when I went to interview her. Sorry Penny!
Penny received her black belt this year and is an ADCC, BJJ Pan-Ams, and BJJ Mundials gold medalist.
The video is posted over on YouTube but I still really recommend you subscribe to our BJJ Video feed in iTunes so that every time we release a new video it will be automatically downloaded to you, your iPod and / or iPhone, so you won’t miss anything!
Also, the video that’s made available in iTunes is sharper and easier to watch than the generic YouTube video, so there’s another good reason to go that route.
In the video of Penny Thomas, she is shown training with Gracie Humaita black belt Leticia Ribeiro, and Tarsis Humphries of Alliance.
In addition to this video of Penny, we captured four videos of jiu-jitsu action at the 2008 US Jiu-Jitsu Nationals over the weekend that are now posted in iTunes and on YouTube as well. Enjoy!
Tarsis Humphreys Teaser Video
August 7, 2008
You all remember that I said we had Tarsis Humphreys on the way for you right? Well last week I was not able to synch up and meet as planned with this multiple-time medalist at the BJJ Mundials, but Tuesday night I sat down with him and was able to grab a little video for you and conduct the audio interview that we will include in our next episode of our Brazilian jiu-jitsu radio show, The FightWorks Podcast.
So our quick video with Tarsis (it is just under a minute and a half in length) is now available on our BJJ Video page.
What? You didn’t know we had a video page? Well it’s not like YouTube or anything, but it is our humble effort to bring you jiu-jitsu video that we think you will enjoy.
If you want to automatically receive our video everytime we release a new one, you can subscribe to our video in iTunes. (This is different than receiving our weekly audio show).
So stick around for this coming Sunday’s show! Tarsis will discuss how he got into jiu-jitsu, his training with Alliance, and he will even answer a question from you that was submitted to us as a part of “What Are You Working On?“
Carlos Gracie Jr. Discusses Receiving the Red and Black Belt
June 4, 2008
Carlos Gracie Jr., the head of Gracie Barra, offers his thoughts on his unexpected promotion, the importance of pursuing one’s dream, and how there is no place he would rather be than on the mats. Video was shot on June 3, 2008 in Irvine, California.
(If you’d like to see the original, clearer version of this video, it’s found in m4v format on our BJJ Video page!)
Renzo Gracie Awards Carlos Gracie Jr. His Red and Black Belt
June 4, 2008
An emotional Renzo Gracie presents his uncle Carlos Gracie Jr. with his red and black belt, an elite rank in Brazilian jiu-jitsu held by very few practitioners. Carlos Gracie Jr. is the head of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation and the leader of Gracie Barra.
(If you’d like to see the original, clearer version of this video, it’s found in m4v format on our BJJ Video page!)
TRANSCRIPTION OF RENZO GRACIE’S SPEECH
Renzo Gracie: You guys expect me to be funny, huh?
[audience laughter]
Honestly, a few years back I was sitting at the table in the kitchen with my grandfather. And when my grandfather ate, he never talked much. As he was eating, suddenly Carlinhos started training with his brother inside the kitchen. They start - BOOM! BOOM! going at each other, they fell into his plate. He pulled the plate back, laid back, they fell, they went back, he put the plate back down and kept eating. On that day I knew I didn’t belong to an ordinary family.
[audience laughter]
And in the end he just asked, “Who won?”
[audience laughter]
And they looked at each other and said, “It was a draw!”
[audience laughter]
I still remember when I belonged to Gracie Barra when Carlinhos moved to Gracie Barra and I remember the time that we had only six students. Me, Sergio Ignacio, my brother Ralph [Gracie], so the relatives and like three or four more students. And I remember [Carlos Gracie Jr] teaching patiently. And the ring was like this size.
[motions to a small area where he is standing]
That’s how it actually started. So to look around and today we see this, it’s really unbelievable, you know? And I honestly the most important thing I think that was inside that mat…
I happen to be his relative. I tried to run away from him but I couldn’t. He is brothers of my father and cousin of my mother. It looks like one of those episodes of Beverly Hillbillies!
[audience laughter]
But I remember after a training session… He looks at me and he goes, “WHAT do I do with you? What can I do with you?” Like I was the worst by far. My whole life I was 145 pounds. Everybody else was stronger, everybody else was squashing me. And when they wanted to warm up they would call me over.
[audience laughter]
But the secret of the sport is that while you are the nail hanging in there, let them hit you.
[makes the motion of swinging a hammer]
Until the day that you become the hammer, and then you smash them back.
[audience laughter]
I think that’s the reason they invited me here to give him the belt.
[audience laughter]
But the reality is, the most enriching thing I ever had was on mats like this.
[gestures to the jiu-jitsu mats on the floor]
It was experience to interact with people like you, to exchange knowledge, and to have a bad day and have someone else come and hug you on the shoulder and asks how you are doing, asks if you need anything, and maybe tries to teach you a move, tries to ask you about a move… So this is actually what this is all about. Being a champion, everything else: time has a habit of deleting, but I think the love that I had the chance to have my whole life, in his academy, was the most important thing.
[begins tearing up]
You guys are not laughing!!
[audience laughter]
You guys look at the difference!
[motions to his black belt]
This is the black belt he gave me ten years ago. And the problem is, I’m gonna die with this. I’m gonna wear this till I die and take it to the grave.
[audience laughter]
The belt’s brand happens to be Wacko. That’s the brand of the belt. This is the
[audience laughter]
I was expecting a brand new Mizuno, with gold letters on my name written on it, and he came with this! And I cannot get rid of it now, I’m gonna wear it till I die. And I look at this…
[gestures to the red and black belt for Carlos Gracie Jr.]
… and it’s a very nice belt, so be proud!
[hands red and black belt to Carlos Gracie Jr.]
[applause]
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