Congrats to the University of Jiu-Jitsu
April 6, 2008
Tonight the University of Jiu-Jitsu had a successful debut in its mixed martial arts coaching debut, as Fabrico “Morango” defeated Los Angeles area BJJ black belt Joe Camacho on the ShoXC mixed martial arts card, televised on SHOWTIME.
Saulo and Xande Ribeiro opened the University of Jiu-Jitsu about a year or so ago here in San Diego, and since then have branched out into coaching MMA fighters. Among other aspiring MMA fighters such as Diego Gardijo under their care, they also help prepare UFC fighter Diego Sanchez.
Sanchez, BJJ brown belt Leo Santos, and Saulo Ribeiro were all present for Morango’s victory tonight, as was Xande Ribeiro, who has stated that he will begin his own MMA career after competing at the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world championships, or Mundials this year.
#91 Javier Vazquez Interview
November 4, 2007
Javier “Showtime” Vazquez is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and is known as a natural athlete with potential for great success in combat sports. Javi Vazquez is well-known in the west coast BJJ scene for his prowess in tournaments and did very well in mixed martial arts until a series of injuries derailed his promising career in 2003. Vazquez returned to MMA action in 2007 with a win in February over Adriano Pereira and defeated JC Pennington in EliteXC on SHOWTIME on October 26th. To the surprise of many who were excited for his return, Vazquez announced his retirement from MMA after the Pennington fight.
In our conversation with the former King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge champion we’ll hear about his reasons for returning to action and his subsequent decision to leave active competition to focus on training and coaching others. He’ll also give us some tips for Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners who want to transition into MMA! And just because Javi Vazquez has stepped away from MMA himself, don’t forget the name because this elite competitor claims that he does still intend to win the Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling Championships before he’s all done!
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#88 Shayna Baszler, Saulo Ribeiro
October 14, 2007
This week on the show we have three guests with us! We’ll start off with an interview with Shayna Baszler , a mixed martial artist with a record of 8-4-0 who will be fighting Jennifer Tate on Friday, October 26th on the EliteXC on SHOWTIME card. As our first guest on The FightWorks Podcast representing female MMA (with our only other female guest being grappling star Kyra Gracie) Shayna helps introduce us to the female MMA scene. We’ll also hear about how she got her start, training under Josh Barnett and what she does when she’s not training to punch another girl in the face.
Next up, we have a conversation with Saulo Ribeiro, who took second place this year in the 2007 BJJ World Championships. We learn several things from Saulo in our conversation with him:
- His brother Alexandre “Xande” Ribeiro will be making the leap into mixed martial arts! Surprised?
- He has a new book on the way that we can expect to see in early 2008 from Victory Belt publishing, which is the same company which recently published new books from BJ Penn, and Randy Couture. Victory Belt, who published Dave Camarillo’s Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
, has another on the way from Camarillo, in addition to a book from a famous BJJ legend that I promised not to reveal. They have been on a tear recently!
- Saulo discusses how the UFC’s Diego Sanchez is doing training in the gi at the University of Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, and the arrival of Fabricio “Morango” Camoes, who is fighting on the undercard of the October 26th EliteXC card.
Finally, we are going to hear from Robert Mrotek in a brief conversation between him and our own Bruce Hoyer. He’s organizing a benefit seminar that sounds incredible for just $55 that includes 5 fighters who’ve competed in the UFC in the last year! It’s on November 3rd in Superior, Wisconsin. We’ll post again on the matter as the time draws nearer.
Shayna Bazler. Photo courtesy of EliteXC.
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Quick Preview of This Sunday’s Episode
October 11, 2007
Just wanted to give a teaser about this coming Sunday’s show! At the moment I know will hear from Shayna Bazler, who will be fighting on October 26th on the EliteXC on Showtime card.
Saulo Ribeiro will also be joining us with some news that I won’t spill until the show, but I think you’ll find it exciting!
Shayna Bazler (l) prior to her July 2007 victory over Jan Finney. Photo courtesy of EliteXC.
Conference Call Notes for the September 15 ProElite
September 8, 2007
Our very own Bruce Hoyer was on a call Thursday with fighters and management who are preparing the upcoming EliteXC: Uprising, which airs on Showtime at 10pm EST on September 15th. Here are Bruce’s questions to some of the call attendees…
Bruce Hoyer: Gary I know that you’ve been working on really developing Gina Carano as a fighter. Who else do you have in mind for developing in that female division?
Gary Shaw: I have my eyes on three females right now, none of which are signed, but I promise you by September 15th I will make that announcement. But Gina took women’s MMA on her back on her first fight with Julie Kedzie on ShowTime and proved to everybody she’s a real fighter, proved that women can be exciting fighters, and she’s now given me the impetus to go out and sign more women fighters like Gina that are coming into that cage to fight.
BH: Now that you guys have recently added the ShowXC portion to your brand, how often do you plan on putting that card out there?
Gary Shaw: That’s a very good question. I am just in talks with Ken Hershman from ShowTime. I believe we have two more scheduled for this year: one in October and one in December. I think it’s December seventh and October 26th. And hopefully we’re going to bring you eight to ten of those shows next year on ShowTime. And again I have not sat down with Ken Hershman from ShowTime and put that in stone, but that right now is the plan. I hope you’re enjoying the shows and I hope you see the value in them. We’re trying to bring new stars to the television, to the eyeballs, to show how many great fighters there are out there, and move them, and get them the opportunity to go from ShowXC on to big time EliteXC on ShowTime.
BH: This question is for Jake. Obviously [your opponent] Charuto’s a very good ground guy, you are as well. How do you expect it to go if you guys both end up on the ground?
Jake Shields: I’ve gone against so many Abu Dhabi [grapplers], and all those guys from top jiu-jitsu competitions, so I think I’m fine on the ground. I think he might be hard to submit. I am definitely capable of submitting him, but I hold an advantage on top, you know, open him up with elbows, and ground and pound. I am looking to hopefully keep the fight on the feet. But there’s always definitely a chance it’ll be on the ground. You know if he’s on top I don’t want to be there; I’ll just try to get back to my feet.
BH, to Gina Carano: Regarding the training at Randy Couture’s gym, how has that improved your game? Have you trained with him at all? Have you gotten a little better in wrestling?
Gina Carano: Yeah before I was at Randy’s, I didn’t have anybody to put my MMA game together for me. I would go do my my boxing, my muay-thai, and my jiu-jitsu all at different places. So, when I went over to Randy’s, that all kind of got put together for me and I’ve been training in the pro practices for my fights and that’s been a good experience just to see what MMA training is like. I haven’t gotten the chance to work with Randy that much because he was training for his fight [against Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74], so I’ve just been working with everybody there, but everybody we’ve got there at Extreme Couture is amazing, so I hope my fight game has improved somewhat!
BH: Jake, you’ve fought for a bunch of different organizations recently and now you’re with EliteXC. Going forward, what’s your future look like? Do you plan on staying with EliteXC or do you plan on moving around as well?
Jake Shields: I really let my manager handle that but so far I’ve really been liking how Showtime’s been treating me. Hopefully I’ll stay here. I’ve got one more fight in my contract after [my fight against Renato "Charuto" Verissimo]… they’ve been treating me well, everything’s going good so right now my plans are most likely to stay with ProElite.
BH: You have a win over Carlos Condit. Any chance that you might go over to the WEC?
Jake Shields: It hasn’t really ever been a serious consideration, I mean I let my manager sort everything out. So, you never know, if it was the right situation I might go over there to beat Condit again but I don’t really have any serious plans of going over there.
ShowTime has been running a well-done pre-event program running now which documents the preparation of various fighters on the card, including Robbie Lawler, Murilo Rua, Cesar Gracie fighters Jake Shields and Nick Diaz, and Renato Verissimo and Mike Aina, of BJ Penn’s gym in Hawaii. Worth checking out if you haven’t already!
EliteXC Moving Forward, ShowXC Debuts Friday Night
July 24, 2007
Here are some notes taken from today’s EliteXC conference call with the media:
- Contracts have been offered to Pat Miletich fighter Robbie Lawler and Murilo “Ninja” Rua to fight against one another on a fight card that will air on September 15 on Showtime. EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw stated that they are working on getting an opponent for Nick Diaz, who trains under Cesar Gracie on that card as well.
- Fans can expect to see the MMA promotions King of the Cage, Rumble on the Rock, Gladiator Challenge, and ICON on Showtime’s new MMA series titled ShowXC. The first installment of this regular MMA programming on Showtime is titled ShoXC & EliteXC present King of the Cage and will be shown 11pm EST live and 11pm PST on tape delay this coming Friday, July 27. They appear to be shooting for ShowXC programming to be monthly, and hope it will increase Showtime subscriptions.
- Gary Shaw stated repeatedly that having pay-per-view as one’s main offering is a disservice to sports fans. He said Showtime is a much better value for a fan to pay the monthly subscription fee for Showtime to get one’s “MMA fix” and get the full 24-7 array of other programming than paying $40 for each PPV an MMA promoter might offer. He did not rule out the possibility that EliteXC would not put on a PPV at some point, but presently their model appears to be to use Showtime as their main programming outlet.
- ShowXC was originally slated to begin in December but was moved forward to this month to meet the immediate demand for more high quality programming. Shaw stated that while he appreciates the production quality of shows like the IFL and Bodog, he believes that with Showtime’s experience producing ShowBox over the years, viewers of ShowXC will enjoy the highest production quality of MMA programming out there, to be on par with what is seen in the UFC.
- When asked if it was appropriate for fans to conceptualize the competition shown on ShowSC as a “feeder system” for EliteXC events, Shaw denied the use of the term, saying that it is a venue to provide high quality MMA programming that otherwise would not be available to fans. Senior V.P. And G.M., Showtime Sports & Event Programming Ken Hershman stated that he does not obect to the term “feeder system” and considers it a positive opportunity for younger, less-experienced fighters to prove their skills and prepare them for the bigger events.
- Gina Carano has signed a multiyear deal with EliteXC. It is not known what her responsibilities are, if any, beyond fighting.
Gina Carano
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