Fighters Only

Issue 001

March 2005

The first phase of the ADCC Brazilian trials was held in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, on November 27 and 28, with almost 300 athletes competing to find out who would have a place in the finals in São Paulo.

The first phase of the trials was the biggest submission meeting in Brazil and the 20 fighters who won their divisions joined the pre-qualified fighters in São Paulo. Regardless of the outcome of the Campos trials, it was a good opportunity to have fighters from all over the country competing. On a side note: among the 20 fighters who won in Campos only Demian Maia got a place in ADCC 2005.

In São Paulo we saw the best in submissions, and the trials are the Brazilians toughest submission event. In Campos, many of the favourite fighters lost in the quarter-finals. And this fact repeated itself in São Paulo — Pride Bushido and DEEP 2001 veteran Fábio Mello was choked out badly by Campos winner Taedes Mendonca. This was a fight in the under 65.9kg category in which Mendonca’s superiority was noticed from the beginning.

In the 66.0–76.9kg category, Leonardo Peçanha copied Mendonca and choked out one of the favourites, Fabricio ‘Morango’ Camoes. While Morango’s team-mate, and champion of last year’s Brazilian Trials, Daniel Moraes didn’t advance to the semi-finals after losing to Eduardo Guedes by 1–0.

In the same weight division, Roan ‘Jucão’ Carneiro faced André Galvão in the quarter-finals. Galvão had already shown some smart moves during the Campos trials against Jucão’s team-mate, Adriano ‘Nasal’ Pereira — who lost by the judge’s decision. Galvão slapped Jucão’s face, who paid him back the same way. The fight was stopped by the referee to warn them. Afterwards, Jucão took Galvão down twice, scoring 4–0, and later received a negative point because of passivity. With just 10 seconds left Galvão sunk a good armbar, but Jucão defended well and advanced to the semi-finals.

Fernando ‘Margarida’ Pontes didn’t play his A-game in the 77.0kg–87.9kg category and was beaten by Demian Maia in the quarter-finals. Jorge ‘Macaco’ Patino also didn’t advance after walking back from the guard and receiving a negative point when fighting Rodrigo Botti.

Such surprises were not seen in the 88.0kg–98.9kg category: Roger Gracie, Rodrigo ‘Riscado’ Gripp, Vitor Vianna and Fernando ‘Boi’ Fernandes went to the semi-finals without much trouble. Boi and Vianna were fast in their fights and finished respectively: Fabiano Capoanni (heelhook at 42 seconds) and Tony Lima (ankle-lock at 25 seconds).

The heaviest fighters kept a slower pace in the over 99.0kg category. The winners won either by a small points advantage or because of negative points received by their opponents for passivity or for pulling to the guard. The only thing that was unexpected was Antoine Jaoude, who didn’t take Marcos Moreno down in the regular time. Everybody was expecting a beautiful throw by the Brazilian top wrestler, but it didn’t happen.

SEMI-FINALS

Under 65.9kg:

Wagney Fabiano was very confident and used his solid game to beat Taedes Mendonca by 6–0 (clean takedown and knee on the stomach), while on the other hand, Rany Yahya schooled Rodrigo Damm by 11–0, in a fight where Damm was completely dominated.

66.0kg–76.9kg:

Roan ‘Jucão’ Carneiro and Leonardo Peçanha’s fight was a battle of takedown attempts for 15 minutes but in the end Jucão was the winner for non-stop attacking. The other fighter who went to the final was Eduardo Guedes, who took Lucas Leite down twice in the fight.

77.0–88.9kg:

Rodrigo ‘Comprido’ Medeiros and Demian Maia fought a team-mate’s match where Maia scored 2–0 with a throw. The surprising but persistent Sérgio Cohen knocked off the young Rodrigo Botti by 2–1 (sweep).

89.0kg–98.9kg:

Fernando ‘Boi’ Fernandes and Vitor Vianna started their bouts trying to prove who has the most resistant ankle, with Boi getting a heelhook and Vianna an ankle lock. The attempts failed and they started back on their feet. I believe that Boi under-estimated Vianna’s abilities on the feet and paid for it by being taken down by Vianna, who won the match by 2–0.

Roger Gracie earned his place on the final by resisting a tight guillotine choke and then grabbing the back of Rodrigo ‘Riscado’ Gripp and choking him.

Over 99.0kg:

The reputation of fighters in this weight division still isn’t good due to the lack of emotion in their fights. Alex ‘Negão’ Paz beat Rodrigo ‘Durok’ Asmuck by 4–1. Durok felt the lack of a corner to guide with a better strategy to move against the big Negão.

The second semi-final showed again the lack of submission pace from Antoine Jaoude. Gabriel ‘Napao’ Gonzaga just played a smart game to handle Jaoude inside an open guard to get a 1–0 score because of Jaoude’s passivity.

FINALS

Under 65.9kg:

Rany Yahya was aware that he would not be able to take Fabiano down, decided to pull guard but jeopardised himself by starting the fight and then losing by 1–0.

From the bottom, Yahya didn’t sweep or reverse the strong Fabiano, who stayed very calm during the fight. The fight started back on their feet and when they had reached 10 minutes without scoring points, Fabiano took Yahya down and controlled the action as he wanted.

Yahya still got a point on this match because of Fabiano’s passivity, but it was already too late for a reversal in the score and Fabiano was the conqueror at 3–1.

66.0kg–76.9kg:

Jucão and Eduardo Guedes fought a tough-as-hell final match. And the most amazing thing about this final was the fact that they are BTT team-mates.

Neck clinches were seen a lot until they tried their first takedown attempts. Jucão put his wrestling to work and took Guedes down after they reached 10 minutes without any points scored, while Guedes tried to work from the open guard, but the fight started back on their feet from where Jucão almost managed a guillotine on Guedes, who escaped. Jucão received a -1 because of passivity, but that did nothing to harm his performance. At the end of the match Jucão was the 66.0kg–76.9kg Brazilian Trials 2005 Champion.

77.0kg–88.9kg:

This was simply Demian Maia controlling and schooling Sérgio Cohen. Before they reached the 10-minute mark without any points being scored, Maia worked his arsenal of position over Cohen: a sequence of guard passing, knee on the stomach and sweeps. When the 10 minutes elapsed Maia kept the same pace and scored 11–1, followed by a choke that made Cohen tap out.

89.0kg–98.9kg:

Roger Gracie is thought to be the guy who is going to shake ADCC 2005. It was expected to be a tough final match, however Roger was quick and lethal in his first moves and after clinching Vitor Vianna he took the fight to the ground, gained side control then quickly went to the full mount. Vianna tried to survive the big pressure imposed by Roger, but it didn’t take long and Roger sunk an arm triangle to capture the title.

Over 99.0kg:

Napão and Negao didn’t risk themselves in the final match; we saw a lot of takedowns, shoots and a lot of effort not to go to the mat at the bottom position. There was no ground game in the final and Napão, who’s in a great phase of his career, beat Negao by 2–1.