If you are in Northern California, enjoy the opportunity to learn from the source! Mauro Ayres BJJ Black belt 1st degree will be hosting Carlson Gracie Jr. BJJ Black belt 5th degree Seminar in Davis, CA.

Mauro Ayres BJJ & Carlson Gracie Team members $50, Non-members $…60 , at the door $75.

213 E Street, Suite D
Davis, CA 95616
MAP

More information on the official site.

Sergio Penha is one of the newest members of an elite club in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who have earned the red and black belt. After being a black belt for thirty-one years, he was awarded his red and black belt on June 7th at the 2010 BJJ World Championship alongside Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti and Mauricio Motta Gomes (Roger Gracie’s father).

Perhaps you have also heard of Sergio Penha for being “the man who almost beat Rickson Gracie“. That’s right, Penha was the closest to breaking the aura of invincibility of the lion of the Gracie family: Penha had racked up a significant lead against Rickson when in the final moments Rickson came back and submitted Penha just before the whistle blew.

And how many jiu-jitsu practitioners who have reached black belt do you know that were never a brown belt? I didn’t know any, until now. That’s right, Penha skipped brown belt altogether.

We will hear about all the above stories and much more straight from Rio de Janeiro native Sergio Penha himself in this episode of The FightWorks Podcast. But if there is one theme in the show, it is his sincere appreciation for the wonderful benefits that jiu-jitsu brings us.

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show

Sergio Penha displays the certificate awarded by the IBJJF certifying that he has reached red and black belt.

-Weigh in with your gi before your first match
-Men’s and Women’s White-Black belt divisions
-Complete Children’s White-Green belt divisions
-Free T-Shirts
-Medals for all the kids
-Team Trophies

-Registration Methods:
A)Online Registration
B)NABJJ Store in Torrance
C)Mail Registration

North Torrance High School
3620 W 182nd St
Torrance, CA 90504
MAP

More information on the official site.

Female jiu-jitsu competitors at the 2010 Gracie Invitational in London. All images courtesy Seymour Yang.

If you ever was entertained the notion that martial arts are a universally practised activity, that notion would be easily dashed if you attended the SENISHOW martial arts expo, where the Gracie Invitational was held, this weekend. Yes, SENISHOW is a massive event, possibly the biggest martial arts show in Europe, but the neighbouring exhibition hall hosted a computer games fan convention and as we entered the shared arena hallway, we were vastly outnumbered by the surreal sight of thousands and thousands of grown men and women dressed as all manner of ghosts, aliens, stormtroopers and, bizarrely, in one case, a tetris block!

The Gracie Invitational was held over two days – men’s white belts and some blues competed on the Saturday, all women’s categories, higher grades, no-gi and the show-piece event, the Absolute 1000, was held on the second day. I attended the second day.

Day two started a little late but once it did, the brackets raced through at lightening pace. Spread across six mats, with seating surrounding all four sides and a decent size holding area, the fights came thick and fast. The event was run by BJJ black belt Jude Samuels with assistance by my own instructor, Nick Brooks. This gave me the extra privilege of access to all areas for photography and extra close-up views of the fights. But to be honest, the dividers were so close to the mats that everyone was granted good views of all the fights.

Dominique Vitry (left) fends off Paula Almeida’s open guard.

The rest of the exhibition hall hosted hundreds of martial art stands and displays all competing against one another for attention, which made for a very noisy and busy atmosphere. The loud, rhythmic capoeira display next to the BJJ arena added a particularly authentic flavour for much of the period.

One annoying thing I noticed was that in order to go to the loo, you had to leave the exhibition hall, and go to the main hall, which was a long way away. It just meant extra hassle especially if you were waiting for names to be called.

There were some amazing fights on the Sunday. Highlights for me were watching my team mate Dominique Vitry fight in the women’s absolute semi against a Paula Almeida, a larger Portuguese purple belt. Dominique won by a large points margin but not without the drama of escaping an impossible armbar! Dominique was awarded her much deserved purple belt straight after.

I also enjoyed watching brown belt Oli Geddes secure some impressive submissions on his way to winning gold in his category. Oli is fast making marks in the brown belt divisions much as he did at purple and blue.

Luke Costello takes the back of Lucio as crowds watch on.

But the showpiece of the day belonged to the Absolute 1000 where winners of each purple, brown and black belt group would be allowed to compete against one another for a prize of £1,000. Here, we had the delights of watching seasoned black belts fight against smaller purple belts or two rival brown or black belts smashing ten bells out of each other in a bid to win the coveted prize.

Every match in this prize event was a brilliant display of BJJ at its highest. For me, the highlights included young purple belt Luke Costello against experienced black belt Lucio. Both fighters attacked with flair, immense skill and a good amount of vigour as several times they crashed into the crowd. Lucio won by a slim points margin, but there was no doubt among us that Luke Costello is a name to watch for the future. Another couple of fights that I really enjoyed watching involved the smaller guys. Purple belt featherweight Alain Pozo gamely stood his ground against the much heavier black belt Henrique Santana, and little pluma purple belt Mark Phung holding off a much larger brown belt. For me, watching these lighter guys fight put in such a spirited performance against bigger and higher ranked opponents was truly inspiring and shows just what a good idea the Absolute 1000 event is.

Henrique Santana imposes his superior weight against Alain Pozo.

Unfortunately, the Absolute 1000 was unable to finish as the whole tournament over-ran and the exhibition hall had to close. So the last four or five players shared the £1,000 prize.

Since it began six or seven years ago, the Gracie Invitational has always attracted huge numbers of competitors, many of whom travel from overseas, and this year was no exception. Being sited within the confines of a massive martial arts expo, adds to the unique atmosphere of the event. I’d like to thank the organisers, the runners, the scorers and all the many many people who worked extra hard over the weekend to ensure that us competitors had a good time. I look forward to the next Gracie Invitational in two years time.

- Caleb

Beatriz Mesquita and Leticia Ribeiro, two cornerstones of Gracie Humaita’s womens competition team.

Do not let the smiles fool you! Four stripe brown belt Beatriz Mesquita and her black belt instructor Leticia Ribeiro are some of the toughest female grapplers on the planet. Mesquita, aka “Bia” has hit the competition scene like a tsunami, winning world championship after world championship as she has progressed through the belt rankings. She also recently came in second place in the World Pro championship in Abu Dhabi. Did we mention that she is not yet twenty years old? Many consider her the top talent among new women’s jiu-jitsu athletes.

Leticia Ribeiro is a black belt under Royler Gracie and is the heart of the Gracie Humaita female team. World champion Penny Thomas has nothing but high praise for Letty, who organizes the competition preparation for Gracie Humaita’s womens team, which earned first place among female competitors for the last three years. And did you ever watch the episode of MTV’s Wildboyz where Steve-O was choked out by a woman? Yes, that was Leticia.

Also in this episode, we will discuss some listener email, a listener voicemail (who called us at (877) 247-4662), and of course we’ll also discuss the most recent BJJ Poll!

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show

Former black belt absolute division world champion Xande Ribeiro will be offering jiu-jitsu seminars from 11:30am – 2pm.

Cost:
2 days is $175
1 day is $95

Instruction on both days will take place wearing the gi.

JJ Performance Training Center
100 Eureka Square
Pacifica, CA 94044
MAP

More information on the official site.

UFC middleweight fighter Patrick Côté (13-5) is still in the hunt for the championship title. After a year-and-a-half sidelined with a knee injury the Canadian will start his quest for the belt in one week against Alan Belcher at UFC 113 in Côté’s backyard in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Unlike top middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen, Côté isn’t interested in fighting champion Anderson Silva, he’s just interested in whoever has the belt.

“I really don’t care about this guy,” Cote said of Silva. “The thing is he was the champion; that’s what I want. I want the belt; I want to be world champion.”

“If he’s still there when I have another title fight, I’ll fight him. But if it’s another one, I’ll fight another guy too,” Cote said. “I’m not running after Anderson Silva, I’m running after another title fight.”

HT: MMAWeekly.com

Benefiting leukemia research!

Adult Divisions (Men and Women)
Novice: Up to 9 months (white belts only).
Beginner: Up to 2 years (white belts only).
Intermediate: 2 – 5 years, or blue belt.
Advanced: Over 5 years, or purple belt and above.

and:

Juvenile (ages 4-17) Skill Levels
Beginners: Up to one year of training any grappling art.
Intermediate: Up to three years of training any grappling art.
Advanced: Over three years training any grappling art.

The rules meeting is at 10:45.

MVP Sports Center
1839 S Main St.
Wake Forest, NC 27587
MAP

More information on the official site.

Strikeforce women’s champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1) couldn’t imagine wearing the belt one day. She trained like she might one day though, and defeated fan favorite Gina Carano last August to earn the first women’s title.

In a recent interview with Tatame.com, Santos spoke about the rise in popularity of women’s MMA, as well as her own in Brazil and expressed her feelings on being an inspiration for other young women.

When asked about her thoughts on defeating Carano, “Cyborg” had this to say:

We both were pretty tense, but I think I was more prepared. It was my opportunity; I trained so much to have the belt. When I started fighting, I could never imagine I’d have a belt on my hands, but when I saw Gina, I said I would train so that I could face the best that was out there and she was the one. It was a dream coming true, now I have to keep my focus and keep on practicing. Every athlete dreams about the belt.

Santos defended her title for the first time last January at “Strikeforce: Miami” against Marloes Coenen, defeating her opponent via TKO (punches) in the third round.

Black belt open division winners at the Abu Dhabi Pro from left to right: Braulio Estima (2nd place, Gracie Barra), Claudio Calazans (1rst place, Atos Jiu-Jitsu), Alexandre Souza (3rd place, Gracie Florianópolis), Gabriel Vella (3rd place, Ryan Gracie). Image courtesy Abu Dhabi Pro.

This comes to us courtesy of Carlos Santos in the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi Pro was held last weekend in the UAE and has become an important date on the competition calendar these days, in no small part due to its monetary prizes for competitors.

BLUE BELT:
-63 KG
1-Tareek Alkutbi (UAE)
2-Ahmed Gloum (UAE)
3-Raymond Lee Massa (NZ)
3-Ghaleb Odeh Ahmad (Jordan)

-68 KG
1-Matheus Luckmann (Brazil)
2-Jacob Sandoval (USA)
3-Talib Saleh (UAE)
3-Kevin Mahecha (USA)

-73 KG
1-Daniel Agard (UK)
2-Daniel Svensson (Sweden)
3-Issa Able (USA)
3-Takatoshi Matsumoto (Japan)

-78 KG
1-Khlaed Abdulkareem (Jordan)
2-Jonathan Tuck (Guam-USA)
3-Zaid Jarandoka (Jordan)
3-Mario Marwan Kamal (Iraq)

-83 KG
1-Kit Dale (Australia)
2-Gustavo Silvestro (Brazil)
3-Faisal Alsouqi (Jordan)
3-Wesley Charles (South Africa)

-88 KG
1-Krysztof Saganowski (Poland)
2-Majid Alnaqbi (UAE)
3-Tamer Sameer (Jordan)
4-Sami Mohamed (Jordan)

-93 KG
1-Faisal Alkutbi (UAE)
2-Celso Frabetti (Brazil)
3-Bjoernar Beylich (Norway)
3-Brandon Kalapu (NZ)

-98 KG
1-Yahia Mansoor (UAE)
2-Marcelo Tarso (Brazil)
3-Tarek Matar (UAE)
3-Orlando Sanches (USA)

+98 KG
1-Hideki Sekine (Japan)
2-Willie Leonard (USA)
3-Mohammad Almenhali (UAE)
3-Alex Fraser (Canada)

OPEN LIGHT
1-Jonathan Tuck (Guam-USA)
2-Mohammed Naser (UAE)
3-Ali Monfaradi (BAHRAIN)
3-Ahmad (Kuwait)

OPEN HEAVY
1-Faisal Al Kutbi (UAE)
2-Tarek Mattar (EGYPT)
3-Ali Mehali (UAE)
4-Hideki Sekine (Japan)

The competition mats in Abu Dhabi. Image courtesy Abu Dhabi Pro.

BLACK BELT:
-65 KG
1-Rafael Mendes (Brazil)
2-Guilherme Mendes (Brazil)
3-Almiro Barros (Brazil)
3-Kataniwa Katsunori (Japan)
-74 KG
1-Gilbert Burns (Brazil)
2-Claudio Matos (Brazil)
3-Michel Maia (Brazil)
3-Celso Vinicius (Brazil)
-83 KG
1-Claudio Calazans (Brazil)
2-Braulio Estima (UK)
3-Delson Heleno (Brazil)
3-Guto Campos (Brazil)
-92 KG
1-Alexandre Ceconi (Brazil)
2-Romulo Barral (Brazil)
3-Zumbi Larara (Brazil)
3-Carlos Alexandre (Brazil)
+92KG
1-Ricardo Abreu (Brazil)
2-Gabriel Vela (Brazil)
3-Luiz Felipe Theodoro (Brazil)
3-Marcus de Almeida (Brazil)
OPEN
1-Claudio Calazans (Brazil)
2-Braulio Estima (UK)
3-Alexandre Souza (Brazil)
3-Gabriel Vella (Brazil)

FEMALE:
-63 KG
1-Luanna Alzuguir (Brazil)
2-Beatriz Mesquita (Brazil)
3-Hillary Williams (USA)
3-Juliana Holanda (Canada)
+63 KG
1-Gabrielle Garcia (Brazil)
2-Luzia Fernandes (Brazil)
3-Cassuza Fornari (Brazil)
3-Rosangela Conceição (Brazil)