Carlos Gracie Junior

This week’s episode of the FightWorks Podcast is really two episodes in one. Each of the two interviews we present here would normally be a week’s worth of content but we are feeling especially generous with the 2010 BJJ World Championships on the way this coming weekend!

The first feature interview is with Carlos Gracie Jr.. Many of the Gracie family are key characters in how jiu-jitsu became what it is today Carlos Junior is no exception. He is the head of all Gracie Barra schools, the president of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, and the publisher of GracieMag. Influential indeed!

The second of our interviewees is none other than Jean Jacques Machado. One of the five Machado brothers (and a cousin to Carlos Gracie Jr.), Jean Jacques won his weight class in the 2001 ADCC Submission Grappling Championship and is highly regarded for his teaching skills. Another terrific interview brought to us by FightWorks Podcast contributor Christian Simamora.

Of course we will also review some listener email, voicemail, and go over the plans to cover the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship coming up this weekend at the Long Beach Pyramid in Los Angeles!

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Hate him, love him, or love to hate him; Nick Diaz is without a doubt one of the most talented fighters currently competing in mixed martial arts, period.

Diaz further solidified the belief that he is among the most ferocious competitors in the sport during DREAM.14 where the Stockton bad boy reeled off his seventh consecutive dominating victory with a first round armbar submission over the highly respected Japanese veteran, Hayato “Mach Sakurai”.

The 24-year-old Ralek Gracie became the first of the legendary family name to pull off a victory over Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba with an impressive unanimous decision.

Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen has seen better days coming off of a third straight defeat at the hands of Hiroyuki Takaya. Both fighters came into the bout on two-fight losing skids, but it was Takaya who was able to jump back on track with an electrifying series of hard right hands in the first round that left Hansen in a heap.

Also in action in Saitama, Japan was Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, who returned to the winner’s circle following back-to-back defeats with a first round knockout over an obviously outmatched Federico “Kiko” Lopez, and Ikuhisa “Minowa-Man” Minowa managed to come out on top of yet another freak show match-up against the 330 lb. Imani Lee via first round rear-naked choke.

A full set of results from the event are below:

Nick Diaz def. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai via submission (armbar) – Round 1

Ralek Gracie def. Kazushi Sakuraba via unanimous decision

Hiroyuki Takaya def. Joachim Hansen via knockout – Round 1

Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto def. Federico “Kiko” Lopez via knockout – Round 1

Akiyo Nishiura def. Hideo Tokoro via TKO – Round 1

Kazuyuki Miyata def. Takafumi Otsuka via split decision

Kenji Osawa def. Yoshiro Maeda via split decision

Ikuhisa Minowa def. Imani Lee via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1

Victorious Nick Diaz was prepared for Hayato “Mach” Sakurai’s game and knew he’d take him down where his Jiu-jitsu would be the difference. He also talks about the “White Cage” saying that he’ll never fight in DREAM’s cage again but they need to fix it before someone get’s hurt.

Click here to view the embedded video.

DREAM has done a wonderful job tailoring to English fans by transcribing all of their post-fight interviews into English.

Ralek Gracie post fight interview – He talks about how tough opponent Kazushi Sakuraba is and more.

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More interviews after the jump

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai post fight interview – On his defeat to Nick Diaz.

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Kazushi Sakuraba on his loss to Ralek Gracie.

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Hiroyuki Takaya on defeating Joachim Hansen.

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Former DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen on his loss to Hiroyuki Takaya.

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Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto on his knockout win over Federico “Kiko” Lopez.

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Federico “Kiko” Lopez on his loss to Yamamoto.

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Ikuhisa Minowa on his submission win over Imani Lee.

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Imani Lee felt the fight went well for Minowa and badly for himself. He’d love to come back and fight again in Japan.

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Akiyo Nishiura on his first round TKO win over Hideo Tokoro.

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Kazuyuki Miyata on his split decision win over Takafumi Otsuka.

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Takafumi Otsuka on the split decision.

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Kenji Osawa talks about defeating Yoshiro Maeda by split decision.

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Yoshiro Maeda not happy with split decision loss to Osawa but can’t argue with the decision.

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Despite the fact that Ralek Gracie (2-0) has only two professional mma bouts under his belt and the fact that he hasn’t fought since June of 2008, he’s pretty optimistic about his upcoming fight against Kazushi “The Gracie Hunter” Sakuraba (26-12-1).

Both men will meet this Saturday at the DREAM.14 event in the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the live broadcast beginning Saturday morning at 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT).

The 24-year-old Ralek doesn’t plan on following in the steps of Rolyer Gracie, Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie and Ryan Gracie, all of whom dropped bouts to Sakuraba. He feels that in this fight his speed will play a major factor and will allow him to win the fight.

The last time you participated in a Dream event was two years ago. What have you reinforced over the last two years?
Everything. I feel great. I feel strong and faster and I feel more comfortable. More training partners and better training partners. Just overall. Just everything.

Do you feel added pressure with Sakuraba being called “The Gracie Hunter” or is he just another opponent for you?
No. Not at all. I just feel like obviously he is someone who has fought against my uncles and cousins and done very well but I really feel like I have the tools. I’m not really concerned, more than anything I just want to get it over with.

What tools do you think you have over Sakuraba? Obviously he is a submission specialist and so are you so where do you think you have the advantage?
Overall, I feel faster. I feel like I’m more comfortable with my technique at this point to where if anything, he can’t beat me. You know, for him to catch me is going to be very difficult. If he can’t catch me, then I feel like I can only win and I can take my opportunity if he gives it to me. If not, hopefully I can just control the fight.

HT: MMAFighting.com

All sixteen competitors hit the scales for Satuday’s DREAM.14 event and all but one fighter made weight for their fight.

DREAM.14 takes at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The broadcast airs in North American at HDNet at 3 a.m. ET (midnight ET) early on Saturday morning.

Federico “Kiko” Lopez (136.4lbs/62kg) came in 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) overweight for his bout against Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (131.6lbs/59.8kg). Lopez will be given time to make weight for this bout.

The event is headlined by a non-title bout between Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz (167.2lbs/76.0kg) and Hayato Sakurai (168.3lbs/76.5kg).

The full DREAM.14 weigh-ins are as follows:

- Nick Diaz (167.2lbs/76.0kg) vs. Hayato Sakurai (168.3lbs/76.5kg)
- Kazushi Sakuraba (192.3lbs/86.5kg) vs. Ralek Gracie (190.3lbs/87.4kg)
- Joachim Hansen (143lbs/65.0kg) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (143lbs/65.0)
- Federico “Kiko” Lopez (62kg)* vs. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (131.6lbs/59.8kg)
- Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura (138.6lbs/62.8kg) vs. Hideo Tokoro (138.2lbs/63.0kg)
- Kazuyuki Miyata (141.7lbs/64.2kg) vs. Takafumi Otsuka (141.2lbs/64.4kg)
- Yoshiro Maeda (133.5lbs/60.7kg) vs. Kenji Osawa (134.2lbs/61.0kg)
- Imani Lee (330lbs/150kg) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (193.6lbs/88kg)

* – Missed weight on first attempt; will weigh in again

Despite suffering a relatively one-sided TKO loss at the hands of Matt
Lindland, Rickson Gracie jiu-jitsu brown belt Kevin Casey proved the
"King" of paydays by picking up an event-high $10,000 for his main-event
defeat at this past weekend's Strikeforce Challengers 8 event.

MMAjunkie.com recently requested and today received the list of disclosed paydays from
the Oregon State Athletic Commission.

The total disclosed payroll for the prospects-driven May 21 event was
$46,500.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts Tatiana Garcia and Emily Kwok.

Last week on our show we highlighted elite female grapplers Leticia Ribeiro and Beatriz Mesquita, of Gracie Humaita. This week on our show we continue our coverage of the women’s jiu-jitsu scene with Tatiana Garcia and Emily Kwok. In a contribution from our east coast correspondent Christian Simamora, we learn more about what it takes to overcome obstacles to achieve the difficult dream of becoming a black belt in jiu-jitsu. Consider this excerpt from the conversation:

The FightWorks Podcast: Did you find that in your circle of family of friends that there was opposition to you doing jiu-jitsu?

Tatiana Garcia: My parents never watched any of my matches. I don’t think they even know what [jiu-jitsu] is. I had to train two years without telling them. And when they found out they took my car so I couldn’t drive. I had to take the bus. It was a challenge. Now, they accept it because they have no other choice. But it was hard. I used to do classical ballet before I got into jiu-jitsu so for them it was like a shock. I was in college in the U.S. as a freshman. I came to the U.S. to study and then I went back to Brazil for a couple of months for vacation and I started jiu-jitsu. So I quit school. I didn’t want to come back, and I wanted to do jiu-jitsu. So that was even worse. But you know what? Today I can say I’m so happy with what I do. I do what I love to do. No matter what other choice I could wdo with my life, I did what I wanted and I’m so happy about it.

Lots of good lessons for all jiu-jitsu practitioners about fighting hard on the mats and in life. For more on Tatiana check out MGinAction.com (yes, she is Marcelo Garcia’s wife) and Emily would be mad if we didn’t send you to WomensGrappling.org: jiu-jitsu camps just for the ladies.

We will also speak with Antonio “Nino” Schembri, who has been away from jiu-jitsu for a while but is now back in action. Schembri was the 1996 absolute black belt champion at the Brazilian National Championship, and now has a school in Manhattan Beach. We were able to speak with him at the Fabio Santos Open in San Diego last week (check him out in this video from the event if you haven’t seen it yet).

Finally we will speak with Rener Gracie about a very promising opportunity for jiu-jitsu! With enough votes, the Gracies of Torrance (Rorion, Ryron, Rener, Ralek, Reylan, and others!) will be bringing jiu-jitsu into homes across the nation on a reality show based on making kids safer from bullying by showing them jiu-jitsu techniques. Rener will bring us up to speed on that, but in the meantime, make sure you go vote! Multiple votes are allowed.

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas (May 21, 2010) — A long-awaited match-up between two of the most exciting and best-known fighters from South Texas—Aaron Rosa and Robert Villegas—has been announced as the Local Main Event for Bellator 20 at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre.

Promoters have attempted for years to convince Rosa (12-3), a 26-year-old from San Antonio and Villegas (7-2), a 34-year-old from Corpus Christi, to face off in the cage, but Bellator 20 on May 27th marks their first-ever meeting.

Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster.com.

“Promoters from across Texas have been trying to get Aaron Rosa and Robert Villegas to fight each other for years, so it’s a great coup for Bellator that we’ve been able to finally make it happen,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Aaron and Robert are two of the best local fighters in Texas and both are looking to make their mark on the big stage. It’s going to be a great fight.”

The fight is one of four Local Feature Fights scheduled for the evening. Others include:

· Cedric Marks (27-20) of Killeen vs. Andrew Chappelle (7-6) of San Antonio;
· Brian Melancon (3-0) of Houston vs. Adam Schindler (6-1) of San Antonio;
· Humberto DeLeon (5-2) of Houston vs. Jimmy Flick (7-0) of Corpus Christi.

The Rosa-Villegas fight, however, is easily generating the most buzz.

“They’ve been trying to get us to fight for a long time,” Rosa said. “Now that it’s finally going to happen, I can tell you this much: We’re both gonna come out swinging and somebody’s gonna go down. It’s gonna be a great fight in front of my hometown crowd … I want everyone to show up.”

Rosa, a former football standout at Angelo State University in San Angelo, discovered MMA when a teammate showed him Renzo and Royler Gracie’s book, “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Theory Technique.” Since turning pro 4 ½ years ago, he has compiled an overall record of 12-3, with five of those wins coming via TKO.

“I’m a striker,” Rosa said. “I’m gonna go in there and punch him in the face and look for a knockout. That’s what I’m all about.”

Villaegas, for his part, says that he figures on taking Rosa to the ground, using the judo and jiu-jitsu skills that he’s honed over the last nine years at the MMA gym he owns and operates, Xtreme MMA in Corpus Christi. He holds black belts in both disciplines.

“I’m very picky about the fights that I take,” Villegas said. “I have to be inspired by a fight. I’ve had my ups and downs in MMA but this fight and being a part of the Bellator organization is a highlight. It’s gonna be a great show.”

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.

Undefeated middleweight fighter and two-time Bellator Fighting Championships competitor Dave Branch has signed a four-fight deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

His coach, current UFC fighter Renzo Gracie, announced the news today.

MMAjunkie.com could not immediately reach Gracie or his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt for information on his promotional debut.

Sometimes even a "King" isn't above "The Law."

Crafty 13-year-veteran Matt Lindland survived an early scare from
Rickson Gracie brown belt Kevin Casey before launching into a vintage
mauling attacking en route to a third-round TKO win.

The bout served as the main event of Friday's Strikeforce Challengers 8
event at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore. The main card aired live on
Showtime.