Then & Now: Rodolfo Vieira

Rodolfo and his relatively recent rise to prominence proves notable for several reasons:
1) he got the nickname of ''“Caçador dos Faixas Pretas' translated 'The Black Belt Hunter'....after Rodolfo won the World Pro Cup Trials in the Brown/Black Belt Division, wining against several fights against distinguished black belts when he was still a Brown Belt."

2) He is the first black belt world champion from a non-Gracie family lineage (GFTeam).

3) He's 3x world champion at black belt in his weight class as well as 1 time absolute black belt champion, as well as brown belt world champion in the absolute.

He was the first to begin to try and fill the shoes of the inimitable Roger Gracie after he departed to MMA and until the arrival of Buchecha seemed nigh-unbeatable both in the heavyweight and absolute.

In terms of his development, his game has always been driven (at the big tournaments) by scoring the takedown or passing aggressively as soon as an opponent tries to pull guard. Against Buchecha, Rodolfo is one of the few to even put Buchecha in moments of danger (other than Roger at the Metamoris I), with Rodolfo nearly mounting Buchecha at the World Pro very early on and then I believe almost scoring early at the Mundials most recently in Long Beach. Inevitably, in their matches, however, Buchecha turns on the ignition and his speed, precision, and athleticism (and size advantage) are just enough to edge out Rodolfo. Rodolfo has said other than the ADCC he's not competing until next year. It will be interesting to see how Rodolfo fares at the ADCC as his last foray was no doubt disappointing, even though he was one of several victims to the Dean Lister tear to winning it all that year.

Here's Rodolfo beating none other than Braulio Estima (which I'd actually forgotten about whilst watching the Metamoris II)  in his 2009 tear from out of nowhere at the World Pro Trials in Brazil while still a brown belt:

And here he is beating Antonio Peinado to win the weight class at the World Pro Championships:

Fast forward to his rather newly crowned arch nemesis, Marcus Buchecha Almeida and their, according to some greatest match of all time. I think that's a bit of hyperbole as that clearly belongs to Jacare and Roger and the arm break, but at any rate it was about as thrilling as a final could be and as we've seen in any recent world championship:

Then & Now: Kron Gracie

Having done a quick then & now piece on Otavio Sousa, I would be remiss to not put one up for his biggest challenger from when they were brown belts and in a way up to black belt as well: Kron Gracie.

From BJJ Heroes:
"
Main Achievements:

• European Champion (2009 black);
• 2x World Champion (2006 purple, 2007 brown);
• World Cup Champion (2006 purple – CBJJO);
• Pro Sub League: X-Mission – Champion (2006);
• 4x Pan American Champion (2005 purple, 2007 brown, 2008 brown weight & absolute);
• World Jiu Jitsu Expo Superfight Champion (2012)
• World Silver Medallist (2011 black);
• Pan American Silver Medallist (2009 black belt)"

Otavio has on paper won more tournaments and become now Black Belt 2x world champion with Kron tapping Otavio 2x as a brown belt, and at the inaugural Metamoris event, and now Kron tapping Shinya Aoki at the 2nd event. Kron also acquitted himself well at the ADCC last year, nearly tapping the Guillotine master himself, Marcelo Garcia.
 

It's interesting to note that stylistically, Kron moves much the same way, always pressuring, always looking to finish and put his opponent in danger. This factor of his game is what has likely cost him the only title at this point many would say has eluded him, namely the Black Belt Mundials/World Championship title. I remember reading online that he is an outlier in competitive BJJ in that he is one of the few competitors who manages to overcome the statistical evidence that the player who is down on points first usually loses:




It will be interesting to see how Otavio Sousa fares at the ADCC this September in China as he may add another accomplishment to his resume that eludes Kron Gracie as well.
 

2 Final Perspectives on Passing Spider Guard: Rafael Lovato Jr. and Andre Galvao

I've posted up some spider guard passes from the likes of Rafael Mendes, Cobrinha, Bruno Frazatto, and Leo Vieira.

I'll throw two more well-known guys into the mix with Andre Galvao and Rafael Lovato Jr.:
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Rafael Lovato Jr.
His pass begins from kind of a mid-spider guard type position where he's attempting to kill one of the spider hooks low to get to his headquarters position, and the other hook is more of a leg lasso I've heard it called. He clears the hook by switching his feet to clear the low hook and thus change the angle on the hook/lasso on his right arm:
 

Andre Galvao
Galvao does something similar to Cobrinha's pass, and then the switching of the feet to bring pressure with the knee to clear the hook/danger to his left arm. The knee on thigh position Andre gets to before clearing the hook on his right arm is very Corbinha-esque as well :

 

Then & Now: Demian Maia, BJJ World Champion to MMA Fighter

It's been a real testament to his progression to watch Demian Maia go from a nearly pure BJJ fighter in mixed martial arts to becoming so well-rounded he straight up out-wrestled Jon Fitch and completely shut down his game. It was dazzling to watch someone out-Fitch Jon Fitch.

That being said, it's been years in the making and one of the more interesting facets of BJJ and other combat sports crossing over into MMA is watching their success (and failures) as fighters. We have this strange pool of guys with various skills for fighting (wrestling, striking, kickboxing, boxing-not-as-much, Jiu-Jitsu) and we watch them attempt to become well-rounded fighters.
 

 

UFC 162 Picks/Predictions/Gamble Enabler

I'll be out of town for an extended period of time and will miss the UFC 162/4th of July card but I'll go ahead and put my picks out there assuming (lolz) there are no injury replacements or people with their title shot just cancelled or whatever else pleases the baldfather.

I'm not buying the hype on Weidman. Sure he caught Munoz but he could barely grind out a decision win over Alessio Sakara while being on top of him for the better part of all 3 rounds. Do I think he'll submit Anderson Silva? No, absolutely not.

Frankie Edgar will beat Oliveira b/c he only loses to people named BJ Penn, Ben Henderson and I guess Gray Maynard.

I Think Tim Kennedy has the tools to beat Roger Gracie assuming he fights differently than his backpedal-fest against Jacare (whatever that was).

Cub Swanson continues to impress me and I think he'll pick apart Dennis Siver with movement and angles.

Munoz will look rusty in the first round but everything Boetsch does, Munoz does better.

I don't know who Andrew Craig is but he'll lose to Leben via KO.

I don't know who Norman Parke is or Kazuki Tokudome. Barboza will get a TKO over Oliveira in a tough fight.

Gonzaga will get a submission over Dave "Jiu-Jitsu doesn't work" Herman and my heart will sing.

Mike Pierce who was once a fight away from a possible title shot will beat some guy on the prelim of the prelims.

"MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman - for middleweight title
• Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira
• Roger Gracie vs. Tim Kennedy
• Dennis Siver vs. Cub Swanson
• Tim Boetsch vs. Mark Munoz

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)

• Andrew Craig vs. Chris Leben
• Norman Parke vs. Kazuki Tokudome
• Edson Barboza vs. Rafaello Oliveira
• Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Dave Herman

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 7 p.m. ET)

• Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
• David Mitchell vs. Mike Pierce"

Then & Now: Otavio Sousa, 2 time World Champion

A guy I've been following since I saw him face Kron Gracie at brown belt in 2007, is Otavio Sousa.
If you follow my blog, that should come as no surprise.

It's amazing to go back and see a competitor 6 years ago, at brown belt, who is now 2x world champion.

Kron Gracie vs Otavio Sousa 2007 Pan Ams @ Brown Belt:

And here he is winning his 2nd consecutive world championship over the always dangerous Claudio Calasans in 2013 at the Mundials:

Brief Hiatus

I'll be taking a break from the blog for the next month, beginning today, July 1st.

I have some intermittent posts scheduled due to the upcoming UFCs in July, and perhaps a few others saved up from brainstorming sessions previously but other than that the blog will be on a brief hiatus until the end of July.

I have to take care of some personal matters that will hopefully enable me to fully devote myself to training and competing as long as my body will allow (which based on guys like Helvecio Penna is a good long while to come if the forces that be will allow it).

I wish to thank my coaches, training partners, friends, and my family without whom this would not be possible.
Sometimes, things are simply bigger than we are and we have to ask for help and guidance.

It's been a long road since I began Judo nearly 8 years ago and I have so much yet to learn and experience.
Good lucky, happy trainings, and I will return at the end of July more focused than ever before.
    - Tim

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Other than my family and a handful of friends, Judo and  Jiu-Jitsu have introduced the most amazing people into my life and for that I will always be grateful. 
In no particular order, and by no means is this all inclusive, these are some of the great people in my life due to training and having started this journey what feels like an eternity ago.