my Arte Suave

Been training with these guys on Sundays, and its been really great. Today I took this picture, and in this particular practice session, we did King of the Guard for 40 minutes straight. After that, I got pitted, all of these guys mounted me, and I had to escape back to guard or reverse the position. It was really tough, like reaaaallly tough. Actually, all these guys except the last 5 guys; the last 5 guys had my back and I had to escape. But the cardio felt fantastic. Oh yeah the room was 85 degrees, and very humid. The story this photo can’t tell, is how hard it was for me to hold my hand up like that for the picture, I WAS SPENT! I love this game.

Florida/Abu Dhabi Trials/StrikeForce experience…

First and foremost: www.JuniorFamilia.com, soon this blog will be obsolete.

So its been a few days since the tournament, and since I pushed all my school work back for when I got back, I was swamped as a result, so I couldn’t blog when I returned, and i couldn’t while I was out in Miami because of lack of internet.

To the experience. I arrived in Florida on Friday night after many delays thanks to Delta Airlines, which I doubt I will fly them again. I stayed with my good friend Sean while I was down there and It was awesome not having so many expenses! His grand mom tried to make the 6 lbs i had to play with disappear !! The food was awesome !! I have come to the conclusion that I dont like to cut weight and I wont anymore for as long as I compete in brazilian jiujitsu.

I got in too late to do anything but eat! Thanks to the warrior diet I fasted the whole day and just waited ‘til I got to Sean’s place. The next day I chilled at South Beach all day! And omg what a BEAUTIFUL PLACE! Ocean Drive!! Thats all I will say.

After Ocean Drive, I wanted to just chill and rest for the tournament, but I gave in to going to see Strike Forcre, which really was a bad idea. The tickets were only 30 bucks…50 when I got there but whatever! It was the first big show I would see live.

Finally got home and got maybe 5 hours of sleep. Waking up was easy. Weighed myself before I left and i was 199, and I had to be 205 or something. I love mt diet and how my body just goes back to regular even though Sean’s granny had me eating everything off my plate! I got to Florida Atlantic University and I weighed in without the Gi which was AWESOME! I weighed in at 201 after I drank and ate gronola bars. I was set!

I slept at the tournament some more and had Sean just listen for my name for when it was my turn to compete. Saw new and old faces. And I got to meet some more celebs in my mind. I got to meet Helio ‘Soneca’! Soneca is the guy who taught my friend who beat me up and pretty much got me into loving bjj! So it was an absolute honor to meet him! Met Roli Delgado, cool guy, met Ian McPherson which was a pleasant surprise because I figured a guy like him would have been at the Euro’s. Ian is such a nice guy, and I was so blown away by his character, I got to talk to him for a while about competition, training and even school! Ian is a fierce competitor and took it to a lot of black belts! I wish I took a picture with him, I dont know why I didnt.

My competition. At weight I had 2 fights. The first guy I felt was really new blue belt, or i dont know. I pulled guard , and he kept trying this weak ezekial, I couldn’t believe it actually. he gave me this triangle and I finished.
The 2nd guy was tougher, and stronger. I pulled guard and swept him, twice with the same tomonagi sweep. I was mounted on him and his gi came off! and the ref finally stopped it to fix after I asked him to fix the situation. The ref had us start on our feet… WHY REF !? Oh my lord i will never understand the reffing in BJJ! I pulled guard and swept this guy AGAIN, and my gi came off, and the ref restarted on the feet. dude, ref…seriously !?
I won Gold.

Waited all day for the absolute to begin…And i mean ALL DAY, because day was done when it was time for me to compete lol. My absolute division was the last division to go.
I fought 3 times. Once vs someone I fought and beat before, the 2nd fight you can see here. And my 3rd and final fight which was the semi finals fight was just ugly. I got out sumo’d by this huge guy. I got bullied on the feet, and when I tried to pull guard, he actually lifted me, so i slipped lol! Not good! He smashed his way into half guard and just held on to my face with his chest for like 4 minutes. My chest and neck are still sore from this guy laying on me. lol. I tried to create opportunities for my self to escape and when I did, he Passed into mount. I finally escaped, and slapped on a triangle with 15 seconds left. The fight ended there and I was supremely frustrated with how that fight went, not only in the way he layed on me trying not to move or anything, because that was my fault, I let him do that, and i was just pissed at that and my inability to get out from under this sumo. Actually i was angry at my performance.

Now I have this urge to want to roll with every big guy in my gym all the time, and Im getting started on that straight away. That won’t happen again, it will be an actually Jiu-Jitsu match.
I learned a more great lessons because of this event and I have all this stuff documented in my BJJ Journal and of course with videos of my fight.
I will Improve and its on to the next competition. Im competing at NAGA this weekend with some of my teammates.