Marcelo Garcia at full force
Two-time ADCC champion shows what is in store for his adversaries
By Luca Atalla, from New Jersey
Into the rubbish bin of history goes the story of Marcelo Garcia being out of shape. That is the conclusion the current ADCC under 76kg two-time champion delivered to critics this Saturday, when he disputed a special four man tournament, in the Wayne, New Jersey edition of Grapplers Quest.
Moving as nimbly a cat, the Alliance instructor now living in New York quickly disposed of Marcos Avellan (photo above) with - guess what - a choke from the back, and in the final defeated Gregor Gracie, after opening a 22-point lead and, a few seconds from the end, obliging his opponent to give up, as he fell victim to a choke from the north-south position (photo below).
Still eight kilos over the weight he will need to reach to defend his title at ADCC, in May, and focusing (for six months, since last Thursday) on the classes he teaches at the gym in New York, Marcelinho barely beat Rominho Barral, at the Lutacasada event, on the 27th of January.
"Rominho has long legs, he closed his guard and made it hard for Marcelinho to move," justified the fighter's wife, Tatiana Tognini. "But they thought he was out of shape and we confirmed that. Let them think that," joked Tati, who was relieved with the end of Saturday's event. "Gregor is very good," she attested. Marcelinho agreed with a nod, and he analysed: "He is exactly what they say he is, dangerous."
Gregor,who would feel the pressure minutes before the takedowns, passes of the guard, mounts, was in agreement with his brothers: "The guy really is tough, he moves impressively," That opinion, not without foundation, was no different from that of everyone else in the recreational center of William Patterson University. Or from anyone else that has ever seen the Alliance star fight.
As an extra observation, Marcelinho 2007 comes with an accessory: a well refined standing game. This novelty will complicate the life of adversaries hoping to interrupt the phenomenon's trajectory to the threpeat of the under 76kg ADCC title.
To reach the final, Gregor earned advantages to get past the veteran Leonardo Dalla (photo below), who, despite his rib popping out, at the final celebrated the fact that he had lost nearly 35lbs to fight: "I needed an objective to get into shape... I just didn't manage to complete my plan, which was to at least win the first fight and put on a good fight against Marcelinho. And then, who knows, maybe be invited to ADCC. Now all that is left, if I can recover from this injury, is to dispute the European qualifiers," thought the instructor living in Virginia out loud, referring to the fact that he has Italian citizenship.
However, he should have combined this with Gregor, who, moving beautifully in the beginning of the fight, took his back standing, and went for his neck. Léo needed his technique and lots of patience to escape. But, after that playing from the bottom, he was not able to use the rest of the fight to reverse the setback advantage.
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