Kid Peligro Jiu-Jitsu News . . . 2007 Worlds Training Report B O M B ! UNIJJ heats up
Submitted by:Kid Peligro
Rio de Janeiro - January 1996. The first Worlds is about to happen in Rio and everyone is training hard. This particular day is sweltering hot in Rio as Kid Peligro walks into Gracie Humaita's Academy mid-day training. Minutes later Royler Gracie steps into the mat, much to the dismay of the fighters he closes the windows, turns off the fans and summons 5 of his top Black Belts to go 4 x 10 minute rounds of non-stop sparring. At the end of the 40 minutes one could almost see a thick fog of perspiration in the academy. One of the fighters in this "training frm hell" session was young Saulo Ribeiro, getting ready for his attempt at his first of Six Gold Medals. The lesson was learned!
Fast forward to August 15, 2007. In a hot summer day in San Diego, California, as Kid Peligro walks into UNIJJ at noon, Saulo Ribeiro has the doors closed and the fans off, raising the temperature into the already HOT dojo to semi-unbearable temperatures as he leads his troops into another grueling session as they prepare for another historical event: the 2007 Worlds, held for the first time outside of Brazil! Under these extreme conditons, no one complains as the session goes on for over 2 hours. In the end everyone is exausted but with a purposed look in their eyes. Soon Saulo will lead his troops to the mats at the Long Beach State U. as he returns to compete in the Worlds (BOMB #1) , 2 years after retiring from these same mats when he finished 3rd in the Absolute division.
In his corner, the new leadder will have amongst other, his brother and Current World Absolute Champion "Xande" Ribeiro, current Brazilian National Champion Rafael Lovato Jr, former World Absolute Brown Belt Champion "Pezao" Magalhaes, current World Masters Champion Regis Lebre, multple times ladies World Champion Leticia Ribeiro, Paulo Guillobel, Jorge Brito, Pan-Am Champion Brown Belt Leo Santos and many, many other top fighters.
Only last weeekend Saulo took Xande, Lovato and Leo Santos to compete in the Nikkei Cup, a judo tournament held at this same Pyramid, in Long Beach. Everyone in the group won their division Ippon after Ippon. Now the work is almost done. The lesson wasn't lost and Saulo remembers it well. He once told me as he prepared for one of his multiple titles: "Everyone wants to be a Champion, but no one wants it more than I. I have trained harder than everyone and have sacrificed more than most and someone is going to have to pay for this!"
Of note, in the group, training hard with the Gi and more than holding his own was U.F.C. star Diego Sanchez (BOMB#2). Diego is now part of UNIJJ and at this point is helping the team prepare for the Worlds while they help him prepare for his next U.F.C. battle. Diego has been a presence at the academy and his work ethic fits perfect with this group, be it during Gi class, Alvaro Romano's Ginastica Natural's class of the MMA training Diego is the picture of dedication and concentration and fits in with everyone here.
The 2007 Worlds is going to rock!
A new competitors record has just been broken for the Worlds with over 1300 competitors. Today is the final day of registration for the 2007 Worlds. After midnight, August 16, 2007 will be $120.00. Be there or miss watching BJJ history develop
To register on line go to: https://web57.mysecureserver.com/mdrxdispensecom/register.asp
To view the most current list of competitiors go to: www.ibjjf.org/mundialonline.htm
Send us your Academy training for the Worlds pictures!
Now go train Jiu-Jitsu,
Kid Peligro
kidpeligro@gmail.com
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