SJJSAF Results

This Saturday the FT team joined with Carioca BJJ to compete in the SJJSAF Rio Challenge tournament. 25 Athletes competed under the name FT Carioca, winning 7th place in the over all team rankings! We would like to give a special thanks to instructors Julio Nogueira and Fabricio Silva for taking such good care of our athletes as they prepared for the tournament!

Lucca Da Silva was somewhat dismayed to find out that we registered him in a weight class above his own so that he would have a fight, but he stepped up to the challange whole heartedly.

Lucca Guillerme com sua medalha de SJJSAF

Moleza also fought above his weight class and was unable to gain an advantage on the bigger opponents in his weight class. Either way, he stayed true to the Brazilian saying "never give up", he fought his heart out Saturday and arrived at the gym Monday ready to keep training for the next competition!

Pezao on the bottom. 

Pezao, a yellow belt who recently started training at the academy, fought for the first time this Saturday. He won his first fight but was disqualified in his second fight for a small mistake!

Leo, one of the newer additions to the FT team brought home a gold medal. He won his first and only fight on points. Monday evening he was back on the mats focused on competing next Saturday at the FJJD Rio ranking tournament.

Jhonathan Marques, aka, Moicano came in 1st place after 3 hard fights. Going into his 3rd fight, the finals, he ended the time tied with a tough opponent from Nova Uniao. The crowd was going crazy cheering as they went into extended time, the first one to score points would take home the gold medal. Moicano was able to score 3 points with a torreando pass securing his place at the top of the podium. Now his goal is to earn the money he needs to travel to Sao Paulo next month to compete in IBJJF Brasileiros.

Nogueira on the Podium in his 

Deus Fight  Kimono!

Finally, we come to Professor Nogueira. Nogueira brought home a gold medal in the black belt super heavy weight division with his students from Terere's Kids Projects cheering him on from the side lines. Now, Nogueira plans on registering for IBJJF for the first time ever to compete in some of the more prestigious Jiu Jitsu tournaments like Rio Open, Brasileiros, Sul Americanos, and Worlds (in California).

We would like to end by thanking our sponsors Deus Fight Co in California, Cascagrossa in Sao Paulo, and I Ain't No Saint Tattoo Studios in England for their continous support of the athletes fromt he Cantagalo/ Pavao/ Pavaozinho community.

Moleza's battle from last month's FJJD Rio 

Ranking tournament 

Meet Fabricio Da Silva

Fabricio Da Silva is a 30 year old brown belt and cousin of Mestre Fernando Terere.

He is a quiet guy that is known for keeping to himself. Most days he arrives at the academy with one or two small children in tow; he often has to juggle the responsibilities of caring of a new born child on top of handling our morning classes and kid's program here at the academy.

Birrinho has been teaching Jiu Jitsu here in the Cantagalo community since he was an 18 year old blue belt. Naturally, coming from the Favela, life hasn't always been easy for him, but Jiu Jitsu was a way for him and his friends to escape the drama in the favela. When his cousin, Terere, began to struggle with drugs and he also took a small hiatus from the sport.

He spent his days working to make ends meet, taking small jobs like parking cars for less than minimum wage and trying to stay out of trouble. When Terere re-opened his gym at the base of the Cantagalo favela, Birrinho starting training seriously again. Together with Terere, Birrinho began teaching Jiu Jitsu to the kids of Cantagalo/Pavao/Pavaozinho free of charge. With the help of donations sent from abroad the project is beginning to thrive. Birrinho arrives at the academy to find a wild bunch of kids waiting for him to open the doors so they can tumble onto the mats with soccer balls before class starts.

Now as Terere Kid's Project continues to grow, Birrinho hopes that his career as a competitor and instructor will grow along side of it. His goal this year is to develop his Jiu Jitsu curriculum by competing in more high level IBJJF competitions. Birrinho will be representing FT academy this month at Rio Open as well as taking two of our sponsored athletes to compete  Brasileiros in Sao Paulo at the end of April. 

Birrinho rolling with HT from BJJ Hacks

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