Jorge Guimarães with Lyoto Machida / Personal archive photo
Roger Gracie always mentions Rodrigo Minotauro as being an MMA role model of his. By the same token, Minotauro always says he’s a big fan of Gracie’s jiu-jitsu. After years of waiting, the two will finally have a chance to train together when the Gracie takes to Team Nogueira to prepare for his Jan. 12 fight on what is likely Strikeforce’s last card.
Though fans are beside themselves to see this training happen, Gracie’s manager and head of the Black House team, Jorge “Joinha” Guimarães, had a different idea about what the Gracie should be doing to get ready for his middleweight tilt against Anthony Smith.
“As Roger already had a trip to Brazil planned with his family, I just streamlined his going to Mino’s training center. Right now, Rogerio Minotouro is there training hard for his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 156, and there are good sparring partners for him there. But I had a different idea at first. Truth is, I’m heading to London [where Gracie lives] to convince him and his family to change plans and go to Los Angeles,” said Joinha in a conversation with GRACIEMAG.com editor Marcelo Dunlop.
“What I think–and I told Roger this–is that he should train at Black House in Los Angeles with Lyoto and Glover. You should have seen the two training today… They too felt Roger was missing out by going to Brazil, with so many great sparring partners here,” admitted Joinha.
Joinha also addressed what will likely happen with the fighters on the Strikeforce roster.
“I think everyone’s going to go straight to the UFC,” he said. “Some may get cut, though. We’ll see.”
Widely regarded as the greatest medalist in Jiu-Jitsu World Championship history, Gracie was called on to compete at the farewell Strikeforce event with other high profile names like Ronaldo “Jacaré” Souza, Daniel Cormier and Nate Marquardt.
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