Photo: Personal Archive
At 41, Bruno Bastos proves that age is just a number and keeps accumulating important wins to elevate his competitive career even higher. Recently, a month ago, Lead BJJ’s professor was the big winner of the master-3 division at the World Pro, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Bruno had to beat Marcio Silva, Rodrigo Silva, Marcelo Mendes and Vladimiro Afonso in a sequence to win gold under 120kg. Out of the four matches, only one was decided by the judges, with three being won on points. The first by 11-0, the second by 3-2, and the last one by 5-0.
“I did fights without getting a single point scored against me,” he said. “I believe it was my best performance since I became a master. I’m feeling very good and I see that my BJJ has evolved with time. It’s like wine: I got even better with time. I fought moving forward in all matches; I dominated all my opponents to win the title.”
He continued: “God’s timing is perfect! I was very happy about the reception I got from my family and students here, in Texas!”
Bruno, who runs one of the best gyms in Midland, Texas, said that the fact that he’s always endeavored to seek out information beyond the mats has made him a better entrepreneur, teacher and athlete.
“To be honest, I’ve always sought to study,” he said. “In order for you to be good in some area of your life, you need to listen to and study with the best. I learned to be a teacher and businessman by studying — that makes a big difference. Previously, for example, I didn’t have any nutritional monitoring, and since I hired Nathalia Chantre, my performance has gone to another level.”
“There’s also the mat periodization with Itallo Vilardo,” Bruno added, “physical preparation with Jarret Jones and yoga with Chloè Newton, because in reality one of the ‘secrets’ is the fact of having a multidisciplinary team. So it’s like this: to be successful, you need to study. Athletes, learn something: success is trainable. Have good mentors, listen to the best, and make it happen.”
Bruno already has big plans for the next season of the competitive circuit, which begins with the European Championship in February, in Rome, Italy.
“Now it comes down to making my plans for the 2022 season, taking care of my body even more, and keeping up my nutritional work. Let’s see what happens!” he said, subjoining: “Yes, I’m ready to be called for a superfight as well. I’ll fight any master-age athlete today!”
