The superfight between Xande Ribeiro and Braulio Estima at Copa Podio on Sunday, May 5, in Rio represented the City Challenge between Manaus and Recife. For Xande However, the motivation was different:
“I don’t fight just for my city. I came to Brazil to fight Braulio by a personal motivation to show my Jiu-Jitsu is efficient,” said Saulo’s brother.
Said and done. Fight time, around 6:15 p.m., Xande used a lot of pressure, passed Braulio’s guard and won by a 5-2 score. The Gracie Barra teacher swept when he was losing, 3-2, but Xande swept again, increased the score to 5-2 and almost mounted at the very end.
“I was surprised to see Braulio insisting hard on the berimbolo. It isn’t exactly his specialty, so I think that despite the surprise, it favored me. I thought Braulio would use the closed guard a lot, many De la Rivas, which are always complicated to deal with,” said Xande.
“I passed putting a lot of pressure. I didn’t have much strategy or anything different. He has very strong legs, which complicates it all for the passers. I trained in closed guard a lot in Niteroi with Ricardo Arona because I thought that would be the most common situation in the fight. As he insisted on the berimbolo, I tried to put my weight on his hip, applying full pressure and it worked,” explained the Los Angeles transplant.