Caio Terra exchanging grips with Leaércio Fernandes in the 64kg final of IBJJ Pro League. Photo: Erin Herle / GracieMag.com
As the Pan begins, the current roosterweight champion Caio Terra doesn’t want to slow the pace of his training.
The black belt is training hard at his gym in San Jose, and relies on an elite squad on the mats.
“The preparation is perfect,” Terra said to GracieMag.com. “We had more than ten black belts training (Samir, Queixinho, Carlos Melo, Flavio Meier, Leopoldo Serão, Tyson Camp, Nathan Mendelsohn, Jeff, Lana Stefanac, Alexis Davis, etc). In the final stretch, also came Leandro Lo, Rafael Formiga, Marcus Antelante, Ben Baxter, Luiza Monteiro and several others.
“Our training is intense, morning, afternoon and evening. Over 100 people came to our camp, 25 of them were black belts. This shows how Jiu-Jitsu is a special sport, more than a 100 people of different affiliations, all training hard together, and so careful not to hurt their partner. This shows how much the community of Jiu-Jitsu is united.
“I haven’t seen the brackets yet, but I do not think any category is easy. What I know is that training here is tougher than the championship (laughs).”
Terra doesn’t have the slightest fear of disclosing his strategy to keep the title of Pan Champion.
“My great quality probably is always trying to fix my mistakes,” he said. “I try to make mistakes in practice so I don’t do it in the future. And during fight time I try to repeat what I did in training, which can sometimes cost me the victory. Maybe this is a defect. But what always counts is my last performance, and I still have many other championships.”
