Cachorrão honored in New Jersey. Photo: Luca Atalla.
Set for late March and early April, the ranks of the IBJJF Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu Championship were already stacked with top-tier talent. Yesterday, however, the tournament’s stock saw a spike, thanks to Ricardo Almeida assuring GRACIEMAG.com that he will be sticking his neck out at the California Gi Jiu-Jitsu tournament.
“I’ll be competing in one of the 35- to 40-year-old divisions; just haven’t decided which weight yet,” said Almeida last night via email.
“My motivation is to keep learning. I believe Jiu-Jitsu is going through a spurt in technical evolution. Fighters like Caio Terra, Bráulio Estima, the Mendes brothers and others are taking Jiu-Jitsu up a notch, a level I’ve never seen before,” said Cachorrão in analysis. “And I want to be part of it not just as a spectator, I want to participate. Even if it’s in the master division.”
HEALTHY OBSESSION WITH JIU-JITSU
Training for a return couldn’t be going better for him. “I’m spending three weeks in California with my brother Flavio [Cachorrinho]. We’re working together on improving the level of instruction and service to our students, something that will be worthwhile both for the GB schools in South Orange County and in New Jersey,” he remarked.
“I believe that just as Caio, Bráulio and the Mendeses have this fixation with perfecting the technical side of Jiu-Jitsu, my brother and I have the same level of obsession with instruction at and administration of schools,” he said in closing.
As you can see, there will be no better place to learn than at the Pan, between March 29 and April in Irvine.
Besides Cachorrão and the other war horses of the master and senior division, Rafa Mendes, Bernardo Faria, Jonathan Torres, Alexander Trans, Ricardo Evangelista, Marcos Souza, Felipe Costa, Oliver Geddes, Ben Baster and recent absolute champs Vitor Henrique and Jonatas Novaes (winners in San Francisco and Chicago, respectively) will all be there, as will other stalwart submission wizards.
To find out who’s signed up, click here.
To find out more about the tournament, visit IBJJF.org.
Learn a finish from Ricardo Cachorrão below, to enrich your Jiu-Jitsu arsenal.
