On July 9th, Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa celebrated two years as a BJJ black-belt with two gold medals on his chest, which he won at the IBJJF’s American Nationals.
Lucas walked out with medium heavyweight titles in gi and no-gi. In the gi, the student under André Galvão defeated three opponents. Then he shone in no-gi as well, defeating Lucas Rocha (Zé Radiola) via kata-gatame.
“The gi final was against Valdir Junior, an athlete from Fight Sports who trains alongside Roberto Cyborg,” Lucas said. “That was ten minutes of takedown attempts. I applied about five of them, but he would keep coming back. His base is really good. He really is very tough — it was war.”
Barbosa added: “In no-gi, Lucas Rocha pulled me and tried to sweep. So I set up my positions and passed crossing the knee. Then I sank a kimura and almost finished on the arm, but he got away. We resumed standing, and he pulled again. I managed to pass, mount and finish via kata-gatame.”
You can see Lucas’s two finals right here.