Zé Mario tries passing Renzo Gracie’s guard in the ADCC 2011 masters supermatch. Photo by Luca Atalla/GRACIEMAG.
The ADCC, the tournament that most piques No-Gi-grappling fans’ imagination, taking place in Brazil next year looks to be a sure thing, a decade after ADCC 2003 was held at São Paulo City’s Ibirapuera Gymnasium.
“We’ve almost got the host city in place. It’s a battle between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,” remarked Wagner Gomes, the ADCC general secretary in Brazil. “The South American tryouts will likely be held April in Rio, but we’ll still be going through the final negotiations over the next few weeks.”
Nor has the card for ADCC 2013 been set in stone. At least for the meantime, monsters like Bráulio Estima of Gracie Barra and André Galvão of Atos will indeed be doing the supermatch, and Zé Mario Sperry will square off with Fabio Gurgel in a masters supermatch.
Another possible match-up that materialized here on GRACIEMAG.com, as well as on our Facebook page, is another all-veterans supermatch, between Roberto Traven and Amaury Bitetti.
Traven, the winner of the absolute division at ADCC 1999, requested another chance to put on a show in No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu. Speaking with GRACIEMAG.com, Amaury Bitetti agreed to be the opponent, and Traven loved the idea. Wagner Gomes commented on the possibility of the two champions of old facing off:
“It would be great to see Amaury against Traven. Earlier this year I even spoke with Amaury about his participating at the event. I don’t think it’s too likely the match will go down at the main event, since we’ve already got Zé Mario vs. Gurgel and we’re trying to get a supermatch for Leo Vieira. We could put together this Bitetti-Traven match for the Rio tryouts, though. That would make it more feasible, so we’ll negotiate a purse and see if the idea gains momentum,” said Wagner in closing.
What do you say, gentle reader: what supermatch do you want to see at ADCC 2013? What about the host city—Rio or São Paulo? Put in your two cents’ worth and get “listened to” by the Jiu-Jitsu community!
