Sunday, July 30- a cold and raining day turned the beautiful environment of Rio de Janeiro's city to a gray one in that morning of the last day of MUNDIALS 2006. At the prior days of the competition rising stars from blue, purple and brown belt grappled on the mats of the CBJJ to earn their medals and gain the belts of different colors for new winds in the MUNDIALS 2007. We watched special BJJers being graduated at the podium, but not one of them deserved more credit than Kron Gracie. The son of Rickson had the tenacity of fighting without burden on his shoulders and the magnificence of submitting his 5 opponents to win his division and to have a new belt around his waist, the brown one.

Back to last Sunday's action; that was a great surprise for me to see how CBJJ is trying its best to have less controversy around than in previous years. Three judges are responsible for refereeing the fights, and the gap for minor mistakes is nearly dead. Of course it is Brazil, and nobody like to lose a fight, small complaints are still able to be heard, but less often.


-"Veterans" collided with the reality-

The absence of fighters like Marcio "Pe-de-Pano" Cruz and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza was almost forgotten by the return of fighters who haven’t competed in a long time in MUNDIALS. And my attention was focused in how Nino "Elvis" Schembri would do at this, mainly because he was in one of the toughest divisions of all, the medio. The medio division is a domain of Marcelo Garcia, with Andre Galvao in his heels, so Nino had to have a meeting with one of them if his intention was the nod on the finals. Nino started very-well at quarter finals against Eduardo Rios of BTT, who worked satisfactorily, but not enough to avoid the sweeps of Elvis. And the crowd started at yelling "Elvis is not dead!"

Nino's next match was against Andre Galvao, and this was expected to be a classic where the joviality of Galvao would be tested by the well-rounded game of Nino. However the first adjectival mentioned in Galvao's favor was main factor when he shot a common double-leg and took Nino down. Elvis tried to work with an open guard, but the speed of Galvao overcame any of Nino's attempts of sweeps and reversals. The sequence was a passage of guard, knee on the stomach and the catch of the backs with one hook. But attention, any of these moves are scored like points due to the speed of Galvao, who looked for a submission which didn't come late, when he sunk a lapel's choke(relogio) and forced Nino at tapping out
in premature 1:10.

Other veterans were dropping along the event we can mention include Marcio Corletta and Jose Mario "Esfiha".


The other semifinal of the medio had the
characteristics of a classic match, Daniel Moraes
versus Marcelo Garcia. Moraes had beaten Garcia in
ADCC Brazilian Trials 2003, and I wanted to see how
Moares would combat a more polished Garcia's game than that opportunity they did in 2003. Garcia pulled to the half-guard and Moraes tried to gain an advantage at reaching the full guard passage, he didn't while
Garcia fought to free his gi of the best grip on it of
Moraes. Garcia close the guard, and Moraes stalled a
bit on the top, which rendered him two warnings. The
fight kept this methodical pace and fighters were
re-started on their feet, Garcia pulled again to his
dangerous guard and Moraes took opportunity of it in a
intelligent movement to gain the half guard, and he
did- scoring one advantage. So, the action stopped,
Garcia restored his guard and they stayed there with
no action much action, boos started and the central
referee disqualified Moraes by lack of action, by
stalling the fight on the top


Another classic fight before the final was at super pesado between Roger Gracie and Rodrigo "Comprido" Medeiros. The height of Roger was a big trouble for Comprido, who has troubles on the gi grips when they were on the feet. Roger caught the lapel's gi of
Comprido on the feet and it didn't get to free himself of it. Roger took Comprido down and nearly got the mount, Comprido defended but Roger kept attacking and nearly got the back. In same time Roger tried the grab of back, he worked a choke, and this was a hell of situation for Comprido who couldn't defend himself well. Roger caught the backs with 2 hooks and scored 6-0, Comprido restored the half-guard; nonetheless Roger passed it and got the mount. The number of points scored and the control of the fight
by Roger gave us the impression of a submission coming. Then he worked chokes and triangles from the top position, until he tied Comprido's arm and finished the fight by armbar at 9:49.


Finals review: Never hesitate and a champion without fighting the final.-

Pesado

Xande