Roberto de Moraes 'Risada' Atalla

From OTMWiki

1 Statistics
2 Background
3 Tournament Results

Statistics

Name: Roberto de Moraes Atalla
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 79 kg/175 lbs
Training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu since 1991;
Black belt given by Sergio de 'Bolão' Souza(black belt 5th degree under Carlson Gracie Sr.) in 1998;
First degree awarded by the IBJJF in 2004.

Background

A BJJ Instructor since 1993, Roberto had taught in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, Brasil, before starting in England the Rio Grappling Club inside the SOAS University of London in october, 2003. Student of Sergio de 'Bolão' Souza([www.bolaojiujitsu.com]), he speaks fluent portuguese, english and spanish.

Roberto Atalla was fascinated for sports since his childhood. Football, however, the favorite sport in Brasil, never atracted him. When he turned fourteen, he bought his first surfboard and got addicted right away. Two years later he discovered Capoeira and was drawn into the world of the martial arts. Living in Rio de Janeiro, Jiu-Jitsu was a natural choice, but only after turning nineteen he started in the mats.

The discipline on training allied to his enthusiasm allowed Roberto to catch up as quickly as he got his nickname 'Risada' from the friends in the gym.

The start was in Gracie Barra. Roberto had classes with Jean Jacques Machado, Roberto 'Gordo' Corrêa and Helio 'Soneca' Moreira, Duda, Leandro, Big Head and Vinícius Draculino were some of the good training partners he would never forget.

In 1992, Roberto Atalla lived in California and grabbed the opportunity to train three months inside Rickson Gracie’s gym, without cutting his links with Gracie Barra. “Still today I remember how that was fundamental to change my vision of Jiu-Jitsu. Rickson is by any means the most complete fighter I ever trained with”, says Risada.

Back to Brasil, in 1993 Roberto started to get seriouly involved in competitions, encouraged by Renzo Gracie. He trained daily in Barra while going to all classes taught by Renzo. First in the club Hípica (Lagoa), and lately in his own club just opened, Gracie Ipanema. The results did not take long to show up. In 94, Roberto was brazilian champion in the blue belt, middle division, after winning the first Copa Akxe and tournaments in Niterói and within the state of Rio. In 1996, already a purple belt, he started to take Judo classes three times a week, and got his first two golds at the Mundials (World Tournament).

It was the first World Tournament of Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu. The reward for the sweat and determination were two gold medals and the title of most technical athlete in the purple belt. Weighing 76kg, Risada won the - 97kg and the Open weight (absoluto), overcoming famous athletes like Vítor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro and José Mario 'Esfiha' McCord, aka

Just after that Roberto lost his focus for a while and a defeat made him comeback training even harder. “After getting my brown belt, I started to do physical training and Judo daily. Renzo had moved to New York and I was disqualified after reaching the final of the Brasilian (October, 96) by Carlos Gracie Jr. without a chance to defend myself”, remember him. After this episode, he decided to cut his links with Gracie Barra.

Risada joined the Rio Jiu-Jitsu Club, an excellent team headed by Murilo Bustamante and Sergio de 'Bolão' Souza. “Besides showing a technical level beyond questions, the competition team at that time had the best brown belts of all, like Pedro Duarte, Marcel Ferreira, Aron Roichman and a lot others”, says Roberto, mentioning a few but declaring that would be impossible to name one by one, since they were more than a dozen of the same level training and competing regularly.

Well adapted in 97, Atalla won the Brasileiro da Superliga, the Brasileiro de Seleções Estaduais in Brasília (DF), and showed incredible performances in Rio de Janeiro State Judo championships. In the 2nd Mundial, he was so fit that, after winning easily the semifinal, he just needed to shout for his teammate Pedro Duarte so they could celebrate togheter the - 73kg gold medal.

The winning streak did not stop in 97, and more golds followed in the next year, both in Jiu-Jitsu and in Judo. In the 98’s Mundial, however, he could not reach his biggest goal, coming out after a first fight without points and convinced that the referee made wrong decisions in his judgement. But, later that year, he would be promoted to the black belt, and the training for the Brasileiro 1998 was setting Rio de Janeiro on fire, with fighters coming from all parts of Brasil.

His first challenge in the black belt was none other than Antonio 'El Nino' Schembri, considered one of the est BJJ fighters of the 90’s. His first fight in the Brasilian would be one of the toughest of his. “I set my mind to counter the fury of the ‘Twister’ and locked a kneebar that overstretched his leg so much that he did not come back to fight the semifinals. But Elvis Schembri is a warrior and did not tap, and later in the fight passed my guard, winning by 3 pts”, recalls him vividly. At that time Schembri used to score 15, 20 points in most of his opponents, when not tapping them out quickly, so the fight itself was a great achievement. “I was happy afterwards because I overcame myself, even though I did not win”.

1999 had come, and the hard training was bearing fruits. Second places in all the three big tournaments (Mundial, Brasilian, and Panamerican of BJJ). Risada was also getting golds in Judo, but he was not satisfied, as he says: “I always wanted the gold, I aimed to be the best in my weight, and 2000 was promising to be my year”.

Not really, because in July of 99, he had to face the death of his always supporting father, and in November the tearing of his ACL (knee ligaments), and the winning streak would be forcily interrupted. In 2000, Roberto kept fighting, wrongly postponing the surgery he would not be able to dodge.

His knee could not support the intensity of the fights, and in August of 2000 Roberto finally got his knee mended.

In 2003, more focused on teaching, he went to Europe looking for new horizons and started a new club in SOAS University of London.

After teaching there for almost two years, Roberto decided to keep on traveling around the world to expand his network.

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