A Glance at the 2008 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships
Posted by Thomas Hackett on June 14th, 2008
Highlight videos from the 2008 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships are dropping like flies, so catch this one before Carlos Gracie Jr. does. It details the best performances from Team Brasa, including Andre Galvao, who took home the gold at the under 194.5 lb division.
BJJ highlights can be a little odd — it’s a groundfighter’s game, so there’s lots of little jostles for position to set up a sweep or triangle have to replace high impact strikes and takedowns which aren’t going to mean much of anything to someone without a lot of training. They’re a ton of fun but I’m always reminded how, for better or worse, we’ll probably never see our brand of jiu-jitsu join Kano’s in the Olympics.
On that subject, it’s nice to see some good throws tossed into the mix of BJJ competition, something that seems to be on the rise. Between 00:38 and 00:59 there’s three particularly nasty ones, which is actually more than the entire 2004 Pan-American championships DVD I own.
Also, watch for Galvao’s match with Roger Gracie at the end — you can also turn the volume back up at that point.
As is typical there’s little in the way of coverage here in the US despite the fact that we began hosting the event last year. There’s IBJJF results listing and a few slightly more detailed reports on forums and the like. but you have to look to Brazil’s TATAME MAGAZINE for anything worth more than a glance.
2008 will probably be remembered for continuing dominance by Xande Ribeiro and Roger Gracie, but here are my favorite snapshots from the tournament:
Kyra Gracie came back from last year’s absence to take both lightweight and open weight in the womens division. I have an awful crush on this woman, who looks almost as cute here as she did in her appearance on Ninja Warrior.
Sérgio Moraes won the gold at 181 lbs, and his Team Alliance won the gold in the teams competition, but he will probably mostly be remembered for defeating Kron Gracie in the first round of the torunament via collar choke. Rickson’s son had blown through the brown belt division like no one before but suffered a setback in this, his first match at black.
Oklahoma’s Rafael Lovato, fighting off his back against Brago Neta here, became arguably the most decorated BJJ black belt from outside Brazil with his silver medal finish at 221 lbs. The 2007 champion would tell Gracie Magazine that it’s only getting better from here:
It is a great time for Jiu-Jitsu, I am as much of a fan as I am a competitor. I think the fact that the Mundials is in the US is helping the foreign athletes become better. They are getting to see the best of the best live and not just on a DVD. You get better just by sitting in that building.
Let’s hope more of the media sits in that building next year.