Adventures in Brazil...

[Gandulf]

After reading a sherdog thread in 2010 I decided to save up some money and go train in Brazil at CM System (Cristiano Marcello's gym) in Curitiba. It was right after most guys left Chute Boxe and started their own gyms. Wanderlei started Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas, Rafael Cordeiro started Kings MMA in Huntington Beach, Shogun started UDL (universidade da luta) and Cristiano started CM System and lets not forget, Anderson Silva opened Killer Bees. Chute Boxe was still big and had gyms all over the city. At that time, since everyone left, Cyborg and Falcao were their biggest name. There were other gyms in the city that were famous too, like Golden Boy, Hemmers and Noguchi (who also used to be a part of Chute Boxe).

Assuerio Silva also started his own gym, but got shot in a hit ordered by his businesspartner over a few thousand dollars. Also, Dida started Evolucao Thai, but I think he went to Canada before and trained there in Toronto BJJ.

MMA was thriving worldwide, and Curitiba was the Mecca of MMA in Brazil (and kinda still is). After a few trips I really go befriended with quite some people here and kept coming back, until in 2014 in nearly lost both legs in a construction accident. I stopped training, but stil kept going to Brazil. Over the years I encountered many fighters and characters inside and outside the gym, some who became friends, some who I've never seen again....

Since I was the only guy in the gym with a semi-decent camera I became in charge of shooting pictures and video, even if in the beginning I had no clue what I was doing. Over the years I got terrabytes of footage of training sessions, fights and other encounters but I really never did anything with it.

Now recently I started vlogging with a friend, about the life inside the gym, mostly following three fighters, Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos (UFC), Vitor Petrinho (UFC) and Matheus Scheffel (PFL). Most of it is in Portuguese but with English subtitles. I'm also going to do one offs about other fighters that are affiliated with the gym or that I'm cool with.

I dunno if you guys are interested about (written) stories from Brazil?
I dunno if it's ok to drop a youtube link here, if it isn't mods, please delete it.

 

[amok attitude]

After reading a sherdog thread in 2010 I decided to save up some money and go train in Brazil at CM System (Cristiano Marcello's gym) in Curitiba. It was right after most guys left Chute Boxe and started their own gyms. Wanderlei started Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas, Rafael Cordeiro started Kings MMA in Huntington Beach, Shogun started UDL (universidade da luta) and Cristiano started CM System and lets not forget, Anderson Silva opened Killer Bees. Chute Boxe was still big and had gyms all over the city. At that time, since everyone left, Cyborg and Falcao were their biggest name. There were other gyms in the city that were famous too, like Golden Boy, Hemmers and Noguchi (who also used to be a part of Chute Boxe).

Assuerio Silva also started his own gym, but got shot in a hit ordered by his businesspartner over a few thousand dollars. Also, Dida started Evolucao Thai, but I think he went to Canada before and trained there in Toronto BJJ.

MMA was thriving worldwide, and Curitiba was the Mecca of MMA in Brazil (and kinda still is). After a few trips I really go befriended with quite some people here and kept coming back, until in 2014 in nearly lost both legs in a construction accident. I stopped training, but stil kept going to Brazil. Over the years I encountered many fighters and characters inside and outside the gym, some who became friends, some who I've never seen again....

Since I was the only guy in the gym with a semi-decent camera I became in charge of shooting pictures and video, even if in the beginning I had no clue what I was doing. Over the years I got terrabytes of footage of training sessions, fights and other encounters but I really never did anything with it.

Now recently I started vlogging with a friend, about the life inside the gym, mostly following three fighters, Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos (UFC), Vitor Petrinho (UFC) and Matheus Scheffel (PFL). Most of it is in Portuguese but with English subtitles. I'm also going to do one offs about other fighters that are affiliated with the gym or that I'm cool with.

I dunno if you guys are interested about (written) stories from Brazil?
I dunno if it's ok to drop a youtube link here, if it isn't mods, please delete it.

Good work !

 

[Gandulf]

Second Vlog. I'm currently at 4 vlogs on youtube but I haven't gotten the time to make subtitles for the remaining two. I caught dengue and got complications, almost died of 3 thrombosis in my legs.

Elizeu is picked up training hard again since January as he's probably going to fight around april and is waiting for his suspension to end, his last fight being the win over Benoit Saint-Denis, which was an absolute mauling and should have been stopped way earlier, if it wasn't for the incompetent (and probably corrupt) referee. Funny thing is that, of Benoit Saint-Denis 11 fights, 3 fight were against CM System Fighters (our team).

Currently Elizeu is doing padwork with Rafael Teixeira from Teixara Team (also trainer of former Glory fighters Maykol Yurk, Ariel Machado and current WGP Kickboxing champion Petros Cabelino) to working on movement and range with his long time friend, WKF world bronze medalist Rafael Carvalho. Rafael used to train MMA and had 4 boxing matches, but decided to focus on training instead of fighting.

Unless you're insanely talented and willing to suffer until you get to the absolute top, fighting MMA is severely ungrateful in Brazil. Many pro fighters barely get paid and have to survive by offering personal training and having sponsors. I've seen professional fight payouts where guys get mauled and only get paid 300 reais (the equivalent of 50 bucks) to show up.

Here in the video they are training basic movement at Swimex in Curitiba, it's quite a known and reputable gym here, frequented by many athletes of many different sports, I know Wanderlei used to lift weights there. They have several floors full of equipment including an indoor pool, which is quite rare in Brazil, but here in Curitiba it gets very cold in the winter (freezing or near freezing temperatures).

This weekend we have Eric "Visconde" Sabugo fighting in Spartacus MMA in Sao Paulo. If he wins this fight he is supposed to go to Contenders series.

March 11 we have Vitor Petrinho fighting his first fight in front of a UFC crowd after winning his Contenders debut by knocking out his opponent. His opponent is the swedish Anton Turkaij. Win or lose it's going to be a good fight.

March 19 we have Aline Pires fighting at Imortal FC in Curitiba. I'm going to film and shoot pictures of the event. She's going in at 40 years old with a 5-4 record, all losses coming by decision. I saw who her opponent is and I'm pretty sure she's going to win this one, she has way more experience and is a black belt in BJJ. Her opponent hasn't won against anyone with a positive record. But never say never, we might be in for a surprise.

March 26 Thor Silva, son of Wanderlei Silva is going to fight at Citade Da Luta in Curitiba. Must be the worst feeling to bear the weight of being the "son of", as it immediately puts a target on his back, although the name might help him get signed to a big promotion in the future.

April 7 we have Matheus "Buffa" Scheffel fighting in PFL , probably against Bruno Cappelozza. Buffa only seems to get really hard fights. Fought Ante Delija twice, Bruno Cappelozza once, and Juan Adams in 2022. He's motivated and training hard to get the win. That million might be a very good extra motivator.

Click on subtitles/cc for English Subtitles

 

[HuskySamoan]

I often wonder why there isn't more vlogs and training footage of MMA fighters. We get so much media of 17 thousand interviews where the same questions are asked. We get do many analysts talking about the current events each week but there's so little vlogging, mini docus, training and sparring footage, deep dives into training camps etc. This is awesome.

Have you considered doing more current stuff or does life not permit it? Also did you make a full recovery from the accident?

 

[Gandulf]

I often wonder why there isn't more vlogs and training footage of MMA fighters. We get so much media of 17 thousand interviews where the same questions are asked. We get do many analysts talking about the current events each week but there's so little vlogging, mini docus, training and sparring footage, deep dives into training camps etc. This is awesome.

Have you considered doing more current stuff or does life not permit it? Also did you make a full recovery from the accident?

All the vlog stuff I'm posting now is filmed less than 2 months ago, we started filming for the vlog in January and we started about 4 weeks ago to post a weekly episode + some reels. I'd like to do 2 episodes per week, but right now I don't have the time for it.

Overeem used to have an awesome series with "The Reem", but that had some production value behind it. I'm shooting this with a friend and funding it all myself, using my own equipment. Vitor Miranda (ex-UFC) became well known in Brazil as a youtuber with his vlogs, but seems to have switched over to podcasting and analysing fights. Paulo Costa is doing some vlogs too.

Gyms are not fan of releasing camp footage, because their opponent is watching too, if the fighter has an injury, if a fighter is making mistakes during sparring they might try to capitalise on this during the fight etc...

Also, it's not cheap to buy camera equipment here, you need at least a decent camera or a very decent phone and a computer to edit it on. Electronics in Brazil costs 2 to 3 times more than in Europe due to the insane import taxes, and the minimum salary is around 200 dollars. The reason I can afford to do this is that 1) I'm very close to the CM system guys so I don't charge them anything + 2) I have another job that makes me money + 3) I brought my equipment from Europe when I moved here.

Plus that it's time consuming, go to the gym, film, edit, work etc... it's like another full time job. A lot of people start motivated but suddenly they see that they only have few views and followers in the beginning and just hang up their gloves.Interviews and analysing fights are way easier to do.

As for the accident, I never fully recovered from it, but at least I got to keep my legs as the first hospital I went to wanted to amputate my leg, so I grabbed some bandages there, fled, called a taxi and went to another hospital, where they said it wouldn't be necessary at all to amputate it.

 

[Gandulf]

Eric Visconde won his fight in Spartacus by rear naked choke in the first round and will fight again in Cidade Da Luta the 26th of this month. He is waiting for his slot on contender series but doesn't want to stay inactive. Thor Silva, son of Wanderlei Silva is going to fight on the same card.

Vitor's excruciating training camp finally paid off as he got the win today over Anton Turkaj. Trains MMA in the morning, Muay Thai in the afternoon and BJJ at 17h30. Plus he often goes lift weights after that. Dude is a genetic freak and is motivated to be a champ one day, and realises that he will have to sharpen his tools asap to get to the top. But at only 25 years old, he still has a long road ahead of him. He's only a purple belt, but his defense is very good. But it' not expected to be any different when you have a coach like Cristiano Marcello by your side. If there is one way to disappoint Cristiano it's to lose by submission, just like when Shogun lost against Chael Sonnen, but that's a story for another day.

I expected the fight to be over way quicker, but Anton's toughness combined by a new world record of fence grabbing made Vitor grind out 3 rounds. Sadly, Anton's pre-fight antics made his defeat even sweeter for us, he already became a meme on several Brazilian platform. Luckily, the FOTN bonus will help put some vaseline on his asshole.

Edilceu "Para Raio" Alves is supposed to fight the 23rd april in Brave CF in Slovenia. He's happy to fight again after a long period of inactivity due to a lack of opponents and drawbacks outside of fight life. His car got stolen in front of the gym, which made his day to day job as Uber driver impossible, and cars cost a fortune in Brazil compared to what people make.

I made a few new vlogs on the channel but still haven't had the time to add translations, which I will hopefully get the time to in the next two weeks. Elizeu showed me around Capoeira and I was surprised that they also have takedowns and head butts, plus a really long belt system.

Cheers

 

[Lightning Victor]

No pics of hot brasileras?

 

[MyNameisMyName]

This is awesome footage

Keep going

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Eric Visconde won his fight in Spartacus by rear naked choke in the first round and will fight again in Cidade Da Luta the 26th of this month. He is waiting for his slot on contender series but doesn't want to stay inactive. Thor Silva, son of Wanderlei Silva is going to fight on the same card.

Vitor's excruciating training camp finally paid off as he got the win today over Anton Turkaj. Trains MMA in the morning, Muay Thai in the afternoon and BJJ at 17h30. Plus he often goes lift weights after that. Dude is a genetic freak and is motivated to be a champ one day, and realises that he will have to sharpen his tools asap to get to the top. But at only 25 years old, he still has a long road ahead of him. He's only a purple belt, but his defense is very good. But it' not expected to be any different when you have a coach like Cristiano Marcello by your side. If there is one way to disappoint Cristiano it's to lose by submission, just like when Shogun lost against Chael Sonnen, but that's a story for another day.

I expected the fight to be over way quicker, but Anton's toughness combined by a new world record of fence grabbing made Vitor grind out 3 rounds. Sadly, Anton's pre-fight antics made his defeat even sweeter for us, he already became a meme on several Brazilian platform. Luckily, the FOTN bonus will help put some vaseline on his asshole.

Edilceu "Para Raio" Alves is supposed to fight the 23rd april in Brave CF in Slovenia. He's happy to fight again after a long period of inactivity due to a lack of opponents and drawbacks outside of fight life. His car got stolen in front of the gym, which made his day to day job as Uber driver impossible, and cars cost a fortune in Brazil compared to what people make.

I made a few new vlogs on the channel but still haven't had the time to add translations, which I will hopefully get the time to in the next two weeks. Elizeu showed me around Capoeira and I was surprised that they also have takedowns and head butts, plus a really long belt system.

Cheers

No shame in going to decision with Turkalj, he's really good.

 

[Gandulf]

Two weeks ago I went filming at the Imortal FC 12 card, they are working together with Spartacus in Sao Paulo. I think they have the same shareholders or so.

First there was a grappling competition. Sorry to say, but grappling competitions are boring as fuck and the jiujitsu crowd is way more cringe than the mma crowd. The good part is that they were max 5 min rounds but that shit couldn't be finished fast enough for me. I love grappling, but to watch it it's very meh unless it's ultra high level stuff.

Second there were the MMA fights. I thought there was going to be a lot of can crushing but boy were we in for surprises that night.

First fight, Kelvin Concalves vs David Deruk. David Deruk is from Chute Boxe, fighting out of Curitiba and had his first fight against Kelvin Concalves who is from Palmas, a little city outside of Curitiba. He trains out of a social project, not even a real gym apparently. Traded some shots, caught the guy in an Armbar.

Second fight, Willian Rafael vs Matheus Riquelme... both young guys in starting careers, both undefeated at the time. Back and forth fight, first round Matheus had the advantage but in the next two rounds Willian caught up to the beat and started punishing him. Bodykick TKO in the late third round.

Third fight, Thiago Frasson vs Luis Andrade de Oliveira. When I was filming the weigh-ins, I though Luis was the sacrificial lamb. Dude was 123 kgs, overweight and came alone with a small bag from the interior of Parana. No corner, nothing. He asked the guys from American Top Team to corner him and wrap his hands 15 mins before the fight. Frasson is also a journeyman, but was on a four fight win streak (although only against absolute cans) but seemed to be the better choice on paper. Better looking (yes homo), in shape, bjj black belt, muay thai black belt etc... Tapology had 96% win for Frasson, 4% for Luis.

I got nothing against Frasson as he's a very respectful human being. Fight starts, Frasson charger like James Thompson and Luis catches him, sending him to the canvas. Luis wants nothing to do on the ground so he makes him stand up again. Frasson storms again and this time Luis throws a nuke on his chin. Frasson goes down only to land headfirst. Probably stayed out cold over 5 minutes and couldn't even stand up to announce the winner. Crowd went berzerk and Luis probably had the best night of his life.

Later I found out that Luis has a way better record than it seemed (3-2) but he fought in many unsanctioned events. In all events dude is 8-2 in mma and 8 - 2 in kickboxing.

Fourth fight, Aline Pires against Bianca Sattelmayer. Sattelmayer was brought in as a late replacement and was on a 6 fight losing streak before this fight. Aline is from our gym, CM System but delivered the worst fucking performance of the night. She started out well in the first round, but after failing a submission attempt, she just mentally quit. Bianca held her against the cage for 3 rounds occasionally punching her, and won the fight. After losing to such a shitty opponent and delivering such a dookie of a performance, Aline should question why she is still a "professional athlete" at 40 years old with a record of 5-5.

Fifth fight. Leonardo Diniz vs Allison Lopes, fight of the night. Two very skilled dudes. Allison almost knocked out and submitted Leonardo in the first round only to be TKO'd in the second round. Allison has very good boxing and Leonardo is an extremly tough dude. Wouldn't be surprised to see both of them soon in a bigger org.

Sixth fight. Irwing Machado vs Edvaldo de Oliveira. Irwing used to fight a lot in ACA, but got sent back to the regional circuit to rack up some wins as he only had 1 win in 7 fights in ACA. Off course, fighting in Russia is no joke and he never got any easy opponents. Knocked Edvaldo down and chocked him out in the first round.

Sevent fight. Jhonata Diniz vs Rodrigo Duarte. Diniz is a former glory kickboxer who went to decision with Ghita and Rico, who is now trying to break it in MMA. Striking game is top notch, and this is the first opponent in MMA which, although being a journeyman had a tough record and a ground game. Fight starts, Rodrigo tries getting Diniz down but Diniz worked on his takedown defense and punished Rodrigo with brutal knees and some kicks and punches. Rodrigo managed to hit Diniz several times but nothing severe. Basically the same thing for a few minutes until Rodrigo's leg couldn't take it anymore and collapsed.

Eight fight. Lara Fritzen vs Aline Sattelmayer. Lara is from Nova Uniao and is ex-UFC while Aline is a can with 17 losses on her record. Or so we though. Fight was boring as fuck but went back and forth with Aline having the upper hand in two rounds. Marlon Sandro cornering Lara screaming his lungs out. Judges score... unanimous decision for Lara. Total robbery. Crowd booing. Lara talking how about she deserves to be in the UFC again LOLOLOL. More booing. The crowd got it right.

Finale. John Allan vs Ewerton Polaquini. John Allan, ex ufc, missed weight by a kg but couldn't anymore. I saw him a few days before the shoot and he seemed exhausted. Fight starts, Ewerton does some oblique kicks, John answers with some low kicks. Ewerton shoots for the takedown, John reverses it, knees him and locks him into a standing guillotine.

Very good event and quite some surprises. Here is the event minus the grappling part, if you want to see that, it's also on the channel.


Last weekend, on Saturday was the WGP kickboxing in Sao Paulo. I had some friends from Teixeira Team fighting there, but wasn't able to go because of the distance. Maykol Yurk got knocked out in the first round by a liver kick. Matheus Nogueira won his first fight in the tournament but lost against Gustavo Jones in the second fight. Gustavo Jones is the new WGP tournament champion and certainly no pushover.

Ariel Machado also lost his fight by TKO in the second round in Russia. He was fighting on the same card as nutcase legend Datsik who happened to fight Mondragon (the dude who got kicked out the UFC because he had hepatitis).

On Sunday, Erick Visconde "Sabugo", Thor Silva and Pony had to fight at CDL. I wasn't allowed to film so I stayed home chilling with my two dogs. Erick and Thor made quick work of their opponents, Pony won the decision.