MONSTERS
I walked down the aisle of stairs as I heard “Hey you are the new guy Cristiano told us about” “You are less fat than on Facebook” with both smile and grin that went from ear to ear. “Hey Man,I am Dinis” . Dinis wasn’t a big dude, but he was build like a tank, shredded as hell and had cauliflower ears. He invited me inside to have breakfast and to get to know everyone. Most of the guys looked intimidating as fuck, and I am not the guy who is easily intimidated.
“Hey, you want some coffee” Lerryan asked me in his best english. He was the youngest guy in camp, and also one of the most talented. At the age of 16 he already won 9 of his 9 fights, often against guys that were adults and with a lot more experience under their belts. But Lerryan didn’t gave a shit and walked through them, eventually breaking his last opponent’s arm.
Deivid Bull was probably the most intimidating dude around. He wasn’t tall, but build like a tree trunk and so juiced to the gills he would have made a prime Mark Kerr jealous. He started to ask me questions in Portuguese if I could ever bring him supplements next time I came to Brazil, because, just like everything else from outside of Brazil, supplements seemed to cost a fortune due to the import duties.
Larry Vargas was the joker of the bunch. He was a very small dude but had insane speed and very good jiujitsu. Gabriel “Fly” Miranda was quietly cutting pieces of bread and passed me a plate.
“So how is your Portuguese” Dinis asked me. I told them I only knew bad shit, like how to ask for drugs, how to introduce myself to the ladies and swear words. I knew some basics, but Lili had taught me the fun stuff. Everybody started cracking up. “You are crazy, but it is going to be fun to have you around”
“What is your fighting experience by the way” Dinis asked me. I explained them my base was judo and I added some boxing to it at a later point, but my striking was nowhere to write home about to. “Are you sure you will be able to handle this?” Larry jokingly asked me. I shrugged my shoulders and said “We’ll see”. “Good, first training starts 10 am, we’ll see you there”.
At 10 am, the first training, submission wrestling started. It was a class destined for professional fighters only. I took a seat on the bench. Slowly but certainly the team members started to fill up the gym. Cristiano walked in without any attitude, something quite rare for me as most of the coaches I previously trained with wanted to be treated as demigods without having one tenth of his legacy. This instantly made a positive impression. We briefly had a conversation and I decided to stay for minimum 3 months.
He explained me he wasn’t going to teach because he had to leave to Paraguay with some fighters for a seminar, and that 10 times olympian champion Zulu Marcelo and former Pride fighter,luta livre and bjj blackbelt Daniel Acacio were going to replace him.
The warmup wasn’t gruesome at all. A lot more easygoing than what I was used to. Difference was, all the guys here were in shape. Once it was time to spar, the level difference became clear. “Holy fucking shit, what have I gotten myself into” were the first things that crossed my mind. The guys were all top class and went for the submission in ways I never imagined before.
So here I was 10 000km from home in a country I barely spoke the language, outclassed by dudes who had been training their whole lives, at least twice a day and five days a week. Something deep inside me said “pack your shit and leave” but I didn’t travel this long and this far to pussy out. I came to train MMA and BJJ and I was set on training BJJ and MMA.
Class ended, and since I had a camera everybody thought it was a good idea to make a group picture. I had a chat with Zulu, whose English was very good. “You are less big than we imagined, Cristiano told us you were weighing about 150 kilos judging from facebook pictures” I didn’t know if I had to take it as a compliment or an insult, so I laughed it off. And I had to get better pictures.
or I'll kick your ass."
