The Brazilian Beat
Rains moves HEAT FC 2 to December, MMA reaching its peak in Brazil, Fighters leaving and fighters coming to Chute Boxe and Wanderlei Silva enjoying his well deserved fame!

The Brazilian Beat:
      Yes, it's been a long time, but people say good things always comes back, so here we are with our beloved "Brazilian Beat" once again. Truth is that this reporter has been experiencing all sorts of happenings in his life lately, including some very unfortunate, sad and not professional ones, but as a song would say "The Show Must Go On", so with plenty, believe me, plenty of happenings taking place with our sport in Brazil recently we have no choice but to treat you with some news, as the world turns and they never stop to happen! One very interesting trend that is taking place in this country right now, is that MMA is reaching its peak so far here, due to the great feedback caused by Mario Sperry's idea of making an effort to bring Brazil's most important TV channel to PRIDE, and thank God everything went well with Wanderlei Silva and Minotauro's wins being shown on primetime in a Sunday here in Brazil, causing the guys to go to immediate star level, and our sport to be looked seriously, with respect and admiration since the general public had no idea something like the PRIDE GP was what MMA was all about! This is causing a wave of good things to take place regarding our sport, and we're going to talk about some in this edition of "The Beat". Following this trend, several shows are gracing us in the end of the year, with K-1 MMA Brazil, MECA 10 and mostly HEAT FC 2 leading the way treating the Brazilian fans to a never seen before era in this country. However, the skies have not been friendly of HEAT FC 2, and rain forced the show to be postponed to December. In the middle of all this, Chute Boxe saw two of their star fighters leaving and is welcoming a young prospect, and the world turns and turns, and Full Contact Fighter keeps getting up to bring you "The Beat", in Brazilian style cause believe me, The Show Will Always Goes On here at this space!
  • MMA has never been so popular in Brazil! In a move made by the Brazilian Top Team heads, bringing one of the most important reporters from Brazil's biggest TV station to the PRIDE GP to make a special report on our sport and the success of the Brazilian fighters in Japan, the sport of Mixed Martial Arts is finally started to being taken seriously by the general public and it seems like all of the sudden people woke up for the fact that this is a spectacle, and not a barbaric brawl. The segment aired in one of the most watched shows on Sunday television in Brazil, a variety show called "Fantastico" [Fantastic] showed the popularity our sport has in Japan, the lifestyle and preparation of the fighters for the show, the amount of fame they have on the land of the rising sun, as well as the PRIDE GP itself, with backstage footage and more, always emphasizing on Minotauro and Wanderlei Silva. Needless to say, the Brazilian female reporter, named Gloria Maria, who has been used to interviewing the most important international stars, got deeply impressed with what she saw, and the result was a breakthrough piece for the show, reaching the show's highest rate for the Sunday, and helping our sport a great deal! On the following Sunday [Last one] they featured an article on Minotauro, interviewing him on his house, and hopefully this will be the start of more serious coverage from mass media for our sport here in Brazil.

  • PRIDE Middleweight Champion and PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Champion Wanderlei Silva has been living the best days of his life recently. Enjoying his first son trough his first months of life, Wanderlei is rising to a higher level of fame among the general public in Brazil after his conquer of the PRIDE Middleweight GP. In recent days "The Axe Murderer" went to Rio de Janeiro to receive his Jiu-Jitsu black belt from the hand of Carlinhos Gracie, the president of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu confederation, for the impressive ground skills that he displayed in his recent fights, attended at the 3rd edition of Shooto Brazil, was a VIP guest for the Brazilian National Soccer team match against Uruguay, for the world cup qualifier, and received special congratulations from the mayor of Curitiba, his hometown, along other things. In the middle of all this so deserved hype, Silva is still training and concentrating for a possible year end appearance at the next PRIDE, showing he is always willing to put all on the line.

  • As the sport is reaching its peak in the country, more shows are taking place and the end of the year will certainly be busy in Brazil with shows such as K-1 MMA Brazil, MECA World Vale Tudo and HEAT Fighting Championship. Before those takes place, Shooto Brazil came, this last Sunday, with its third edition matching up some Brazil's young values from teams such as RFT, Brazilian Top Team and others. One of the most exciting bouts of the competition was BTT's own Fabio Mello winning effort by decision over Luciano Azevedo, in a fight that saw Mello with a cut under his eye, and Luciano suffering a knockdown in the 2nd round. Overall reports have that this was by far the best edition of Brazilian Shooto since it's begging, not long ago. Here are the results of the professional bouts.
    • Xandinho def. Roberto "Robocop" by decision
    • Talles Leite def. Felipe Mongo by arm-triangle in the 2nd round
    • Gustavo Careca def. Paulo Boiko by decision
    • Andre Candido def. Tiago Marreta by decision
    • Danilo Sherman def. Ricardo Nogueira by triangle choke in the 2nd round
    • Hudson Rocha def. Aritano Barbosa by Guilliotine choke in the 1st round
    • Luis "Besourou" Jr. def. Iran Mascarenhas by decision
    • Fabio Mello def. Luciano Azevedo by decision
    • Walter Aba def. Rodrigo Riscado by forfeit between the 1st and 2nd rounds.

  • Another show about to happen in Brazil is Storm Samurai. Storm has usually been a Muay Thai only show, but this time they'll take it a step further and add MMA matches as well as Jiu-Jitsu ones. The event will take place on November 29th, in the City of Curitiba at the Taruma Arena, a bigger venue than Storm usually uses. The stand outs in the 6 Muay Thai matches are the fights between Chute Boxe member Fabio Tigrao against Artur Mariano student Emerson Nunes, and MECA veterans Alex Gaze and Paulo Bueno facing each other. Here are the MMA Matches:
    • Marlon Matias vs. Daniel
    • Jadson vs. Ademar
    • Mauricio Veio vs. Emerson Graxaim
    • Michel vs. Julio Cesar
    • Geremias vs. Nelson

  • Even before Storm Samurai takes place, another show will shake Curitiba as promoter Sergio Batarelli continue his K-1 ventures in Brazil, bringing the first ever K-1 MMA Brazil to reality this coming November 27th. Composed of only MMA matches, the show will bring fighting action to the Palacio de Cristal once again, the same venue that used to hold the first editions of MECA. The most interesting aspects of the show, fighting-wise, are the presence of a lot of Muay Thai fighters making the transition to MMA, like Eduardo Maiorino, who appeared in K-1 USA this year. Ruas Vale Tudo fighter Antoine Jaude, is also a important name in the show, facing K-1 Brazil winner Jefferson Tank. Here's the event's card:
    • Geferson Jeje vs. Jose Ricardo "Dragao"
    • Marcelo Dalhke vs. Julio Cesar
    • Carlos Santos vs. Magno Penha
    • Rivanildo vs. Vitor
    • Emerson Graxaim vs. Andre Cruz
    • Cristopher Hipolito vs. Daniel Paula
    • Claudinei Kozan vs. Eduardo Maiorino
    • Antoine Jaude vs. Jefferson "Tank"

  • Still in this almost endless subject of the next events to grace the Brazilian soil, the next edition of MECA World Vale Tudo, is confirmed for the city of Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil, this next December 20th. One of the most interesting aspects of the 10th edition of the show will be a women's fight for the first time ever, matching up Carmen "Casca Grossa" against Ana Carolina. Other stand outs will be the presence of veteran Jorge "Macaco" Patino back to MECA action, as well as Chute Boxe own Pancrase veteran Nilson de Castro. The main event promises to feature PRIDE veteran Murilo Ninja Rua coming back to MECA for the first time since his MECA 5 appearance, to face UFC veteran Alexandre "Cafe" Dantas.

  • UFC veteran Pedro Rizzo returned to Brazil after his win against Ricco Rodriguez last Friday with plenty of activities to take care of. Officially out of contract with the UFC, since his fight against Ricco was the last one on his contract, "The Rock" is considering several hypothesis for his career. Currently Rizzo is in Curitiba to corner his teammate Antoine Jaude in his K-1 MMA Brazil fight, and then he will proceed to Los Angeles, where he will take care of some negotiations to decide his future in the sport. Pedro will get back to Brazil this next Wednesday.

  • Former UFC Middleweight Champion Murilo Bustamante is still upset with his defeat to Dan Henderson at the last PRIDE event. Always respectful, Murilo isn't trying to take anything away from Henderson, but he believes he ended up losing the fight due to an headbutt that got him out, even before he was hit with a series of punches. Understanding the supposed headbutt wasn’t intentional, Busta wants a rematch with Dan Henderson as soon as possible and will be talking with FCF very soon in an exclusive interview.

  • Lots of happenings took place in the Chute Boxe team this past two weeks, since the PRIDE Middleweight GP. It's impossible not to mention the happenings since "The Beat" is coming off a long hiatus, so without commenting on any subjective matters, let's go straight to the actual facts. PRIDE veterans Anderson Silva and Assuerio Silva left the Chute Boxe team and they are no longer part of the academy. Along with them went other less known fighters, such as Silvio Urutum. However, despite being involved in some rumors regarding leaving the team, fighters Murilo Ninja Rua and Mauricio Shogun Rua are still in Chute Boxe. Anderson Silva is currently training in his academy in Curitiba looking for options, and Assuerio Silva is in the city of Natal right now, likely negotiating to fight at HEAT FC 3. As time never stops, Chute Boxe is looking to add more to their arsenal, and MECA veteran Daniel Acacio, who defeated Delson "Pe de Chumbo" at the last edition of the show is supposedly joining the team.

  • The most awaited MMA event of 2003 in Brazil, HEAT Fighting Championship 2: Evolution was recently postponed. The show was originally scheduled to take place this Thursday, November 27th in the city of Natal, being the first MMA show ever in an open air football stadium in Brazil. However, it has been raining almost every night in the city, making it to risky for both fighters and fans to have the spectacle at an open air stadium. The next available date for the cities biggest indoor arena, the Machadinho Gymnasium, where HEAT 1 was held, is December 15th, what forced the promoters to postpone HEAT FC 2 to December 18th. With this move the show is back to it's original stage, and the promoters are promising and even better effort in the production and so far the card is still intact, also with HEAT FC 2 being the first edition to be featured at Brazilian Pay Per View, through Premiere Combate.

  • Speaking of HEAT FC 2: Evolution, Japanese fighter and PRIDE veteran Akira Shoji recently broke his nose while training with UFC veteran Ivan Salaverry for his fight against Marcelo Azevedo at HFC 2. Originally this forced Shoji to drop out of the show, but with the event being postponed it is still possible that the Japanese seasoned veteran will continue to be part of the card. However, with the current "war" from Japanese promotions for their end of December shows in the land of the rising sun, only time will tell if Shoji will end up being able to perform at the HEAT stage or appear in Japanese rings at New Year's evening. The rest of the HEAT FC 2 card continues to count with fights such as Carlos Barreto vs. Travis Wiuff, Allan Goes vs. Gustavo Ximu, Ebenezer Braga vs. Eric Wanderlei, Forrest Griffin vs. Edson Paredao, among others.

  • Brazilian Top Team heavyweight fighter Carlos Barreto is still training hard for his bout at HEAT FC 2: Evolution, against UFC veteran Travis Wiuff. Barreto told FCF today that he has still been practicing a lot of Muay Thai and plan to show the evolution of his stand up skills once again in this fight. Also, due to Wiuff's fighting style Carlos believes he may have to show some of his old-days Jiu-Jitsu tricks from the guard. On top of his training routines, the PRIDE and UFC veteran and HEAT 1 winner Barreto is looking for a fight in January, as he is already looking to appear also in HEAT FC 3, tentatively scheduled for late March or April of 2004.