The Brazilian Beat
Chute Boxe master coming back, Ninja gets BJJ black belt, Shaolin eager to fight, Shogun looking for rematch, Bushido WW GP news and more!

The Brazilian Beat:

We are only halfway through July and so much has happened already in MMA over the course of this month. From the action of the second round matches of the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix, to the pairing of the competitors for the next round, a series of UFC bouts and an announcement of a possible fight for the near future that has been shaking up the imagination of MMA fans worldwide, excitement has been tone for the seventh month of the year. Looking ahead, many promising things are shaping up nicely. Needless to say, if there are many happenings taking place in the MMA world currently, there are also many things boiling on the Brazilian scene, with many things going on at camps such as Chute Boxe and BTT, fights being paired and the usual share of new shows coming up; so after a brief hiatus, we're here once again to update you a little bit on the latest from a country that is showing more passion in its MMA representatives, than what other famous and traditional Brazilian sports have been showing in world-level competition, as Full Contact Fighter brings the beat and makes it sound out loud as always, in typical Brazilian style, enjoy!
  • Training is intense right now at the Brazilian Top Team camp in Rio de Janeiro, with Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira getting himself ready to face "The Baby Face Assassin" Josh Barnett at the finals of the Open-weight Grand Prix this coming September. This fight could possibly be the first of two fights in the same night; if Nogueira wins he’ll advance to face the winner of Wanderlei Silva vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. However, before this Minotauro outing comes up, another BTT representative will have his own share of GP action as Paulo Filho is getting himself ready for August's second round of the Pride Bushido Welterweight Grand Prix. Although nothing is set in stone as of now, it seems highly likely at this point that Filho will be facing Japanese fighter Ryo Chonan for his second participation in the GP, if Chonan is cleared by the doctors to fight in August, after the eye socket injury he suffered in his last bout. Another match that is likely to take place in the second round of the Welterweight GP is between sensation Denis Kang and experienced striker Amar Suloev, leaving two other bouts to be paired.

  • Getting ready for the K-1 MMA tournament coming up in August, Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba is once again in the city of Curitiba training at the Chute Boxe academy. Sakuraba arrived on June 29th and has been training daily at what was once his nemesis academy. This is his third time in the country training with Chute Boxe. The Japanese fighter is reported to have been impressed with the intensity of the training in Curitiba, and returns when possible to train with the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua, Murilo Rua, Nino Schembri and others. This also goes to show that despite Sakuraba's split with Pride and joining with K-1, his relationship with Chute Boxe continues to be solid and one of great friendship.

  • Chute Boxe fighter Murilo "Ninja" Rua received some good news this past week. After about ten years of BJJ training he received his jiu-jitsu black belt from Cristiano Marcelo. Marcelo and Nino "Elvis" Schembri are in charge of the grappling training at Chute Boxe. Murilo has been a brown belt since after his Pride win over Mario Sperry in 2002, and now Ninja, who's is currently in the city of Londrina [also in the state of Parana where Curitiba is the capital] doing P.R. work for one of his sponsors, joins the select group of Chute Boxe fighters with jiu-jitsu black belts, along with Wanderlei Silva, his brother Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Luis Azeredo, Master Rafael Cordeiro, as well as obviously Jorge "Macaco" Patino, Nino Schembri and Cristiano Marcelo who come from jiu-jitsu backgrounds.

  • Speaking of Chute Boxe Master Rafael Cordeiro, in a piece of pleasantly surprising news FCF found out that Cordeiro is indeed coming back to fighting, and before the year ends will likely be appearing at Pride Bushido in the up-to-73 kg weight class. Rafael fought in shows like IVC and Shooto before he retired from fighting, after becoming the Chute Boxe team’s technical director and being team founder Rudimar Fedrigo's main ally in training the team and helping in their development. Cordeiro has been the trainer from day one of fighters such as Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and is considered one of the most technical Muay Thai fighters ever out of Chute Boxe, and is also a jiu-jitsu black belt as mentioned above.

  • Staying on the Chute Boxe team subject, Pride 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix champion Mauricio "Shogun" is training hard and already fully recovered from the elbow injury he suffered in late February, which required surgery and lots of recovery time. As was already reported in the media, Mauricio cancelled a seminar tour he would be doing late July across the United States, that included visits to cities such as Charleston in West Virginia, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, and areas near Charlotte, Boston, and Philadelphia. The reason behind the cancellation was the fact that it is highly likely that Shogun will not only be fighting in September's Pride show, as well as possibly in Pride's first-ever show on U.S. soil in October, forcing the fighter to focus even more on his preparations, as the main goal now is to get him physically ready for those tasks, which may possibly include a rematch that the young Rua is eager to have.

  • As part of this preparation, Shogun and his brother Murilo, who may also be fighting in the coming months as well, will be traveling to the city of Sao Paulo with teammate and jiu-jitsu wizard Nino Schembri, to spend one week training jiu-jitsu, boxing and wrestling with Chute Boxe fighter Jorge "Macaco" Patino and his students. Patino owns a huge academy in Brazil's biggest city and includes a group of many sparring partners mainly for grappling purposes, due to his BJJ background and high number of affiliated schools. Schembri will also take this chance to get even sharper at his BJJ once again, as he is coming back to fight in the BJJ World Championship in a matter of days, after being out of gi competitions for a while.

  • A new show that is promising to shake up things on the Brazilian MMA scene is in the works, as Sao Paulo will host the first edition of Super Challenge on October 7th. Things are still in the works and details have not been released yet, but the show is supposedly coming with a very large budget (by Brazilian standards) and a lot of potential. One of the card's attractions will be a grudge match between Jorge "Macaco" Patino and Roberto Godoi, who were once partners running a BJJ team in Sao Paulo and later, after splitting up, became rivals. There was a jiu-jitsu match between the two some time ago, but this would be the first time they could solve their differences inside an MMA ring. In addition to that match, which has instant local crowd interest, the show will also feature a tournament of eight fighters under 73 kg that will include representatives from teams such as Chute Boxe, Brazilian Top Team, Gracie Barra Combat Team and others, with considerable prize money (once again, by local standards) for the champion and the runner up. We will keep you posted.

  • By the way, since the last edition of "The Beat" was written, MMA received a huge boost in the country thanks to the investment of Band Sports cable channel (a channel owned by TV Bandeirantes, which is one of the major open networks in Brazilian television). In a move that surprised many avid Brazilian fighting fans, who were missing Pride broadcasts in the country ever since the show disappeared from pay-per-view channel Premiere Combate, the cable channel quickly announced the LIVE broadcast of all Pride and Pride Bushido shows through the end of the year, at no additional charge for their subscribers, and began their work with the live Broadcast of Pride's Open Weight Grand Prix second round, which was their debut broadcast and went on as planned with a number of famous fighters as guest commentators. With Pride being aired live on Bandsports for any of those who have it being carried by their cable providers, there was also the announcement that the highlights of the show will be shown on a special on TV Bandeirantes’ open TV network, as well as news about MMA being carried on the station's news and such, presenting a much welcomed exposure to our sport in Brazilian mainstream media.

  • Nova Uniao jiu-jitsu black belt and former Shooto Champion Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro is training hard and is eager to get back in the rings and cages of the world and fight again. Now fully healed from a broken hand earlier this year that postponed his K-1 MMA debut, Shaolin doesn't have a confirmation yet on when he will be making his debut in the Japanese promotion with which he signed a contract months ago, therefore he is keeping himself in shape and may be defending his Cage Rage belt on September 30th, although nothing is set yet. In the meantime Ribeiro will be doing some seminars inside Brazil and abroad, during the month of August.