5 Months in Rio, Sparring with Milton Viera, and Wrestling at BTT

Nicole and I at the beach celebrating 5 months in Rio

This Sunday (the 12th) marks fives months of living in Rio. The time has flown by, but looking back I am amazed at all the amazing things Nicole and I have done. Experiences that most would deem ‘once and a lifetime’ almost seem to happen everyday. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind, but here in Rio where the lifestyle is more laid back I can take time everyday and reflect on things and truly appreciate where I am and the life I am living.


Week in Training

Post sparring session with Milton Viera. 

Monday morning’s wrestling started with a quick review on basic defense and then shifted focus to escaping from the turtle position. The turtle position in MMA and BJJ is often thought of as an incredibly bad position (and rightfully so), but in the world of collegiate wrestling that type of position is a fairly typical position to work out of. The main technique that I stressed was the stand up, but I first made sure to institute some key concepts, such as wrist control and keeping your hips under you. Most importantly I tried to relay the concept of not accepting the position and being determined to escape back to the feet. After drilling some hand fighting techniques we covered a basic outside leg stand up to a cut through. We drilled that for several minutes and the added in another step, once we cut through and faced our opponent we either shot in for a takedown or threw a couple of strikes and looked to get out of the pocket. Monday night I joined in on the cardio training session run by Benkei. First we went through four five minute rounds of sport specific plyometrics, movements and KB lifts. We finished off by running several laps around the neighborhood and then up to the waterfall by Pedra.

Wrestling at BTT.

Tuesday was a day full of training. In the late morning I went in and worked boxing and muay thai, finishing off with hitting thai pads. I then quickly ran back to the apartment (literally) changed my clothes, grabbed my wrestling shoes and met Antoine down the street. Twice a week Antoine goes in and trains Brazils elite BOPE and then heads to Brazilian Top Team to teach wrestling. Originally I was supposed to go with him help train the BOPE, but due unfortunately a bad traffic accident (and that some of the BOPE were on a mission) we were not able to. We did however go to BTT to work with some of their MMA team. The gym where BTT is at the AABB a large health and fitness center sponsored by Banco do Brasil. The AABB is a large fitness center with restaurants, multiple pools, tennis courts, and basketball courts; they even have a salon. BTT is a large gym, they have a large mat space a boxing ring, and multiple heavy bags. I ran the warm up then Antoine ran the technique. He showed more MMA oriented technique. In addition to being an Olympian Antoine also has multiple MMA fights so he knows how to change the technique to better suit MMA. We went over several single leg takedowns (making sure to bypass our opponents guard) and then worked countering the single. We then did 40 second goes working to score takedowns, but with BJJ reaction time. By this I mean if during the process of being taken down a person could try to guard, sweep, or submit. It was good system because it forces you to be aware off all the possibilities. To finish the session out I had a seven minute match with a member BOPE who trains at BTT. The guy was really strong and held great position, but as time wore on and I kept the pressure up I was able to open up scoring opportunities when he stopped moving his feet. Seeing the high athletic ability of one single BOPE member really makes me want to head to the BOPE training site and work more with the elite soldiers. We headed back to Barra and I had just enough time to change clothes and talk with Nicole at are favorite beach kiosk before heading to the evenings nogi session. We worked defensively out of turtle and worked MMA guard technique to help block strikes and work for an escape or submission. We finished off the session with about 20 minutes of positional sparring and then another 15-20 minutes of free rolling. By the end of the day all I could really do was finish off a delicious acai and head to bed.

Wednesday morning I woke up sore (as expected) and headed to sparring. There were a ton of guys there, including former UFC featherweight and ADCC competitor Milton Viera. For the first of my three rounds of shark tank sparring (where I stayed in for 3x5 min rounds with new fresh opponents each round) I sparred Milton. Milton is a top tier fighter and I was a little slow to start, so I got it put to me. My shots got stuff and he out landed me on the feet (including a head kick that if I hadn’t halfway blocked would have put me out). Nevertheless I kept coming and trying to work, I may have gotten a choked, battered and taken down but I never stopped working. The second round of sparring started off slow but about half way through the round I started believing in my hands a bit more and using combos to set up takedowns. The third round I felt good I was slipping shots, blocking kicks, scoring on the feet and with takedowns, while my top game pressure wasn’t the best I still finished strong. After I got done Milton and I talked about some of the things he noticed while I was sparring, talking about both my strengths and areas where I need to work. While it may not have been the best sparring I have ever done, a was able to pull a lot of positives away from the experience and was enlightened to some new things. As I like to say, whether it’s a good day or a bad there’s always improvement.

The rest of the weeks training went good, it was filled with boxing, hard wrestling, and conditioning. The nice thing is now that my Portuguese is getting better I am able to communicate better with everyone, which is not only allowing me to better learn technique, but also just building a stronger team.

Nicole grabbing a drink at one of the many beach kiosks in Rio.

On Saturday night Nicole and I went into Laranjeiras to watch my friend and training partner Daniel Hortega make his professional debut at Bitetti Combat 15. Overall the whole card was great, a few back and forth battles, and a few impressive stoppages. Daniel was the 6th fight of the night, and even though he it was his debut he fought an experienced fighter. It was a battle with both guys landing hard shots on the feet, but the decisive factor in the fight was Daniels wrestling and BJJ. He was able to mix takedowns and top control with impressive sweeps in scrambles to control the pace on the ground and land hard strikes. In the end, he came out with the unanimous decision victory. Sunday, usually being our day of relaxing, was spent watching the Billabong Pro Surf Competition down on Barra Beach. It’s nice being able to head to 30 seconds to the beach and watch world class surfing and soak up the sun all day.

Pepe Beach, only about 2 minutes away from the apartment.