Training Under the Rio Sun and Inside Rio's MMA Scene

Group shot of all of us at Premiere House for training.

This past week in Rio has been another good one. The cool rainy “winter” weather of last week has passed and this week was filled with sunny days perfect for a post training acai or agua de coco at the beach. This week, as always, brought great training as well as some awesome experiences in Rio's MMA scene.

Week in Training

Training out on Premiere House deck. Photo by Dennis Asche

With the past weekend's Rio Open (which I unfortunately was unable to compete in), the CR houses are still filled with many great competitors, which made for excellent training. On Monday the sun was out and the air was warm but not too hot, so Dennis decided to teach his class out on Premiere house's top deck. The class was large and included experienced grapplers at all belt levels including four black belts staying at CR. There was Dennis, Raphael Simoes (an accomplished Gordo BB), Tony (a second degree from LA), and Fernando ( a 4^th degree under Mario Sperry from Porto Alegra). Rolling was intense but fun. Having a chance to roll with four black belts from different schools gave me a great look at many different (and dominating) styles. With Dennis I felt the controlling and aggressive attack, creating openings and capitalizing on them. With Raphael I had to grappling against someone who moved with water-like fluidity and grace, rolling from one position to the next and then attacking fast. Tony brought a very good guard game filled with different sweeps, as I would try to defend he would simply hit another sweep or move to take the back. With Fernando the rolling was almost like a game of chess, he would let you make a move by opening positions up to lead you down a path playing right into his sweep or submission—you could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but then he would smash the tunnel shut. The other guys also from all over the world- England, U.S., Morocco, Italy, all presented different challenges and techniques. For me the class was a big lesson on how there is no “right way” of BJJ styles--there is a “right way” concerning BJJ technique-- but your style and theory behind your techniques can vary from one person to the next with each being able to find success. So now I just need to focus on my “style”, continue to correct my technique and carry on down the road.

My training for the rest of the week went really well, I felt really strong in my luta livre training, quickly changing off from one attack to another. The biggest jump for me is that as I was rolling I could feel positions that were awkward or uncomfortable for the guys I was grappling against and use it as an opening for submission attacks, even if I didn't directly know what I was going after. I would grapple, and continue to work until the submission presented itself.

Out in Rio's MMA Scene

The CR Crew at WOCS with Pedro Rizzo, Rogerio Cameos, 
and Oliver Liete.
Photo by Denni Asche.

I also had the great opportunity to go behind the scenes this week leading up to UFC 163 here in Rio. Due to some Visa issues MMA Spirit fighter Sheila Gaff was short on corner men. Dennis went to see if he could help out. Luckily I happened to be with him and Antoine when they went down to the hotel where the UFC was setting up shop for fight week. While I see and train with a lot of fighters from the UFC, it was still a bit surreal to be behind signs reading “Fighters, Training Camps, and UFC Personnel Only”. We entered the press room and there was Mike Goldberg just tapping away at his computer. Soon things got straightened out and we were asked to stick around and watch Sheila

train. Until the slated workout time we relaxed in the lobby, many fighters, trainers and managers passing through. It's times like these that I realize how many people I have met since moving to Rio. I saw a lot of familiar faces and was able to talk with and catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while. Soon it was time to go down to the UFC workout room, which had bags, a scale and specialized UFC mats laid out. I was asked if I wanted to train with Daniel Weichell, a very accomplished fighter from MMA Spirit who fights for M-1. We spent about a half hour of solid wrestling both of us fighting hard for position. My timing was off which was frustrating, but I still wrestled well. Most of the time was spent heavily hand fighting or scrambling out of positions. My takeaway from the training though is that I need to work on my finishes and chain wrestling more to get my timing down. After training we headed out to the car and along the way Antoine introduced me to Eric, Team Noguiera's wrestling coach. He was a real nice guy and we all piled into the car and headed for a post training acai and espresso at Bibi's. We spent the next hour or so talking wrestling and fighting and joking around.

Ian McCall stands off against Iliarde Santos at the UFC 163 weigh-ins.

Friday came quickly this week and Nicole and I headed down to the UFC weigh-ins at HSBC Arena. We had good seats and had a great view of the weigh-ins. After they finished we headed back to CR met up with a bunch of others and headed into Larenjeiras to WOCS (Watch Out Combat Show). The fights were fast paced and there were some excellent finishes, as well as some all out battles. When the show finished Dennis got us down to the main floor and we met some big names including Pedro Rizzo, Eric Silva, and the President of WOCS Teta.

The Champ Weighing in.

We finished the week off by relaxing at the beach and watching UFC 163 at one of the great local bars here in Barra with friends. It was a great way to cap off another great week in Rio.