Bernardo Faria became a two-time super-heavyweight world champion in 2013. Photo: Ivan Trindade.
Black belt Bernardo Faria has a few reasons to be proud after the 2013 Worlds , which ended last Sunday.
He was the only man to defeat Leandro Lo, in the quarterfinals of the open, with a sweep.
It was he who, at the end of the day, came closest to beating Marcus Buchecha Almeida, before getting swept with but seconds left in the absolute semis (in his weight class, Buchecha had been even in advantages with Alexander Trans, but was never behind).
He nabbed his second super-heavyweight world title (2012/2013) in an exhilarating final versus João Gabriel Rocha, certainly one of the sport’s biggest hopes going forward.
Bernardo Faria was the king of the sweep from half-guard at the Worlds, a technique some have dubbed “dental floss sweep,” because he holds the lapel and rubs it on his opponents’ legs like floss on gums.
With this near-unstoppable sweep and some dangerous submissions, the Alliance fighter got the best of Lucas Sachs and Luiz Fernando Panza and arrived at the final opposite João Gabriel. First he had to foil the Soul Fighters giant’s attempts at taking his back. Then he swept, mounted and celebrated with his Alliance friends.
And that wasn’t even all of it, as he later got to see his gym win the team championship title for the eighth time with a whopping 94 points. CheckMat (53) and Atos (45) completed the podium.
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