If your ultimate dream is to travel the world and make a living with your jiu-jitsu habit, Felipe Pena should be your model for success. Pena has been all over the world recently, competing in — and winning — the globe’s most prestigious jiu-jitsu tournaments. Last year, he made headlines when he defeated Gordon Ryan in the absolute division finals of ADCC, and over the past month, he’s been bouncing from place to place and winning everything along the way.
Pena’s first stop was in Kazakhstan, where he defeated Poland’s Adam Wardzinski in an ACB JJ 12 superfight. The very next week, he was off to Guam to compete in the Marianas Open, where he fought his way through Josh Jerome, Tanner Rice, and Jackson Sousa to win gold. But a week later, Pena faced yet another top-level challenge at the Abu Dhabi World Pro, and this time, the road to victory was going to be a long one.
Pena first had to compete in the Brazilian national qualifier to make it to the main bracket of the World Pro, which in itself involved three tough matches. Then, after winning the qualifier, he spend the next day pushing to make it to the finals, which involved battling against the likes of Donghwa Choi and Helton Jose. Then he had to once again face the formidable Wardzinski on the last day of the event, and after a hard-fought match, he was finally able to call himself a 2018 Abu Dhabi World Pro champion.
After Pena won his division at the World Pro, the Jiu-Jitsu Times chatted with him for an exclusive interview about his constant success and busy schedule. Check out what he had to say below:
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