Zé Mario, in photo by Carlos Eduardo Ozório
The 2011 ADCC, coming up September in England, truly intends to return to be the charming No-Gi tournament of old. Despite slipping up before – notably in 2007 in New Jersey –, the championship founded by Sheikh Tanoon looks good to go off in 2011.
The demonstration of force came in the wee hours today, with earth shaking announcements made over Facebook: Zé Mario Sperry will take on Renzo Gracie, while Royler Gracie will rematch Eddie Bravo.
Well known from his days fighting in Pride FC, Zé Mario has been training at the academy of an old teammate of Renzo’s, Roberto Gordo. The Carlson Gracie student won the 1998 and 1999 installments of the ADCC and won the absolute category at the World Championship in 1998; while Renzo, another Pride FC star, now in the UFC, won the No-Gi tournament in 1998 and 2000 and was the champion of a 1993 “prototype” for the Brazilian Nationals. How much weight will separate the two athletes? We’ll let you know shortly.
Now Renzo’s cousin, three-time ADCC champion Royler, will face off with Eddie Bravo. The encounter has been the subject of a lot of talk over the years, ever since the American’s unexpected win in São Paulo at the excitement-packed ADCC 2003 event. Eddie submitted Royler with a triangle, after which he lost to Léo Vieira and then did not make it to the third-place match.
Rewatch the first encounter between Royler and Eddie Bravo: