Bernardo in photo by Gustavo Aragão
One of the new-generation black belts standing out most these days, Bernardo Faria had a great 2010 season. The Alliance representative won his weight group and the absolute at the Pan, the absolute at the Brazilian Nationals, won the world championship for the first time as a black belt, won the Brazilian Team Nationals and closed out his division at the European Open with his master Fabio Gurgel to boot.
The fighter comments on his expectations for 2011 on GRACIEMAG.com and declares his greatest dream: winning the absolute division at the Worlds.
What are your goals for this year?
I want to maintain what I did last year, the best year of my life in Jiu-Jitsu. The first semester of 2010 was nearly perfect, I did well in nearly all the championships. Now I want to repeat. I spend the new year with my family, but I’m already in São Paulo training like mad. I believe my first championship will be the European Open. In 2011 I intend to do the same: compete at the European Open, Brazilian Nationals, and the Worlds. I also want to participate at the World Pro tryouts in Gramado, the Rio one would be cutting it close. God willing, I’ll compete at the World Pro and I intend to be in Fepa events too, those are getting big.
You won your first World Championship as a black belt in 2010. Is it about time to get that absolute title?
The world absolute is the title everyone wants and is precisely the one I’m missing. Last year I won the absolute at the Pan and the Brazilian Nationals, so I’m training for it. I’m already training a lot of Jiu-Jitsu and now I’m getting back to doing judo too. The one who wins the absolute will be the one most complete, technical, and mentally and physically well prepared on the day. I’m working on all that. Up until last year, my greatest dream was to become world champion at black belt. Now it’s to be absolute world champion.
Faria in photo by Carlos Ozório
One of your greatest adversaries is Rodolfo Vieira, who missed some of the big events in 2010. What do you expect when facing him in competition now?
He’s doing really well, winning most of the championships he’s in. Last year he got hurt and had to miss the big championships during the first half of the year, but I’m not worried about him or anybody else. I want to train as much as I can, compete as much as I can, and the results will come as a consequence. I’m going to train to beat him, just as I train to beat all the others.
Last year, you had the opportunity to travel and conduct seminars. What did you make of the experience?
I had seminars in Finland, Germany, and Brazil. I’ve been training Jiu-Jitsu for ten years, I relinquished all else for it and things started coming up. Besides the results in competition, I was given the chance to conduct seminars and get to know new places and people and make some money, which is good too!