Formiga at Miami Open.
Soul Fighters black belt Rafael Formiga moved up in weight and won the middleweight division at the 2010 Miami Open.
“I’ve been in the USA for four months now and it’s harder to stick to a diet here. I’m getting used to the weight and fought well. I had two matches at weight. In the first, I swept and got an armbar submission. In the second, I faced Palito, a Rodrigo Cavaca student, and it was a major fight. I won by 8 to 2. The kid has long legs and tried a triangle that caused me some problems. I also entered the absolute, and I was even doing well against Marcus Bochecha. I was winning by a sweep and nearly got back mount. But he caught me by surprise with a kneebar,” he comments.
After the competition, Formiga set about organizing his training to keep up the pace. Besides training with Nova União’s Danilo “CP” Sherman, the fighter should also meet up with Lloyd Irvin’s JT.
“It’s great to make a living through Jiu-Jitsu, but I’m missing out on the kind of training we’d do in Brazil. I’ve been training a lot with Danilo “CP” Sherman, of Nova União, who lives really close to me. Another who called on me to train is Jonathan Torres, who also lives near me. We should be getting together to train twice a week,” says the black belt now living in Connecticut and teaching at Best Way BJJ.
“This year I should compete at a few more regional championships and I’ll do the ADCC qualifiers in New York. Since all my papers are in order, I’ll be competing in everything next year. There should also be a group coming to stay with me here before the Worlds,” he says in finishing.