Never before has a single Jiu-Jitsu move paralyzed so many people, from Russia to Brazil.
Fabricio Werdum faced Fedor Emelianenko in San Jose, California, on June 26, with one of those impossible missions to contend with. He had to somehow beat a heavyweight unbeaten in 27 MMA fights.
Just after Fabricio squeezed out the triangle-armbar combination that left the Russian no way out, a scream was heard.
Not from Fedor, who may well have never screamed in his life. (Upon exiting his mother’s womb, they say, Fedor opened his eyes, looked at the Ukranian doctor with steely eyes and said: “My name is Fedor. Take good care of my mom,” and went back to sleep without so much as a whimper.)
The scream was heard in Tijuca, a neighborhood in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro city. “Jiu-Jitsu!” yelled a black belt from the window in the wee hours of the morning upon witnessing Werdum win on cable-television channel HBO. The celebrations spread across the globe all at once via twitter, forums and academies.
Such a victory warranted in-depth feature coverage from GRACIEMAG. Having penetrated Werdum’s dressing room, our reporter Deb Blyth and photographer Mike Colón managed to capture every decisive instant of the battle, and deciphered, from behind the calm of the Brazilian’s grin, why he was the chosen one to finally dethrone all-mighty Fedor.
A handful of analysts opined that Fedor lost because the pressure got to him. Unlikely for someone who went ten years and nearly 30 fights without losing, wouldn’t you agree? As proved in Deb’s article, the heroic and historic triumph was the fruit of a combination of the Russian’s excessive confidence and our GMA’s complete confidence in his Jiu-Jitsu. The assembly of a training camp comprised of champions did the rest.
From among the different lessons derived from Werdum’s win, GRACIEMAG sifted out those of greatest use to enrich your Jiu-Jitsu. This issue your favorite magazine serves up a special dossier on “the secret weapon” that took Fedor by surprise, but which savvier gentle art practitioners already know: the double attack.
In the dossier GRACIEMAG explains how having a plan B when a submission is in your sights is not just a clear-cut strategy, but a fundamental Jiu-Jitsu concept.
Dive into this issue and come out with a bevy of slick attacks for your arsenal.
It’s not just Werdum who displayed effective Jiu-Jitsu in MMA. Brock Lesnar did too. And GRACIEMAG took up an investigation of this gentle side of the hulking wrestler and UFC champion.
Rodrigo Comprido gave a tell-all account of Lesnar’s training and ever-more-open mind. In this must-read interview Comprido addresses the hardships involved in swapping a career as a World Championship-winning competitor for that of an elite MMA trainer.
For practitioners aching for new submissions, GRACIEMAG offers up yet another extra-special Training Program. Rafael and his brother Guilherme Mendes show off a series of techniques that will make your game draw amazement at the academy.
Do aches and pains keep you from training the way you would like to? Are injuries cropping up all the time? Do you want to hit the accelerator in your Jiu-Jitsu’s development? This month we bring you a guide to having a healthier body, according to pointers from well-established specialists. Don’t miss it!
And there’s much more in store for you in this month’s issue. In the competitions section you’ll find out who came up spades in Arizona at one of the fastest growing championships in the USA.
The GMA section features the teachers who’ve been standing out around the world – from the USA to Syria. Don’t miss out on this issue’s coverage of Long Island Pride and the Renzo Gracie academies championship, as well as a lesson from our GMA in Spain Ezequiel Zayas and an article on Jiu-Jitsu’s rules by João Crus.
There’s more: Martin Rooney instructs you on how to work out your legs using a box; Alvaro Romano teaches the “donkey kick,” a powerful exercise to practice out in the open; Minotauro submitting Mark Coleman; and what there is to learn from bears.
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Fabricio Werdum faced Fedor Emelianenko in San Jose, California, on June 26, with one of those impossible missions to contend with. He had to somehow beat a heavyweight unbeaten in 27 MMA fights.
Just after Fabricio squeezed out the triangle-armbar combination that left the Russian no way out, a scream was heard.
Not from Fedor, who may well have never screamed in his life. (Upon exiting his mother’s womb, they say, Fedor opened his eyes, looked at the Ukranian doctor with steely eyes and said: “My name is Fedor. Take good care of my mom,” and went back to sleep without so much as a whimper.) The scream was heard in Tijuca, a neighborhood in the northern zone of Rio de Janeiro city.