There’s bit over a month left before the Honolulu Open kicks off on September 4, but there’s already a bunch of people focused on the event. Black belt Jonatas Tagarela (Atos), for example, has already told GRACIEMAG.com he’s in.
The championship marks the return of IBJJF competitions to Hawaii. In 2997 and 1998, the entity held the Jiu-Jitsu Pan-American tournament in those parts. Now, more than ten years on, great battles will take up again in the very same Henry Kaiser High School gymnasium.
One of the great moment from the 1997 Pan had Royler Gracie starring. The black belt got back at Marcus Aurélio for a setback he suffered a few years earlier, at the Brazilian National Championship. In the archipelago, the Gracie got the better of the action and captured the gold medal at the Ceara native’s expense. Proof of how Marcus was tough to take down came years later in the battlegrounds of Pride and the UFC, the two biggest MMA arenas of those times.
While we wait for bouts of such caliber in Hawaii, as is bound to happen at the Honolulu Open, check out the match between Royler and Aurélio.