Marco Jara. Photo: Carlos Ozório
This Saturday afternoon, at São João Batista cemetery, in the Botafogo borough of Rio de Janeiro, the wake for Marco Jara will be held. The Jiu-Jitsu and MMA coach was murdered while being robbed as he traveled to the coastal town of Paraty, to celebrate Christmas. He will be buried at around 3pm and his wake will take place at chapel 5 of the cemetery.
The last time he worked in Brazil, in October, Jara accompanied his student, Brett Cooper, to victory at the October Jungle Fight event. Promoter of the event and friend of Jara’s, Wallid Ismail remarks on the occurrence:
“It is tragic. He was at my house last Monday, and was happy as could be to be going home to Brazil. This is madness. He was going to stay at the hostel of a friend in Paraty and was stoked. He was a great trainer and promoter of Jiu-Jitsu. He trained Cro Cop and taught such celebrities as Mike Tyson,” he says, from the United States.
Another to contact GRACIEMAG.com was Eugênio Tadeu, a master of luta livre and muay thai, who has trained Jara in the past.
“I knew Marcos Jara when he was a kid, living in Copacabana, when he came over with a group of teenagers from his neighborhood to practice muay thai at the academy where I taught, on Rua da Passagem street, in Botafogo. That was in 1984 or 1985. He had a knack for the martial arts and went on to do grappling. Then he became a man and conquered the world because he was a winner. Fatality interrupted this life and brilliant career. Friend and student, go in peace, may God be with you,” laments the master.