Vitor Henrique won the middleweight division for GFTeam. Photo: Dan Rod.
The World Pro in Abu Dhabi wasn’t the only championship going on around the world on Saturday. In the United States, black belts from the traditional teams competed at the third installment of the New York International Open, and there was no lack of action.
The good winds blew in favor of the athletes from GFTeam and Soul Fighters. While in the United Arab Emirates team representatives from the teams like Rodolfo Vieira and Augusto Tanquinho were the big standouts, the teams had similar fortunes at New York City College.
Tanquinho’s training partners Rafael “Formiga” Barbosa was the big name of the event. Besides closing out the lightweight division with Ítalo Lins, Formiga won the absolute.
“I had three matches in the absolute. I got the tapout in the first and the sweep in the second. In the final, against Guybson Sá, I won by 8 to 4 with four sweeps,” says Formiga.
Rafael "Formiga" Barbosa, by Dan Rod.
Besides Formiga, Diego Sampaio was another who did a good job for his team, winning the medium heavyweight division. Now for GFTeam, besides Ítalo, Denílson Pimenta took the featherweight division by beating a game Samir Chantre, and Vitor Henrique secured gold at middleweight. In the female division, Vanessa Oliveira won at weight and absolute.