ADCC 2009 winner Pablo Popovitch once again left his gi and old black belt at the gym in Florida and set about winning a no-gi championship, this time in Paris, France, on May 1.
The 30-year-old today spoke up about his winning the VIC tournament, in a chat with GRACIEMAG.com, explaining why he and buddy Jeff Monson didn’t face off in the absolute final, opting to split the 1,500-Euro prize money.
“I had eight matches and won most of them by submission, taking the under-84kg title and the absolute, closing out with Jeff in the open weight division. Shoot, we’ve been training partners and friends for over ten years; there’s no way we could fight each other,” he explains.
Pablo has a date for his MMA debut marked on the calendar. On June 4 he’ll be in a co-main event at Rock and Rumble 3, to take place at the Hard Rock Café in Florida. And his eight fights were good prep work for the challenge.
“This championship served as preparation for my coming fights. My MMA debut is coming up June 4 as a co-main event at Rock and Rumble 3, in Florida. But I’m also going to compete at the Grapplers Quest 32-Man tourney in July, which will be high level. But I’m training a lot and I hope to have a great MMA debut,” he says in closing.
The Grapplers Quest challenge with 32 big names in no-gi grappling takes place on the 10th and 11th of July, with a 10-thousand-dollar payout for the winner. Among the names aired by the promoters, Xande Ribeiro, Josh Barnett, Jeff Monson, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu, Daniel Moraes, Bill “The Grill” Cooper, Vinicius Magalhães, Chris Moriarty, and other should be there.