Português and one of his many titles. Photo: Carlos Ozório.
Today São Paulo is one of the world’s major Jiu-Jitsu hubs not just in Brazil, but in the entire world. It wasn’t always that way, though. At a time when Rio de Janeiro dominated the gentle art scene, some brave fighters from São Paulo carved out space for themselves in the IBJJF competition circuit.
At the 1999 World Championship, for example, Eduardo Santoro won gold in the absolute purple belt division. In his second match he even submitted the reporter now writing about him! But his great achievement was in the final, against the gigantic Alex Paz (Carlson Gracie), aka. Alex Negão. On the occasion, Master Carlson even removed the referee from the mat so as to referee the match himself. In the end, victory was the Cia Paulista representative’s, which at the time was considered to be a great achievement.
Several titles thereafter, now a black belt, Santoro teaches a good technique for submitting an opponent from immobilization. Watch and learn here on GRACIEMAG.com and, of course, in GRACIEMAG magazine, your portable academy: