The World Pro only comes around again in 2012, but Manaus is already getting ready to host Jiu-Jitsu’s finest, according to information provided by our collaborator Arthur Castro.
The biggest city in the Brazilian state of Amazonas will be a venue for one of the qualifying legs for the tournament in Abu Dhabi, planned for November 19 and 20. Black belt Fábio Holanda is passing through the city to review Manaus’s installation.
Fábio is the head organizer of the tryouts in the cities of Natal, Brazil; Montreal, Canada; and now in Manaus, and he confirmed the competition will be held at Amadeu Teixeira gymnasium, which he says has excellent facilities.
According to Holanda, Manaus will host one of the tryouts due to a partnership with the Manaus prefecture and the Amazonas state government.
Fighter Roberto Pato is part of the team preparing the city to host the event and is one of the few natives of Amazonas state to compete in Abu Dhabi. According to him, big names are likely to make it to the tryouts, like current weight and absolute champion Rodolfo Vieira, Rodrigo Cavaca, and champions Gabi Garcia and Luanna Alzuguir.
Some news regarding this year’s tryouts, to kick off in Natal, is that fighters will only be allowed to try out in their countries of origin, unlike in previous years, where a number of Brazilians qualified for the main event at tryouts in the USA. This means the battle for berths in Brazil will be all the more hotly disputed. The prize money for winning the brown/black belt tryouts remains the same: 4,000 dollars to the winner of the absolute division and 1,000 to the runner-up. The reward for winning the other divisions is a all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi, which comes to around 8,000 dollars, according to the organizers’ calculations.