Tagarela goes for sweep. Photo: personal archive
Jonatas Gurgel, better known as Tagarela, teaches Jiu-Jitsu at ATT Florida but defends team Atos in competition. Last weekend the black belt, who is just picking up competition rhythm again, managed a solid victory.
In disputing the absolute division at the FGL (Florida Grappler League), the lightweight submitted the game Marcus Bochecha (CheckMat), who was recently promoted to black belt after winning his weight group and the absolute at the last Worlds. Tagarela went on to beat two more opponents to take home the 500-dollar bounty.
“I beat Bochecha by 9 to 0 and submitted him with a choke from back mount. In the second match I scored 32 to 0 and in the final, after scoring 20 to 0, I got the tapout from back mount again to become absolute champion,” says Tagarela.
The fighter was focused on MMA for the last two years, during which he won four times in four fights, three coming by way of submission and one by knockout. Now his focus returns to gi Jiu-Jitsu. Tagarela confirms he will be participating at the IBJJF Opens.
“I’m training with my students in Miami focused on the Miami Open, Chicago Open and Honolulo Open. I’m returning my focus to the gi. And I’m setting it up so next year I’ll be back at the Atos training center in Rio Claro training hard for the main IBJJF events,” he says in closing.