The "TUF Brazil" set / UFC publicity photo
Already into the final stretch of TUF Brazil, a reality show broadcast in Brazil on Globo channel on Sunday nights, Vitor Belfort’s team is outpointing Wanderlei Silva’s by 6-1. In the episodes that have hit the airwaves thus far, Jiu-Jitsu has come to the forefront as the decisive factor in three of Belfort’s Green Team’s six victories. The lone point Wanderlei’s group has scored so far too came by way of submission.
The head grappling coach to the athletes under Belfort’s guidance is, as our readers well know, the current lightweight world champion of Jiu-Jitsu, Gilbert “Durinho Burns, who himself harbors dreams of carving out his own place in the MMA top flight. In never-before-seen footage on the program’s official website, Durinho broke down how Jiu-Jitsu works in full-contact fighting.
“There are a lot of things in Jiu-Jitsu that I can’t use in MMA. In Jiu-Jitsu there’s no punching, kicking, knees or elbows; so I have to adapt my technique to MMA, since there are also some moves you can do in the gi that you can’t do in the octagon. You have to play half-guard differently; I can’t do it like I do in Jiu-Jitsu or my opponent will elbow or punch me in the face,” Gilbert elaborates.
Click here to watch Durinho training.
The second lesson was more Carlson Gracie style—a posture technique.
Upon finding out one of the TUF Brazil favorites, Daniel Safarian, had made comments about what was going on in training, Blue Team coach Renato “Babalu” Sobral requested, in his peculiar way, that the athlete on the rival team follow one of the Jiu-Jitsu commandments: listen more, talk less.
Sergio Moraes stated his impression of what was going on: “If the house were full of women, there wouldn’t be as much gossip going on as there is!”
Watch the fighters in action here.
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