Tarsis will need to get his smile fixed. Photo: Carlos Ozorio
Tarsis Humphreys was wracked with a slew of problems that hindered him in competition. First came a knee injury and them a series of boils, which kept him out of the Abu Dhabi World Pro. As the fighter himself says, sometimes bad things happen for the best. Tarsis made up for lost time in training and had a solid campaign at the Brazilian Nationals, taking gold at medium heavyweight and bronze in the absolute.
“The competition was really high level, both in my weight group and the absolute. It wasn’t easy and I really wore out in the absolute. I didn’t budget my grip strength, used a lot of force in the match with Murilo Santana (quarterfinals), who is an excellent athlete. It was an awesome match; I started out winning by 6 to 0; he got back mount on me and I had to fend him off. I spent a lot of energy and faced [Rafael] Lovato after having only a short time between matches. I don’t think it was the hardest match, but he had a good strategy, beat me and I can’t say otherwise,” says Tarsis.
“At weight I did better and managed to budget my strength and wind. I did well and had good matches, like in the final against Nivaldo. I managed apply what I’d been training to do and it was great,” he adds.
Tarsis against Murilo Santana. Photo: Carlos Ozorio
In the mentioned absolute match against Murilo Santana, the Alliance representative even lost a tooth. But it was worth the effort, as he added another two medals to his collection.
Now the next challenge will be the Worlds starting June 3, in California.
“I’m going to the Worlds. This week I’m training really hard and then I’ll bring it down a bit for the trip to the United States to get acclimated. I want to fight at weight and the absolute, but that’s up to Fabio [Gurgel]. But I’m more focused on the medium heavyweight title that I barely missed winning last year. My loss [to Rômulo Barral] was kind of contradictory and I’m going to try and make things different this time,” he says in closing.
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