The winners of the 2012 WPJJC trials in Gramado (photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG)
A quaint tourist town in the southern Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul, Gramado is gearing up to receive some of the greatest aces of world Jiu-Jitsu with pomp and circumstance during the first weekend of March.
As is shaping up to be a tradition in recent years, the Gramado chapter of the Abu Dhabi WPJJC tryouts will be stage to some of the most intriguing match-ups of the first half of the year. According to the tournament’s promoter, Fernando Paradeda, there’s already a number of world champions signed up to try their hand at earning all-expenses-paid trips to the main WPJJC event, coming up in the United Arab Emirates next April.
If at last year’s edition the crowd was treated to devastating performances from Marcus Bochecha, who would go on to be crowned absolute champion of the world just a few month’s thereafter, this year the tournament brings the likes of Léo Nogueira, Rodrigo Cavaca, Tarsis Humphreys, Ricardo Evangelista, Alexandro Ceconi, Eduardo “Português” Santoro, Isaque Paiva, Thiago Barros and Coach Cícero Costha, who will be making his competition return. Furthermore, brown belts João and Paulo Miyao will also be there, looking to be a handful for their black belt counterparts.
You going to miss this one?
“We’re expecting around 1,300 competitors, and the list of black and brown belt stars should only grow over the week. Our tryouts in San Diego, Miami and Hawaii were major hits, and now we’re going to cap it off with a sterling show in Rio Grande do Sul,” says Paradeda.
Sign-ups are going full steam, and the deadline is next Monday, Feb. 25. Click here to register and find out more.
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