With Alliance’s dominant performance at this year’s Pan Championship, Jacare and Gurgel are proud of their team’s accomplishments. As it stood on the final day, the Alliance team beat out the second place team by a little over 100 points. This is truly a powerful message that they are sending as the team looks forward to the World Championships in June, where the team will be even stronger with the addition of Marcelo Garcia, Tarsis Humphreys and some others that couldn’t make it to the Pan. One thing that Jacare and Cobrinha were really ecstatic about was their students’ contribution to the team.
Since triumphantly returning from the European championships in Portugal, Jacare and Cobrinha have been preparing their students for the Pan. “The classes were intense and we worked a lot of situational that are specific to competition, we continued this style of training right up until the camp a week before the tournament. This training regiment obviously paid off, the Alliance Atlanta students returned home with 11 medals” proclaimed Jacare!
Right off the bat they got off to a great start, in the first division of the tournament John Liu fought off hunger and all comers to win the Blue belt Rooster Weight Division. To push us ahead of the pack in the Novice Competition our two white belt females Sera Kim and Julia Forrester winning the Middle and Middle Heavy divisions respectively and Bryan came in third in the Masters Middle Heavy Weight division. Fabio Gurgel once said “at Purple belt is where the future champions make their presence felt.” If this is true we can expect great things to be coming out of Atlanta very soon! Pedro Torres fresh off his Abu-Dhabi Pro Trials win found himself with gold around his neck once again in the Feather Weight Division. At Light Weight Jordan Schultz submitted 5 of his 6 opponents to claim the top spot, and found himself on the podium again the next day after finishing 3rd in a stacked Absolute Division. At Middle Weight, Alec Baulding was truly dominant. Repeating his performance from last year’s New York Open, this rising star claimed 2 more gold medals, one in his division and the second in the Absolute. It is my prediction, that if you haven’t heard his name before you will be hearing it a lot from now on! At Brown Belt Ian Mcpherson submitted all of his opponents on his way to his familiar spot on top of the Middle Heavy weight Division. To finish off an amazing tournament Alliance Atlanta Instructor Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles Maciel claimed his, record breaking, 4th consecutive Pan Gold in the Black Belt Feather Weight division.
All and all it was an amazing performance by everyone. From Atlanta alone, the students scored 55 (64 with Cobrinha) of Alliance’s 146 points in the Adult division. An incredible feat considering the entire Gracie Barra team came in 2nd with 44 points. Despite all this there will be no rest for the weary, Jacare has already announced his intentions for the Mundial. “With just a week break to allow everyone to get back in town we are already starting our preparations. The list of competitors has already been drawn up and I will be pushing everyone right up until our camp at the end of May.” For the third consecutive year Jacare will bring in all of his top students to Atlanta from Brazil and around the world a week before the Mundial for some last minute training, strategy and team selection. This strategy has obviously proven very successful considering that Alliance will be chasing their third consecutive World Championship title.
Today is one of those days. A day to honor one of Jiu-Jitsu’s masters. Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti has received from the IBJJF the seventh degree in his black belt.
Born in 1952, the leader of World, European and Pan-American champion team Alliance must be proud of his life’s work. A disciple of the legendary Rolls Gracie, Jacare began training when he was 16, in Rio de Janeiro.
In his class at the Gracie school were Carlos Gracie Jr, Crolin Gracie, Fabio Santos, Mauricio Gomes, the Machados, Rickson Gracie, to name a few. His first own school was Master and later he founded Alliance, with some of his black belts, such as Fabio Gurgel. In the USA since 1995, Jacare lives in Atlanta since 1996, where he runs one of the most successfull BJJ schools in the country.
In 2009, Jacare had a scare with a heart problem that put him out of battle for sometime. Fully recovered, Romero is again on full throttle to make Jiu-Jitsu and his team the best they can be.
For all that and for the example he is to everyone that knows him, we wish Jacare a huge congratulations for this achievevement.
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