Brazilian Top Team

December is a traditional month for graduation at BJJ schools. At Brazilian Top Team wasn't different and almost every school had its promotion.

In Brazil at Juiz de Fora/ MG School, Head coach Ricardo Marques had over 500 lbs of perishable food donated to charity. He graduated 36 students and Fabiano Dias Leal got his black belt after several years of training. At BTT Boston João Amaral and Daniel Gazoni graduated over 40 students and Marcus Signorelli was graduated black belt. Congratulations to everyone.

Rousimar " Toquinho" Palhares is now 19-2 . The BTT fighter faced Lúcio Linhares ( Alliance ) last saturday in Memphis, TN at UFC 107 and forced Linhares to tapout with one of his " signature" moves : hellhook at 3:21 of round 2. Getting back at the octagon after two injuries, Toquinho celebrates another victory but knows that there is room for improvement. " The most important thing is that I won but I can do much better " said the middleweight after the fight. Murilo Bustamante, leader of BTT and Eraldo Paes were at Toquinho's corner and were satisfied with the submission victory, after all that was Linhares first loss in 5 years. Another good night at UFC for BTT .

After an injury that forced him to stay out of training for months, BTT's powerhouse Rousimar " Toquinho " Palhares will be back to the octagon at UFC 107 this coming saturday. Toquinho will face Lúcio Linhares ( Alliance Black Belt ) in one of the great fights of the card. Palhares had a good training camp with Sérgio Babu, Eraldo Paes and Murilo Bustamante and is expecting a ground fight. " The fight might be more on the ground and I hope to be like this. We'll keep working hard, making big fights and winning. That's the expectation always", Palhares said.

Last weekend the Switzerland Jiu Jitsu Cup had its 5th edition and the tournament had over 200 participants , from England, Spain, France, Morocco beside Brazil and Switzerland. Anderson Pereira ,head coach of BTT Geneve,and actual No-Gi Word Champion organized the event. In the team dispute BTT Geneve took first place , followed by Frota Team of Zurich and Kimura/ Nova União of Switzerland .The event standout was Claudemir Tiko, brown belt at BTT Geneve. For more news about the event, check out www.bttandersonpereira.blogspot.com

We are proud to announce our new branch in the US : BTT Portland, Oregon. Located at Alive MMA Portland, the facility has 4.000 square ft ( 3000 square feet of mat space) and offers everything that one could need for a good training: plenty of space, sauna, showers and even a on-staff massage therapist. The head coach and instructor is Bill Bradley, bjj brown belt under World Grappling Champion Marcello Salazar Bergo ( BTT Texas). Bill continues to compete into his 40’s in BJJ, Submission Grappling and MMA and has a solid boxing background and a judo black belt ( Michigan State University). Alive MMA is hosting a grappling submission tournament saturday, december 12th. The gym is located at :

5607 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97206
(503) 740-3004
For more info about our new branch , please visit : www.alivemma.com

BTT Texas hosted a Gi and No- GI tournament last saturday, november 21st at its brand new gym. The tournament was a success and had athletes from a lot of academies : Marra Senki, Carlson Gracie, Relson Gracie, RP BJJ, Westside MMA, Ohana, Power House, Rangel MMA, Submission Concepts and others. Marcello Salazar, leader of BTT Texas was very happy with the performance of his athletes who work hard to get BTT Texas in first place.

BJJ flows well from Master Murilo, to BTT Long Beach's head instructor Marcelo Perdomo, to Kids Team coaches Franklin Quenga and John Orr, to the BTT Long Beach Kids Team. The Brazilian Top Team Long Beach Kids delivered 10 World Champions on 11/14/2009 at the 2nd Annual Kids and Teens World Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships in Riverside CA. The kids were absolutely incredible. The final tally was 10 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze medals(16 total competitors). They won 25 matches versus only 8 losses. I believe they took 2nd as a team (final tally not yet published). Gold medalists won bicycles -- maybe that extra motivation fueled their competitive juices to such success. The coaches Franklin Quenga & John Orr couldn't have been more proud, and the parents couldn't have been more supportive.

Samantha Lopp - Yellow Belt - Win by points.
Bryan Samayoa - Yellow Belt - Win by keylock, Win by points.
Jake Orr - White Belt - Win by armbar, Win by armbar.
Matthew Mendoza - White Belt - Win by rear naked choke, Win by points.
Edwin Samayoa - White Belt - Win by points, Win by points.
Misael Marquez - White Belt - Win by armbar, Win by keylock, Win by points.
Michael Morales - White Belt - Win by points, Win by points.
Andrew Morales - White Belt - Win by points.
Devyn Che - White Belt - Win by rear naked choke, Win by front choke.
Roland Ortega - White Belt - Win by rear naked choke, Win by points.

Bill Samayoa - Yellow Belt - Lose by points.
Andrew Guerra - White Belt - Win by rear naked choke, Win by points, Lose by armbar, Win by points.
Brett Galloway - White Belt - Lose by armbar, Win by points.

ALSO FOUGHT VALIANTLY:

Riley Quenga - Yellow Belt - Lose by armbar, Lose by points.
Bailey Lopp - Yellow Belt - Lose by ref decision, Lose by ref decision (no points scored in either fight by Bailey OR HIS OPPONENTS). Very tough subjective losses.

Last sunday the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) hosted the third edition of the World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Held at California State University in Long Beach, California, the high-profile tournament was a showcase of fights between the world's best no-gi practitioners. Brazilian Top Team sent several athletes to represent the team and had some champions : Dawson Daminelli ( Blue belt senior 1 light ) ; Gabriel Procopio da Fonseca ( Purple adult adult super heavy ) and Anderson Pereira ( Black belt master feather ). Bruno Amaral won the silver at the brown belt adult feather while Leonardo Fernandes managed to get the bronze at the same division and Paul Carrola got the bronze at purple master light weight class. Marcello Salazar head of BTT Texas competed as well and Murilo Bustamante and João Amaral were presents coaching the BTT athletes. Good job everyone !

Held last sunday at Tijuca Tenis Club in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The no gi brazilian championship had a lot of competitors, BTT had several athletes competing and all of them did well. In the end the team got 3 gold medals with Marco Antonio ( purple master ), Rodrigo Barbosa Vianna ( black master ) and Flavio Roberto Silva ( black senior 1 ). Ighor Luis Horta ( blue juvenile ), Wagner Gonçalves ( purple adult ) and Flavio Roberto Silva got the silver medal while Julio Cesar Donato ( brown adult ) , Eduardo Alves Portilho ( brown adult ) and Davi Lopes Viana ( brown adult ) managed to get the bronze. Ricardo Marques, head coach of BTT Juiz de Fora was present at the corner of BTT athletes. Congratulations everyone !

Our branch in Texas, Marcelo Sallazar has a new house, literally. BTT Texas launched its new and improved website ( www.btt-texas.com ) and at same time has a brand new gym , a 10000 sq ft facility that features over 2500 sq ft of mat, a full cage, full weight area, seperate striking area and a locker room with showers. Salazar is a bjj balck belt under Murilo Bustamante and has won various national and international titles in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, submission grappling and wrestling. He is also fighting MMA and his next fight will be next friday (10/30) in Cage Wars in Ft Myers FL .His record stands at 7 wins and only 1 loss, and avenged that loss in a rematch. BTT Texas is located at 5345 Glen Ridge Dr San Antonio, TX 78229 - phone (210) 248-9255 / brazilian.topteam.texas@gmail.com

The Freestyle Grappling Open returned for its third edition in Portland , Maine last weekend and BTT sent 6 athletes to represent the team. Andrew Mcniff ( blue belt feather) placed 3rd place GI and 2nd NO GI . After getting 3rd place GI , Dawson Daminelli ( blue belt light ) won the gold in NO GI. Weverson Cordeiro ( purple belt ) got 2nd place at his division. José Cláudio did good at white belt and Renan Borges (black belt) won gold at lightweight and placed 2nd at Absolute while Natália Azoff (blue belt ) won her division and the absolute getting the cash prize. Congratulations to everyone.

Held at the City College in Manhattan,NYC the second edition of the Pan NO GI has hundreds of athletes. BTT sent several athletes and all of them got medals. Dawson Daninelli ( Blue), Carlos " Peixe" Fernandes ( Blue) and Weverson Cordeiro ( Purple) managed to get the silver while Dalmon Silva ( Blue), Michael Zenga ( Purple) and Marcus Signorelli got bronze. BTT teacher Daniel Gazoni was present to coach and was happy with the overall result.

Word Championship Fighting returned to the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington/MA on saturday, september 28th to its 8th edition.The event had thousands of people attending incluinding a guest appearance made by youtube legend and Ultimate Fighter participant Kimbo Slice. Brazilian Top Team fighter Annis "El Hahhajy" faced Brent Reed ( American Top Team) on his birthday and his hard work has paid off, he won via hear naked choke at R2. Annis, Joấo Amaral's pupil has conquerend his second consecutive win at WCF and he has been tranining with coaches Daniel Gazoni and Jeff Burger since João's departure to California to teach and train with MUrilo Bustamante. Congratulations to Annis and for those who helped at his training.

The first European Jiu Jitsu Championship orgazined by CBJJE was held in Morges, Switzerland last weekend . Atheletes from BTT Geneva ( Anderson Pereira) and BTT England ( Zé Marcello and Xandinho Izidro) team up and did a great job dominating the juvenil category and coming in third place overall. Congrats to all !

Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares will not be disputing the under 88kg division at ADCC 2009. He is recovering from the fracture suffering while training to face Alessio Sakara during the month of May and the doctor has not yet release him to train hard. Leader of the team, Murilo Bustamante said : "He would show up improperly trained and would further run the risk of injuring himself again. That is why we decided he should not dispute the ADCC but Milton Vieira will be there representing BTT ". Miltinho will dispute the under 76.9 kg, one of the toughest with big names like Marcelo Garcia, Kron Gracie, Pablo Popovitch but our athlete is up to the challenge and it is training hard. The ADCC is the most prestigious submission tournament in the world and will take place on September 26th and 27th in Barcelona, Spain.

The American National Jiu-Jitsu Championship was held in Carson, California last weekend and BTT had over 50 athletes representing the team and they did really well : David Cho ,Angelo Lago ,Nick Gerasimou , Gerome Uy, Khunvanary Vong, Douglas Martinez, John J. Antognol, Joe Chavez, Sak Pidech, Gabriel Procopio, Jennifer Petterson, Carl Herman, John Oor, Brett Coolins, Tom Vandakan and Leonardo Saggioro all got medals. The overall result was excellent and BTT is getting back strong at Gi tournaments. Congratulations to all who competed and to Marcelo Perdomo and João Amaral for the coaching.

The Bitetti Combat event was held last saturday at Maracanazinho and had a lot of public and world class athletes. Milton Vieira represented Brazilian Top Team and fought against Luciano Azevedo. Milton dominated the first round but couldn't submit Azevedo. In the end the BTT athlete won by split decision. Congrats to him and those who helped during his training for the fight.

Last saturday our fighter Angelo Araujo (9-2) stepped into the cage at the MMA Vendetta held at the Renaissance Resort & Casino in Aruba. Facing Aaron Stark , Angelo won the first round but broke his hand in round 2. He managed to end the fight but his opponent won by decision. Best of luck to Angelo in his recover.

In order to provide uniformity and keep a high level of jiu jitsu at all btt schools, we had 5 of our senior black belts teaching seminars all over US las weekend. Head coach and co-founder Master Murilo Bustamante taught a seminar in Chicago while João Amaral went to Boston. Zé Marcelo came from Europe to teach in New Hampshire and Marcello Salazar hosted a seminar at his new gym in San Antonio , Texas and had Marcelo Perdomo ( BTT Long Beach) over to teach some techniques. Contact us if you want to host a seminar with one of our black belts at Brazilian Top Team

Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares (9-2) finally will face Alessio Sakara (14-7, 1 NC) at the Ultimate Fighter Season 10 finale , december 5th. Scheduled for UFC 101, the bout didn't happen due Palhares's injury during practice.

Without a doubt ,Prof. Marcelo Perdomo ( BTT Long Beach) has a very strong team in California. Here is the proof :

* At the 2009 Worlds Jiu Jitsu Championship which is the most prestigious BJJ tournament in the world and attract thousands of competitors , the blue belt Rogério Roma won his weight class and the absolute division.

* At Copa Pacífica 2009 which had 700 + competitors, the Adult Team managed to get the 2nd place overall.

* At the 2009 South Bay Open, one of the biggest tournaments of southern CA which had 600 + competitors, the Kids Team got the 1 st place overall and the Adults got the 4th place.

Keep it up the good work !

The BTT Florida did a great job at the NAGA US Open during 4th of July BJJ competition which happened in Orlando, Florida. Fourteen athletes won gold medals and many others won silver medals. BTT Florida is becoming nationwide known, thanks to its great competition team and and its very dedicated head instructor Edgar Dutra. Congratulations !

Called up to face Alessio Sakara at UFC 101, Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares suffered a serious training injury at BTT headquarters. According to information on the site In the Guard, the fighter fractured his tibia and was operated upon immediately, at a hospital near the team headquarters.
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Once again, NYC has been a good place for the Brazilian Top Team. After a successful overall performance at the 2008 Pan No Gi, the academy had some excellent results at the first edition of the NYC Open International 2009.
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The BTT team did great at the NYC Open BJJ, last weekend, in Manhattan. Five athletes conquered six gold medals, in important divisions of the dispute. Thayse Nascimento won the brown/black female adult open class as well as the featherweight division.
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Renan Borges BTT Black Belt 154.5 Lb Boston represented the State of Massachusetts very well in 15th of March 2009 At Massachusetts X Connecticut Challenge.
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