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Robson Moura to compete at the 5th AZ Open

Gustavo — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:47:38 +0000

Gustavo Dantas, AZSBJJF Vice-President and Event Promoter. Photo: Eric Miller

Written by Kristina Barlaan, AZSBJJF head writer.

Article Featured on Graciemag.com

GD JIU-JITSU Events in association with the Arizona State Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (AZSBJJF) is proud to announce its 5^thinstallment of the Arizona Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open. Typically drawing mainly competitors from Arizona and its neighboring states, the AZSBJJF sent an open invitation to teams from other countries to compete and represent their homeland, transforming the AZ Open into an international event for the first time.

The tournament will feature an international black belt match between a seven-time World Champion from Brazil, GMA Robson Moura (Nova Uniao), and 2009’s national champion of Japan, Nobuhiko Kitahara (Axis JJ), who will be travelling from Tokyo to represent the Jiu-Jitsu Federation of Japan.

“The AZSBJJF’s partnership with the Jiu-Jitsu Federation of Japan (JJFJ) started in 2009, when I met its President, Taka Watanabe, at the 2^nd Rickson Gracie International. I was very impressed with their organization and their dedication to making Jiu-Jitsu a popular and organized sport in Japan”, says Gustavo Dantas, Vice-President of the AZSBJJF and promoter of all its events, who is expecting between 400 and 500 competitors on March 13^th and 14^th.

Wellington “Megaton” (referee), AZSBJJF founder and president, is a fixture at AZSBJJF events. Photo: AZSBJJF

The AZSBJJF was founded in September 2001 by the legendary Wellington “Megaton” Dias, a GMA and pioneer of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Arizona, the same year that GD Jiu-Jitsu Events began promoting tournaments in the valley.

“My first event had 45 competitors in an in-house tournament”, says Dantas. Megaton, recognizing Dantas’s efforts, invited him to become Vice-President of the Federation and helped boost the popularity of BJJ in Arizona. “The results have been very positive. At the 2009 AZ State Championship, we had 430 competitors. The tournament follows IBJJF Standards: Online registration, fences, mat coordinators, same-day weigh-in, GRACIEMAG magazines for competitors; the very same standard. So when competitors from Arizona go to the bigger tournaments, like the Pan or the Worlds, they know exactly what to expect.”

GRACIEMAG Vice-President Luca Atalla on location at AZSBJJF event. Photo: Eric Miller

The hard work is definitely paying off. Arizona has managed to produce many National and International Champions, with some of them representing Arizona by traveling to competitions around the world. The AZSBJJF has the support of 25 of the main schools in the state, listed on the federation website, plus teams from other states, which have been competing in the desert for the past few years.In appreciation for the support from the schools and teams responsible for aiding in the growth of BJJ in Arizona, the AZSBJJF started The Overall School Rankings in 2009. The points are based on the number of Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals each team wins at AZSBJJF tournaments during the year. The top three schools are awarded special recognition at the first tournament of the new year.

Also, the AZSBJJF will honor the MVP (Most Valuable Player) competitors of the Kids and Adult Divisions for their consistent and outstanding performances in competition. The AZSBJJF Awards Ceremony for the 2009 MVP Competitors of the Year and winners of the 2009 Overall School Rankings will be held during the 5^th AZ International Open of BJJ. Winners will receive trophies for their achievements and MVPs will receive a plaque and sponsorship for ALL AZSBJJF tournaments for the year of 2010.

Here are the winners:

Kids Division

1st place – Team Megaton (217 points)
2nd place - Lion’s Den (194 points)
3rd place – MMA Lab (193 points)

MVP of the Year – Joseph Davis (Team Megaton); Undefeated in 2009, won all 4 tournaments

Adult Division

1st place - Team GD Jiu-Jitsu (444 points)
2nd place - BJJ Revolution (241 points)
3rd place – Team Megaton (197 points)

MVP of the Year – Derling Gonzalez (Team GD Jiu-Jitsu); Undefeated in 2009, won total of 4 gold medals from all 3 tournaments

The 5th AZ International Open of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will take place on March 13-14, 2010 at Westwood High School located at 945 W. 8th St. in Mesa, AZ 85201.

GRACIEMAG will be covering the event. Competitors have a chance to win prizes such as a 32” LCD HDTV, Sony PSP, and Flip Video Recorder.

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition will offer Kids, Juvenile, Adult (Male and Female), Masters and Senior Divisions.

Register for the 5th AZ International Open

Aaron Simpson Featured at MMA Sports Magazine

Gustavo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:14:38 +0000

AZ Combat Sports Fighter, Aaron Simpson (6-0), was featured in this month’s issue of MMA Sports Magazine. Aaron Simpson will fighting at the UFC Fight Night 20 on January 11th, in Fairfax, Virginia. Check it out.

GD Featured in Gracie Mag

Gustavo — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:09:32 +0000

This months’ Gracie Mag Issue features an article about the 2009 AZ BJJ State Championsh and, the growth of Jiu-Jitsu in Arizona. Also, Gracie Mag mentioned GD’s win in Japan. To get your issue, please visit Gracie Mag Website

Extreme Fighter Magazine

Gustavo — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:06:21 +0000

Two AZ Combat Sports fighters were featured in this month’s edition of Extreme Fighter Magazine. Jacob McClintock (Gustavo’s Brown Belt), and Elena Reid are both undefeated in MMA Competitions. Jacob’s record is 5-0, and Elena is 3-0.

Check out GD Video Interview

AZ Combat Sports — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:52:32 +0000

MANY WEAPONS sits down with Founder of GD Jiu-jitsu and head Jiu-jitsu instructor at Arizona Combat Sports. Gustavo Dantas is a 3rd degree black belt from Andre Pederneiras (founder of Team Nova União). Gustavo has been producing world-class competitors since October 2000 in Tempe, Arizona.

Arizona leaving marks on MMA

AZ Combat Sports — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:31:17 +0000

by Odeen Domingo – Dec. 25, 2008 09:40 PM
The Arizona Republic

It was a banner year for the sport of mixed martial arts in Arizona.

The state passed a law to allow unified and less restrictive fighting rules at MMA events in hopes of attracting organizations such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship to hold economy-boosting shows here. In October and November, local organizations EVO MMA and Rage in the Cage each put on events that allowed the new fight rules. And Arizona-based fighters C.B. Dollaway, Efrain Escudero and Ryan Bader made national names for themselves in UFC’s reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.
For Arizona, MMA has arrived.

The most powerful man in all of MMA, UFC President Dana White, gave The Republic an exclusive phone interview a few days before UFC 92 – the organization’s year-end show that features three of the biggest matchups of the year, including a light heavyweight title bout – Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Question: Let’s talk about MMA and Arizona. C.B. Dollaway (former Arizona State wrestling standout who trains out of Arizona Combat Sports in Tempe) is fighting in the UFC 92 card. And with (Yuma native) Efrain Escudero and Ryan Bader (ASU, Arizona Combat Sports) winning The Ultimate Fighter, what do you think about Arizona’s MMA talent?

Answer: “I really believe in C.B. Dollaway. . . . He’s got a lot of potential to be a great fighter. The Lally brothers (trainers Todd and Trevor Lally of Arizona Combat Sports) have a camp down there and are pumping out a lot of good talent. The Southwest has always been a hotbed for MMA, and that includes Arizona. There’s been a lot of talent that has come out of there, and there will continue to be. It’s not bad that they’ve got ASU wrestling down there.”

Q: A program the school almost got rid of.

A: “Yeah, that would’ve sucked.”

Q: So where does Arizona stand in the MMA world? And will UFC hold an event here?

A: “Arizona is one of the top states. As this sport grows, there are camps opening all over the country. We’re all over now. We (the UFC) went to (expletive) Dublin, Ireland, this year. And we sold out in four days. The sport is growing all over the world. Arizona is no different. We’ll probably end up doing a Fight Night in Arizona soon. I’m hoping 2009.”

Q: What do you look for when you go into a market? This year, you’ve gone to Minneapolis and Atlanta for the first time and drew big gates.

A: “When we go into a market, we pull ratings we get on Spike TV and pay-per-view buys in the area. We see what the demo (demographic) is down there. That’s what we gauge and then decide where we want to go.”

Q: Where does Arizona rank there?

A: “It looks good. We’ll have a Fight Night there.”

Q: How was 2008 for the UFC?

A: “2008 was a kick-(expletive) year for us. We couldn’t be happier. We exceeded all of our goals. It was the year my partner Lorenzo Fertitta (a Las Vegas casino magnate who purchased the UFC in 2001 and spent millions to help push the organization into the mainstream) came back to be with us full time. And what we will accomplish in the last (eight) years is nothing compared to what we will accomplish the next nine years. We have big plans and big goals. It’s not like we’re guys saying, ‘Look at what we’ve done’ and pat ourselves on the back. We’re going to put our heads down and drive forward. Remember this conversation and remember that I told you this: In 10 years, we’re going to be the biggest sport in the world. Bigger than soccer. Bigger than football. Dancing. I don’t care what it is . . . badminton. We’re going to be the biggest sport in the world.”

AZ Combat Sports — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:20:38 +0000

Mixed Martial Arts Videos on Purefight

Arizona Combat Sports Interview with Trevor Lally

AZ Combat Sports — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:11:45 +0000

Mixed Martial Arts Videos on Purefight

WEC/TUF and UFN 14 part 2 CB Dollaway

AZ Combat Sports — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:09:01 +0000

“The Doberman” is the favorite in this season’s “The Ultimate Fighter,” and with good reason. The former All-America wrestler at Arizona State already has a perfect 6-0 record.

Site News: “TUF” cast member C.B. Dollaway joins MMAjunkie.com by MMAjunkie.com Staff [mmajunkie-staff] on Apr 03, 2008 at 9:57 am in – Site News – MMAjunkie.com is pleased to announce that C.B. “Doberman” Dollaway, an undefeated MMA middleweight and one of the most experienced fighters chosen for the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” has joined the site as a columnist to recap each episode of the reality series.

Dollaway (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a former All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, will pen a weekly column for MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) to discuss what it was like behind the scenes of each episode. His first column debuts later today.

“The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest” is the latest installment of the UFC’s groundbreaking reality series and features UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson and Forrest Griffin as coaches. Rather than the usual 16 cast members, producers chose 32 for this season. However, in order to make it into “The Ultimate Fighter” house and earn a spot on the cast, fighters had to first win a fight. Half of those preliminary fights, including Dollaway’s, aired during Wednesday’s debut.

“The format for this season was great,” said Dollaway. “They really brought some amazing competition, and I think this season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ will be one of the best so far. The fights this season will separate this season from the others. I saw some amazing bouts during the filming.” In addition to MMAjunkie.com’s usual weekly recaps, Dollaway will write his own column in which he talks about the stuff that doesn’t make it to air.

“I want to thank MMAjunkie.com — I am an MMA junkie — and Yahoo! Sports for allowing me a forum to share a lot of the behind-the-scenes footage that doesn’t make it to air,” Dollaway said. “I will break down the fights, tell you what we saw leading into each one, and how everyone reacted post-fight. I will talk about nicknames — and even how one name got painted on the ceiling of the house.”

Dollaway, who was born in Michigan and now resides in Arizona, is a former Ohio high school state champion, a junior college national champion, a two-time NCAA qualifier, and a 2005 collegiate All-American while at ASU. His transition into MMA has been a smooth one. With a wrestling and Muay Thai background, he’s posted five stoppages — four by way of knockout. During a 14-month career, the Arizona Combat Sports team member has faced solid competition in some of the sport’s top organizations. Victories over Hans Marrero (11-5), Joe Bunch (7-1) and George Hartman (3-2) have come in fight promotions such as HDNet Fights, the IFO, and Rage in the Cage. Dollaway made his MMA debut at a November 2006 Cage Fighting Federation show and earned a 17-second victory with a knockout via slam. Nearly 100,000 people have watched the knockout on YouTube.

During Wednesday’s debut of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest,” Dollaway earned a quick, firstround TKO of David Baggett (4-2). The performance was lauded by UFC president Dana White and both coaches. Dollaway has already emerged as an early favorite to go far in the competition, but he says the show was full of top prospects. “Spike TV and the UFC treated all of us fighters great, and that made us really want to win the show,” Dollaway said. “Fans will definitely not question the abilities of the fighters. There will be several stars from this season. Some of the performances of my castmates made me a fan of theirs right away. Expect a hundred times the action as any previous season.

“Tune into my weekly blog and let the Doberman take you on a ‘TUF 7′ journey.” In addition to Dollaway, MMA junkie.com will reveal a second “TUF” cast member/columnist next week after his first fight on the show airs. The two cast members are on separate teams and will write about their respective squads.

WEC's Aaron Simpson latest Arizona Combat Sports fighter to impress

AZ Combat Sports — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:51:29 +0000

It’s possible that you might not yet know the name Aaron Simpson (4-0 MMA, 1-0 WEC).

But if the former Arizona State University wrestling coach continues to put on performances like his 18-second knockout win at “WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown,” you soon will.

: Aaron Simpson

The Arizona Combat Sports fighter was a recent guest of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), and discussed what has made him and his teammates so successful in their transitions from wrestling to MMA.

“We don’t get ahead of ourselves,” Simpson said. “Nothing overly fancy. You don’t see any flying elbows or anything, which is good for me. I’m basically new to it.

“I have a little over a year of training. So I basically have a three-punch combo, and that’s about it. Or a one-punch combo if you want to put it at that.”

That one-punch combo was all it took to dispatch of David Avellan. The crushing blow was impressive enough to earn a spot on the recent WEC 36 Versus broadcast. Surprising to most, it wasn’t enough to earn the middleweight a “Knockout of the Night” bonus.

“I was a little surprised,” Simpson said. “I thought for sure I would have had that. But Mike Brown had a pretty nice punch there, himself — and then finished a phenomenal fighter there in Urijah (Faber). You got to give him something, and it was nice for him to get that.

“But yeah, I thought for sure I had [the bonus]. I don’t know what the criteria is for ‘Knockout of the Night’ if that doesn’t get it. But they gave me a little love after, I guess. So it’s cool.”

It’s hard to be disappointed with a quick win in your first trip to a major organization. But with the postponement of WEC 36 from its original date in September due to Hurrican Ike, two extra months of training with C.B. Dollaway and Ryan Bader left Simpson hoping to push himself for more then 18 seconds.

“I was happy to get it over with,” Simpson said. “But you always want a test. And I trained hard. I took the fight on two weeks’ notice back in September. Then we had the hurricanes coming through. I was really able to set a goal a couple months out and work toward that goal, which I always like to do. I prepare for one opponent. So I trained hard.

“I was in phenomenal conditioning. I equate it to what I was at when I was competing at the Olympic trials. I really felt that type of conditioning, so it would have been nice to have a little bit of a test for myself, to see where I am.

“It was only my fourth fight. I needed that. My first three fights weren’t much of a test. I needed someone to get in there and scrap with me. But fortunately, and unfortunately, it didn’t go that long.”

Simpson’s next test will be determining his immediate future. With Zuffa LLC announcing the merger of the WEC’s 185-pound and 205-pound divisions into the UFC, Simpson is unsure where he stands with the organization.

“We’re in negotiations right now,” Simpson said. “We’re talking about going to 170 (pounds) because they’re putting the 185 and 205 (pound divisions) in the UFC. It could be a hell of a cut for me to get to 170.

“I feel like I’m real strong at 185 (pounds). I’m about 195 (pounds) right now, so it’s not a bad cut or anything. I could probably get up to 200 and drop 15 pounds. But when I train hard, I don’t have a whole lot of body fat on me. So it might be hell. Plus I feel that with my athleticism and quickness that I can pick things up quickly and out-move people.”

Regardless of where he ends up, Simpson vows to continue to develop his full MMA arsenal rather than rely solely on his amateur-wrestling background.

“There are wrestlers out there that aren’t necessarily the better athletes, and I think you have to be an athlete in this sport to be well-rounded,” Simpson said. “If you just come straight forward, you get knocked out or submitted doing that.”

This story, written by John Morgan, was produced by TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com) specially for MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). The show — which is hosted by fighter/broadcaster Frank Trigg, Gorgeous George and ace producer Goze — books some of the biggest names in MMA. Download all the former episodes at www.taggradio.com, or tune into TAGG Radio’s live shows Monday-Friday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.