Marcio Interview after Abu Dhabi 2001
Marcio Feitosa – the Golden Boy of Abu Dhabi 2001
Submitted by: Carl Fisher (www.ADCombat.com)
www.Gracie-Barra.co.uk
Marcio, an excellent turnout this afternoon; have you enjoyed the seminar?
Yes it was really great and now I can see how ju jitsu is growing in the UK and in Europe; I can see that a lot of people are hungry for jiu-jitsu yet they do not have enough academies to train and satisfy that hunger.
What do you think of the level in the UK?
The level is good but jiu-jitsu should have arrived here a lot earlier (laughs) as I believe you guys have been training here for about four years, so you have a lot of catching up to do.
When did you begin jiu-jitsu, Marcio?
I started when I was about ten years old and now I am twenty-five and I lived just across the street from the Gracie Barra Academy.
What was it like growing up in front of such a famous academy?
One of my school friends started to train at the academy and he asked me to come along and train and after the first class I realised how much I liked jiu-jitsu and soon after that I began to train seriously.
Who was your first instructor Marcio?
When I started at the academy the children’s teacher was Jose Beleza and Carlos taught the adults; when I was fourteen I began to train with the adults and helped teach the children’s class and when I was a blue belt I helped out at the classes and when I reached purple belt I started to give private lessons. After reaching black belt, Carlos Gracie approached me and after a while I became the head instructor.
How long have you been head instructor?
Roughly four years, maybe five.
Going back to the ADCC tournament this year, who was your toughest opponent?
I think it was Matt Serra in the finals, which was a difficult fight for sure; he is really aggressive and of course is taught by Renzo Gracie, who is very technical. All Renzo’s students fight hard and look for submissions and this is how Matt lost against me as he was pushing the attack and tried to pull me to the guard to attack and was penalised.
After witnessing Vasconcelos throw Uno, where you a little scared when you went out to face him?
Not scared, but a little apprehensive, because in Brazil it is hard to train in stand up and Fernando had been training a lot of wrestling in the US and I knew that, but I did my game and played hard and took him down; I knew he had trained hard, but I had more competition experience than him.
Which fights did you enjoy?
Arona against Cachorrao and Jean Jacques and Arona are the ones I enjoyed the most.
Jon Olav Einemo did very well this year, taking out some big names at the tournament?
Yes, he did very well but I did not see all his fights; you know why I didn’t see a lot fights, let me tell you. Rolles Gracie hurt his foot after his fight and he said to me ‘lets go the hospital and mend my foot then we can come back and we have a driver to take us to the hospital, no problem’. We arrived there and the guy dropped us off at the hospital and left us there, without waiting and we had to get back for six in the evening and we began to wait until we got the foot looked at and we said to ourselves we are finished, we’ll never get back in time (laughs). When his foot was mended, we waited for a taxi and asked him to take us to the health and fitness club and he said of course and the guy drove a long way and arrived at the wrong club (laughs) and we told him again and he said he knew the way and he took us to another club and that was wrong, so we told him to drive us to the hospital and there was a guy from ADCC driving an ambulance and we explained our situation and he said to the driver ‘you don’t know where the health and fitness club is?’ and he said no, and the driver said ‘where the horses jump!’ (Laughs a lot) and the driver said ‘aah yes’ and drove us straight there; what an experience man, and I missed a lot of fights because of this.
I also believe you almost missed your own fights due to oversleeping?
(laughs) Yes that’s right; I was with Rolles and we went down to the lobby of the hotel and no one was there and the guy behind the desk said that everybody had left a while ago and we had no one to take us to the tournament. (John Donnelly cuts in and comments ‘from now on Marcio is known as ‘the sleeper’ because that is all the guy does; when I get up for work he’s asleep and the same when I get back from work, asleep).
Who did you train with in preparation for ADCC 2001?
The problem is that I teach a lot and I cannot train as much as I can and most times the preparation is with my students; I train a lot with my purple belts and the blue belts, but when there is big tournament I train with Nino, Soca, Draculinho, Roger, Roleta and a lot of other good guys at the academy, black belts and brown belts who just train at the academy you know.
It is a well known fact that you are impossible to takedown and sweep; what is your secret?
It is hard because I am really skinny and when I was younger I was just skin you know (laughs). All the skinny guys would like to put you in the guard, but when I was young Carlinhos told me ‘if you just run away from the stand up fighting, no one will respect you, because it’s easy to be skinny and stay on top of the flexible guard, its better to stay on top of the guy and be aggressive and give them trouble and I tried to do this in training, to get on top and make the guy afraid of me, then my game was more on top than on the bottom, because of this. In 2000, you took silver in Abu Dhabi and this year you came back and took the gold; how did you feel at the winner’s podium? It was really really nice because Abu Dhabi is the best tournament in organisation, in awards and in recognition as well; in Brazil we fight really hard tournaments but only a few people know, yet when you fight out of Brazil everyone knows and after Abu Dhabi I am doing many seminars and fights all over the world.
Vanderlei Silva; is he as tough out of the ring as he is inside the ring?
I know the guy but not personally as he lives on the other side of Brazil to me.
Would you like to fight in shows like Pride?
Yes I would, but I think they don’t invest as much in the lightweight division, as a lightweight fight is beautiful to watch; there are a lot of lightweight fighters but they are not fighting Vale Tudo anymore, you don’t see Ralph Gracie, Jean Jacques, Royler and Ryan these guys anymore, they should respect the lightweight fighters more; the UFC is on the right track with guys like BJ Penn on the circuit so let’s see.
What is Carlos Gracie like as an instructor and person?
This is what makes me mad, as a lot of people do not know that he is the teacher of Rigan and all the Machados, Ralph, Renzo, Ryan, Nino, Roleta, Soca, my teacher and he is the head of Gracie Barra and nobody knows him you know, because he is a guy who is discreet and does not take the limelight. Now more people are hearing of him as all the world see the academy having a lot of good teachers and they want him to do tapes and seminars and open schools and things.
You also took the top spot in the Mundials?
Yes and I have a record in the event; I scored 47 points in one fight and is the record and was not the finals fight and when I entered the finals the guy had hurt his shoulder so I had no final fight.
Is this your first time in the UK?
Yes and I will be back again next year; John Donnelly is my new manager and will make the devastation tour next year (laughs) ; seriously Carlos wanted me to do this kind of thing and to teach in as many places as possible, as he wants to show the method that is taught at the Academy, as we have a method to teach and we want everyone to see this; you will see many good fighters at the academy and this is down to his style of teaching, which is simple and technical, but deadly.
Devoting your life to jiu-jitsu as you have done, you must have made many sacrifices?
Yes I did a lot; the first beer I had when I was eighteen years, can you believe it (laughs)?
But not the women though?
Women sometimes, because I don’t believe in having sex before a fight, as the best thing before a competition is to have a good night’s sleep and if you sleep well you fight well; if you don’t have sex you get all excited and don’t sleep well you know. If you go out to the clubs and look for girls before a fight that’s bad, but if you have a girlfriend and you are at home, then it’s not so bad and you will fight better. I sacrificed a lot of good parties and I had to train and miss holidays when everybody else would go and I had to train for fights.
Have you any goals left Marcio?
I still want to compete as I really love jiu-jitsu and find it the best thing to do with your life and I know it will grow all over the world, not because it’s used in Vale Tudo and that kind of thing, it’s because it’s fun to practice and everybody can do it and when someone has been training jiu-jitsu for three months it’s hard not to stop, they are hooked for life.
Final words from Marcio Feitosa?
If you don’t practice jiu-jitsu, go to an academy and have a go, you will love it; I am a hundred per cent certain that you will enjoy it, even if you are the kind of guy who does not like martial arts. I also want to talk about the Gracie Camp, as many people want to come and train at the academy and can’t find the best place to stay and have no friends that kind of thing, so we made a camp and give them everything when they get there; we pick them up at the airport and give them private lessons and take them to the malls and the beach and the tourist places, parties everything man. I also want to thank Mauricao, John Donnelly and Ray Stevens at the Budokwai and Rob Lock here in Stourbridge and yourself for interviewing me.
www.Gracie-Barra.co.uk
Marcio, an excellent turnout this afternoon; have you enjoyed the seminar?
Yes it was really great and now I can see how ju jitsu is growing in the UK and in Europe; I can see that a lot of people are hungry for jiu-jitsu yet they do not have enough academies to train and satisfy that hunger.
What do you think of the level in the UK?
The level is good but jiu-jitsu should have arrived here a lot earlier (laughs) as I believe you guys have been training here for about four years, so you have a lot of catching up to do.
When did you begin jiu-jitsu, Marcio?
I started when I was about ten years old and now I am twenty-five and I lived just across the street from the Gracie Barra Academy.
What was it like growing up in front of such a famous academy?
One of my school friends started to train at the academy and he asked me to come along and train and after the first class I realised how much I liked jiu-jitsu and soon after that I began to train seriously.
Who was your first instructor Marcio?
When I started at the academy the children’s teacher was Jose Beleza and Carlos taught the adults; when I was fourteen I began to train with the adults and helped teach the children’s class and when I was a blue belt I helped out at the classes and when I reached purple belt I started to give private lessons. After reaching black belt, Carlos Gracie approached me and after a while I became the head instructor.
How long have you been head instructor?
Roughly four years, maybe five.
Going back to the ADCC tournament this year, who was your toughest opponent?
I think it was Matt Serra in the finals, which was a difficult fight for sure; he is really aggressive and of course is taught by Renzo Gracie, who is very technical. All Renzo’s students fight hard and look for submissions and this is how Matt lost against me as he was pushing the attack and tried to pull me to the guard to attack and was penalised.
After witnessing Vasconcelos throw Uno, where you a little scared when you went out to face him?
Not scared, but a little apprehensive, because in Brazil it is hard to train in stand up and Fernando had been training a lot of wrestling in the US and I knew that, but I did my game and played hard and took him down; I knew he had trained hard, but I had more competition experience than him.
Which fights did you enjoy?
Arona against Cachorrao and Jean Jacques and Arona are the ones I enjoyed the most.
Jon Olav Einemo did very well this year, taking out some big names at the tournament?
Yes, he did very well but I did not see all his fights; you know why I didn’t see a lot fights, let me tell you. Rolles Gracie hurt his foot after his fight and he said to me ‘lets go the hospital and mend my foot then we can come back and we have a driver to take us to the hospital, no problem’. We arrived there and the guy dropped us off at the hospital and left us there, without waiting and we had to get back for six in the evening and we began to wait until we got the foot looked at and we said to ourselves we are finished, we’ll never get back in time (laughs). When his foot was mended, we waited for a taxi and asked him to take us to the health and fitness club and he said of course and the guy drove a long way and arrived at the wrong club (laughs) and we told him again and he said he knew the way and he took us to another club and that was wrong, so we told him to drive us to the hospital and there was a guy from ADCC driving an ambulance and we explained our situation and he said to the driver ‘you don’t know where the health and fitness club is?’ and he said no, and the driver said ‘where the horses jump!’ (Laughs a lot) and the driver said ‘aah yes’ and drove us straight there; what an experience man, and I missed a lot of fights because of this.
I also believe you almost missed your own fights due to oversleeping?
(laughs) Yes that’s right; I was with Rolles and we went down to the lobby of the hotel and no one was there and the guy behind the desk said that everybody had left a while ago and we had no one to take us to the tournament. (John Donnelly cuts in and comments ‘from now on Marcio is known as ‘the sleeper’ because that is all the guy does; when I get up for work he’s asleep and the same when I get back from work, asleep).
Who did you train with in preparation for ADCC 2001?
The problem is that I teach a lot and I cannot train as much as I can and most times the preparation is with my students; I train a lot with my purple belts and the blue belts, but when there is big tournament I train with Nino, Soca, Draculinho, Roger, Roleta and a lot of other good guys at the academy, black belts and brown belts who just train at the academy you know.
It is a well known fact that you are impossible to takedown and sweep; what is your secret?
It is hard because I am really skinny and when I was younger I was just skin you know (laughs). All the skinny guys would like to put you in the guard, but when I was young Carlinhos told me ‘if you just run away from the stand up fighting, no one will respect you, because it’s easy to be skinny and stay on top of the flexible guard, its better to stay on top of the guy and be aggressive and give them trouble and I tried to do this in training, to get on top and make the guy afraid of me, then my game was more on top than on the bottom, because of this. In 2000, you took silver in Abu Dhabi and this year you came back and took the gold; how did you feel at the winner’s podium? It was really really nice because Abu Dhabi is the best tournament in organisation, in awards and in recognition as well; in Brazil we fight really hard tournaments but only a few people know, yet when you fight out of Brazil everyone knows and after Abu Dhabi I am doing many seminars and fights all over the world.
Vanderlei Silva; is he as tough out of the ring as he is inside the ring?
I know the guy but not personally as he lives on the other side of Brazil to me.
Would you like to fight in shows like Pride?
Yes I would, but I think they don’t invest as much in the lightweight division, as a lightweight fight is beautiful to watch; there are a lot of lightweight fighters but they are not fighting Vale Tudo anymore, you don’t see Ralph Gracie, Jean Jacques, Royler and Ryan these guys anymore, they should respect the lightweight fighters more; the UFC is on the right track with guys like BJ Penn on the circuit so let’s see.
What is Carlos Gracie like as an instructor and person?
This is what makes me mad, as a lot of people do not know that he is the teacher of Rigan and all the Machados, Ralph, Renzo, Ryan, Nino, Roleta, Soca, my teacher and he is the head of Gracie Barra and nobody knows him you know, because he is a guy who is discreet and does not take the limelight. Now more people are hearing of him as all the world see the academy having a lot of good teachers and they want him to do tapes and seminars and open schools and things.
You also took the top spot in the Mundials?
Yes and I have a record in the event; I scored 47 points in one fight and is the record and was not the finals fight and when I entered the finals the guy had hurt his shoulder so I had no final fight.
Is this your first time in the UK?
Yes and I will be back again next year; John Donnelly is my new manager and will make the devastation tour next year (laughs) ; seriously Carlos wanted me to do this kind of thing and to teach in as many places as possible, as he wants to show the method that is taught at the Academy, as we have a method to teach and we want everyone to see this; you will see many good fighters at the academy and this is down to his style of teaching, which is simple and technical, but deadly.
Devoting your life to jiu-jitsu as you have done, you must have made many sacrifices?
Yes I did a lot; the first beer I had when I was eighteen years, can you believe it (laughs)?
But not the women though?
Women sometimes, because I don’t believe in having sex before a fight, as the best thing before a competition is to have a good night’s sleep and if you sleep well you fight well; if you don’t have sex you get all excited and don’t sleep well you know. If you go out to the clubs and look for girls before a fight that’s bad, but if you have a girlfriend and you are at home, then it’s not so bad and you will fight better. I sacrificed a lot of good parties and I had to train and miss holidays when everybody else would go and I had to train for fights.
Have you any goals left Marcio?
I still want to compete as I really love jiu-jitsu and find it the best thing to do with your life and I know it will grow all over the world, not because it’s used in Vale Tudo and that kind of thing, it’s because it’s fun to practice and everybody can do it and when someone has been training jiu-jitsu for three months it’s hard not to stop, they are hooked for life.
Final words from Marcio Feitosa?
If you don’t practice jiu-jitsu, go to an academy and have a go, you will love it; I am a hundred per cent certain that you will enjoy it, even if you are the kind of guy who does not like martial arts. I also want to talk about the Gracie Camp, as many people want to come and train at the academy and can’t find the best place to stay and have no friends that kind of thing, so we made a camp and give them everything when they get there; we pick them up at the airport and give them private lessons and take them to the malls and the beach and the tourist places, parties everything man. I also want to thank Mauricao, John Donnelly and Ray Stevens at the Budokwai and Rob Lock here in Stourbridge and yourself for interviewing me.
