Braulio Estima takes ADCC Title

ADCC 2009 winner Braulio Estima talks with Tim Lord from CageFilm regarding his victory at the competition, potential future offers and his latest weekly teaching project.

Tim - So, Braulio Estima! How does it feel to be the ADCC 2009 87.9kg and also the ADCC Absolute champion!

Braulio - Its an unbelievable feeling you know… when you stop and think, you realise how prestigious the ADCC is and how prestigious it is when you win the ADCC, its such a big thing, and then when you win the Absolute, its another level!
And then to know that most of my fights were won by submitting the other fighters, I think I’m the only fighter to win the finals by submission, its very rewarding, I feel great! Feels like mission accomplished and for me it couldn’t be any better you know.

You know, I didn’t get any points scored against me, not even once.

I think the hard training paid off!

Tim - Wow! So no point scored against you for the whole competition?

Braulio - Yeah, I didn’t get any points scored on me.

Tim - That’s quite something, that says allot!

Braulio - Yeah, everything went to plan.

Tim - Id say! I don’t think you could get a better result that what you managed to get really!

Braulio - By far it was the best competition I’ve ever fought.

Tim - Yeah, that’s amazing. So, I was watching the fights, it looked like all the time, you were a step ahead of what your opponent was doing. Was that something you were aware of, trying to think ahead of what was happening at the time?

Braulio - Yes I have my game-plan against the most well known fighters you know, and I knew that I was ready on the top or on the bottom and to be a step ahead. My main game are both (top and bottom) So I thought ahead like if they did jump guard, I would adjust myself already you know to have good position. I’m very happy that I managed to control the competition for the whole time.

Tim - Yeah, that’s brilliant. With this series that we’ve been filming, you came up with the title ‘Invisible Jiu Jitsu’ and I’m looking at the teaching you’re doing and seeing that its always putting yourself mentally a step ahead of what could possibly happen as a result of what your currently doing – that really was evident in watching you fight this weekend in all of the fights. It just didn’t seem that anyone could actually do anything successfully against you.

Braulio - Yeah, it was a great feeling this way, I didn’t really feel like – I wouldn’t be able to control most of them, in all I managed to control the whole fight and this gave me a lot of confidence you know. I tried to put myself in a place where the other person couldn’t develop their game and I could develop mine so that was my main point in the whole fights.

Tim - well you did an amazing job

Braulio - Thanks

Tim - Not only winning your weight group and the Absolutes but I didn’t even realise you didn’t have any points scored against you the whole competition. That really is an achievement in itself, I don’t think there was any other fighter I saw that was in that position.

Braulio - It was good.

Tim - Yes. So what was the most challenging fight for you?

Braulio - I think against Andre Galvao, it was the hardest one, I think the most challenge for me because I have lost to him once, but I managed to control the fight, I managed to take him down, I managed to fight against him well on top, and then on the bottom I managed to submit him you know. He’s a guy that I never saw him tapped in a no-gi competition!

It was a very technical performance for me. It was the best fight for me in terms of challenge and technical presentation apart from the one against Marcelo Garcia where I controlled the whole fight.

Tim - Right. Having watched back the fight against Galvao, you did look like you were in control the whole time. You know, there was a couple of moments when he would be trying to secure your leg and even then straight away, you were back in control and moving on, already pressing on.

It seemed like your style was always pressing on, always moving, not sitting in one position but always putting the pressure on your opponent, is that a conscious part of your game plan to always be pressing forward?

Braulio - Yeah, yeah, I train allot like this, on the attack position, offensive position. That’s my best game you know. I really believe that if you always go for submission all the time, you’re always going for the main goal. I’m not playing for points, I play for submissions.

If you constantly attack you know, either from the top or from the bottom position.

Tim - Well it was an amazing weekend, and you did incredibly well, so congratulations again. What’s next for you now? What are you doing now?

Braulio - I’m just on the way to the airport now, I’m going to Brazil to visit my family for 2 weeks, then when I come back I have a couple of very busy months where I have seminars every weekend that were booked before ADCC!

In terms of competition, I’ve been training for competition for one whole year, so I’m going to have a break of 2 months then maybe I will fight in January for my next competition. I have a Pancrase offer to fight in January, I’m not sure if I’m gonna do that yet. A funny thing, the competition finish at 8.15 and when I got back to the hotel, I saw an email, at 8.32 from a very big MMA company that wants to contract me! Within just a few minutes of wining ADCC, people are already looking at other competition as ADCC is such a prestigious competition.

I’m so happy, I trained a lot my whole life you know, and have put my family name in the history of grappling. I’m so happy cos I came from nowhere in Brazil and now what I have got I am so happy. I’m very lucky that people push me all the time, I couldn’t get here without the people that help me.

So, I’m gonna have this break now and when I get back, I will think what I’m gonna do.

Tim - I hope you do get time to relax, you certainly earned it!

It certainly would be interesting to see if you did choose to go into MMA, to see how you would progress with that, that would be a very interesting one to watch!

Just on another note as we wrap up and let you enjoy your holiday, this teaching series you are now doing – the ‘Invisible Jiu Jitsu’ series – weekly downloads with CageFilm.com, what would be the main reason for people to choose that series, over other instruction that is available?

Braulio - Yeah, I think this will be something very interesting. Not only for students at any level, but for instructors as well. I have a very successful academy in Birmingham (England), I improve allot the way I teach, I’ve been teaching around the whole world very often, so I’ve got to know the difficulties people have to learn, and what they want to know, what they find hard to achieve, and how to practice their technique, how to think ahead of their technique, understanding what they are trying to do and the whole picture so… I have found a very good way of teaching and a very good way for people to absorb the technique in practise. A lot of ‘invisible’ jiu jitsu that people don’t see very often, you know, allot of what you don’t see in the fight when it’s going on. So I think you guys, will be surprised and getting to know BJJ much more with those little ‘secrets’ that will be showing in the whole technique.

Tim - Braulio, it’s certainly an interesting series so far and one that I’m sure will be of benefit to many people.
Braulio, thanks so much for your time, I really appreciate it, go and enjoy yourself in Brazil! Catch some more sun!

Braulio - I will come back black! (Laughs)

Tim - Well done mate, have a great time and look forward to your return!