Abu Dhabi: UAE’s top jiu jitsu coach Jose Junior showed he believes in leading by example by winning the high-profile Brazilian National Championship, beating Max Gimenis in the finals of the blackbelt heavyweight.
The 31-year-old, en route to his finals, also got the better of Anderson Fereira in the semi-finals and Felipi Maghalhaes in the first round — all his victories coming by submission. This was Junior’s fifth Brazilian National Championship title. He had earlier won the National Championship in blue belt in 2002, 2003 and in 2006 in the brown belt category.
With this victory in Rio de Janeiro and following his earlier success at the Ecuador National Championship, he has elevated himself above compatriot Gabriel Arges at the top of the World Rankings.
“I’m so happy to be able to achieve my dream after practically giving up us a competitor when I decided to move to Abu Dhabi to teach jiu-jitsu to kids,” said a jubilant Junior, adding that his primary aim is to get back to competition after switching into the role of a coach in UAE was for the kids to see their coach in action.
“The kids respect their teacher when he is doing well but I must also say that I worked really, really, hard to achieve my objectives. I was thinking about winning the Brazilian National Championship in black belt every two seconds in my life. Now I have done it and I’m lost for words to describe my feelings,” added Junior, who now have 1,190 points, 90 more than Arges. Another Brazilian Alexandre Ribeiro is on third spot with 980 points.
“As I told earlier, the battle for the world No.1 will be decided on the final competition of the season [Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship in April] since both Gabriel and I are competing in two different weights. I guess our programmes are the same as we both intend to compete in every ranking tournament. The lead will depend on who drops points with just two months left of the season,” said Junior, whose next major challenge is in Abu Dhabi at the World Pro.
“The Abu Dhabi World Pro carries the highest 400 points and it has an absolute division where there is a chance Gabriel and I can cross paths again. I think the World No.1 title will be decided in the UAE capital.”
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