Nova União has not been shy about sharing their goal with the Jiu-Jitsu community: to win the World Championships once again. And the year 2012 has proven a good start in that direction for the traditional team. “We have just won the Phoenix and Dallas International Open for the second year in a row, and we’ve just won the adult division at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals in Rio de Janeiro; we’re coming strong for the Worlds this year”, reveals Gustavo Dantas, the leader of Nova União in the United States.

Gustavo Dantas with Nova União’s first-place trophy at Phoenix Open 2012 / Publicity photo

Nova União is preparing the team for the 2012 Worlds with two main training camps, in Arizona and Texas. “We understand that this is a big challenge, but we’re going for it,” said Dantas. “We have good talent in the juvenile, female and male divisions coming in from Brazil, plus many standouts from the United States.”

The team standouts include black belt Marcelino Freitas, who will be flying over from the Land Down Under, Australia, to further bolster the heavily stacked featherweight division. The standouts making the trip from Brazil are young talents who come from very humble backgrounds. With the help of the veteran competitor and leader of Nova União Bangu Bruno Bastos and his black belt Fabio Andrade, who organized funding for the competitors from Brazil to travel, the future frontline of Nova União was given the opportunity to fly to the US to pursue their dreams of becoming world champions.

“Bruno has a big heart and does an amazing job with these kids; he literally takes it out of his pocket to support them,” Dantas explained. “Marcio Andre, who won the blue light feather division last year and just won the Brazilian Nationals last weekend will be returning to the fold, but not to defend his title, as this time around he’ll compete at purple belt. Other competitors like Isaque Bahiense and Paulo Silva, who also won the Brazilian Nationals, and Yuri Santos, who recently won at the Phoenix and Dallas Opens, are just a few of the competitors who have benefited from the fundraising programs organized by NU Brazil and NU USA. They come from very humble families, and live in neighborhoods where drugs, crime, and violence are rife. Without Jiu-Jitsu, it is possible that these young men would never leave the state, let alone the country. We help raise money and Bruno opens his arms and home to them because we truly believe in their potential and they deserve to have these kinds of opportunities.”

Team Nova União took first in the overall team contest in the adult male and beginners divisions at last weekend’s Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship. For the complete results, click here.

Beginners:

1 – Nova União – 23
2 – Alliance – 16
3 – Gracie Humaita – 13

 Adult Men:

1 – Nova União – 78
2 – Alliance – 69
3 – CheckMat – 43

Josh Guerra

1^st World Jiu-jitsu Expo took place at the Long Beach Convention Center on May 12^th. The expo was a great event for the Jiu-Jitsu Community, and I am looking forward the expo to grow a lot in the next few years. Free seminars, Jiu-jitsu vendors, and the Long Beach Spring Open sponsored by IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation).

Nova Uniao AZ had 12 competitors in action, which brought back 13 Medals to AZ! Here are our results:

Gold
Sarah Black – Blue Belt/female/Middle
Josh Guerra – Blue Belt/Juvenile/Open Class & Super Heavy
Jennifer Bann – White Belt/female/Light Feather
Sebastian Jank – Grey/Yellow/Junior 1

Silver
Jon Wagner – Brown belt/Super Heavy/Adult
Kristina Barlaan – Purple Belt/Feather/Female
David Larson – Blue Belt/Heavy/Adult
Matt Grier – White Belt/Light Feather/Adult

   

Kristina Barlaan (2nd place)

Bronze
Daniel Hampton – Purple Belt/Medium Heavy/Adult
Arnold Monterroso – Blue Belt/Light feather and Open class/Adult
Roderic Goatson – White Belt/Middle/Adult

Check out the fill results at http://www.ibjjf.org 

Next stop 2012 World Championship!!!

The 2012 AZ BJJ State Championship will take place on June 23rd & 24th at the Marcos de Niza High School, located at 6000 South Lakeshore Drive Tempe, AZ 85283

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

IMPORTANT: Registration will be closed for the Kids division after 280 competitors. Registration for Juveniles, Adults, Masters, seniors, and Women will be closed after 500 competitors.

GD Jiu-Jitsu Events will be offering FREE tournament T-Shirts to ALL competitors!

SPECTATOR FEES: Saturday $10, Sunday $10

Each competitor must fill out the registration form online. The Pre-registration fee is $70 for the adults and juveniles (16-17 yrs) or and $60 for the kids division until Monday, June 11th. After this date, $80 for adults and juveniles and, $70 for the kids.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW FOR 2012 AZ BJJ STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

All registrations must be received by Monday, June 18th by 11:59 pm. No registrations after this date. Registration fees are non-refundable. No exceptions.

The brackets will be released before the tournament. On Friday, June 22nd, the brackets will be available online at our website.

Adults Division – The tournament is single elimination. Medals will be awarded to the 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place of each division. Athletes will not compete for the third place. Two bronze medals will be given

Kids Division – Every competitor will receive a 3 1/2″ medal. This is a single elimination tournament, but if the child loses in the semi-final, they will compete again. Top 4 are guaranteed in the podium.

The top 5 schools in the adult and kids division will receive team trophies.

If you have any questions on this tournament please email 2012azstate@registrationsupport.net or call toll free 855-490-8880.

This Saturday, April 28, the IBJJF 2012 Phoenix International Open took place at Phoenix College in the American state of Arizona. For the second year in a row, team Nova Uniao took top spot in the overall team results. The troop was led by NU USA leader Gustavo Dantas with the help of NU Texas leader Bruno Bastos: “Finding a reason to celebrate isn’t hard work — hard work is a reason to celebrate.”

Ultraheavyweight black belt champion Bruno Bastos / Publicity photo

Bruno Bastos won the ultra heavyweight division of the adult black belt contest and took third in the open class “It’s an honor to have Bruno competing in Arizona, I tell all my students, I think he is the most experienced black belt from NU, he has been competing nonstop for twenty years.” said Dantas about his counterpart. In the purple belt division, the featherweight Christian Broadnax, middleweight and absolute runner-up Issa Able and medium heavyweight Daniel Hampton dominated their divisions against some stern competition: “There were a lot of good out-of-state competitors, and with the Arizona Jiu-Jitsu community growing strong, the Phoenix Open will grow a lot in the next few years.”

NOVA UNIAO WILL BE BACK IN ACTION AT THE DALLAS OPEN AND LONG BEACH SPRING OPEN.

Nova Uniao restarted their mission of again winning a World Championship title a few years back, and this year of 2012 they are planning on bringing a strong team: “Winning the Worlds, it’s a big challenge, but we are realistic and we will get there at some point. We are setting the goal of getting on the podium, but I would not be surprise if we accomplish our main goal sooner,” asserted Dantas.

Overall team standing:

1 – Nova União – 273
2 – Gracie Barra – 182
3 – BJJ Revolution Team – 117

For complete results from Phoenix Open 2012, click here.

The IBJJF 2012 Phoenix International Open took place on April 28th at the Phoenix College. For the second year in a row, team Nova Uniao took first place at the team results with ninety points ahead of the second place team. The tournament had a lot of good competition, a lot of out of State schools with world class competitors. Special thanks to all coaches and assistant coaches of team Nova Uniao Arizona: Gustavo Dantas, Steve Rosenberg, Paul Nava, Chris Lopez, Steve Judson, Michael Westbrook, Morris Williams and Jon Wagner. We had a lot of good performances, but a few competitors stood out:

Issa Able won the middle weight adult/purple belt and took second at the open , which he was winning by 5 x 0 when he got DQ’d for reaping the knee.

Daniel Hampton won the medium heavy adult/purple with a great performance against a very tough competition. Good job Judson.

Daniel Hampton

Christian Broadnax won a very competitive purple/feather/adult showing a lot of improvement on his game.

Christian Broadnax

 Jimmy Watson showed A LOT of improvement winning the middle weight and Closed out the Open class with Sione Manako who also won his division, the Blue/Masters/Ultra Heavy.

Jimmy Watson

Full results here

The next tournament that our team will be competing will be the IBJJF Long Beach Spring International Open on May 12th in Long Beach, California. Full info at www.ibjjf.org  This tournament will be take place during the first World Jiu-Jitsu Expo at the Long Beach convention center. If you are interest in competing, please let me know.

Gustavo

DATE: April 28th 2012.

ADDRESS: Phoenix College – North Gym
1202 W.Thomas Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85013

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 20/Apr/2012

LAST DAY TO EDIT REGISTRATION: 25/Apr/2012

PRICES:
$82.00 by 6/Apr/2012
$97.00 by 20/Apr/2012

Athletes affiliation and Academy registration deadline: 16/Apr/2012

All brown and black belt athletes must be properly affiliated for the current year.
All academies must be registered in order for its students to register in the competition

Full info at http://www.ibjjf.org

Today was the last day of team Nova Uniao Arizona at the IBJJF 2012 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Fernando Armenta and Jon Kessler had a great day winning the brown belt/master light and middle weight divisions. Josh Guerra took silver at the Blue/Juvenile/Super Heavy. Our Arizona team racked up 15 medals, and helped team Nova Uniao to take third place at the Novice division. Full Nova Uniao standouts will be available tomorrow at novauniao.com. Stay tuned!

Kristina Barlaan

Photo by John Cooper

The Nova Uniao AZ standout of the day was Kristina Barlaan, who took second place at the purple belt/feather weight. Kristina won her first three matches by submission, and lost her final match in a very close match. Good Job Kristina! Brian Wade took 3rd at the Senior 1/Blue/Rooster.

Brian Wade

Daniel Rodriguez

Photo by: John Cooper (ibjjf)

The largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament in the world is taking place in Irvine, California from March 29th to April 1st at the University California Irvine. The 2012 Pan JJ Championship is gathering over 3000 competitors in four days. With representatives from GDJJ, Nava BJJ and Lopez JJ, Nova Uniao AZ had a great first day. At the Adult Blue Belt Division, Alex Centner got double silver at the Ultra Heavy and the Open Class. Josh Rodriguez, John Owning and David Larson, took third at the feather, medium-heavy and the heavy weight division.

John Owning

In the adult white belt, Daniel Rodriguez won the rooster weight. Brandon Sees took silver at the heavy weight, and Jose Contreras and Thomas Keenan took third place at the feather and middle weight. Also in the white belt, Charles Bann won the Light/Senior 1. More results tomorrow.

Charles Bann

Nava BJJ representing!

Thales Leites, Gustavo Dantas & Paul Schmidt

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DPR Realty
602-690-0063
azlandandhomes@aol.com
www.1azhomesearch.com