Juvenile, Adult, Master and Feminine... Commanded by Leozinho Vieira, Brasa’s team ran over the other’s team at the Jiu-Jitsu European and got whatever they could, from white to black belt, and left as the best team of the competition. On an exclusive interview for TATAME, the black belt Leozinho Vieira spoke about the success at the competition and the expectation for 2008 at the sport inside the tatami and the changes on the federations. Check below the complete interview.
How was the victory from Brasa’s team at the European?
That was great, because we went with the people from outside, from Sweden, Denmark, England, Italy, everybody from all parts of Europe. We had more athletes and won everything. Michael at whit belt, won the juvenile with only one athlete, the Sweden boy, Pascal Ramsby, champion at weight and absolute, won the feminine, master... That was the first time at history that the same team got all prizes, at all categories.
Which are the plans for the team at 2008? Brasas’s focus already is Jiu-Jitsu?
We have subdivisions and each one has their goal. We has the focus at MMA, Submission and Jiu-Jitsu, so the fighter can get interested at one of those and we, teachers, focus at this or that competition. We have activities at whole year at gym and athletes getting prepared to fight everything. We’re here to win everything.
Which athlete from Brasa o you believe that’ll rise now?
Man, I believe that this thing of rising if the media that does. We have good athletes that sometimes doesn’t appear because the media emphasizes only one. An example was at the World Championship, at the middleweight category, when Lucas Leite was champion with André Galvão. He is much younger than André and won a lot of competitions, including winning good fighters, fought the World Champion and beaten the toughest fighter, Murilo Santana, that had already won André Galvão at a previous competition and the didn’t show any fight from Lucas. Showed a lot of fights from André but didn’t showed any from Lucas. If you ask today if I hope a name is because the athlete wasn’t winning now but will win today. Lucas is a guy that already won a lot of things, but the media haven’t discovered it yet. We have a lot of names, since purple belt coming up to brown, from brown to black, and believe that will rise a lot more. That’s what I’ve said, I believe that to an athlete rise up, the media needs to give space. Everybody speaks a lot about black belt and forgets about purple and brown, excepting some cases in which you have a strong last name.
What do you think about this changing at the federations and CBJJE’s growth? Brasa will continue at all championships?
Brasa will, it’s for the sport. If there’s a confederation with 50 federations, and if they’re ready to defend the sport, we’ll be there competing. While there’s an interest on the sport, at competition, from federations to growth the sport, will exist the interest of our team. If we feel that they’re interested more on them than the competitions and the athletes, we’ll get out. Just like Boxing, that has a lot of federations and champions. The only problem is that our championships are amateur, the fighters are amateurs. We have the World Champion, the European, all championships are very amateurs, so that’s hard to notice a performance and that’s bad for the athlete, that lately can change to another sport or activities.
