The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 4 - JT Torres vs. Caio Terra - 2010 Southwest BJJ Classic

(Last week’s edition can be found HERE)

This week’s match is JT Torres vs. Caio Terra from the 2010 Southwest BJJ Classic. This is an excellent match between two of the best guard players around. When this fight happened I was honestly surprised by the finish, beforehand I thought it was going to be a completely one sided fight. 

Caio Terra has one of the best guard games out there. He is probably best known for his dynamic half guard game and his reliance on 'modern' Jiu-Jitsu techniques. Caio himself is a two time world champion (2008, 2013) at the black belt level in the Gi and is a five time world champion (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) in NoGi. 

Something which sets Caio apart from a lot of other Jiu-Jitsu practitioners is his size. He fights in the rooster weight division (-57kg) and nearly always reaches the final of every major IBJJF tournament and faces his long term rival Bruno Malfacine. Due to their size, most rooster weights choose not to fight the absolute division, but Caio Terra is an exception to this. You always here in BJJ that technique will always conquer strength, and Caio Terra is living proof of this. Since he is a rooster weight, everybody is bigger and stronger than he is and by relying on pure technique alone has defeated opponents twice his size.   

Caio Terra
Source: AliciaPhotos

JT Torres, also known as "Spiderman" due to his crazy grip strength, is probably best known for his time as part of Lloyd Irvin's infamous 'medal chasers' team. Early on in his career, JT was considered to be one of Jiu-Jitsu biggest rising stars and is now known for being one of the best American born grappler's on the planet.    

Just like Caio, JT also has an impeccable guard game. He is best known for using the spider guard to great effect but also uses other guard like the closed and de la riva guard excellently, and can set up many sweep and submission attempts flawlessly. 

JT "Spiderman" Torres

In short, this is a battle of guard players. The match itself isn't very long, only around three minutes long, but in that time some impressive guard work is shown from both fighters.   

The video of this match can be found below. I hope you guys enjoy! 

See you next week!

(If you are viewing on a mobile device, please click HERE)

Update (28/07/14) - Where Have You Been?

An update post on a Monday? Yeah, I know I usually reserve my update posts for Tuesday's but I thought it was necessary to do one today, in order to tell you guys what happened last week.

Well, last week my parents went on holiday and by default I was kind of on holiday as well. Obviously, since I was on 'holiday' it was nearly impossible to keep up to date with what I had planned and I hate to put out any posts which are halfhearted. Some of you may not think it, but it does take a considerable amount of time to put some of these posts together. Update posts don't take that long to put together, but articles can take hours to create. 

Since I'm doing an update post today, this week's edition of Match of the Week will be posted tomorrow instead. 

A few of you may have realised by now that I'm notorious for saying things and not following them up for whatever reason. So, to get around this I thought I would devise myself a schedule and then I will feel determined to fulfill my obligations each week. The schedule is as follows:

Monday - Match of the Week

Tuesday - Update Post

Wednesday - 10 Years of BJJ

Friday - Non-BJJ Content

The other three days out of the week there will typically be nothing posted. However, it's not to say I won't post anything on those days. I already have some articles and my review on Saviour Tea in draft format and they will be posted either on a Thursday, Saturday or Sunday. Also, my interview with Edwin Najmi, and all interviews for that matter, will be published on either one of these three days.  

I've also decided to talk about something non-BJJ related once a week. I mean talking about BJJ all the time does get a little tiresome. So, every Friday I will make a post on anything I have an interest in, I have seen or something I think is worth talking about. I should note that each week the topic of discussion will probably be something different. This is also an attempt to bring more people to my blog. I've come to realisation that BJJ content is only going to take me so far and in order to expand my audience I need to talk about different things. My core audience and subject will always be BJJ, but it can't hurt to talk about different things now and again.

That's all for this week! Come back tomorrow for the fourth installment in my 'Match of the Week' series

Catch you later,

Giordano 

10 Years of BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 10 (I Give Up!)

(This is part 10 of this series. If you haven't seen part 9 it can be found HERE.)

So... I medalled in my first BJJ comp! Talk about ecstatic, I was on a high for a few days after the competition had finished.

It was moments like this where I realised maybe I could be good at Jiu-Jitsu. Even though in the past few previous competitions I had my ass handed to me, and I looked like I had never spent an hour on the mats, for some reason on that day I was a different person. On that day I felt almost untouchable, and I wasn't going to get annihilated out there. This accomplishment was exactly what I needed to fuel my fire to keep on training and carry on my journey to get the prestigious green belt.  

I kept training for about 3-4 months after the competition in good spirits. In that time, all I wanted to be was good at Jiu-Jitsu, and was going to try my best to be as good as I could ever be. But after that period, probably around July 2008, I had a drastic change of heart towards Jiu-Jitsu, and as far as I was concerned I was done. Even though I carried on going for a few months after that, I didn't really want to be there. I was just going through the motions as I did previously and each session just felt like one big coast and I wasn't really going anywhere.  

Now, there are a few reasons I didn't want to carry on with Jiu-Jitsu. The main reason was the kid’s class. The fact was there was no competition. I was thirteen at the time and quiet big for my age and the rest of the kids were eight or nine. I could just dominate everyone with ease, and not rely on technique. This is probably why I picked up so many bad habits and when I went into competition I would just get smashed. I did always have my brother with me, but how often can you roll with him before it just become predictable?

In short, I had outgrown the kid’s class. However, I was at that age where I was too young for the adult’s class and maybe too old for the kid’s class, so I was in a weird predicament. Anyway, those decisions were not up to me, those were up to my instructors.  At the time though, I never even thought about the adult class. The thought never even entered my mind. I thought I would move into the adult’s class when I turned sixteen, but that would mean waiting three and a half more years and quite frankly I didn't think I could carry on going for that long.  

Another reason was I just didn't like Jiu-Jitsu anymore; in fact I would even go as far to say I hated it. There so many times I remember just not wanting to go and literally had to drag myself there. I mean what was the point? I'm not getting any better, there is no competition, my technique is sloppy, and my determination is zero. I know I said I had a moment like this before, but this was different. This time around I was older, and going twice a week to roll with a group of eight year olds just didn't appeal to me. As far as I was concerned I was done with Jiu-Jitsu, and sometime in August 2008 I stop going. 

Now, I want to make one thing absolutely clear, it had nothing to do with the instruction I was receiving. The instruction at my academy was, still is, and always will be top notch! And that's a FACT! 

Obviously, I did go back as otherwise I wouldn't be writing this right now.

For a few months after I left, I didn't think about Jiu-Jitsu at all, it was the furthest thing from my mind in all honesty. But then in December of that year, I started to miss Jiu-Jitsu. I couldn't even tell you why! But for whatever reason I just did. However, because I was thirteen and a stubborn little s***, I thought it would just a moment and it would pass and got back to playing Call of Duty: World at War (which is a great game by the way).  

After Christmas had passed, and I returned to school in the New Year, I made the decision to return to BJJ and carry on my journey for the green belt. I would put this down as one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, and since that day I have never looked back. Even if that meant going back to the kid’s class and being much older than everybody, I was willing to make the best of what I had and continue the journey. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this part of 'My Jiu-Jitsu Journey', and part 11 will be published soon.

Catch you later,

Giordano 

Update (15/07/14) - Saviour Tea Review, Whipping in BJJ, The Berimbolo & 80,000 Views!

This update post is going to rather short, for no other reason than I don't have a lot to say. But before I get into what I want to talk about today, I first want to apologise for not doing my 'Match of the Week' yesterday. Something came up and I didn't have time to write it, so for that I am very sorry. Anyway, it has been published today and can be found here.

I plan on writing a lot this week, and plan to post something every day of this week. However, I've said that on many occasions and never fulfilled it, so don't hold me on that! I think the most I've ever posted in a week is four, so if I can post at least five times this week, I'll see that as an accomplishment.

The next addition of '10 Years of BJJ' is fully written and just needs to have pictures added, be proof read etc. So that shall be posted tomorrow, and in the meantime I'll be writing up my review on Saviour Sports Tea. I've tried three out of the four samples so far and I'm thoroughly enjoying trying them. Once I have tried them all and my review if fully written I'll get to work on my short interview with Ollie, who is the head of Saviour Tea.

Speaking of interviews, I've made a start on my questions for Edwin Najmi and I will send them off to him hopefully tomorrow, but if not definitely Thursday.

I've also been hard at work doing 'research' for two articles which I will begin writing soon. When I say research, I mean asking people’s opinions on Reddit, but hey, it’s a good way of getting people’s opinion. The two articles I will be writing will be about firstly the berimbolo and the grip it has over BJJ competition today, and secondly whipping for promotions in BJJ. I know a lot of people have much to say about both these topics, so feel free to give your opinion below.

That pretty much covers this week’s update post and be sure to come back tomorrow for the tenth installment in my '10 Years of BJJ' series. 

P.S. As I'm finishing writing this, I literally just surpassed 80,000 views! THANK YOU ALL!

Catch you later,

Giordano 

The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 3 - Otavio Sousa vs. Josh Barnett - California Classic 2009

(Last week’s edition can be found HERE)

This week’s match is Otavio Sousa vs. Josh Barnett from the 2009 California Classic. Yes, you did here that correctly, I said Josh Barnett! And just to make it a little bit more surreal, this match takes place in the Gi. The finish may also be a surprise for you; I know it definitely was for me.   

For those of you who don't know, Josh Barnett is a big name in the heavyweight division of the UFC, and MMA as a whole. I first heard of Josh when he beat Randy Couture for the UFC heavyweight title only to be striped of the title later due to testing positive for a banned substance. Anyway, we are not here to talk about that. 

Josh has a very good wrestling background and prior to 2009 never competed in a BJJ competition, as far as I know. Although it must be said, he did win the ultra-heavyweight black belt division at the 2009 NoGi world championships, which is pretty impressive. Josh trains under the legendary Erik Paulson (If you don't know who he is, please click HERE) and is an 'honorary' black belt under him. He is also a black belt under Rigan Machado, so does that mean he has two black belts? I don't really get how that works. But anyway, Josh is an excellent grappler in his own right, and recently has accepted a submission only match against Dean Lister at Metamoris 4. 

Josh Barnett

If you follow Jiu-Jitsu, I'm pretty sure you would have heard of Otavio Sousa. He is a black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr, and a student of José Olímpio, better known as “Zé Radiola”. He is a two time world champion (2012, 2013) at the black belt level, and is also known for his long term rivalry with Kron Gracie, the son of Rickson Gracie. 

Otavio is a very exciting fighter to watch. He likes to keep the pace of the match very high and always hunts for the submission. Throughout his matches, you will see Otavio use his very active and aggressive guard to set up multiple sweep and submission attempts, this is something you will see constantly throughout this video and makes it no easy task for Josh to use his size and strength to his advantage.  

Otavio Sousa
Source: GracieMag

The video of this match can be found below. I hope you guys enjoy! 

See you next week!

(If you are viewing on a mobile device, please click HERE)

Update (08/07/14) - My 50th Post, Road to 100K, Blogging for Gracie Barra, Edwin Najmi, and A Review of Saviour Sports Tea

It’s been a pretty successful week!

Yesterday was my 50th post on my blog and it has been a journey to say the least. It took me a while to get noticed and to attract readers to my blog but I think over the last six months I have achieved quite a lot. I still have a lot more I want to achieve with this blog but my main goal was always to get 100,000 views in a year. Well, I'm a few hundred views short of 80,000 and I think I can get to 100,000 by September. My posts over the last week have attracted a lot of views, and I mean in the thousands. My ninth installment of my '10 Years of BJJ' series attracted over 1000 views in less than 12 hours. I would like to thank all my readers for making this possible! It means a lot. 

A few months ago I was approached by a woman claiming to be involved with the Gracie Barra website asking me if I would be interested in writing an article or two a month for their website. She said if I accepted the offer I would be put through to a selection process to choose who they want to write for the website. It was a little suspicious, so I checked her out. She did indeed train BJJ and was part of Gracie Barra but I don't know if she worked for them. If she did or not, I declined. 

Why? Well, I love blogging and I do it because I love to do it. I also have the freedom of talking about what I want to talk about and what I think I have enough knowledge on to talk about. I mean what would I write about for Gracie Barra? Techniques, nutrition, living the "BJJ lifestyle"? Realistically I don't feel confident in writing about any of that stuff, and if I don't feel confident in producing content it’s probably not going to come across very well. Don't get me wrong it would be great advertisement for my blog and most probably my views would go through the roof, but I don't think I'm capable of writing content for a website like that. 

I have no idea if this was even legitimate, but if it was I would like to say thanks for the offer and having faith in me to write for a large organisation. Maybe someday in the future I will feel confident enough in my own ability to write for you. 

Now that's out of the way, let’s get onto the topic of interviews. Kit Dale has received my questions and is working on them as we speak. I know I told you last week that I would expect them to be done by Thursday but he is a busy man and I'll just have to be patient. Although, I do have some good news! I have managed to get an interview with Edwin Najmi. If you don't know who Edwin is, I highly suggest you look him up. Edwin is the 2014 purple belt absolute world champion and after winning was promoted to brown belt by his professor, Romulo Barral. I am working on the questions and hope to send them off to him in the next couple of days.

I have also been lucky enough to be in touch with Ollie from Saviour Tea. They make a line of sports teas especially for athletes and he was kind enough to send me some sample to review. I've also bagged myself a short interview with him where he will explain the benefits of drinking such teas for BJJ. On top of all that, he has been kind enough to offer my readers a discount code if they would like to try some of his products. I will be getting my samples soon and hope to get a review and interview done ASAP!

That's all I have for you guys for this week. If you missed any of my last posts I will link them below.

Catch you later,

Giordano

The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week: Week 1, Week 2

10 Yearsof BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 9 (Braulio's Competition Part 2)

The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 2 - Keenan Cornelius vs. AJ Agazarm - Pan Ams 2011

(Last week’s edition can be found HERE)

Before I get into this week’s match, I would first like to say thank you for all the support I received on last week’s match. I'm glad many of you enjoyed it and hopefully I introduced you guys to something new and to fighters who perhaps you never seen or heard of before.

Now that's out of the way, we can now get onto today's match.

Today's match is Keenan Cornelius vs. AJ Agazarm from 2011 Pan-American Championships. This match is the first round of the lightweight purple belt division. I'm pretty sure not many of you have seen this.

I mentioned previously that would I try and stay away from big names as much as possible, but this match I thought not a lot of you guys have ever seen so I thought I would share it with you guys. This match is very memorable in my mind only for the reason that Keenan loses this match, and you don't see that happening very often. This was before he started his unbeatable streak in 2012 but you can clearly see his skills on display in this match against AJ Agazarm who is an excellent competitor in his own right. 

If you follow Jiu-Jitsu and you don't know who Keenan Cornelius is, you have probably been living in a cave for three years. Keenan is without a doubt the best American grappler ever, and is considered the favourite to become the first non-Brazilian black belt absolute world champion. In 2012, Keenan achieved the double grand slam, meaning he took gold in his weight division and the absolute division in the four major IBJJF tournaments those being the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, Pan-American Championship, European Open Championship, and Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship - at his given belt rank, a feat never before accomplished in IBJJF history. Keenan is perhaps a man who requires no introduction. 

Keenan Cornelius

I first heard of AJ Agazarm when he took part in Lloyd Irvin's BJJ Kumite, which featured some of the best brown belts compete against each other in a no time limit, submission only rule set. AJ has a strong wrestling background and is a very game competitor. He is a multiple time Pan-American and American National champion, and has also taken medals at numerous mundial tournaments. Currently, AJ is the number one black belt in the world for both his weight division and absolute in nogi. I have actually have had the opportunity of interviewing AJ and if any of you guys are interested you can find it HERE.

AJ Agazarm

The match between the two is very exciting. Keenan uses his excellent guard to his advantage and tries to set up some lovely triangle and kimura attempts. He is very aggressive with his guard and is constantly hunting for the submission throughout the course of the match. He even hits a nice sweep from 50/50 guard around the midway point of the match. 

AJ is an extremely good top player, and you would come to expect this from someone with a very good wrestling background. Throughout the match, AJ remains aggressive and tries to keep the pace of the match high. He is extremely good at passing the guard but has a tough time trying to pass the Cornelius' active guard. 

The video of this match can be found below. I hope you guys enjoy! 

See you next week!

(If you are viewing on a mobile device, please click HERE)

10 Years of BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 9 (Braulio's Competition Part 2)

(This is part 9 of this series. If you haven't seen part 8 it can be found here.)

Okay, so I get called to fight. Now, I am feeling really confident. The match starts and within 20 seconds I get a standing guillotine, but Victor Estima, who was the referee, stops the match and gives me a warning, as it was a neck crank. Really, I had no idea that was illegal, as I didn't fully know the rules.

So the match restarts and I attempt to get a foot sweep. After a few botched attempts I finally get it and land straight into side control. I didn't have much success with double leg take downs in my previous competition history so I didn't want to take the chance and attempt one.

Now that I am in side control I could use my weight as a bit of an advantage (back in the day I was a little chubby). When I was younger, for whatever reason I loved to do the cross face choke (I think that's what it’s called). Basically, I put the blade of my forearm across their throat and apply pressure. Still to this day I don't know why I liked this choke so much, I mean it sucked! It was just so sloppy and untechnical, but to me as a thirteen year old it was the greatest submission on the planet.

It was whilst in side control trying to apply my crappy ass choke that I discovered something peculiar about the score board. I looked up and could see I was winning 5-0, but next to the five were numbers in red. Obviously, I now know they were advantages, but since I didn't know the rules, I thought they were negative points (for no other reason than they were the colour red). I just couldn't understand why he kept giving me negative points. I thought maybe it was because of the cross face, but honestly I didn't know.

Whilst distracting him with the cross face I transitioned straight into mount, and shortly after the match ended. I win 9-0. I think the time limit was only three minutes, but it might have been four, I can't really remember, but it felt like forever. I also remember being just flat out exhausted! It could have been just a big adrenaline dump or the fact that I was fat or maybe a combination of the two. 

Now, the second fight was kind or boring, as nothing really happened. It was pretty much a pushing competition on the feet for 95% of the fight and near the end I somehow bullied the guy to the ground to achieve two points and win the match.

The third round (or semifinal) was the most memorable fight of the competition for me, and was the first time I ever submitted somebody in a competition. When the match starts, I try my foot sweep again which I must have tried dozens of times throughout the competition by this point and ultimately, they all failed. Then out of the blue, the guy shoots a double on me and I panic. I try to sprawl but it was too late and in my sense of panic we somehow end up in a scramble and I bully my way to the top. 

I land in half guard with only my foot stuck inside. After a few seconds I manage to free my foot and get into side control. By this point everything is going 100 MPH, and it’s all just one complete blur. For some reason, I was so desperate to get into mount and in the process I get reversed and now the guy is in my guard. Oh s***!

Back in the day, my guard wasn't the best to say the least and pretty much the guy opened my guard in around 10 seconds and from there tried to pass. Now, at this point I know if the guy passes I'm pretty much screwed and there would be no way I would be able to escape. So out of desperation I immediately shoot up for a triangle and lock it in. After a few seconds the guy taps. I must say at this point I was pretty ecstatic! 

So that was it! I had made it all the way to the final. And my final match would be against the orange belt who I mentioned in the previous part. He pretty much wrecked everybody in under a minute on his way to the final but I was determined this wasn't going to happen to this fat kid from Skewen. 

I said before when I started the competition I was feeling confident, but now I was nervous, and I mean REALLY nervous. But what did I have to lose? Nothing! All I had to do was go out there and showcase my Jiu-Jitsu (which wasn't very much), but my Jiu-Jitsu got me this far, so you never know I might even win, but if I didn’t get submitted in thirty seconds that would also be an accomplishment.  

The final was here! The referee for the final was Otavio Sousa but at the time I had no idea who he was. To me he was just a tanned guy wearing a cap.

Straight off the bat the guy pulls guard on me, and you never guess what happens? I get arm barred in thirty seconds. Honestly, as soon as he pulled guard on me I knew I was screwed. He was just so much better than me. 

So that was it... I had lost in the final AGAIN! However, I wasn't that disappointed. I mean I beat three guys, submitting one of them and made it all the way to the final.  I didn't care about the gold medal; the experience was a thousand times better than that. 

After this day a lot of stuff changed. Probably the biggest thing was I started to become a guard player. All I wanted to do now was get better and carry on the journey.

 I hope you guys enjoyed this part of 'My Jiu-Jitsu Journey', and part 10 will be published soon.

Catch you later,

Giordano 

The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 1 - Michael Liera Jr vs. Jacob Sandoval - Jiu-Jitsu Battle 1

Welcome guys to the first installment in my match of the week series! This series is actually going to take place every Monday, so I guess you could call it Match of the Week Mondays, but I'm not. The only reason I'm doing the first part today is just to get the ball rolling. Every Monday following today, a post will be made.

So, every week I'm going to share with you guys a BJJ match which I like and hopefully you guys will too. I'm going to try and avoid 'classic' matches as much as I can and focus more on matches hopefully some of you have never seen. I want to share with you guys a lot of non-black belt matches but that's not to say black belt matches won’t be featured in this series but just not as often. 

I'd also like to get your guys suggestions on matches for me to look at, so feel free to comment below or on social media.

So without further ado, let’s get into today's match!

The match I want to share with you today is Michael Liera Jr vs. Jacob Sandoval from Jiu-Jitsu Battle 1.

Jiu-Jitsu Battle 1 was a no time limit, submission only invitational event which featured eight of the best purple belts in the world compete in a submission only type environment. 

Michael Liera Jr was considered to be the best purple belt in the world at the time and it was no surprise that he made it all the way to the final. Michael has an extremely effective guard, and is used considerably throughout this match. I have actually have had the pleasure of interviewing Michael and if any of you guys are interested you can find it HERE.

If I had to pick a second favourite out of the tournament I would have said Jacob Sandoval. It's kind of ironic that the two best would meet in the final. In this match Jacob does an excellent job of defending Michael's submissions and getting out of some pretty dominant positions which many others would have been submitted from.

The match is around 30 minutes long, but I enjoy watching this match very much and hopefully you guys will too. 

The video can be found below, and I hope you guys enjoy! See you next week and don't forget to suggest a match!

(If you are viewing on a mobile device, please click HERE)

Update (01/07/14) - The Return of The Berimbolo Kid

I'm back! Man, it felt so good to say that.

I can safely now say I am back to my blogging duties and I am happy to bring you lots of exciting new content over the next couple of months.

So… Where have you been?

Well, in my last post I said that I would be going on hiatus for a while due to college work, since it was the end of the year and I needed to finish and get my work up to standard to be able to get the grades necessary for university. Thankfully, I can say I have finished college now and hopefully everything will go okay so I can attend university next year where I will be studying civil engineering. So, now I have finished, I can focus 100% of my time to my blog, which is something I love to do.

Before I left you guys, I did a three part series on professional wrestling, which was very well received and I had a considerable amount of good feedback from social media. So for that thank you kindly! And, don't worry, that was simply a one off thing and I don't plan on writing about any professional wrestling or non-BJJ topics for a while. 

But what exactly do you have planned over the next few months?

Lots of things actually! Firstly, I'm going to be continuing with my series "10 Years of BJJ", and the ninth installment is already partially written and I am planning on publishing it on Friday. 

Next, I will still conducting interviews as per usual, with my interview with Kit Dale hopefully being uploaded on Thursday if everything goes to plan. But what happened with the JT Torres interview you talked about? Actually, I contacted JT and had no reply, so I don't know if he has missed my message or he simply just doesn't want to do it. Either way I'm not going to wait forever, I'll just ask somebody else; there are plenty of people on my list I want to interview.

Now, let me address the Gianni Grippo and Ryan Hall situation. For a while now, I have promised you guys and interviews with Gianni Grippo and Ryan Hall which they both agreed to and have received my questions. But where are their answers? Well, they haven't replied, so what can I do? Although, to be fair Ryan Hall was kind enough to tell me that he didn't have time for all of my questions since he is very busy which I can respect, but you promised you would answer my questions and I sent them to you in February which I think is a long enough time to answer, but again I can’t wait forever if he answers them then great, but if he doesn't I'll move on. 

On the other hand, Gianni hasn't replied to any of my messages and maybe someday he will but I am not going to sweat it. The only thing I have a problem with is saying you will do an interview and then never doing it after giving me your word. I mean why would you do that? You’re just wasting my time. And it takes some time to sit there and think of 30-40 creative and interesting questions which my audience will hopefully find interesting. I hope one day Gianni might answer my questions, and if that day comes I will let you all know immediately. 

I'm sorry if I let any of you guys down! But it's out of my hands.

Okay, so moving swiftly on! I've come up with a new series which I haven't come up with a name for yet but it's basically going to be a weekly match of the week series. Now, this is going to take place every Monday but the first episode will be published tomorrow just to get the ball rolling and from then on will be continued every Monday. 

In this series, I will put up a BJJ match I like and will also ask for suggestions on social media. I will try and stay away from the 'classic' matches which we have all seen, but every now and again I might throw one in. My aim is to share with you guys BJJ matches which most of you have probably never seen, and that are some of my favourites. Like I said, the first episode will be uploaded tomorrow! 

I also have some pretty good articles in mind for the next few coming weeks so stay tuned for that also!

Before I finish, I just want to say that today we passed 76,000 views which I am pleased with even though I haven't uploaded in seven weeks. And, even though I am not uploading anything, I am still managing to get at least 100 views every day and I hope to pick up again where I left off. This is the start of a new era for The Berimbolo Kid and I hope all of you stay along for the ride. 

Come back tomorrow for the first episode of my match of the week series.

P.S. I've changed my Twitter name. You can now find me at @BerimboloKid.

Catch you later,

Giordano