Fernando “Margarida” Pontes in action

Fernando “Margarida” Pontes in action

Attn Savarese BJJ Students: If you raised your hand that you didn’t know who Margarida was last night when Professor Lovato asked (even though I constantly bring up his name in class, talked about him in my interview w Marco Perrazzo 2 weeks ago and have shown videos of his matches at least 50 times in the last 3 years on our FB site and website..lol), here are some videos you’d better watch. First is the match vs Pe de pano that Professor Lovato was talking about. The other is for all the BJJ practitioners out there who say the cross-choke is a “beginner†move. It is the “Margarida†vs. Fabio Gurgel 2001 Pan Am match. For some background for you new guys out there, Gurgel in a 3x World Champion, 4x Brazilian National Champion, the co-founder of the Alliance BJJ team and the teacher of Marcelo Garcia and Demien Maia. He is known as one of the best guard passers ever and is a legend in the BJJ World. Margarida was only a blackbelt for 1 year but the year before, he won his weight class and the Absolute, defeating everyone by submission. It was actually Gurgel who gave Margarida his nickname. Fabio taught a class at Fórmula academy, in São Paulo, and when he noticed the colored mouth guard of Pontes, he joked: “Where I come from, we call that margarida (daisy)†. Margarida moved up in weight just to fight Gurgel, saying “I wanted to show that the theory defended by the Gracie family is essentially true, how Jiu-Jitsu was created for the small to overcome the big.â€. It was the first time Gurgel ever tapped out in competition.