Renzo Gracie Latham News
The 2008 Renzo Gracie BJJ Invitational was held on Saturday 4/12/08 in Bayonne, NJ. The event featured competitors from 32 academies - Renzo Gracie affiliated academies as well as some other invited schools.
The top five finishing teams in the event were awarded trophies, and the Bruno Tostes BJJ Team proudly brought home the 4th place trophy. Of the many teams that competed in the event, only the Renzo Gracie NYC Academy, Ricardo Almeida Academy, and Patt Cooligan's Renzo Gracie Ottawa Academy finished ahead of Bruno's team.
Bruno brought home silver in the Brown/Black belt middleweight division, and gold in the Brown/Black belt open weight division. Click here for Gracie Magazine's coverage of the tournament.
Grapplers Quest
On Saturday, 6/28/08 Bruno fought in the Grapplers Quest eight-man lightweight pro no-gi tournament. He advanced through the first round with a win over Mike Wacker of Black Hole BJJ. However, in the second round BJJ World Champ Ruebens "Cobrinha" Charles caught Bruno with a quick heel hook. Bruno shook off the loss to fight in the gi divisions on Sunday 6/29; where he brought home the silver medal in his weight class, and the Brown Belt Open Weight Gold Medal!
On Saturday, Nick B. brought home silver in his no-gi division; while on Sun, Chad Ahr took the silver in his purple belt gi division. Congrats to our medalists, and the rest of our teammates who fought in GQ!
Team Renzo Gracie Wins No-Gi Pan Am's!
Team Renzo Gracie protected it's "home turf" by winning the team competition of the No-Gi Pan Am's held in NYC on 10/4/08. The event was the IBJJF's first competition to be held in NYC, and drew many stars of the sport, as well as reaching the arena's capacity for spectators.
Congratulations to Bruno, Chad, Jeff, Alan, Kevin, Zach and Gary who all participated from our Academy and helped Team Renzo win the team title.
Self-Defense/Defensive Tactics Demonstration
On Wed. 8/13/08, Bruno, Kevin, Gary and our friend Bob Dashnow of Spa City BJJ presented a well attended and very well received demonstration of BJJ self-defense/defensive tactics at the New York State Probation Officers Association's Annual Conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany. Please visit http://www.graciemag.com/news/173/ARTICLE/11546/2008-08-18.html for Gracie Magazine's Coverage of the demonstration.
Matt Hamill
Bruno Tostes once again served as one of Matt Hamill's trainers and cornermen for his fight against Matt Munoz at UFC 96 on 3/7/09 in Columbus, Ohio.
Matt won by a devastating 1st round KO, earning the KO of the night bonus. Congrats to Matt and the rest of the team.
Team Renzo Gracie Gi's
The Renzo Gracie Competition Team Gi's are available again. These gi's are in great demand and quickly sold out when they were first offered. Stop in to the Renzo Gracie Latham Academy to order yours today!
Pictured: Renzo Gracie (center) holds the 1st Place Trophy, with Fabio Gurgel of Alliance 2nd Place, and Reysinho of ATT 3rd Place.
Another Great Performance at Grapplers Quest!
Our team had a huge day at the Grapplers Quest North American Championships held on 10/18/08 at William Morris College in Wayne, NJ. The team brought 2 championship belts, 3 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 5 bronze medals home to the Latham Academy. Congratulations to everyone who competed!
Igor and Gregor Gracie Visit- On Saturday, 12/6/08 Igor and Gregor Gracie visited our Academy for a fantastic seminar. The Professors shared some of their favorite BJJ techniques, tactics, and strategies with an Academy packed full of our students. We look forward to having them back soon. Congratulations to Brian, Nick, Jim, Kevin, Frank and John for their well deserved promotions to Blue Belt, as well as to Jeff, Chad, Zach, Al and John for earning stripes on their Blue Belts.
Tio Chico Workshop
Our Academy recently had the pleasure of hosting a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu workshop with Augusto "Tio Chico" Vieira. Augsuto is a Blackbelt under Vinicius "Draculino" Maghalaes, and is one of the rising stars in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Augusto shared some great gi and no gi techniques, and hit the mats to join in on some "King of the Hill' grappling with those in attendance.
Bruno Interviewed on Fox 23
Bruno appeared on FOX 23's Sun 2/22 10:00 PM news in a segment taped earlier in the day regarding the effort to legalize MMA In New York, and the opposition it is meeting. The segment can be viewed by clicking the following link:
NY Open BJJ Tournament
Congratulations to Team Renzo Gracie on winning the team championship at the IBJJF NY Open on 4/18/09. Our teammates from the Latham Academy who participated all fought well, adding 2 gold (Brian), 1 silver (Jeff) and 2 bronze (Bruno and Rich) medals to the Team Renzo total.
Bruno playing guard in a technical war with JT Torres.
Brian passing the guard en route to one of his two gold medals!
NY Submission Series
Congrats to our teammates who participated in the NYSS event held on 7/25 and 7/26/09 at Albany's Washington Avenue Armory. In particular, a huge congratulations to Bruno Tostes for winning the event's featured lightweight pro no-gi division. Enjoy the following videos and pics from the event:
For more information on the NYSS, please visit: http://www.newyorksubmissionseries.com/
Training with GSP
Bruno Tostes, Jeff Rock and Roger Zapata recently traveled to Montreal to train with UFC Welter Weight champ Georges "Rush" St-Pierre as he prepared to successfully defend his title against Thiago "Pitbull" Alves at UFC 100 in Las Vegas on 7/11/09. GSP invited Bruno to train with him in Montreal after they recently trained together in one of John Danaher's classes at Renzo's NYC Academy. Our traveling teammates put in a full day of training with GSP, including grappling, MMA and Muay Thai to help him get ready for Alves.
Bruno Tostes - Faixa Preta
Congratulations to Bruno Tostes for his 6/30/09 promotion to Black Belt by Master Renzo Gracie. Also honored by receiving their Black Belts during this incredible ceremony at the Renzo Gracie NYC Academy were Hector Gonzales, George Sernack, Jim Gorman, Gino Einuadi, Daisuke Amaji, Stan Beck, and Robert Slatkin.
Congratulations also to our teammates from Latham on their well deserved Promotions at the event:
Purple Belt: Jeff Rock
Blue Belt: Rich Harris, John Fitzgerald, Adam Steenrod, Peter Mardahai, Tony Audi and Tom Svingala
Click to view the pics below:
2009 Renzo Gracie Invitational
The 2009 edition of the Renzo Gracie Invitational was held in Bayonne, NJ on Saturday 10/24 (gi divisions) and Sunday 10/25 (No-gi divisions). Our teammates who made the trip to compete, had a great time, and put up some great results. Bruno Tostes brought home the Silver in his gi division, losing only to Leo "Tunico" Leite. Bruno came out strong again in his no-gi division where he brought home his divisions Gold medal. With the exception of Tunico, Bruno submitted every person he faced in both his gi and no-gi divisions. Congratulations also to Steve Sin, who brought home Gold in his gi division, and Silver and his no-gi division, and also to Alan Boetticher for his Gold in the gi. In addition to our Gold medalists, congratulations to our other medalists, and all of our teammates who took the time to train for and compete in this great event!
No-Gi Pan
On Saturday October 3, 2009, City College of New York’s Nat Holman Gymnasium hosted the IBJJF No-Gi Pan competition for the second year in a row. A handful of our teammates made the trip, and again came away with some great performances. Among them, Bruno Tostes who took Bronze in the Blackbelt Middleweight division, Kevin Brammer who won three matches en route to the Silver in his division, and Rich Harris who brought home both Silver and Bronze medals. Congrats to our medalists, and our other teammates who participated in the event.
Our Academy's efforts contributed to Team Renzo Gracie's overall medal count, and winning the event's overall championship!
Bruno wins via guillotine
Bruno sets up his Rubberguard game vs Nakapan
