One of the greatest grapplers of our generation and a one-time
Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter is getting the
recognition he deserves.
Thirty years after the iconic and bloody 30-minute final of the
WVC 3 tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil, combatants Fabio Gurgel
and Mark
Kerr met again. The two came together backstage at the 30th
edition of the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship on Saturday in
California. Gurgel spoke to Sherdog about their reunion.
“Mark
Kerr is a very pleasant person; we talked for almost half an
hour,” Gurgel explained. “We talked about his film and, since he is
representing a brand of sleep measurement rings, he gave me one as
a gift. Interestingly, I am launching a corporate bioperformance
product in Brazil called Impulso +. Exactly with the objective of
bringing the culture of jiu-jitsu, to take care of the health of
employees, to large companies. We talked a lot about this
synergy.”Rock the doc
During their conversation, which included talking about the film
“The Smashing Machine” and its similarly named documentary, Gurgel
felt inspired to get the ball rolling on his own video story. It is
currently in production with involvement from the defunct WVC
organization and its direction by Jorge Wolney Atalla of
“Sequestero” fame.
“The film producers tried to buy the rights to the fight from [WVC
producer] Frederico Lapenda, who wasn’t interested in selling. This
sparked his desire to tell the other side of the story. Lapenda is
a great friend and he contacted me, and that’s how the idea for the
documentary about my career was born,” said Gurgel.
The focus of the documentary is not on the WVC 3 final itself, with
that match just one point along the timeline that is Gurgel’s life.
The film will also delve into the Alliance Jiu-Jitsu team which
operates all around the world, as well as personal aspects like
Gurgel receiving his BJJ black belt as a 19-year-old from master
Romero Cavalcanti.
“Obviously, that fight is iconic in my career, but the documentary
isn’t just about that,” the grappling ace noted. “I was part of the
1991 vale tudo fight against luta livre, then I fought in UFC 11,
[and] I was a four-time jiu-jitsu world champion. The fact is that
many people have fought and achieved much more than I have in
jiu-jitsu and vale tudo, and even as a teacher.”
The 7th degree BJJ coral belt continued, “What I think makes my
story interesting is the whole picture. I’ve trained hundreds of
champions, we created the longest-running partnership and the most
successful academy, and we’ve even transformed that into a business
model that impacts millions of people. After all, today we have 300
schools in 32 countries and more than 60,000 students. So, if you
put it all together, perhaps few people have done what I’ve done.
We are already in the production phase. I’m eager to start
filming.”