Vitor Shaolin and the 2000 Worlds: the day he beat Leozinho and Feitosa, with a lunch plate in between
The world champion tells VF Comunica the story behind the most special title of his career: he was already eating lunch, sure he wouldn’t fight the final, when he was called back
Asked about the most special world title of his career, Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro didn’t have to think. “It was the one in 2000,” he told VF Comunica in June, at the New Jersey Open. The reason is that year’s bracket, which had four of the best names of the generation: him, Leozinho Vieira, Márcio Feitosa and Léo Santos.
Shaolin, who now lives and teaches in New Jersey, told the story with a detail that never shows up in the results.
The bracket he didn’t want and needed
When the bracket came out, Shaolin landed on Leozinho’s side. Léo Santos was on Feitosa’s side. For him, the road went through some unfinished business. “I’m here to try to beat him. I had lost to him before,” he recalled, about Leozinho.
The rivalry between the two is in the past, and he makes a point of saying so. “He was my opponent, a dear friend today, but the guy who helped me improve the most was Leozinho. Feitosa too, but with Leozinho the styles really didn’t match,” he said.
Shaolin beat Leozinho. Because his match happened before the other semifinal, he did the math and relaxed: he thought Léo Santos’s game matched up well against Feitosa’s.
The message that came at lunch
“I said, ‘Ah, Léo Santos is going to beat Marcinho.’ I went to eat my lunch plate, I’d only come back for the podium,” he said.
The prediction was wrong. “Somebody called me over there at lunch, I was still eating my food: ‘Hey, Léo Santos lost,’” he recalled. The final would be against Feitosa, and he had already switched off. “You know when you’re already mentally unprepared? I had cooled down, I wasn’t thinking about it anymore. Then I had to focus again.”
Seven matches against Feitosa
Going back to the mat meant facing an opponent he knew by heart. “Marcinho and I had seven matches, six in the gi and one no-gi. It was always a war,” he said.
Shaolin won again and closed the day with two wins over direct rivals. “It was a Worlds where I managed to beat Leozinho and Feitosa on the same day,” he said. The following year, he moved up to middleweight.
The tournament was held at Tijuca Tênis Clube, in Rio de Janeiro, home of the Worlds until 2006. In the conversation, the gym was remembered as the temple of Jiu-Jitsu.
Full video on YouTube
The conversation with Vitor Shaolin is in the New Jersey Open vlog on the VF Comunica YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
What was the best generation in the history of the Worlds? Leave your opinion in the comments.
