in

Before the ADCC, Roosevelt Sousa beats Yuri Simões at the Fight to Win 207

Roosevelt is one of the black belt in the heavyweight division

Last Friday, July 29, Roosevelt Sousa faced a great last-minute challenge. With very few days to spare, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu’s black belt agreed to take on Yuri Simões at the Fight to Win 207, in Dallas, Texas. Against the two-time ADCC world champion in 2015 and 2017, Roosevelt had to use a full-time attack strategy. The duel had ony 10 regulation minutes, with no point count and only submissions as a surefire way to win.

After a standing duel in the first few minutes, the athlete from Paraíba decided to play guard to attack Yuri. By playing from the bottom, he was almost able to land a triangle, quickly defended by Yuri. Roosevelt sought to break his opponent’s defense until he saw the possibility of attacking Yuri’s foot three times.

First, during the 50/50 guard, he hooked a footlock, then tried a heel hook, and finally went back to attacking with his footlock. At the end of the duel, the representative of the Fight Sports school was declared champion by the decision of the judges.

“I’m confident because of the ADCC camp, which is helping improve my Jiu-Jitsu, my wrestling, and my physique constantly. It’s very difficult to stop me when I’m well-trained. I was really looking for an opportunity to fight a great athlete before the ADCC and I always keep training for when the opportunity presents itself”, Roosevelt details, before analyzing Yuri:

“Yuri is a great athlete and he has won the ADCC twice. He has a lot of experience in grappling! I was very happy to have had the opportunity to fight him because it was a great warm-up for the ADCC!”, explains the champion.

Roosevelt now returns to his training routine in Miami, Florida, alongside the professional competition team led by Cyborg and company.

Written by Vitor Freitas

Rising star of the new generation, young brown belt makes some noise in the United States

Marlus Salgado talks about the Jiu-Jitsu Manual: “helping both beginner and black belt”