Vitor Freitas 
Marcos Cunha is in the final stages of camp with his team for the IBJJF Pans, scheduled for March 19th, in Florida. The Match Champ (TMC) competition team has received reinforcements in recent weeks with the arrival of athletes from Brazil who recently had their visas approved.
Last Saturday, February 24th, the team’s athletes stood out at the Memphis International Open, the first tournament of the season. The result in the competition was a total of eight medals, four gold, three silver and one bronze.
The highlight was Bruno Sena, TMC’s revelation, who is at the beginning of his journey as a black-belt, after an excellent job in the colored belts. Bruno won the gold medal in the roosterweight division, after beating Abraham S Majedi, from Alliance. Duda Tozoni also competed and, despite not having a fight in her division, won the silver medal in the open class, after the final with Rebeca Lima, from GFTeam Jiu-Art.
“Teamwork, individual attention, getting to know each athlete, all of this makes us achieve good results. This is just the beginning of many good things to come!”, highlighted Professor Marcos.
For the PanAms, Marcos will take around 10 athletes to the competition, who will also represent UCLA, the UCLA project, created in Brazil in the city of Blumenau. It is a high-performance project, which creates opportunities for athletes to experience Jiu-Jitsu full-time.
“Bruno Sena, Duda Tozoni, Patrick Possamai, Inoa Barbosa, Gabriel Nascimento and Livia do Canto are some of the bets for titles at this moment. We will maintain our main focus on the IBJJF and AJP, we are also closing some superfights and we are always aware of new events that appear and what they have to offer”, projects the professor.
With a visionary look at the future, Professor Marcos Cunha highlights not only the sporting results, but also the opportunities and the positive changes in the lives of those involved as the greatest rewards for his work.
“One of the differences today is that with each visa approval we have, everyone becomes excited, happy and more motivated to know that another opportunity will be created and someone else will arrive to join the time in the United States”, he concludes.
