5x world champion Bernardo Faria made his return to the 2017 Worlds after a serious injury kept him away from competition for a big part of the past year. This year Faria just fell short of the gold when he lost 9-0 in the super heavyweight final to the same person that eliminated and injured him last year: the controversial Erberth Santos.
Last year, the biggest upset at the Worlds 2016 was triumph of Erberth Santos over Bernardo Faria via armbar in the semifinals of black belt Absolute. Erberth Santos attempted to pull an armbar over Faria injuring Faria’s pec.
Faria who is known as one of the kindest and friendliest people in Jiu-Jitsu had some harsh words for Santos who he said was trash talking and provoking him during their match.
He wrote on his Facebook:
Second Place In The Worlds 2017
Unfortunately I lost in the finals of my division in the Worlds 2017, and ended up in second place. For those of you who watched the finals, you probably saw that by the end of the match, I got a bit too aggressive going after my opponent and had a few things to say back to him during the match… The reason was because for the first time in my entire career I had an opponent say some pretty un-classy things to me once he got the mount that were completely disrespectful. That is the reason I became that aggressive, and my emotions got a bit out of control.
I did lose the match, fairly, that is not in question, but the most important thing for me when I compete is that I have honor and respect for all my opponents, and everyone I meet. Its sad that after competing in Jiu-Jitsu for 17 years, I have faced only ONE OPPONENT, like this, who “talked sh*t” and was disrespectful during the match. It had never happened before. Anyway, I’m sure life will teach him to stay humble, it has a funny way of doing that… no matter how well you perform
Once again thanks to all of you for all the messages, and support: I love you guys. I lost but Im happy that I tried as hard as I could; I put my heart and life on that mat… This was my 9th FINALS IN THE WORLD AS A BLACK BELT, and I have always RESPECTED all my other opponents, whether I won or lost. Ossss
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