Joao Gabriel Rocha’s decorated career took a snag five years ago when he embarked on the most important white of his life – the fight with cancer.
He wasn’t present at the 2014 Pans. He revealed that
he had a cancerous tumor removed:
“It’s been nearly two months that I can’t train. I began to fell severe pain after every session, but I didn’t give much attention. Only when it got really bad, I went to the doctor and had a bunch of tests done. When the results came in I couldn’t imagine what the doctor had to tell me. I had a tumor. At first, I though he was joking, I couldn’t believe it. You always think this kind of thing’s gonna happen to somebody else, not you. Anyway, I had a surgery and the tumor was completely removed and in a short time I will be back to doing what I like the most, which is to be on the mat training.
I want to say thanks for the support of all my friends and family and tell everybody not to give up on their dreams.”
In a recent interview to graciemag he revealed how bjj helped save his life:
It was complicated. When I operated to remove the tumor, I did not even know what I had. And then it was that scare he discovered. Being unable to train, without competing and still read GRACIEMAG and see that I was not there in the magazine, especially in the edition of the World Jiu-Jitsu, were difficult times. But nothing was worse than seeing my parents devastated, hardly even, leaving everything aside to be on my side. I could see them both suffering and then went on to disguise the pain and discomfort so they would not get even worse. I think this is a common aspect in Jiu-Jitsu, to keep your face impassive and disguise to the opponents that you are passing the biggest suffocation. Then the worst shot was the two months of chemotherapy.
There were three liters of chemo injected into my veins daily, And I felt my whole body burn inside. I looked at each cycle, every session, as a fight to the gold medal, and the suffering as if it were those last ten seconds of struggle, in which I had to put up with everything, give another sinister gas to win. I was sure that I would conquer the disease. Never did the idea of death shake me, in my head only the next plans in Jiu-Jitsu passed, how and when I would resume the training, in which championship would return to compete. I kept my head very good with the help of Jiu-Jitsu. Never did the idea of death shake me, in my head only the next plans in Jiu-Jitsu passed, how and when I would resume the training, in which championship would return to compete. I kept my head very good with the help of Jiu-Jitsu. Never did the idea of death shake me, in my head only the next plans in Jiu-Jitsu passed, how and when I would resume the training, in which championship would return to compete. I kept my head very good with the help of Jiu-Jitsu.
And now 5 years after the fact Joao Rocha was ecstatic to exclaim:
And five years flew by so fast. Now looks like it was fast, but it was not easy. Nobody said it would be. Finally, after 5 years I am “released” by my oncologist and I can say that I am cured of cancer. I wanted to thank everyone who supported me at this time, but especially my family, for all the unconditional support you gave me during this period and to say that without you I certainly would not be here today writing this text. If God exists? Well I think you already know the answer… 🙏🏻
