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2015 European Champion Erberth Santos: “Galvao was the Only One Who Could Beat Me”

2015 European Champion Erberth Santos: “Galvao was the Only One Who Could Beat Me”

 

 

Erberth Santos, 20 years old, was the world’s best brown belt in 2014. He had an exceptional year at brown belt where he was world champion – weight and absolute, and Pan-American champion with the brown belt, he is now a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu .
Erberth received his black belt late last year from the hands of of his master Guigo from Guigo Team in São Paulo, after racking up two wins and two defeats at the Cope Podio, in November in Rio de Janeiro. He was alongside Jon Satava, the only brown belt of the tournament.
For his second tournament at black belt,  (He won double gold at the Brazil national Pro two weeks ago) Erberth Santos won his weight class in Lisbon beating Tarcisio Jardim in the finals.

Erberth wins the heavyweight gold vs an injured Tracisio Jardim

Erberth wins the heavyweight gold vs an injured Tracisio Jardim

In an interview with TATAME, Erberth said that winning the gold medal at weight was no deed worthy of great celebration. For him, if he doesn’t win the absolute then “it’s no big deal.”

“It (the title) is nothing. It’s nothing close to what I want. It’s the minimum of what I came to do. My goal is much, much higher. If I be happy with that, I’ll end up being satisfied. I’ll just be 100% happy when gaining weight and absolute. If it’s only the weight, cool, because it’s hard to win at black belt. But it stops there. I was happy, I will not lie, but it was momentary.”

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About why he chose to be in the same bracket as Andre Galvao during the drawing out of the Absolute. Galvao beat him in the 1/4 finals

“They asked me where I wanted to be n the bracket, and I said, ‘You can put me in the bracket of André Galvão ‘. Everyone looked at my face thinking I was crazy or too sure of myself. In fact, I’m not afraid of anything. I knew that Galvão was the only guy who could beat me, and I always wanted to fight him. I knew that if I passed, I would take the absolute ”

You can watch his match vs Galvao here:

His ambitious plans:

“I want to be number 1 in my new category (heavyweight) by IBJJF and win the Worlds, the Pan-American and also European. I know that by training hard I can achieve all my goals.”

“MMA is also in my plans. Today I’m just 20 and becoming a black belt,, but I want to make an impact in the Worlds as Roger Gracie and Marcus Buchecha made to then think about migrating to MMA. “