In the United States since 2005, BJJ legend Roberto Traven has been living in Atlanta, the city where he runs his own academy. Double world champion of Jiu-Jitsu at black belt, he has been monitoring the new talents of the gentle art and the evolution that the sport has undergone over time. In an interview with Tatame (in Portuguese), Traven reaffirmed his desire to do a superfight in ADCC, where he was champion in 1999, against Ze Mario Sperry, recalled his loss to Frank Mir at UFC who was newcomer then, and revealed who he he likes
How is your academy in the US going?
My team is getting stronger every year. It is a new team, started in 2007. I teach every day and at the time of the championships, like the Pan-American, we organize a special camp. The results are showing. For the second consecutive year, the Pan, the master and senior, we lost the third place by very few points, but the teams that were ahead of us took more than 150 competitors each, and we only had 49 athletes. This proves that our work is being done well.
You follow today’s Jiu-Jitsu closely. What differences do you see from your time?
The dynamics of fights have changed, the fighters are much more prepared physically, place much more emphasis on this. The only one I see that isn’t so focused on the physical is Marcelo Garcia, who is a phenomenon. The others all care about and spend much of their time on the physical side. Today, Jiu-Jitsu is three workouts per day. One drilling, one sparring and one strength and conditioning. In my time there wasn’t that. Fighters have more media presence too. It’s helped open the doors and they are opening up even more for the future, other generations will benefit.
Who catches your attention today?
For me, Roger Gracie is the best of all time, but he dropped the kimono to focus on the UFC. But apart from him, these kids like Rodolfo Vieira, Buchecha, André Galvão, are guys who impress me the most. Lightweights, likeRafael Mendes Rubens Charles impress me by their play and the level of Jiu-Jitsu.
Why do you think that you didn’t have the same success in your MMA career as you had in Jiu-Jitsu?
The last big fight I did was in 2001 against Frank Mir. It was my last fight in the UFC and his debut in the organization. I will not say that I could have been a UFC champion, but what was missing for my MMA career to take off was direction in every way. I fought in the UFC as a heavyweight. Today, anyone with 220 pounds (100kg) fights a light heavy. The fight against Mir was a watershed. I already had a name in the sport, he started and I lost. This discouraged me. When I went to the United States with Pedro Rizzo and Babalu, ten days before the fight, I sat in the hotel and said: “I want to go home, I’m overtrained physically and mentally.” i had no planning. I was supposed to fight in March, but the fight was in November, eight months later.
When will you fight again?
In 2011, I spoke to Renzo Gracie, who has influence in Abu Dhabi, that I wanted to fight with another veteran. Then there was the Renzo x Zé Mario superfight. Since then, I assumed they would do another superfight in ADCC, 2013, and sent several emails to Guy Neivens saying that I would like to make the superfight of veterans with Ze Mario, but never received an answer. I have sufficient credentials for this. I’d like to fight again with Mario, I won after a draw (0-0) in a boring fight, strategic, horrible, of both parties. Now it would be different, because I have nothing to lose. When I saw that they announced another opponent (Fabio Gurgel) for Ze, I did not know what was the criteria. The adversary has no name. He is very good in Jiu-Jitsu, but in terms of ADCC, he doesn’t have my credentials.
You were world champion in 1999 closing with Castelo Branco. Are you still in favor of this practice?
Imagining training with a guy every day, fixing his game and vice versa, and then fighting him in the tournament. In my mind, there’s no way this happens. I could not fight my friend Castelo Branco, we trained every day. At the time, he gave me the title, because I was the senior champion and he had been in the previous year. There are cases in which fighters have the same team, one of Gracie Barra Irvine and another Gracie Barra Pernambuco, one knows the other, but they do not train together. In this case, I see no problem or how to undermine the relationship between teams and athletes.
How do you see the growing transition Jiu-Jitsu for MMA?
I see it as a natural thing. The guy starts to do well in Jiu-Jitsu, becomes top of the world and reaches a point where he wants to take the MMA route and make good money. This has to be respected. Roger, for example, dominated and did what nobody did in Jiu-Jitsu, then comes a time that the athlete wants to move on. It is a normal thing. Today, Buchecha and Rodolfo are very young to move to MMA, as they still have much to do in Jiu-Jitsu, but the dominance is not as large as in the time of Roger, so I hope they stay a little longer in the Gi.
