ATT founder Ricardo Liborio vs Remco Pardoel (UFC 2 standout) in a 1996 World BJJ Championship match.

Remco Pardoel discovered BJJ in 1993 when he fought Royce Gracie in UFC 2. He is a Judo, Japanese Ju Jitsu and now BJJ black belt.

Remco at UFC 2 before facing Royce Gracie.

He told BJJEE more about his experience fighting at the first mundials in 1996 as black belt (although he was a bjj blue belt at the time):

Mundials was a crazy story on itself.
I trained hard and tried to develop BJJ overhere in Europe. We had some people coming over from Scandinavia which introduced BJJ overthere and we had a reasonable base.
Then there was a call from Carlinhos.. If I was interested in competing at the mundials.
I needed to pay for my own ticket, but I was free to train at the GB academy and the tournament was paid for me.
That would be a big oppertunity! and ofcourse i agreed.
When the tournament came i looked at the blue belt brackets and my name was not on it? so i came back next day for the pruple and brown, my name was not either on that too. I was a bit worried.
Carlinhos said no worries, come back tomorrow and everthing will be fine..
When I was there it was the day of the black belts!!
I was not the regular bracket but got a spot in the (chosen) best 8.
My first round was against master Liborio, which champion in his own weight division and took silver in the open class in that tournament, I did not that bad. in the end of the fight I wanted to get some points and attacked where he got my arm and tried to take it home
It was an awesome experience and it’s the best way to learn the principles of BJJ.
BJJ is next to the part of self defence, what no one does any more, one of the friendliest competition forms, if you have the money to compete, go compete is my advice.

 

Watch the match: