Today at Kaobon Liverpool, we made a little bit of history for the UK Martial Arts scene.The roots and lineage of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the UK are well documented - who trained who, which guys came over first, who got what belts first etc... Today, Marcelo Brigadeiro began the lineage of future UK black belts by awarding the first ever Luta Livre gradings in the UK.Luta Livre - Portuguese for 'free fight' is a kind of no-gi submission wrestling with a lot of similarities to catch wrestling which was made famous in the 1940's when 'Tatu' fought and defeated Helio's brother George Gracie in a Vale Tudo match. Other famous clashes between Luta Livre and BJJ include Euclides Perreira v Carlson Gracie, Tadeu v Renzo Gracie, and Hugo Duarte v Rickson.The blood feud between Luta Livre and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu essentially ended with the popularity of modern Mixed Martial Arts and the likes of ADCC grappling tournaments, with most of the top BJJ schools taking in the top LL guys to round out their games. Renato 'Babalu' Sobral at Gracie Barra, Gesias 'JZ' Calvancante at ATT, and our own Marcelo Brigadeiro at Team Alliance are all Luta Livre guys training with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teams.Marcelo Brigadeiro - a black belt under Marcio Cromado of Renovação Fight Team in Rio de Janeiro - has been here in the UK spreading the Luta Livre word for around 6 months now, teaching at least 7 classes a week at Kaobon, as well as some classes at Golden Glory in St Helens.Today he awarded the first UK grades (which are slightly different to BJJ) in Luta Livre, giving out white, yellow, orange, and blue grades. Congratulations to everyone for their hard earned achievements, and for being part of history!
Blue Belt:
Mark Scanlon
Terry Etim
Andy Aspinall
Orange Belt:
Tom Baxter
Darren Spencer
Jay Gladden
Richie Downes
Yellow Belt:
Pietro Menga (Level 3)
Jay Manning (Level2)
Radoslaw Gorny (Level2)
Remigiusz Gorny (Level2)
Mark Davies (Level2)
Wesley Smith (Level1)
Russell Power (Level1)
Greg Severs
Damian Martin
Norman Lawler
Simon Henry
Kev Axworthy
Thomas Aspinall
Peter Szeto
Stephen Edmondson
John Hughes
Michael Gerrard
White Belt:
Lee Chadwick (Level3)
Lee Willians (Level3)
Anthony Corish (Level3)
Ryan Molineaux (Level3)
Rob Brothwood (Level2)
Charles Clegg (Level2)
Daniel Milton (Level2)
Neil Mckeon (Level2)
Luke Delaney (Level2)
Adam Boulter (Level1)
James Willians (Level1)
Joe Reynolds (Level1)
Andrew Owens (Level1)
