Boxing Brazilian Style aka WTF is happening?!?!?!

Initially after losing I was pissed... After having my hand raised (2x) and then getting called back 10 minutes later to have the decision reversed, I was confident that Brazilians really needed to abandon all hopes at hosting the olympics and get back to the basics. Reading simple names, and differentiating colors and what not is essential to leading a productive adult life, inside and out side of the sports world.

In my opinion I outboxed her. Her punches were predictable and easy to block and counter. She was hesitant to attack and spent most of the fight skirting the ropes.

After watching the video, I still think I outboxed her. I will admit thought that she had some powerful spurts that won her the fight in the eyes of the biased judges (she is, after all, a well known local boxer and we were fighting in her venue). Technique is important, but I really need to work on my power. Planting my feet and sending someones head rolling across the ring will prevent further mix up decisions in the future.

The future being two weeks from now when I will be fighting MMA in Florianapolis, a beach town a little further south of Curitiba. The girl I'm fighting is AGAIN more experienced. 3-1, all 3 victories via 1st round submission. She's a purple belt (I'm a blue belt), but I'm not too worried about that. After watching some of her videos it seemed her opponents had no concept of take down defense or how to stop a submission what-so-ever, not to say that I shouldn't take her seriously!

The WTF is happening look on dudes face was priceless!

As we were called back to the ring for the third time he tells me 

"yeah my bad this shit tends to happen with her" 

Belts, however, only mean so much, especially when you add punching to the equation. One thing that has really stuck with me when I find myself at a disadvantage on the ground is something I heard Terere say in an interview in respects to why he preferred passing as opposed to pulling guard. I don't remember the exact quote but the idea of it was him being claustrophobic and doing anything he could to get out from underneath a heavier opponent. All technique aside, violently shoving someone's head down and trying to stand up as aggressively as you can is amazingly effective. That's Favela Jiu Jitsu. That straight from the streets fighting mentality. F*#%! a "technical stand up", or a pretty sweep from closed guard, just GET YOUR ASS UP!

I have two weeks to cut 5 kilos and get ready for my MMA match. I'll be fighting the same day that teammate Jessica Andrade goes against Raquel Pennington in Las Vegas. Apparently I have a similar boxing style as Pennington so I'll probably end up doing a lot of stand up with her. She is a wild little thing. Where as I throw a lot of straight punches and cut angles, she is prone to coming straight in swinging. Which leaves me backed up into the cage, with my guard up, looking for an opening.

This weeks goal... to anchor down and figure out how to stop the attack! Hitting harder is probably step 1!

On that note I'm going to watch a movie and I will leave you here with my to watch my fight! Oh did I mention that that was hands down the WORST skirt that I could have fought in!! Some sewing will definitely be done before fighting in it again!

you missed it! The fight was taken down! 

South Bound & Down II: Burning Bridges

Artic Chaga Tea is a new supplement sponsors... well no TEA 

sponsor that will is sending me some hand picked Alaskan mushrooms!!

Their tea has amazing amounts of antioxidants and helps speed 

recovery time by a ZIILION!

I couldn’t think of any good ways to inform Rio de Janeiro that I would be leaving the comforts of my beachside favela. After several hours of debating it, I decided I was left with only one logical solution. Facebook.

Social media has reduced human interactions to comments and likes. A definite plus for shy people like me.

So, in one quick and concise status update, I informed the world… Well, the Portuguese speaking portion of it at least, that I would be leaving Nova Uniao and moving to Curitiba at the end of the July.

I initially expected people to talk a lot of shit (people probably are talking a lot of shit they just aren’t posting it on my wall), but I was surprised by the amount of support via comments and private messages that I received. They were an unexpected, but much needed reprieve from people that generally act as if I’m slightly crazy… living in the favelas of Brazil and all.



Sunday training in Curitiba. I was supposed to be back in Rio But I missed my flight and ended up spending some extra days!!


I’m not going to lie, I’m definitely apprehensive about leaving the picturesque beaches and tropical climate of Rio. Not to mention, the safety net of friends and pseudo family that I’ve assembled here. The thought of burning bridges, whether they are useful or not,  is always unsettling to a certain degree. As a buddhist I'm well aware that attachment causes suffering, but as someone thats been living with little more than 2 suitcases for the last two years, abandoning everything that I have come to know is perplexing. 

Plus, Curitiba is one of the coldest cities in Brazil.  I’m not sure what the hell I was thinking.

Which brings me to my next point…


What the hell was I thinking?




I mean seriously... leaving Nova Uniao, one of the best MMA teams worldwide. No longer will I be training next to Jose Aldo, Renan Barao, or the umpteenth number of UFC fighters the adorn the gyms prestigious pedigree. They have everything an athlete could desire... physical therapists, and nutritionists, a pool, sauna, and a strange room that they claim is for pilattes, although to me it looks like it came straight out of 50 Shades of Gray. I'd be traded up my sports bras for sweatpants!! And then there's the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Front row for Carnival, New Years, and Christmas events. 

But, I came to Brazil because I wanted to fight. 

Although Rio is great, I’m not getting any fights here. It’s also a very expensive city. So after thinking about it, it just makes more sense to go to Curitiba where I can save money and fight more. So I'm trading up the beaches of Rio to train at Parana Vale Tudo (PRVT). Its relatively a small team compared to Nova Uniao, but they have a pretty big girls team with fighters from UFC and InvictaFC. 


Unlike Nova Uniao where there are about a million classes offered through out the day (wrestling, boxing, conditioning, Nogi, BJJ, Muay Thai), PRVT only has 1-2 training sessions a day. The week I spent in Curitiba meeting everyone was a complete 180 in my overly hectic training schedule. The team gathers in the afternoon and the coaches divide everyone based on what they need. The amateurs may practice a little muay thai off to the side while some of the girls roll Nogi to warm up a guy that has a fight coming up. Then switch to some work against the cage, muay thai sparring, and end with judo take downs. Its seems like a completely random, haphazard way to go about training, but in actuality it is tailored to the specific needs of each person. I was able to get more 1on 1 help from the coaches in their small informal setting than when I'm training with 30 plus people on the mats of Nova Uniao. 

Its definitely different. But it reminds me of my team MiKiDo from home. So in the end I think its a better fit for me!

On another note...I also got to travel to Sao Paulo with my friend who was giving a few seminars!

Shout out to Eduardo Castro owner of Half & Half academy for letting me Crash at his place!
Per usual, met some great people on the mats in Sampa. New friends and new places to visit on my next trip! 

They said I couldn't... 

So naturally I did!

6 Pack Attack: The Nico Ball Diet

Everybody gets on me about the way I eat... or the way I always walk around with no shirt... So I thought I'd lay down a little insight on diet and try to be educational for once.

Weigh in pics at 118lbs (left), 108lbs (top), and 110 lbs

Diet makes all the difference. 

Remember when you were in middle school and you used to do those math equations that were like….

“If Sally has 2 green shirts, 1 blue shirt, and one pair of jeans, how many different outfits can sally make?”

Well that’s what the “Nico Ball Diet” is like… I mean, really its how every fighter and body builder here in Brazil eats. “Chicken and sweet potatoes” is the key to achieving what Brazilians call “being dry” or cut or ripped or just down right sexy!

Drying out, it should be noted, is different than bulking up.  The goal is to develop more muscular definition and functionality as opposed to full on mass.

The magical diet combination includes: Chicken breasts, sweet potato, whole grain rice, and whole grain pasta.  You can throw in fish too, but my lack of cooking skills leaves me eating canned tuna, which is filled with sodium and other preservatives.

On top of the basic combination, I eat a ton of fruits and vegetables. Every Tuesday, I go to a farmers market and stock up on a ton of colorful things, some of which I have no idea what they actually are… like Cacui.

But whatever, its healthy.

So basically, all I ever eat is…. Chicken with sweet potatos, egg whites with sweet potatos, chicken with whole grain rice, and tuna with whole grain pasta. Then add in some colors (fruits and veggies) to make it pretty and get the right vitamins and viola… abs

Oh yeah, I forget to mention…. The don’ts

I don’t eat fat or sugar and I cut out any unnecessary sodium and carbs. 

Anyone that truly knows me, knows that I consume and unhealthy amount of coffee with a ridiculous amount of sugar on a daily basis!

Well not anymore! I use honey to substitute sugar and I don’t drink juice or soda. Yeah juice is just as bad as soda must of the time, worse if you consider that fact that it tries to disguise itself as healthy. This also means no acai! Whomp whomp! No that’s a lie no one goes with no Acai but I only have 1 a week, if not every two weeks. So basically all I drink is water and supplements, AAAAND, I make a lot of natural juices with fresh fruit (and spinach) when my body can’t bare any more water intake!

Fruits, veggies, and a ton of vitamins!

Nothing frozen, nothing processed! 

One of my friends even has me drinking (and even worse, enjoying) beat and carrot juice. I throw in some cucumber to sweeten it up which is ok. What isn’t ok is putting in orange. It’s a really common to find the combination of beats, carrots, and oranges, but apparently, the acidity from the oranges messes with the nutrient absorption of the beats and carrots, so you end up gaging down beats for no reason!

Beats, Spinach, and Carrts baby!

No fats! 

That means I don’t eat butter! I’m sure there are many other things that fall under this category but butter is the big one. I cook with olive oil (because I can’t afford coconut oil). The only kind of cheese I eat is “quejo minas”. I’m not a foodie, so, I can’t explain why this cheese is the only kind of cheese I can eat, but whatever, I do as I’m told. I have heard from a friend that quejo minas forms a big part of the Gracie diet as it balances out the acidic levels from the massive amounts of fruits the Gracies try to shove down your throat! From a more practical perspective… cheese is yummy especially when you can’t put butter, salt, or ketchup on stuff to get some of that good old American super-processed taste that I know and love!

No turn up!

This means that I can never, ever drink! Ever! Between the desire for amazing abs and the fact that I compete Jiu Jitsu every month, I pretty much annihilated my alcohol tolerance. Alcohol in itself is bad for the body as it causes dehydration and lowers blood sugar, which in turn, lowers athletic performance.

But all science aside,  take into consideration my sport of choice: MMA. Ever get punched in the liver when it’s filled with Henny? It hurts… a lot. Your capacity to deal with a hard body shot is increased incredibly when your liver isn’t busy trying to save you from alcohol poisoning!

Get Hip

Gym Jones and its founder Mark Twight are famous for sculpting the sexy beasts from the movie 300. His philosophies on working out and fitness are definitely worth checking out if you are a serious athlete!

The physical work is not enough, if your only paying attention to your training and your recovery YOUR NOT DOING ENOUGH!!! No amount of hard work can balance out diet deficiencies! 

I come here every Tuesday to buy my 

fruit. We talk about fighting and he 

feeds me! 

UFC Porto Alegre Fight Camp

Priscila Souza, Jessica Andrade (UFC), Mariana Morais (Invicta FC),

Me, and Jady Menezes @ Nobre Arte in the Cantagalo Favela

The first time I met Jessica Andrade, per usual, I had no idea who she was. In fact, I thought she was a guy. She walked into Nobre Arte sporting long board shorts, a loose T-shirt and a Torque snapback that hid her long hair. When she pulled off her hat and I realized I was looking at (a short) female, I had to laugh to myself. I get a lot of comments when my dress strays from the average skin tight Brazilian work out apparel... most of said comments are directed not towards my style, but my sexuality. Its refreshingly American to see a girl in baggy clothes.

Exhibit A: Girls don't dress like this in Brazil

Reppin' V for Vitafor my new supplement sponsor.

That day I was so exhausted from sparring that I couldn't even stay for the class. Rubens, my trainer made some kind of comment about who she was as he walking over towards me smiling down at a picture he just took with her, but I brushed it off. All I could think about was my protein and BCAA waiting for me at home.

It wasn't until I got home and got some chicken and sweet potatos in me (fighters in Brazil only ever eat chicken and sweet potatoes) that I had the energy to google the giberish that Rubens had been calling this baggy pants wearing girl.

"Batty taca" or something.

...Or, ya know, UFC's 10th ranked Bantam weight, "Bate Estaca" thats Portuguese for "Pile Driver". Real name being Jessica Andrade. I knew exactly who she was once I saw the real name. She made headlines in 2013 for facing off against Liz Carmouche in one of the first UFC bouts with two openly gay fighters.

As a general rule, especially after Junior Dos Santo's  wife got mad at me,  I try not to take pictures with any of the UFC fighters that I run across. I'd prefer to be in the UFC with them as opposed to just posing in an Instagram picture next to them, so my focus is always more on watching their training habits rather than hounding them for photos.

But whatever... most of my friends don't realize running into UFC fighters in Brazil is like getting mosquito bites; its inevitable and sometimes really annoying (because they have cameras and you didn't do you makeup).

So, the second time I saw her, I took a picture for Instagram.

It wasn't until the 3rd time that she showed up to Nobre Arte for a sparring session that I became interested enough to climb out of my shell and talk to her little posse. Jessica trains in Curitiba at Parana Vale Todo (PRVT) under Guilliard Parana. She was in Rio as part of her all female training camp in preparation for UFC Porto Alegre on February 22nd where she will be facing off with Marion Reneau. She came to Rio with 5-6 girls from other events like Invicta FC in the US and XFC here in Brazil to do the boxing portion of her camp with Master Claudio.

The sparring session started and Jessica was one of the first in the ring (There is only one ring and two people fighting at all times. All sparring happens under the watchful eye of of Claudio). One by one the girls that came with her went into the ring. Behind them went the guys. Even people that came in late went in, while I stood there in my headgear trying to stay warm and un agitated by the long wait. I wanted to get in the ring, but I've been conditioned in Jiu Jitsu to never ask a higher belt to train. Similarly, if Claudio was going to have standing there waiting forever, then I was going to wait patiently and try to pick apart every mistake that everyone made as they entered one by one like I had been instructed to do by Rubens.

Interestingly enough I noticed that in 45 minutes of sparring Andrade didn't through a single straight punch (jab or straight right). This intrigued me because like I said before she's pretty short and I was interested to see how she would close the distance between herself and a much larger opponent. Closing the distance in a fight is hard for me, especially with some of the taller guys that Master Claudio matched me up with.

Well, apparently, I have been over thinking the whole issue because she just lowers her head, keeps her eyes up, and goes in swinging to the body like a lunatic.

Jessica Andrade

Ridiculously effective! 
I know because I tried it when I finally got to go in against one of Jessica's fellow 135 pounders. She had a hard right hand but I was definitely able to use the Andrade whirlwind technique to close distance. Picking up on that little gem made meeting her totally worth the while.

And to think. I was going to skip training that day and lounge around in my bed...

The last round in sparring. All out for 30 seconds.

I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time at Nobre Arte

BCAA's thanks to Vitafor Supplements

Machina Boxing

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