Tomorrow I will chat with team mate Matt Serra on his ufc Unfiltered podcast. Mr Serra is Renzo Gracie's first American black belt and of course, BJJ world champion and former UFC welterweight champion. When I was a beginning student Mr Serra was one of Mr Gracie's senior students (Ricardo Almeida and Rodrigo Gracie were the others. As such he was my senpai (big brother/senior) and, as anyone who trained at RGA at that time will attest, an inspiration to all of us. Much of my desire to improve in the sport came from daily training sessions with Mr Serra whose skills and abilities left us all in awe – wishing that one day we could attain such a level. Outside of jiu jitsu and professional fighting, Matt is absolutely one of the funniest characters in the sport – he truly can light up a room when he enters. Best of all is when he has a target upon whom to aim that sense of humor. Usually it is the long suffering Ray Longo, with whom he combines to create so many talented fighters in Long Island NY. Tomorrow however, it will be me!! Mr Serra and I shall talk about old times in training along with a host of random topics. If you feel like listening in, you will see what a character Mr Serra is and perhaps learn a little about the approach to training that enabled Mr Gracie to create such a large number of outstanding students in those early days of jiu jitsu in the USA.
