• The main event of PRIDE.24 between Emelianenko Fedor and Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira is now off! The Russian fighter injured himself and will not be able to compete; therefore PRIDE is now in search of a new opponent for their heavyweight champion. As always, we will follow the developments and keep you posted.
• Minotauro’s twin brother Rogerio Minotoro Nogueira will be fighting at PRIDE.24 against none other than veteran NHB fighter Guy Mezger! This fight was intended to happen earlier this year, but now is finally set and ready to go, in a PRIDE card that promises to be exciting to finish the year in great fashion.
• Another fighter who will be competing at PRIDE.24 is Chute Boxe fighter Murilo Ninja Rua. Ninja is already training hard after his loss to Ricardo Arona at PRIDE.23, and he is getting himself ready for a tough opponent in Japan!
• The 2003 edition of the Abu Dhabi tournament will be the first ever held outside of the Middle East, and the interest is continuously growing in Brazil. The city of Sao Paulo will hold the event in May 2003 and to show the amount of interest for the world’s premier grapplers here, TV Bandeirantes, the fourth biggest network of the country, has already bought the rights to broadcast the event. Now we’ll have to wait and see if they are planning to show it live, or just on tape delay.
• The 8th edition of MECA World Vale Tudo, the biggest NHB event in Brazil is already being planned for early 2003. After the success of Bitetti Combat Nordeste, and considering the huge interest for NHB events in the Northeast of Brazil, promoters Jorge Guimaraes and Rudimar Fedrigo are seriously considering the chance of taking MECA to the city of Natal — the same city that played host to Bitetti Combat — and probably have the biggest MECA ever there. A tentative date would be somewhere in the end of February 2003, and fights between Brazilian Top Team member Carlos Barreto and Chute Boxe’s Assuerio Silva, as well as Jorge Navalhada vs. Nilson de Castro are already being considered. We will keep you apprised of the developments.
• Speaking of Chute Boxe heavyweight Assuerio Silva, there’s still a considerable chance that he may finally return to PRIDE in its December edition. Assuerio has been training hard for a good while after his knee surgery, and has been reported to be doing serious sparring sessions with his fellow Chute Boxe team members. At this point it’s still too early to say who his opponent will be at PRIDE 24, but it’s probable that it will be a Japanese fighter.
• The first Black Belt Jiu-Jitsu Challenge, held in Sao Paulo on December 3rd was a success. All the seats at the Directv Music Hall, a venue usually used for small concerts and shows, were sold and the crowd seemed quite pleased with the action on the mats. The event was fought in single-fight format, matching up some of the toughest BJJ black belts against one another, fighting for prize money. In the most important fights of the night Rodrigo Comprido defeated Roberto Tozi by 4-0, Gabriel Vilella defeated Fernando Terere by 2-0, Fabio Leopoldo beat Jorge Macaco Patino by armbar and Saulo Ribeiro beat Roberto Tozi by the score of 5-2. With the success of the event, the promoters are looking to hold more editions of the challenge in 2003.
• The city of Curitiba will be holding another edition of the STORM Muay Thai event at the gorgeous Opera de Arame this Sunday, December 8th. STORM is a Muay Thai event organized by the Chute Boxe team that includes some of the best stand-up fighters in Brazil and usually reveals new talents for both stand-up action and even NHB. Names like Anderson Silva and Mauricio Shogun Rua already fought and won at STORM, so it’s always good to keep a close eye on the action going on there. As usual, the whole Chute Boxe team will be on hand for the event, and among the most important fights of the night will be MECA veteran Daniel Lima facing Rodrigo, Rafael Cordeiro student Fabio Pelezinho facing MECA veteran Paulo Bueno and NHB veteran Gildo Lima facing STORM winner Henrique Rocha from Sao Paulo.
• On the Brazilian Top Team side of the news, PRIDE heavyweight Champion Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira stayed in Japan after PRIDE.23 to shoot a video with a Japanese band of a special song made just for him! Minotauro enjoyed the experience and will likely use the song in his upcoming ring entrances. The Brazilian fighter is already back in Brazil training hard for his PRIDE.24 match-up against an as yet to be named opponent, and promises a ground war in the PRIDE ring.
• Another Brazilian Top Team member that is now back in training is the "Zen Machine" Mario Sperry. Sperry is now almost fully recovered from his broken hand suffered in his win against Kopylov at PRIDE.22, and is resuming his full training routine in order to be ready to fight again in 2003, probably for the PRIDE February event.
• In a sad piece of news, IVC, UCC and MECA veteran Claudionor Fontinelli was arrested this week in Rio de Janeiro and charged with trying to rob a drugstore along with four other persons. Two of the thieves manage to escape while the NHB fighter and a middleclass student got caught allegedly trying to rob the store using a gun. Claudionor is now in jail and may spend up to 9 years in prison.

Location:
Westwood High
945 West 8th St
Mesa, AZ 85201

Weigh-Ins: 12:00 Noon
Fight Time: 1:00 PM

All teams and individual competitors are welcomed to participate. Competitor entry fee: $30 for one Division or $50 for both. Spectator admission only $5. Come on out and support your team.

Planned weight classes:

• 135 lbs – 147 lbs
• 148 lbs – 160 lbs
• 161 lbs – 173 lbs
• 174 lbs – 188 lbs
• 189 lbs – 201 lbs
• 202 lbs – 213 lbs
• 214 lbs – Over