Gabriel Gonzaga: Metaphoric MMA Fighter
1. Gabriel Gonzaga Biography
1.1 Who is Gabreial Gonzag?
Gabriel Gnzaga Is a fourth degree Brazilian Jiu jitsu black belt, professional boxer, and MMA artist. He was born on 18 May, 1979 in Rio de Janeiro. Gonzaga has competed at the professional level in jiu jitsu and earned several titles in BJJ discipline. Many of his friends and rivals called him Napao, which means ‘big nose’ in portuguese. Gonzaga is a world’s famous jiu jitsu champion with a rock-solid 13–6 MMA record at age of 33. He is also an elite heavyweight in the UFC.
His coach moved to the United States in 2000, and for Gonzafa it did not take too long to move to Sao Paulo in 2002 where he joined Jorge PAtino academy known as Macao Gold Team. Gonzaga established himself under jiu jitsu and became one of the top black belt and conquering events on an international level. In 2003, Gabriel developed interest in MMA and it was the start of the BJJ transition to MMA. But still Gabriel prefers grappling in his career and gives priority to the jiu jitsu as main career meanwhile that first debut of his MMA was released in 2003.
Gabriel Gonzaga teaches jiu jitsu at his home.
1.2 Early life of Gabriel Gonzaga
Brazil and started training in martial arts at age of 14. While he was training in martial arts, he attracted tpars JIu jitsu and he decided to train under tutelage of wander Braga. Much of Gonzaga’s achievements were in the jiu jitsu when he started Brazilian jiu jitsu. Gonzaga made his professional MMA debut on 4 April 2003 in Santos, Brazil against Cicero Costa. Gonzaga submitted him easily due to punches in the first round. He went to 4–1 professional record with his Losscominf with Knockout to Fabricio Werdum.
Gonzaga has been in this profession for more than 20 years. He entered the promotion with a vaunted jiu jitsu pedigree, a 2004 Mundalsi winner and an Abu Dhabi Grappling veteran. Coach Alvan trained him in his early career and Gabriel said he remember his coach words
“Gabriel has a lot of talent,” boasted a beaming Alvan. “Gabriel, for me, is pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world”
The two became fast friends while growing up and competing in jiu-jitsu in Brazil. And it was Alvan who helped engineer Gonzaga’s move from Rio de Janeiro to Ludlow. The two started Team Link with the goal of turning out top-notch fighters and competitors.
1.3 Gabriel Gonzaga Occupation Highlight
Gabriel Gonzaga began his profession in 2003 for Brazilian Gladiators. Within two years Gnzaga subsequently surfaced on UFC boards in 2005. Gabriel continued his career in grappling, later on he started taking serious MMA bouts and reappeared in UFC outs multiple times. He retired from MMA, however he remains busy in boxing. He had 28 battles in MMA with 17 wins and 11 losses. Multiple times in winning UFC bouts turned into the next weight division which is ultra heavy weight. In may 26, 2014, he is in the official UFC heavyweight rankings.
Video Links: Gabriel Gonzaga HIghlights
1.4 Forgotten UFC Heavyweight
Gabriel Gonzaga set his name in UFC on August 25, 2007 in Las vegas was the night that Nap was poised for his victory. Young Brazilian stud was headlining UFC 74 and fighting Randy Couture for his heavyweight title. Fresh off his career with the highlight reel head rock kick KO of mirko Cro cop. Conzaga was surging and fancied by many old couture.
Fast forward to the present and the UFC Heavyweight division looks very different. It is now one of the more competitive UFC divisions, with a number of contenders all vying to get a shot at current champion Lensar. Meanwhile, at UFC 102, gonzaga bounced back by defeating Tuchscherer. It looks earlier that Gonzaga was dominated by opponents but gonzaga would still display his KO power and remind fans of his presence in the division.
Video Link: Gonzaga vs Jr Dos Santos
1.5 “Bigfoot” Gabreil respond to critics
Antio Silva is famous as the name of “Bigfoot” mentioned by Gonzaga in his comment to MMA Fighting.
“Criticism will always come. There are people who don’t even understand or like the sport, but still criticize, but I don’t even read it. I don’t know about Gabriel, but I am on fire. I have been resting for two years, preparing for my comeback, and this is my time to return. I practice more doing more cardio and jiu jitsu to then get my confidence agis after the knee injury. Gonzaga isn’t worried either. In fact, he defends bare-knuckle boxing as being safer than more popular sports like football, soccer and racing.”
In his response gonzaga said,
“If you stop and think about it, I don’t know if you ever played soccer, but when someone crosses the ball and you hit it with the head, that’s harder than one of these punches,” Gonzaga said.
“People get knocked out in soccer and no one says a word. Same with football. People don’t know how dangerous ‘normal’ sports are, they don’t focus on that because it looks less aggressive.”
Video Link: Bigfoot vs Gonzaga
2. Gabriel Gonzaga Career
2.1 Professional BJJ Career
Gabriel Gonzaga started his professional career in 2003 battling for the Brazilian Gladiators. He had his early training in jiu-jitsu and boxing from Brazil, Gabriel then debuted his UFC fight on November 19, 2005, at Santos, Brazil. Although his wife miscarried one of their twins, he could not practice properly due to the high risk of his wife’s health, weeks before the match. Still, he didn’t lose the focus, not only Gabriel won the match against Kevin Jordan with an amazing hero punch at 4:39 of the third round but also won the attention of millions of fans.
2.2 Professional MMA career
Gonzaga made his professional MMA debut on 4 April 2003 in Brazil against Costa winning via ubisison due to punches in the first round. He went on to compile a 4–1 professional record with his lss coming via TKO to Fabricio Werdum.
2.3 Professional UFC
He made his UFC debut at UFC 56, knocking out Kevin Jordan with a supreme punch at 4:39 of the third round. However, Weeks before the fight, Gonzaga’s obligation to his wife during her pregnancy left him unable to train properly. In his UFC profession Gonzaga finished several battles, with minimum time and rounds. At UFC 102 Gonzaga defeated Chris Tuchscherer via TKO in the first round. The fight wa socntroversila as Gonzaga landed an illegal low blow that hurt Chris very badly and he is unable to continue and rest for 5 minutes. Gonzaga finished this fight with striking.
His career in the UFC was going amazing and was about to be promoted but losing to Schaub, Gonzaga was released from the promotion in 2010.
2.4 Post UFC
AFter getting released through UFC, Gonzaga stated that he would only compete in BJJ but expressed interest in returning to MMA. Gonzaga returned to the action against the reality fighting heavyweight champion Parker porter. He submitted him with an arm- triangle choke in the round thirds, winning the Reality Fighting Heavyweight Championship.
2.5 Return to the UFC
On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Gonzaga signed a new 4-Fight contract with UFC. In his return bout, he faced Ednaldo Oliveira at UFC 142. After spending marvelous years in UFC, Gabriel announced that he will retire from UFC until or unless UFC offered a 6-figure contract on September 30, 2016.