Amaury Bitetti and Sérgio Cabral
A historic day for Brazilian MMA. In front of an audience with great personalities, the country's main media outlets and the entire Bitetti Combat team, the Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, took to the octagon. Not as a fighter, but as a great supporter of the fight, that's what the governor did this Monday afternoon (August 3), at the Guanabara Palace. As he descended the stairs, promoters Amaury Bitetti, Fernando Miranda and the Secretary of Tourism, Sports and Leisure Márcia Lins walked alongside Cabral. In the audience, the president of Vasco, Roberto Dinamite, the secretary of Sports Chiquinho da Mangueira and the superintendent of the Federal Police Ângelo Gioia mingled with important figures from the world of fights such as Robson Gracie, Oswaldo Alves, João Alberto Barreto and Oswaldo Paquetá, just to name some of the many gifts.
Sérgio Cabral praised the Fight for Pacification project, which will bring martial arts to pacified communities in Rio, and the fighters present, who have contributed alongside the Police through seminars. Furthermore, he ruled out any relationship between fighting and violence: “I personally have always been a failure in the ring, I am only good at political fighting,” said Cabral. “Today I closely follow the benefits of martial arts. I don't know a more peaceful person than my son Marco Antônio, who practices martial arts. My son José Eduardo, 13 years old, also wants to start practicing. The Government has worked alongside many major events and this will be another one. I guarantee it will have international repercussions”, commented the governor, who received a pair of gloves from Bitetti’s hands.
“It is one of the most practiced sports in the world. The fight was quite developed in ancient Greece and arose precisely to create a balance between the body and the mind”, also commented secretary Márcia Lins.
After signing the documents that established a partnership with Bitetti Combat and Luta pela Pacificação until 2016 and Amaury Bitetti as president of the Brazilian MMA Confederation, it was the fighters' turn to show their techniques. Son of Cabral, Marco Antonio trained with Milton Vieira. Already Ricardo arona showed what he knows Paul Philo, Henrique Chocolate with Leonardo Chocolate and Rodrigo Artilheiro with Antoine Jaoude.
“We managed to ensure that the great artists of the sport, who are idolized outside the country, could fight here and on the biggest stage, Maracanãzinho. And all of this is linked to what is most important, a social project that will take sport to needy children”, celebrated organizer Fernando Miranda.
“I thank God for the opportunity to represent many fighters here today. I guarantee it will be a great show. Thank you very much”, said Amaury Betetti, followed by much applause.
The ceremony was observed by an audience of approximately 300 people. In addition to most of the fighters on the card, beasts like Rogério Minotouro, Pedro Rizzo, Glover Teixeira, Alexandre Pulga and Luciano Azevedo, other important figures in the fight were present, such as coaches Artur Mariano, Luiz Alves, Daniel D´Dane, Eraldo Paes and Sérgio Babu; the fight teacher at PF by ANSEF José Baioneta; MMA promoters André Bottino, Marcio Keske and Otávio Tatá, among many others.
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