The Riosense spoke with EL UNIVERSO during her wrestling training session at the Duran Cantonal League gym.
Faithful to the Olympic wrestling, a discipline with which she has been consecrated on multiple occasions as national champion in the various categories and international monarch in youth and senior competitions, Luisa Valverde from Rio de Janeiro will venture on December 10 in combat jiu-jitsu, a combat modality that combines the rules of BJJ with open hand blows, in a nexus between ground play and mixed martial arts (MMA).
The winner of an Olympic diploma in the category of 53 kilograms of wrestling in the last Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 expressed her emotion in an interview with EL UNIVERSO, on Thursday, because – she says – she is going to close a successful 2021. The IBI 4 tournament, to be held on December 10 at the Fedenador theater, will be his last participation this year with a view to the camp in Ukraine with which he will open his 2022 course.
Valverde is one of the main figures that the IBI 4 organization has announced through social networks, as well as the MMA fighter, Emiliano Linares, brand new champion of the Budo Sento Championship in Mexico.
“The fourth edition of the IBI is coming where we will have 16 warriors fighting in the CJJ (combat jiu jitsu) modality in the 80 kg for the grand prize ???? and 2 super fights of women in CJJ ”, indicates a post of the IBI & IBOFICIAL account.
To finish the tournament, the woman from Rio de Janeiro said that her jiu-jitsu preparation is carried out at the Team Predador academy, mainly to work with her coach on the takedown strategy. While the fighting sessions are completed in the gymnasium of the Duran Cantonal League.
“I think I have a bit of benefit,” said the Olympian, explaining that being a sport of combat jiu jitsu “The takedowns I do in the fight favor me a lot, so the strategy with the academy coach is that I take down and start hitting so that I can take the prize.”
Regarding the transition from the fight to the CJJ, Valverde assures that he is adapted “because we base the fight a lot on resistance, because we work very quickly; on the other hand the jiu jitsu it’s a bit more passive, but it also generates strength ”.
He also acknowledged that his duel will be “super difficult”, not only because of the quality of the contestant, Priscila Arboleda (Team Iturralde Arte Suave), but because it will be a ten-minute fight in which he will have to hit, work with jiu jitsu and fight, “that is, a whole combination at that very moment.”
This 2021, in addition to obtaining an Olympic diploma for Ecuador for his eighth place in the 53 Kg in the Tokyo 2020 Games, Valverde placed fifth in the World Wrestling Championship that was held in Oslo, Norway, last October. (D)
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