Brazilian Judoka takes 3rd

Flavio Canto took the Olympic bronze medal in the -81kg division. He's got excellent newaza, and his good friend and training partner is Shaolin.

He's also doing his part to make the world a better place. He's trained as a lawyer, and comes from a family with money, but he spends his time working with underprivileged kids in the slums of Rio.

Here is a link to a story about his work in Rio.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr222004/ss3.asp

He said winning a medal could help him raise money and sponsorship for his projects. Hope it does.

excellent, who won gold. judo coverage sucks.

ttt

Awesome news, and yes, judo coverage does suck - FUCK SAILING! ;)

I got to see some nice Judo on our local tv last night, which was nice.

I gotta say I was MIGHTY impressed with some of the action. They seemed to do more groundwork than in previous comps I've seen. There was a russian at 81kg who took bronze (at least so I though, but I know they have a bizarre medal system) and he was doing some great groundwork, looking for armbars etc.

I look forward to watching more.

We got a full 1 1/2 hours on our tv, all the female and male finals in full. I was amazed, we never get much coverage of Judo or wrestling in Aus'.

Flavio Canto is called "The Ground Devil".. his matwork is said to be on par with the best in BJJ.

Judo gives 2 bronze medals in each division.

Outstanding, congradulations Brazil!

I watched the Flavio Canto bronze medal match last night. Excellent grappling from Canto.

The referee though, was the most frustrating piece of shite on that mat.

He stood them up during several of Canto's submission attempts, an armbar, several chokes when Canto had his opponents back with the hooks in, times when both players where being active, trying to pass guard, half guard... WTF?! I thought they could go on until the moment stalling ensues.

And to make matters more confusing, Canto actually started pulling guard/butterfly guard sweeps at one point, his opponent backing away. So the referee penalised Canto's opponent for non combativity??!!!

LOL! Ridiculous, no consistency whatsoever.

"Flavio Canto is called "The Ground Devil".. his matwork is said to be on par with the best in BJJ. "

That's because his groundwork is probably BJJ. Watching the matches last night, he was the only one pulling guard, buttfly guard, putting hooks in back mount, attempting armbar from guard, coking from back mount with hooks in, etc.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr222004/ss3.asp

every judoka puts the hooks in and tries chokes but at such a high level chokes rarely come from the back

i dont mean to turn this into BJJ vs judo but judo does have guard sweeps and has done for quite some time.

"The referee though, was the most frustrating piece of shite on that mat."

Actually the refereeing was quite good (under judo rules). The ref gave them a chance to get something on the ground and each stand up came pretty much when the attacker and given up and stopped making progress or the other person had stood up.

"he was the only one pulling guard, buttfly guard, putting hooks in back mount, attempting armbar from guard, coking from back mount with hooks in, etc."

Did you see the Russian? He was doing very similar things to Canto and always looking to take it to the ground. He beat Canto in the early rounds.

The russian was good to watch hey, I'd have like to seen him and canto go at it newaza style.

sometimes if they just pull gaurd they should be stood up

I think the ref called him a few times on that and i do think thats justified, what pisses me off is when they are working hard to pass to submit and they still stop them

What channel was the men's match on? I was watching Bravo at 12:30 and only saw the women's.

A German female lightweight was going for subs every chance she got. She was called off armbars more than once.

Once she was going for a triangle from a bent over standing position and the lame announcer said "I don't know what kind of throw that was supposed to be."

Is Canto's match going to be televised in the U.S.?

i wonder if someone like arona could win by subbing em all

No doubt. I'm sure he would easily take the gold medals in boxing, wrestling and tae kwon do as well. I think the important question you should ask of your idol is how long he would have to specifically train for the 10m air pistol before he would win that too.